For a moment I took the chance to take a good look around. My eyes darted around the tavern. It was… amazing! Though most of the decorations and wooden planks were covered in mildew, it was still pretty exotic. To my left there was the tables and sofas built into the walls like these of a proper restaurant. On the wall there was a nice portrait of an old historical fish family wearing fancy uptight clothing. Even though one was a mother, the other a father and the rest a son and a daughter… everyone had fish heads. By fish heads I mean literal fish heads with no added human detail. Typical fish with creepy, beady staring eyes. Either way, they did not smile.
To my right I witnessed the glorious sight of a bar decorated by various coastal trinkets like shells and so. Fishnets were the main edition and a real life anchor or two. The theme of nautical deep sea was taken to a complete new level! The bartender’s racks on the wall – behind the bar – were occupied by a wide variety of hundreds of drinks, some even covered in moss. Everything seemed dampened. Not to mention the smell, too, but I had no complaints. I noticed the sign flickering above the door. It rea: Smoking Scales Tavern.
“Hmm, interesting. Better investigate…” I said to myself, putting on my best detective cap – time to deduct and deduce! I walked past the numerous Valicans and noted an open barstool. It was the best place to investigate.
Yet, as I walked by and sat, I couldn’t help but eavesdrop on another pair sitting at the bar nearby.
“I heard there’s new deal going on at Franco’s Fish Stick Tanning Salon. I’m planning visit for weekend,” one said with his odd foreign accent, “More crispier, more you attract woman fish.”
“Like Leonard? He woman magnet,” the other stated.
“No. Can’t even move.”
“There is new ointment on mark. Marketer calls Tauter Sauce.”
“Oo! Must try!”
A bright toothy smile spread across my lips as I went to lie down on my arms on the bar counter.
“I’m in heaven!” I sighed dreamily to myself in a soft, squeaky tone.
“Name poison,” a voice said above me. I quickly sat upright and met the bartender’s face, at least trying to meet his eyes, for this one was not like the rest of the masses. Instead of a resemblance to the human face like the others, this one was a plain fish. Yeah, I’m talking about a random fish head stuck onto a fishy human body. A fish head on a stick. He even had those beady bulgy eyes that didn’t even blink.
“Hmm, what’s today’s special?” I asked.
“What talking about? Everything special.” He seemed genuinely confused by my question and gestured proudly at his racks of bottles of liquor behind him as he said it. I get it… His precious.
“No, I mean – Okay. Let’s rather… Give me a list of your finest.”
“We have Kelp Whiskey, Squiding’s Ink, Captain Organ, Brandy Dead, Neptune’s Palace, Neptune’s Palace Light, Black Tag, Flying Fish, Davey Jones’ Heart and Poseidon’s Daughter.”
“Oooooooh my gosh, I must have the Captain Organ!” I begged, practically glued to the table. I was in awe… The drinks they had here beat the ones I had back at home tenfold! It was times like these that I just didn’t want to leave… But now I had to go save the world and junk. Ugh! That sucks! At least I now knew where to go for a bit of a vacation after the whole war-dragon-everyone-dies drama.
“You not mermaid,” another, deeper voice spoke beside me.
“Yello?” My eyes shot towards the fish next to me. Ah, one of the more normal ones. Yet, his head was these of an anglerfish, though without the terrifying spine curdling teeth. Not to mention that his little light was hanging at the back of his head instead of the front. He wore a quaint little sailor’s suit with the vest, jacket, captain’s hat and all, smoking thick rings on your occasional pipe sticking out the side of his large mouth.
“You not mermaid,” he repeated calmly.
“Yeees, I am.”
“No. Too colourless. Just blob of flesh volking around. Not even cartilage,” he said absolutely monotonous. I didn’t know whether to be offended or not. “For you information, I do have cartilage. It’s called ears and or bones or whatever. Ears!”
Almost instantly a large mug was thrown in front of me. I was startled quite the bit and almost hopped off my seat. At least the soothing sloshing of the weird red-brown liquor inside calmed me. I looked back up to meet the bartender’s fish face.
