A Little Light

WINNER : 73rd Annual ARKANSAS WRITERS CONFERENCE (2nd Place for Lights Out)

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT, LET ME KNOW IF YOU'D LIKE TO SEE MORE OF THESE CHARACTERS.  

Thump, thump, thump. Adina could hear the footsteps of her pursuer getting closer. She squeezed her little body into the dark space behind the water barrel. She held her breath and hoped the ogre would pass by. Adina had escaped her cage and managed to elude her captors, but the little fairy was far from free. While there were many places to hide on board, she was still a prisoner of the pirate ship.

     She could smell the ogre’s foul breath, as he stood over her. The lantern in his hand cast shadows on the walls of the hold. She exhaled. The ogre’s keen ears twitched. 

     “Pardon me. Could I trouble you for some water?” The prisoner in the cell at the back of the hold distracted the ogre. “Just a cup, if you wouldn’t mind. I’m parched.”

   The ogre lifted the lid from the barrel and scooped out a bucket of water. Adina watched as he stomped to the cell and threw the water into the prisoner’s face. The ogre chuckled cruelly and ambled out the door. Adina breathed sigh of relief.

     “You may come out. He’s gone for now.” The prisoner whispered. “You’ve led them on quite the jolly chase. Good for you.”

     Adina crept from behind the barrel. “Thanks for the distraction. I was sure he had me” she said, approaching the cell. “I’m Adina.”

     In the gloom, she could see the prisoner was a human. He dropped to one knee to be face to face with the tiny fairy.  “I’m Job.” He smiled. “Forgive me for asking, but why don’t you just fly away from this fetid vessel?”

     Adina hung her head. “I can’t.” She turned her shoulders to show Job her damaged wing. “I fought the brute that caught me and he crushed my wing when he shoved me into that stupid cage.”

     “Dear me. Is it painful?” Job showed concern.

     “Not anymore.” Adina fluttered her wings. “But I won’t be flying for some time.”

     “If you can’t fly, how did you manage to escape your cage?” Job sat down and leaned against the bars. “Can you use fairy magic to open locks?” He looked hopeful.

     Adina smiled. “There’s something on this ship that blocks fairy magic.”

     Job sighed loudly. “Not even your little light? I thought perhaps…wait. Then why are you smiling?”

     “Because I can do something most fairies can’t.” Adina looked smug. “I know how to pick a lock.”

     “Splendid.” Job brightened. “Could you?” He motioned to the door of his cell.

     “Of course.” Adina agreed. “But we should wait until tonight. Once it gets dark…” The look on Job’s face made her swallow the rest of her words.

     “No, no.” He cried out. “I cannot spend another night in the belly of this filthy tub. I must…please let me out now, before darkness falls.” Job’s pleasant features twisted in anguish.

     “All right. I’ll unlock the door. But before you try anything, you ought to wait until I can free some of the others. The two of us can’t possibly escape alone.” Adina fished around on the littered floor until she found a nail. “Now lift me up.”

     Job reached through the bars to lift Adina. “What others?” he asked while she poked and twisted the nail in the lock.

     Adina bit her lip in concentration. “There’s three more fairies. They’re in the captain’s quarters in cages. Almost got it. There’s also four cells in the upper hold, just above us.” She motioned toward the ceiling. “I saw a Minotaur and others in those cells when I ran through to get down here.”

     Adina heard the thump of heavy boots. She dropped the nail. “Put me down.” she whispered. Just as the door opened, Adina slipped through the bars of the cell and hid herself behind Job’s boots.

     Pale light brightened the front of the hold but did not reach the depths of the cell where Adina cowered behind Job’s feet. A thin, rat-faced human stuck his head through the portal. “Seen a fairy here about?” he asked, looking at Job.

     “A fairy, you say?” Job smirked. “Well of course. There’s one here in my cell.” Adina swallowed hard and pinched the back of Job’s leg.

     “Ha. Funny one, ain’t ya?” Rat face scoffed and slammed the door.

     “Ouch.” Job rubbed his leg. “That was unnecessary.”

     “Oh it was necessary.” Adina elbowed him in the knee. “What if he had looked?”

     “He wasn’t going to look. He couldn’t be bothered to step through the door.” Job flinched to avoid another tiny elbow. “Now about that lock?” He pleaded.

     In moments the cell door swung free. Job stepped out and stretched his tall frame. “I wish we had a lantern. I…uh… can’t see a thing.” He started for the door.

