Immersive Ink

Armando arises from a somewhat embarrassing tangle of cloak, legs, sand and crossbow, and scratches his head in wonderment at the vessel.

Desmond breathes an inaudible sigh of relief as Olaf greets the group. Hearing that the ship... or whatever it is... once belonged to the wolf men but is now theirs, his curiosity gets the best of him and runs past Olaf to climb on board.

Josiane barely notices in her rush to be reacquainted with Olaf, but those behind her are duely impressed with the apparent ease with which Olaf bounds from the bow of the stricken vessel down to the sand--the deck must be 10ft off the ground!

But there is scarcely a moment to marvel at his athleticism before the mid-section of the deck bursts wide open, flinging split timbers into the lashing wind, seemingly releasing a 10ft torrent of steam into the wind; steam that somehow defies the wind to hold its position in midair!

At more-or-less the same moment, Demond/Mondes half-clambers, half-leaps up onto the deck--awkwardly discovering that he can easily jump higher than a Man! Then finds himself on the prow being scrutinised by the mostly transparent whateveritis hovering in the air before him!

What will Desmond do next?

Dieter pauses before joining the party to scan the horizon. Are any more of those dog/wolf men about? Or anybody else, for that matter?

Then when he turns back, he is shocked to see whatever that thing is that's coming out of the boat.

"So much for easy transport," he mutters, as he bounds toward the boat.

Wen is staring at the flying boat in wonder with a huge grin on his face. "Now that was something to see. I must ask where did you find the wondrous ship??"

Wen would listen and reply "You took it from the Wolfmen. My my. I wonder if we can scan the battle field from the deck without being hassled by the fortress.?"

"Ooooh! HELLO!" Desmond says loudly, hoping the thing can hear him... and understand him. "ARE YOU WHAT MAKES THIS THING FLY, THEN?"

An unusually hot and bothered Josiane (curse this desert heat! ) is for a moment or two rather at a loss as to what to do next, but then realises she is missing something...

He's gone again. Both of him!

Then she looks up and sees what is transpiring on deck.

"Oh, no..."

"DESMOND!" she cries, as calmly as is possible while yelling at the top of your lungs to be heard above a screaming desert tempest; "BACK AWAY SLOWLY! REJOIN THE REST OF US!"

"IT'S PROBABLY MORE FRIGHTENED OF YOU THAN YOU ARE OF IT!" she adds, wildly optimistically...

Desmond glances over at Josiane and notes the worried look on her face.

He turns back to face the column of wind and smiles weakly. He very slowly takes a few steps back from it. If it does nothing aggressive, then he attempts to use his new jumping ability to spring backwards into the air, hopefully pushing himself away from the air creature and clearing the ship at the same time.

Olaf whirls around and his mouth drops open at the sight of the...thing...coming out of the skiff's hull he marvels, "Oh, so that's how it stayed in the air!"

"Let's hope it's friendly.", Olaf adds.