Prologue

  The vast ocean lies silent. Only the smallest of ripples betray the stillness of the deep. For a long time the waters have been waiting, and now it shudders in anticipation. Sunlight strikes the surface, but pierces little. The water rests in blackness in opposition to the Sun's illuminating demands. But rest it will soon no longer. The waves will rise again. The ocean winds - the currents - carry the quiet joy of its denizens across the ruins strewn about. Adorned with chiseled ornaments, moss and numerous cracks the aged stone structures hint at the civilization that built them. Those people erected buildings and statues in honor of the Sun, now they lie silent and wither underneath the surface.

  Inside the dark ocean as ancient as spite a pair of ringed golden eyes look up. Wide and curious they see the silk-like strands of light gleam, shimmer and fade beneath the surface. Whereas the sunlight's gold is clad in radiance, the eyes's gold is but pale and dulled. Perfectly straight and even the light invades the water, but the ripples bend it to their will, so that they dance until nothing is left. This brings joy and excitement to the eyes which observe the dancing lights. They are joined by more eyes. An audience of spectators of which nothing but the gold is seen look motionless towards the sky. The once silent ocean will move again with vigor and voracity, until the waves reach the clouds.

  After an age of calm the stillness is broken. The first pair of eyes moves slowly closer to the lights. The rays illuminate a face to which the eyes belong to - pallid and covered in black marks which make the gold of the ringed irises stand out even more. The face produces a smile to reflect the anticipation of its owner. A bright smile. Wide, innocent and childlike, yet can't veil its intent. For it doesn't hide its desire. It is proudly presented to the Sun's light. And if the Sun had any doubt, it would be drowned by the words spoken by the face peeking out of the endless blackness:

  "The Sky will sink."

  Chapter 1

  The wind is calm, the sun shines bright and warm. It's almost midday and the sun hasn't yet reached its zenith. A few lonely clouds float around, a flock of birds flies not too far away and behind a bigger cloud the outline of an island is still visible. Other than that the sky is clear. The deep blue of the sky reaches out almost until the horizon. A wall of light-gray and dense clouds far away in the distance stands in the way of the sky's true extent. Wherever one would look, their vision ends the same way: a wall of clouds, incredibly high, seemingly impassable, but yet comforting, as if it is keeping threats at bay like a city wall would. That is why the people are calling it "the Frontier". Within its walls they lived in safety from the raging storm outside for as long as their history can remember. Only the bravest - and most reckless - of groups ever dare to pass the Frontier. Mostly it's for research or fishing missions, paid well given the risks involved. Injury and death are not rare, so most people prefer living and working under the calm sky within the Frontier.

  The day is quiet, except the mechanical whirring of an engine. Amidst the vast and open space a small craft is descending. Almost unnoticeable when viewed from a distance, still it moves with purpose. It's a small vessel moving through the air. The rather simple design comes from a lack of resources and the necessity to keep it effective and functional. Yet one can see the dedication the engineer put into this vessel. Parts from scrapped ships were used to piece together the hull and machinations. Even the engine is hand-crafted. Ironically the wood to build the cabin and its content was more expensive to acquire than the metal. The vessel's small frame only allows for one all-purpose room on deck and the engine below.

  A yawn fills the small room. Minot gets up from the bed after his little nap. A small bed, a cabinet and the steering console are the only things that fit into the small space. There is hardly a full step between the bed in the corner and the wall on the other side; two steps at best to the door on the starboard side. The sunlight hardly enters the room's side windows, making it a shaded place during peak sunlight hours.

  He moves outside. The sunlight hits his not yet adjusted eyes, he scrunches his face and moves his gloved hand to block the sun. He places his other hand on the bulwark and looks around. At this altitude only some smaller clouds and medium-sized rocks are floating around.

  "Careful with the rocks, Iv.", Minot shouts towards the cabin, wanting to be louder than the engine. "We're still not past the Gravel-Line."

  The sky does not only harbor clouds and birds, but also rocks and pieces of land of different sizes. The higher the altitude, the bigger some of them get. There are several large land masses drifting across the wide open air with vegetation, wildlife, cities and civilizations. These sky islands make up the habitable space for a lot of different people, all basking in the sun's light.

