《Tales by the bonfire》


 1. Demiurge of perversion

    ¡°Geralderiot! You stand here, before the pantheon of High Gods, accused of abusing your power to mingle with humans. You have been known to infest worlds with tentacle-related monsters, creating worlds full of demi-humans, destined to be abused by their betters, using your power to influence minds of innocents, to further the spread of your own inner perversion. How do you plea?¡±


    ¡°What? You dare accuse me! The great Tit-Her''Anus about using my power? I am the only Demiurge in this pantheon! And you dare to insult me with your petty words? Diana it is your doing, isn''t it.¡±


    A certain goddess of chastity stood amongst the jury, not looking the accused in the eyes. She looked like a true goddess, her allure evident even through her white toga, covering her most attractive features. She showed a somewhat guilty look, hiding her eyes and avoided his gaze.


    ¡°Don''t accuse your ex-wife of any wrongdoings! Your separation has been settled previously and has nothing to do with this! You are no longer married to the Goddess of Chastity, Diana. You should remember that your previous name, Hermillanus, as well as your worlds have all been taken in the settlements. Your rank is that of a lowly cherub around here, regardless of your supposed power. Stop using your old name, or we will have to take action.¡±


    A mix of dark and light energies surrounds the accused man, his bearded face distorted by fury. His eyes glow, revealing his anger to the world to see.


    ¡°Wife?! Marriage?! I told you countless times, the damn marriage never was consummated, it was void from the first night. I am the creator of this whole Pantheon! It is my power that has given birth to all of you! And I would have been your real father and grandfather if not for that prune of a woman.¡±


    He visibly glares at the one woman who is main the cause of this issue. She has not lifted her eyes once, her face ridden with guilt.


    ¡°Now, you little shits stand here, accusing your creator, the God of Life and Fertility, of doing my exact job? You stand here siding with a woman, who denied you the possibility of having a mother? You little puny things trying to deny me my own name?! How dare you?!¡±


    ¡°Geralderiot, you have to start following the rules that you yourself set or we will be forced to take action.¡±


    ¡°Fuck you Hermes, talking all high and mighty. Where was the Messenger God when I needed to pass on my massage of being alone and horny at night? How many pleas have I submitted to the counsel, asking to end the marriage, so I could finally get a new wife, only for each one to be shut down. And after the millions of years of me being faithful and caring, when I finally do my job, you take away everything from me on the account of infidelity? I can destroy you all with a wave of the hand!¡±


    ¡°Geralderiot, that has nothing to do with the issue at hand. We are here to decide what to do...¡±


    ¡°Fuck you. My name is not Geralderiot. If this what you want then let me give this to you. I am no longer the God of Life and Fertillity. From this moment on I am a Demiurge of Perversion, unbound by your petty laws. I played this game long enough.¡±


    As the man says this, the vortex of energy surrounds him, previously both black and white energies change and shift, turning into pure blackness, darker than the obsidian or the starless sky. The tendrils of energy no longer flow like water, softly caressing the man and his surrounding, instead they solidify and elongate, becoming snake-like. The new energy slithers around the man, trying to grasp at the environment to bind, twist and control anything around him. Thankfully, no living beings were within the reach of this new, vile energy.


    ¡°My name is Tit-Her''Anus, I am the Demiurge of Perversion, having unlimited power and lack of bounds I will do whatever I want.¡±


    ¡°No, you won''t Geralderiot. Even if you had a hand in creating this pantheon, you are not above it and you cannot escape the consequences of your actions. Face the retribution.¡±


    As Hermes says this, all the Gods begin to chant something. Each of them has their own part in the ritual performed here. Massive magical circle appears around the man surrounded by black Miasma. The bright rune words glow with brilliant light, trying to rip apart the shadow surrounding the man. Circles within circles appear, some flat circles turn into three-dimensional spheres. The spell work is clearly amazing. Many gods must have worked on it.


    There are some Aztec writings, the sign that Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent of wisdom lent his hand. Seshat and Isis, the Egyptian gods if knowledge also had part creating this magic, their hieroglyphics can be seen amongst the circles. There are tell-tale signs of Meris and Athena, as well as other Greek, Japanese, Norse and many other gods who helped build this complex structure. Even the gods from other pantheons seem to have interfered, which is clearly forbidden.


