The noise that woke me was deafening, an ear splitting thud accompanied by the startled screech of birds and the gentle patter of falling debris. I stumbled out of my den into a swirling maelstrom of dust and leaves filling the old warehouse, blinking frantically through the choking dirt to see what had happened. A mini tornado was dissipating where Sylenia's blue craft used to be, sucking in every loose object around it. Some of the birds that had been quietly scavenging on the floor and amongst the roof girders were flying in all directions, while others flopped helpless on the ground in stunned disarray. The old warehouse already weakened by age groaned ominously, accompanied by the sound of breaking glass tinkling lightly like music. For a moment I thought I saw a ripple in the air like heat haze coming off boiling asphalt, but I had to turn away and close my eyes to wash away the grit that was filling the air. I cursed long and loudly before stumbling back to my bed and pulling on some clothes. It was just like Sylenia to pull a stunt like this, her coy smile and motherly words reminding me that some matters were too complex for mere humans to understand. I decided I was not going to hang around in the warehouse in case Sylenia decided to bring her ship back in a similar fashion. Some of the birds lying on the floor looked decidedly worse for wear, and a couple of them seemed to have been cut cleanly in two. I don't pretend to know much about hyperdrive or the equivalent technology the Lazloi use, so I wasn't going to wait for a huge piece of blue metal to magically appear only metres away from me. I ran for the door and kicked it open. The sky was cloudy outside, but this didn't stop Sylenia's ship from gleaming dazzlingly against the drab and dirty hues of the buildings around it. Above the steady crash of the nearby seashore and wind, the blue craft emitted a soft whine with a deep undertone, a sound that promised power that belied its diminutive size. Sylenia laughed gaily when she saw me, talking excitedly about her ship as though it was a beloved pet. I reminded her that she woke me up with her little game, but she smirked at me with a mocking grin and asked me what I thought of her toy. I shrugged my shoulders and said it looked fine. I knew that with her ship fully operational we had more freedom and power to act, but part of me realised that this might spell the end of our partnership, at least the beginning of the end. My fears were confirmed when she told me her news. She had heard that her team, the one she called the Gathering of Ravens was on the winning side, that she might not need to hide anymore. She was giddy with excitement as she explained, but I just nodded and tried to smile. I humoured her for a while by walking around the ship, and to tell the truth it was an amazing sight. The blue metal was timeless and unmoved by any of the elements around it, like the beauty of my dear companion, her white hair, pale skin and soft grey eyes. It was too much for me though; so I left her to pamper her ship and shuffled back to the warehouse, empty now like my dreams. -- Joshua Isuza Sword spacecraft originally created in Hexagon, completely revised the mesh in Cinema 4D (no n-gons here, move along!) Buildings by Stonemason, SP3 figure in Desolation Earth outfit with custom textures. Rendered in Cinema 4D 11.5 Thanks for looking, comments appreciated.