Shipshape Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Books by Trey Myr

  Chapter 1 – Maxed Out

  Chapter 2 – Gerald’s Rest

  Chapter 3 - Arachnophobia

  Chapter 4 – Cerulean Swift

  Chapter 5 – The Wilds

  Chapter 6 - Dwarves

  Chapter 7 – Rukh and Ghoul

  Chapter 8 - Whitecliff

  Chapter 9 – Down to Earth

  Chapter 10 - Raiders

  Chapter 11 – The Chase

  Chapter 12 - Raid

  Chapter 13 - Warped

  Shipshape

  Book 1 of The Cerulean Swift

  Trey Myr

  Copyright 2019 Tamir Buchshtav

  Cover Art by Amarihel

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

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  Chapter 1 – Maxed Out

  There is nothing more aggravating than being maxed out on vim, I thought as I watched my pair of Hounds completely ignore the freshly killed giant spider lying in front of them. With the possible exception of being maxed out on vim and still not have enough to rank up.

  My Hounds were both rank I Shapes. They cost me ten vim each to Shape, and now each of them currently held forty. At one hundred, I’d be able to rank them up to Wolves, which were significantly more powerful. Unfortunately, any vim poured into a maxed out Shape would dissipate within minutes if unused, and my Hounds were both maxed now.

  My next step should be going back to town and paying the Forrester family for access to their Hound Pattern. I’d be able to Unshape my maxed out Hounds to regain the vim, and then use it to Shape more of them. With my two maxed out Hounds, I’d have enough to Shape eight new ones, or I could Shape six and restore my own vim, which I had to use for the original Shaping. The problem with that plan was that there was no way I could afford the price, of course.

  The Forresters charge for each Shaping, and paying for my two Hounds already cost most of the gold I made scavenging the safer parts of these ruins. That’s why I was here now, after all. Trying to use my Hounds to clear out more of the ruins so I could scavenge more old-world artefacts to sell.

  I’ve been down here for almost a week, and my Hounds killed at least fifty giant spiders before they filled up. And I’ve only found a few of the oddly shaped old-world coins so far. Not nearly enough to pay for more than one Shaping, and I’d need at least two to make it even barely worth Unshaping a Hound, since I’d be able to house the remaining twenty vim in my own body.

  I shook my head and ordered the Hounds to keep going. Thoughts about my glut of vim and lack of the gold I’d need to use it were best saved for when I was safely back in town. There were more dangers in the Old-world ruins than just giant spiders. Especially ruins that were never explored before, and I was pretty sure I was the only one who knew about this particular location. It would be overrun with scavengers if people knew about it. Probably even have an official exploration team lead by the Forresters, since unexplored ruins were the only place there was even a chance at finding new Patterns.

  A yelp brought me out of my rumbling in time to see a spear made of blue crystal launch out of a small, easily missed hole in the wall and skewer one of my Hounds, causing the Shaped animal to dissipate.

  “Shatter it!” I cursed both the old-worlders who built the ruin and myself. If I’ve been paying attention, I would have seen the trap before my Hounds triggered it. I’ve been exploring Old-world ruins since I was old enough to remember, and I’ve gotten very good at sniffing out their tricks. I ordered the remaining Hound into a small chamber we’ve passed before that last spider battle, set it to guard the only entrance and settled down to wait. Shapes are nearly impossible to actually destroy, and my Hound would reform within up to an hour, but my inattention had cost me that hour, and it left me vulnerable to the spiders and whatever else lived here. Hounds are pack animals, and two of them fighting together are a lot more than twice as strong as a solo Shape.

  I sat down with my back to the wall opposite the door and took out a small paper-wrapped package from my backpack. My supply of beef jerky and hard cheese had been steadily dwindling over the week I’ve spent away from town, and won’t last for longer than one more. Which meant I had about three more days to explore before I’d have to start on my way back. I’d be able to extend the stay if I could find something edible here, but unless I wanted to try some giant spider and lichen soup, it seemed I was out of luck. At least there was enough water here and there for me to fill my waterskin. I took a bite of my not very appetizing lunch, and couldn’t help consider that maybe my dream of being a Shaper was better off remaining just that. I was fairly sure that my brother would welcome me back at the bakery. And even if he didn't, the gold I paid just for shaping my starting pair of Hounds was enough to buy me a decent apprenticeship in any of a dozen different professions, from cobbler to swordsman. I could have been sitting in the apprentice chair at a craftsman's workshop right now, eating warm porridge and drinking hot tea instead of the barely chewable jerky and mineral-tasting water I had on me. This was the reason all of the Shapers in the kingdom were from the noble families. It was just too expensive for anyone who didn’t have free access to at least one Pattern. Mostly, you’d see established professionals with one or two Shapes to help them in their chosen craft, like a hunter having a couple of Hounds or Wolves to help his hunts, or a weaver with a Spider to provide high quality spider silk.