    As the structure appears and becomes more defined, as its features grow more complex and shine brightly, it strips the Demiurge of his powers, chaining him and binding him. The darkness slowly dissipates, leaving the fallen God virtually powerless. As time goes on, the ritual eventually comes to an end, leaving the man no more than a mere human.


    ¡°We have locked away your power. You have nothing to cause us any trouble. Now, you will be sent to a mortal plane, one which surely will correct your behavior and make you think. You should be careful about what you do there as it may cost you dearly.¡±


    ¡°Fuck you.¡±


    ¡°Your ex-wife gladly lent us her private domain to be the correctional facility for you. You must already know just what values would the goddess of chastity bestow upon her subjects? You will be sent there to live there until you are deemed to be worthy of ascension once again. If that happens, you will have your status as a God reinstated and your power returned. Otherwise, you will stay there until you die and your soul enters the river of souls and you are reborn.¡±


    With those words light envelops the bearded perverted man and vanishes leaving nothing behind. Gods let out a collective sigh, exhausted from the massive amount of work they have done. It takes a lot to limit, much less take away the power of the Demiurge, even with as many as a thousand gods.


    The crowd of devines slowly starts to disperse, everybody leaving for their homes. They can sleep soundly tonight, no longer afraid that their world would harbor a new race of overly-sexualized felines or a kraken would rise from the seas to assault innocent maidens.


    A certain goddess stands still for a while, with a complicated expression. She feels that finally her nightmare is over. That despicable man of a husband that she had for eons is finally gone, almost surely for good. She didn''t know what she would have to suffer through when she first met the man.


    Powerful and young, he charmed her and swooped her off her feet. If only she new back then how much harassment she would have to endure from him. How could he not understand, the goddess of chastity cannot give in to his carnal urges? Why was it so hard to support her and remain celibate? So what if their divinities clashed and he couldn''t perform his duty? He claimed he was a demiurge, he should be capable of withstanding and standing by her side. And then, when he breaks the holy vows of marriage, he blames her? What a nerve!


    Deciding to stop thinking about that man, the distraught goddess begins to walk home. Finally, she will have time for herself and won''t hear his selfish complaints. She makes her way out of the room and heads to the transport gate. She is too tired to teleport herself.


    In the room only a handful of gods remain. A pair of them walk to the balcony and silently enjoy the scenery. The view is truly beautiful, the world considered a masterpiece amongst the majority. Apparently it was the engagement gift Diana received from her now ex-husband. It was mesmerizing to look at.


    The plains below are of a soft pale pink color, sometimes turning red or violet. The change is mostly eventual, barely visible, but sometimes the different colors clash together, creating a beautiful whirlpool.


    In some places Sakura trees can be seen, mid-bloom all year around. There are also roses, tulips, lilies and other lovely plants around. The carefully crafted environment has all of the plants and animals what would be considered beautiful. A sign of love between the gods. The ex-god of life was known to spend his time here, tending to the gardens and the cuddly pets, making sure everything stays the same way it was when this world was gifted to Diana; just perfect.


    The light blue sky was lit up by a beautiful light violet star. Stars like that never occur naturally, in fact nobody knew how did he get such a vibrant color. It was speculated to have some unknown eliments he came up with just for the sole purpose of lighting this one planet.


    At dawn the sky would turn bright and happy orange, signaling the start of the new day filled with joy of having the one you love beside you. The dusk had the sky turn bright pink, eventually fading into deep darker pink and to black. It symbolized that at the end of the day love is wonderful no matter how you express it, with the innocent bright love, like the young ones have, or the deep and passionate love that goes all the way into the night, drowned in sensuality. The creator of this place was quite literal with his metaphorical symbols.


    High up in the sky two moons could be seen. No matter where in the sky they were, they were always together, the big moon in front and a smaller one always behind it, as if shielded from the world.


    The big moon had white, grey and light blue colors to it. It was riddled with craters, taking on the impacts of the asteroids, in order to protect the smaller moon behind it. The moon being shielded looked like a gas giant, with swirls of colour and shapes twisting and changing on the surface. It had colors ranging form pale-pink to crimson red all mixed in together and swirling around the surface.


