The sun poured down from on high, the hard earth of the desert growing harder still as it baked in the heat. Although the cracked dirt gave away to dunes closer to the edges of the plains, this close to the center there was nothing that could be considered sand. Plume couldn’t help but smile at the scenery, reaching out to press his palm over the crystalline wood of the ship. Beneath his hand, he could feel the warmth of the craft as it responded to his touch, mana fluttering underneath his fingers as the Charodontia hummed in reply.

The caravan they had been stalking was making good time, due to arrive at Manitas city in just two days. Soon, the adventurers would lower their guard, and it would be time to strike. Plume had waited patiently until now, and he knew the rest of the elven crew would share his excitement, the large craft itself growing skittish in reply. There was no ship on the plains as feared as the Charodontia, and no pirates as fearless as her crew.

“Did you hear about the Landshark’s Regret?” Lester’s voice carried across the ship to Plume, and the young half-elf looked up to see the first mate engaged in conversation with several other crew-members.

“The Landshark’s Regret?” asked one of the elves. “Isn’t that the big carrier from down near the Beast’s Mouth Bay?”

“Ugh, the Regret,” another crew member replied. “I fought against her once with my last crew, still makes me uneasy just thinking about it.”

“”It’s good news,” Lester said, “good news! The Regret was found collapsed near the bay, which means there’s only three ships out there bigger than us now!”

“Collapsed? She run down her mana, then?” The first man asked. “What happened to the crew?”

“Dunno,” Lester replied. “Landsharks got them, probably. I always told Captain Hare that it was a poor choice of name.”

“C’mon Lester, don’t say that,” another man replied. “You know landsharks give me the creeps. Besides, the name of our Charodontia shares the same inspiration. Plume, too.”

Plume turned away from the men and stared out over the desert, watching the land pass by underneath the soaring ship. Yes, he repeated to himself, trickling mana into the soulstones under his fingers and guiding the ship around the wreckage of a four-wheeled wagon. There was no crew more fearless than that of the Charodontia.

“Okay crew, skimmer approaching!” Captain Hare’s shout silenced the elves with a jolt, and Plume felt the Charodontia lurch in surprise. Brushing over the many crystals, he steadied the craft and calmed her startled spirit, checking to see if anyone had fallen overboard due to her anxious jump. This close to their prey, they couldn’t afford to turn back to pick up anyone unlucky enough to fall overboard.

“Prepare to receive skimmer!” Lester yelled. “Drop the port-side wing!”

Several men rushed to fulfill the first mate’s orders, the pirates working together to soothe the Charodontia and lower one of the wing-like protrusions on the side of the ship. The membrane had hardly been set in place when a smaller craft floated onto its surface with almost perfect accuracy. Unlike the sailboat shape of the Charodontia, the smaller skimmer resembled a ranged weapon more than a sea-faring craft, an arrowhead or the head of a crossbow bolt perhaps. An elf stood from the front of the craft, leaping down to the deck as his passenger uncocked her crossbow and slid from the skimmer’s rear.

“News?” Lester asked.

“No changes to the caravan.” Reaching up to remove her helmet, the skimmer’s passenger bowed hear head to the first mate before making her report.

“We’ve noticed fresh wake lines in the area,” she said. “Not large enough to be another crew, most likely a single skimmer-sized craft.”

“Wake lines?” Lester’s brows dropped into a frown. “Is someone coming in to poach on our lands? No, is there a new ship on the plains?”

Plume turned back from the gathering to glance over the desert again. If the skimmer was a scout for an unknown crew, it meant more exiles from the Sacred Forest. If those elves still held the blessings of Militia, they were not opponents anyone could face just yet.

“A single skimmer?” Captain Hare pushed through the crew to join Lester in questioning the scout. “Their tracks?”

“It was a single-stone skimmer,” the scout replied. “Two men at most. It could be a remnant of the Regret.”

The crew fell silent as the Captain stepped forward again. “Are you sure it was a single skimmer?” he asked. “Not a group moving single file?”

Plume nodded his head from the rear of the crowd. Not only did moving in single file obscure your tracks, it helped conserve mana as well. If there was more than one skimmer, there would be no reason for them to split up.

“I’m sure,” the scout said. “One single-stone skimmer, and nothing else. If they have any reinforcements, they’re keeping their distance.”

Captain Hare paused for a moment. The Landshark’s Regret was a notoriously large ship that carried an inordinate number of single-stone skimmers. In battle, they swarmed the enemy in ‘packs’, mimicking the namesake of their mother-ship. But the Regret had been defeated, and her crew were missing… Was the skimmer following the caravan for revenge? No, that would mean the merchants had found someone with the strength to destroy such a powerful enemy. Was that possible?

“A single skimmer is nothing worth worrying over,” Hare announced firmly. “We will take the caravan at nightfall. Rotate scouts and ready your weapons.”

…

Captain Hare held his hands up towards the barely visible merchant caravan, channeling mana between his hands and warping the air into an array of specific shapes. The image distorted before refocusing, the people in the distance clearly visible through his magically formed lens. Two large horse-drawn wagons, each with another two-wheeled wagon attached as a trailer. The number of merchants seemed to be three… no, two. A group of three adventurers guarded the wagons, and there was another person walking nearby. Hare refocused his lens again, peering over towards the last figure. Without a weapon or staff, it was impossible to tell their role. Were they a merchant, or adventurer? A swordsman, or mage? A woman? The long desert robes of the walkers made it difficult to be sure.

