A Monk's Tail

by Kyle Spencer

  “Are you going to stop me?” Her head whips around almost one hundred-eighty degrees. Her eyes are pitch black with little speckles of white, deeper than the infinite void of space. Her voice isn’t her own. Well, it’s still that cute little high-pitched voice of hers, but there’s a dark power behind it that shoots needles of fear into my stomach. A green aura crawls up her arms like wretched faerie fire. Her flesh around the elbows begins to burn, charring to a glowing green ember. Ash drifts away and melds with the flames. Slowly the fire snakes it way down through her fingers and arcs over to the hearts of her parents. Teeth begin to grow back in their mouths and a spark of life returns to their eyes.

  It’s now or never.

  “Hyah!” I shout and Susi’s black eyes fade back to white as she crumbles to the floor. With the sound of air rushing out of a sack the fire ceases at once and Mr. and Mrs. von Zerfallen are left still looking like they’ve got a dinner date with Hel.

  “Really?!” Talia shouts as she scoops up Susi’s limp body. “A karate chop to the head?!”

  “You had a better idea?”

  “No, but-”

  “Then shushies. And let’s get out of here. Now. Archy, is your Plan B good to go in this situation? You know what I mean.” The professor nods solemnly. “Good. Then let’s go.” A small moan stops us. We turn to see the hazel eyes of Susi’s mother boring into us. A single finger rises an inch, then falls. Those cracked lips move ever so slightly to form a word:

  “Susi.”

  “Let’s go.” I repeat. I turn around and don’t look back. We make our way out of the foul area and back towards fresh(er) air. Archy follows a minute later. We jump back to our ship and Talia swiftly carries Susi down for treatment.

  “I suggest unhooking ship.” Archy says to Saltana. She nods and with a wave of her paw we loose ourselves from the Rusty Scupper. It sits there with sails torn to shreds, a precaution taken by the sailors while we were below.

  “So is what I think is going to happen, going to happen?” I ask. Archy puts a finger to my lips, frowning. He doesn’t break his gaze from the Scupper. As it shrinks farther and farther into the distance, his frown deepens.

  Suddenly the air grows thick and the belly of the Scupper extends with a palpable whoom! In another split second her hull is torn apart by an enormous fireball that shreds the rest of the vessel in the blink of an eye. A large foamy ripple speeds out over the water, sending our boat swaying violently as it passes under us. When it does the air turns into a moving wall, shoving all of us back a foot. Pieces of wood splash down meters away.

  “My gods…” Saltana just plops down where she’s at, mouth agape and paws shaking.

  “Yeah…” I’m a bit surprised as well; I’ve seen this on a much smaller scale in Archy’s workshop, but nothing that even came close, let alone explode an entire merchant vessel. “Who the fuck needs magic anymore, huh?”

  Archy puffs out his chest with pride, although his jaw is still stiff with a serious frown. “I call it ‘Professor Archeleus Zott’s fantastic bombastic blast satchel’, or bomba for short.”

  “So that’s your Plan B. Gotta say it’s an improvement.”

  “Thank you.” His frown deepens. “Bow. My friend. Are we…bad guys?”

  “Of course not, buddy.” To be honest, right now I don’t even know if I believe that.

  “But we are not good guys.” Not a question.

  “It’s never that simple.” I sigh. “All I know is that we can never-”

  “What happened?!” Talia vaults up from below, eyes wide. “Is everyone okay? Hold up...where’s the other ship? What’s up with all that black smoke over there and the pieces of oh my gods what did you do to the ship?!”

  “Plan B, apparently.” I shrug.

  A flurry of emotions flashes across her face, running the entire spectrum: Resentment, Outrage, Yielding, Guilty, Beleaguered, Irate, and Vexed. Finally her shoulders sag, “What do we tell Susi?”

  “Sure as Hel not the truth.” I reply.

  “I agree.” She says.

  “Holy shit that’s a first.”

  “I think I know what to say.” She motions for us to gather round and we spend the better part of the day resurrecting the von Zerfallen parents and sending them far, far away.

  The Shimmering Isles

  “How can a journey end when you haven’t taken the first step?”

  - Master Kenji to his disciples

  “I brought you some stew.” I tiptoe up besides Susi’s hammock. “Cooky made it especially for you. Hungry?”

