[h2]Alexander[/h2]

After he finished dinner Alexander was faced with the question of what he wanted to do with the rest of the evening. There was always his usual pastime, but it looked like it might storm tonight so that was probably out. He sighed somberly to nobody in particular; storms used to be no issue for him. In fact he used to make sport of going out in them just for the thrill. Those were the nights, he thought, as a memory bubbled up in his mind. 

The airship had been in port for the night, and a good thing for that because the winds were picking up and the thunder was setting in. But while the rest of the port had buckled down and stayed indoors, Alexander and First Mate Marco had donned heavy coats, raced to the edge of the floating island, and leaped over while whistling for their birds. Julie and Edward came soaring in to catch them, and together they swooped through the darkening clouds. The wind howled in their ears as lightning flashed and cracked around them, the rain assaulted their faces and soaked their coats through to their bones, and the sky itself seemed to roar in displeasure at their presence. But the birds danced upon the air and swooped around the electrified bolts before they struck, all the while screaming through the dusk air at unfathomable speeds while their riders laughed and yelled. There was no real danger to them; Stormwings lived up to their namesakes incredibly well and were designed by nature for flying into and through such unfriendly skies. Even lightning, the most destructive force in all the air, was nothing to fear from Julie's back. 

But that was then. Here, on plain, boring earth, storms were a thing to be wary of. There was no Julie to detect and barrel roll away from a lightning bolt long before it lashed out. And climbing up onto the roof with all its metal when there was even a chance of the weather turning south was out of the question, if for no other reason than Kade would yell at him again. That left him in search of something else to do, he reasoned, but as he turned down the hall to go find it he found himself face to face with Katalina... who was being awfully quiet when she greeted him.

"Hi," he said in a response that matched her volume, "What are you up to?"