FICTION |FANTASY |SEEDLING CHALLENGE |
Tessa and the Dracolich
Seedling Challenge (5) x Monday Mash-Up Response
This story is #5 in my Seedling Challenge. I began with a drabble (100 words), microfiction (101–300 words), postcard (301–500 words) and sudden fiction (501–1000 words). This is my short story rewrite (1,001–2,000 words).
This is also my submission for TKL’s Monday Mash-Up #33. Enjoy!
The small golden bell hanging on the door chimed as Tessa Riverleaf entered the Harbormaster’s Office. It was the only multi-storied building on the wharf that wasn’t a warehouse reeking of fish, so she knew this was where to ask for help.
“Good day to you, elfen maiden,” a man at the front desk said with a smile. “Don’t get many of your fair folk ‘round here. How may I help you?”
Tessa smiled awkwardly. Having come to the city from the wild forests of the Emerald Wood, she was still unaccustomed to the way humans did things. The small talk, the inane questions. There was rarely a purpose to it all and she was in quite a hurry!
“Fine day to you, Sir,” she replied with a soft bow. “I’m looking for a man — Captain Seahammer. Do you know where I might find him?”
“That pirate’s no man!” he spat out, pointing out the window to a moored ship a short distance away. “Koryn Seahammer is an untrustworthy, lecherous scallywag with seawater in his veins instead of blood!”
Koryn indeed seemed like a scoundrel, Tessa thought, but that was exactly who she needed to aid her in her quest.
“Thank you for your time.” She spun on her heels and exited onto the wooden wharf, the door chime signaling the end to their conversation.
What an odd little man, Tessa thought as she admired the many tall-ships moored along the wharf. Some were loading or unloading, others were resting idle.
Finally, her keen eyes spotted a ship bearing the name she had been looking for. She eagerly stepped forward, weaving in and out of the bustling crowd of sailors walking by.
“You must be Captain Seahammer,” she called out to a burly orcish man wearing a black captain’s tricorn with a vibrant feather hanging from its brim. Twin matchlock pistols adorned his belt. He had a wooden leg and an eye patch and looked every bit the salty pirate.
He turned around with an angry expression which softened upon seeing an elegant elf standing before him! “I must speak with you!” Tessa added.
The urgency in her voice brought a few sniggers from the crewmen on the deck, and she dropped her head in embarrassment. “Bleedin’ tits on a harlot elf! Back to work!” the captain yelled up to his crew, and that seemed to quiet them down. He looked back to Tessa. “Eh, sorry ‘bout me manner, Lady Elf.”
“Tessa.” She extended her hand to shake.
“Lady Tessa, is it?” he said, grasping her hand in his most civilized poise. “Shall we speak more in my office?”
She nodded.
Once aboard the ship and in the privacy of the captain’s private office, both Koryn and Tessa breathed a relieved sigh. It seemed that neither of them enjoyed being the center of attention, Tessa thought.
“So, Lady Tessa,” Koryn began, lighting a tobacco pipe with a drop of Dragon’s Flame, “what’ya be needin’ from me an’ me crew?”
“Merely safe passage to my destination.”
Koryn puffed out a cloud of white smoke from his pipe, retrieving a stack of rolled up maps as he did so.
Leaning over the desk, Tessa thumbed through the prized sailing maps until she found one that contained her destination. She pointed it out proudly. “There, Captain. That is my destination.”
Koryn spat out his pipe. “There be nothing there but open ocean!”
“Nonetheless, good Captain Koryn Seahammer,” Tessa stated calmly, retrieving several tiny gemstones from a pocket and placing them on the desk, “I must reach my agreed meeting place.”
“That be suicide,” Koryn said, dismissing it with a wave of his hand.
She had to do something to prove it wouldn’t be as reckless as he thought. A demonstration of her powers was in order.
Concentrating on the sea air around her, she slowly folded her arms until they began to shrink and grow blue feathers. Her legs disappeared, replaced by spindly bird feet. Her face melted away, growing a pointy orange parrot’s beak.
She fluttered over to rest atop Koryn’s shoulder, his mouth on the floor. “By the gods, yer a shifter!” he exclaimed. “Welcome aboard the Boggart Blighter, Lady Tessa.”
The storm came on suddenly, from right in front of the ship. In seconds, Tessa watched in horror as the bright blue horizon shifted into the dark, malevolent and swirling maelstrom that now loomed before her.
Only a powerful spellcaster could manipulate the seas thus! She knew who was impeding her quest and she swore to stop him.
“Lower the mainsail!”
“She’ll roll over in this storm!”
Though technically just a passenger — not part of the crew — Tessa couldn’t just sit idly by as the crew of the Blighter raced frantically to save their ship.
Tessa raised her hands and fired her magical bolts at the mainsail — an orison to drop the fabric to the deck. It obeyed with a loud thud. Nearby sailors cheered.
The captain jumped down from the poop deck, safety rope in hand, and grabbed Tessa before a wave nearly washed her off the deck.
“Sailors be superstitious fools, ye blasted sorcerer!” he yelled over the sea’s wailing. “Get ye down below ‘fore I throw ye o’erboard!”
“Captain, we gotta turn back!” a frightened sailor yelled.
“Goblin swill! The Blighter nay turns tail fer naught but a blushing mermaid’s bosom!” The captain winked with his good eye, turning away from Tessa. “Into the wind! I’ll not tell ye again, scurvy kobold fodder!”