  Motes of blue light started to gather in front of me, swirling around and around and growing steadily in number, and I found it impossible to tear my eyes away from the sight of my Hound reforming. It took five more minutes for the Hound to fully solidify, and I stowed my remaining food away and stood up, shaking the dust that clung to my pants. The sight of the reforming Hound shook the doubts from my mind, reminding me that I’ve always wanted to be a Shaper, and that barring a stroke of insane luck, my only path towards that goal was going to be long and arduous.

  “Let’s go, Jack,” I urged myself out loud, just for the sake of hearing a human voice. “The treasure isn’t going to scavenge itself.”

  I made sure to pay better attention to my surroundings when I left the small room. The walls and floor were made of a strange grey stone, completely seamless and rought to the touch. The ruin was buried deep under a hill, and was windowless, so that the only source of light was my torch.

  I was moving in front of the Hounds and examining every centimeter of the walls and floor before moving forward. I’ve spent enough time with my Shapes to know that they’d smell approaching spider
s long before they were close enough to attack. This was the same method I’ve applied since I’d started this little expedition, and would work as long as I held back the Hounds from running forward freely.

  As I was carefully leading the Hounds around a barely visible pressure plate I wondered, once again, at what precisely was the purpose of these ruins that required such extensive traps. This couldn’t have been convenient to whatever old-worlders had to live or work here. Not that it really mattered to me, except where it related to what kind of treasures the traps were meant to guard.

  A yelp from one of the Hounds made me raise my eyes from the drab stone floor of the corridor. I’ve heard this sound before, and it always meant the approach of something. I hadn’t been able to find a difference between the yelp signifying dangerous monsters to the one indicating random prey, like the rabbits that helped supplement my dinners on the way to the ruins. Not that I was likely to find an innocent rabbit in these trap and giant spider filled ruin. This was most likely another giant spider, or possibly one of the rats that were the spiders’ main prey.

  A spray of green, viscous liquid flew from an alcove set in the corridor’s wall, just barely missing one of my Hounds. The spiders populating this ruin were of a spitting variety, and would wait in ambush for prey and then spit their sticky and poisonous venom to immobilize it. The first few times it happened, the spiders would catch one of my Hounds, taking it out of the fight almost immediately. Luckily for me, those first spiders were small enough that a single Hound could kill them. By the time the larger spiders started to show up, my Hounds have learned to recognize their lairs and get out of the initial attack’s way.

  Just as they’ve done numerous times before, the Hounds leaped towards the spider’s lair, and it was only the fact that I stayed far enough away from them to see the whole corridor that let me order them out of the way of a second venom spray coming from behind them. With their ambush failed, the two spiders were left with no choice but to leave their hiding places and engage my Hounds directly.

  The spiders were light grey in color, and were hard to see in the barely lighted stone corridors. They were a meter and a half long, and rose to a height of about half a meter, with a head about half as big as the rest of their body.

  This was not good news for me. My Hounds could deal with one spider fairly easily, with one Hound keeping the arachnid’s attention while the other attacked from its flank or back. A two versus two battle would be a lot harder, especially since a single hit from the spiders’ venom would immobilize a Hound.

  I ordered the Hounds to keep both spiders busy, but to avoid attacking and just keep away from the venomous spray. While they were fighting, I dropped my pack and took down the arquebus hanging over my shoulder. I pulled the weapon’s cock back to the full position and raised the weapon to my shoulder. The spiders were fast and would have been nearly impossible to hit, but I knew that they had to stand in place when spitting, so I waited until the one I was aiming at started to spray. When I saw its first drops of venom, I gently squeezed the weapon’s trigger, releasing the flint to hit the frizzen, ignite the blast crystal and launch the heavy lead ball at the spider.

  I wasn’t in any way an expert marksman with the complex weapon, and would honestly have preferred to use a crossbow, but the spiders’ carapace was too strong for anything short of an arbalest to penetrate. Fortunately, I was shooting at a very short range, and the ball slammed into the spider and crushed its head, freeing the Hounds to concentrate on the remaining arachnid.

  The Hounds quickly entered their now familiar rhythm. The first Hound feinted at the spider, and while the arachnid was trying to defend itself, my second Shape darted in from behind and bit down on its leg. I knew from experience that losing one leg wouldn’t have too much of an impact on the spider, and indeed the beast spun towards its tormentor, and started spraying its venom. The Hound retreated out of the way, and its twin snuck in to attack. The second attack slowed the spider down noticeably, and the Hounds continued their game of feint and attack, until a minute later the beast lay dead.

