I think I'll do it like this:
The player flies between islands in a small sky world. Based on the story context he flies to the right island. In the process, he may encounter various events: a storm, a tornado, or run out of resources for the flight. Sometimes the airship will stop, an arena of islands will appear, and then a fight with random opponents will begin. Enemies can be wild animals (lizard, toads & bats from early demo for example) who decided to attack, or they can be human (other caelfabers). Yeah... sounds like a JRPG system, I know. However... Now imagine how wonderful it will be to fly towards the sunset with calm music, watching the floating islands around and knowing what awaits you in the future.