Ozzy had two goals: Keep a tight hold on his bag and not let go of the rope he was dangling from. Nothing else mattered as he and the inflatable dragon tumbled through the sky, half deaf from the explosion and stunned by the force of it.

He still had a good hold on each, but that was the only bright spot in this predicament. The balloon lost most of its hot air and buoyancy when they'd opened the rear valve and used it like a rocket to move away from the Ice Drake and the tower. Now, it was a limp collection of fabric and rope without much interior pressure. He'd been amazed at how fast they had flown, but the distance hadn't been enough to keep them out of the shockwave as the tower detonated. The balloon had careened through the air, flipping over several times. The gondola had been torn loose, leaving Ozzy hanging precariously by one rope. The one-handed grip didn't bother him; his strength made it easy to hold on. But the ground and sky spun around him as he swung around the balloon, sometimes above and sometimes below, as they tumbled end over end. He didn't know how fast he was falling and hoped the balloon would slow their mutual descent.

A sudden spin by the balloon threw him into a short arc as he orbited around it and then smacked into the soft belly of the dragon as the balloon stopped moving. He started to fall again, but sharp claws grabbed ahold of his shoulders, and the sound of wings let him know Squirmie or Rolly had grabbed him. "Thanks."

Carry Large Prey. It isn't as good as what a silly contract worker gets, but it helps move large bulks like yourself with my delicate wings.>

Squirmie flew the two of them up to the top of the inflatable dragon and set Ozzy between the wings. The Butcher grabbed one of the handholds and took a deep breath while his head and stomach settled. Ben was standing on the dragon's head, holding its two upright horns and controlling its flight. He looked over at Ozzy, "Screw the gondola next time, this is the best way to steer this thing. It took a little bit to figure out and bring the spin under control, but I've got the hang of it now."

Ozzy stared at him. "How?"

Ben laughed. "There are so many ways to answer that question. But, if you are asking about how I'm able to control the dragon this way, I'll remind you that I have bonuses to steer any conveyance I use and increase its speed. That's how Splinter got here in record time. Right now, I'm riding the dragon and steering it."

"Interesting. But I was more astonished you were still alive. That blast did over 10k in health damage to me. I'm almost dead, and you don't look too bad."

"Let's get started on fixing that then. It will go slow; I need to use Triage for mana efficiency. I'm a little low right now." Ben cast a small spell with one hand, and Ozzy saw he was healed for 1240 points. "I'm in better shape than you because I had the wisdom to take a heritage that included Explosion Resistance. Frankly, in our line of work, I think everyone needs it. Every Tier negates half the damage. So, while you took 10k of damage, I got hit for a little over a thousand. Handy to have in my family. We tend to make things go boom."

Looking around for the rest of the crew, the Butcher saw the two dragonflies near the center of the dragon, claws holding onto the balloon and wings buzzing. Ozzy noticed the dragon was gaining altitude slowly. He knew how heavy the dragon was. "How the hell are you lifting...oh shit, really?"

As soon as he said the word, he knew what Rolly was doing.

Rolly's voice came from one of the dragonflies, garbled from using lips the wrong shape. "Yep. I'm lifting it with Haul 5. I don't make the rules; I just break them. I grabbed hold, I lifted, and I'm still lifting. Maybe if we had a Fire Mage who could heat up the air in the balloon, it would be easier and go faster. I'm burning stamina at a fast rate. I'm not efficient at flying yet."

The Butcher took the hint. "I'll get to work on that, but I'm getting low on stamina to convert to heat; I'm not sure if I can get it fully inflated. " He went to his knees and broke off a length of the rope he still held to tie himself and his bag to the handhold. Then, putting both hands on the dragon, he transferred his heat into it. The dragon's skin was fireproof and conducted most of the heat into the balloon; what was left caused the balloon's skin to heat up and glow. "Aren't we missing someone? The old guy with the disastrous plan?"

