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Ok, here's another one. I'm sort of proud about this one because I actually thought about how such a craft might be able to exist in the air. And I learned about how how they might be able to go before freezing to death and some other stuff I don't quite remember anymore but yeah I did some research for this one. It's more action than anything else so I hope you don't mind too much. Here ya go:

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“Set a course for Maragnol!” Captain Frederick Preston barked as his crewman shifted the boat’s sails towards the direction of Maragnol.
The captain walked the deck of the Celestial up to the railing where he looked down at the sight of the massive sea. He heaved a sigh as he rested his gray bearded chin in his hand with his elbow leaning on the railing. This war has been going on far too long, he thought. I don’t understand why we are fighting them. The Arcani and us have lived in peace coexisting with one another since before I can remember. Now this war has torn our brotherhood apart turning us into sworn enemies.
The wind ruffled his hair as he continued to look down at the shiny, blue water before him. He looked up and then shouted, “Report Mr. Darone.”
“Yes, sir. Were heading due north at a speed of five knots. Our elevation is remaining steady at 8000 feet. The winds are blowing with us at fifteen miles per hour. Engines are working at one-hundred percent and our ballast tanks are eighty percent full.” The first officer said checking several instruments near to the wheel. Good, the captain thought, were right on schedule. The captain then looked up to the crow’s nest and called out to the junior officer on duty. “Do you see anything up there, Mr. Gerret?” The captain shouted up to him.
“Nothing, sir, but let me take another look.” He called down. The captain watched as the junior officer reached for the spyglass. “No, noth—” The young man said suddenly cut off by from screech that seared through the air. The captain looked to the sky as the he heard crow’s nest shout, “Drevora Riders! Starboard side!”
The captain looked and he could make out many faint outlines of gigantic manned birds in the distance. He counted twenty altogether with the blood draining from his face with the count of each one. “Everybody to arms!” The captain ordered snapping himself back to attention in disbelief that a bird could be that size. The hawk-like birds stood almost the height of a grown man and with their wingspan twice as long it made the bird look quite menacing.
The captain quickly turned to his first officer and said, “Bring her up another 1000 feet. Hopefully we can flush them out with altitude.”
The first officer nodded as he picked what appeared to be a small communication device. He then shouted into it saying, “Raise her 1000 feet!”
The crew immediately took their positions as they heard the hot air hiss into the small balloons that encircled around the ship keeping them aloft. Several shots from the airship’s machine gunners were heard just missing one of the gigantic winged birds. One of the drevora swooped down at the deck of the boat to make a pass. A crewman raised his gun to shoot it but was cut short as the beak of the bird scooped him up into its mouth. The bird clamped down breaking the man’s back accompanied by a cry of pain. It then flew off dropping him down to the murky sea below with his screams still wailing in the winds. The captain brandished his own pair of pistols and began to shoot at the attackers. His eyes suddenly darted to the riders still flying off to the side. “What are they doing?” He thought out loud.
He then immediately noted the rider’s hands preparing a spell. “Men, brace yourself. Were about to get bombarded!” He shouted as he shot one of the bird’s wings sending it down into the depths of the sky. He then grabbed onto the railing the wave of the spell shook the ship. The captain heard the screams of several of his men falling off the ship. He cursed under his breath as he regained his footing only to lose it again as the Celestial gave a sudden lurch. We must be losing altitude, he thought.
He got up once more and stared down hard at the ocean once more. He let out a breath of air as the ship steadied herself. Preston turned around and looked to his sides to see one of his machine gunners sprawled over the gun and the other still firing his rounds. Preston yelled to the man while he gestured to the spellcasters, “Fire at them!”
The gunner nodded just as an arrow pierced his hand. The poor man screamed out in pain clutching his hand but then turned to his duty with a gripping determination. He fired a few more shots from the armament just before several more arrows pierced him collapsing him to the deck.
The captain cursed again as he dashed up to the turret. He jumped over several bodies and climbed up the ladder to the machine gun. It was then that several of the birds flew over the deck dropping off their riders who widely charged the men down with swords. Preston shot and made contact with one of them which sent him spiraling off the airship. He then grabbed the heavy gun and aimed it at the still riders. He began to fire right as he saw the arcane magic build up in their hands. Several of them fell from the sky while the others dispersed flying higher up.
The captain looked back at the deck and saw his remaining men fiercely fight off the remaining intruders. Preston quickly turned the machine gun in a sixty-degree angle and fired at the riders who were attempting to do another dive. The rider and their bird skidded across the deck smearing the wood of the ship. The captain then looked up into the sky noticing several more riders coming to their aid. Where did they come from? He thought. There’s no way that we can hold them off now.
Preston shook his head not wanting to accept the inevitable as he turned to the skies in hopes of redemption. “You never failed me before; please give us a way out.” The captain said quietly. He then found what he was looking for. In the distance he saw a formation of newly formed nimbus crowds starting to cause quite a disturbance. Frederick looked to the wheel and was thankful that his first officer was still alive. “Mr. Darone, fly us into those nimbus clouds ahead.” The captain said pointing to the now black formation.
