Only If I Could Tell you One Shot Stories

The Salt Swept City

    Far away, there is a land, more of an island. It lays on the face of Deianira, a very earth like planet, except its always changing, no matter what.

Lands are constantly appearing and re-appearing, forming and de-forming, except for one city, this was called the salt swept city.

Salt swept city was filled with many caves none dared to enter, the water there was so salty it attracted salt suckers, which where a type of fish that was common there, its scales where extrondinarly shinny and reflected light into a rainbow, they usually ranged from grey to a deep red. This was the cities primary resource of food. 

It was vastly hard to grow food, some soil could not hold the required nutrients for the city to grow enough food, while most of the city was sand, about every five summer winters, (this is like a cold summer, the water for some reason stayed below freezing while the air was very farm. it's just like fall, but the trees don't shed their leaves) the sands would begin to 'awaken', for a whole year farmers have the chance to grow as many crops as possible in the sand. no one is for sure why this happens and cannot find an explanation.

This story will take place in a modern time setting for them, year 2017 the month of Kumiko.

(Kumiko is one of the two moons the planet has, each month is named after an important planet, the planets are named after the gods) 

Water crashed harshly against the shore sending sand and water flying, this was a normal and calm day for the water, when it got back people feared the island would sink. it was late night, early in the morning, the birds outside flapped their four wings in protest to the water when they got close, looking for some type of debre or food. 

A Boy in mainly leather, cotton and silk clothing walks on the deck of a boat, the sound of his bare feet bitting the wooden floor echos below the ship but quickly fades, his stone eyes stare at the sharp salty water, his hair is being pushed out of his face by a few hair clips and is pulled back. He glanced up at the sail and opens it, his voice is very strong and indimidating but hes only 5'6'' 

''Are we Ready to go!?'' He yelled as loud as he can, many of his friends are below hauling things onto the boat, most of them in almost perfect unison yell ''Aye!'' and continue their work, one person is super late and drops a crate. 

We'll call this kid Juno.

Juno was young for for his age to be a captain, not to mention a sailor, he was very tall for his age as most at 15 by now stopped growing and where around 5'3'', at least in his family, but he grew like a wild weed, even though most of his friends where 5'7'' or taller. 

Juno Leans over the edge, his eyes curiously watching them, of course he knew what they where doing, but he refused to help, that was no captains job! that was the slaves or workers job, sometimes the cabin boys. 

He takes in a large, deep breath holding it in for a few moments before letting it out,he loved the sweet salty air of the sea, the sound of the birds, and the fish. But.. most of all, when harvest year of the waking sands came around, was when he felt the most happy. The colour fruits would sprout all over the sand, people felt more human and alive than ever, it really was a wonderful time of year to be alive, his personal favourite was the star fruit, it was so tangy juicy and sweet. Not to mention it was in the shape of a star.

He shuffles his feet impatiently and heads to his cabin, he searches around for papers, just a single empty paper in his large pile of messy scribbled drawings, charts, courses, orders and messes. GOD did he love his job, he never understood why but it made him feel very happy, his hand throws papers on the floor until he comes across a empty paper, he begins to chart down a course, at first it seemed like nonsense and scribbles soon evolved into a chart, it started at the docks to around the island, this part mainly held caves upon caves, it was almost fully unexplored but today was the day he would change that. 

He writes the date in it before grabbing a large book and sliding it into that. In this large book contains many , no, over many, hundreds! of papers from charts and courses over the two years, this would be counted as a world record but such things did not exist on the salt swept city.

He dusts off the book and sits tight, his posture perfect, his legs crossed. His eyes where stuck on the door, listening to every movement his ship mates and crew made, waiting for one to come in and tell them something broke or they could not go.

Anxiety filled inside of him, as his fingers tapped against his chair and side arm, for some reason he felt terrified almost scared to go on this adventure, he was unsure why he was. What lurked on the uncharted land? the only thing the city knew was it was cut off so the city was more of an island. His heart begun to race as sweat dribbled down his face. Shaking his head, he tried to clear these bad and terrifying thoughts, but they continued to come.

What if he died? he was the only one who knew the full course, what if all his crew died? he cant Handel the ship alone, hes physically not strong enough, what if the ship broke? they'd lose everything, the cargo for the trip, the courses, his history, his everything, including friends.

He took a few deep breaths, and stood up, grabbing his large book, he placed it at his side. With a loud gulp, he made quiet steps and continued twords the door. There his crew stood waiting for his orders, this made him smile a bit, they all gathered around and begun to plot the course together, like a family.