Touch of Fate

Chapter 90: A Little Immature

Shooting high into the air, Mike narrowly avoided the tidal wave, feeling a pang of sympathy as it swallowed the raider vessels. Exercising a massive amount of his Water Magic, he managed to create a break in the wave, preventing his own ship from suffering the same fate.

He landed on the water and stayed there, making use of a new application of magic he'd picked up in his experimenting over the last few days. By hardening a patch of water directly under each of his feet, he could literally walk on it. However, he had yet to really put it to use, and was beginning to see a flaw.

As the aftershocks of the titanic creature's emergence continued to reverberate through the nearby ocean, Mike was having a great deal of trouble maintain his balance. It was a bit like trying to stay standing during an earthquake. Finally, he added another component to his magic to flatten the surrounding water as it approached him, allowing him to concentrate long enough to investigate the situation.

The creature, whatever it was, had partially surfaced, and looked pretty much like a small island, about 500m long and 250m wide, with a set of massive purple eyes. The rest of its body remained underwater, hovering below the surface. It reminded Mike a bit of a crocodile.

The creature's gaze wandered around for a bit searching for something, and Mike noticed that each pair seemed able to move independently of each other. Finally, after a few minutes of searching all three sets focused on him. It stared at him intently, but Mike thought it looked a bit confused.

Figuring that such a monstrous being would be hard to escape from, and even harder to kill, he fell back on his usual trick.

Pushing mana into his voice to allow it to carry farther, he yelled. "It's rude to stare, you know? Can I help you with something?"

The creature blinked, a process involving several overlapping membranes that quickly whisked across the surfaces of its eyes. A subsonic rumbling emerged from deep below the ocean, causing vibrations in the water for kilometers in every direction. Although Mike wasn't completely certain, he got the impression it was demanding to face its ancient enemy. However, the tone of the message carried more resignation than anger.

"What is your enemy? We are the only ones here right now." He asked while scratching at an itch on his upper back. He couldn't quite reach it.

The vibrations sounded again, and this time it carried the description of an ancient being whose winged bulk blotted out the sun, whose cries split the sky, and whose wrath rent mountains and boiled seas.

"Nothing like that here. I think you might be mistaken." Mike had started trying to convince the creature to leave, when he felt something flop onto his head. Glancing up, he saw Audra returning its intense stare with one of her own.

There was a brief moment when the island-sized monster and the palm sized-dragon engaged in a staring contest. Audra finally broke the silence with a short, high-pitched squeak, which Mike's Communication Magic translated as, "Come at me, bro!"

Mike frantically picked her up and put her back into his pocket, while addressing the creature. "Sorry about that, she's very young."

There was another burst of vibration, this time longer. It seemed to mean that the creature understands, and will wait until its enemy was ready to face it. Without saying anything else, it slowly slipped beneath the waves.

[That went surprising well.]

Audra once again clambered out onto his head, looking around for the creature that had disappeared. Mike thought she seemed disappointed it was gone.

"You are going to give me some headaches in the future. Aren't you, little one?" Mike said while reaching up and scratching the underside of the dragons jaw. She responded with something close to a purr before laconically curling up on his head.

Sighing, Mike started making his way back to the ship until someone called out to him from nearby.

"Wyrmkin! Please wait! I must speak with you!"

Looking around, Mike saw the old, milky-eyed man nearby. He was draped over a broken section of a mast, looking utterly spent.

"What did you call me?" He asked while stepping over to the man.

"I used your appropriate title, Wyrmkin. It is the word my people use when addressing one who has bonded with one of the Wyrms, greatest and most sacred of all dragons." A mixture of awe and reverence had creeped into his tone, and it was clear that the gaze of his one good eye was fixed upon the tiny form resting on his head.

"Okay..Did you want something?" He was feeling a little creep out by the raider's expression.

"While I would welcome some assistance in regards to our current situation, I know that aiding those who were once your enemy would be asking too much of you." He said while gesturing vaguely at the scattered remnants of the ships that had once held his people, "I would ask for one boon only. Tell me from whence you hail."

