This entry in the Magic Realms fantasy series is a bit of a fun story that I put together as a Christmas writing challenge. It may be a bit out of season, for this part of the world, to share it but I thought it would be a contrast to the more dramatic, yet humorous, The Death of a Dragon. Unlike that one, I don't foresee this one directly making it into a novel even though all of the characters will eventually be featured in one.
Now, enjoy this short story fantasy/scifi story about the crazy antics of a crew of space-borne misfits taking a break from journeying about on their far-too-small starship.
“Ahhh! What a wonderful world! Only ten below freezing, and it’s summer during a heat wave! Crisp air and …” Suddenly the strange man with somewhat unkempt hair peeking out from under his thick hood paused as something caught his attention. “Hm ... Dave?” he asked as he gestured with his ornate bronze cane capped by a softball-sized ruby on the top of it.
An elf with gray-blue skin, that was mostly hidden by his thick hood, looked over as he adjusted the warmth spells on his gloves. “Yes, Captain?”
“There seem to be quite a few ice wisps gathering over there. Would you mind terribly checking the barrier wards over there? Okay? Thanks.” He grinned widely as he turned his attention toward other matters. “No, no! No magic in making of the snow forts! Darion! Snow Quartz! That especially means you two!”
“Aw c’mon! What makes you think we would do anything beyond the rules of the contest?” yelled back a short woman with pale somewhat doll-like features.
“Because!” retorted Captain Zane, “I could tell that Darion was working on crafting something over there behind the snow bank!”
“What?!” exclaimed a huge jet- black Werewolf as he stood up. “Not even if it’s not directly for the fight?”
“You know the rules! No trinkets, magic, runes, hexes, holy blessings, physical buffs, technological contraptions, power armor, weapons, explosives, giant magical snow plows, or anything that I might have missed!”
“But why can’t we wear our armor?!” complained a 6’8” tall man with sandy brown hair and vivid teal-green eyes as he adjusted his coat. “It’s like part of us!”
“Because,” replied Zane with a smile, “whether you are Solar Storm Troopers who practically live in your armor, or not ... Do you really want our dear warsmith to wear his armor that was probably customized to be able to throw massive amounts of snow around?”
A near maniacal cackle answered from nearby. “Aye! That’d be the day! Give me the chance,” yelled a thickly built Dwarf with a stark red beard and mustache coming out from under his goggles. “I’d show those dimpy cans of yours a thing or two!”
“What if we used a yeti?!” blurted out a stunningly young sounding voice for a human female who was over six feet tall.
“Erm... I’m officially adding that to the list now!” countered Zane. “Now! Get to it! We need to finish pulverizing each other with copious and ridiculous amounts of snow in time for dinner! It wouldn’t be a holiday celebration without some indiscriminate acts of violence before we gather around to enjoy one another’s company!”
A nearby brown and tan Werecat, usually sleek and strong looking and now somewhat fluffy looking with a cold-weather fur coat grown in, stood up and looked at Zane with a bewildered expression. “You people have the strangest way of celebrating the Day of the Savior’s Birth.”
“I know, but I love it!” exclaimed the woman next to the Werecat.
“You would, Roxie,” replied the Werecat with an amused smile.
“Admit it, Kat, once the snow starts flying, you’ll enjoy it every bit as much as the rest of us,” countered Roxie while giving Kat a playful jab to her side. “Now get packing. There’s no telling when he’ll signal the fight.”
“True ...” began Kat before pausing and kneeling down with a sensitive ear toward the snow. “I think I hear some burrowing ...”
Roxie laughed. “I’ll build a collapsible snow bank next to where they’ll come out!”
Dave walked back over to Zane and looked out at their crew. “Don’t you think the teams are a bit uneven?”
Zane grinned widely and there seemed to be a twinkle in his eyes. “Whatever do you mean?”
“We’ve got the super-soldiers on a team together; two battlemages on another, one of which is a huge werewolf; another battlemage working with an enhanced Werecat; a crazy warsmith Dwarf that vanished into a snow bank and doesn’t seem to be on anyone’s side; two rogues that are who-knows-where; a variety of capable casters grouped together; and the rest of the crew spread between the different teams. If just one person breaks the no-magic rule, it will be total chaos.”
Zane grinned. “I know.”
Dave sighed. “I should have known ... You counted on that.”
Zane glanced back at a huge Tauros, a race that look like humanoid cows and bulls, who was busy working away in a large outdoor kitchen situated in a sheltered depression in the snow. “How goes the meal preparations, Hall?!”
“Good!” yelled Hall in reply. “The drink warmers are working perfectly, and the enchanted plates should keep food from getting cold too quickly when it’s served!”
“Perfect!”
