For a second everyone was very calm. They all looked around at each other and the air carriage in absolute silence. Zlatica lying on the brass and wood floor of the air carriage, the conductor braced against one of the walls of unshattered crystal windows, Soleil kneeling, covered in blood, and the unfortunately dressed young lady cowering behind a row of seats. They all looked at each other and then as one turned to look back at Titania.

  And then pandemonium broke out.

  The as-yet unintroduced young lady in the terrible dress, was hollering at the conductor to make the air carriage go faster. Since it was a miracle it was still on the chain holding it up in the air he appeared to be ignoring her. She was growing redder and redder as this continued, it clashed with the colours in her dress most terribly.

  Titania's chest was heaving and she looked around her like a caught animal. "Well, what do we do?" Her perfectly kept appearance had shattered, her hat had fallen off somewhere and there were scrapes and tears along the front of her coat and the under arms.

  Zlatica looked even wilder, her blonde hair had fallen from its bun at the nape of her neck and was lying in loose curls on her shoulders. Her hat was painfully askew, held on only by spite and one determined hat pin. "We need to combine our resources, what are your skills, what are your classes?" She looked around the group.

  "Blademage," Soleil said. It was one of the more basic classes, but endlessly adaptable. It merged well with the sword fighting skills she had picked up from her aunt, and the thievery ones from her brother. She had hoped to learn more to support the magical side of her class at school. "But I'm more blade than mage."

  Zlatica gave her a look that said, "How utterly unsurprising," and she turned to Titania.

  Her friend was still heaving breaths, she looked more like she was going to pass out than answer. Soleil gripped her hand and took a deep breath, trying to frame herself so that Titania could mimic her. It didn't seem to entirely work, but Titania found the control to answer, "Arcanist, but I don't have any useful spells for this." She seemed close to tears, "I am an enchanter. Not a war mage!"

  "Any spell can be useful, you just need to figure out how," Zlatica raised her still blood soaked palms, "This one was a spell we used in the lab to keep the air clean when experimenting. I just aimed it using the creature's blood"

  She looked at the conductor, her eyes blatantly skating over the loud girl and not entertaining the idea that she might be useful.

  "Standard Fighter ma'am, it's not generally considered necessary for someone with magic to work on the air carriages," he looked over at a box on the side of the air carriage. "I need to set off the flares, the school needs to know we were attacked."

  "Alright, and how do we do that?" Soleil, said, getting to her feet. A mission, even if it was someone else's made her feel less useless.

  He seemed surprised, but acknowledged her with a nod. "The flares are in that box there, my key will open the box. And I can set them off from inside, I just need a few moments to do so." His face dropped, looking out at the fog. "And now there is no more time to waste." He scrambled towards the box.

  "I guess the only thing I can do is hope you know what you are doing then," she muttered, twisting on her feet so that she faced the threat.

  Like Titania had said, this creature was a far cry from the more lizard-y one that had been attacking them earlier. Dark fur covered a cat like body and head, but the legs were strange and too long for a feline shape, while the bat like wings stretching out the back were, of course, completely alien from any cat Soleil had had the pleasure of meeting before. It was long and skinny in proportions, looking halfway between starved and stretched. Even with most of her powers bound, there was something about it that set Soleil's teeth on edge. It wasn't a creature wrought by nature. Something else had had a hand in this.

  It also appeared to have learned from the previous fight. It wasn't landing on the air carriage itself, instead, sweeping past it and peering in through the broken glass at the passengers trapped inside. The broken glass in some spots and open air in others gave the green-eyed glare an off-putting kaleidoscope effect, as it flew past an ear or a tuft of hair, or a claw, would come into focus before shrinking out of sight again.

  Soleil wondered if it knew what it was doing, if it knew that it was making it harder for them to gauge its weaknesses. Or if this was just the circling of prey that creatures as wide as sharks to falcons might do.

  She sank a little onto her feet, bracing in case of an attack. Slowly she started to move, keeping pace with the creature, locking her eyes onto it, trying to spot any detail that might show a weakness. Anything, an under protected flank, a limb that moved a hair more slowly, a missing tooth or claw that might give her a chance to get past.

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  She breathed deep, stretching her senses. She couldn't make out much more than the smell of blood, while her ears were full of the sound of whistling wind, the grinding of the engine that moved them along, and a faint crying from somewhere in the air carriage. She ignored it all, walking the perimeter of the air carriage, eyes sticking to the creature as it flew around them.

  It was a large and sinuous creature. Strong enough to keep it's head up as it flew around them in varying circles. It flexed its claws and seemed to be itching for the chance to sink them into something soft and vulnerable. For a second moment in this fight, Soleil felt the still and quiet of battle calm taking over her and she knew it was the same for her foe. It wasn't resting, it was waiting for the perfect moment.