    This whole solar system was forged with a single purpose in mind and it was ignorant of the normal laws governing the universe. Its purpose and its law was love, unyielding love that forced a god to create the perfect personification of the feeling in this world.


    It might have been cheesy or dramatic, but gods didn''t think so. The effort put into forging this world was enormous and the attention to every little detail was astounding. Even the starry night sky, that would appear later would show an amazing display of different colors, as multiple nebulas and dust clouds could be seen with the naked eye. Even the position for this world was carefully chosen to show off the beauty of this world through the eyes of the God in love.


    Too bad that now this world is likely to fall apart. Diana sure didn''t care about it. She treated it as some sort of vacation resort, but she never once tended to it or even attempted to understand how it works. Even through the many problems and conflicts that occurred between the two gods, this world was always cared for. It clearly showed that beyond whatever irritations and cursing, the ex-god still was very much in love. But Diana didn''t see it, too ignorant and stuck-up to see beyond her egoistical love for chastity and celibacy.


    Soon, predators will appear, filling in the niche openings in the ecosystem. The plants will evolve to prey on the tiny and helpless critters that are so abundant. The moons will loose their alignment with one another, spinning out of control, causing massive tidal waves and perhaps even crashing into the beautiful planet. But none of it would compare to the calamity that would unfold once the star, completely unnatural and alien in its concept, ruptures and goes supernova or worse...


    As if thinking about this, one of the gods on a balcony breaks the silence.


    ¡°It is a shame, huh?¡±


    ¡°It truly is.¡±


    The two gods pause, thinking of their plans.


    ¡°Are we not being too harsh on her? I mean we could have completely sealed his powers and been done with it. But now he in her prime domain, her source of power, capable of doing anything even if he is severely weakened. What will happen to her afterwards? Forcefully changing a god''s divinity is not something done very often, especially in this way, directly affecting their domain from within. I mean, she is our supposed mother after all?¡±


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    ¡°Perhaps it is harsh, but it is nothing compared to what our supposed mother has done with him. Look how much she meant to him. This is but a single world, one of many that are out there created by him. And it is seeping with love. If our supposed mother wasn''t a stuck-up bitch who bossed everyone around and for once got over her own self-importance, may be she would have been our actual mother and we all would be happy?¡±


    Two gods once again looked at the scenery before them, admiring the handiwork of their father. The thought of what they had done and what will happen in the future.


    ¡°Is she even going to survive this ordeal? Having the force that is corrupted and a complete opposite of your divinity is not something that can be overcome easily. Especially now that gods are powerless against him. Who would have thought that she would agree to send him to her private domain? I mean yes, she is the most powerful there and her influence is almost absolute in her world, but now that the spell is cast, no god may interfere with him directly.¡±


    ¡°It doesn''t matter if she does or she doesn''t. Whatever comes to her she deserves. She had our father under thumb for too long, having him do her bidding and giving her everything she wants. She never grew up from her little fantasies of having perfectly pure worlds. I mean the ways he bent the rules just to create a perfectly pure domain for her where sex is obsolete? Completely giving up your power over the world is not something a does lightly, and he did it many times.¡±


    ¡°But you sure that this is the right sort of action?¡±


    ¡°It is if we want to have a semblance of a family in the future. This pantheon is a joke. She is too naive and arrogant with her ideas, and he was too stupid to realize how wrong she was. He created the whole bunch of gods in their image just to satisfy her dumb desire to stay pure, hoping that she would change her mind some day. He didn''t grow gods from mortals, like they are usually made, he created us, with a flick of his wrist! You know that it is even more difficult than creating a world, much less a solar system or a universe. And how many of those have any of us created by ourselves?


    ¡°None by ourselves.¡±


    ¡°That was a rhetorical question. We have half the gods with celibate-this and pure-that divinities, just like she wanted. I don''t even know how most of them still have any subjects. And she is the one at the center of it with the whole pantheon in her grasp, thinking she can do whatever she pleases. You know as well as I do, this is the right way forward if we don''t want to perish. Without father this pantheon has no power and only a handful of us realize it.¡±


    ¡°Yes. You are right. It is just so hard to stand here, knowing what we set in motion.¡±


    The two men looked at each other, one of them extended his hand and put it on the shoulder of the other, to ensure him that they did the right thing.