= = = = = = = = = = = =
Zane eagerly watched the preparations. The battlemage-heavy team was largely focused on making an impressive, tiered snow fort and was taking full advantage of Darion’s size and ability to move large amounts of snow at a time. The Solar Storm Trooper-led team was concentrating on making a smaller, yet extremely well packed, fort with battlements situated at key areas. The Magey Team, as they seemed to dub themselves, created two separate forts positioned to cover one another and seemed to be connected by a tunnel. As for the rogues ... as far as Zane could guess, they had snagged crew members and were stealthily employing magic to construct an underground bunker with multiple hidden exits.
Zane rubbed his gloved hands together eagerly. Should I go ahead and surprise everyone by starting it now? Nooo ... His grin grew wider. Not yet. Not juuuust yet. Zane fidgeted. He summoned a tome and began reviewing some more obscure arcane spells. Several mental comparisons between spells later, he looked at his watch. Ten minutes had elapsed. He looked out at the teams who were all eagerly still working on their forts and stock piling ammunition. “Hm....”
Dave smirked as he watched Zane fidget and try to busy himself with more study despite his excitement over starting the match.
Zane dismissed his tome and began building a small-scale replica of their far-too-small-for-the-crew sized ship, The Wanderlust, which was in low orbit above the battleground. Upon completing that, he smirked and began creating a scale representation of a full-grown Valerion, a space-borne race similar in appearance to massive space-whales in their true forms. Zane stood and looked down at the models. He glanced at Dave. “You know, this makes our ship seem depressingly small.”
Dave, who had busied himself with creating runes to scan the surrounding area for threats, hadn’t bothered taking notice of Zane’s antics until spoken to. He looked at the models, and laughed. “It does. Do you think Daniel will be that large in relation to the size of the ship when full grown?”
Zane bobbed his head side to side thoughtfully. “I don’t know. Maybe given a few hundred years.” He looked back out at the battlefield-in-the-making. He fidgeted. “That’s it. I can’t take it anymore,” said Zane as a grin and a thinly veiled look of insanity showed through his expression. With a wave of his ruby-topped cane, Zane summoned a large three-foot-tall mortar-looking tube.
Dave’s eyes widened. “Isn’t that a bit much for a starter signal?”
“Naw!” replied Zane with a growing eagerness. “The sound-dampening spells will keep anyone from going deaf.”
Before Dave could raise any further voice of protest, Zane cast a fire spell and ignited a fuse that quickly trailed fire into the dark depths of the tube. An instant later, a heart-skip-inducing thud sounded as the artillery shell launched into the air. All grew silent as the shell snaked its way high into the sky. Then, for a period of five seconds, there was a second sun in the sky that shone far more brightly than the distant star that anchored the cold ice world in space.
Despite the stunning brightness of the orb, all eyes struggled to stay on it in anticipation of what may come next. At the end of the five seconds, the white orb exploded into a dazzling array of colors and sounds that seemed like a thousand auroras exploding and cascading in the sky. Even Zane was in awe, and he had known fully what to expect. When the display finally faded, the entire part of the planet seemed to be blanketed in an eerie silence.
Zane blinked and stared into the sky in disbelief. He reached into his hood and rubbed an ear. “Maybe I should have employed stronger sound-dampening spells than that for the launch?!” he yelled.
“What?!” replied Dave while rubbing his own ears.
= = = = = = = = = = =
When sound had returned to the world, Zane cupped his hands and yelled out towards the battlefield, “That means start!”
Immediately the air above the wide expanse of snow designated as their battleground was filled with innumerable balls of snow flying back and forth between the snow forts. Despite the madness, or rather because of it, each fort sent out their own strike teams to assault the others under the cover of a dizzying number of projectiles.
Four Solar Storm Troopers demonstrated their skill by scooping up handfuls of snow and throwing them with unerring accuracy while still maintaining their charge toward Fort Battlecaster. Darion was weathering any and all resistance as he charged Fort Magey while carrying a massive four-foot-in-diameter snowball with Snow Quartz and a support team following closely behind. A group charged out from both parts of Fort Magey in answer to the advancing Werewolf. Meanwhile, Kat bolted out from Fort Doomstruck on all fours as she led a flanking assault on the now undermanned Fort Magey.
No sooner than Kat had left, flecks of snow began coming loose on a wall within Fort Doomstruck, and Garret, the crew’s Dwarven warsmith, burst through with a near-drunken-sounding yell, “Ah hah! I’ll get all of you now!” He suddenly paused at the realization that he was standing in an open hole with walls on three sides. Garret looked up. “Bugger that.”
Roxie grinned manically down at him as she signaled her fellow defenders to push over surrounding mounds of snow to bury their Dwarven intruder.
The battlefield quickly descended into madness with tunnels breaching forts, hidden pits opening beneath charging combatants, and Darion employing Snow Quartz as ammunition in assaulting Fort Doomstruck in a counteroffensive. Zane laughed near hysterically as he magically recorded every possible moment of the insanity onto magical crystals.
