Work Text:
Miryam had always wanted to be an adventurer. She had always had her eyes set on the sky, sun glinting in her pupils bright and promising.
She had been so young when she first set out to accomplish her dreams, only sixteen with nothing to her name but two outfits, a day of rations, her Lamontgomery novel collection and the sight of the sky.
Finding jobs was hard as a young inexperienced girl. She mopped deck floors, shoveled coal into engines, and emptied toilets on docked ships for sparse coin and scraps of stories the crew would spare for the pitiful sky eyed kid covered in dirt.
The work was hard but she never gave up, she knew she would find a ship that would take her. That someone would see her at the docks and see her potential. She would find a crew, probably one just as cool as the Zephyr. She would be just like Captain Marya Junkova, she knew she would. It meant everything to her.
Mopping the blood off of ship decks gave her a pretty good idea of the types of happenings in the sky and while she longed for it sometimes she could admit, privately only to herself, that she was glad she hadn't been there for those things.
Not that she was scared, she had forced herself to swallow her fear of the dark and of monsters and of monstrous men when she was only twelve. So what her hands shook when she heard some of the stories the adventurers shared with her? It wasn't fear, it was excitement.
The same excitement that caused her whole body to tremble when Captain Maz approached her with an offer. The man was old, skin withering away into wrinkles and matted shoulder length hair turning an ugly dull gray.
Perhaps Miryam should have questioned it more, perhaps she should have looked closer. The signs were there all along. This man's eyes were dark, no spark or sign of the sky. But Miryam was too blinded by the sun to notice.
At only seventeen Miryam was aboard a ship as it took off from the port for the first time. It felt like freedom, every bit as warm and wonderful as she imagined as she asked in the sun rays. She was only there to keep the deck clean and help in the kitchen as needed but it didn't matter, she was sailing into adventure. Into the unknown. If only she had known.
Constant shaking hands, face down, trembling knees, loud shouting, peering, the scent of blood stained into her nostrils. The sun hidden in storm clouds so dark the sky turned black. No spark, no glint, no warmth, no freedom. Just adventure, cold and dark.
Her fear was holding her back, Captain Maz had told her harshly, breath hot and hands heavy. How could she ever expect to be an adventurer if she flinched from raised fists and jumped at stomping boots? He tried to train her but the lessons wouldn't catch, each fight more of a beating than a training.
Miryam wondered if it was her fear or his methods but shoved the thoughts aside. Captain Maz was old and wise and she was young and naive. She tried her best to prove herself, but she was weak and weary. This wasn't what she wanted.
Did she even want this? Why couldn't she try harder? She would never move past a docker for hire if she didn't fight back. What did she even want?
“I want to be a captain.” She had said, tears flowing from her eyes to mix with the blood she was scrubbing off the deck. She's certain it was her own, from the sword she took to the side from the crew of pirates. The one that took her breath away, that made her fall on her back and look up at a dark sky, the one that snapped her back to her dreams. She didn't want to die with the regret of being so close to the sky but to far away to grab it. Captain Maz stopped to look at her.
She lifted her eyes even as fear and pain caused her body to tremble. “I'm going to be a captain.” The sky brightened around her by sheer force of her will and slowly the sun rose, finding its way to her eyes. Captain Maz must have seen it, the determination that stomped down her fear. His mouth formed a smirk, something sinister playing at the edges.
Dawderdale's nineteenth birthday was spent scrubbing the floors of the captain's quarters until her fingertips bled, Captain Maz stood above her the entire time. He spoke calmly and efficiently, explaining the aerodynamics that kept a ship afloat. Something every captain should know.
Occasionally he would stop to ask her a question and if she didn't know he would take his dirty boot and press down on her hand not holding the brush until she was sure she could hear her bones crunch. It didn't matter how she pleaded with him to stop, she wanted to be a captain he would remind her.
Six months in and Dawderdale could answer all his questions. Explain everything about the ship and how it worked and the theoretics of how to steer and run it. A quick study, she had been complimented. When Captain Maz had to admit she was ready he took her up the stairs to the wheel.
