<div class="floatleft">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/0/02/%22Rat%22.jpeg)</div><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>"Rat" Ratcliff Vander (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cFr8PjgaKR0bQCeBh6ZGlstinqriTVdip7rSA7AS9EY/edit)</strong></span>Dinner with Ophelia held a fine memory for him, trust issues kept her from sharing, perhaps this was something that was a family secret,  a personal embarrassment, or perhaps a familial embarrassment. He hadn't gotten details, information, or even a denial. She had assured him that he was safe with her near. Trust, trust had to be a part of the group dynamic. Could he trust her? The others were easier to trust, though he thought about that. Why? Because he saw her shadow? He knew nothing about them, Ok, trust them, he could do that, they were his team. The only thing missing here, was a beard on everyone of them.<br/><br/>*****     *****      *****     *****      *****     *****      *****     *****      *****     *****      *****     *****<br/><br/>Rat hadn't expected to get a lot, though his efforts for the week had been frustrating. Rediculous stories from sailors, what did he expect though. Then there was the stone-walling he had gotten from the coast base, "You don't have proper clearance for those reports," had been the common consensus, though "What attacks?" had been another grand response. And what tore him up was the human's uppity response about the races of the sea. Merfolk and sea elves bore the stigma of lesser creatures. Even the dwarves knew the importance of talking with and negotiating with your neighbors, gnomes of the foot hills, elves of the forest, halflings that roamed the plains and  their little communities. They had even communicated with a goblin nation against the hobgoblin war troop that had swept the mountain range two centuries ago. "The enemy of my enemy should be squeezed for information." That was how the saying went. Arrogance.<br/><br/>*****     *****      *****     *****      *****     *****      *****     *****      *****     *****      *****     *****<br/><br/>The Airship<br/><br/>Rat reviewed the craft, the wonder of how it stayed aloft, the compression of gasses, the mechanics of flight propellers, the auto-loading firing toys, the components of the device, all taken into his mind. No he didn't understand them, yet, but he was looking. So many ideas, and he was just looking into it, once he was allowed access, he stowed his gear quickly and began listening to Lexara's point by point demonstration of each. Beautiful. He nodded his appreciation to Fargold as he saw and was given the tour of the life raft. Then the anchor ropes released, the stable platform that had been the airship, was now a dangling gondola beneath an air bag. Rat knew terror as he had never known before.<br/><br/>Ophelia had sprang to the mast as he had been tempted to do, yet his legs were slower to respond, stuck to the deck by fear as they were. Seeing her display of fear, he chose to holster his emotions and queasiness for appearances if no other reason. "I will be below." He wanted to say more, but feared a choice would be made for him that would cause someone else to have to wash the deck. He made his way to the lower decks carefully, especially careful of the placing of each step. Only a sheer force of will allowed him to make it down a deck before he snatched up a pail and crawled to his room. Green was not his color, he liked brown, good earthy, solid browns. His little mirror showed, he would be green for a while.