~Chapter 3: The Butterfly~

Miki looked at what a recruit had given her to wear. It was standard recruit get-up, mainly gray with darker gray accents. The worse part of it was..."It's makes me look like a man!" Miki howled.

Darren chuckled, "You should be honored! Not many outsiders get to have, much less, wear one of these!"

Miki scowled nevertheless. She murmured, "So what now?"

Darren shrugged and said, "Well we'll probably have a memorial for Carina in the evening and Sky will probably extend a hand of invitation to you to join the Sky Army. Assuming you want to."

Miki smiled and exclaimed, "Do I ever!"

Darren suggested, "How about I give you a tour of the Butterfly?"

Miki cracked up and, as she bent over she asked,between hyena-like laughs, "Your ship is seriously called the...BUTTERFLY!"

Darren's head drooped as he murmured, "It's made of butter...and flies. It's just logical."

Miki stopped and, as she wiped her eyes that were leaking from pure hysteria, said, "I'm sorry but it's unexpected!"

Darren raised his head and sighed, "That's why we're the Sky Army! Unexpected and majestic!"

Miki shrugged and walked towards the central two-tier glass tower, her shoes tapping against the golden butter floor. She asked, "What's this? We might as well get this tour started."

Darren smiled and said, "This is our watchtower! You can go up if you like!"

Thus Miki did just that, the ladder creaking beneath her weight. It was a very small but effective room, mainly made of glass with a butter base and containing a chest, chair, and dispenser with wool topping it. Miki, curious, punched the button on the wool, and a butter apple clinked on the floor. She stared at it, then snatched it from the floor and proceeded to gnaw on it happily. Darren poked his head through and smiled. He proceeded to playfully say, "Don't eat them all!"

Miki looked down at him, for he was clinging to the ladder and she was standing inside the room, and spoke lowly, "I have never seen, nor even touched, NOR EVEN ATE one of these. Let me have my moment."

Darren rolled his eyes, "Or you can go get one from the cafeteria instead of exhausting the tower watcher' supply."

Darren, then led her across the deck to a large room, open to the deck. Chests were all over , anvils lay on the far walls, and crafting tables and furnaces lay opposite each other on the sides. A girl sat by one of the furnaces. Her hair was brilliant red and her eyes, shielded by a pair of glasses, were jade green. She looked up at the two and addressed Darren, "Darren! So this is the new Recruit?"

Darren shook his head as he said, "Not officially. Miki, this is Ann and Ann this is Miki."

Ann strode over to Miki, and shook her hand whilst saying, " Don't think I work down here because I'm blind as a bat without my glasses! I love to craft and smelt and repair and rename so do you have something for me to craft, smelt, repair, or rename?"

Miki shook her head and Ann said, "Well, if you do, remember me!"

Darren smiled as he laughed, "I assure you she will! Now I'll show her the rest of the ship!"

They walked back towards the front of the ship, along a glowstone line that kept the ship lit so no mobs would spawn in the cool night. They eventually got to a roofed area that held a door, two Ender chests, and stairs to a room that watched the deck of the ship. Miki stopped at one of the Ender chests which above it said, 'Send to Sky. Don't remove anything."

Miki shrugged and joined Darren at the door. He said, "Don't go in for this is the control room but if you look in you can see all the little buttons and levers and redstone torches and such!"

Miki looked up and asked, "That's 's up there?"

Darren said, "Oh that the Commander's watch room . His bedroom is downstairs with the rest of the Recruit cabins. That reminds me! If you say Dawn around, say hi to her!"

Miki asked, "Who?"

Darren smiled, "Commander Sky's girlfriend. Let's go downstairs."

The two walked down the stairs to the lower deck, that was mainly occupied by cabins built of spruce wood. The walls had various butter items framed and tall windows looking out to the mountainous landscape, as well as one of the butter and lapis wings. Darren led the cloaked girl around a corner that withheld a door that led to Sky's bedroom and a hallway with doors on all sides and three doors at the end. Darren talked as they walked down the hallway, "The first two doors are simply closets with chests but the rest are cabins. There is a free one now..." and he trailed off, not going deep into the subject of exactly why there was a free cabin.

