Father-Son Outing

The hull of the airship was about three-quarters of the way done, and you could see inside.

Purple light surrounded the gantry for a few seconds, then suddenly the half-finished hull along with all of our stuff was swallowed into the ground and transported somewhere else.

"Waste not want not and all that." I started disassembling the array with dad. "How exactly did you even manage to make an array portable?" I asked in passing while we picked up each one of its focus points.

"Usually what makes an array immobile is the fact that it hooks directly into the ambient Eneru, this one uses an Eneru battery." Dad crushed the Eneru battery in his hand. "The battery has to be dedicated to the array and will be useless afterward though."

We finished disassembling the array and put its focal points and the spirit paper into a bag.

"Can we really store it like this? The array is fragile you know."

"It's not as fragile as you think. I made the focal points of metal and my last mithitite."

"Either way, we can go now. Follow my lead." I set the remaining buildings on fire and opened my wings.

Dad and I flew under the tree canopy, taking care not to hit any trees.

'This is so hard! Dad must be struggling so much, but I can't look back to check on him without crashing!' I jackknifed left to avoid a tree. 'It's better than being followed though.'

'Don't panic son, but I got some bogies on my tail. Pretend you don't notice them.' Dad somehow established a mind-link mid-flight using his Telespeak.

'Ok, I understand, what's the plan?'

'That's where you come in, I have no idea.'

'Fuck! Put me on the spot why don't you? How are they keeping up with you? How many? And what weapons are they carrying?'

'They have a Windcutter, just two, they each have a war ax.'

'Ok, go as fast as you can without crashing and take a hard left. We're going to play chicken.'

I banked right, using my grapplehook to help with the turn and Changeling Armor to stop me from ripping off my arm, again.

Dad used his Changeling Armor as an airbrake to make the turn easier, but I couldn't see him.

'As for seeing behind me, I think I have a solution for that.' I used my Changeling armor to make a mirror that I could glance at to keep tabs on my pursuer, who was super far behind me because of my maneuver.

'How is it going for you?' I asked through the mind-link.

'My guy just crashed into a tree, I'm back on track.'

'Don't come back to help, we will stay separate until we camp for the night.' I said, then closed the link.

I flew with renewed speed.

'There is no way dad just beat me in a flying competition.'

I flew faster, dodging trees was starting to feel like a game.

'Ingen! You're going fast enough! Stop speeding up!' Spirit pleaded in my mind

THUD!

My pursuer made a pancake out of himself as he failed, but I didn't hear it.

'Slow down! Ingen, you're going too fast!' Spirit's protests fell on deaf mind-ears.

"Faster!" I giggled like a child and pushed my glider to its limits.

My vision started to go black before I regained my senses and slowed down, I grappled to a nearby tree and stood on one of its branches.

'Holy crap, that was the most dangerous thing I've ever done, and I lived.' I was both admonishing myself and applauding my own skill.

'Why you reckless, inconsiderate, risk-taking, asshole! You do realize that you have two beings in your spirit core that would die if you crashed?!'

'Well, uh, I kinda got lost in the moment.'

Spirit facepalmed, well as close to a facepalm you can get without a humanoid form. Spirit manipulated a nearby tree to make a small wooden doll facepalm.

'Try to not get lost in the moment anymore.' Spirit cut off the mind-link with a huff.

I recovered from my lightheadedness and started flying again.

********

Four hours passed before we got to camp. Dad made it to the predetermined meeting point a few minutes after I got there.

"Slowpoke." I stretched out.

"A little birdy told me you went too fast and almost blacked out." Dad said knowingly.

I put on my innocent voice "I don't know what you could possibly mean?" I knew it was pointless to lie, but dad did like his jokes, so I pretended to snap. "Who told you!?" My voice was exaggerated and aggressive.

He gave me a chuckle "Your glasses have a vital tracking feature, I integrated it ever since you got captured by Teo and them. I only wish it worked while they were in hibernation."

"Yeah, maybe you'd stop balding."

"Stop making fun of my hair when you're the reason I have it."

"No, I don't think I will, baldy."

We set up camp and relied on stealth instead of guarding ourselves, there was no way we could fly the next day if we didn't get sleep.

The night went without issue and we took off in the morning.

'Just the fact that we saw some people follow us assures me that the king knows our general location, so it's a good thing we chose such an out-of-the-way location for our new setup. The only issue is now I have a four-day trip ahead of me because I can't just make a beeline to the new location, it's too easy to track.'

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"Are they ready?" Insopr Gluaze addressed his commander.

"No sir, but they will be ready in six months." The commander trembled, praying to not be executed, as his liege was on a mad streak of beheading the messenger. "Glider training takes time, as evidenced by the latest scouting trip."

"Accelerate their training, I'll give you three months."

For fear of upsetting the king, he said "Yes sir! They will be combat-ready by then!"