Chapter 32
Airship

Andrew had brought Varian and the rest of the Saporians onto the airship,
Barrels of Varian's green liquid a plenty, stored away on the ship.
Varian watched the town below move as the airship went through the sky.
While Cassandra was trying to figure out how to rescue Varian.

Cassandra ran to the airship and looked up at it, frustrated that she didn't have long, Rapunzel hair, at this time. (She could just throw her hair and use that as a rope to get up there.)

Cassandra dug around in her bag, trying to find something... "Dagger, that might be helpful." She put that in her boot and then dug around somemore. She needed a rope, how did she not have a rope?! Cassandra looked at Varian's bag, which was around her shoulder just in-case, and then dug through it. She finally found a rope, but she also picked up a strange, grey opal.

"Odd." She stared at it.
Then she looked up at the airship, then at Owl; "Owl, Ruddiger, you two get the rope secured on the airship, then let me know when to grab on and climb up it." Cassandra threw the rope to Owl, who caught it with his talons. Owl hoo'd, let Ruddiger on the rope and then went to fly up to the Saporian airship. Cassandra, while she waited, looked at the opal...

It felt so lifeless, as if it originally had color but it was taken away or hidden away somehow.

She put it in her bag and then upon hearing Owl's call, she grabbed onto the rope and began climbing it. Andrew proudly stood at the front of the airship near the wheel.

Varian was behind him, he had to be, Andrew wanted Varian to stay nearby to make sure he didn't try anything. Varian didn't want this to happen, he hated the Kingdom of Corona, yes, but not this much... He didn't want it to get destroyed by the Saporians, especially because he was the one that (accidentally) made the green, explosive, chemical compound.

Cassandra climbed over the rail of the airship and hid behind some crates and spare tarps...

Clementine laughed, "Can you believe it? That idiot girl abandoned her friend... Shame on her."
Suddenly, Clementine felt a punch to the face and fell, passed out.

Cassandra glared, "I didn't abandon my friend, I'll tell you that much." She growled, then looked at Andrew and Varian at the front of the airship; there he was!

She grabbed her dagger and ran to Andrew, but Andrew quickly noticed and put Varian infront of him as a shield, making Cassandra stop. "Knew you were going to try and interfere, luckily I have a shield." Andrew clicked his tongue. Cassandra looked at Varian sadly.

Andrew knocked the dagger out of Cassandra's hand and then pushed her back.

"I advise you back down." Andrew raised a brow.
Varian squirmed, "Let go of me!" Varian whined.

"Be quiet!" Andrew kicked Varian's shin. "Ow!" Varian winced and glared at him.

Cassandra couldn't help but feel anger rise within her... She dug around in her bag to try and find another weapon, and something in her bag was glowing a bright blue, she didn't realize it at the time though. Cassandra pulled out what she thought was a weapon and it ended up being the opal, she was about to throw it until she realized it was reacting to her somehow.

Suddenly, black rocks emerged from the ground below, making people scream at the sight of them. Black rocks raised into the airship, stabbing through the wooden-floors, startling Andrew.

Varian's jaw dropped and he backed away from the black rocks; what...were those?!

Cassandra held the opal tightly, causing more black rocks to stab through the airship's floor towards Andrew. "Cassandra! Hey, Cass, lovely, listen!" Andrew tried to reason with her, clearly afraid. Cassandra stepped forward, the black rocks slowly folding down when she got near them, as if it was giving her a path to walk on. More black rocks stabbed out of the floor, puncturing through Andrew's vest, which made it where he couldn't move.

Cassandra got in his face, "The Saporians will always lose, the Saporians will always be nothing; just like you are to me! Nothing!" Cassandra put her hand on Andrew's chest forcefully.

The black rocks gave out and Andrew fell off of the edge of the railing. Luckily, for Andrew, he fell into the water, rather than on the ground. (But he wasn't very happy about it.)

The other Saporians then began to try and attack Cassandra, but were faced with black rocks and had the same thing happen that Andrew faced; falling into the water below. One of the black rocks accidentally stabbed into the airship's balloon and Cassandra snapped out of her angry state.

The opal's color then faded back to grey.

Cassandra looked around quickly and then grabbed Varian, "We have to get off this airship before it crashes!" Cassandra said, putting the opal in her bag. Owl and Ruddiger gathered on Cassandra and Varian's shoulders. "What about the barrels?! They have explosive chemical compounds in them?" Varian asked panicky. "Well, I'm not a scientific genius like you are but from my understanding, exploding in the water won't do much damage." She said.

Varian thought about it, "I mean, yeah, but..."
"Alright then, stop your complaining!" Cassandra jumped off the rails and grabbed onto the rope.

The rope swung, but she kept a good grip, in-fact, she began to purposely swing back and forth on the rope and then jumped off of it onto a nearing rooftop. She gently set Varian down on the rooftop and quickly whipped around to look at the falling airship.

The airship slowly began to fall into the water, the barrels slipping off into the sea... The explosions weren't as big as they would have been out of the water, but they made big splashes of water when shaken. Cassandra looked at Varian and hugged him.

"Thank gosh you're okay." She said, pulling away from the hug afterwards.

"We really need to stop having adventures like this." Varian jokingly said. "Yeah." Cassandra smiled and laughed slightly at his joke. "Also..." Cassandra almost forgot...

She pulled out the opal and showed Varian.
"What the heck is this?" Cassandra said with concern in her voice.

(Author's Note)
If you need visuals of what Varian looked like when he saw the black rocks...

...The surprised hamster meme just about summarizes it.

~ VarianLeAlchemiste