Clockwork Matryoshka

Chapter 1
A Stroke of Good Luck

High up in the sky, just through the grey clouds and hovering over the oceans and the soil called the Terra; floats a large city known as Machinatio set dead center of the Columbia Territory. Made of brass, bronze and other smelted metal that were put together to create buildings narrowly placed beside each other. Airships from other floating cities arrive each and every day to this metal metropolis bringing many people and goods from other floating cities — how they managed to make a city to float up in the sky was unknown to the people inhabiting them, most think that something happened in the Terra that caused the cities to defy gravity, but one thing is for sure; no one really cared as long as they're alive and well.

No one ever ventured out to the Terra, for the grey clouds had poison which killed off most sailors within minutes or days when contact. There are rare times where there are gaps in the grey clouds and the people above would see glimpses of the Terra and it's waters below. But usually it's only for an instant and would disappear for a long time. There are rumors that some people can live in one area of the Terra for it was protected by the poison. No one knows the reason of this either but there were cases where humans would take a well built yet extremely expensive airship to the Terra but were never to return back to the World up in the Sky.

The city of Machinatio holds a strange combination of people ranging from Humans to Magick users. A human is what one would typically see throughout the day, using their aircrafts and other steam powered machinery to travel from place to place throughout their daily lives. The Magick users, commonly known as "Kilhans" —or Lhansies amongst children and the adolescence— have special powers that vary from simple spells and healing to controlling the elements. The Kilhans that control elements are very rare to come across and usually highly respected amongst everyone. Kilhans usually marry other Kilhans to continue the line of Magick for future generations. Sometimes a Kilhan can be born from human but this case was considered extremely rare.

Ivan Braginski knows the full meaning of a Kilhan that is born of human. For his younger sister is a Kilhan herself while he and his older sister—human. The blonde mans' smile faltered, he shivered at the memory of his crazy sister clawing at his door, hissing and shuttering in that cold voice of hers to marry him and to become one. Natalia had a strange fascination for him since they were children; it wasn't as bad back then but when she hit puberty… Let's just say that Ivan's life took a rather scary turning point. Luckily his older sister, Yekaterina, stopped Natalia from breaking down the doors and costing the family a large sum to replace them all. It has been awhile since he had last seen his two sisters. He wondered if they miss him as much as he misses them.

Ivan sighed and continued to hold the steering wheel to his handmade aircraft firmly; focusing on his destination which he had set for Machinatio. The monitor beeped beside him; he turned his head and processed the digital numbers flashing warningly. Ivan giggled "Almost out of fuel," he noted "Just in time." Ivan reached out and gripped the lever connected to the wings on the side of his airship and slowly pulled it giving him a smooth easy decent into the airship port. He reached over to handle of a triple pulley system and pulled, decreasing the air pressure inside of the blimp, thus furthering his decent into the port.

He neared an empty space and dock workers gathered and threw ropes to tie down Ivan's airship. He stopped the propellers and then moved to where the ropes are lying on his deck and proceeded to tie them to the railing securely. He then walked to the latter and let it drop onto the dock, he turned and climbed down the latter and stood at the wooden platform. He smiled casually and thanked the workers; who in turn hesitantly said "you're welcome."

Ivan nodded and proceeds to make his way through the crowd of people. It was busy as usual and people buzzed about on foot or on miniature aircrafts that flew at a safe distance above everyone's head. People kept bumping into one another and did not bother to apologize or say anything, but this was a normal thing when in these large cities. Ivan didn't have a problem though; due to his height, he was both not hard to spot and increased his intimidating aura which made people move out of his way.

The latter tugged on his scarf and sighed. He should've taken off his scarf back at his ship; it was a lot warmer now that he was in a more enclosed space then out in the open— and the hot steam coming out of the buildings was not helping his cause. He rested his hand on his pipe hanging on his utility belt that hung at a slant on his hips and continued to smile casually as he turned around but stopped when someone collided into his broad chest. Ivan's smile grew cold "Watch where you're going," looking down, his violet eyes met another pair of violet eyes behind crooked spectacles.

"I-I'm sorry, monsieur" muttered the blonde boy, he reached a shaking hand up and fixed his glasses on his face "But I'm in a hurry-..." "Oi! Come back here — I need to speak with you!" the blonde turned his head, taking a quick glance at the voice who is calling him. He whimpered and stepped around Ivan and continued running. Ivan looked up and found a man [woman?] on an air surf quickly catching up to the fleeing local.

Ivan was dazzled by this person. Their skills on the air surfer were quite outstanding to say the least, the board made of metal powered by what seems to be a solar powered engine and windsurf stood erect and the person riding the air surfer held on with a firm grip. But these details were ignored by Ivan for he was more fascinated by the individual actually flying the air surf.

Long brown hair tied up in a pony tail with their bangs hanging loose and fluttering against the wind. Their red long sleeved changshan nicely fit this individuals slight curves and slim body figure, with brown pants wrapped in white puttees. His or her utility belts hung around his hips overlapping the other forming an 'X' in the front and back jingled at the incoming wind. As they flew by Ivan he can see a strap around his right shoulder holding an oriental sword.

Ivan didn't see the person's eyes for they had bronze goggles over them. Ivan smirked; he turned around and began to follow close behind, shoving passed anyone who stood in his way. He wanted to see this person up close and personal. He could care less about why he was chasing the blonde boy whom he forgot about already. He followed them until he saw the flyer of the air surf take a sharp turn into an alley way. Ivan picked up his speed as he approached the alley ways opening he slowed down and peeked, listening to their conversation.

