(Day 16- 770 Words)
The music continued to be deceptively simple, with sometimes slow rhythms, and sometimes faster. It did make his feet want to dance a bit, so he consoled them by walking around each of the edges. He didn’t recognize any of the songs, so there was no desire to sing along to them.
Dalleth held on to the rail as he peered over the sides of the deck. On one side, they were behind the sails and he could see all the way to the ground, which was a disconcerting distance away. The people and carts moving along the streets below looked like mice, or maybe tiny fairies.
On the other side, they were only about 20-ish feet above the platform, though there was a bit of a gap between the ship side and the rail around the platform, which is what the ramps bridged. From here, though, he could see the padded bumpers and sacks that hung between the tower and the sides of the ship to keep them from striking against each other if the winds gusted hard. He had heard of that happening before and putting a hole in the vessel's side.
Off the back, because of the shape of the vessel, this deck hung out with nothing below it, but it was closer to the zeppelin. He could see people walking around on the top, stowing things and readying ropes and chains.
He could also see in the side windows of the inner decks and a salon and balcony near the back, with a few people securing barrels and crates out on the balcony. It must be a retired passenger liner, as the shape was very similar, though somewhat smaller than the Cloud Dancer, and the boards and rails looked more weathered. Though they seemed to be maintained as best as could, nothing was broken. But Dalleth doubted passengers would be pleased with the balcony being taken up by crates and barrels.
He looked back to where the fey was still playing quietly and had a chance to just stand and breathe. The air had been a bit smelly when he had entered the city this morning, different smells than the usual out in the mountains, or even on the farm. Smells of stone and metal and axle grease, mixed with baking bread and old wine and an occasional whiff of nightsoil down a side alley. Up here, it was blowing sweet, more like the mountain vales where he watched the sheep in the summer.
Dalleth crossed back over to the city side of the vessel, starboard he thought it was called. He leaned his forearms on the rail and just stared out. He had only been in the city for less than a day, and they would be leaving soon, so other than the walk to the first tower, and the walk to this tower, with a stop at the food cart, he hadn’t seen much of it. So, he took the moment to see as much as possible so that he could compare it later to other cities and towns along the journey.
This area of the city held most of the towers and airdocks. He could see only a few others across the way. Likely for the patrol and or for the Navy. There were a few tall manors on a hill that seemed to have shorter platforms with a few smaller balloons anchored there. So, this area was more working people and places. Warehouses, markets and manufacturing. More of the smoke was in this area as well. From kilns and smokestacks mostly, though, there were some of the lighter mists from the steam engines and boilers.
Plenty of birds dove in and out among the buildings — doves, pigeons, crows, as well as smaller sparrows, jays and starlings. He even saw a small flock of air-lizards, with their bright sparkling scales ducking in and out of light beams and shadows. They were very common in the mountains, and could be a right nuisance, much like crows with stealing food and shiny things. But he had to admit they were pretty.
A bell ringing caught his attention, and he looked at a bell tower which held several bells of different sizes as it began ringing out an afternoon song. He didn’t know what time it corresponded to, as it wasn’t late enough for evening prayers and it was too late for noon. He heard the gittern change its song as well, and the music swirled around the bells, changing the song somehow to something that seemed far more bawdy than a church song should be.
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