The quickest to recover, Gus, stood from his chair and made his way to the door. Kaela, realization finally dawning on her, could guess who was at the door. As Gus greeted the person at the door, her guess turned out to be correct.

"Have you seen Kaela today?" It was her father. Of course it was her father. She wished she could just melt into the cushion on which she sat.

Gus looked puzzled, but nodded. "I have, she-" he would have continued, but was instead interrupted.

"Really? Do you know what she did today?" Not waiting for a response, he continued, "She knocked someone out today during her sparring practice. You would think that she could ignore all the taunts by now!"

"No matter how often you hear something, it doesn't hurt any less than the first time," Gus replied sagely.

You could practically hear her father shaking his head angrily. "In a real fight, losing your head can get you killed. She has the most potential out of all the swordsmen I've trained, but for this one flaw. Perhaps my wife is right, I shouldn't be training a woman to be a soldier."

There was a sudden screech as Kaela stood from her chair, nearly shaking with anger. Roy looked at her in surprise. Her chair was as bulky as his, and not something that was typically moved by someone suddenly standing. Tracking Kaela with his eyes, Roy watched her make her way over to the open door.

"Kaela! What do you think you're doing? I know you have the skill to not injure your opponent during a sparring match." This didn't seem to improve Kaela's mood any, as she averted her gaze still.

"You shouldn't have trained a woman." She shook her head as if in disbelief. "You aren't any better than those boys. I thought you, as my father, would see my strength over my gender."

"We are not starting this right now. I know your strength, Kaela, but it can't be denied that you are far too emotional to be a good swordswoman! I'm not saying your gender," he was cut off as Kaela scoffed.

"That's what you just said, Waylon! You said you shouldn't train a woman!" She threw her arms out, as if trying to force his acceptance. "What exactly is it about me that is any lesser than those fools who scarcely know the hilt from the blade of a sword?"

Roy, trying to seem unobtrusive, peered around the open door. Granted, he was interested in the argument, but he was more curious about what Kaela's father looked like. With her strength of spirit, he figured the one that raised her would be an impressive figure. He wasn't disappointed.

Her father reminded Roy of his airship captain. Broad in the shoulders, muscular, in all someone that looked accustomed to hard work on a daily basis. It was apparent that he had years of hard work under his belt too, by the dusting of grey in his vibrant red hair, something Kaela had inherited from him. A sword on his hip and a simple vest of animal skin over a white shirt. A no-nonsense type of person, from Roy's experience. He supposed Kaela had inherited some of that personality as well.

"Did I ever say your skill was lesser? No," he spoke over her potential interruption, "Quite the opposite I would say. I said your skill was above any that I've ever trained. Now your temper on the other hand, could use some improvement. I don't know if that's connected to your gender or to how you were raised, but it's an unacceptable quality for anyone carrying a sword. When you draw your sword you should be calm, not this sputtering angry child that I see before me now."

Kaela seemed at a loss for words. Perhaps she had jumped to her own conclusions, her pride already hurt from earlier that day. Seeing that she had settled enough with-or at least didn't have a response to-his words, her father now turned to Gus.

"Thank you for keeping an eye on Kaela. I apologize for having a fight in front of your home."

Gus, ever the diplomat, shook his head. "Not at all, Waylon. I have so missed the energy of your family around my home." No one present could tell if he was being serious or sarcastic, but Kaela's father, Waylon, as Roy had learned his name was, nodded his head.

"Then if you will excuse us." He turned to leave, grabbing Kaela by her wrist to drag her along. Before he could take a step though, his eyes landed on Roy, half hidden in the shadows of the room.

Seeing the gaze, Gus nodded. "I seem to have forgotten to introduce you, with all that was going on. Waylon, this is Roy. Earlier today it seems that Kaela rescued him from drowning in the ocean." He seemed to hesitate before his next sentence. "Perhaps it was fate the sparring ended that way, otherwise I'm sure Roy would not have been saved."

Waylon looked down at his daughter, and because of this they all missed Roy rolling his eyes. The expression on Waylon's face wavered between pride, anger, and disappointment. Ultimately, it seemed to settle on pride with a soft undertone of anger.

"It seems that the fates may have strung this together, but for now it's time you come home." Waylon turned his gaze on Roy now. "As for you... Gus, would you mind letting him stay here tonight?"

The elderly man nodded. "I had intended to ask you to begin with."

"Good. Now then, Roy, was it?" At the nod he received, Waylon went on. "I will let you stay the night for now, but if you cause any trouble you'll be answering to me." Whether a conscious movement or not, his hand went to the hilt of his sword, the threat clear. Seeing his business being concluded, Waylon grabbed Kaela by the shoulder and led her toward their home.

Softly shutting the door, Gus now turned to Roy. The younger stood, unsure what to do. "Well, it seems like you've had quite the day so far, so why don't I show you to your room? We can discuss more in the morning if you would like."

Roy raised his hand hesitantly, before scratching the back of his neck. Gus smiled at him, nodding kindly for the boy to continue. Roy made his signs, and the smile on Gus's face only widened.

"I think dinner can be arranged. Do you know how to cook?" A sheepish smile and the shake of Roy's head answered. "Well there is no time like the present to start learning. Care to help me fix something?" A nod from the boy had him following the man to the kitchen.

A few close calls with a knife, and a closer call with catching on fire, later, the two sat at a simple table set in the corner of the kitchen. It was a quiet meal, as Roy's hands were otherwise occupied, as was the mouth of Gus. Despite the struggle with cooking Roy had, the meal turned out well.

