Fantasy short stories

Μαγεία: Land of magic

"Alright, here's the Spina you requested."

There was a loud thud as she dropped the box containing the rare metal on the wooden boards.

The man's hand dove into his pocket, searching for the money required to pay for this retrieval.

It was a beautiful day, the seabirds cawing from their ever-shifting positions in the air. The waves of the ocean surrounding them on all sides swished in its eternal pull and push. The smells of salt, and seaweed and fish carried on the breeze, all picked up by the young woman waiting for her payment. Then she could get back on her ship and--

The jingling of the silver pieces smacking together reached the woman's ears. And against her will, the cat ears tucked downwards on top of her head twitched upwards in anticipation. She cursed under her breath as the man noticed them and froze.

Then he immediately put the currency away, and glared at the young woman.

"I'm not paying for a retrieval request done by a freak." His scowl deepened. "Now scram before I call the authorities."

The woman matched his scowl, and hissed "I'm not leaving without my payment." She leaned back on her heels and smirked. "And what are the authorities going to arrest me for exactly? Defending myself from a racist jackass?"

A hand opened in the man's direction. "Now, just pay me for the job I completed, and we'll go our separate ways." With any luck, He'd be one of the few who favored basic human decency. Cause that thing about the authorities not arresting her was a bluff.

He grumbled, and retained his glare, but nevertheless reached into his jacket and left three silver pieces in her palm.

She frowned down at the three dull pieces of silver in her hand.

"The payment on the request was thirteen silver pieces." She said, raising an eyebrow at the man, who ignored her, and started to turn away and pick up the box.

Her eyes narrowed, and her ears further flattened on her head. A low hiss started in her throat as the man began walking away with the box.

"Hey! You can't just--"

"Excuse me ma'am, is there a problem?" Said an officer from behind her.

Having not expected him, the woman's surprise came in the form of her losing her focus and her tail shooting out from its now non-existent magical bindings.

She cursed again as she felt the tension from the officer, as well as everyone else standing on the docks as they saw her tail, and her ears on top of her head made themselves known as well.

Her arm was grabbed very roughly. "I think you'd better come with me, kwayar." The officer started dragging her across the docks, and over to his station.

The woman had had quite enough of this, and immediately twisted around and yanked her hand out of the man's grip, before pushing him off the docks and into the water, and making a beeline for the man who had tried to cheat her.

He saw her approaching and picked up his pace, but it was no use as she was by his side in an instant, sweeping him to the ground while grabbing all the money in his pocket.

Then, with a muttering of Te͏̶̨͏̕l̨̕ę͠͞͞p̸̛̀ó̵ŗ̀̕͟ţ̶ she promptly disappeared.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

"Kayla?"

"Yes Captain Katani?"

The woman sighed before ordering "Raise the anchor, hoist the sails and set a course for Amberet City." The younger girl ran to obey, but was stopped by a call.

"And make a note not to come here for requests in the near future."

"Again?!"

The Kwayar sighed. "Yes, again." She rolled her eyes. "You know how most humans are with anything that isn't also human." She hissed bitterly.

Kayla just nodded and silently went to do her work. 

The rest of the crew, alerted by the absence of Kayla starting up the usual friendly conversations, made sure not to get within ten feet of the captain that day.

 And soon they set off.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

It came out of nowhere.

The static in the air, the roughness of the waves, it literally came out of nowhere.

No dark ominous clouds, or flashes of light and booms of thunder farther off to warn them beforehand. The storm just appeared out of thin air before the tempest clouds started unloading all their extra weight in the form of big, fat, and heavy raindrops.

Everyone on the ship had been soaked through in a matter of seconds.

"Crew! Batten down the hatches! Alexa, get to the Crow's nest!"

There was only one thing that could cause storms that quickly and suddenly.

A storm spirit. An elder one.

"Hello Katani!" Came a call from over the side of the boat.

The kwayar leaned over the side of the boat to see wisps of blue come up from the ocean, eventually forming into a kind of person shaped, translucent figure.

Her translucent blue hair was tied up in pigtails and her glowing cerulean eyes, bluer than the deepest of oceans closed for a second as she let a strained smile appear over her face.

"What's going on Azure?" Katani yelled over the side, wincing as she was further pelted with water from the erratic waves.

"Er...sorry about this..." Azure shouted back, looking immensely guilty. "My mom's just letting off a bit of steam. Some sailor was cussing out her and the other spirits."

Katani scowled at that, momentarily ignoring the fact that she was sopping wet. "Knock the asshole on the head for me, wouldja?"

Azure looked past Katani, and a nervous expression came over her face. "I uh...think you have more pressing things to worry about..." She pointed to the rapidly approaching island behind them.

"I THOUGHT I SAID BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES!" She screamed so loud that everyone on the ship could hear her, sopping wet tail whipping out in agitation.

"We did Cap'n!" One person, a male kwayar insisted in a panicky voice.

A large wave slammed into the side of the ship, sending it careening to the side, and ever closer to the jagged rocks that seemed to line that part of the island.

"THE STORM'S TOO STRONG!!" Shouted one panicking nature spirit on the ship.

Fuck...I've got to find a way to fix this. "Do we have any storm or water spirits aboard aside from Azure?" She winced as a gust of wind blew right into her sensitive cat ears. "We can try to lessen the storm's effects so we won't crash!"

A few people made from wisps of blue and Azure stepped up, muttering their spells as orbs of light appeared in their hands.

Another wave, another few feet closer to the island and all the jagged rocks.

And then finally, the storm seemed to be calming down. The clouds didn't look as angry, the wind didn't howl as loudly. The few who weren't concentrating intensely noticed this and started breathing a little easier.

Katani smiled at the gathered storm and water spirits. Some permanent members of her crew, and some just along for the ride until they get bored or reached their destination. But all of them working together as one cohesive unit.

"Great Job everyone!" Katani called. "Now we just--"

CRASH!!