"How do beaches get their kids to bed?" Asked Kalla cheetfully as she stood on the edge of the beach with Pinchers on her shoulder. "They sand them there!" Esben, who was laying back first on the sand staring at the sky with a visible scar on his nose, didn't so much as twitch at his companion's joke. Kalla chuckled nervously, her bright smile visibly getting weaker by the second.

"Leave me alone." Muttered the boy dejectedly, his tone dripping with lethargy. Kalla visibly grimaced before letting out an exhausted sigh. She placed her hands in her raincoat's pockets and wandered away from the boy towards the what seemed to be a forest or a jungle before stopping right at its edge.

"What am I supposed to do, Pinchers?" Muttered the girl with a sad frown. "I know, I've heard it all before. Don't get hung up on what ifs but-" the Stormbringer went silent, guilt souring her expression before she noticed a fallen tree log nearby and an idea sprung into her mind. "Pinchers, get those pinchers ready! I need em sharp!" She said dashing towards the log. Pinchers clacked his claws together as if eager to help.

Meanwhile, at the edge of the beach, Esben stared at the clear blue sky above with quivering lips. As the waves struck the edge of the beach, splashes of water assaulted his legs or more accurately, leg. A contemplative look mixed with the sad one on his face. "Why did she do this? Why was she so obsessed with taking out Kalla that she'd cut MY leg off, her own son!?" He asked, desperation seeping into his voice. But nobody answered. "Maybe she really didn't care about me."

Frustration and resentment boiled under his skin as he stared at his pitiful missing leg. The cut was perfect. How could he force someone who could make such a perfect cut to talk or do the same to them? How he even avoided an infection or bleeding out was beyond him. Tears started to well up in his eyes as the torrent of emotions in his heart grew wilder before he heard a scream.

His head snapped towards the source of the scream to see a familiar girl in a yellow raincoat running away from a large frilly salamander like monster with dark green scales that was twice as tall as he was. The boy instinctively tried to rush towards them before falling onto his face. Spitting out a mouthful of sand, he turned to the scene of the chase. His mind frantically looking for a way to save his companion before a figurative lightbulb lit up above his head.

His shadow pooled beneath him before extending outwards towards the beast. Sweat dropped down Esben's forehead as he concentrated on making his shadow as big as possible. His breathing became rougher as his shadow expanded like a balloon beneath the salamander. Like quicksand, the shadow slowly began to swallow the beast.

Kalla cheered, however, Esben couldn't understand what she said as he concentrated on pouring his every ounce of will into his magic. The salamander beast thrashed and struggled to get out of the shadow. It roared loudly before digging its claws into the sand outside the shadow.

Kalla yelped as one of its claws nearly impaled her before she started smacking the beast on the head with something, even managing to hit its eye a few times before it succumbed to the shadow and fell inside. Immediately, Esben closed the shadow and returned it to him before he started panting and sweating in exhaustion not noticing Kalla rushing towards him.

"Ez, you never told me you could do that!" She exclaimed cheerfully as she held something wrapped in large leaves. "That was awesome! Can you teach me?" She asked excitedly.

Stolen story; please report.

Esben's eye twitched. "I can't," He said tiredly, panting for breath. "wait a minute," He continued taking deep breaths. After a solid minute of resting, Esben spoke once again. "We don't share an affinity so you can't use the same magic as me."

Kalla frowned. "Afoonity, bufoonity," she said crossing her arms before sitting down next to Esben. "gimmie that knowledge." Esben opened his mouth to speak before closing it again with a sigh, ignoring the item in her hands and starting his speech.

"We are the universe experiencing and influencing itself. Naturally, as the universe itself we can influence ourselves...or the universe in this case. To do magic is to use your influence on the universe to make it do something based on your affinity to certain parts of the universe fuelled by a powerful enough will."

Kalla blinked. "That...makes zero sense." She said, causing Esben's brow to twitch in annoyance.

"It does," he said through grit teeth. "and it's cool when you understand it." Kalla rolled her eyes before tossing Esben the object wrapped in leaves. "What's this?" Kalla didn't reply, only gestured for him to continue. Raising a brow, Esben removed the leaves before his eyes widened.

What was in his hands couldn't be anything other than a simple pep leg made of wood, leather and rope. "I fashioned it out of wood from the forest and rope and some leather i had on me." Kalla said with an awkward smile as Esben's eyes stayed firmly on the prosthetic. "It's a bit of a rush job and I would've made a second one with a knee if that salamander just let me steal some of the knee bones it was nibling on so i can understand how knees work-" She added with a hollow smile before noticing how Esben looked and her smile quickly became a frown. "I'm sorry. I know it's the not the same. I'll just throw it-"

"No." Esben cut in with a small smile. "No, it's good." He said, fastening the prosthetic onto the stump that's left of his leg. With a gulp, he quickly tried to stand up once again and- "waaah!" He barely managed it, but he did. He could stand again. The mere thought brought tears to his eyes. He gave Kalla the best smile he had and spoke. "Thank you." Suddenly, tears welled up in Kalla's eyes before falling down her cheeks like waterfalls. "H-hey, why are you crying?"

Kalla quickly covered her eyes with her arm, Pinchers pinching towards Esben as she did. "I'm not crying! I've got splinters in my eyes!" She said standing up abruptly. "Just give me a second." Esben blinked as the crying stormbringer quickly wiped their face in their sleeve before turning back to him with wet eyes. "So? What now?" Esben tilted his head. "The storm is gonna come here any day now." She said with a sniff. "We need to go."

Esben paused, falling deep in thought as he put a hand on his chin. Kalla waved her hand in front of his face for a few seconds before he spoke. "Are there any other stormbringers out there?" He asked calmly. Kalla looked at him as if he was utterly insane, but the boy continued. "My mom called you A stormbringer. Not THE. She knows something about you. Something that we don't. Something the whole WORLD doesn't and we need to get it out of her."

Kalla blinked. "So let me get this straight," she said clasping her hands together. "you want us to demand something from the lady who sliced your leg off trying to kill me?"

Esben grimaced. "On second thought, bad idea." He replied shaking his peg leg around lightly as its lifeless presence felt more apparent.

"We can still do it if we're desperate enough." Replied Kalla with a weak smile and Esben nodded.

"Yup! Only if we're desperate." He added with a thumbs up. "Now, where should we go?" Suddenly, Kalla's eyes shined with stars as she stared towards the horizon across the sea. She pointed towards it and spoke.

"There!" Esben's eyes followed her finger to a large ship in the distance. The boy turned to the stormbringer with an incredulous expression.

"That's a boat." He said as a matter of fact. Kalla nodded with a mischievous smile.

"That it is." She replied cheerfully, causing the boy's heart rate to spike up.

"You're the stormbringer!" He said, clutching his dark purple hair in a panic.

"That I am." Replied Kalla confidently crossing her arms. Pinchers clacked his claws together as if agreeing.

"And you want us to go on a boat!?" Snapped the boy in shock. The Stormbringer nodded confidently with her pet crab clacking his claws in agreement. Esben blinked. "We're gonna die."

"Everyone dies eventually." Replied Kalla nudging the boy's side with a playfully.

"What about the crew members?!" The young squire said angrily. "We're just...dooming innocent people!"

Kalla shook her head and sighed. "Tsk tsk." She clicked her tongue jokingly. "Esben, Esben, That, my friend, is a pirate ship."

Esben didn't know if that made it better or somehow much much worse than it already was.