This is an abridged excerpt of a steampunk story I've had in mind for a couple of years. One day I hope to expand it into a full-length story.
Unfortunately I don't have time to add any graphics...I'll have to come back later to add them. Enjoy the story anyway, loves!
Lazy wisps of altostratus clouds
streamed by in the wake of the Chimera's
broadside sails, cold nymphs tracing slender fingers along her hull in in the
sunset. Some distance off the larboard side, a flock of sea-birds flew in
formation, largely unconcerned by the presence of the smuggler sharing their
sky. Their off-key, honking cries were a comfortable and familiar sound in the
back of Devon St. John's mind, as she leaned back against the ship's railing
and surveyed the crew's work along the deck and up through the rigging on the
balloon. It wasn't her ruffians that had her interest, though. It was her
cargo. Even as she played at lax and careless, she kept one eye open to watch 'Sebastian'
across the way.
He was, to the casual observer, a very
young man: practically a boy. His cheek might never have borne the barest hint
of a beard. His hair was very shabbily cut, especially for the upper class; hacked
and uneven around the turned-up collar of his frock coat, it was the dull color
of a common brown mouse. Devon had been paid to transport him safely to the
country of Albionora, across the sea.
Certain protective measures, of course,
had been taken to protect the aristocrat's real identity. Devon knew it well
enough, though the men who booked his passage had said nothing. Watching Sebastian
now, shy and nervous on the Chimera's
decks, Devon found herself eager to get under his cover and get to the real creature underneath.