     “Wait.” Adina stopped him. “We need a plan. There may be half a dozen pirates in there. You don’t know.”

     “Okay.” Job agreed. “I have an idea.”

     “Good.” Adina stood next to the door expectantly. “What’s your plan?”

     Job opened the door just a crack, then shoved Adina through and slammed it loudly. Adina squeaked and flattened herself against the door. Looking up, she saw the surprised faces of two pirates.

     She smiled and shrugged her shoulders, hopping out of the way just as the first lunged for her.  His head hit the door with a thud. He hit the floor, dazed. Adina scurried across the room with the second pirate on her heels. She ran left, faked right, and ran straight through the bars of the second cell. In his haste to grab the fairy, the pirate ran into the cell bars and the outstretched hands of the Minotaur. The terror in his eyes lasted for only a moment as he was rendered unconscious when the beast slammed his head against the cell door.

     The Minotaur looked down at Adina and chuckled. “I can’t believe I’m being rescued by a fairy.”

     As the first pirate was getting to his feet, Job stepped from his hiding place and punched him in the jaw. The thug hit the floor, unconscious.

     Job was busy tying the hands and feet of the first pirate.  Adina kicked him in the shin. “That was your plan? Just throw the fairy out into a room full of pirates? Really?”

     “It wasn’t a room full. It was just two.” Job giggled, rubbing his leg.

     “You didn’t know that!” The furious fairy kicked again.

     “Hello. Excuse me.” A red faced dwarf with a red beard hissed. “Could you two stop arguing long enough to let us out?”

     “Of course.” Adina pulled a stool over to the bars of the cell, climbed up and proceeded to poke and twist the nail in the lock.

     “Ahem.” Job cleared his throat.

     “Not now.” Adina squinted and bit her lip. “Almost got it.”

     Job tapped her on the shoulder.

     “Not now!” She snapped and waved him off. Another tap on her shoulder brought Adina’s full fury. She spun around to give Job the scolding he deserved only to be met with his smug grin. While she toiled with picking the lock, he had retrieved the keys from one of the unconscious pirates and unlocked the other cells. Without another word, Adina hopped down from the stool to stand aside so that he might open the dwarf’s cell. 

     Once the pirates were bound, gagged and locked away, Job took stock of his companions. “We are one warrior, a Minotaur, a dwarf, a centaur, an elf and a fairy. Does anyone know how many pirates await us in the upper decks?”

     The elf spoke up. “There’s at least ten, maybe more.

     “Hey, remember there’s three more fairies locked in the captain’s cabin.” Adina commented.

     “We can rescue them after. Fairies won’t be much help taking the ship.” The dwarf grumbled as he rummaged through the cargo for weapons.

     “A fairy got YOU out.” Adina crossed her arms and sat down in a huff.

     The Minotaur chuckled. “She’s right.” He ignored the angry stares from Job and the dwarf. “Well, she is. She’s the one that escaped on her own.”

     Job helped the dwarf sort through the weapons he’d found. “We need a plan.”

     “A real plan.” Adina piped up.

     “First of all, introductions” he said, tossing a disdainful look in the fairy’s direction. “I’m Job.”

     “Call me Fred.” The Minotaur spoke up.

     “Fred? Really?” Adina was in a sour mood. “A Minotaur named Fred. Well, Fred I’m Adina.”

     “Frederick the Magnificent just sounds so ostentatious. I prefer Fred.” Fred picked up a huge hammer, swinging it a few times. “This will do me just fine.”

     The dwarf strapped two short swords to his back. “I be MacDunnah Shleghorn, but you may call me Red. This here is Novan, the centaur. He don’t talk much.”

     The group turned to the elf. “I usually call upon magic but I’m not unfamiliar with weapons such as these. I am Kevin.”

     Adina face palmed but kept her comments to herself. Her tiny face blushed bright pink with undelivered snarky comments.  

     “Okay.” Job said. “Now that we’re all properly armed, we need a plan.”

     “I’d feel better if we could use our magic.” Kevin whined. “There must be something on this ship that’s blocking all magic.”

     “They have a Quelling Sphere.” Novan spoke for the first time. He nodded to the elf, who raised his eyebrows in recognition.

     “Well, don’t just stand there nodding. Tell us. What is a Quelling spear?” Red was impatient.

     “A Quelling SPHERE is a powerful magical item that blocks all other magic in a given area. It should be a ball about this big.” Kevin spoke and held out his hands to the size of a large apple. “It will have swirling light inside. I expect it will be guarded.”

