I sat on the deck of the ship, the storm fully passed and the water calm again. The ship was finally sailing, or I guess flying, steadily. Neame flew around, fixing things with magic that got damaged from the storm, growing food for the crew in the giant dirt pit at the center of the deck, or just cleaning up. It was just after noon, so the pit was still filled with the plants from everyone growing their seeds, and they were getting ready to clear away the shrubs. Then, an idea occurred to me.

“Excuse me.” I said, interrupting one of the crew members who was about to pull the various vines, shrubs, and small trees out of the dirt with magic.

“Yes? Oh sorry, did you want to grow something before I rip everything up?” She asked.

“No, actually. I already had a sandwich. What do you usually do with the plants after ripping them up?”

“Sand…? Um, we just toss them overboard. Why?” She seemed confused. Either at not knowing what a sandwich was, or over why I asked.

“I was hoping I could keep some of them. They’re still alive, and I want to practice some spells on them.”

“Well, as long as you’re willing to toss them over after you finished. Wait, they are not fire spells, right? Or anything that could hurt the very wooden ship we are currently perched on?”

“No. Not fire spells. And I will be careful not to hurt the ship.” I assured her.

“Okay. You probably need the Captain’s permission first, but I will wait to throw them off until you get a yes or no. Captain is in his quarters below deck on the tail side.”

“Thanks.” I said, and made my way to the back of the ship. There was a large, open well in the deck, near the ship’s directional sail; which I heard someone call a “tilt-sail.”

Crawling inside the well and dropping about three feet to the deck below, and falling on my butt in the process, I heard a male voice call out from somewhere behind me. Through the dim light of one of those glowing braids, I saw a small head pop out from behind a tiny curtain covering a box. “What was that? Sounded like a borog fell over.”

“Sorry, Captain. That was me. I can’t fly, so I had to fall.” I said, standing back up.

“Well, tell me what you want already, so I can go back to sleep.” He said, gruffly.

“Can I use the left over plants from everyone growing lunch to practice my spells?”

“Are they fire spells?”

“No.”

“Then I don’t care. Now get out.” He said, pulling his head back into the curtain.

“Thank you, sir.” Looking back up to the edge of the hole above me, I realized how far away it was. So much so that even raising my hands above my head and jumping several times, I still came up short.

“Will you quiet down?!” The ship’s Captain shouted.

“Sorry, sir.” I said, and looked back up at the ledge just out of my reach.

From behind the curtain, a very small, annoyed, and tired voice asked, “You’re stuck, aren’t you?”

“What? Me, stuck? No. I’m not stuck. What would make you think that?” I told him, then immediately contacted Suma using our private connection. “Suma, can you summon me? I’m stuck.”

“Then leave already!” The Captain shouted from behind the curtain, just before I disappeared.

I reappeared back by Suma’s box, just a short walk away from the plants and ship-bound garden. “Captain agreed.” I told the worker.

“All yours then. Just be sure to toss them when you are finished.” She said, and flew away to her next task.

I spent a few hours practicing using a rot spell. I’d do one that affected the whole plant, then try and focus it so that only a single leaf withered; with varying success with everything. Sometimes the spell would cause the whole plant to turn black and crumble to dust. Other times it would go gray and get stiff, like it was petrifying. Once a plant was used up, I’d toss it overboard, which resulted in me accidentally smacking a Neame who was flying past with a bouquet of rotten leaves once. He squawked and started chirping loudly, but I couldn’t understand him. According to another crewmate, he was cussing me out in his native language. Suma healed him, I apologized, and he gave me the stink-eye before leaving. Suma and I decided it was probably best not to ask to learn whatever language he was using. After that, dropping the used plants overboard became standard for me, rather than tossing them.

Just as I was on the last of the plants, one of the crew approached me. “What’s wrong with your magic?” He asked. It was a reddish-blue Neame, a bit taller than Suma, who sounded apprehensive.

“You mean the spell?” I asked, thinking he meant the rotting effect.

“No, I mean your mana. When you cast a spell, it feels wrong somehow.”

“Um, I think Suma and the others have mentioned that once or twice. I have Chaos-Magic, and they say it feels weird to them. But I can’t feel magic at all, so...”

The Neame looked down, his feathers puffed up, and his glitter dimmed. “My sincere condolences. I did not mean to bring up such a sensitive topic. Please forgive me.”

