Sayah is my shadow sorcerer. shadw is a homebrew race. i wrote a short story about her. shes suicidal. maybe ill post the story I'm working on in a reply(a pixie pirate character. homebrew pixie. no, she isn't a sorcerer or a wizard or something. that would be too useful.) I think this get across the race pretty well but basically: shadows can turn into any huminiod form but their base is a pool of shadow like the shade under a tree.they have flying speed of ten, burrowing speed 10, and a climbing speed in shadow from. they are deathly allergic to fyre and water. fyre taking half their hit points and water a quarter(so they don't need water to live. or food.). right now her party knows what she is and shes learning. her arc wont end in suicide because my dms younger daughter plays with us and he doesn't want her exposed to suicide, so she'll rejoin her own and ill get out my pixie.
Sayah reached into her satchel for the thousandth time and pulled out her flint and steel, sitting and staring at it. She stood over a river, beautifully churning. Lethally churning.
Was it really worth trying to find out what she was when the answer would probably lead her back here? But she had to know, where was she from, and what was she for?
It would only take a few moments to rid the world of her evil, nothing destroyed shadows like fyre, though that water was lethal as well. What if she caused the destruction of the world in the process of finding where she was from?
She sighed and put it back, she had been here before. She wouldn’t burn herself until she knew what she was.
Within a few beats of a heart she wished she had, she subconsciously got it back out, caressing it longingly, thoughtfully. She could possibly save thousands of people from herself. She could feel phantom flames flicker…
She had tasted flames before, though not of her own accord. She might not be able to hold herself still, and when she left it she would be doused, there being nothing to burn in a shadow.
She would take a human form and tie herself to a dead tree, with hay at her feet. Her hands would be free. She would take her beloved flint and steel and spark it into the hay. It would explode into a beautiful, glowing red.
She could almost feel the flames exploding from her body, freeing her. Hear their crackles promising in her ear that the feywild was safer now. Promising to end the evil in her. For a brief moment, she would have wings as the smoke and flame exploded across her back.
She could feel the phantom pain, it felt good. It felt like security. Freedom from the prejudice, and the fear of what she might do. She would concentrate all of herself on remaining in that human form where she wouldn't be able to leave. She would fly on that fire.
She could jump into a river, too. Another fantasy she often had. Feel the water dispel her, distort the shadow. Feel her darkness washed away. Feel the pain of cleansing, the beautiful, awful pain. The pain she imagined almost constantly.
She remembered the flint she held. Should she do it now? Maybe. She wouldn't. Her need for the answers drove her to continue to live.
“Soon.” she whispered to herself, promising for the millionth time.
“Soon I will find out what I am, and when that day comes I’ll be ready. When that day comes, I’ll be free.”
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If you ever want a short story to read and don't mind suicide, depression, death, etc, just ask(literally have over a hundred of my short stories at easy access)
Cleo had done it. she had finally escaped! She flew in circles on tiny gossamer wings in joy. She was out of the pixie realm and she was never going back. Oh, Feywild she was sick of idiot pixies darting around worrying about their hair or which petal dress was in season(rose petals and peonies looked the same to her). She was in the human realm for good.
She was going to find a human city. She didn’t know much about humans, but she understood them to have a complex crime system in cities. She understood crime to be breaking rules. Her specialty. She would fit right in. she was known as the rebel, she was the one who stirred things up. She was just alive, she would say. But no, she liked it. She was different and she liked it. So she was the rebel. Rebel Cleo Beryl, at your service.
She wondered how big they were. She knew how big a foot was, like 4 times her size, but the humans were 6 feet. And elves even taller! Dwarves were shorter, but they were massively wide. She had heard of other races, but those were the primary ones.
She flew so far her wings absolutely ached. She passed several small towns, but they weren't what she was looking for. She was looking for adventure, and those small sleepy towns weren’t it. In the meantime, she slept in forests, a lot like the Feywild, but less vibrant. Leaves made comfortable beds and raspberries filling meals. At last, she found it. A massive city on the seaside.
She joined the line going through the gate(but cut). The guards didn't even notice her, and the line didn't stop to wait. She was pushed in. fine, she was there illegally. Behind her a person was aproved.
“Welcome to Waterdeep,” the guard said. Waterdeep… Incredible. If only she were welcomed. Or unwelcome, because who wanted a troublemaker?