“But sir—” The first officer started.
“Just do it!” The captain yelled as an arrow nearly missed leg striking just inches to the left of it.
“Yes, captain.” The man saluted and then went to his new task.
The captain swiftly slid down the ladder and went below the deck to see what damage had been done. There he found several people moving about and quickly attended to repairs. He walked further and saw his chief engineer, William Prewitt, who was at work helping his men fix a problem with one of the engines. “What’s the engine’s status, Mr. Prewitt?” The captain asked not really wanting to hear the answer.
Mr. Prewitt looked at the captain grimly and then shouted back to the captain trying to keep his voice heard above the shouts of the men and noise of the steam engines, “Captain, engines two and four aren’t functioning and engine three is just hanging on a thread. If we lose engine three then we won’t be able to keep her aloft. As is it’s already miraculous that we managed to keep her up in the sky this long. We are going to have to land very soon.”
“Impossible at the moment, Mr. Prewitt. Would it help if we released all of the ballast?” The captain asked him impatiently.
“I don’t think so, sir. Even if we released all the ballast I think that she would still be too heavy.” The chief engineer replied shaking his head.
“Then what about releasing the cargo, as well?” The captain countered.
“That could be a possibility, but sir, I thought the cargo was too important.” Mr. Prewitt responded with a questioning look in his eyes.
“Not as important as my ship or my crew.” The captain replied standing more upright. “Begin the dropping of the cargo immediately and manually release all of the remaining ballast.”
Mr. Prewitt smiled at the captain’s decision and heartily said, “Yes, sir! Come one lads, let’s get to it. The faster we lighten her up the faster we’ll fly.”
The men gave a cheer and several of them immediately scurried down to the cargo holds to begin throwing crates and boxes overboard. The captain turned at this and ran back up the steps just as he saw one of the riders attempt to fly through the open door straight at him. He fumbled with his gun trying to steady it for a shot when he heard a shot behind him stopping the rider in his tracks landing right in front of the captain. “Bloody suicidal that one was, eh captain?” One of the men grinned still holding his gun.
The captain grinned back at the man and said to him, “Thank you, Mr. Rousseau.”
“Anytime captain, but don’t thank me until were out of this mess.” He replied as he went back to attending the repairs.
The captain walked up onto the deck and was relieved to see several of his men still intact. One of his men just finished cutting one of the riders down when he turned to the captain and shouted, “I don’t know how much more of this we can fight off.”
“It will all be over soon,” The captain replied and then added as he felt raindrops hit the deck, “Very soon.”
A couple riders flew in and grabbed a man by his arms. He screamed in terror as the lifted him up from the ship. The captain and his men watched in horror as they dropped him sending careening to his death. Then the riders returned to make a second pass. Preston started for a shot but missed the drevora as it did a well-timed barrel roll. They jumped off their birds landing on the deck as two other riders accompanied them. The four Arcani then pulled out their broadswords and one unsheathed a rather intimidating looking claymore.
Preston scanned the deck looking for something to fight with as he heard his own men ready their swords. The bigger Arcani advanced first swinging his claymore in a wild like fashion. Preston’s men manage to block it but it sent him stumbling from the sheer force of attack. The man rolled off to the side as he jumped up to regain his footing.
The captain quickly found a sword strewn next to a rather unpleasant looking body. Frederick grimaced as he picked it up and then rushed over to slash at one of the Arcani, who quickly dodged it and turned his attention to the captain.
The Arcani twirled his sword and then brought it down on the captain. Frederick blocked and countered it with a shuffle a feet and a thrust of his sword bringing it into the man’s back. The Arcani fell to the ground and it was that Frederick realized that it was only a young lad not much older than his own cabin boy.
Preston had no time to mourn, though as one of the other Arcani, this one an older man, cried out and started to assault the captain. The captain blocked each move with increasing difficulty when a sudden gunshot was heard and the attacker fell to the ground. Frederick looked to where the shot came from, but could see nothing amongst the now fast falling rain. Light flashed in the sky as he saw lightning emit from one of the clouds shooting down to the waters below him. A loud boom filled his ears a fraction of a second later when another one of his men fell to the deck. The captain looked and saw that the claymore-wielding Arcani was the only one left fighting off three of his surviving men. The Arcani backed up blocking each attack until he finally broke into a run and jumped off the railing. The men looked stunned only to find that he had jumped onto his own passing drevora.
More lightning flashed this time striking down a few of the riders with it. Shouts were heard from riders as they began to disperse trying to escape nature’s lethal fury. The men on the ship started to cheer, but were cut short as lightning shot once more this time striking one of the ship’s mast. The mast toppled over the side of the vessel diving down into the drink. Preston stared at it for a split second before turning to his first officer, “Mr. Darone, I think it is now time to take our leave.”
“Yes, sir.” He stammered as he quickly moved his hands around the controls. The ship gave a sudden heave and then turned to get out of the raging winds. Rain still pattered along the deck, splashing on the captain’s face.