“No, it’s fine. Don’t-” Unfortunately, he flew away in a rush before my sentence was finished; almost leaving some of his feather behind trying to get away from a perceived awkward situation. “Whatever.” I said, and dropped the last of the plants into the water below. By then, it was nearing sundown, and my stomach was growling. Looking through my bag, all that was left for today was an orange apple looking thing Suma gave me that she grew an extra of by accident, half a bag of crisps, and one breath mint. I ate those and sent the bag home with today’s letter for mum. The letter was basically just a recap of today’s events, and an update on how I was doing. But there wouldn’t be any more food in it until tomorrow, after mum woke up, found the bag, and read the latest letter.

After thinking very hard about how I could catch something, I asked the group. “You guys want any fish?”

“Like… as a familiar?” Nine asked.

“That does not seem like a useful choice. Maybe if one fought over the ocean regularly, but for most cases, would it not simply die upon summoning?” Fourteen said.

“Are you considering getting a familiar of your own? There are better choices, certainly.” Lieutenant Datahu asked.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

“Do you know the summoning spells for familiars?” Captain Gigoales asked. “That could open up an entirely new way of fighting for you, but a fish seems a poor choice.”

“Jake, I highly doubt you are asking about fish because you want one as a familiar. Why do you ask?” Suma wondered.

“I was just hungry, and thought I’d ask if anyone else wanted some.” I explained, caught off guard by all the sudden questions. Suddenly, Fourteen flew away. As he did, I heard a faint gagging noise.

“Eat a fish?” Nine said, horrified, like I’d offered him a severed head.

“Jake. That is… no. Jake… please tell me you are making another of those jokes I do not understand.” Suma said.

“What’s wrong with fish?” I asked, confused.

“It’s fish.” Nine said. “They are slimy and weird and gross.”

“I would like one.” Captain Gigoales said.

“As would I.” Lieutenant Datahu agreed.

“What!?” Nine and Suma both yelled.

“Seriously?” Nine asked.

“I ate them on a mission a few years ago, and was surprised how good it was. As did the Lieutenant.”

“Yes, and since both the base, and Royal Capital are landlocked, finding anyone who both has a fish, and knows how to prepare it is essentially impossible.”

“Do you know, Jake?” The Captain asked.

“Yeah. I grew up going fishing with my Dad. Plus, I live on an island, so we eat a lot of seafood.”

A few minutes later, while I was using magic to lift large amounts of water to search for fish, I heard a small voice behind me. It was Suma. “Dragons, I know I have not prayed to you since I was very young, but if you are listening, please come back and take us to your perfect lands before Jake makes me try fish.”

Turns out, Neame are fans of sushi, because both Captain Gigoales and Lieutenant Datahu assumed we would be eating the fish raw, and were very surprised when I started boiling water in a pot made of sculpted wood. Since I couldn’t use fire, I had to directly heat the water with magic, which caused warping in the wood and poured boiling water onto the deck, but thankfully no one was hurt. An hour later, my belly was full of wild caught, boiled fish, and two Neame asking for seconds of raw fish. I did think about asking for permission to use fire magic, but on a wooden ship, it seemed to be a bad idea. Besides, most Neame start to get nervous whenever I use my purple fire, which is what I’ve gotten used to using in the last year.

Just after fixing the sculpted wooden pot I’d made, ready for another round, a call above our heads rang out. “Pirates! Sunset side! Three minutes away! One scout spotted!” Everyone flew around, calling out orders in a rush. Dozens of Neame all around began casting spells. Some of the spells turned the outer hull into a spiked mess, with hundreds of twenty-centimeter-long wooden stakes pointing outward. The eyes of all the crew glowed with a multitude of colors. The only ones left with nothing to do were our squadron.

“Captain Gigoales, should we do something too?” Fourteen asked.

“No, this is their ship, and their fight. They know how to handle it. We would only get in their way.” He said. So there we all sat, or perched; like knots on a log. I tried to look for the pirates, but saw nothing in the distance. The seconds felt like minutes, the minutes like hours. Until finally, the whole ship shook suddenly.

“Contact, below the water!” Someone nearby shouted.

A group of six Neame flew into the air and began circling the ship, then shouted back, “Three familiars, one D.O.H.!”

The ship’s Captain flew up at that time, or maybe he was already there, and I simply hadn’t noticed in the chaos. “Teams one and three, drive off the familiars! Two and four, begin anti-ship spells! Team five, give us more speed!” As he was giving orders, I noticed something in the water. A fin, easily a meter long, broke through the surface.

“Brace! Brace!” A voice above the ship called out. A moment later, the rest of the monster broke through the water, and threw itself onto the ship, impaling its body on the spikes. It had a shark’s fin on its back, but a body like a humpback whale. Rather than a head, it had something like a squid’s beak, which violently bit and gnawed at the hull like it didn’t even feel the dozens of spikes ripping huge chunks of its flesh off with each twist and turn of its increasingly mangled body. The impact threw me to the ground, and caused the still boiling water to spill out again, this time completely overboard and right onto the snapping maw that was less than two meters from me; it didn’t seem to care. Without warning, a bolt of lightning struck its body, causing it to seize, stopping its attack momentarily. Using that opening, I took the opportunity to put my practice to the test.

