The Zeppelin flew from Quartzton City on the northwestern shore of the country of Warfort at 6 o’clock in the morning.

Ning, Jasmine, and Tim made it in time and managed to catch the flight.

There was a choice between the Zeppelin and a ship, and Ning decided to take the Zeppelin. It was much faster than a ship, and with the winds blowing northward each day, it was also more favorable.

Not to mention, the sea was roiling with pirates who sought nothing more than to steal and pillage every ship that came their way.

Ning didn’t want to bother with that.

He had a task to catch a ship in the Cogonian archipelago, and he was going to do just that.

“I’ve never flown in the air before,” Tim said. “This looks scary.”

He looked down the glass windows on the side of the zeppelin.

While most of the zeppelin was filled with nothing but just hydrogen gas to keep it afloat, a small portion of it was kept separate from the entire thing, allowing people to stay in it.

The square area was separated into 3 locations. On the left side was the dining area with windows along the entire wall for people to view.

The middle sections were cabins for people to rest in. There was no viewing area here and people scared to see the sky could stay here.

The right side was a lounge area along with another viewing area with glass windows all along the right side.

Ning, Jasmine, and Tim were in the lounge area, with Tim timidly staring down the window. The sky was open with sparse clouds, so he could see all the way down at the dark oceans that seemed so very still from up here.

He saw specks down at the sea, some of which were tiny islands, while some were ships on their voyage, leaving a tiny trail of white fizz behind as they moved forward.

“Somewhere to the north here, the Anaeric Ocean meets the Palanic Ocean,” Tim said. “I have heard that you can see the meeting point of the two sections with the dark blue and dark green water meeting. I wonder if that is true.”

“We’ll have to see if we do end up going there someday,” Ning said.

Tim turned around from the window. “Right, I’ve been meaning to ask,” he said. “What if we meet the… person we’re going to meet, and he turns out to be who you are looking for? Does the journey just end?”

“Maybe,” Ning said. “Maybe not. Don’t worry, I’ll honor our agreement anyway. For the both of you.”

Jasmine looked up from the newspaper she was reading and slowly nodded.

“Anything fun there?” Ning asked her.

“I’ll tell you when I manage to read it all,” she said and continued reading. Ning watched her face and saw her mouth the individual letters of the article she was reading.

“Are you… bad at reading?” Ning asked her.

Jasmine’s head sprang up, a look of embarrassment and anger mixing together to see which won.

“So? So what?” she asked.

“No need to get defensive,” Ning said. “I was just asking.”

“Yes,” she said. “I can’t read very fast. I had to spend my childhood looking to survive instead of being able to read.”

Tim moved back from the viewing area. “Do you want me to read it to you?” he asked, sitting next to her.

“No… no need,” she said, looking away to hide her reddening face.

“No need to get embarrassed about it,” Tim said. “Everyone has something they are good at and something they are bad at. If I was in your place, I would’ve probably died of hunger in the very first month of running away from home.”

Jasmine looked toward Tim and relaxed a little before handing him the newspaper. “I was reading this. It looked interesting.”

Tim looked at the article and saw an image of a large wheel in the picture. “Amuse your life,” he read the title of the article.

“The Tri-light amusement park has only been open for 2 months, and it has already been visited by nearly 300 thousand people in that time…”

Tim continued reading it thoroughly. The article was about an amusement park that was so very popular with its many amazing attractions, one of which was the largest spinning wheel in the world, atop which people could see the entire city the amusement park was in.

There were also many other attractions, all of which seemed incredible. As he read, Tim came across a small bit of information that he quickly showed Ning.

“On the 22nd of this month, the great inventor Zarius Bracksfort will reveal his newest invention to the public in this very amusement park,” Tim read the part. “Make sure to come along if you want to see it.”

Ning closed in. “Where is this happening?” he asked.

Tim pointed at a part of the article. “In Horace,” he said. “That’s… a long way north from Cogonia. Right on the edge of the Great Reef.”

“22d of this month,” Ning said slowly. “If we went to Airan and then up north, would we make it to the amusement park in time?”

“It’s 12th already,” Jasmine said. “I’m sure it takes more than 10 days to go there even if we take the fastest ship. As bad as it sounds, we’ll have to give up on this person and hope we see him somewhere else.”

“That’s… sad,” Ning said. “I was hoping to meet him if I had the chance.”

“Let’s just focus on the Pope for now then,” Tim said. “No, No, No!” a large voice caught their attention, making them look sideways. “I’m telling you, something bad is going to happen soon. Let me talk to the captain of the Zeppelin or whoever is of the highest authority here.”

“Sir, please stay back,” a few people pushed the man away.

“I’m telling you, idiots,” the man shouted. “The Zeppelin is going to go down if we don’t do something soon.”