I Don’t Want to Start a Story!

The smell of the salty sea was pleasant to experience after so many years. The shrieking cries of seagulls reminded Max of his various lives. At first, they were irritating and the screeches sounded like the birds were laughing at him, but eventually they had become a pleasant reward after months spent travelling the ocean. Max took in the sights and sounds of the harbour while he ignored the several prompts popping into his vision. Become a travelling merchant, have a raunchy story about living by the harbour, train to be a competitive sailor; a wide range of prompts and genres to lure him into temptation while he waited patiently for Cy to finish puking up the tainted food from the pub last night. “How are you standing like that?” He grumbled in jealousy as he tried to compose himself.

“Iron stomach,” Max said nonchalantly.

Cy stared at him suspiciously as he began trying to put his appearance back together. “You used one of those runes, didn’t you?” Max frowned slightly. “Can’t you just carve up one of them for me too?”

“I didn’t, and it’s not that simple. There needs to be something I can use.” Carving a healing spell for Cy would be easy, but finding objects with innate magical properties was turning out to be more challenging. Mahogany wasn’t as effective. Magic bones were okay. Anything that had been heavily processed without care was almost certainly unsafe to use since the innate magic would be displaced. There had to be better sources out there. “Besides, the more times you get food poisoned, the better your body will be at dealing with it.”

“No thanks, I’d rather cheat.” Cy began looking through his infinite pocket before handing over a handful of beans.

“…The fuck?”

“What do you mean ‘the fuck?’ Use the stolen beans to bibbidi-bobbiidi-boo me into tip-top shape.”

“Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo? You know Cinderella?”

“What’s a Cinderella?” Cy looked genuinely confused. “In my hometown, there’s a guy called Flynn. He says it all the time.”

Flynn? Like Flynn Rider? Seems like the mayor was wrong. There was definitely someone like them residing inside Tsujuma. Max wasn’t surprised. “Forget about it. Why did you give me beans?”

“They’re stolen?” Max continued to give him a questioning look. “I took them from Bernadette’s farm while you were busy.” The look didn’t change. “So, they have a high amount of innate magical properties. That’s the kind of thing you need, right? I had been saving them, but…”

“How am I supposed to carve a bean?” Max threw them back at Cy, who panicked as he tried to fight off the seagulls swooping down to steal his stolen beans.

“Well, I don’t know! How much space do you need?”

Max let out a sigh as he thought about it for a moment. For a small healing spell, it shouldn’t need too much space. He tried to recall the mounds of shit he had taken out of Cy’s magic pocket. “How about one of those seashells? They’re small, but I might be able to do something with them.”

Cy was practically in tears while he was on his hands and knees, rescuing the beans near his puddle of vomit. “You want a seashell? They don’t have much magic in them?”

“Then why are there so many in your pocket?”

“They’re pretty.” Cy gave up trying to save the beans as he began going through the shells in his pocket before he could find one that he was willing to sacrifice. “Would this work?”

“Maybe.” Max held it up to the sun to see the thickness of the shell better. It was difficult to know how well the shell would take it, but he was willing to give it a shot. Especially, since he needed to reevaluate the strength of sources in this world. “Give me a couple of minutes.” He said as he pulled out his pocketknife.

“That’s one of the weakest healing spells I have ever used.” Cy grumbled, while readjusting his appearance as they approached one of the larger ships parked at the dock. Around him, hardened sailors were getting ready to make a hasty exit with their newest batch of cargo for the capital. The contrast between the sun-beaten mariners and the pretty boy hiding under a cloak to prevent sunburns couldn’t be more apparent.

“Quit your bitching. Are you still vomiting?” Unfortunately, Cy had been right about the seashells not being powerful. Runes may work, but the innate magic of this world was quite different compared to the ones he had been to before. Going to Tsujuma might be a good idea after all. The magicians seem to have a system or record for them to know the magic of objects.

Cy scrunched up his nose. “Whatever. Ah, that must be the captain over there.” He pointed at a man barking orders to the sailors hurling the goods up the ramp. “Just like before, leave it to me. I don’t need a sheltered, village amnesiac driving the prices even higher.”

A prompt made Cy’s argument to keep quite more convincing.

Story Name:

Pirate Hunter

Genre:

Fantasy

Description:

With a sea tormented by unruly pirates, the MC decides to join the royal navy in hunting them down.

Goal:

Eliminate all pirates.

Difficulty:

★★☆☆☆

How to Start:

Talk to a member of the royal navy!

“Be my guest.” Between the royal navy, regular sailors, and illegal traders, Max wasn’t too sure about how he could differentiate them. Silence was key to preventing this story prompt. Besides, he was interested in just how high the prices were, especially since Cy usually had a silver tongue with most people.

“Hello!” Cy suddenly put on his game face, which was eerily half covered by his cloak. “Are you heading towards the capital?”

The captain seemed to be slightly freaked out by the stranger suddenly approaching with enthusiasm. His eyes went back and forth between Max and Cy a few times before replying. “We are.”

“How much for us to come aboard?”

Now knowing their intentions, the captain seemed a bit more relaxed with the situation. But the disdain was still on his face. “300 gaeles… each.”

What the fuck? Why was it so expensive? Cy grabbed the pouch given by Bessie and poured its contents onto a crate that was waiting for a sailor to sweep it up into his arms and whisk it away. It took Cy a painfully long time to count each coin. Occasionally, the captain would grumble about how much time they were taking as he shouted at his men. It took Cy more than ten minutes. “We’ve got… 458. Willing to reduce the price a bit? I’ll throw in a fate reading for you-”

“Nope. Alright, men, let’s get going.” The captain did a quick 180 the moment he realised they didn’t have enough money. Within minutes, the ship was loaded and pushing out into the sea.

“Not bad.” Cy shoved all the coins back into the pouch.

“Not bad? What do you mean ‘not bad’? We couldn’t get a spot.”

“Yeah, but we almost had enough money.” Cy looked pleased with himself as he started to head to the next docked ship. “Look if we show them how much money we have by openly counting in front of them, then surely one of them will let us on with 458 gaeles. Sit back, relax, and watch the magic.” The naivety astounded Max. How did Cy manage to make it as far as the village?

“750 gaeles.”

“1000 gaeles.”

“10,000 gaeles. Each.”

“We ain’t letting you freaks on board.”

An exhausted Cy sat on the edge of the dock as he stared depressingly at the ocean. “Max, am I losing my touch? How was the first guy the cheapest option?” Max didn’t say anything. While Cy continuously and openly counted the coins before the captains in an attempt to gain sympathy, Max had noticed the passing sailors whispering and snickering to each other. None of them wanted them on board, so all of them were colluding together to make sure the next price tag was even higher. The only thing he wasn’t too sure about was whether it was to extort more money out of the rich-looking guy, or if they were genuinely creeped out by him. Good thing money wasn’t really an issue for them. Cy was going to wake up to a pouch from Santa Clause at this point. “What are we going to do?”

“Are you guys looking for a ride?” The pair jumped at the woman’s voice. Standing behind them was the pirate from the pub.