“Rot!” I yelled, and the yellowed beak and gray skin of the sea-monster quickly darkened. At the same time, massive chunks of the ship’s hull split off, and reared back, like they’d suddenly come to life. They moved like tentacles. Very thick, strong, and pointy tentacles; which wrapped up the beast like a constrictor snake, before squeezing it so tightly an audible crunch echoed across the ship. By the time the wooden tentacles loosened, letting the dead whale thing fall into the sea, the Neame above had already announced that the last familiar was retreating.

With the battle over, the Neame all cheered, and immediately started fixing the ship back to how it was. Three more minutes later, and you wouldn’t have been able to tell there was ever a battle; except for the steam rising from the now empty pot, and the smell of rotten fish in the air. However, there was one other sign. Now, in the distance just cresting over the horizon as it fled, I could barely make out the tiny silhouette of a ship, sailing away. A Neame landed next to us, and spoke with the ship’s Captain.

“Sir, the familiar and its ship are taking distance. Should we pursue?”

“No, we’ve chased them away. That will be enough for today. Our mission for this voyage is not to hunt pirates, but to deliver this squadron. And we cannot delay their mission.” He replied. My mind wandered for a moment, like it was being guided by something else. The memories of Zachariah’s battle on Dragon’s Fall Bay, and how he sank the ship appeared in my mind, like I was reliving them again. Standing up again, albeit slowly as the ship was still slowly rocking back and forth, I turned to both my Captain, and the ship’s.

“I might have an idea.” I suggested.

“Jake?” Suma said.

“What if I sunk it from here? I could use my Chaos-Magic to rot the hull.”

“Is such a thing possible?” The ship’s Captain wondered.

“From this distance… even for you, that seems a bit… infeasible. Perhaps your long-ranged magic would be best. Your ‘Railgun’ spell would be better.” Captain Gigoales said.

“Captains,” Lieutenant Datahu, who’d been nearby, quietly listening, interrupted. “There would be no harm in letting him try. And it would be a good test of his current abilities.”

“Alright then. Just don’t sink my ship.” Captain Gigoales also nodded, and I thanked them. Looking out at the quickly disappearing ship, I took a moment to imagine the spell, and how it would play out. Like when I first used ‘Railgun,’ the picture of a long stream of mana connecting myself and the ship appeared in my mind. Then, images of the ship’s wooden hull rotting away, turning to mulch, and falling apart played out. The rot would start at the contact point between my mana, and the ship. Any metal, as I pictured it in my mind, would rust and crumble. It would spread to Neame touching the rot too, like a plague. And then, I cast the spell.

“Rot.” I said simply, and felt a split second of dizziness, but decided to ignore it for now as it quickly vanished; chalking it up to either sea sickness or the spell using more mana than I’d thought it would. There was a moment of silence before the ship’s Captain ordered one of the crew to go scout the outcome.

“That felt like quite a lot of mana being released just now. Are you okay?” He asked.

“A bit dizzy for a second, but fine now.”

“Jake’s mana reservoir is plentiful.” Suma said, but really, I could feel through our connection she was proud to say it, and I could hear a bit of smugness in her tone to boot.

A minute later, the scout returned. His feathers were puffed up, and he’d lost almost all of his glittery sparkle. “They’re sinking, Captain.”

“Are you alright, crewman? You look like you’ve seen the Black Wyrm, ready to pluck you.” The ship’s Captain said. “What about the ship’s crew. Are they setting their sails towards-”

“They’re dead, sir. Almost all of them.”

“Oh, looks like your spell did more than sink the ship then, familiar. Good work. What of the survivors, crewman?”

“Headed towards land, sir. Maybe Cambren, or part of Taldre?”

“Hmm… that might not be good. If they are working with the Southern Union, then word of our arrival could spread.”

“I… don’t think they will make it to the mainland, sir.”

“And why is that?”

“They did not look very healthy. Like they were getting ready to fall out of the sky just from flapping their wings.”

“By the dragons, familiar. What kind of spell did you cast?”

“I… just…” I started to say, suddenly feeling very ashamed. I knew what had to be done, and why I was doing it, but still…

“That will be quite enough. My team needs rest, and after that battle, so must your crew. I suggest we all prepare to roost for the night.” Captain Gigoales said.

My mouth opened, and a few words somehow managed to stumble out. “Captain… did-”

“Get some rest, soldier.” He ordered.