“How, exactly, did you say you could bring us down?” asked Seren, looking at the small town below them. Village? Group of buildings? There was space near the propeller to check, and as long as she kept a firm grip on her hair, she wasn’t too worried. The closer they’d gotten, the more she’d been under-impressed. The two of them were presuming the brown area edged by grey was the landing area, and there were three buildings nearby, but neither of them saw the rest of the town the map held. A little voice in her head asked her if she was sure this was a town when two of the buildings were smaller than her house on the island.

“My thoughts,” said Rive, wrestling with the engine, “were pretty much to point the propeller up and force us to go down.”

Seren looked around the room, trying to figure it all out. The cut of the floor allowed the engine to be connected to the propeller on the outside, but she didn’t see how the blade angles could change. Left, right, and down, sure, basic steering, but if they were opposite of down, that meant edges would cut into the shell part of the ship.

“...how?” she finally asked. “I don’t see any way to do that and not destroy our ship.”

“Your ship.”

“Our ship,” she retorted firmly, “since we’re doing this together and you’re part of my crew.”

“Well, when I was first checking out all the things this beauty can do,” said Rive, putting their hand on the engine, “I noticed something with the propeller blades. I can collapse them into a smaller size.”

Seren looked at the pieces of metal, watching as they slowed.

“My idea was to shut off the engine, take in the blades, and then move it pointing up so we’d be going down. It’ll work for now.” They made a face. “It should work, at any rate.”

A small thought occurred to her.

“Wait. Wait wait wait wait, hold on a second. How are you going to bring the blades in?” She looked back out to where the propeller was and shook her head. Right now, only the engine was inside, and the section with the propeller was outside, and if Rive wanted to do anything with the blades, then they wanted to… No. She had to be missing something, another piece of information. Glancing at them, she noticed their dark cheeks and them not wanting to meet her gaze.

“Engineer Rive!” Seren snapped, narrowing her eyes at them. If they wanted her to act like a captain, then she was going to. “Explain better, if you can, how you were going to shorten the blades without climbing out onto the...” her stern voice trailed off since she didn’t know the words. “The long thingy and dangling over the ground.”

They chuckled at first, started laughing, and finally grasped their side and tried to wipe away the tears that were streaming down their face.

“Sorry, Captain,” they finally said, on their knees at this point and gasping for air. “I can’t... do that. Shortening the blades. I need to... as you put it, dangle.”

She looked back at how far they were above the ground and let out a groan.

“I’m not getting the joke, but… there has to be some way to bring everything inside so you can work on it in here and be safe.”

Rive shook their head, taking big gulps of air even as they laughed.

“Can’t... can’t think of one. Sorry… don’t know why… can’t catch my breath…”

Seren glared at them.

“Then I’m not letting you do that. We’ll go to the next town and hopefully find a place like the ‘Shroom to get a berth at.”

“And if the next place doesn’t have a setup like that?” Rive had finally stopped laughing for the moment and was breathing slightly more normally, looking up at Seren from their place on the floor. “Not every place will have tall buildings for ships. Most will have anchor points, like this one has.”

There had to be something. Climbing the tree was a little different—if one of them fell from that, they were going to hit the landing, or even the lip of the shell they always had to climb over. The propeller though... if Rive inched out onto that and they needed both arms to fix the blades... then the only thing keeping them connected to the Picotree Drop was how hard they could clench their legs.

“Unacceptable.”

“Fine, Captain.” Rive stood up and crossed their arms over their chest. “What’s your plan?”

“... I don’t have one yet.” Seren started off to the tunnel. “But I’m your captain and your friend. I’m not letting you walk out and depend on luck to keep from falling.” She didn’t hear whatever response they muttered, but tried to remember all the items she’d found in the shellship…. no rope. She had none to tie them with, and that was going to have to be fixed the next time they visited a shop. They’d need it even more since they didn’t have a Threader on board.

Her thoughts had caused Seren to wander to the ladder under the trapdoor. She climbed up and poked her head up, looking around the small room. The ribbon from the bookshelf was too small, and if Rive fell, it wouldn’t hold their weight. There were the straps on her backpack, but she didn’t trust her mending to hold four books, let alone a whole person. There were blankets, but those were probably too thick.