    ¡°Yes, I know.¡±


    The brothers stay silent s little longer.


    ¡°Can you imagine staying abstinent for eons? I mean, what was your longest dry spell? I was able to go for a decade and a half, waiting for a demon princess to mature.¡±


    ¡°A hundred and thirteen years. Courting an eleven queen is hard. Although it sure pays off in the end.¡±


    Both men smile at one another and look at the terrain laying before the, doomed to one day be ruined by the lack of proper care.


    ¡°Truly a shame.¡±


    With that two gods shimmered out of existence, teleporting to their own worlds.


    -----


    Waking up, the fallen God found himself lying naked on the grass bed in a forest. Thinking back to the proceeding, he reveals a malicious grin, knowing that he has the power here and what that entails. He saw the spell work, which was impressive and would have surely worked, if not for a few gods who intentionally messed up. That didn''t disrupt the spell completely, only weakened it, but that''s enough to have an advantage in this world.


    Not wanting to wait too long regaining his former power, he closes his eyes, willing things into existence in his head. Before his eyes he can see two perfect tits. They are amazing, perfecter than any tits he saw before, perhaps the perfectest C-cup sized tits in existence. He thinks about them, he looks at them, but there sight is not enough to grasp his new affinity.


    He takes it a step further, he grasps them. Even going as far as moving his hands in reality, he grasps the perky tits, trying to recreate the feeling in mind. Oh, how he truly missed such sensation. He spent millions of years, waiting for a single slut to wake up and face the music, only to loose everything in the end. But once he was divorced, he had plenty of time to catch up and get his handful of titties.


    So now he was feeling the skin, the hardening nipple in his hands. Imagination was nowhere near the real thing, but if you practice it comes close. The fallen God has plenty of time to practice. The feeling was pleasant, but still not just enough, the power still eluded him.


    Not waiting any longer, he stuck one of the nipples into his imaginary mouth, tasting the sweet sensation and feeling the arousal. The hardening nipple responded by getting just a little bit harder. The former God then decided to nibble on the small bud, teasing it with his teeth. Then he suckles on them with his lips, savoring the sensation. Of course he was mimicking all of this in reality just to make the sensations more believable.


    With that, just like a newborn sucks the milk from his mother''s life-giving breast, so does the fallen God sucks a bit of power from his perverted fantasy, a spark of black gripped tightly and held precious. He doesn''t let it go out, instead concentrating on it and expanding the power within. Within moments, the body of the fallen God is enveloped by black tendrils, moving, grasping for flesh. It is just a speck compared to his former power, but it''s enough to begin with. The black tentacles of pure dark energy all turn towards a single point and try to get closer.


    The demiurge of perversion turns towards an innocent creature, this world''s version of a dryad. Before him stands a girl in her mid-twenties, with green skin and complete dark-green eyes. She has dark-green luscious lips and a cute nose. Instead of hair she has thin vines, going down to he waist. Her body is also entangled with vines, covering her almost like cloth, but not hiding her alluring curves in the slightest.


    The God created these creatures previously, modeling them after a certain mono-gendered, blue skinned alien spices. He also wanted to call them smurfs, but Diana didn''t let him. So the girl standing before him is of a race known as Dryasa. They are one of the main reasons people of this realm van reproduce without copulating, they are capable of asexual reproduction like their conceptual parents, but they are perfectly capable of having sex. The man made sure of that.


    The fallen God pauses for a moment. He doesn''t care about the gods, but he doesn''t want his future subjects to know him as ¡°Tit Her Anus¡± which is precisely what his new name sounds like now. Instead he dedides to combine his name.


    ¡°Hello there, my name is Titheranus and what should I call you?¡±


    The girl looks at him curiously but gives her answer.


    ¡°My name is Eve.¡±


    A predatory grin crosses the pervert''s face.


    ¡°I guess you just found your Adam.¡±


    Black tendrils expand from the bearded man and slowly creep towards the girl. She is unaware of what is going to happen and remains standing still. To her, any concept like sex, seduction or rape are alien. She has no idea that she is probably going to be the very first woman to be taken by man in this realm.


