FICTION |FANTASY |SEEDLING CHALLENGE

Tessa and the Dracolich

Seedling Challenge (4)

This story is #4 in my Seedling Challenge. I began with a drabble (100 words), microfiction (101–300 words), postcard (301–500 words). This is my sudden fiction (501–1000 words).

The 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.

“Good day to you, elfen maiden,” a man at the front desk said with a smile. “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.

“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 a scoundrel through and through! Trust me when I say: you want nothing to do with him!”

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.

Tessa smiled and brushed away her silvered hair as she gawked at the tall-ships moored in a row 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 sailors walking by.

“You must be Captain Seahammer,” she called out to a burly orcish man wearing a captain’s tricorn with a vibrant feather hanging from its brim. 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?”

Tessa 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.”

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…

“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 veteran captain Seahammer jumped down from the poop deck, safety rope in hand, and grabbed Tessa before a wave nearly washed her off the deck. She felt him slip something into her pocket.

“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 sailor yelled, frightened.

“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…”

Tessa awoke on a warm sandy beach, her body transformed into a cat’s!

She’d been abandoned here and trapped as a cat on this island with nothing! Would a ship ever come to rescue her?

Tessa sighed as the orange sunset touched the horizon.

She needed to go home, needed to get back to normal. She missed being human.

She spotted three black sails approaching on the horizon.

“It’s him!”

This expanding story is a continuation of my Seedling Challenge. Follow me for more fiction tales, story writing prompts and their results! Feel free to leave a Twonie in my Ko-Fi as well!