Free Gareth and th Lost Island by Patrick Mallard

did.
    “You’ve been on expeditions before. How do we go
about hiring an airship?” Tralnis asked Gareth.
    Gareth shrugged his shoulders. “I have no idea.
Professor Rand always took care of the details. I think she used
the opportunity as just another excuse to get out of the
classroom,” he admitted. They walked over to one of the workers who
had led them to their parking stall, and asked where they could
hire an airship. The man hurriedly pointed to the main doors of the
administrative building before walking off to direct another
wagon.
    The first impression Gareth had when they stepped
into the main hall of the administrative building was of ants in an
anthill. The ant like effect of the room was intensified by the
huge floor to ceiling windows that dwarfed the workers they
provided light for. The cavernous room was full of people of
several different races scurrying around the numerous booths that
were scattered around the floor. Each booth had a different colored
banner that told those who were in the shipping business which
merchant group they represented.
    Tralnis and Gareth stood in the doorway for a few
minutes as they tried to make sense of the organized chaos they
were seeing. The overlapping shouts of over a hundred different
sentients made conversation at a normal volume impossible. Tralnis
tugged on Gareth’s sleeve, and pointed towards a booth on the
opposite wall that bore a blue and white banner with the words
“Shipping Guild” printed on it. Gareth nodded, and they started
winding their way through the throng of people.
    Halfway to their objective, the moving tide of bodies
forced them to pause while different groups crossed their path.
When a gap in the throng opened, Tralnis started to walk forward
but stopped when he noticed Gareth wasn’t following him. Tralnis
turned around, and saw Gareth was looking off to the side with a
familiar goofy grin on his face. The Dwarf walked back to his son
and looked in the same direction. “Whose arse are we ogling?” he
asked in a tone meant to embarrass Gareth. From what Tralnis could
see, there was several men and women who were attractive enough to
warrant a second glance.
    Tralnis’ teasing tone snapped Gareth out of his
self-induced trance. He wasn’t going to give the Dwarf the pleasure
of knowing that he actually was staring after a woman. A
young human woman with bright red hair had caught Gareth’s eye. She
was dressed in brown leather pants, and black ankle high boots. The
pants had pockets on both the hips and shins, indicating they were
some sort of work pants. The young woman was also wearing a bolero
jacket of the same leather as her pants that stopped halfway
between her shoulders and her waist. Under her jacket, she wore a
tan cotton shirt that was tight across her large bosom. While
unkind folks might call her chubby, or possibly even fat, Gareth
would argue that she had wonderful curves in all of the right
places. Besides being beautiful, there was just something about the
woman that had snagged his attention and wouldn’t let go.
    When the ever shifting mass of people blocked his
view of the woman, Gareth sighed and nodded towards the guild
booth. “Come on, let’s go find out how to hire ourselves an
airship,” he suggested. They soon learned that a straight line
wasn’t always the fastest way to get somewhere in the huge room. A
short trip at a right angle from their trajectory brought them to a
fairly clear path that was parallel to the direction they wanted to
go. A few more turns, bends, and some backtracking led them to the
booth of the Shipping Guild.
    The guild representative behind the counter of the
booth was a surly looking Dwarf standing on a raised platform so
they could see over the counter. Blue and white ribbons were woven
into a brown beard that was even more impressive than the one
Tralnis wore. The gray waistcoat over a crisply starched, white
shirt gave the representative a very businesslike