“Need ID,” he said emotionlessly.
“Sure. Give me a sec.” I dug into my pocket until my fingers finally met the thin plastic rim of an ID card.
“Ah! Here you go, my good man!” I handed it to him with the most confidence I had in days. The bartender brought the card up to his face. I was well aware of what the card said.
‘Carlaylin Q. Thorel. Wizard of Elements. Resident of Ysellian. Born on the nineteenth of Twilight’s Fog 99DAC.’
And there was your occasional ID photo. I broke the laws of physics and managed to pull a smile right before the picture was taken, though I look like a creepy little chubby-cheeked girl who wants nothing but her lollypops to survive or blood would be spilled… A bit exaggerated? I think not.
Pursing his lips even further than it already was, the bartender slammed the card back down onto the table.
“Too young for drink.” I frowned in utter confusion. “What are you talking about? I am old enough!”
“Must be at least 180 years old to drink. Strong stuff.”
His answer was literally breath-taking and I felt a little bit woozy as my head started to spin ever so slightly. I felt exhausted and weak, “That’s a big step! I won’t even live that long.”
“You mermaid.”
“Yeah, apparently I’m a mermaid with a death wish before reaching my early hundreds.”
The bartender stared at me for one long moment, absolutely motionless before finally spluttering, “Still no drink.”
“Aaaw!” I moaned.
Disappointment after disappointment!
“Captain Organ Micro-Light for bedwetters.” He said as he slammed another mug in front of me.
“Pfff,” I blew, keeping a livid and very unhappy stare on him, but I brought myself to my senses and slowly pulled the drink closer before he could take this one away from me too. I looked at the drink. It looked quite the same, just less frothy. Damn these laws. I noticed the fish to still be eyeballing me. I looked up.
“What?”
No word was said until he finally spat it out.
“5 clams.”
My mouth dropped open into a gape. Outrageous!
“Oi, you guys are completely overpriced!” I said breathlessly as I dug into my pockets one last time. I slammed a set of five clams onto the table and slid my ID back over the table before stuffing it into my pocket. Where did I get the clams you asked? Well, I did manage to sneak my hands into the pockets of that last fish I bumped into. What? My pickpocketing has never been better! It’s almost as though someone upgraded my pickpocketing skills to auto-pick on the skills menu… What am I talking about?
The bartender gladly took the fish money as I turned to my own devices. I studied the drink with an eye of suspicion before downing it at one go.
“Ugh! This is disgusting! Can I have more?” Perhaps this was too sudden, but oh well.
I looked up at the fish man once again. His beady eyes kept staring sideways. I’m not even sure that he’s even seen my face yet! Anyways, he was abnormally still. A fly even perched itself onto his one eyeball before buzzing off to attend to other business. Word play… That’s damn sharp.
After another long and awkward moment of staring, the bartender simply said, “No.”
Of course, I switched my plans to begging.
“Pleeeaaase!” What sounded like a sigh escaped his fish lips before he turned around to make me another before slamming the mug in front of me for the last time.
“Oo!” I was in a world of glee. More! Yes, more! Yet, that bartender found it funny to spit in my dr
ink as he was busy making it. How did I know? Let’s just say that my drink tasted more of fish this time. The bastard even threw something funny in my drink, for the world began turning fussy. My head started to spin and it looked as though images started to morph into other images. I narrowed my eyes at the drama I witnessed first-hand. I started to feel dizzy and somewhat light-headed.
No, no, no, no, not now! I thought in distress, though I could hear my thoughts clear as day. The sounds around me started to turn into no more than muffled voices and noises.
I tried to wipe my eyes in hope that I’ll snap out of it, but alas to no avail.
“Ooooo,” I groaned, rubbing my temple. “What did you do?” Suddenly it looked like the bartender was giving me an enormous smile.
“The hell?” I asked myself in a whispered tone before trying to push myself away from the bar. I tried to stand, though I felt more than tipsy. Luckily I managed to keep myself on my feet. Suddenly, it looked like all the Valicans of this weird fish tavern stood and started mocking and taunting me, even though I’m absolutely sure that it wasn’t the case in reality.