  "I can see them!", rings a female voice from inside the cabin. "Unlike you I have been well awake and steering this ship."

  Minot, not even turning around, replies: "A hard worker needs his sleeps before he goes to work. Also again, this is a boat, not a ship." Minot swings his head back, tossing his dark-brown hair with it and fixes it with his beige bandanna with dark-blue patterns.

  "Don't call my beautiful ship a boat!", screams the high pitched navigator. With incredible speed, like an angry mother tiger protecting its cubs, a small creature comes flying out of the cabin to give Minot what for. She stops inches away from Minot's face who has turned around to face the storm he has summoned. Iv is a fairy, barely bigger than Minot's forearm, complete with white translucent wings and long ears extending outwards. So long the distance from one tip to the other is longer than her torso. Her skin is pale-purple, while her hair is pink and tied into a messy bun on her right side. Only a small antenna is freely moving in the wind her angry fluttering is creating.

  With an extended arm pointing at him, angry pink eyes and the meanest look a fairy can muster she berates Minot: "It's a beautiful ship! And you will treat her with respect! I won't allow anyone to badmouth my ship!" The fairy's explosive voice manages to drown out the engine's whir.

  Minot defiantly leans slightly forward until his nose touches Iv's index finger, which is still pointing at him and doesn't give in.

  "Of course this is a ship to you. At your scale a bird bath is a freakin' swimming pool." Before Iv could retort a loud bang is heard on the port side of the ship.

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  "Uwaahh!", she yells while rushing back to the console.

  "Told you we were still not past the Gravel-Line", Minot comments teasingly with a smirk. The argument seems to have been cut short abruptly. The two like to get into each other's hair and bicker about the smallest of things. Despite their lighthearted arguments Minot and Iv work well together.

  He turns around again to observe the smooth descent of the ship. Less rocks move up from his perspective, and those that do become smaller and smaller. He never grasped how exactly those rocks float around in the air. Even when Iv tried to explain to him that it was for a similar reason how the ships can fly, all he could put together in his head was: 'It's magic'.

  "I mean, you're not wrong", Iv had replied to his conclusion. "But it is a huuuuuge oversimplification."

  Minot's daydreaming is interrupted as a medium-sized rock passes by and almost hits him in the face. He jumps and steps back, hitting his back against the cabin wall.

  "We're not past the Gravel-Line yet, sailor", Iv informs him with a devilish chuckle. Minot replies by narrowing his eyes and staring at the pilot who definitely did that on purpose. He gathers his composure again, straightens his back in an exaggerated fashion and huffs at Iv's remark, nose up and all.

  A few moments later the inverted rock shower has ended and only a few puffy clouds inhabit this lower region of the sky. They pass by the ship as it makes its way down to its destination: the Night Ocean.

  This seemingly unending sea is as black as the night and silent as it, too. Whereas the sky is bathed in blue and brightened by sunlight, the sea is devoid of color and seemingly refuses to be illuminated. The only thing breaking up the endless blackness are small specks of light created by bioluminescent fish. Because the fish look like stars in the night sky the Night Ocean has gained its name. The ship continues descending for a while. Minot grabs his harpoon and looks down.

  "A little further, Iv. I still can't see the fish", he requests.

  "Then open your eyes", he hears coming from the cabin. He slaps his hand against his forehead and gasps. How did I not think of that, he thinks before looking down again. The sea keeps approaching.

  "Aight, Iv. I can see them." Minot knocks on the cabin wall while grabbing a bag that is lying on the ground. "Anchor the boat. Time to haul some big ones."

  "Don't call it a boat, dammit!", Iv mutters while anchoring the ship, making it stay stationary in the air.

  The long journey down to the Night Ocean has one purpose: fishing. Minot is a fisherman working at Porto Branco, a harbor town in the Empire of Relva Hesfor. Every workday he, Iv and many other fishermen make the one hour long trip down to the Ocean to catch fish and sell them at the harbor. These fish range from the glowing 'Star fins' to the black scaled 'Wolf jaws'. The Ocean is teeming with strange aquatic life. The fishermen don't make the most money out of them, but it is enough to pay for food on the table. And there is always demand. Minot couldn't ask for a better job because this is the best he could have gotten given his circumstances.

