Quote Originally Posted by Murkus View Post
That's easy enough to do... nothing keeps Val from reaching the stage's edge and hopping down. He hears a snarl behind him, a scold, a curse. His feet hit the sand beneath the stagetop... and he keeps falling. In fact, unless he has some way to quickly escape his fate, Valente will fall through that soft grit, down into a choking lightless place with sand pressing upon him from all sides.

After a time, he lands on his back. It is not a hard impact. He is lying in a mound of sand, in the lot beneath Croupelt's dirigible. The dirigible is slowly accelerating to the west. The sky is fittingly overcast, dark as an ink blot. The dirigible makes a faint puttering as it is propelled away.
[The Fabulous Croupelt's Falling Circus]

Val lands dazed in the sand. He struggles to get up, spitting sand on the pile and trying to get steady. He looks upward toward the departing dirigible, utter despair in the pit of his stomach. "Astrana!" He shouts, his voice cracking. "Astrana!" He tries to run after it, stepping heavily through the sand. There's no way he could hope to do anything, but he tries for the moment anyway.