I was hallucinating… big time! That abhorred fish bartender had undoubtedly spiked my drink with his fish juices.
“Two legged freak!” one yelled.
“You don’t belong here! You belong nowhere! Even your mother didn’t want you!” another bellowed.
“Your father didn’t even bother to search for you all those years!” someone cried.
Okay, maybe it’s just me, but this was getting a tad hurtful. It was playing on my emotions and I just stood there, frozen on track as my eyes restlessly jumped around. From a good time this party was quick to turn into something utterly horrible. I felt my heart racing. My love for excitement and the moment’s fun was dropped.
This was getting a bit too serious for my liking. My smile had fallen to a frown. I felt like one of those outcast kids at schools who are constantly being picked on by the rest. For a moment I felt small and helpless as the fish rose up against me. It got worse when their shapes started shifting into people I already knew.
“Get out of the chapel, Carlaylin! You bring nothing but trouble and pain!” Adrian yelled.
“I don’t even know why I’m following you! You’re a disappointment to masters everywhere. Don’t think you’ve earned the spot of Wizard of Elements, because you have certainly not!” Justin scolded.
“Why didn’t you just stay hidden? Life was far better before you came. I got killed because of you. Think about it… You started all the actions that led up to my death. If Terrowin never found you…” my very own father shouted. I couldn’t help but give a step back, accidentally bumping into the counter, my legs turning to jelly.
“I never should’ve trusted Terrowin in finding you in the first place! You led Thomason to me. He was never after me, but you…! Because of you… I’m dead,” Murray bellowed.
“Stop! Stop it! Please…” A tears started welling from my eyes and rolling down my cheeks as I fruitlessly tried to calm all of them. I couldn’t stand being a disappointment. I couldn’t live with myself like this! Within all the overwhelming scolding, I noticed Terrowin to be sitting, all by his lonesome, at a table, drowning his sorrows in a bottle of liquor.
I took a few cautious steps towards him, almost apprehensive of what would happen. “Terrowin…?”
He turned around and gave me a hateful stare. “What do you want? Can’t you see I’m trying to get away from you? You’re a psychopath. Don’t you see? No normal being would in the right mind be doing what you do. You’re a nut job. You are mentally sick – insane – and you don’t even realize it. You’re selfish, Carlaylin. You’re reckless and careless, and oh so destructive. You see things the way you want and you give no thought about the lives you destroy and the buildings you tear apart and the cities you burn to the ground.” I’m not… I’m not a psychopath! I can’t be! I’m just eccentric, aren’t I? But what if I am…? No! No, I refuse to believe it! My face turned red with anger, cheeks flooding with reluctant tears.
“SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP!” I yelled, “I’m trying my best! It’s all of you who are the fools! Can’t you at least give me a chance?! It’s hard enough to save the world as it is, more so in keeping everyone alive as well! I’m sorry it didn’t work out the way you wanted, but I’m sure as hell not the selfish one here, you are! All you bloated, fish-breath bastards!”
Everyone’s gazes turned to me. My eyes were red and felt dry. The eyes turned to anger. I gulped. Murray looked like he had had enough and grabbed Terrowin’s bottle and threw it towards me. I ducked in the nick of time and sent someone else’ plate flying towards him, but it ended up hitting Terrowin instead. Terrowin stood abruptly and tried to throw me a punch, but once again it was just me and my mug and I gave him a whack he sure as hell wouldn’t forget anytime soon.
He fell against another and so one by one they turned against each other and the hallucinated visions shifted back into reality to reveal them to be Valican customers all attacking one another in an epic good old-fashioned bar fight. Worse… I was in it. I ducked and punched and went for it, feeling as the heartache started to lift. I soon started to feel the joy of the Smoking Scales Tavern and I was not disappointed.
There was a piece of kelp pie here and a strip of chum bacon there. A tsunami of Squiding’s Ink shot through the air and a flood of Flying Fish and Brandy Dead flushed out half of the Valican savages.
