Chapter 1: A Messy First Start
A pale moon stands proudly over the horizon. Her brilliance shines above the ether, illuminating the ground below with her moonlight. As the moonlight glides on the grasslands, it stumbles upon a mountain cliff. It proceeds to climb to the cliff's edge and rests upon it. However, it was not alone. On a nearby silver maple tree, a pair of glowing red eyes pierce through the darkness. A vile creature creeps on the tree's naked dried branch, slowly heading towards the moonlight, intrigued by its sudden presence. The creature leaps off from the tree branch and lands with a thump, right in the center of the gleaming moonlit circle.
The creature can be best described as nature’s unholiest freak. Having thick black fur and being the size of a dog, the creature is slim, agile, and moves around like a cat on a hunt. Its limbs, long and flexible, have ape-like hands and feet that end with retractable claws. On its feline face, a broad mouth reveals numerous sharp teeth that grin from ear to ear. However, its most distinguished feature and prized possession is its tail. Long and fluffy, the creature sways it to the ground in front of itself.
Under the gleaming moonlight, the creature starts to caress its tail. With every brush, the creature savors the delectable softness of its fluffy fur alongside the quick fleeting pleasure of every stroke. As the creature continues caressing its tail, it starts to fawn over it, showering it with excess amounts of intimate praise as if talking to a lover. The beast slobbers uncontrollably over its tail as it continues to express its deep love for it.
"Tailypo…Tailypo…you are elegant and majestic as the first time I had you."
"Tailypo…Tailypo…the treasures of the infinite worlds can never replace you."
"Tailypo…Tailypo…you're the only thing I ever need in this life."
"Tailypo…OHHHH~ my Tailypo…yo-"
“Can you please shut up?”
The creature turns its head around to look behind. Far behind the silver maple tree sits a person leaning their back against the mountain wall. The person wears a white practical tunic underneath a long, green hooded-cloak and light brown trousers. The person takes off the hood of their cloak, revealing a male youth with short, dark blue, spiky hair. Johnny's face is plastered with disgust, appalled from seeing his colleague doing their “deed” for the 27th time, in front of him no less.
“Taily…can you do your weird fetish thing later, like after we completed the mission?” Johnny questions, his face still cringes from looking at his colleague’s slobbering face.
The creature furrowed its eyebrows. It looks away from Johnny and quickly goes back to tend to its tail.
“You know and I know, that’s never going to happen. If my actions displease you, then I suggest you work on speeding up your magic. Now leave me be!”
The creature promptly resumes its personal duties without a care in the world. Johnny meanwhile lets out a long sigh. He shifts his body to the right where a large magic circle lays.
The magic circle contains concentric circles that go smaller and smaller to the center where a sketch of a closed eye is placed. On each circle ring, ancient runes are drawn, each a component that helps in twisting the invisible strings of reality. Beside the magic circle, a polaroid of a dark skinned elf lay. With dark, long, but messy hair, the elf has a look of worry written all over their face. Below on the white border, the words “Orrice Fleetwood ” were highlighted in yellow.
A faint green light emanates from within the chalked lines of the magic circle. Johnny goes to his belt pouch, takes out a small bundle of bald eagle feathers, and drops them on top of it. The dark brown feathers disintegrate on contact with the circle. The sketched eye starts to open as the green light suddenly intensifies, expanding outwards and spreading out from the lines before combusting into a big green fire. However, as the restless flame attempts to rise higher, the fire quickly dies, leaving the sketched eye blinking droopily before closing.
“Ugh!” Johnny grunts, yet another failed attempt. Johnny scratches his head, trying to understand where he messed up.
The hell’s wrong with this thing! The runes. The conditions. Everything’s here! I even added the eagle feathers to speed up the process! What am I missing!
Johnny closes his eyes. He tries to go deep into his memories, recollecting every spell, every instruction, and every component he has learned and collected throughout his journey. However, the deeper he goes down the rabbit hole, a particular memory stands out, one he hates so much he wants it buried deep within his psyche. But, whatever he does, it always comes back to haunt him. Not long after, Johnny just returns back to the same seating position, utterly clueless on what to do and slowly drowning in his own contemplation.
Should’ve stayed longer in magic school, huh? But those god damn instructors barely do anything! I learned way more during my adventures than that suffocating place anyways. ~Annnnd, I also drop that quickly too~. Dammit! How would I know things would end up this way! Though, I do like that I get to travel across worlds. Just that I’ve always got a deadline and a disgusting tail-loving freak trailing behind my back.
Johnny puts his hand deep within his belt pouch and pulls out a large grey flask. He places his lips tightly on the flask’s mouth and takes a long sip of cold water straight down his throat.
Dammit, we got till tomorrow afternoon before the librarians deems this mission a failure. What the hell am I supposed to do?
After quenching his thirst, Johnny closes the lid before shaking the flask a bit. There’s still a few ounces of water left sloshing inside the container. He looked to his right again, his magic circle still lying there doing nothing. A sudden spark suddenly pops in Johnny’s mind.
Johnny takes out his chalk and starts to create another magic circle, this time, a singular large rune is drawn in the middle. Johnny promptly chants an incantation before placing his flask in the center for a minute before taking it out. The flask is now hot to the touch. Johnny opens the lid and a line of white steam comes out of it. Johnny raises his flask high above his head, ready to baptize himself in hot water.
