Epic Fantasy

Chapter One- Scene One







Samuel loved nights like this one, Song thought to herself as she stared out from her creaking and rocking ship. Eight moons stood out prominently amongst the stardust, swirling and shimmering every color of the rainbow through the black night sky. Large bits of rock from the ninth moon still floated haphazardly in the inky blackness, the colors reflecting softly on the calm ocean surface. The serene sounds of the lapping water made their way to Song’s pointed ears, and the smell of salt and seaweed drifted up to her, reminding her why she had always preferred the ocean to the land.

She sighed then, closing her eyes and pulling her long Captain’s coat tighter around her body. She imagined that the fingers of the wind were in fact those of her late husband, and a single tear escaped one of her cat like eyes, running down her pale skin and reflecting off of the gold markings around her neck that claimed her as a Neflancian.

No matter how hard she imagined it the gentle wind was not enough to satisfy the ache that had grown from the moment Samuel had died. It was an ache that had started so large she thought it would swallow her whole. Tobias and Katana both had assured her that the ache would grow smaller again, that she could move on, but so far the ache hadn’t gone anywhere, only changed forms from a thick blackness that suffocated, to a grey that seemed to numb.

In a moment like so many before, Song looked timidly around herself. She peered into the dark of the ship, into the cabin and up into the masts. Her men were asleep, and she slowly let herself feel a small amount of the ache that still rested inside of her.

Her lower lip began to quiver, as did her fingers and shoulders as she began to cry. Feeling weak as she always did in these nights when she felt the most alone, she covered her face with her hands, weeping silently. How could she go on like this, leading a crew full of her closest friends when she felt so lost? How could she keep them from danger, protect them?

“Song.” Jumping almost violently from her thoughts, Song spun around, pulling her sword from its scabbard and waving it threateningly. The whisper hadn’t come from any direction, however, she felt it had come from her mind.

Knowing she would find nothing, she again peered into the blackness of the ship’s bowels. Song hated the idea of not being able to see her enemy, and she knew almost anyone with magic was her enemy, and that would be the only kind of enemy she couldn’t see.

She stood perfectly still, waiting, for what she didn’t know, when the voice sounded again in her mind.

“Song.”

This time, she recognized the voice, and almost began weeping from joy.

“Sam?” She called softly into the cool night air. Song stood perfectly still, listening, waiting. She heard the shallow howls of the wind blowing through the deck and through her hair. The sails of her ship whipped and bulged with the force of it, the ocean water slapped at it’s sturdy sides. She waited for what seemed like an eternity, anything to hear his voice again, to see him. Finally, though, when the moons began to align and the wind settled back down to a soft breeze she sighed wistfully to herself, disappointedly turning towards the captain’s quarters.

“Song.” Song paused, her boot halfway resting on the wooden floor behind her. Even if she turned, she knew he wouldn’t be there. It was a trick of her mind, of some wild magic that had somehow made its way onto her ship. But if she didn’t look, if he was there…

After wrestling with her mind for only moments longer, slowly she turned around to look for her beloved husband yet again, unable to resist the temptation.

To her immense surprise she caught the briefest glimpse of what she could only to describe to herself as an apparition. A soft glowing shape, caught in the light of the moon. She saw Sam’s face, round and rough and handsome and unchanged. When the apparition looked directly into her eyes with a worried and stoic grimace and then quietly disappeared, a chord was struck in her heart, sending a rushing ache all the way through her throat and the ends of her fingertips.

Song kept it all inside, fighting to bottle up the feelings again. That was no wild magic. She felt certain of it, as certain as she knew that Sam would not appear to her without a reason.

Song crept quietly across the deck of her ship, careful not to let her boots make noise. One hand rested lightly on the handle of her sword as she made her way to the cargo hold, where Sam had appeared.

The door creaked as she gently pushed it open, peering into the darkness ahead of her. There were no windows in the cargo hold, no way for the moonlight to stream light in and allow her to see, so when she noticed a soft yellow light glowing from underneath the lid of a crate, she knew it was magic.

The warm light seemed to change as she neared, going from yellow to golden, glitter seemed to float in the air where the light touched, flickering and swirling like it was a living thing.

Song’s breaths were heavy as she laid her hands on the top of the crate. She closed her eyes, attempting to feel whatever was inside, but all that filled her was a void and a small fear of whatever magic had managed to board her ship.

If only Wind were here… She thought wistfully to herself as she pulled her sword from its scabbard and wedged the thin blade between the lid and the crate. With one harsh move and an echoing clamor, the lid came flying off of the crate and landed haphazardly by the doorway.

Song paused before looking inside, instead staring intensely at the doorway, afraid she had woken one of her crew. They needed their sleep, but more than that she wanted to investigate the magic further before awakening her ship masters and telling them she had been searching through their clients cargo, something they could all lose their payment over.

When it seemed that all was quiet and no one had been disturbed, she turned her eyes back to the glowing object in the crate.

Her breath rushed out of her in a whoosh as she looked into the crate, as if Ouna, Goddess of the Moons had stolen it away. Nestled inside the crate in a bed of hay, lay a stone the size of a small baby. The surface was as smooth and shiny as marble, giving off the soft glow of magic that she had seen. It was the colors of the sky, black like the night with tiny stars reflecting and moving as if it were reflecting space itself. Spider-webbing through it were tiny white lines that looked almost like veins.

Lightly, Song touched the surface, intending on lifting it out of the crate to take it into the moonlight and get a better look, when a sudden and intense vision overtook her.

She was in the air, soaring amongst the clouds. There was no before or after for Song, only the pure joy of stretching her large wings in the sky and flying to her heart’s content. She flexed the muscles in her chest and legs, letting her long serpent’s tail stream behind her. Much further ahead of her, she saw a group of lodvat, their bat-like wings shredding into each other as the violent animals fought to gain control of their flock. Song increased her intensity, the wind flying by so fast it whipped at her leathery skin. She pulled her legs into herself, making her body like an arrow.

Song’s stomach growled loudly as the scents of the lodvat drifted behind them and reached her nostrils. Closer and closer she drew, her ridges and spikes rising from her spine and tail in preparation for her attack. The lodvat didn’t notice her silent approach, though their nose was nearly as strong as her’s. They were too focused on each other.

When Song finally attacked, it was so fast and deadly the lodvat didn’t know what hit them at first. A burst of fire ripped from her sulfur-y throat, causing three of the five lodvat to fall helplessly from the sky, at least two dead and one with wings so destroyed there was no way to save himself. She swooped down upon the falling lodvat, catching them in her mouth one by one and swallowing them whole for later. She felt the glory and bliss of her kill down in her bones, and whipped wildly around to finish off the rest of the creatures. 

Song was ripped from her vision as suddenly as she had been ensconced in it. Her breaths came rapidly, her chest lightly heaving and her fingers trembling softly around the delicate outer casing of what she now knew to be a dragon egg.