Miki, instead, excitedly chirped, "Is that the cafeteria down there?"

Darren nodded and Miki ran through the door stopping just quickly to see her surroundings. In the middle of the room there was a large banquet table with smaller tables dotted around. On lapis blocks cakes rested on opposite ends of the room with food dispensers at the far windowed wall. Miki ran over to them and after a quick look as the foods available punched the button on an enchanted butter apple dispenser. She munched on the apple and watched as Darren returned with a cooked pork chop. He chuckled at her and said, "We have one more deck so how about we go?"

Miki nodded and the two went on.

The next deck's entrance was right by the upper deck's entrance and it consisted of spruce stairs that led down to the lower deck. The pair walked in a library where glowstone illuminated everything and enchantment tables cast out strange runes. Darren simply said, "Enchantment room" and gestured to their left to a door that led into a wash room area.

He explained, "That's the wash room but the room I show you now so horrifying that it is REQUIRED for you to wear ear muffs if you go in there for extended amounts of time. Let us go."

Miki frowned for this sounded like serious business. This feeling intensified when she got her first look at where they were going. All she saw was an imposing obsidian wall with a pair of iron doors opened via pressure plates. She could tell it was bad and finally she saw it as she tread over the stone plates that opened the door with a rusty creak. Suddenly the inmates chatters assaulted her ears. She ran out, not looking back at the horrifying five-tentacled water monsters. She asked Darren, "Why are those in there?!"

Darren frowned as he explained, "They're getting smarter...they're evolving. We've already had them impersonate Sky, badly but still, and turn a giant butter-core-powered mech on us, but he exploded...still!"

Miki shook her head and asked, "Well what time is it?"

Darren shrugged and suggested, "Let's go see. Sky wants to do everything on the deck come evening is what I heard."

Miki grinned as said, "Let's go up then!"

Once on the deck, they found evening had set in and the ship stopped. A lot of the Recruits had gathered around, either sitting on the ground with food or standing around chatting. Darren met Ann and said, "Here, let's all go get us a chair and sit somewhere."

The trio sat around, chatting until Sky walked onto the deck. The Recruits ran around in a flurry to place their chairs while Sky placed a butter block and watched his troops to get in order. Once they had he cleared his throat and began," Hello, Recruits. We have gathered here tonight to remember a recruit who perished in the fight against squids...and perhaps initiate another into the army. Let's start with the memorial. Carina was a sword fighter...a good one too. She could have helped us snag more victories if not for having an up close encounter with the squid we fought today. The squids...we have found are evolving into annoying little gits! Though is that just an awkward stage of their growth or...that particular squid was something that is not supposed to exist? We didn't expect coming across such a freak of nature nor losing a Recruit to it! And you Recruits saw it! It was merciless! Pain failed to effect it and gunning for me! Carina's death was something we didn't want to happen but it has told us something. We cannot trifle with these squids.. I am finished for now so if any Recruits have anything to say, come up to the butter block."

It was a bit before Darren came up to say something, whereas Ann and Miki said nothing, one being shy and the other awkward. Darren stood by the block and a random Recruit called out, "Sit down!"

He complied sheepishly and started to talk, "I don't really know what to say. Well, Carina was pretty cool. She was actually in the group that came to our city talking about the Sky Army. I remember literally sprinting to get to the group for my foster parents hated the idea of me leaving! She talked with me a bit and walked me through what the Sky Army does and all that. Other than that we didn't talk but she seemed very kind and talkative to me. She didn't like to miss details and I'm sure she would have hated missing one detail of our fight against the Giga-Squid!"

Cheers came from the crowd as Darren left the butter block, cheeks red and happy he caused a reaction from the crowd.

Sky came back up to the butter block and asked, "No one else?"

With no one volunteering, he launched into the next part of his speech, "So as life does, it goes on. Carina chose to become a Recruit and now another must. If you haven't come to know Miki, you will know. She's an archer we saved from...the Giga-Squid as someone called it! So come on up and choose!

Miki strode up, smiling and said to the Commander, "Sign me up for the Sky Army!"

Sky threw her one of the purple and gold amulets and said, "There you are, new Recruit!"