After the meal was done, and goodnights had been exchanged, Roy found himself staring at the wooden beams above him. He tried to collect his scattered thoughts as to what was going on. For so long, he had flown over the ground on which he now sat, and couldn't find himself easily coming to terms with it.

He wondered how he had never seen the land below. More than anyone else, he was out in the whipping winds, yet it seemed like a cloud was constantly beneath them. The common assumption was that clouds were the only thing beneath them, and if you fell that was what you would do so until the end of your life.

Now he had to wonder if the stories that the occasional ship-hopper would tell were true. Tales of life that stretched as far as the clouds beneath them, and that there was endless bounties of food. Being here now, he found that both of these were true so far, the meal he had with Gus was as large as all four from an average work day.

With these facts proving true, he wondered how many of the others were true. Giant horned beasts, creatures that could breath under water, and people able to create electricity and heat from almost nothing.

Somewhere in the middle of Roy's ponderings, he drifted into a state of semi-conscious wonder that gradually became his unconscious dreams.

*****

Kaela had never before thanked Gus as much as she did the gods for what he had done. The walk home was quiet, but she could tell her father wasn't nearly as angry as he would have been. She considered the possibility of only getting a week of house arrest, instead of the usual three.

In her thoughts as she was, she didn't realize they were home until they walked up to the front door. Removing her boots in the entryway, she drifted into the kitchen, where she could smell a stew and fresh bread.

"Ah, you're both home!" A chipper voice greeted the two as they came into view. Smiling happily, she gave both Waylon and Kaela a big hug before gesturing to the table. "Let's sit down and eat. We can eat, think, and then discuss whatever needs to be."

Her mother was ever the diplomat, Kaela thought wryly. She supposed it worked in her favor as well though, since her father was always in a better mood after a meal. Following tradition, the dinner table was silent. It was her mother's influence more than anything, since she believed that you should do everything in its time. The food was hot, so now was the time for eating.

It wasn't long until the meal was finished, and as Kaela's mother cleared the table, her father looked at her with a measured look.

"I am aware that I may not have been completely fair to you when we were at Gus's house." Kaela stayed silent, knowing this was not all her father wanted to say. "You have the most potential of all the swordsmen I've trained, and with your latent talents I have always expected a lot from you. You know this.

"This does not, however, excuse your loss of temper during training. I warned you when you were young, and we both know that a swordswoman will deal with a lot of bigotry. The constant taunts you receive from those boys would bother anyone, and I understand your feelings, but not how you dealt with them."

Kaela, much calmer being talked to instead of talked about, nodded her head. She gathered her thoughts before she spoke. "I will admit the way I acted was a bit childish. It wasn't like I had lost my temper completely, because I have gotten more used to them, but it was something about the way he acted after his defeat in the match. Audry will accept defeat with a fatalistic attitude with anyone else, but when it comes to me..."

"It is always hard not to be noticed for your achievements."

"I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions earlier this evening. I was still riled up after this afternoon. Audry probably deserves an apology, all things considered." Kaela looked at her father and smiled slightly. "If I am able to go out tomorrow."

Waylon sighed and scratched his beard. "I don't see why you couldn't apologize tomorrow. You didn't lose your temper completely, otherwise he may well not be with us, and beyond that you were able to save that boy. This time, I won't ground you, but I will be taking away your allowance for a month."

Her smile widened a little bit. "You're rather lenient, but I promise I'll learn from this."

"Now then, speaking of that boy, what exactly happened this afternoon?" Her father slipped from his understanding caretaker role into his village head role.

She nodded in understanding, used to his business-like attitude. As the person who was the best swordsman, he was also by default the commander and chief for the smaller village. An old, but effective, tradition for the village.

Listening without interruption as Kaela recounted the day's events, he couldn't help but wonder at the newcomer himself.

"Waylon, you won't believe the story he told at Gus's place." Her voice held a tone of wonder now as she spoke, blue eyes clearly shining with wonder. "He says he is from above the clouds, a giant flying ship. Can you even imagine something like that?"

He closed his eyes in thought before shaking his head. "It's rather unbelievable, flying people. Are you sure he isn't making things up?"

Kaela looked even more excited as she shook her head. "Gus has books on the matter, a diagram even on what the ship would look like. I wonder what it would be like above the clouds, don't you?"

"Perhaps I should go talk with the two tomorrow." Standing from the table, he started to walk from the dining area. "If you want, you can come along."

After some contemplation on the subject, she decided that she did want to go. As she stood from the table herself, her father appeared with a final question.

"Did he mention his god?"

Thinking back, Kaela shook her head. "I don't believe he did."

"Strange, that's usually something people mention when they meet someone."

After that, Kaela entered her room. Finding herself exhausted from the day's events, she fell asleep almost as soon as she crawled into her bed.

/\

Alright, so here's this chapter! I hope you enjoy it! If you are just reading this story, you may not know, but I have decided to bounce between this one and another I am currently writing. The idea is to update a chapter every month, but it will be two months before I update this, you follow? Though, the moment I finish a chapter for one I'll switch to the other story, so ideally they'll happen sooner than that but... You know how it is.

RQ: What is your long standing favorite character, from any media, and why?

Now then, I have to study for two tests now, so I'll see you guys later, but before that, I have to say thank you SO MUCH to @OfCloves for helping with  editing! She is the legit coolest person I have ever chatted with, so go read all her stories!

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, and if you did maybe hit that like button? If you're feeling really into it, you could even drop a comment. I cherish those so much I've thought of putting them in a scrapbook... in a not completely insane way...

-Nicky~