Hetalia – Of Magic and Might
The Whale Tail Floating Island at the tip of the left 'fin', The Boston Air Balloon Docking Station
Alfred Jones shielded his eyes from the glaring sun as he and his partner approached the giant notice billboard of the air balloon boarding times, his sky blue eyes squinting against the sun's brilliant rays.
"Dude do you think we came to the wrong air ship crossing?" Alfred asked aloud concerned on whether the elderly couple they had stopped to ask directions for had been correct "Because I think that grandpa was blind".
Kiku Honda turned away from the notice board which contained advertisements posted by the air ships' crew, to throw a disapproving look over Alfred's lack of respect for the elderly gentleman and then continued to scan the available air ships for boarding:
Available Air Balloon Ships leaving for the Capital
The Express Air Balloon – 5 Gold Pieces – The Capital's Official Air Transport
The Hydrogen Bomb – 3 Copper Pieces + 1 Silver Piece – We won't ask if you don't!
The Shilling – 2 Copper pieces – The luxury way to the Capital's heart
The Fire-Cracker – 6 Copper pieces– Merchant Shop, offers passage to those with coin
Kiku sighed and considered their options, 'The Shilling' was out of the question because it was quite obviously a scam, what kind of idiot would fall for it?
Alfred noticed Kiku sigh and walked to stand shoulder to shoulder with him and casually used Kiku's shoulder as an armrest and smirked "Hey Kiku 'The Shilling' is dirt cheap! We should go for that one!". Kiku shrugged off Alfred's arm as he disliked casual physical contact and looked Alfred in the eye.
"Alfred 'The Shilling' is clearly a scam. I believe that a safer option would be to go with 'The Fire cracker', it's the most reasonable compared to the others" said Kiku turning his eyes away from Alfred's eyes and down to the wooden docks below where the three gigantic and four moderately sized air ships floated anchored by multiple ropes. If Kiku looked closely he was sure he could see one of the ships flying a jolly roger, possibly a pirate ship!. Alongside the pirate ship was smaller in size vessel with its air balloon a similar shape to that of a Zeppelin, the helm shape had the same structure to its pirate neighbour and on its miniature dock bore stacks upon stacks of crates stood ready to be boarded.
Without giving Alfred time to react Kiku marched across the circular cobblestone court yard to the wooden ticket booth next to the entrance of the stairs that had been built into the side of the cliff and led down to the suspended dock. Alfred grinning jogged alongside him already pulling the correct amount of money from his wallet.
"Two single rides for 'The Fire cracker'" said Alfred dramatically slapping the coins on the counter of the booth, causing the owner to jump up startled. The slightly over weight man grunted in reply, leaned back on his creaky chair nearly toppling to reach for the papers and scribbled down the information.
"What can you tell us of this merchant ship?" Kiku asked leaning down to retrieve the tickets, "Is it trustworthy? What is the captain like?".
"The captain? Chinese man, hair is like little girl, a jack of trades in all trades. You want something he can get it, he's quite the regular here" the man replied scratching his stubble thoughtfully. Kiku look satisfied, nodded his thanks and he and Alfred started down the staircase down the side of the cliff to the air ship docks.
"You know Kiku, I have a good feeling about this ship, maybe he'll cook for us! I crave Chinese food, course nothing beats a hamburger" said Alfred gleefully as he took the stairs down three at a time, they were close enough now that they could make out a few of the crowd's faces that mainly consisted of mainly men, probably looking for work to support their families. The Empires taxing was sky rocketing and left hundreds of its people in poverty and desperately seeking work to be allowed to be at least allowed to live in the Capital, whose couldn't pay were forced to flee for their lives. Sea gulls soared through the clear skies and the yells of crews preparing the ships for flight could be heard over the general chatter of fellow boarding passengers.
The duo reached the bottom of the stairs and pushed their way through the crowd to the air balloon with a dragon figure head at its bower head, the number of crates had decreased slightly and they could see a petite man with a long ponytail struggling to carry a large crate.
"Yo!" Alfred called out with a grin, "Are you the captain of The Fire cracker?". The small man put the crate down and flexed his shoulders as he turned to answer his newcomers.
"Correct-aru, I am Wang Yao owner of 'The Dragon's Trade' and this vessel, the Fire Cracker. I assume you seek passage-aru?" Answered Wang looking his customers up and down. The taller of the two was blonde and had bright blue eyes behind his glasses, he wore a white quarter length shirt and a brown waistcoat with darker brown trousers. His partner who was paler with dark hair and matching eyes, wore similar dress apart from the grey jacket and rucksack over his shoulder. Wang despite himself liked the look of the two, in the past he had shipped worse including a pretty boy Frenchman who couldn't keep himself to himself, these two wouldn't be a problem.
"Yes, if you would have us Wang-san" Kiku answered bowing slightly and reached behind Alfred's head to bow his head as well in a sign of respect.
"Then if you wouldn't mind helping me pack the rest of these crates of stock-aru, welcome aboard my fire cracker" Wang smiled swiping his arm in the direction of his vessel.