The elvish captain gazed wistfully over his ship, glad to have her protection. The Charodontia had served him faithfully for many decades now, and it was thanks to her that the elves didn’t need to worry about the harsh desert climate, her wards rising up to push aside the dust and mitigate the heat of the sun. She might burn through mana with the appetite of a beast, but that was a small price to pay in return for their safety. On the plains, the temperature was an enemy as real any other.

“Plume!” Hare called out to the young helmsman, waving away the remnants of his magic as his attention shifted to his crew. “Good work,” he said. “Begin the approach.”

Plume nodded at the captain as his hands played over the crystal console, and the Charodontia sway eagerly as it picked up the pace. The half-elf might not be loved by the crew, but the Charodontia had certainly taken a liking to him. Hare turned back to the rest of his men, the many elves gathered excitedly on the deck in preparation of the raid, crossbows being strung and cutlasses sharpened.

“Lester! You’re in charge of the skimmers this time,” Hare said. Several of the crew brightened as the first mate selected his squad members from the assembled elves. “Everyone else, take up positions. Enemies include two merchants, and a possible four adventurers, at least one beast-warrior and two mages, the fourth unidentified.”

A groan rang out as he listed the enemy. “Beast warrior?” one of the members complained as he hopped onto the back of the nearest skimmer. “Always with the beast warriors.”

“We’re on the highway between the Bay and Manitas City,” Lester replied, settling down into the pilot seat of the largest skimmer. “What do you expect?”

“Captain!” another called, busy double-checking the state of the four deck-mounted ballistae. “Are you sure they have two mages?”

“Mages are easy to spot,” Lester said, raising his craft into the air from the bow of the Charodontia. “Especially if they’re carrying their staff around in plain sight.”

“Our goal this time is the entire shipment!” Hare shouted, quieting his men. “Take no risks, especially with the skimmers, and definitely not with the Charodontia! Strike them down, and claim their loot!”

Cheers rang out at the captain’s speech, but Plume’s raised voice interrupted their cry of affirmation. “Missiles incoming!” he called, bouncing the ship to the left and raising the wings as the three skimmers floated off their perches. “Shields ready!”

“Keep on target!” Captain Hare called out. In the distance, he could see the massive boulder flying towards their position. “Brace for impact!”

Plume sped the Charodontia under the gigantic chunk of rock, feeling her growl as it glanced off her wards to the rear. A sail-driven ship might have lost her mast from the attack, but the Charodontia moved through other means. Reassuring the disgruntled craft, he urged her onward, closing in on the wagons and leaving a cloud of dust rising in their wake.

Up ahead, he could see the two smaller skimmers circling around the wagons, javelins hurtling out to pierce towards the trio of adventurers as flames roared from the two mages’ hands. Lester’s skimmer moved to block the road ahead, the three passengers readying the giant crossbow mounted on the back of the four-man craft.

Plume grinned as he set the Charodontia on a circle around her prey, the many crew members moving to fire the two port-side ballista in a broadside salvo that targeted the wagons themselves. Such primitive transports were useless to the pirate ship, and would be abandoned after the raid in any case. Such was the fate of those who dared attempt to cross the Charodontia’s territory.

An explosion of dust billowed up in a rapidly expanding mushroom, and Plume snapped around towards the wagons, feeling the ship bob in curiosity. Were they transporting liquor? If the flame magic… No! One of the two smaller skimmers lay twisted on the scorching earth, the unidentified adventurer standing over the wreckage. A mage, then! The other skimmer circled away from the wagons, joining the ship as it skirted around the caravan. The figure reached out, and Plume saw the small craft shudder for a split second before it went up in flames, crashing down onto the cracked earth. Such power! The mage reached up to draw back their hood, and Plume heard Captain Hare gasp from nearby. She wasn’t an adventurer at all, not anymore at least.

“Diana,” Hare breathed, whirled around towards the half-elf. “Charge! Charge her!” Plume stared blankly at his captain for a moment. Charge? The Charodontia? His fingers hovered over the console in uncertainty.

“Charge her before she can channel more mana!” Hare yelled, feeding his own energy into the ship. The Charodontia didn’t hesitate, surging forwards towards the elf mage as she began to gather an enormous amount of mana once more.

Hare rushed to the bow of the ship, snatching a crossbow off one of his crew and taking aim at the elf ahead. Diana the Researcher, known to the pirates as Diana the Exile. Formerly platinum ranked in the guild of Manitas… an exile of the elven homelands who had somehow never fallen from the grace of their god. The pirate crew were familiar with magic, but they spent their mana keeping their ships afloat. Besides, if they were compared to that monster… Hare loosed his bolt at the woman, but the wooden missile was blown away with a flick of her hand.

Diana raised her arms again, mana overflowing across the desert as she smiled, lightning arcing out to obliterate Lester’s craft, tearing through his skimmer’s robust wards in an instant. Plume felt a half-crazed grin creep across his face as the Charodontia neared her position, her own wards holding against the other two mages’ comparatively pitiful attacks. This was it! The Charodontia would take her out! Diana returned his manic smile with a confident smirk of her own, her mana dissipating from her latest attack. They had her now!

Plume’s smile wavered into a frown as he followed her gaze, the mage twisting to look away from the Charodontia as it charged. Blinking, the elf turned his head just in time to see an unfamiliar skimmer smash into the side of his ship, tearing her apart with a scream of splintered wood and shattered crystal.