She waited for his permission before she slowly reached out, hands gliding over the smooth wood. Her breath caught in her throat, she wasn't a captain yet but she was almost there. So close. Captain Maz wrapped his hands around hers and squeezed as hard as he could, forcing her fingers to dig into the wood uncomfortably.
Fear clouded her mind but not enough to stop her. “I'm gonna be captain.” Hands stopped squeezing, instead adjusting her grip on the wheel.
“Sure you are, kid,” Captain Maz said in a smug voice. “Sure you are.”
At twenty-three Miryam found herself stumbling off the ship, blood dripping from her lips and eye swollen shut. Captain Maz was shouting behind her for her to return to her post.
She didn't look back at him, she didn't have to. His abuse had damaged him just as much as her and though she never did learn to fight she learned to survive. She learned had to fly. She learned how to be in the sky, and learned that what she wanted more than anything was her freedom.
She never found freedom in the sky, never found the joyous warmth and bright sun she dreamed of. Never found the adventure she was promised in her children's novels.
It was time to find real adventure on the ground, far away from the lies of the sky and the sky eyed. Away from terrifying men and cruel monsters that inhabited the vast expanse of clouds.
She didn't know what she would do, go back to being a port worker with nothing to her name probably. It's all she knew, except how to fly but flying hurt too much. Not just physically.
So she did just that. Found the nearest port and got to work, the task monotonous and almost familiar but just different enough to not cause her breath to stutter in fear.
She would have stayed there forever if she could but the sky yearned for her as she had once yearned for it. A blimp was blown to port during a wind storm, somehow blown perfectly into docking position. The crew on the blimp rushed about, holding onto ropes, to try and secure the blimp on the dock and several port workers rushed to try and help them in tech suits that could withstand the wind.
Miryam watched as the crew scrambled and almost felt a surge of anger at the incompetence of it all. She had never seen her crew be so useless at anything, much less something that could be life or death.
After watching one man slip, loose grip on the rope and slide down the tilted blimp before he caught himself on a post, she had enough.
Techsuits be damned, Miryam ran to the blimp, clutching her shoes in her hand. Winds whipped against her angrily, threatening to launch her off the dock but even as fear whispered into her she knew wind couldn't make her falter. She knew the way the wind worked, the way it raged and calmed and ripped things away only to return others.
She jumped, using a gust of wind to launch herself onto the recklessly wobbling blimp. Her feet thudded down and she started to slide, her hand reached out and yanked the rope the man had fallen from. Quickly she looped it tightly around her waist then each leg and back up around her shoulders, creating a harness to hold her steady.
The first thing she did was grab the man from the post, tie him to a loose rope and dangle him straight to the port workers who were waiting in their tech suits. She ignored the way they looked at her in awe.
The next thing she did was secure the blimp, finding all the docking points and weighing them down to the dock. It was only slightly different then a ship and if you understood the wind then it made no difference.
Karakamachi Blimp Co. was a large company that specialized in training the best blimp crew to pilot rich assholes from point A to point B. They didn't train crews to survive long journeys or rough weather as was evident by this event.
The first time they offered her a job, after she had safely evacuated their whole blimp, she had laughed. Even if she had wanted to fly again, piloting rich jerks around one city in a blimp wasn't her idea of a worthy flight.
The second time they offered her a job was as they packed up to leave once the windstorm died down. This time the job offer came with the pay rate. Moryam suddenly understood the appeal of working for rich jerks.
So, after years of grueling labor on the safe ground Miryam Dawderdale took once again to the skies. This time never high enough to be in it's embrace, just on the outskirts, low and wrapped in the safety net of sky scrappers and fancy parties.
After completing her training, in record time because of course there was no difference in piloting a ship or a blimp, she anxiously received her assignment. The Gotch family.
It felt like a slap in the face, like the sky was teasing her. Cadswitch Gotch had funded so many wonderful adventures and was just as important as the wind riders themselves. Now she would be forced to fly for him, as she had always dreamed, but instead of an adventurer she was a blimp pilot for Karakamachi Blimp Co.