  Growing up without parents at Porto Branco all he could do was fighting for scraps and sleeping where it didn't rain. His first job with barely 10 years old was cleaning ships and hauling cargo. He got paid a handful of coins for each ship and half a bread for each crate. At dawn he was scrubbing decks, cleaning hulls and polishing harpoons. He was allowed a short break to eat a dry sandwich with tuna paste before having to haul crates and boxes across the harbor. At dusk when the ships returned he would be carrying sacks and containers full of fish, crustaceans and whatever else the fishermen had caught to the butchers. Accidents and injury were frequent, as were verbal and physical fights with other workers. After another stale sandwich and cup of water he would look for a cozy spot and sleep through the night.

  It wasn't the best work, but it was one that kept him alive. He was one of many parent-less children toiling away at the harbor. Many, like him, came to the harbor because their home islands were swallowed by the storm. The Frontier has been shrinking; more and more islands have vanished behind the wall of clouds. Relva Hesfor expands to a lot of islands, so many refugees end up there. Unfortunately, not all of them could be cared for. So, they were put to work at the harbor where there is always demand.

  Lucky for him he met a kind sailor named Schalk. This sailor was always the first on deck taking stock of the ship's inventory on the 'Wind Chaser', one of the ships Minot had to clean. He would talk and sometimes play with Minot whenever the Wind Chaser was at Porto Branco. Schalk would also give Minot a piece of his breakfast, which became common enough an occurrence that he would pack extra whenever his work brought him to Porto Branco. An excited looking Minot would greet him at the harbor.

  Minot doesn't remember what happened to his parents. What he knows is that he came to the harbor when he was very little and definitely with them. All he has left of his home and parents is a necklace with a stone shard hanging from it. This shard has pretty patterns engraved on them. He has no memory of his home, but whenever he holds his necklace he reminds himself that one day he will find that island and visit it. Maybe along the way he will find his parents and what became of them. All he has to figure out is how to cross the Frontier and survive until he finds the island.

  "I want a full bag today, fishies!", Minot shouts, raising his roped harpoon. It is ash gray and covered in wear and tear, still it stays rigid and sharp. He scans the surface, observing the swimming patterns of his prey, holds his breath, throws.

  The harpoon flies in a straight line, pierces the surface, and a split second later a fish's body.

  "Catch! Reel it in, Iv!" The rope tightens as the mechanism the harpoon is tied to turns and quickly reels the rope in. As the harpoon breaks the surface a fish is seen struggling and wriggling around. It got pierced on its side, pretty much at the center of mass. The fish is covered in black scales, its fins are pale, thin and very flexible, and it has bone-like protrusions on its head and back. They look like pointy fangs bent backwards. Around its white eye are two black rings that transition into the scales. Given the big jaw lined with fang-like teeth this is a Wolf Jaw. These fish look very different and weirder than those in the blue lakes and rivers on the sky islands.

  While it struggles and gets pulled up Minot readies his club. Once the fish has come up he removes it from the harpoon, holds it against the ground and whacks it. One good smack, and the fish moves no more. That is one fish in the sack.

  "Alright, one down. And a good size, too." Minot kept chucking his harpoon and reeling in more strange looking fish. The feelings of surprise and shock towards the creatures have long passed and became part of their daily routine. The sun has passed the zenith and started descending again. Everything was as it usually is, but one thing was bothering Iv.

  "Hey, Minot?"

  "Hm? What?" Minot replies while whacking the last fish for the day.

  "Don't you think the Ocean looks odd today?" Iv is staring down at the Sea perplexed.

  "Other than the pitch-black water, the fish more armed than a soldier and the lack of any islands down there?" Minot answers in a sarcastic tone while finishing up.

  "Shut up and listen." Iv continues staring down with both hands behind her ears, pushing them forward to catch the sound better. That's when Minot noticed. He didn't hear it over the loud engine noise. Now he does. Something that he hasn't heard coming from the Night Ocean before: Waves splashing. It isn't too loud, but noticeable once he focuses on it. Befuddled he gets up and joins Iv by the bulwark. He looks down and in fact, he sees waves. They are small and spread out, but clearly there. The usually still surface is producing waves.