Kamina was eleven. Her parents always told her that she had an exuberant imagination. They didn't believe her that she permanently fell into holes or spoke with rabbits and found herself in other worlds for another great adventure. She doesn't dream these things.

This time it was the mirror in her room, the one that she looked into thousands of times before. But that day, her own reflection looked differently. She didn't know exactly what it was. It was still her. She saw her freckles, her earrings, the ones that her granny gave her, and her hair. But wait. Her hair was different. It had the same colour, but it was not open. It was straightened with clasps. And she suddenly had strange sunglasses on her head and a hat appeared in the mirror. She never wore hats. But it looked beautiful. Just not out of this world.

It seemed like an adventure was calling again. She did the first thing that came into her mind. She touched the mirror and her finger sank in like it was a water surface.

Kamina was a brave girl and she loved adventures. So she made one step forward through the mirror. A wind blew on her face. That was her first sensation. She still had her eyes closed. When she opened them, the impression was overwhelming. She stood on the docks of a harbour.

She turned around to the city line. There were magnificent office buildings in the front row, that looked some hundred years old. Behind that, she saw the gigantic dome of a church and an even bigger church tower. But this one didn't look at all like the pointed steeples she knew. There was a big plateau on top. As she looked around, she saw seven or eight of these. Some nearer, some further away.

But the most astonishing impression came from the sky around that huge tower. There were dozens of - she had to take a more concentrated look - airships flying around. Brass and silver steamships that had wings like dragonflies.

She turned to the quay again and saw a sign. "Welcome to Etheria", it said.

From far away, Kamina saw the strange form of a docked ship. She had to look at it, so she walked around the harbour quays into its direction. As soon as she stood in front, she knew what it was - one of the airships that looked like a dragonfly. The body was formed entirely like a regular ship and it was swimming. But two folded mechanic wings came out of its side and spanned the full length of the vessel.

She walked from aft to bow and had a look at all the ornaments and golden decorations on the otherwise dark body. Next to the nose, she saw the name tag in squiggly letters. The Phoenix. And the figurehead was a beautiful bird that came out of a cloud.

In the middle area, there were workers loading the ship using strange vehicles with loud and dirty steam motors. One of them was standing and monitoring the others. That must have been the boss.

"Hey girl", he yelled. "What do you think you're doing here?"

Kamina was very good at doing an innocent face.

Kamina was hanging around for another while. She found a place some meters away from the boarding and loading zone and watched the seamen do their work. Then the hectic bustle stopped and nobody was seen anymore. Plank and entrance were unattended.

She knew that she had to do it. She had stumbled into all of her previous adventures through her gut feeling. So Kamina sneaked into the Phoenix.

The loading deck was meant for work and storage, so it was quite dirty and there were no ornaments or even paint on the walls. Instead, she saw ropes and chains every meter to fixate the freight. Still, there was nobody in the hallways.

She found a staircase that went upwards and there they were again, ornaments and the typical dark grey and golden look. She took it and apparently landed in the cabin area. Somebody from the crew turned around a corner about ten meters away. She quickly sneaked into one of the cabins and took a breath.

Then the airship started to shake.

Kamina took a look outside the porthole of the cabin and saw that the peer became smaller and smaller every second. They had been lifting off. They were flying. She looked around and saw the gigantic dragonfly wings moving up and down fast. But they almost didn't make any noise. There was just the shaking and the groaning of the wood.

She dared to open the door and go outside again. The aisle was empty. What should happen? She was on the airship and couldn't be thrown out. So she could as well be brave and say hello to the crew. Kamina took the stairs.

Every floor looked a bit more fancy and beautiful than the previous one. But the fourth was a piece of perfect craftsmanship. With amazement, she touched the beautifully carved wall sculptures.

"Who in Neptune's name are you?", someone asked suddenly from behind.

"And who are you?", was the first thing that came to Kamina's mind.

"I, little girl, am Sir Tesla, captain of the Phoenix", and to one of the seamen, he said, "Take her".

