There's always this big, extraordinary concept of finding yourself - when it happens, it'll be something great, something unforgettable. We believe that it's a time in our lives where we'll see what we're truly meant to do, and we'll go, "That's it. That's what I'm meant for." We tend to build up this belief to be something more than what it truly is.
Simon used to buy into the hype. He believed that someday, he'd find the perfect wife, the perfect job, and he'd know exactly what to do. It was quite the fantasy for a twelve-year-old, you had to admit. He used to have everything planned out to a T - everything was exactly the way it was supposed to, when it was supposed to be like that.
Then came the day the Skyward Boneyard docked.
It wasn't an incredibly rare occurrence for an airship to dock in this particular city, but it certainly was eventful - especially since it harbored pirates. Simon was working as a blacksmith's apprentice at the time, and actually saw the pirates departing from the ship. He was oddly fascinated by them, sure, but at the time he had no desire to be involved with the whole pirate gig. That just wasn't something he'd had planned out, and joining them would interfere with his journey to find himself. So he went about his business, continuing on with his everyday life.
Everything was going perfectly fine until two members of the pirate crew entered the blacksmith's shop, looking for someone to repair their weapons. Simon wasn't opposed to helping them, of course, but he couldn't help but feel a bit unnerved by their presence. It wasn't that they were intimidating, either - Simon didn't see them as a threat at all, actually.
The reason he was unnerved was because he was intrigued by their occupations.
Simon found himself asking more and more questions to the pirates, whom he'd learned were called
Pythios and
Juno, and with every answer he received, he found himself slowly falling more and more in love with the idea of joining an air pirate crew. Of course, this frightened him moreso than excited him - he was supposed to be a perfect, law-abiding husband with a good job! How could he do that if he joined a pirate crew? This was madness at its finest.
What sealed the deal was when a certain
musician raced into the shop in search of Juno and Pythios.
As the cheery Goblin Gator bounced around and spoke to the two pirates, Simon basically fell apart. His whole world - everything he'd once known and was certain of - was crashing down around him. Didn't he like women not even five minutes ago? But after seeing the musician (whose name turned out to be Alfred), that all changed rather quickly. You could call it puppy love, or love at first sight, or whatever it might've been; one thing was certain, though, and that was that Simon was now truly on the road to discovering himself.
When Simon found out that the Skyward Boneyard was in search of a blacksmith, he readily volunteered himself for the position. The captain - a certain
Miss Robin J. Howle - was a bit skeptical. After all, this was a city boy abandoning everything he knew and loved for a life in the skies. She wasn't entirely certain if he was as ready for it as he said he was, but she decided to go out on a whim and take his word for it.
Thus began Simon's adventure as the blacksmith of the Skyward Boneyard. He was now an air pirate with a newfound love for the skies, and a new sense of belonging. It was on the Skyward Boneyard that Simon truly found himself.
