Ryan Laukat
Ryan Laukat is a trumpet player, illustrator, hand-engraver, board game designer, and recently, a writer. His favorite author is Terry Pratchett, but his love of books started with the Hobbit when he found it in a dusty, forgotten bookcase in 4th grade. He is a regular illustrator for the popular card game “Dominion”. At his day job, he designs and tests trumpets for Cannonball Musical Instruments. He lives in the Salt Lake City area with his wife and son.
Fifteen
The crippled warehouse looked as ominous as it did the first time Leiza saw it earlier that morning, before the worst had happened. But she wasn’t going to venture inside this time—that would mean death for sure. The sun was precariously low in the burnt, orange sky. She was running out of time, and had to act quickly. The plan depended on it.
Fourteen
Leiza could feel her hope turning into anger. She wanted to break the glass of the tank. She even looked around for something that she might use, like a chair. Somehow, this woman that was a thousand years old had taken control of her life, and now she was going to lose her son because of it. She was going to lose everyone.
Thirteen
Then she heard shuffling from a dark doorway in the back. A large krax came through, bending down to fit under the doorway. He carried a long rifle, and a set of throwing knives hung across two belts that wrapped around his shoulders. He was followed by other krax, all carrying long, dark cutlasses, some with eye-patches, some with nose and jaw rings that gleamed in the shafts of light from the roof. Then Leiza saw Sam.
Twelve
Leiza stood against the ornate railing of the airship, staring out at the clouds that swam underneath her like white, ghostly fish above the sea far below. The cold wind was refreshing, and she couldn’t help but grin from ear to ear. She was really flying.
Eleven
Leiza was cold and wet and felt completely uncomfortable, shivering and huddling in a tight ball on the bench. But she was with Sam again. It didn’t matter what she’d been through because it was worth it if Sam was safe. What if she hadn’t decided to go looking for him when he left her, deciding that Holn was going to take good care of him? Sam would still be on the krax barge, doomed to a life of slavery, and she never would have seen him again.
