Underway at Last

Eventually they decided that they would have to take the northern route. Taking the southern route would have involved very long transits to and from the jet stream (they did not call it that, of course). Indeed it would have more than doubled, perhaps even tripled, the total time required for the journey. This in turn would have meant that the gondola would have had to carry too great a weight of supplies.

Everyone apart from Astra donned warm clothing. Spare clothing, weapons (which they hoped they would not need), Astra's beginnings of a hoard, food and drink, and material for a spare balloon had all already been stored in the gondola, which was now in readiness - together with the deflated hot air balloon - outside the caves. They assembled there, and Astra changed back from human to dragon, something at which she was now much better than she had been at first, though she still felt far from expert at it. The others ensured that both the balloon and the gondola were securely attached to her, as near to her mid-point as possible without obstructing her wings, and then seated themselves inside the gondola.

Astra began breathing hot air into the balloon. She had spent a lot of time practising this. If the air was not hot enough then there would not be suffficient lift, but if it was too hot then the balloon might catch fire. The latter would be disastrous if they were over the sea, for Astra would only be strong enough to keep them in the air for a very limited time without the balloon's assistance.

The balloon began to inflate and then to lift from the ground. Soon Astra felt an upward tugging from the harness that attached her to it. At that point she brought her wings into play and lifted herself gently from the ground. Shortly afterwards there came a downward tug from the second harness that attached her to the gondola, now that all of the slack was taken up. Since the gondola was quite heavy, and Astra did not want to over-exert herself right at the start, she did no more with her wings than ensure that she remained stable, until the balloon was providing sufficient lift that the gondola left the ground.

Are you quite comfortable, Astra? Sartoma projected shortly afterwards, when the gondola was at a height of about twenty feet. If any of the harness straps start to cut into you, then we should return to the ground so that we can adjust them for you.

I'm fine, thank you, Astra projected back. It would take an awful lot to cut through my scales. I'm more worried that the edges of my scales might eventually cut through the harness.

That should not happen with the material that we used. The first part of the flight will be the most taxing for you, as you will need to take us some forty leagues north to where we can pick up the strong wind that will do most of the work thereafter. Before we pick up that wind, though, we will land at some suitable secluded spot well away from any prying eyes, and spend the night on the ground, since that will be much more restful. That is important, as we will still have a tiring flight of four or five days ahead of us. It will also allow us to check the harness for any signs of chafing though, as I said, I don't anticipate any.

So Astra gained height till she was several hundred feet above the ground. There was no advantage in going any higher at this stage, and it kept them well below the clouds and made navigation easier. She headed north - though a fresh westerly breeze meant that their actual direction was closer to north-easterly - first over the foothills of the Shreken and then acoss the plains of southern Allaria. This was a sparsely populated region, but even if they should be seen there was nothing that those on the ground could do to harm them.

1. Nothing untoward occurred on this first leg.
2. They encountered a problem.

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