Two tall guys grabbed Kamina and carried her downstairs again into a rather dark and dirty deck. They opened a metal door to the brig and threw her in. How rude. But as a last gift, Kamina could scratch the seaman's arm with her pointed fingernails. Served him right.

The dark room had only one small barred porthole. She sat down in one of the dirty corners when she heard a whispering from the neighbour cabin.

"Hello, is there anybody?", someone said. It was the voice of a boy, Kamina guessed.

"Wo are you?", she asked with self-confidence as if she was the captain and not the prisoner.

"Luke. I'm Luke, the kitchen boy."

"Why are you here?", Kamina wanted to know.

"I was too slow at peeling potatoes", Luke answered.

"Oh. They are so rude on this ship, aren't they? We have to get out of here. Do you know a way?"

"Out of the brig? What do you think? Who are you and what makes you think, you could escape from this hole?"

"Hmm, I know some tricks", Kamina answered.

Kamina's plan involved that sooner or later someone had to come and bring them something to eat and some water. They had to wait. So they could talk and Kamina was able to find out more about this world.

Luke said that their beautiful city Etheria was the stronghold of the rebels and that they were fighting a dark tyrant. Luke called him the Iron Baron. All the cities and harbours around Etheria are ruled and suppressed by him. The Phoenix and its crew are constantly taking part in raids against the Iron Baron's forces.

They were still in the air when Kamina heard a crash followed by heavy shakes. She couldn't even sit anymore. Probably they were in a battle now. But they couldn't see anything outside the small bull's eye.

In a mixture of fear and bravery, Kamina and Luke first looked at each other and then to the door of the brig, that sprang open. They took their chance and sneaked out. No tricks needed. But Kamina didn't know whether that was good or bad

The airship was still shaking and its movement threw them against the left and right walls while they were trying to cross the hallway to reach the stairs. They had to get a better view of the outside. What was happening?

Below deck, they didn’t see anybody. Luke said that everybody would be at their battle station. About three floors upstairs, they saw the first people, gunners in black clothes with rather strange hats. It was the deck with the first row of cannons. There were hectic movements. Some of them carried heavy iron balls around. But also everything seemed to be coordinated like a choreography.

Kamina had to watch for some seconds, but Luke pulled her further. When they arrived at the next deck, Kamina immediately froze. There. There was a hole in the wall that shouldn’t have been there. She could look outside. One of the baron's cannonballs must have struck the Phoenix in here. Still frozen, she stares through that hole and saw one of the opponent’s ships on the outside. One of the nasty-looking seamen on the other airship looked over and met her eye for a second.

That was the point where she quickly woke up again. Her mood turned from afraid to angry. She grabbed Luke by the hand.

“We have to do something”, she shouted out to him.

“What do you mean?”, he answered.

“You’ll see …”

Kamina observed through the hole in the wall how the other airship navigated. It turned its nose more and more towards the Phoenix. It was also flying at exactly the right height. Just one more second. Wait for it! Now!

Luke still didn’t get what was going on. As Kamina started to run, he had to follow. She pulled him until he also started to run as fast as he could. They ran along the aisle towards the hole. The timing was almost perfect. At the point in time they jumped, the huge figurehead on the ship’s bow - a gigantic bird of prey with huge wings - showed up right in front of them.

Time seemed to stand still for a moment while they were flying through the air. It was only a meter or so but for Luke, it seemed much more.

Kamina could grab one of the wings of the figurehead, but she had to let Luke go to stabilize herself. But Luke found his way to the other wing. He could not find a hold, but - good luck - his suspenders got caught in the large curved beak of the bird. So he was hanging there safely, dangling dozens of meters above the blue sea.

As dangerous as the situation had been, the scene looked funny like slapstick and Kamina couldn’t help but laugh. After she regained her composure, Luke made sure to get a proper hold on his side of the bird and Kamina unstrapped his braces to get him free. Luke still looked baffled and embarrassed. And just then he realized what just happened. They were on the ship of the enemy.