    The fallen God walks to her slowly and embraces her, his energy covers the girl, gripping at her green flesh. Such close contact is a first for her, never allowed by the religious leaders or root-mothers. She feels new feelings rising up from within, especially when she feels the strong arms of a man studying her body. It is all new and exciting and just slightly scary. Her mind doesn''t question any of what is happening; na?vet¨¦ is a hereditary trait that is common amongst Diana''s subjects.


    Her body begins to heat up, just as if she was running from a predator. She had no idea she was in the arms of one. Her feelings are confused because of the bodies reaction. She tries to understand what is happening, but to no avail. Such feelings are truly the first for women of this world.


    She doesn''t fight it, soon the sensations in her body began to feel pleasurable, and then man hasn''t even begun his assault yet, just barely caressing her skin and hair, trying to take in the sensation of this new woman, first in his new life as a Demiurge, a being above gods, bent on perversion and sex.


    Like that, the two surrendered to their feelings and succumbed to the carnal desires. Her to something foreign and exotic, him to something old being reinvented, both of them to discovery of new meaning in this world they now share.


    -----


    Somewhere in the sky, a goddess was resting. She still felt exhausted after all the stress of the trial, but now she could get some needed sleep. As she was about to drift off, she felt a little prickly feeling inside of her.


    ¡°Huh?¡±


    Shaking off the drowsiness, she focuses on the feeling. Diana get''t somewhat surprised, the feeling clearly shows influence of her ex-husband. But it shouldn''t come so soon. She knew that the despicable man would try something, but she was sure she had years before any woman even approaches the pervert. It was surprising that he not only managed get to close to one, but to defile her as well. This is the first in her realm, an unprecedented event!


    She has to do something quick. It has only been a few days or so... Three hours?! He managed do it in so little time?


    Diana was sure that her realm had better morals than that. She preached chastity above all else and anybody who ever thought wrong about the opposite sex would feel her righteous fury. But now she was powerless as that man is warded from the influence of the gods.


    In panic, the goddess quickly gets up and rushes off towards the divine orbs. She has to contact the church and she can''t show the urgency. People can''t panic over this. But something must be done. Perhaps a paladin can deal with this issue. Yes! The sacred law is broken. It surely warrants intervention from the church. Yes. The plan is forming already.


    When the goddess reaches her divination orbs, she begins contacting various leaders, appearing in their dreams or in some other ways, trying to warn them of the coming darkness. Nothing too obvious, just some minor things here and there.


    Not noticing what she is doing, she contacts almost everybody who is more than a priest, warning them of a beast that will try to break the sacred laws. Overnight, the whole realm is abuzz, trying to prepare and to anticipate the coming of the beast, which is already there.


    The rules must be reinforced. The churches send out troops to make sure the laws are obeyed. Anybody who even thinks about breaking the law to be executed immediately. Churches of Chastity don''t preach mercy. Anybody who crosses the line between the man and woman is to be punished. Any contact is forbidden. No handshakes, total separation, purge of the unclean...


    Diana, unaware what sort of chaos she unleashed just goes to sleep. She is tired, may be in a say or two she will be ok. A week at most. She doesn''t realise anything is happening below, neither the pervert nor her own subjects doing her domain any good. It really was a miracle she survived so far. If only her ex-husband was there to correct her mistakes. But he was not, fed up after many years and betrayed, he was below, making love to the first woman in the realm to feel such pleasure. And she would not be the last.

 2. The Flying Dutchman.

    Above the vast emptiness a tiny black dot seems to be stuck in one place, unmoving. It is always there, no matter where you are. In this world, every compass points towards the said dot and no matter where you go, it will always be right there, high above the horizon in the sky. The only thing that is not constant about that dot is the fact that in less then fifteen minutes it will suddenly flicker, lighting up the entirety of the vast empty space, cutting through darkness like knife through butter.


    If you look closely, you can notice that the emptiness is not entirely empty. In space there are giant rocks floating, neither falling not rising. Some of them can be very small, forming currents of dust clouds, flowing, like a river of sand, permeating the empty vastness. But other rocks are as big as islands, sometimes going on for miles and miles. But no matter how big those rocks are, the whole space can''t be described anything other the vast. And empty.


