Thanks to @armoury for the beta!

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I walked side by side with Morrigan through the city, the previously dim light of the late afternoon having transitioned deep into the evening. Lamps lined the roadways, casting a sickly, unnatural yellow light on the roads. The moon and stars, normally a bright comfort on nights such as this, were completely hidden by the smoke of the factories running even into the night. Even if the smoke had not been present, I had heard that all the lights in well-lit cities made it impossible to see the stars anyway. And around here ‘well-lit’ probably did not cover it; outside the alleys, of which there were very few in this part of town, the city was damn bright. Enough that as I walked with Morrigan at my side I had little fear of tripping or getting lost, not that I expected her to allow such a thing in any case.

Morrigan and I had been walking in near silence for at least half an hour. Occasionally one of us would attempt conversation, but we would quickly and inevitably return to silent walking. I had stayed, briefly, at the room Crawford had rented before saying goodbye to the man and splitting from his company. A kind enough man, though for someone that claimed to be passionate about these animals, he seemed to have very little care for how they were treated. It was from there I met Morrigan once more, the woman gracing me with little more than a smile and a greeting before she asked me to walk with her through the city. She had decided to walk to her carriage instead of simply driving it into the city, but that did not bother me. After the hours of carriage and train rides, the excuse to use my legs was a hidden blessing.

The businesses, of which hardly any seemed to have closed, kept the streets well-illuminated as well. Orange and yellows cast by their lights making the pavement easy to walk on. The farther we went from where I was staying the more prominent they were, and what they were changed as well. At the start they were law firms and other… places, I didn’t know what they were for, really. Now as I walked more and more places of entertainment began to pop up, gambling dens, pubs, brothels and the like. The shift surprised me; while the city was filthy, I didn’t expect such places to be so prominent and in the center of it. Laughs, cheers and jeers filled the air as we walked, and I found myself walking slightly closer to Morrigan than I would otherwise. Though the woman herself hardly seemed to care or pay any of it much attention, despite how many… louts were wandering about.

I’d touched the drink myself, at least when it was practical to afford it. But the men in these parts seem to have made it some form of national sport if the stumbling is anything to go by.

“Where in god’s green earth are we goin’?” I asked, turning my head to Morrigan as I spoke.

“Eyes ahead Arthur, were you not so transfixed by the pubs you would see that we are nearly at our destination.” Morrigan replied, idly raising a hand in the process to gesture forward.

I followed the gesture with my eyes and nearly stumbled as I took in the scale of the building ahead of us. The street we were walking on widened considerably, transitioning to a giant open space with a singular building at the center. It was like a big farm field ready for crops, flat and wide, but this one had a building that took up the vast majority of its space. It was at least four stories tall you guessed, and made of bare stone, little in the way of windows to decorate the walls. But what it lost in relative plainness compared to the surrounding area of London it more than made up in sheer size. Easily larger than my fields back home, my head panned left to right to look over the sheer size of the thing before I truly recognized what it was for.

Lanterns were placed along the top of the structure, gas-fueled like most in the city, they flickered in and out every few seconds, going in a twinkling pattern around the building itself like a star travelling across the night sky. Along the roof itself, which I could not see from where I was, were men. Some holding flags, others holding lanterns that they were waving up into the air. As I watched a roar filled the air, and my head snapped up to watch as a Wyvern came down gently towards the building, wings flapping wildly and the carriage rocking behind it before it came to a walking stop along the roof itself. It was either perfectly flat up there, or there was more to it than met the eye. But I watched in fascination as men quickly moved to guide the beast forward and out of sight towards the center of the structure.

“My…”

“Oh, do pick up your jaw Scot. It’s a rather bad look for you.”

I heard her, but I wasn’t paying attention to her either. Without realizing it I stepped forward and passed her, outpacing Morrigan as I walked through the large open archway that made up the entrance of the structure. Carriages sat parked to either side of me, some loading, some offloading, and I paid attention to precisely none of them as I walked through the wide tunnel and into the center of the structure.