“OK. That worked out”, said Kamina as if it were the easiest thing to do every day before breakfast, while Luke was still trying to breathe.

“But what could we do here?”, she added. “ Let’s find a hiding spot first. We must not be seen.”

Some minutes later they sat behind a pile of crates and barrels and could take a deep breath. But looking at Kaminas face, Luke could directly see that her brain was working out the next ideas. In the last minutes, he did more brave things than in his whole life before although he served on a warship. Kamina was just a blind passenger though. She didn't know anything about airships or battles. But she was the one who had the ideas. Luke was just following her. He felt the urge to contribute something.

"The buoyancy chambers", he said while being surprised about himself. "We can let the airship go down."

"What is a boy chamber?", Kamina asked. She apparently didn't have any clue about airship tech.

"The buoyancy chambers are the big balloons that keep the ship in the air. If we open the valves, the airship will lose its buoyancy and go down. They are controlled remotely from the bridge. So the actual valves might be unattended. I know that from our ship."

"Luke, you're brilliant. We have to find these valve thingies."

They were already on deck, so they couldn't be far from their destination. They dared to take a peek beyond their hiding spot. About five shipmen were running around occupied with doing their jobs. Left and right there were the gigantic dragonfly wings and what spread above their heads were two huge balloon chambers that were formed like raindrops.

"Look, there are the valves", Luke said and pointed to the thin end of the balloons, where they ended in a wooden top deck with a rusty iron door.

"We can make it there unseen", Kamina said. "We just have to cross this path. And there, we can hide again and finally reach the door."

Impulsive as she was, she wanted to jump out of their hideout right away. Luke could hold her back last minute as one of the guards on deck came around the corner in their direction. Kamina sat back, held her hand in front of her mouth and just nodded confirmingly at Luke.

After the guard was gone again, they took another look. The coast was clear. So they started running to hide behind the next staple and then reached the door unseen.

Luke turned the door knob. It was locked. He looked disappointed. But Kamina already had the clue in her hair. She took one of the clips that held her golden locks back and used it as a lock pick. She had seen it in a movie once. It was harder than she thought. She had to feel the mechanism in the inside and at the same time they had to take care not to be seen.

Time went by, she tried and tried. After a while, she had a rough idea what to do.

"Kamina", said Luke. "Quicker. Three seamen are coming. They're almost around the corner. Do you hear the footsteps?"

"Yees, I hear them", she answered annoyed. "I'm almost there. Just a second."

Then the lock clicked and clacked and the door sprang open. They saw the boots of the guards and quickly jumped inside the dark room. That was close. Some air slots in the door were the only light source they had. Kamina saw the boots of the guards walking by and took a deep breath perfectly in sync with Luke. The looked at each other, nodded, smiled and started to look around.

It was really dark in there. Now it was Luke's turn for a little miracle. Why shouldn't there be light just like in any other room? He knew that it was not allowed in gunpowder rooms but in here were only mechanical devices. He saw a slightly brighter, swinging object in the middle. That must have been the petroleum lantern. He also found a crate in the corner and used it to reach the lamp. His very own magic device was a flint stone lighter. He had needed it in the kitchen all the time, so he always kept it in his pocket.

Two clicks with the flint and he lit the lamp and the room was illuminated in a warm orange tone. They looked around and saw the most complicated mechanical device they had ever seen. On each side there were huge wooden boxes with gears, valves and levers. On the top they saw two outlets on each side. One surely went into the balloon chamber. The other must have been the air outlet.

"Luke, you're a genius", Kamina said.

Now they had everything they needed for their little sabotage.

Kamina inspected the left side very closely. She went over its design. Touched all of the valves and levers without really pushing any button. She just had to feel the machine in a way. She was thinking and stood there for seconds. Luke could only watch.

"Luke", she finally said. We have to do it synchronously Otherwise the ship goes down uncontrolled to the sea level and we sink with it."