    Well, sure it is not entirely empty. If you search long enough, you can find tiny little specks of life, microbes compared to the surrounding space, who try and make their living tolerable. Some band together to form groups, hunting the scarce wildlife and building homes to stay together. Others travel, alone or in small groups, hoping to find refuge in some of the rumored paradise cities or just moving for the sake of moving.


    Each of those little specks is native to the world. They have been here as long as they remember, some born, others just appeared out of thin air. Nobody knows the life before this one. They don''t know how discomforting it is to have whatever goes for sun here just switch on and stay alight for fourteen hours, only to suddenly turn black, plunging this world into darkness. They also don''t know how unnerving it is to look into the endless space in any direction, where there is no end, only more emptiness. They don''t know what it is to stand on the firm ground, knowing full well that you will wake up in the same place tomorrow, all your neighbors beside you.


    You might have gathered that things here are not the same as in the other realms. Laws are a little iffy, confusing perhaps. But there are laws, unchanging and unwavering, however strange they are.


    A single ship, a pirate ship to be exact is floating in the vastness, exploiting one of the laws of this world. Its sails are folded, to stop it from moving as much as possible. They are currently traveling through the forty-second meridian. The meaning of the word is long forgotten, whoever said it first no longer amongst the living. Now it only means a direction, forty two degrees clockwise counting from the single dot in the sky.


    The one well known law in this world is that the forty-second meridian is exactly a 100 kilometers long or 62.1371192 miles to be precise. No matter where you go, while traveling on the meridian, once you pass the hundred kilometers, you end up in the same place you started. A physicist might think and try to call it a space-time m?bius loop, but to the ordinary folk it is knowing nothing more then the forty-second meridian.


    At night, people turn to face the forty-second meridian and flow in that direction until the morning comes. They will forfeit any activity, be it hunting or plunder, so they won''t get completely lost while floating in empty darkness. Of course you are more then welcome to anchor at any rock large enough, but that is not always an option.


    So, it is this same rule that the crew of a flying ship is following right now. Most of the crew is asleep, waiting for the morning to come. Only a couple people are standing guard, staring into the void for the purpose of avoiding any floating debris. In their hands are two metal cylinders, the ends of which produce white beams of light, that go on further into the darkness, hoping to rip something out of the maw of the black beast, only to vanish far off into the distance. It is true, that once you go through the forty-second meridian unhindered, you won''t see anything on your way. But caution never hurts.


    As soon as the dot that doubles as sun here lights up the space below, the crew on guard duty are relieved, so they go to have some rest while waking a couple people on the way to their bunks.


    In a cabin below deck, in a rich looking bed a mass of what can be only described as ¡¯lovecraftian horror¡¯ is sprawling. When the light enters a single window, an eye opens within the mass of tentacles, claws, fangs and flesh. As it looks around, the mass starts moving about, taking a roughly human shape. A male figure is formed, with broad shoulders, a beard and even genitals, formed from tentacles and other bits. It takes up a set of black clothes and puts them on, taking an appearance of a typical pirate captain, with the jacket, a peg leg and an eyepatch over where the right eye would be. What''s not typical, is the single eye, square in the middle of a would-be face. Pondering for a bit. It squints the eye and moves it slightly higher up and to the left. Satisfied with its appearance, a mass of tentacles that goes by the name of ¡°Davey Jones¡± steps out of its cabin.


    On the deck, people are already running around, happy to be alive and awake, doing their jobs. Most of them are completely obsolete, as there is no water or wind, at least not in this bit of space. Unless a certain contraption deep within the ship is tampered with, it will not go down any time soon.


    Stepping onto the deck, Davey Jones makes a sniffing motion with his face tentacles, imitating normal human behavior. It was unnecessary, the tentacles can touch, smell, taste and hear with any part of their body. The motion was obsolete, except for the impression it gave of the pirate captain being anything alike the humans.


    A horrifying toothy grin spreads on his face. If people weren''t used to it, they would faint and have nightmares for weeks. As of now, everybody is used to the seemingly living personification of the human''s worst nightmares. They can feel the sincerity in the smile, no matter how horrible and terrifying.


