The sea was dark and the moon was full and a full crew manned the tiny ship racing along the ocean. Behind them drifted a dark mirror of their ship, lacking the frantic activity apparent on its light counterpart and moving deceptively fast. No wake sprayed up off the dark ship's bow, for it never touched the sea. No, this sinister craft floated, the wings of a hundred trapped breezes and their faeries keeping it up.
The captain of the shady vessel, clad in dark blue scraps that nearly matched the dusky hue of his skin, laughed as he watched his beleaguered target flounder through the water below. A good catch, he thought, Rich with earth and stones. Enough to deprive the king of his castle for a while and enough to build a castle of our own.
Turning, the captain gave a shout, and the floating ship dispelled its drifting status and put on speed. Within moments, they were within range of the pale ocean ship, and the captain gave the order they had all been waiting for.
No guns equipped these tiny, winged pirates. They had no need for the guns that their larger counterparts favored. No, they had their own, deadly magic to use instead.
Standing on the rail of their ship, they hurled shouts, insults and tiny projectiles of glowing force down on the terrified sailors. Their enemy responded with a few bolts of magic themselves, and many vain attempts to fly up and confront their attackers. Their wings were not meant for flight any more than their enemy's were. Still, they tried, and they were valiant in their defense of their ship, but both sides knew it was all for naught. They were only an unarmed trading ship, too eager to deliver to wait for the protection that they normally had. They traveled light and ran fast to escape their enemies, but they couldn't escape this enemy, not with a hole in their hull from the trap sprung on them that afternoon.
It was all over in a few minutes. The remaining sailors were rounded up and put in the brig that every ship has, after first being made to haul all of their cargo up to the pirate's ship. There was enough of it that the dark hull of the floating ship nearly touched the sea. Flying ships were more susceptible to weight than most. When they were done, the captain burned the looted boat and set off again, proud of the night's work.
Not all went as well as expected though. Only a few minutes after hitting land, they were stopped dead by a giant hand the reached down in front of them, followed closely by its partner behind them.
"Abandon ship!" the captain screamed, following his own advice and beating his translucent wings hard enough to lift his body over the edge and into the relative safety of the forest. Everyone, even the prisoners, fled the ship madly, leaving behind only the empty hull of the floating ship. Freed of their binding magics by the dispersal of all the ship's occupants, even the breezes fled, their faeries leading them, dropping the ship into the large hands the cupped it.
The young man brought the ship up to his face and peered at it carefully. "Will you look at that!" he exclaimed. "It's not some sort of bug at all! It's a tiny ship, right down to the tiny rooms and portholes! Isn't that amazing?" Cradling the thing carefully, he brought it home, mounted it on a platform, and put it on his mantelpiece, where he admired it every day until he died and it was passed on to his children.
July 15, 2005
Thoughts: I really like the start of this one, and while I think the end is rather humorous, it feels contrived to me. (Which it was, but no mind)