  With the fight over, I ordered the Hounds to stand guard, placed the arquebus’s stock on the ground, and poured a measure of blast crystal into its barrel, followed by a cloth wad and then a large lead ball. I quickly pulled out my ramrod and pushed the ball down to seat it firmly on the blast crystal, pulled the flint to the half-cock position, and filled the flash pan with more crystal from my dwindling pouch.

  Blast crystal was produced during the death and rebirth cycle of a Crystal Phoenix, a rank IV fire-aligned Hawk Shape, which made it very expensive for anyone who wasn’t a Forrester. The only reason I could afford any was that I was on friendly terms and had an arrangement with Darren, the heir-apparent to the Forrester fortune. He got first pick of whatever I scavenged, I got some supplies that were otherwise impossible to get. I still couldn’t afford a lot of it, and only had enough for five more shots. If the spiders were starting to come in groups, I’d have to retreat and try to explore a different part of the ruins.

  None of which would have been an issue if I had a couple of more Hounds, of course. But to get more Hounds I’d need to actually find something worth selling, and so far this ruin was very disappointing.

  ✽✽✽

  Luckily for me, most of the spiders remained solitary, and I only had to use the arquebus once for the rest of the day. It was impossible to check the sun’s position and know the time in the deeply buried ruin, but I’ve become very good at gauging my own tiredness, and I knew that it wasn’t long before I’d need to head out, since I really didn’t want to spend the night in the spider infested halls. I gave myself one more room to check, and resigned myself to another day with nothing to show for my efforts.

  When I entered the room, however, it seemed that my luck was finally changing. Broken parts of some arcane old-world machinery covered the walls of the room, and the meagre light of my torch sparkled of it with the familiar white shine of whitesteel. One of many materials the old-worlders used that we had no idea how to make any more, whitesteel was lighter and harder than the finest steel our smiths could produce. But while they didn’t know how to make it, they certainly knew how to work with it. Whitesteel always got good prices back in town, and here before me was the largest amount I've ever seen. I opened my backpack and started to pry as much of the white metal as I could cram into it. There was no way for me to take everything, but what I could carry would be more than enough for me to Shape more Hounds and still have enough to buy supplies and return for the rest.

  I was prying open one of the more intact devices in the room, a barrel about the size and shape of an expensive liquor keg, when my light sparkled from something that wasn’t whitesteel. I tried to look closer into the barrel, and nearly dropped my torch in shock at what I saw. Unlike the familiar metal, this wasn’t anything I’ve seen before, but the blue spherical crystal was unmistakable. I reached gingerly into the barrel, and pulled out what had to be a skystone.

  Elemental stones were another old-world resource nobody knew how to make any more. They were basically solidified vim given an elemental alignment, and this single skystone was worth more than all of the whitesteel in the room.

  I sat down on the floor and gazed at the small fortune I’ve just found, and tried to decide what I wanted to do with it. I could drain it of air-aligned vim. It should hold twenty units, which would let me Unshape one Hound and rank the other one. Moreover, instead of ranking-up into a normal Wolf, the air-aligned vim would change my Shape into that of a Skywolf, giving it a pair of wings and the ability to fly. Of course, that would mean I’d be down to one Shape and no vim, and I’d lose the air alignment if I Unshaped it, which would essentially stop me from advancing as a Shaper for the next ten years it would take me to generate enough vim for another Shaping.

  The second option was to sell the stone. I could take it to Darren, and he’d probably pay me enough to have as much access to his family’s Patterns as
I wanted. But I would probably never find another elemental stone in my life, and I’d certainly never be able to afford one. And I really didn’t want to trade away the option to have an air-aligned Shape.

  After a while, my thoughts just started to run around in circles, and I ended up deciding not to decide. I’d take the stone with me and keep it a secret. I could carry enough Whitesteel to buy access for four Shapings, which would let me keep one experienced Hound and Unshape the other, so I won’t have to teach the new Hounds how to fight the spiders again. And after these new Hounds were maxed out, I’d use the skystone to rank one of them up into a skywolf, leaving me with enough Hounds that I wouldn’t run out of vim. Or I could sell it later if I really needed the money.

  My mind finally made up, I stood up and finished filling my backpack with whitesteel, and then retraced my path back to the entrance. I’d sleep outside tonight, and start my way back to town in the morning.

  Chapter 2 – Gerald’s Rest

  The entrance to the ruin was hidden behind a large raspberry bush, and I stayed behind the dense bramble for several minutes to listen for any activity outside. The ruins were located three days’ walk from town, which wasn’t really that far, especially for someone with a horse or access to a Horse Shape, and I really didn’t want anyone to learn about this place. Especially now that I’ve actually found something worth scavenging.

  After making sure that I could hear nothing other than normal wildlife sounds, I made my way carefully out of the ruins. There was a very narrow path around the large bush that let me enter and leave, but any misstep would result in a very painful encounter with the thorny plant.