“The sheets!” she said, snapping her fingers and exploding into action. When she’d first explored the place, there had been a set of sheets in the cabinets, as well as the set of sheets on the bed. Tossing the blankets to the floor, she stripped the bed and pulled the other set out from its hiding place underneath. Then she dragged them all down to the engine room.

“What are you doing? Those’re going to get all dirty if you keep dragging them on the floor.”

“I don’t care, we can wash them later on.” Seren found one corner and started rooting around for an open end from the other sheet. “You’re going to knot both of these around you, and we’re going to tie them to the engine block. Each of them should be long enough to let you go out there, and if you fall, you’ll at least have some time to react.”

“I promise, I’m not going to fall,” sighed Rive, running a hand over their head. “Is this a captain’s order?”

“Do I need to make it one?” she asked, putting her hands on her hips.

“No, Captain.” Rive held out their hands and tried to smile. It was a weak one at best and did nothing to change Seren’s mind; in fact, it strengthened her resolve. “I’m good. I’ll wear the sheets.”

“I can help you tie them,” she said. “We’ll tie two parts to the engine block, have one wrap around your waist, and another around your arm.”

Rive rolled their eyes.

“That’s going to hurt like hell if the waist one fails and I’m left dangling by my arm.”

“Better in pain than dead, right?”

They didn’t have an answer for that, and to be honest, she wouldn’t have accepted a different answer, not even as a joke. During the next few minutes, Seren and Rive made sure the sheets, which were getting dirtier by the second just by being in the same room as the engine, were well knotted at both ends. When they finished, she stepped back, looking over her work with satisfaction. Rive had the end of a green sheet tied around their dominant arm, the right one, and the blue sheet was tied securely around their waist.

“Can you move?”

“Yes.”

“Are you comfortable? How’s your breathing?” She reached forward and began tugging on the knots.

“Seren!” Rive backed away, brushing aside her hands. “It’s fine.”

She watched as they picked up the tool they’d need and straddled the section immediately after the engine. Inch by inch, they scooted forward, and she could tell when the winds became harsher. Thankfully, it wasn’t her out there, since even with her new haircut there would still be long strands flying into her face. Rive was protected from that by having shaved their head. More worrisome were the pieces of clothing they were wearing, which were looser than what she had on, and meant that the winds were whipping the sleeves and the edges of their shirt.

“Maybe you should have taken off your shirt!” She yelled out to them. Rive didn’t reply. Instead, they kept advancing. She bit her lip as Rive leaned over the propeller blades and began using the screw they’d taken from the engine room. The first blade took about ten minutes to collapse. Then Rive had to push the propeller to the side so the next one popped up.

This one was apparently harder to collapse. She saw Rive work on it, punch it with a fist, and the second time they bent over it, it finally lowered. The next three went smoothly, and she let out a breath she didn't realize she’d been holding; no need to punch or do anything other than change the size. Then it was down to the last blade.

“Come on Rive...” she whispered. “You’ve got this!”

And sure enough, minutes later, the propeller blades were all finally down. Rive began to scoot back, using their tool-less hand to push against the engine under their legs. Bit by bit they were nearing the shellship, and then three things happened at once.

The wind whipped up hard enough that Seren could feel it from where she was inside, and in the same instant, Rive jerked to a stop. They turned to look at her, and as she pulled the hair away from her face, she saw that they were sliding sideways, a little further with each heartbeat.

“RIVE!”

“SEREN!” They continued to slip, leaning more and more over the city they were hovering above. They were still, she noticed, with a small part of her brain, holding onto the tool in their hand. Which made sense with how concerned they’d been about falling tree branches.

“I’ve got you!” she shouted, lunging for the sheets. She grabbed both of them and tucked them under her armpit, then started hauling back as hard as she could, looking at the ceiling with how much she was bent over. The weight at the end went from nothing to heavy. They must have dropped completely… The thought made her sick to her stomach and she wanted to vomit. “Hang... on!”