I’m still a man right? I mean, the divination spell is practically useless at this point. You gotta use everything at your disposal right? Hahaha! It’s not like I’m going to do something drastic! I can always turn back.
Johnny slowly tilts the flask. Its mouth slowly goes down towards Johnny ’s head. Though, in a split second, Johnny’s grip tightens, restricting any movement and becoming as stiff as a rock. His mind flutters with thoughts: trying to understand what in the world he is trying to do, the implications of it, and what he is sacrificing. In a moment of realization, he tosses his flask away.
What the hell am I thinking! I am a MAN. I am Johnny Tyreesius. I will get this spell working and find that grimoire! I know I can…. probably.
Johnny proceeds to slap both of his cheeks red before closing his eyes once again.
Okay, let’s retrace our steps. First, place—
“WAKE UP HUMAN! NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO REST!”
Taily’s growling voice booms over the surrounding area. Johnny recoils backward and accidentally bumps his head back against the mountain wall. He wriggles around as his head throbs in pain. He looks towards Taily, his blood starts to boil as the creature comes forth.
“What the hell’s wrong with you?! I can’t concentrate on fixing my spell if you shout at me!”
“ Look around you, human! We have been staying on this cliff, FOR AN ENTIRE DAY! I thought you have finally finished your magic after all this time, but here I find you doing absolutely nothing!
“Screw off! Do you think infiltrating the village in the middle of daylight is any bett—”
“YES HUMAN! I could have searched every house, found the target, cut them bit by bit until they reveal where they kept the librarian's magic book and be done by sunset! I should have already been in my quarters right now, giving the utmost care to my Tailypo, but no! I have to be stuck here with you. I don’t even understand why you are trying to locate the target. THEY ARE RIGHT OVER THERE!”
The creature points towards the landscape as within the night’s dark abyss a small but brilliant light shine brightly from afar.
“Didn’t you read the Goddamn briefing. That’s a frickin Varjoisa elf village! The vengeful fiends who have current beef with the jolly red man himself! There are hundreds, if not thousands of those hellish inventors living there. One of them has the grimoire and we don’t have the luxury of time to identify each and every one of them lest we get caught.”
“And who’s responsible for leading us into this predicament!”
Johnny grips his fists. He wants to retort back but this ugly freak speaks the truth. He looks away from the creature in shame. However, unbeknownst to the arguing duo, Johnny’s initial magic circle started to act. Its eye in the center opens, now darting to look around as the whole circle starts to shine brighter than before.
“Admit it human! The magic of your base form is weak and useless to our current mission. You need to change. Change to your other fo—“
“NO!! Absolutely not, THAT is off the table! I told you many times to never bring THAT THING up. I’ll have you know that I’m considered one of the most powerful and smarter wizards in my world. I don’t need some stupid animal to lecture me on who I am and what I’m capable of. “
“SILENCE HUMAN! You're nothing but a thickheaded, brainrotting chatterbox who’s but an amateur of your craft. It’s no wonder you got easily cursed by that goddess”
“Well at least I’m not some loud sickening whore who can’t keep his tail attached to his ass for shit. Go on and suck on your tail while you still can, I’ll make sure you'll lose it a third time, permanently!”
“HOW DARE YOU HUMAN!”
The creature approaches Johnny. It stands on two feet and starts to grow. Getting bigger, bulkier and taller with every step it takes. Johnny prepares for the confrontation. He takes out a vial of iron powder and quickly pours an amount over his hand. He spits on them and whispers a chant before making a clap. Immediately, huge sparks of violent electricity sprung out and wrapped around both of his hands.
The duo are now face-to-face with each other. Taily now stands as the size of a ferocious bear, breathing down on Johnny ’s face with its claws large and elongated, ready to slash. Meanwhile, Johnny looks up at the creature, the electricity in his hands moving erratically, and burning the ground below with every zap, ready to be unleashed upon this beast.
Before the quarreling could get any worse, a huge burst of green flame suddenly rises high up into the air, stopping the two in their tracks. Within the wall of fire, an image starts to develop. Initially blurry, the image starts to focus to reveal a person under heavy grey robes. They appear to be sitting at a table, sipping from a cup. While their face can’t be discerned due to the covering of the hood, their actions show that they appear to be very cautious, frantically looking at their surroundings as if knowing that they’re being watched.
After a moment’s pass, Johnny and Taily turn back to look at each other. Anger still burns brightly in each other's eyes. However, as much as they wanted to kill each other, both knew that they would need each other if they were to succeed in getting back the stolen grimoire .
With no words spoken, the two lay down their weapons. Taily transforms back to its normal form while Johnny simply blows his hands to disperse the magic. Johnny then promptly goes to the green wall of fire, reaches out a hand deep within it and grabs a piece of it, seemingly being unharmed throughout the whole process. He doesn’t know how or why his divination spell worked but his mind tires as he just wants to get this over with.
It has always been like this for the pair: they bicker, they fight, but when it's time to work, all vendettas are cast aside as both minds are set to one thing and one thing only, which is to finish the goddamn mission.
Somewhere deep inside a dimly lit space, a big snow globe shines brightly. Within the drifting white particles, an image starts to project. Johnny and Taily can be seen conversing, likely continuing to go at each other’s throat as they descend the cliff. An observer watches from the flickering room, their mouth affixed with a malicious grin.
“Oh what a night it’s going to be!”