She swallowed down the remains of her dreams that threatened to crawl back up her throat, letting the fear override it. She wasn't sure what the new hierarchy would be like with the crew she was assigned. She knew there were dozens of employees and multiple captains to be able to transport the nine Gotch men all at the same time if the need arises.
Hopefully that meant the captains wouldn't be able to lord over her constantly and be able to spread the demands out amongst the crew. Since it was a company that was a set job for each crew member and you knew exactly where you stood, it shouldn't be as much of a mindfuck as being on a ship where you were a maid and a captain and a trainee and a punching bag whenever someone else decided you were.
Miryam might not be happy but she was secure. She could do this, she had to. Just the thought of going back to scrubbing ship toilets with her bare hands made her want to cringe. So she forced her hands to stop shivering by clenching them into fist, forced a polite smile on her face and stepped into the Gorch family manor back entrance with all the other blimp crew employees.
The day went nothing like she imagined it would. The crew all worked together well, not just that they all did their job but that they were genuinely kind to one another. When Miryam struggled with a task and her Lieutenant approached it was to scold her or berate her but to help her and offer input on how to do it easier. When the lunch cart rolled around nobody fought over the best food, just casually passed it around to share with laughs and smiles.
It was odd to be on a flight crew where there seemed to be actual joy. Everyone seemed happy to be there, even those that grumbled about work didn't act grumpy. The bosses were all kind and helped teach the new recruits with gentle words, and lots of praise for the new recruit who already knew how to do the hard jobs, but somehow struggled with the simple ones.
Miryam wasn't sure how nobody lost their patience with each other yet, when one person made a mistake that made them totally have to restart, nobody hit him, they just teased him in a friendly way.
If this is how it would always be then Miryam thought she could surely survive this job. Of course there was always the worry in the back of her mind that once the time came to actually sail she would have to meet the Gotch men and see how cruel a man with unlimited power could be.
Although with this crew at her side she thought she could handle it just fine.
The first flight Miryam piloted as a captain for the Gotch family was a somber one. Bringing home the Gotch sons from their grandfather's funeral was a tough task. The usual jovial attitude was gone, the seven boys who usually rough housed and joined in the crew's joy were quiet, contemplative.
Hatwell, the little jerk that he was, made a few snide comments but none of them worked to rile the others up in the friendly way it normally did, instead causing Johnwell and Blanewell to go to bed even though the sun was still up.
Maxwell stayed at the rails of the ship, looking out into the sky, the sunlight reflecting in his pupils. A familiar sight, young and sky eyed. Miryam was glad he wasn't alone as Wealwell and Samwell sat on the deck of the ship behind him, watching him.
Miryam sighed as she glanced around to make sure everything was in working order and spotted several of her crew just milling about their stations. As much as the death of Cadswitch got to her, as someone who had one day dreamed of flying for him in different circumstances, she was a captain now. And she had a job to do.
Miryam glanced at the Zephyr behind her, not anywhere close to flying shape and not at all prepared. She glanced back at the two Gotch boys, both smiling at her in a way that was meant to seem innocent but was absolutely guilty.
She had always wanted to fly the Zephyr and she could see the same desire burning in the youngest Gotch's eyes. They were her bosses and if two of her bosses said it was so then it must be so.
So she ordered her crew of all new recruits on the Zephyr instead of the safe blimp. Jackway St. Niles stood by the wheel with her and complained about the work he had in store for him and Miryam listened with sympathy and offered suggestions.
Polaxamis and Diaz were arm wrestling on a flipped over food crate, the Gotch boys were standing at the railing of the ship watching the clouds go by their faces, the rest of the crew was hidden away inside the ship hopefully doing their jobs.
The truth was she wasn't happy with the state of the Zephyr currently either, it was hitting the wind wrong due to a tilt of the sails and she was certain the bottom had to have a section of rotted planks based on the way the wind hit the ship at a certain angle and the ship didn't creak as it should.