He, then, turned to the entire group and said, "I don't know about you guys but I'm going to sleep!", and thus walked off.

The next day was bright and beautiful and the ship's engineers had already started to steer the ship away from the mountains into forests. Ann had come to wake up the new Recruit and now they were in the cafeteria, eating and chatting. Miki asked, "So is there anything we should be doing?"

Ann answered, "Well you can come hang with me in the crafting room but now we are smoothly sailing towards our destination! Tomorrow we should be there, maybe even tonight if we're lucky! Though if we get there by night, we'll have to wait for morning obviously."

Miki asked, "Where is our destination anyways?"

Ann grinned as she exclaimed, "Mistral City!"

Miki answered, "Cool! How about we go up on the deck?"

Darren walked up to the crafting room with a butter sword that needed repairs. He met Ann and said, "This sword needs repairs."

Ann took it and called to Miki, "Butter sword!"

She tossed to Miki, who caught it and put it on an anvil. As she let the anvil fix it, she sprinted over to a furnace where she retrieved something, then ran over to a crafting table, stopping only to show off what she has made, arrows with butter tips. Darren chuckled, "You know we've figured that out already?"

Miki nodded and explained, "I just wanted some of my own!"

She then retrieved the sword and handing it to Darren. Meanwhile Ann, who had walked out on the deck, called to the pair, "Come check out this sweet scenery!"

The two scampered to the deck and peered over the edge of the ship down below. Water lay around a cave that was in ruins, and if you looked in you could see the remnants of an obsidian Nether portal. Water also tumbled down the side of the mountain, pooling to the ground. Leading from it was a path that they figured led to Mistral City. The path led into a forest that was too low for the ship to crash into. Ann looked into the sky line and said, "With the time we're passing we'll be able to make it to the city at nightfall since the sky is just now getting orange."

Darren asked out of the blue,trying to start a conversation, "Where'd you get your cloak, Miki?"

Miki answered, "Oh, I got it as a birthday present from my mother, years ago. I sowed the Sapling swirl on the cloak myself."

Darren smiled warmly and said, "Where were you before you caught us?"

Miki answered, "There was some mountains south of where we met. I had a house built into a cliff that overlooked a lake. There was also a village that I went to for supplies often. Though my home was...compromised so I decided to go on an adventure like I've always wanted."

Darren murmured, "Any family?"

Miki went on, "A brother but that's it. My parents passed away years ago. That's when I went on my own."

Darren murmured, "Oh. My parents passed away due to a creeper invasion in our village. I was sent to a foster home and then was transferred to a foster family in some city in the south. My family was loving, a bit too loving though. Bordering on that they wished for no escape for me! When they found out I wanted to go travel the world, they got freaky to the point they wouldn't let me leave the house. Then the Sky Army came to town looking for recruits. I didn't take a second to hesitate and jumped into the fray and on to the adventure that I am on now!"

Miki nodded and said, "Cool story, bro!"

Darren stated, "You're being sarcastic, aren't you."

Miki shook her head and Darren grinned, "Okay then!"

Miki spoke again, "I heard Sky does these "Mod Showcases" but what are mods anyway?

Darren answered, " Well you've heard of magic right? Wizards would create spells to change the world around them and more often than not they'd be contained in a little black box! Some people would find them and then improve them and distribute them. When opened, these "mods" would alter the world around them, either creating new creatures, or new areas, or changing the one who opened it. If you close the box, the mod stopped but if the box is lost the mod lasts forever. That's why we have lions and sharks and stuff. Someone opened a mod and never closed it."

Ann, who had been quiet for the time they had spent chatting, pointed forward and exclaimed, "Look! There's what looks like a city ahead and it's getting dark! I would give a butter ingot to say-", and she was cut off by the ship stopping with a lurch.

She continued, "We're stopping here."

Miki said, "I can't wait for tomorrow, finally going into a big city and all! I'm gonna turn in!"

Ann yawned , "I'll follow you. See you tomorrow, Darren!"

Darren nodded, "I'll be up here for a bit. Good night, girls."

The two walked down to the cabins, excited for the next day and the prospects it held, not all expected.