It opened up as soon as I was through it, revealing a large oval-shaped field surrounded by stone terraces. They went up in tiers, and the closest thing I could compare it to was a valley, a large, narrow but tall valley. Wyverns came down in ones and twos, landing on the terraces, men with lanterns guiding the way as the carriages came to a bumpy stop. A fence was directly in front of me, blocking further into the… stadium I supposed. The reason for its existence was revealed a moment later as a Wyvern came running alongside it, carriage wheels rolling loudly against stone before with a single mighty flap of its wings it lifted itself up and over the wall of the stadium itself, the balloon mounted to the top of the carriage allowing it to stay relatively level as the beast took flight and disappeared out of sight.

“So have you found a part of London you like then?” Morrigan’s voice spoke up from behind me.

“Aye... “ I replied simply. “This… is quite impressive, if a little terrifying to be perfectly honest with ye.” I then turned back to see Morrigan gracing me with a slight smile, her face and hair lit by the lanterns of the tunnel to make her already red complexion even more pronounced. “Why are ye doin’ this? Not that ah’m not grateful for the help, far from it lass. But ah don’t know ye from Eve.”

Morrigan brushed past me, then turned to the right and started to make her way along the fence. “To make a mockery of Wellbrook, as I stated. Do I need another?”

I started walking again, taking pace behind her. “A fine reason to be sure, but certainly there must be simpler ways to do that than recruit a farmer who has never so much as left the ground before.”

“Never?” Morrigan asked.

“Aye.” I replied just as quickly

“Then are you nervous to ride the carriages?” She asked, taking another turn to the left and making her way towards a row of them. Men stand in front of them, all holding small signs with names written on them.

“Aye,” I said again. “Seems rather dangerous.”

Morrigan tilted her head, pondering what I said for a moment before she shrugged her shoulders. “You do not have to, though that would put a damper on your plans.”

I shook my head, a smile coming onto my face at the challenge. “Aye, ah’m nervous. But there is no way in heaven or hell ah am turning down a chance to fly. Ah’d be the first man in my entire shire to do it.”

Morrigan let out a light chuckle, “then let us be off.”

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The interior of the carriage was wider than the horse-drawn contraption you were on earlier in the day. It was… fancy; red plush seats with wide curtains that covered the windows. I sat across from Morrigan, the woman a good six feet away, leaning back on the wide curved bench that was on the front of every part of the interior wall beside the doors to either side of the carriage. Behind her was a small piece of glass that I could see the drive through, and the ceiling was covered in small handles that hung down by ropes, to grasp onto if needed.

I lunged for the nearest one the second the carriage started forward, my fingers curled around the wooden handle as the Wyvern pulling the cart started to walk forward. Morrigan was seemingly unbothered by the sudden jerky movements of the vehicle, and I forced myself to at least somewhat relax and let go of the handl-

Those thoughts were crossing my mind as I noticed Morrigan grabbing one near her. With a shout from outside, I felt the carriage jerk forward, a loud stomping like a herd of angry cows sounding out from outside the carriage as the Wyvern picked up speed. My back slammed into the padded cushion, and I grit my teeth as the carriage and everything within it vibrated wildly.

Morrigan for her part was merely glancing out the window in faint interest.

There was a lurch that made me feel weightless for an instant, then it felt like my stomach was about ready to fall out of my ass. The stomping had stopped, instead, all I heard was the sound of wind and felt an odd feeling of acceleration. I turned my head towards the window.

… Then completely forgot all about the handle.

I pressed my face against the glass, hands on either side of the wooden panelling as I watched the golden twinkling of lights pass behind me. Like a starfield lashed to the ground, the lights of London sparkled and shone like jewels beneath me. The carriage tilted slightly, giving a tilted view of the city, enough that it seemingly stretched into the horizon as far as my eyes could see. Like standing on one of the mountains of my shire, but this was… beautiful in a way wholly different than there. There, the world was just barren silhouettes with faint dots of light, here the whole world was revealed from a new angle that was as beautiful as it was terrifying.

My whole body was screaming at me that this was wrong, that I should be falling, that these sights were impossible. But I could not stop myself from grinning like a damned fool.

“Enjoying yourself?” Morrigan asked.

My smile was my answer. Painted by the lights of the passing city below.