Mike realized that they had been speaking in a language different from his usual one. This became evident when the translated meaning of the man's last statement filtered into his mind. It seemed that in whatever culture the man originated from, such a request would basically require a self-introduction to properly respond to it.

He took a moment to look around at the scattered remnants of the raiders, recalling how poor and ill equipped they had been. Only a handful seemed to have survived the creature's arrival, most of whom were clinging to the overturned hull of one of the ships which had miraculously survived.

Corpses had begun to surface now, and he was sure that the sharks wouldn't be too far behind.

Once again, he felt a twinge of sympathy.

With a wave of his hand and a wash of Water Magic, he righted the surviving ship, and flushed the trapped water out of it. The vessel lacked a mast, but assuming the survivors could gather up a few oars, they should be able to limp to the nearest dry land. Their luck would have to take it from there, since that was the most Mike was willing to do for them.

Meeting the shaman's grateful gaze, he gave a few parting words before heading back to his own ship. "I hail from a place you've never heard of before, but if you must, you can call me Mike."

With another blast of Air Magic, the youth threw himself forward, one hand gently holding on to the tiny dragon still clinging to his head.

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Skarn offered a silent prayer of thanks to the Spirits for their mercy, and for the Wyrmkin who would save his people. He saw now that the change he feared was instead an end to the millennia of waiting. The first step on the path to the future for the Kirathi, should they prove worthy of it.

With renewed purpose he began swimming towards the righted ship, already taking stock of which of his kinsmen had survived the catastrophe. It appeared that Enar's prized armor had dragged below the waves, spelling his doom. So much for the might of the great Swordlord.

The other survivors were gathering on deck dazedly, still exhausted from their tribulations. They all turned their gaze towards Skarn as he pulled himself aboard.

After catching his breath, the shaman spoke in tones laden with hope, "Kinsmen! Gather round. I have a great message to share."

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Mike landed once again on the deck of 'businessman's' ship, feeling quite tired. He'd been throwing a great deal of mana around again, and it had left him drained. He wanted nothing so much as to lay down in his cabin and rest for the next few hours, but the strange tension on deck seemed to beg his attention.

The 'sailors,' and Captain Bont were staring at him with looks of abject terror, frozen with a sort of animalistic fear. Even Brenden and Sera were looking at him with strange expressions, although Tal seemed to be the same as always.

"What?" He asked, genuinely perplexed. He'd made sure to hide the tiny dragon on his way over.

Sera was the only one that tried to reply, "Why....How...What did you do?!"

Mike was slightly taken aback, before realizing how it must have looked to them. After detonating the magical equivalent of a flashbang, he'd leapt over to the enemy ships while saying he would create a more permanent solution.

Almost immediately afterwards a colossal beast had emerged from the depths of the ocean, almost destroying the raiders entirely with its mere arrival. He'd then proceeded to seemingly exchange words with it until it once again vanished beneath the waves.

From another perspective, it must have looked like he summoned some sort of terrifying monster to destroy his enemies in a fearsome display of power before commanding the beast creature to return from whence it came.

Suddenly the terror on the 'sailors' faces made a little more sense.

[Well, it might be good to put a little fear in them, that way we won't have to worry too much about betrayal. Besides, they were already afraid of me when they thought I was just another mage.]

"Captain," He called authoritatively.

"Ah.yes sir, Sir Mage. What can we do for ye?" He responded hesitantly.

"Dealing with the pirates has been tiresome, so my companions and I will be retiring to our cabins. Do not disturb us unless it is something pressing.

"Aye, Sir Mage. You'll not be hearing so much as a peep out of me boys. Ain't that right?!" He yelled shaking a fist in their direction.

The 'sailors' all nodded quickly, seemingly glad to have been given a method of avoiding the Mage's ire.

Chuckling slightly at the sight of the piratical crew trying desperately to perform their tasks as quietly as possible. Mike led the rest back to his cabin.

As soon as the door was closed, Sera rounded on him, only looking mollified when Audra popped her head out from the pocket she was currently hidden in.

"Would you care to explain?"

Laughing sheepishly, he began to relate his story, "You see, what happened was"