These were all things that could be fixed later however, as this was to be a short trip. It was supposed to be but something about the spark in Maxwell's eye told her to hold off on those hopes.
This was the Zephyr after all, it was made for adventure. There were worse people to adventure under than Maxwell Gotch she supposed. Namely his brothers, especially Hatwell. She felt sorry for Captain Eerin for being assigned to that specific mission.
The MacLeod farm was far enough away from the port that Miryam felt she had enough time to examine the bottom of the ship before the young Gotch returned. She assigned Lt. Agarwahl to watch Wealwell as she didn't quite trust the man on a ship alone.
She had just got up from the bottom of the ship to the deck when she saw them approach, well more like heard them. Loud cheering echoed across the port as Diaz and Polaxamis whooped along with a young girl who had returned with them.
Miryam couldn't see her but she knew, without a doubt, that this was the MacLeod girl. She couldn't make her face out from this distance but she could imagine a spark in her eye as the sun beamed down, burning just as bright as her grandmother's had.
Miryam took a deep breath and accepted defeat. Her dreams were going to come true. This could only lead to one thing.
The adventure of a lifetime.
Waiting for the other shoes to drop was a stressful feeling. Daisuke entered the ship with all the confidence of a man in charge. Miryam prepared herself for harsh words and strict rules. She readied herself to watch the light dim in Maxwell and Olethra's eyes as they realized that adventure was not what it was cracking up to be.
Instead Daisuke was kind, in a way that was shocking for anyone much less the old outlaw. He took the crew's incompetence in stride, even when Miryam could tell he was annoyed he never raised his voice. He never raised a hand against anyone on her crew. He taught the younger staff with a patience Miryam envied.
Then the others came. Van Chapman was strict. Miryam found herself trembling at the sound of her voice, wincing when she made demands, and keeping her head down in a way she hadn't since she was that young sky eyed girl. Yet, even in her strictness Van wasn't cruel. She never punished the crew for their shortcomings. She called them useless when she thought they couldn't hear, but never to their face.
Marya was the captain, this was her ship and Miryam had no issue with stepping down for her. She hadn't expected for Marya to be so polite about it. There was no hard feelings or power struggle. Marya listened to Miryam about the state of the ship and the little quirks Miryam had noticed, even sharing stories about how those certain quirks came about. Apparently the sails had been slightly bent since the fight of ‘99.
Monty was almost exactly as she was expecting actually. While she had some fear the old man would be rude and standoffish she had heard of Monty Lamontgomery and his political endeavors for the fair treatment of all mankind and animal kind. He was gentle, and he smiled warmly. He took to training Diaz like she was his own kid.
Miryam had to constantly correct the hero worship the younger crew was exhibiting and remind them to remain professional. She could see the sky begin to take over their eyes, the glow began to grow. She felt it start to shimmer in hers as well, but it was always dimmed with memories.
She watched it be smothered out in some of them after the battle. The way Norwich looked at her, with disgust as they ranted about the blood bath.
Some people dreamed about adventure but dreams were happy and adventuring was not. Not everyone was meant for it, she knew. She's not certain she was, but she was here and while she wasn't the captain of the ship she was the captain of this crew and they looked to her. Norwich looked to her. She forced herself to be strong.
Zood was not where she thought she would end up. Even as a girl, she could never have even dreamed of this. It was bigger than anything Miryam thought she could ever do. Her eyes couldn't stop darting between the different sights, alight with nothing but wonder.
Miryam could hear the rest of her crew chatting in excitement, all astonished at the view. Even the original crew of the Zephyr were laughing like children. Excitement danced among the ship, wind rushing through everyone's hair and the new world sun burning bright.
The Zephyr had given her sky eyes as a kid, forced whimsy into her very bones. She had lost it in fear. The fear was still there, of course, lurking just below the surface, scratching to be released, especially now at the unknown. But the Zephyr had saved her once and now it had done it again.
The sky felt like freedom, like she always imagined it would. She was sure there were going to be down sides and everything would only get worse but she couldn't be afraid. It was what she had always wanted.
The adventure of a lifetime.