Luke anxiously walked to the other gear box and looked at it in awe. He could do that. He said this to himself several times in a row. He could do that. But what if they were sinking and drowning?

Kamina on the other hand was already deep in action. "Ready, boy?", she said.

"Boy?", Luke said. Did she just call him boy? But it seemed to be what he needed. He was distracted and could finally focus on the task.

"Just kidding", Kamina said. "Let's do it. This is gonna be fun. Now pull the left lever down. This should give you manual control over all the other gizmos."

Luke did as he was told. Kamina followed up with several other commands he executed in perfect sync. One of the last ones actually had an effect and opened some sort of valve. It became very loud in the cabin.

"Cool, Let's take one last breath", Kamina shouted and then paused and watched Luke for a second. "Now take the left red knob and turn it 90 degrees to the right on three."

Both were standing there in full tension for the count. "One, two", Kamina yelled, "aaand three".

Luke and Kamina were very synchronous. They turned the knobs at the exact same time. But nothing seemed to happen. They were standing there rooted to the spot and couldn't move. It felt like hours but it was only seconds until something finally happened. Air blew through the valves of the system. In the beginning it just was not enough so they didn't notice. But now it became more and more.

It was already very loud in the cabin, as if a big hair dryer was running. Then the airship started to shake a little. It started losing altitude.

"Luke, we did it", Kamina shouted. "We did it. We're going down. We have to get off. Fast."

They ran out. They didn't bother to look at the guards any more. Everything on the ship seemed to be in alert anyway. It should take only a moment until someone came around. So they just ran as fast as they could. Kamina had a plan, so she was in front showing the direction. She was running towards the bow of the ship. Luke was following her. They had to get to the figurehead. They had to jump back before it was too late. It was all about timing now.

They climbed onto a bar beyond the figurehead and monitored the situation. The enemy's airship they were on rotated its nose towards the Phoenix. But it also lost height a little already. There were ten meters between them and a safe platform on the Phoenix. But the distance became smaller and smaller. Still too much to jump.

The guards saw them and started to run towards the ship's bow as well. Some of them had bayonet rifles, that the hastily made ready to shoot. Four metres left. Kamina ducked and Luke followed her. They saw now that they would have to jump upwards to reach the platform. Two metres left. One of the guards was ready to shoot and pulled the trigger.

In that moment three things happened at exactly the same time. Kamina started to jump while holding Luke's hand. So he automatically jumped with her. While literally flying between the two airships, the bullet hit the figurehead, that was several metres behind them. The wooden bird's left wing exploded and fell off. The shot didn't seem to be very precise. And thirdly, the enemy airship suddenly sank down for several metres and the other shooters weren't able to stay on their feet. They all lost their balance and fell to the floor in sync as if it was a dance move.

After the landing, Kamina and Luke were lying on the platform of the Phoenix. They shook off the dust, looked at each other, started laughing and exchanged a high five.

Two of the Phoenix guards arrived within seconds to capture the intruders, but luckily one of them recognized Luke.

"Wait a second", he said. "Aren't you the kitchen boy?"

But in that moment, the enemy ship sank down about ten metres at once and the even further.

"What did you do?", asked the other guard in a rather astonished voice.

"I guess we've won the battle for you", Kamina said proudly.

"You two come with us", the two guards said almost simultaneously.

Kamina and Luke were brought in front of Sir Tesla and were able to tell their story. Of course, the captain didn't believe a word they said.

"We have sent them to the brick", he said to one of the officers nearby. "What kind of nonsense is this?"

"Sir, the brick has a hole on the outside, Sir", responded the officer. "They might have escaped, Sir."

"To the other ship? Are you kidding, officer?"

"Sir , no, Sir. Err yes, Sir. We know that the other ship is sinking and we didn't hit it, Sir."

"Are you telling me that their story might be true?"

"Sir, yes, Sir. It could be."