A voice came from above. "That plan was improvised on the spot yet still almost worked perfectly! If I'd have known to snap my fingers, I'd have won our little improv game." Ozzy looked up to see Damien Franklin floating above them, holding onto the string of a small red balloon. A second later, the balloon popped, and the old man landed on the dragon, not at all worried about holding on. It looked like the explosion hadn't affected him at all. "Those things are so much fun! If only they lasted a little longer. Very good for jumping out of castle windows or from low-flying airships. Never leave home without one. And I must say, I'm happy to see you managed to get aboard. Losing a lab assistant with your muscles and thermodynamic abilities would be a shame. Benjamin tells me we have some interesting work ahead of us. I'll admit that I'm quite anxious to begin warping reality again. I haven't ever had a large experimental project that mixed Hermetic Shielding and Teleportation Theory before. Showing up those lackwits in the Mage's Guild is the icing on the cupcake!"

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Ozzy looked over at Ben, who winked at him. "I explained to Uncle Damien how difficult the Mages Guild had made the rebuilding of the fortress and how they refused to work with us on a new teleportation stone, even going so far as to scoff at our ability to do it without them."

Damien smiled, showing bright white teeth. "I'll gladly accept any chance to rub those idiot's noses in a pile of horse shit." He looked back to where the tower had been and grinned. "Not that we didn't do too badly today, nephew. That's going to throw a spanner in the works, for sure. The feedback from the unprocessed pulse must have shattered the runic formations they were using to control the output of the rift. I kept telling them they needed a better system, but they only cared about building the tower to control the mana and feed it into their precious teleportation system."

He smiled with glee.

"And the idiots were delighted to see the siphon's effect on anyone with a mana pool. We could have fixed that with a little fine-tuning and two tons of refined Silverite, but they insisted on keeping it that way. Vladimir was so pissed when he found out they were turning it into a prison that he went screaming into the council hall. I so wish I'd been there; I'm told he mixed Elvish and Dwarven curses and created an entirely new language. Instead of promoting him to Professor of Experimental Linguistics, they made him the first prisoner. Silly man, letting himself be caught that way."

Ozzy stood up, nearly out of stamina, heat, and smoke, but the dragon was half full and floating on its own for now. Rolly and Squirmie relaxed and took a break. "I notice you were locked up in there too."

Damien looked at him and sneered. "What? Do you think I'd let myself be caught? Never. I snuck in, took over a cell, and turned it into the perfect hideout. That place is one of the most secluded spots in the Empire! No one goes inside, and the free meals are delivered on schedule. A little cramped, but it was worth it to be clear of Harmonia. The woman has a nose like a bloodhound. Has she forgiven me yet, nephew?"

Ben rolled his eyes. "Nope, and she nearly killed me, thinking I was you in disguise."

The old man looked interested. "But you lived, so I need to hear that story someday. Don't hold back on all the juicy details and family gossip. I may be an outcast, but I'm still a Franklin."

Ozzy was astounded at the idea of willingly living in that tower. "Seriously? There wasn't a better place to hide than a prison cell?"

Ben backed up his Uncle's story. "It's true, Ozzy. His door was locked from the inside and could have held off an army. And he had a complete laboratory in there, comfortable furniture, and a library of interesting picture books."

Damien's mustache drooped. "I'll miss those. Those magazines kept me company through many a lonely year of exile. But the thought of being alone in the tower while Vladimir was out having fun was too much, and I raced out the door without so much as one glossy, signed centerfold of the dragonette of the month." He shook his head sadly.

Their conversation was interrupted as the winds around them increased, bringing a flurry of snowflakes that melted when they touched the balloon. The winds condensed first to a small cyclone and then a woman dressed in the finery of a Captain.

Damien watched the transformation with delight. "Fascinating! Where did she come from? Did the explosion cause a breach between the Conjunction and the elemental planes? Ben, we have to do that again, only bigger!"

Maria ignored the comment and turned to Ozzy. "Finally, I've searched across half the sky for you. We need to get you aboard Splinter and get the hell out of here. Something very bad is happening, and I don't want to be here to find out what. I'll go high and signal the ship; just keep this damned thing floating." She flew back into the sky, transforming as she went.

Damien was horribly disappointed at the thought of not staying. "The bad things are the most interesting!"

Ben consoled him. "Trust me, Uncle, where you're heading, there is no end of interesting things."