It quite literally sent them flopping out the doors of the tavern. It was probably the best painkiller I’ve ever experienced… and ironically after the anguish too! It was absolute chaos and I was in my element, but my glory was short-lived when I threw the mug at one of the fish men. Unfortunately, instead of the intended target, it hit the royal fish sheriff that only recently walked in through the door to investigate the bedlam.
His head was aching and his fury kindled. My mouth hung open in a gape and my eyes widened to fish size. Slowly I started to sink down to the ground, hoping that he would not see me beyond the crowd of frenzied Valicans. Almost instantly he bellowed out orders and chased everyone out of the tavern. As everyone scattered out the door in a disorderedly mass, I went straight ahead and hid myself behind the counter, biting my nails and holding a breath.
I tell you, the moment that mug hit that high authorized fish, my drugged consciousness had snapped out of its daze at an instant. I was thrown back into reality and I was not in a good position right about now. I mean, seriously. There I was hiding; halfway through pulling off the crime when someone pointed into the direction I was hiding in. The sheriff’s guards grabbed me by the arms and pulled me away.
“Snitch!” I bellowed, scolding my best friend: the tavern bartender.
I was yanked out of my element and into the cold streets of whatever this kingdom’s name was. They dragged me towards a cart with a large metal cage loaded at back. I struggled to get loose, but their fins (and the other’s fingers) were too firmly bound around my arm. “Seriously? You mean to tell me that you just happen to pass this tavern with a cage loaded in your back seat?” I yelled, but the reply was less than emotionless.
“Yes.”
“Ugh!”
They threw me into the cage. It was locked tightly behind me before I could gather the force to kick it open. The two fish guards were quick to hop in front, steering the seahorse towards the palace. The sheriff stayed behind. Well, looking at the good side of all of this, I’m finally making a get-go to my actual set destination, but looking at the bad… the welcome might not be first class after all.
As you know me, my mind was quick at work on thinking of an escape plan. I have magic! I can use it! I tried to use earth magic to break through the steel bars, but was instantly thrown to the back of the cage when some kind of a shock wave hit me. I don’t know how, but now my bum was located right above my head in an awkward position. My back hurt badly and I might have fractured more than a bone, but nevertheless, I was quick to try and get mysel
f out of this pretzel of a state.
“What the hell?!” I yelled in shock as I pulled myself straight.
“Cage magic proof.”
“Great. Just great!”
“Yes.” Those plain answers were starting to get on my nerves and I was not at all happy about it!
“Why you little-”
“You have right to remain silent,” the fish guard working the part-time job as coachman said. I leapt at the bars and started screaming threats and curses like any mostly innocent prisoner would do. My hands were tightly folded around the bars, but after a while I felt a great exhaustion settling over me and soon left me tired and yawning as I went on ranting about.
“I’ll show you silent!” I yawned, the tone of my voice automatically dying down, “I’ll kill you. You hear me? You mother- starfish!’” I yelped the word starfish at an instant like some drunkard ready to take a long nap. The world blackened around me and I fell into an instant and very sleep. It was no doubt one of the side effects of the drug the bartender slipped into my Captain Organ Light. I can’t lie that I was out like a candle, even snoring the guards into irritation with my face pressed against the bars of the cage. I didn’t wake up until it was too late.
CHAPTER 26
KINDLED FIRE
TERROWIN
IT WAS CLOSE TO NIGHTFALL and the sun had already disappeared beyond the ocean’s horizon. The sky was adorned by a mixture of fading purple clouds in an ocean of orange. Dressed in my finest I treaded across the wooden ramp streets of Krea, intended on reaching the palace up ahead on the cliff that towered above the forest.
It was a massive one indeed and was emphasized by the numerous glorious lights lit inside the castle walls. There was no doubt that the castle of Krea was one of the most stunning from both the outside and the inside. I felt a leap of excitement, but it was faint. My mind was empty and still. I could merely enjoy the calming breeze and salty aroma of the lively ocean rocking the fishermen’s boats.
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