     “Whatever we’re going to do; we must do it soon. It’s getting late.” Job looked nervous.

     “We should wait till it’s good and dark and take them by surprise.” Red offered.

     Adina watched Job standing on the steps to the next deck. “Is he sick or is he going to cry?” She nudged Fred. She held her breath as he moved up the stairs. “He’s not…oh yes he is. Job, no.” She whispered as vehemently as possible.

     Job threw open the door and charged up the stairs to the next deck. The rest of the group brandished their weapons and followed. They found themselves in an empty corridor. There were two doors and a short staircase at the end. Portholes lined one wall, filtering in the waning light from outside. Job leaned against a porthole, basking in the natural light. He sighed deeply before speaking. “Those stairs lead to the deck.” He whispered.

     “That’s got to be the galley. I can smell it.” Fred offered.

     “And this is the captain’s cabin.” Adina put her tiny ear against the door. “I hear fairies. We have to let them out.”

    “We’ve no time. They’ll be safer out of the way. Leave them…for now.” Red pulled open the cabin door and pushed Adina through. “They’ll all be safer.”  The group nodded in agreement.

     Job stood on the steps to the deck with the others gathered around him. “The first thing we do is find the Quelling…thing. Whoever finds it, throw it overboard. That should free his elf magic and even the odds a bit. They may have us outnumbered but we have the element of surprise.”

     Suddenly, the galley door opened. The rat faced pirate strolled out closely followed by three others. Rat face looked up in utter surprise. Fred, being the closest, charged them. But the alarm had been raised. “I’ll handle these. Go, go.” He shouted heroically.

     Job dashed up the stairs and burst through the door to the deck. Red and Kevin cleared the door quickly but Novan had a problem with the stairs.    

     Fred charged the pirates, pushing them back into the galley. He grabbed a bench, stepped back out the door and blocked it. He dusted his hands and chuckled as they pounded on the door. “Ha.” Fred hurried for the deck. He had to push past Novan, who was still trying to manage the stairs.

     Topside there was chaos.  The setting sun cast a dim light over the deck. Red battled multiple pirates with a sword in each hand. Job stepped over the unconscious forms of several others in his pursuit of the captain.  Kevin ran back and forth across the deck screaming, with the ogre on his heels. 

     When the ogre spotted the Minotaur he ignored the elf and charged. Fred planted his feet to absorb the blow but it never came. Kevin scurried in front of the ogre, who tripped over the terrified elf. When the ogre landed hard, a shiny orb rolled from his pocket across the deck. All eyes followed the Quelling Sphere as it rolled port then starboard with the pitch of the ship. For a moment, no one breathed. Then everything happened at once.

     The sun sank below the horizon and cast the deck in darkness. Fred and the ogre dove for the sphere. Red knocked a pirate overboard. Job shrieked and fell over; and the shiny ball rolled right into Kevin’s hands as he lay weeping on the deck.

     “Heave it over!” Red shouted, knocking out another pirate.

     “Take it,” the captain roared from the upper deck.

     The ogre grabbed the sphere from Kevin, who promptly fainted. He raised the sphere above his head in triumph. 

     Just then, Novan burst from the stairwell and landed a mighty kick with both back legs to the ogre’s midsection. The brute flipped over the railing and sank under the inky waters. As the light of the sphere disappeared under the waves Kevin looked up, feeling his magic return. Fred lit a lantern.

     In the circle of light they saw the captain with his sword to Job’s throat. The captain gave an evil chuckle. “You’ve made a fine mess of my crew but I still have the upper hand.”

     “Shut up, stupid human.” Adina stood at the top of the stairs with three gleaming fairies hovering in the air behind her. “I’ve had it with you. All baddies, go to sleep.” The captain and remaining pirates hit the deck with a thud. “And you!” she yelled at Job. “I thought you were a warrior.”

     “Adina,” Job called meekly. “A little light please.”

     Adina rolled her eyes as she swirled her hand above her head. The rigging and masts came alive, bathing the whole ship in fairy light. “Now take me home,” she commanded.

     Red took the helm and turned the ship for Fairy Land. It lit the night with twinkling lights across the dark waters. As they journeyed home Adina could be heard for miles. “What kind of warrior is afraid of the dark? Honestly! A little help, girls. You know I can’t fly. See what you can do with this wing.”…