Nocturna League (Episode 1: The Witching Book) (Nautical Fantasy Short Story) Read Free

best we stay on the island to see if there’s anything else we can learn from the innkeeper. That being said, I would understand if you would feel safer on the ship-- especially with so many suspicious masked figures running about. So if you want me to take away your ‘sailor card’ you only need to ask.” There is a pause amidst the celebration around them. “Well? Dunklestien? Do you want me to take away your sailor card?”
    Dunklestien huffs again. “N-no sir.” He looks away in some sort of embarrassment.
    “I thought not. Colette?” Captain asks.
    She scoffs. “No, sir.”
    “Very good. Jim?”
    Jim twitches. “No s-s-sir.”
    The three turn to Jim with alert gazes as The Captain speaks.
    “Jim, is he coming?”
    “No… I’m okay… I’ll be fine,” he says, pressing his hand against his right arm in pain.
    The three others stare at him with suspicion, but again The Captain breaks the silence. “Well, nothing we can do about that, then. Let’s get to the inn.” The moment The Captain turns away, Jim looses a deep, bone-chilling laugh.
    “You… You fools !” He begins screaming and hollering to get the attention of everyone.
    “Captain! He’s turning!” Colette yells as the music and dancing stops.
    Jim’s eyes are overcome with what seems to be a violent black fire, but Jim seems elated, rather than distressed.
    “Jim! Snap out of it, man! This is incredibly unsailorly behavior!” The Captain says to the writhing Jim who fills his chest with salty breath and screams.
    “Jim is no longer with us, Captain. However I did hear that you’re trying to steal this island’s greatest treasure! What do you say of that? Imperialist dog-Thief!” Jim, or something inside Jim yells at the top of his lungs.
    A chorus of hushed whispers erupts from the frightened party-goers for an awkward moment as everyone on the island learns what the mysterious sailors are here for.
    “Son, quiet down! You’re being just horrible!” The Captain shouts as Dunklestein and Colette exchange looks.
    “ Son? Captain, Jim’s your boy?” Dunklestein asks, crossing his broad, greyish arms covered in awesome seafaring tattoos.
    “I’ll tell you when you’re older. Now, calm down, Jim, or you’re in for a distinct beating,” The Captain says, cracking his knuckles the way he does to remind the thing possessing Jim of the distance between their strengths.
    Jim laughs. “I’ve done my damage, see you later, salt-ass,” at that, Jim wavers and falls to the cobblestone ground, unconscious. The Captain takes up Jim and turns to the cloaked innkeeper across the square. “Come along,” he says over the confused, distressed voices of the townspeople. They get up to the shrouded innkeeper, and The Captain, piggybacking Jim, addresses her. “Greetings, madam, how much for a night at the-”
    “I’m a dude,” the innkeeper says with a mountainously-strong voice.
    “A-ahh, yes . Pardon me then, sir. How much for a night?”
    “For you visitors, free-I’m not an innkeeper either, but I’ll take you in for the night. This way,” he says as he leads them along through some less populated streets. “So, I hear you’re lookin’ for a book?” he asks as he works through a key and lock to enter his home.
    The Captain nods. “That’s right. The witching book of Vuuya, the long dead sorceress that was said to cast spells from it.” They enter a dark, warm room.
    “Gah, that smell!” Colette says, waving her hand to fan the scent away.
    The man lights a lantern, revealing a full butcher’s shop, filled with the mutilated corpses of animals and cutting devices of all sorts. “Yeah, well you’re gonna’ have trouble with that. If you were to take my advice you’d just turn around and sail off to wherever you came from.”
    The Captain hums. “And why is that, sir?”
    “The people hold Vuuya accountable for all the fortune we’ve had in this desolate place. To take the book would be to take our prosperity…