"Finally," sighed the she-male, Ivan noted their voice was low enough to be male but Ivan still had a hard time telling the difference. However, their Orient accent didn't go unnoticed, "Now you have something of mine and I need it."

The blonde stood his ground "I-I don't know what you're talking about?"

"I certainly know you do. Those dreams you were telling your weird white haired friend with the Blue Magpies and how you suddenly received a stroke of good luck afterwards."

"W-what are you talking about? Those are just dreams."

"They're not just dreams," Ivan saw the she-male take their goggles and set it on their head and step closer to the blonde and the latter take a step back into the brick wall "I've been observing you for a while now and I've certain you have what I am looking for. Please, let me just explain-..." The she-male stopped moving towards the boy and looked up.

Ivan noticed a few magpies have gathered around them. The she-male stopped moving and eyed them cautiously with his or her arm extended to the side. More magpies began to gather around the two. The she-male slowly reached for their sword strapped around his shoulder "Don't... Move." The blonde boy nervously nodded and swallowed. Ivan continued to watch with a small smile on his cherubic face, he pulled out his pipe from the holster on his utility belt.

The she-male merely touched the hilt of their sword which causing the magpies to caw loudly and flap their wings. They began to fly up and circle over head; the she-male drew their sword and held it yelling at the blonde boy to take cover. The birds continued to circle around over head; some took the initiative and attacked the she-male. The she-male swung their sword at the incoming birds, cutting off their heads in the process.

They seemed like a good swordsman but these are, however, birds and they're the easiest to kill. But what Ivan cannot comprehend is the fact the she-male kept saying something in Mandarin over and over. He had lived in the city of Bei Hong for a good amount of time in his life to recall this person was apologizing to these birds as they killed them. Why would one apologize for killing their attacker? Ivan giggled at the thought and concluded that this person was very interesting.

The birds eventually stopped attacking but continue to circle about viciously overhead. The she-male didn't lower their sword but he or she yelled at the birds in Mandarin. Ivan didn't understand fully what they said but he did recognize the words "Stop" and "It's me." Ivan then decided to take action he took the lid of the trash can beside him and started hitting it with his pipe.

The birds broke their circle and scattered at the sound of the metal pipe hitting the metal lid repetitively. The she-male turned around and watch Ivan as he approached, scaring off the birds in the process. Once the birds have disappeared Ivan smiled and stopped hitting the metal trash can lid. He let his arms drop to his sides releasing the trashcan lid. Still holding his pipe Ivan greeted them "Hello."

The Oriental stared at Ivan with wide eyes "Y-You—AIYAH!" Frustrated, the she-male grabbed their long hair and tugged, yelling curses at the Russian who stood there still smiling "Are you okay, comrade?"

"Does it look like I'm okay? You scared them off— why did you do that?"

Ivan shrugged "I thought you wanted them to stop, da?"

"Yes aru, but not fly away!" the blonde boy that was hiding behind a pile of trash stood up and stared at the two bickering. He soon walked around the trash then ran as fast as he could away from the two and into the busy street, causing the Oriental to scream some more "Aiyah! You let him run away!"

Ivan giggled "So?"

The Oriental gave him a disapproving look "So I have to go look for him again, aru! And this city is huge!" he or she began to make their way towards Ivan grumbling in Mandarin. Ivan stepped in front of the Oriental stopping them in their tracks, the latter stared up at Ivan with puffed cheeks. Ivan couldn't help but become captivated by these individuals amber eyes; they reminded him of his sunflowers back home.

"Could you move aru?"

Ivan shook himself out of his miniature reverie and smiled, not stepping aside "Da,"

The Oriental's eye twitched in annoyance "Out of my way aru?"

"Da," sang Ivan, still not moving.

"Aiyah," the she-male stepped to the side once more, only letting Ivan step with them thus blocking their way. The latter reached up a gloved hand and punched Ivan in the chest but he hardly budged.

Ivan smiled as the Oriental pulled their hand into their chest, grimacing in pain "A pretty lady like you shouldn't hurt others, da?"

"I'm not a woman aru!" he snapped.

"Oh, but you're so pretty, da?" Ivan looked at him from head to toe "Although I did have my doubts."

The Oriental man huffed; a gush of wind hit Ivan from below, causing him to fly up a few feet up into the air, giving the Oriental a chance to run to his air surf. Ivan landed onto the metal platform with a thud; giggling coldly, he got up "A Kilhan," he said, he scrambled up to his feet and yelled for the man to stop.

The latter froze, but did not turn around "What is it, aru? Can't you see I need to go?"

"I can help you retrieve what you need from that man, da?"

There was a pause. Ivan was worried the man would just fly away and he would never see him again— after all, as mentioned before this city was rather large. Still holding onto the fin of his wind surf, the man turned "What can you do to help, aru?"

Ivan smiled; thanking whatever God in heaven for this wondrous stroke of good luck.


A/N

Hi! MrsTrickster here and with a new story ;D I do hope you all enjoy this little chapter and is looking forward to the next! I sure am ;D
So, please REVIEW if you want to see more of this fic! Reviews are said to give the Author motivation to write the second chapter with ease AND at a fast pace! So the more the reviews, the more likely for an earlier update! ;D