  “No.” Susi pouts but leaves her mouth hanging partially open. I take the chance and zip a spoonful into it. Apparently it was the right choice as she makes a little mmm sound, but maintains her scowl. “You hit me.” Her eyes show that whatever trust she used to have is one bad word away from disappearing forever. “You hit me. On the head. While I was trying to save my parents’ lives.”

  “I know. I know. Friend’s don’t karate chop friends in the head. But I was trying to save your arms.” I spoon another helping of stew into her waiting mouth. Her attempt at siphoning off her life cost her most of her arms; her elbows are nothing but joints now and the bone stops halfway between that and her shoulders. “And the rest of you, for that matter.”

  “But I was the only one who could save them.”

  “Or so you thought.” I make sure to get a good chunk of fish on the next scoop. The entire script of what to say runs through my mind on repeat, having been drilled in there over the last few hours by Talia and Archy. “You’re parents are stronger than you give them credit for. We gave them some of our best food-” Food that’s now feeding the fish after being thrown overboard a while back. “-just enough for them to get back to Aquarian. But before we did that we explained why you left. There was a bunch of feelings and shit and eventually they agreed to...give you your space, I think is what they said. They would be in contact with you at some point but yeah, there ya go.” A few dribbles of stew splash on her dress and mingle with the tears that are falling.

  “Thank you.” She does her best to hold back the floodgates but it doesn’t work. Throwing her arms around me (and spilling the rest of the stew), she begins bawling. “Oh Bow I’m so sorry first I was worried that they might kill you then I was worried they might die and I didn’t know what to do and I yelled at you and they looked so helpless and all they wanted to do was keep me safe and-” This goes on for a while. “-and I’m just glad you’ve been such a good friend. Thank you.”

  “Hey…no problem.” I pat her on the head, careful to avoid the rather large lump I gave her.

  Archy is right: we aren’t good guys. And if Susi ever finds out what actually happened, holy Hel she will burn the entire world down around her. The more I think about it, the more I think we have made a very very horrible mistake.

  Fortunately, Talia comes down before Susi sees me retreating into my mind. The firefox smiles upon seeing the Susi awake. “Hey you! Glad to see you up! Did Bow tell you the news? Good. How was the stew?”

  “Delicious!” Susi beams.

  “Good.” The two hug each other. “You should come up on deck. There’s something I want you to see.” She winks at me and my heart skips a beat; there’s only one thing it could be. I turn around and let Susi hop on my shoulders. We meet everyone else on deck.

  “I don’t get it.” Susi looks around. Everyone is staring at the setting sun. Now there’s nothing remarkable about this sunset; over the past few months we’ve seen dozens like it. You could even say this is a sub-par sunset. But it’s what comes afterwards that will take everyone’s breath away.

  “Alright. Everyone to the other side.” Talia instructs. We oblige.

  It’s been so long since I’ve seen this. I begin to bounce on the balls of my feet, much to Susi’s annoyance. But just before she loses her cool I point towards the darkened horizon. Everyone follows my outstretched paw. Just as the last rays of sun fade into night behind us, a new sunrise begin
s in the waters in front of us. Blue light - much like Leena’s - begins to grow where water meets sky. A living globe pulses as it grows larger, continuing to expand in all directions until our ship is floating on a sea of light.

  “Oh my gods I must study this.” Archy whispers to himself. Everyone else is awestruck. Talia and I just grin.

  “These are luxorbs!” Susi exclaims with a laugh.

  “It’s funny,” I ponder aloud, “No one ever asks why it’s called ‘The Shimmering Isles’.”

  “I did ask.” Archy says. “Numerous times.”

  “And I told you numerous times. You just were never paying attention.”

  “So that means we’re here?” Susi hops down and skips back and forth, constantly peering into the bright blue waters below.

  “It’ll take a another day or two to reach land.” Talia explains. “But yeah. We’re home.”

  “So have you thought more about what we’re going to do when we land?” Susi skips to a stop in front of me, her eyes bright and teeth poking out in a smile. “All the cool places and adventures and people?”

  “Actually, I know exactly what we’re going to do when we land.” It’s something that I’ve been missing for eight years, an experience that reshapes the very fabric of your soul.

  “What’s that?” The maus cocks her head to the side, unable to hide her smile.

  “We’re getting sushi.”