  All of a sudden, the conductor let out out a triumphant shout and the flare roared out of the side of the air carriage, red streaks painted the mist and the light burned bright.

  Soleil winced at the noise and glare of light, her concentration knocked loose. As if that was what it had been waiting for, the creature leapt through the air, launching itself at the side of the air carriage. This time it wasn't just a striking blow, however, this time the creature was intent on destruction.

  The glass and metal of the wall itself seemed to scream as more and more of it was pushed out of place. Grabbing onto the wall beside her, Soleil could only watch with horror as the side of the air carriage crumpled, just beside where the flare station was. In one moment the conductor was there. The next there was just a hole in the side of the air carriage.

  Her stomach dropped to her knees. She felt sick. Her mouth fell open.

  The creature let out a yowl, this time it seemed to be in victory. It pushed up against the side of the air carriage, and started moving around towards the break in the wall. It was going to try and get in! Fear shook her. She felt sick.

  But she didn't allow it to be a distraction, instead she pushed through the fear and the flinch, using it to strengthen her legs as she ran up to one of the chairs that remained standing on that side of the air carriage and used it as a spring board to jump up at reach the ceiling. Hooking an arm through the broken window there, she braced her feet against the wall and plunged her sword through. Reaching as far as possible, pushing until she felt the small crumbs of cracked glass still in the window frame digging into her armpit, she lunged with her sword. The creature hissed, Soleil felt the blade connect and sink deep into the flesh of its paw. But rather than escaping, the creature grabbed onto it, holding it tight and wrenching it.

  Gritting her teeth, Soleil refused to let go. It was a gift from her aunt, and more importantly there was no way that the small dagger hidden up her sleeve would have any effect on a creature this size. She needed the sword. She could not lose it, whether to the creature or more likely, to the depths of the chasm below.

  She held on grimly, gritting her teeth and twisting and pulling as the creature fought back. The metal of the air carriage’s windowpane dug in to her in a hundred painful spots, and she was sure that it was even starting to warp and bend around her.

  The creature paused for a second, it looked at Soleil and intelligence shone in its dark eyes. Whatever it was, it had brains enough to work out she was also not what she appeared.

  With the creature slowing it's struggle, Soleil was able to adjust her grip on her sword and change the passage of its blade. Now it came back, almost too easily. Rather than being stuck in the paw of the creature or falling out into the chasm, her arm shot back into the air carriage and the sword nearly flew out of her hand.

  Aching and exhausted, and with one less arm to hold her up, Soleil wobbled and fell from the wall. She landed hard on the seat she had jumped from, something cracked beneath her. Assuming it wasn't her, she struggled out of the mess of wood and fabric and struggled to her feet.

  The creature flapped away from the air carriage and started circling them again. Needing a moment to breathe, Soleil hobbled over to Zlatica and Titania. "That bloody enough?" She asked smearing some gore on the floor from her sword.

  "Perfect," Zlatica said viciously, ripping off her gloves which were still soaked in the previous creature's blood, she started to paint on the floor with the blood. Some runes were recognisable to Soleil, enough to know that this wasn't going to be a blast of air this time, she was playing with fire.

  "It's coming back!" Titania called. Her hands were shaking and there was a ghastly, deathlike undertone to her previously warm brown cheeks.

  "Good," came the surprising reply from Zlatica.

  Soleil turned in surprise, but before she could say anything fire leapt from the other girl's hands. It seemed to grow and grow as it flew, only the size of a coin or a button when it started, by the time it reached Soleil it was the size of a dinner plate, twice that when it ripped through the hole in the side of the air carriage, melting the edges, and when it hit the creature flying towards them it was easily half the size of the air carriage itself.

  The creature screamed angrily, batting at the flames, but as strong as it was it couldn't fight against fire, so it turned and raced away through the sky, the fire chasing it's tail like a hunting dog.

  Soleil and the others whooped in victory, but any joy was short lived.

  The air carriage shook, she stumbled, sliding on the bloodied metal floor. There was a moment of terror, and then the world went grey around her and she could hear Titania screaming her name.

  But she was outside of her reach, outside of the air carriage now, and falling towards the ground, wherever it might be under all of the mist.

  Cold, the air was cold and it felt like a slap as she fell. Her hat spun off somewhere into the mist, lost forever. Her skirts and petticoats flapped in the wind, there was little chance of them catching enough to hold her up. The best she could hope for was a soft landing.

  Soleil covered her face with her arms, curled up as much as she could and hoped, hoped so hard that it was almost like praying, that everything she had been told was true, and also that her aunt had lied.

  Gravity cannot kill a god, but you can hurt enough to wish it had.

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