The missions: The first

Captain Dahn was a sight to be seen, that was sure. Otello looked at the fleeting airship that had dropped him on the Cold Advent. It was his first ever adventure in a mysterious portal. Going through portals was one of the base operations for the Academy. The portals either existed in a set place and seemed stable enough to travel in and out without care, like this one. Elves of Academy were a normal sight in these parts in that sense. But then there were portals that appeared and vanished without notice. Only later years students and adventurers had the skills to go on and seek them.

First journey ever was always the first one, Artemisia said. She had already made her way to some other portals and was making rounds in the forest to scout for potential disburtances in magic. Otello hadn't made that kind of progress yet. Cormac wanted to make sure he wouldn't mess anything up, and it seemed the way to do so was to delay Otello's first mission. Until it was not an option anymore. He had to let Otello do it, otherwise he would have to give a good reason why Cormac wasn't letting the new student show his skills in a real situation.

Captain Dahn smiled. Expression that looked very out of place on paperdemons face if asked from Otello. It was the demonic horns and scarred wings that made the captain look so rough. 

“New blood in ol’ Academy of yours”, Captain Dahn said before any greetings of any sort had been exchanged. 

“Better for you, I assume”, Cormac said. Cormac had come with Otello as this was going to be his first mission and it meant Cormac needed to approve his performance on it and Otello’s Academy career depended on Cormac giving an approving statement to the Faculty. 

Otello didn’t say anything. He was just staring at the paperdemon front of him. How rugged. 

“Right? Otello?” Cormac’s gaze was fixed at him. Otello turned back at his mentor in haste. 

“Yes”, he said before even considering what he was agreeing on. 

Otello saw how Cormac’s eyebrow raised and the older elf sighed in disappointment. 

“I’m truly sorry, it seems young elves these days have no manners”, Cormac said to Captain Dahn. Later was hiding a smile. Noticing it made Otello feel a little relieved. At least he was not getting on Captain’s nerves. Yet. 

If Cormac would cast him aside from Academy, he could stay in this weird place, find a ship to work on and start his life as a sky pirate. 

“So, destroy the hive of those constructs and get rid of them”, Otello said. 

“Yes, easier said than done”, Captain Dahn said. 

Cormac sat at the table and drank tea that was offered to him. Otello heard the cling of the porcelain clang when Cormac stirred the tea. 

“They nest in the hull of the ship, and they constantly make trouble. I fear they might have gotten a tad greedy and started to snack on the foundation of the ship. You are here to stop that and get rid of the problem once and for all.”

“It is part of your first test”, Cormac mentioned, sipped tea and continued: “to see if you’re fit to continue your studies and training at the academy, after the incident, I would be very careful how I go on about it.” The sting in his mentor's words did not leave unnoticed. Otello looked swiftly back at Captain Dahn to see how he reacted, but there was nothing, or maybe just a slight boredom. 

“I’ll make you see, all of you”, Otello said proudly. Either of the older men did not say anything. Otello took that as a cue for him to start his mission. 

The ship was docked in a flying island where Otello and Cormac had gotten into the ship and the crew was loading the ship with equipment and all things necessary for a trip they were going to make. And the hull snacking machina rodents were not invited. 

Otello made his way to the lower deck. He took Springlock and readied the bow before and changed the 

He snapped his fingers to illuminate small particles around him. They made an ominous greenish light that was like a glowing mist around his head. Every crack and crash alarmed him, even the muffled once that came from the upper deck. All the cargo loading made the ship alive, even though he felt like he was inside a private bubble under the deck. Away from all the scrying eyes. Or under millions of eyes. He knew in the darkness were those small pesky machines that gnawed their way and destroyed the hull slowly. 

Small crack and he turned like a well oiled machine and pulled Springlock back aiming in the darkness. He released and heard a swift snap, muffled popping sound and slow electrical current buzzing. Next arrow was readied before he could relax his senses. 

When he threw small glowing particles in the darkness, he saw them stick in wood and what seemed like a giant beetle, but rusty and metallic. Those pesky machines. Otello relaxed the string and crouched to look at the oily mess that was a beetle machine. It had strong jaw stingers and eight long spider-like legs, one still twisting slowly. The last electrical current that was still circulating in its systems. If he didn’t know better, it would have fooled him. It looked exactly like an organic lifeform. 

He pulled the arrow from the dead beetle and checked if it was still usable. Judging from the direction it was going deeper in the lower deck, and if it was alone it probably was a scout. So he would bet it was going to alert the nest before an intruder arrived. At least he had some kind of hope to surprise the colony. 

Otello trusted enough in his own steps to continue towards the direction he thought the machine was going. 

After a few short heartbeats he heard a clunking noise of hundreds of small jaws and saw buzzing in darkness. The darkness moved like a velvety cloak around and suddenly the sound stopped. All movement ceased. How many of those small creatures there were, all their attention was now turned towards Otello. 

He threw in a swift hand gesture the particles to the darkness that was now silent and the light showed what was in the darkness all around him. The part of the ship was full of small, still larva-state machines that were partially completed, missing legs, jaws and other parts of their tiny bodies. 

“Oh, he has a way bigger problem in his hand than just a few of them jawing his ship”, Otello sighed. He noticed a trap door that was near the infested part of the hull and with one directly aimed arrow, he managed to open it enough to let more sunshine from outside inside of the dark ship. The machines didn’t like that. Their sensories were overloaded and most of them rendered blind by the light. 

When they were confused, Otello was able to herd and collect them all together and eventually throw them outside. After the last one was thrown overboard he shut the trap door and merged back to the deck. 

Cormac and Captain Dahn were deep in the conversation about the state of things and Otello felt like he didn’t want to disturb so he went to the cabin to get himself tea. 

“Oi, lad, tea I reckon, you lot are weird hippie types, no offence, of course, lad”, a crew member said pouring a huge cup of tea for Otello. It looked more like watery gravy than tea Otello was used to drinking, but he knew better than to point that out. 

Cormac and Captain finished their proper tea on the deck and an older elf joined Otello. 

“I hope you learned something from all this.” Otello wasn’t quite sure. All he really wanted was to get back home, back to solid ground and feel the pleasant breeze instead of the rough winds that governed Avangard. 

As Cormac and Otello were leaving the ship to their portal ship, Captain Dahn emerged from his hiding. 

“Crew, were doing a snap change to our route today and saw the ship village underneath the clouds. We got a message saying they’re experiencing rain from small machines. -”

Captain Dahn continued to explain the situation, but Otello had quickly made his way to the ship Cormac just right behind him. Welcoming whooshing feeling made him anxious, but everything was better than staying there.