Seren dug her heels into the floor and didn’t let go of either sheet. They were taut against her chest, and her quickly numbing hands also felt as if they were already sweating.

“Climb!” she shouted. If Rive climbed while she pulled them up, then that would get them back onto the ship quicker. Could they do it while also holding onto that tool? She heaved hard, and with a quick turn, moved so that the sheets were halfway wrapped around her and she was facing away from the frightening sight of the sheets dangling from the side of the shellship.

“I. Knew. This. Would. Happen.” She grunted, all of her muscles straining against Rive’s much heavier weight. “Elements! If. I. Hadn’t. Insisted!”

Seren stopped muttering—it was distracting her from the situation, and not in a good way. She kept her grip strong and made sure she was leaning forward as steady as possible. Her right foot slipped a little against the floor, but she regained her sense of balance and kept pulling. As long as there was weight, that meant Rive was still at the other end, and as long as Rive was at the other end, she had to do everything possible to bring them back on board.

No other option was allowed.

Seconds turned to hours, minutes to years. The weight, which she’d been able to deal with when this had started, felt as if it was getting heavier. Her muscles trembled, her body was soaked in sweat, but she kept her gaze on the far side of the wall and pulled.

There was sound, a slight change of angle, and an instant later Seren shot forward at the lack of a counterweight, slamming her head and shoulder into the wall.

“Rive?” Pressing a hand to her head in hopes that it would quell the drums beating a bit too fiercely. “Rive!”

They were groaning on the floor behind her. She heard that much, at least. Her body began shaking, and she lay slumped to the floor, certain she’d never be able to stand again.

“Elements, Rive!” She wanted to berate them, yell at them, but all the words and emotions inside her jammed together at her throat, clogging it, and all she could do was start crying.

“Captain...”

She shook her head, which made it hurt even more, and continued to sob.

“You... you almost... died, Rive!”

“I.... know.” Their voice was soft. “That... I’m sorry, I never...”

“Please don’t do that again,” whimpered Seren. That was something the stories hadn’t really gone into. Her father had dived into tall tales and heroic stories about groups of heros banding together to defeat an overwhelming evil, and in each story there had been losses, but... the books didn’t prepare her for what it would have felt like. Her life, she realized, hadn’t prepared her either. She’d heard of family members dying, mostly from the letters her dad and father got, but they were only names to her. This... Elements, these conflicting feelings of guilt, worry, love, and loss... and this was only from what might have happened.

A hand rested on her shoulder and she clutched at it, squeezing hard enough she felt bones. Rive grunted, but didn’t complain.

“I can’t lose you,” she said, looking up at them. They opened their mouth and Seren shook her head. “No, listen to me. When it was just me, that was fine. I chose to steal the ship, I chose to run away, I chose all of this! You—”

“I choose to become your engineer,” interrupted Rive.

“I can’t go back to your family and tell them I killed you!” The words at the end of the sentence dissolved into a wail. She couldn’t say anything else, and then Rive was there, bending down to hug her.

“I’ll be more careful,” they promised. “I... I guess it didn’t feel real. Being up so high, being on a ship.”

“I don’t know if I can be a captain.”

“What? Why? You handled this emergency so well, I don’t think anyone else would have done it better.”

She looked up at them, wiping away her tears.

“I’ve never felt like this before. It’s like being back in Viadora when you found me. There’s too much and I can’t handle it and I don’t know—”

“Shh.” Rive’s hug tightened. “I know how you feel. I’ve had to look out for my younger siblings, remember? Trust me when I say that these feelings are at an all-time high right now, and you probably feel that you’re drowning, but it won’t be like that forever.”

Seren sniffed and felt Rive’s fingers push gently on her forehead.

“Ow.”

“You’re going to have a pretty nasty bruise too,” they said. “You hit the wall, didn’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay.” Rive took a deep breath, squeezed once more, then pulled apart. “We need a break. Something to eat, water to drink. When we’ve both settled down enough, we can keep working on landing.”

She nodded.

“I can’t hear you, captain.” Their voice was gentle and teasing. “How does that sound?”

“Sounds,” her voice broke on the word and she had to swallow hard to get the rest out, “sounds good.”