The Samurai of Redwall

Chapter 9

Journey to Nowhere

Collin looked out the window at the large abyss of water flowing below. The sun set in the distant west, marking the end of another day in the air. He and his friends had been air born for four days now.

The dirigible that they rode in consisted of one long chamber. The pilot's area was located at the front with many strange, metallic instruments spinning around or emitting strange noises, smells and occasionally a puff of blue smoke every so often. Blane spent most of his time at the highly-polished oak ships wheel that served as the helm. The cabin was padded with red carpet and had red furniture throughout it that served as beds at night. The exit was at the rear of the craft next to the restroom. Beautifully crafted gold lamps hung from the walls. For a dirigible, Collin thought, this is pretty fancy. The balloon on the craft was not as gigantic as a zeppelin's but was longer that a normal balloon's making it easy for it to fit into small clearings.

For the four days that they were in the air, the only thing in sight was endless water. As far as Collin could tell, they were heading west. Day after day, Blane looked to be surer of where he was going. It seemed that the only map to their destination was inside Blane's mind.

During the day, the group had their own activities to keep them occupied. Matthias and Collin taught each other sword moves. When Orson got over his air sickness, he practiced his projectile skills. It soon became evident to the crew that Orson was skilled with any throwing or shooting weapon. One day when Blane was not busy at the flight controls, he thought that he would give Orson a little test.

He walked over to one of the nearby walls. He looked around it until he found what he wanted. Blane placed a firm punch on a dragon design on the wall. The punch caused the square panel to fall from the wall.

The compartment did not hold anything special except for a small black case. Blane opened it and took out five sharp, steel, star-shaped implements. Collin recognized them as Japanese throwing stars. He then picked up the fallen piece of wall and turned it around to show a target board which he placed firmly in the opening to the compartment, sealing it again. He then took several steps back, and aimed a throw or the stars at the target.

Fwhaaat! Ffwhaaat! Fffwhaaaat!

Two of the stars hit near the center, and the third hit dead on. He retrieved the stars and then approached Orson.

"Now, you try."

Orson looked nervous at first, but he quickly recovered. He aimed his throws almost identical to the way Blane aimed his. However, the shots hit in a different place.

Fwhaaat! Fwhaat! Fwhaaat!

All three of the stars hit virtually the same spot...dead center. Blane walked up to the target board to investigate the place where the stars hit. He took off his glasses and leaded in close to the center of the target board. As he returned upright, he looked visibly impressed.

"Excellent work, my friend!" he said as he held out the box of stars. "Here, take them as a gift."

Orson was thankful for his new weapons and began to practice more with them.

Kylie would practice with her mace for about an hour each day but she usually spent her time on the small balcony that jutted only a few feet from the dirigible. Collin would watch her sitting there, her long black hair billowing in the sea breeze, as she looked down at the immense ocean below her. Collin could never quite get up the nerve to go and stand by her at that ledge.

"Strange, isn't it Matthias," commented Orson one day, as he watched Collin,"that even the bravest of warriors can be scared of the same thing normal people are?"

Orson thought that he should help his new friend with his problem. One day he took out his small flute and started to play a very emotional ditty to set the mood. When he saw that this did not encourage him, he approached Collin directly.

"Ah, 'tis a beautiful day, isn't it Collin?"

"Yes" said Collin dreamily, paying almost no attention to Orson.

"But I thinks that there's something that yew find more beautiful that this evenin' weather."

"Oh really? What would that be?" asked Collin, suddenly interested.

Orson answered with only one word.

"Her."

"What?"

"Oh come off it, Collin. I know as well as ye do that you have a certain amount of affection towards that fine lassie."

"But how..."

"Now, now, let's not get into hows right now. I just happen to notice that particular glint in your eye that ye get when ever yew sees her. I should know. I was in love once..." Orson sighed and trailed off, but Collin paid not notice. He just continued to stare quizzically at the otter.

"Well, let's say hypothetically that I am in love with Kylie. What do you want me to do about it?"

"What I want yew to do is ta go over there and talk to her. That's all."

"Oh alright."

Collin summed up his courage and walked over to where Kylie was standing at the balcony.

"So...nice weather, huh?"

"Yea." said Kylie simply.

"We've been up in the air for how long now?"

"I think about five days."

"Oh. It's hard to keep track sometimes, yaw know?" Collin said. He looked to his left and right and nodded to himself, once again gaining confidence.

"So ah... what exactly did you guys do while I was gone?" asked Collin

"Well, first we joked about how hard it was to take you camping." Kylie giggled. "Then we started to notice that you had been gone awhile. I was really worried about you, you know? Out of everyone there, no one seemed to care more about you than I did. 'What if he's hurt? What if he fell in the lake' I said to the others. None of them thought that that could happen, but I was genuinely concerned for you. Then we split into groups. Mike, Rob, and Steve went one way, Kent, Sharon, Stephan, and I went the other. At some point, I got separated and ran into Blane at his camp. He was really nice to me, and kept asking questions about you. I guess I know why now, seeing as how you're some kind of chosen warrior..." she trailed off. "But through it all I wanted nothing more than to find you. To see you again. If anything had happened to you, I would never be able to forgive myself. I was the one who finally convinced you to go on this trip. Everything that would happen to you would be my responsibility. But now...I'm just glad to be with you. Know what I mean?"

"Yea." said Collin, amazed. "You've been my friend for as long as I can remember, and I never knew that you felt that way. Kylie, let's make a promise."

"What kind of promise?"

"Let's promise to make it through this thing together, and alive. We need to make it through so you can keep telling me things I don't know about you, and so that I can do the same. What do ya say, deal?"

"Deal!"

"Well then, that's settled. Now I'm just wondering one thing. What ever happened to the others?"

Collin's question went unanswered as the dirigible went on through the air. Far below the sea flowed by it reflected the setting sun in the distance. Tomorrow would be a new day, one of adventure and mystery. But for now, the ship merely went on into the setting sun, unnoticed by the fish and creatures of the sea.