    ¡°Yarrr, what ye say we be doing today?¡±


    The crew looks at the captain excited.


    ¡°I haven''t seen my family in a long time!¡±


    ¡°We are running outta grog!¡±


    ¡°Me teeth be falling out!¡±


    ¡°We got no sky-fish left! Only moon-whale and catdog jerky left!¡±


    The captain looks at his crew and ponders for a moment.


    ¡°I feel like we be getting fucked today! Set the course for the sixty-ninth!¡±


    A mixed reaction of excitement and disappointment, with slight contempt mixed in.


    ¡°Aye aye cap''n.¡±


    ¡°I can''t hear you.¡±


    ¡°AYE-AYE CAPTAIN!¡±


    ¡°Oooooooh...¡± He once again makes an inhaling motion as if readying to break into a song. But he doesn''t, pirates don''t sing. At least not when sober.


    The crew starts moving about, doing their best to follow captain''s orders. Mr. Smee turns the wheel setting the course for the sixty-ninth meridian. The crew unfolds the sails which immediately pick up the wind that''s not there. Nothing, but the tattered cloth of the sail can feel the movement of air, pushing the ship forward. Somebody brings captain his stuffed parrot, which is then set onto captain''s shoulder.


    The particular chosen course is somewhat surprising, as they just spent the night trying to not get lost, only to turn to the sixty-ninth and ¡¯get fucked¡¯.


    Getting fucked is the usual term for following sixty-ninth meridian, as it has similar yet different properties as the forty-second. Once you set sail, you will start moving very-very quickly, and you won''t know where you will end up until you come to a complete stop.


    So now, after few moments of staying stationery the ship quickly starts gaining speed and within moments seems to disappear into the distance. It''s completely safe, as nothing ever hinders the path of the ship on the sixty-ninth.


    If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    ¡°Avast ye hearties! We be going for three hours and then sail to fifty-fifth. I can feel the breeze calling.¡±


    Of course there was no breeze, even if they moved at incredible speeds through the air. It was just captain''s way of of saying he has no idea what to do today. They have been lost for weeks, and they need to find some provisions soon. Even finding a straggler would be good for the change of pace.


    The captain turns to a stuffed bird and touches its foot, making the beak open and close repeatedly.


    ¡°Quack. Polly wanna cracker. Polly wanna cracker. Chirp chirp.¡±


    Pronouncing each word as it is, not as a sound it should make, captain then reaches into a pocket and pulls out a biscuit. He then stuffs it into the dead bird''s beak. This bizarre exchange has been happening every day since the crew met their captain. Nobody knows where he gets those biscuits and nobody dared to ask, because walking the plank is terrifying.


    With that, captain turns away from the crew and walks back below deck. They will be traveling for a while, hoping to come to someplace meaningful; they got enough supplies for three weeks at most. Afterwards who knows what might happen. Captain hopes he doesn''t need to eat his crew, he really hates getting to know the new one each time.


    While the ship sailed through the empty vastness, somewhere else far away another individual found himself in the similar situation - stranded with nowhere to go.


    On a surface of a rock about fifteen meters wide, a certain man was sitting down, thinking about where he ended up. His voidship crash-landed, after being ripped apart from the backlash of different physical forces colliding, while trying to claim him for their own. He was utterly confused, as whatever laws governed this place were entirely different from what he knows are common mostly everywhere else across the multiversal space.


    He remained unharmed, safety features performed flawlessly and negated the transformation that would have ripped him apart in order to fit him into this reality. As of now, he still had his superior strength and his hands could feel a surprisingly large amount of mana, unusual for a world in this quadrant of the multiversal space. But none of those things helped him understand what was happening.


    Once again a small metal ball zoomed past the rock on which the man was floating. Ten seconds later another one fell from the sky just two meters to the side of the first one. For the last two hours the man was trying to come up with plausible ideas as for what this place is. Even his computer on his wrist brace gave up one hour fifty-four minutes ago and stayed silent since.