Tessa stumbled, struggling to get below decks before a massive wave flooded the deck. She smacked her head on the railing and was thrown into the black churning sea.
“Man overboard!” the Captain yelled as Tessa’s rope snapped. His voice was lost to the wind. “Godspeed, Shifter…”
“Awake, Landwalker!”
Tessa coughed herself back into consciousness, and her fright at being underwater — for a brief moment — made her forget about her abilities. But, a second later, she had shifted into a large fish and reveled in being able to breathe despite being underwater.
She looked around her dark watery surroundings, immediately acknowledging two things: the Blighter was nowhere to be seen, and a beautiful woman with the body, scales, and tail of a fish swam uncomfortably close to her, staring into her eyes as if a wondrous miracle had been performed.
Then she remembered that she had just shape-changed in front of this creature!
“I’m a Shifter,” Tessa tried to explain, introducing herself. “I can take many forms.” She noticed that the mermaid held tightly to a red apple like a cherished plaything. Odd, she thought. Perhaps, like her, it had fallen from the ship in the storm?
“Thank you for saving me,” she continued, bowing — or, at least, whatever it looked like for a giant tuna fish to try and bow!
After a sustained silence of the sea maiden simply staring at her, Tessa tried to prompt her to speak, something she hoped she could do. “What may I call you?”
The mermaid twisted her face, then looked defeated, shaking her head slowly.
“I am Desislava…”
But the voice was not spoken, Tessa realized, it was from inside her own head! Desislava clutched her throat then, revealing iron bangles on her wrists. Her gesture suggested that she was mute.
But Tessa detected the extreme sadness in the mermaiden’s eyes. Upon closer examination, she was bruised and beaten in multiple places; her wrists wore not bangles, but iron bindings!
“Where is the beast that did this to you?” Tessa growled, thrashing her fins angrily.
The mermaiden merely pointed below her, down into the darkness.
Tessa thought — no, she knew — that the mermaid’s home was deep below, but she also knew that Desislava held no love for it. In fact, she wanted nothing more than to escape.
She turned to the mermaiden. “Hold still.” She focused her magic on the iron cuffs, and cast another orison, freezing the metal and instantly shattering them. The pieces slowly sank into the depths.
“You are free now. You can accompany me, if you like. I seek to stop a powerful pyromancer from torching my home.”
Desislava busied herself with rubbing her wrists where the iron had kept her bound with magic. Now free, she still felt indebted to Tessa, and she communicated this thought through her mind-voice.
“I am not your Master,” Tessa answered, “although I hunt him. Help me stop him, and you will have earned your freedom.”
The traumatized mermaiden thought hard for a moment, then nodded in agreement. Desislava’s voice rang out in song in Tessa’s head, an old shanty that the crew of the Blighter had once sung for her during the voyage.
“Her mainmast is solid, her course straight an’ true
Best hide ‘way yer daughters, the Blighter’s come through!
No island is safe from the Boggart’s pursue
wit’ spear an’ wit’ hook the Blighter’s come fer you!”
The look of sheer determination in Desislava’s eyes told Tessa what was going to happen next. They would kill the monstrous Diego Flameweller — together.
They happily swam together for hours, feeling safer and closer than either woman had for a long while. Soon, Desi — a pet name Tessa had decided was more appropriate — pointed her finger to the surface, and the two breached the rough surface of the water; the storm was directly above them!
The Blighter was there, wildly firing its cannons at a giant skeletal Dracolich! It flew around the maelstrom, dive-bombing the ship and raining fire upon the brave crew. Atop it — Diego! He had enslaved the merfolk, and made a fortune with his family’s illegal whaling trade!
She growled, shifting into a falcon. She would now hunt her prey like the falcon she had become. “This ends now, Diego!”
She screeched as she flew, her open beak belting out a lightning bolt that crippled the Blighter’s sail, plowing right into the Dracolich, sending poor Diego into a watery grave. You must not defile the earth so, she thought mournfully.
With Diego fallen, the Dracolich crumbled into a shower of bones, but not before it blasted its fiery breath at her, knocking Tessa out of the sky and back into the sea.
Tessa awoke on a warm sandy beach, her naked body washed ashore from the storm. Feeling very exposed, she splashed around the beach until she found her shredded clothing and wrapped the rags about her.
“Desi?” She called out into the sea, but only the waves answered back. She missed her home, missed the sound of crunching leaves beneath her feet, and now she missed Desislava.
Thanks for sticking with me on this wild ride! One more Seedling instalment to go! As for my Mash-Up contribution, I believe my points are as follows:
Total score: 24/24! Diego gets buried (at sea!) 2 pts Desi finds a red apple: +1 pt Tessa misses the sound of crunching leaves: +1 pt Diego got wealthy from whaling (Didn't think that distinction would come in handy!) : +1 pt Diego summons a dragon skeleton!: +1 pt Tessa takes revenge on Diego: +2 pts Tessa spends her time as animal, laments Diego's path: +5 pts My SEA SHANTY: +10 pts This sexy tally box: +1 pt
This expanding story is a continuation of my Seedling Challenge, and a response to MMU #33. Follow me for more fiction tales, story writing prompts and their results! Feel free to leave a Twonie in my Ko-Fi as well!
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