Despite the utter insanity, a voice in Zane’s mind that said it wasn’t enough. He looked at the ruby on the end of his cane and voiced his opposition to the voice. No, they put in so much work and showed so much restraint. He watched as Darion vanished through a pit into what Zane could only assume was a maze of snow tunnels. For the most part... I don’t want to spoil it. The voice answered. You won’t spoil it. Just add more excitement. Zane pondered and looked back out at the battlefield.
The voice continued. Besides, the rules are already broken. It would just open the door for everyone else to do it. Zane tilted his head from side to side several in the debate for a moment and then grinned. Alright was his response as he began casting a series of small ice-blast spells intended to look as though they were coming from the defenders in each of the forts.
Zane knew that most of the crew would probably see through his ploy in an instant. He fully expected that none of them would care and would take the invitation to use magic for what it was. Moments later, the battlefield was filled with snow-flurry spells, wind gusts, mounds of snow being flown about with levitation spells, and more.
The Solar Storm Troopers summoned their armor, and Garret burst out of a snow bank in a mech-suit that had massive shovels for hands. All semblance of order broke down soon after, and it wasn’t long before all three forts lay in ruin. Within another ten minutes, Zane was hard pressed to find any member of the crew who wasn’t, at least partially, buried in snow.
“Well,” said Zane with an amused expression. “I think that does it.”
Dave shook his head and laughed. “I think so. Was throwing in those spells really necessary?”
“Of course!” he exclaimed while glancing over at Hall, who had moved to a better spot to watch the insanity. “Sound for the food!”
Hall glanced out at the battlefield and shook his head as he reached into a pocket. He pressed a button on a remote, and a loud dinner-bell sound started pumping out over loud speakers in the dining area. The members of the Wanderlust crew began popping out of the snow like maniacal gophers as they bolted toward the sound with the thought of hot drinks and good food floating through their minds.
Everyone went straight to rows of steaming hot drinks and began trying to warm up after the madness of the snowball war. Zane watched with a smile and summoned a bell into his left hand. He rang it loudly to call the crew to attention and cleared his throat. “Well, I hope everyone had a good fight? They’re always perfect for building comradery and strengthening friendships, aren’t they?”
“Aye!” yelled out Garret. “Especially when you get to smash your friends in the head!”
Zane smiled at the outburst of laughter and cheers of agreement. “Yes, yes, it does! And I’m glad that it went over well! We might just have to do this again in the future!” Members of the crew began cheering, and Zane gestured for them to continue on. He looked at Dave with a grin. “I think we hit on something here.”
Dave shook his head. “I guess we did. Were you going somewhere with this or just stringing things on for the cheers?”
Zane cleared his throat. “Well, I guess I might have been doing that a bit.” He looked back out at the crew. “Alright! Let’s all get this going. Do we have someone to say grace before we dig into all this wonderful food that Hall prepared for us?!”
“Aye!” yelled Garret. “Thanks, Creator, for all this grub! Let’s dig in!”
Zane looked thoughtful for an instant and gave a slight nod. “Succinct and to the point. Have at the food everyone!”
The crew of the Wanderlust enjoyed their warm food and were full of merriment and, to a lesser extent, booze. Despite the cold, none of them felt chilled. When everyone had finished eating, Zane called them to attention once more. “Well! That was some good food! Everyone, thank Hall and give him a round of applause!”
Hall stood and bowed as the crew cheered.
“Now,” continued Zane. “In lieu of a priest, cleric, holy warrior, paladin, pastor, or even monk ... I will now ask our crew member with the deepest and best-sounding voice to read from the Scriptures.” Zane summoned an old worn book of the Scriptures and held it out towards Hall.
Hall looked at Zane with an amused expression. “I should have expected this after the applause.” He took the book, opened it to the appropriate place in the scriptures, and read.
When he finished, everyone began talking and continuing the merriment as the dim sun began to fade with the end of the day. The chill in the air began growing but between the warming spells on clothing, warm drinks, and full environmental suits or thick fur coats, all the crew was warm, and the magic lighting ensured that no one was left in the dark.
Suddenly, alarms in the wards began going off, and the ground beyond the gathering began shaking violently. Everyone paused and looked in wide-eyed suspense and then astonishment as a massive, towering, segmented-worm creature came up out of the snow. The worm creature roared.
Zane laughed nervously. “Well, I guess this is why this planet is uninhabited.”
The worm-creature reared back and roared again.
“Everyone, activate your recall stones!” yelled Zane.
Immediately after, the entirety of the crew and Hall’s kitchenware vanished. The worm-creature roared, dove into the wards, shattering them on impact, and left a large gaping hole in the ground where the crew just was.
I hope you enjoyed the crazy exploits of the crew of the Wanderlust! Next week will bring another short story, even though I have yet to decide on a new update schedule.
Also, if you are new to this blog and want to read the earlier interview posts, I suggest you start with the very first one. The interview of Tarvin Dracken functions as the introduction for that series of short stories that were used for revealing lore and background for my upcoming novel, Drifters: Origins.
Again, if you liked the story, please use the social buttons at the bottom of this post to share the story with others!
Tags:
Comments