    The man was observing as two virtually identical ball-bearing were exhibiting different and anomalous behavior. The first one fell down, reaching the distance of 12.6 kilometers, at which point the distance would start going down close to zero and then zoom past the man downwards. This would approximately happen once every sixteen minutes. The ball has reached its terminal velocity long ago which is much smaller than what it is supposed to be, as gravity here is exactly the same as on Earth. What''a more, it is uniform everywhere around.


    However, the more astounding of the two balls was the second one. It zoomed past every thirteen and a half minutes. However the distance it travelled wasn''t 12.6 kilometers but instead 12.6 trillion kilometers. Yup. Considering that the ball looped around each time, it travelled at about a hundred thousand times faster than the speed of light. Which is impossible within conventional space. This space was so unconventional. The temporal flow around each ball was relatively normal and no space anomalies could be detected. This whole space was one big anomaly.


    Another thing that annoyed the man for the last three days was the sun or whatever was in its place. Switching from complete darkness to midday in an instant was beyond annoying. The man couldn''t adjust properly and there was nowhere to hide from it, his ship trashed and nothing but the rock around him. He could take a gamble and jump, but that didn''t seemed like a good idea.


    He had a headache since last night with all the thinking and annoyance. And why was he here? He was supposed to pop into a small stable pocket universe within the multiversal space, to allow his shield to recharge as he had been traveling through inter-dimensional chaos for a little too long, only to find out he entered a rare anomaly. Having his ship torn apart and plummeting through empty space only to crash on a rock floating in the middle of nowhere, he was now stranded.


    Of course, he wasn''t in any danger, the overabundance of atmospheric mana would be enough for the ship''s surviving life support to feed him indefinitely, but what would he do on this rock? There didn''t seem to be anybody else around, he didn''t have a mode of transportations and he couldn''t make any shelter as his materializations circuits were damaged in the crash. This was not a situation to find one self while traveling to your daughters'' weddings.


    He sighed loudly and pressed the button for his testing sensors to come back. The next time the balls would zoom past, they will stop and return to the wrist brace.


    Lying on the ground, he stops thinking and tries to enjoy the light-rays hitting his skin. He was shirtless for the last three days and he only got a little tan and didn''t get burned. It showed the distinct lack of UV rays in the sunshine of whatever that weird dot gave off. Just like that he slowly nods off to sleep.


    A couple hours later the man is woken up by a presence of a foreign sound. The empty space was so still and tranquil, you could almost hear your own heartbeat, so the sound of creaking wood seemed deafening. He shoots up and looks around to see a ship with white tattered cloth for sails and people moving about the deck.


    He jumps, flailing his arms around, shouting to get some attention. The ship is slightly lower than the man, so he sends a couple of flares towards it to ensure to get their attention. After few minutes the commotion aboard the ship settles and it starts closing in on the stranded man. He is honestly happy to see somebody else, even if they are on a wooden ship that seems to want to fall apart any time now.


    When the ship is somewhat level with a rock, a creature that seems to have the same origin as the man''s father-in-law, dressed as an old age pirate, steps forward and speaks.


    ¡°See this maties? We have ourselves a landlubber!¡±


    ¡°Ahoy!¡± Shout all the crewmen.


    ¡°Who we be speaking with?¡±


    The stranded man looks at the Pirates and thinks for a minute. Three emerald stones embedded into his temples and his forehead shine for a moment, doing a slight surface scan of the people before him.


    ¡°I am Ylgrdren Barshaft, a traveler who crashed here. I have no means of getting home and no money, but I hope you will take me away from this cursed rock. I can imagine your name being Black Beard?¡±


    ¡°Hear that hearties? The lad already got himself a name!¡± The captain says pointing at a man with green messy hair and green scruffy looking mustache under his noes. ¡°We don''t take scallywags and freeloaders. What good be ye with no booty to plunder?¡±


    ¡°Your crew seems little malnourished. Whatever is left of my ship can provide some provisions. Of course you won''t be able to operate it without me¡± Ylgrdren waves towards a wreckage nearby.


    The monstrous face of the pirate splits in half, showing a horrendous smile, the excitement of his good fortune unconfined. He knew the breeze was blowing his way this morning. He motions for the man to get on.


    ¡°I welcome ye aboard the Flying Dutchmen.¡±


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