Sir Tesla turned to the kids again. Kamina was already a bit angry, because that grey old boss didn't believe them. But in the moment when she even started those thoughts, his face had turned. Only great men can change their opinion, Kamina's father once said to here. Probably Sir Tesla was not such a bad person after all.

"Right the kids", he said and turned around to the crew again. "Officer, target the other ship, two cannons, full power. Bring it down."

"And you two are coming with me", he said to Kamina and Luke.

Sir Tesla left the bridge while his officers knew how to deal with the battle situation. They had won. Today at least. Kamina and Luke followed the captain. They went two decks down and to the other side, the aft of the Phoenix. They were sent back to the galley, thought Luke immediately, his workplace. But Sir Tesla moved on. He turned to Chief Pulley, the chef on the ship and Lukes boss.

"Chief", he started. "These two are the heroes of the day. They have saved our ship. You get them everything they want and don't you dare to delegate this task to anyone else. Clear?"

"Yes, sir", the chef answered while looking at his kitchen boy and a girl. What is a girl doing on their ship, he thought. And what did Luke do now again?

"They will have dinner with me and the other officers tonight. Prepare something special. Actually, for the whole crew. Do you have enough food left for a feast?"

"I believe so, Sir", the chef answered. "We have just raided that other ship of the Iron Baron, Sir. They had good stuff on board."

"Very well then. 1900 it is then. And don't forget the children."

Sir Tesla left the galley and went back to the bridge. The chef turned to the kids and thought about how to do two things at the same time. Preparing a gala dinner for one hundred people and taking care of two kids.

"No worries, Sir", Luke said as if he knew what was going on in Chief Pulley's head. "We can help you. We know how to peel potatoes."

And so they did. The whole kitchen crew plus Kamina were preparing the greates party they could imagine. For Kamina and Luke, it was actually the best possible way to come down again and not think too much about their incredible adventure.

After a full clean up and fixing the worst damages, the crew of the Phoenix also had calmed down and everyone, well everyone except the kitchen crew, appeared for dinner to get their well deserved meal.

Kamina and Luke were allowed to sit at the captain's table in the officer's mess together with the highest ranking shipmen of the Phoenix.

Sir Tesla was the last to come in and took his seat directly next to Kamina. The noise level in the room was not high but noticeable. Everyone was involved into a bit of smalltalk with their neighbours until the captain stood up. The room immediately fell silent, except Kamina whispering some nonsense into Luke's ear. Sir Tesla looked sharply at her and she immediately sat still as well. He started to smile in a pleased way.

"Ladies and Gentlemen", he said. "Today we have won a battle against the Iron Baron. We brought down our enemy's biggest flagship. You should be proud of yourselves as I am proud of you, too. But there are two people who deserve our gratitude. Two kids, they are sitting right here at this table. Come on, please stand up for a moment."

Kamina and Luke stood up and the whole room started to applaud for minutes - and that although everyone was very hungry. Kamina at least heard her stomach, and Lukes. But she also felt very proud. She had never been applauded before. So she almost cried, but could hold it.

Neither her nor Luke could say a word, so they slowly sat down again, just like all the others.

"I think, we deserve some food now", Sir Tesla said and everyone applauded again while Chief Pulley and his crew came in with the first course, some exotic vegetables that even Luke hadn't seen before. But they tasted heavenly delicious.

Everyone was well fed and happy after the dessert, the fourth course of the evening. Kamina even could barely get the last piece of chocolate cake into her mouth. That probably had never happened before. It was so delicious, but she was full.

"Children", said Sir Tesla finally. "Thank you for your help today. I still don't know how you managed it, but it was very brave. We have prepared two noble officer's cabins for you. You can stay here for the night and we will bring you back to Etheria tomorrow."

What a day, thought Kamina finally alone in her cabin. She absolutely likes the trouble and the hustle and bustle. But she also loves to calm down after an adventure.

But while she stared at the mirror next to her bed, she felt a force that drew her in. She knew that it was the call back home. She touched the mirror and her finger sank in like it was a water surface. Then she stepped through and appeared in her room at home again.