She flitted about the city, shocked by how vast it was. She wondered if they had anothing for 3 inch folk beside rat holes. The smallest things she saw were for gnomes and halflings. 3 foot gnomes and halflings(though halflings are slightly larger). But in the overwhelming massiveness and chaos it was almost relieving.
She quickly found the darker areas, where the thieves played. The outcasts. She smiled as she flew to them. They didn't notice her. She smiled as she went and tapped a pickpocket on the shoulder to ask him to help orient her.
“Oy? Wots this?” he called to the others.
“Um, hello. My name is Cleo, from the pixies. Or I was. I got sick of how frivolous they are.”
“It talks! Wot do you want fairy?”
“I’m not a fairy. I don't know what I'm doing here, it's a big city. I was hoping you could orient me. I'm quite a troublemaker.”
He laughed at her, “Run back to your flowers, fairy,” they all laughed at her. She swelled and left. She tried again several times but to the same end. Fine. if they wouldn't help her, she would help herself. But first, this petal dress wouldn't do. It was pretty bruised and tattered, which the others shook their heads at, but it was alive by the magic of just being around her. She ripped off a swatch of cloth from a humans shirt and turned it into a quick tunic and leggings, then ripped the stupid petal to shredds.
She turned out to be an excellent pickpocket. She could use how small and unnoticable she was to her advantage. She hoarded her finds, from scraps of paper to heavy coins, in a hidden location. She finally found a bag of holding, which weighed 15 pounds. She stole it and akwardly dragged it to her stash, stuffing it all inside. She was stronger than the average pixie. by a little. She took it to a wizard to have it shrunk. It cost a wing and a half, but it became backpack sized.
She still didn't have a single wanted poster. She once flew in to a wanted poster artist and asked him if he wanted to sketch her. He laughed too. It wasn't her pixie vanity that made her pose- it was just respect. She wasn't a vain idiot like the others and vanity didn't manifest in multiple ways.
After that expiriance she was questioning herself, so she went to a city guard and asked if he wanted to arrest her. She could then escape and be important enough to have been in jail and skilled enough to escape. He laughed too. She returned to the alleys and tried to get someone to team up with her, but got a different reaction.
“Hey… I bet some wealthy lords would pay a fortune for a pet fairy!” a woman said. Her eyes widened and she backed away. The woman lunged and she darted away. She was tough from the streets, at least more than most pixies. Not tough enough. The woman caught her and she was roughly thrown into an iron cage.
A musty bag was thrown over her and she was jostled a lot for days, heard muffled voices, and then the burlap was removed and a massive hand reached in and pulled her out. She was roughly shaken, her bag was emptied, her vision blurring to much to make out where she was, and thrown into a gold cage.
She passed out instantly.
When she woke up a tall man(by human standards) was prodding her with a poker, obviously bored.
“Ouch! Thats sharp!”
“It really does talk,” he muttered to himself. “A fine pet, fine indeed.” he carried her swinging cage to a different room and sat her on a desk. She fluttered as the cages swung but it hit her a couple times. He dropped an apple slice in.
“Eat.”
“What are you, 5? Back off.”
“I am the captain of the Black Pearl and i just spent a good deal of money on you. You do what i say on my ship.”
“Yeah, no. see, i don't like doing what i'm told. Back off.”
He smiled. “Got some kick, eh? We’ll break you.”
“We’ll see about that.”
“What would a fairy look like if i shredded her wings?”
“They grow back.”
“And do the legs? So fragile.”
“Does your nose grow back if i bite it off? It looks more apitizing. No, nevermind, it's covered in grease. And on the ugliest face i've ever seen. Keep your nose.”
He shoved her cage and she held to the golden bars for support and leered at her. She stuck her toungue out. He laughed softly and left. Over the next years she watched the pirate lifestyle and decided it was the life for her. If only she could… she heard shouts. Another fight. She watched enemy men board the ship and everyone start fighting again.
This time, her captors didn't win. They all died. The new captian found her.
“What have we here?”
“I am Cleo, of the pixies,” she eyed him. “Release me.”
“A fairy? How useless.” he stabbed his saber through the cage and she dodged.
“Get your stick out of my space, idiot.”
He laughed malevovlently, “you’re right. I’d rather watch you starve.” she stared up as he pulled the sword out. She jumped up nd snatched it, breaking off the tip. He swore at her and left. She smiled and flew down to the peice of metal.
It was a bit heavy but she lifted it to the lock and carefully picked it. She dropped the peice of metal and swung the door shut, locking it. Then she put an illusion in the cage. The words “Don’t cross The Pixie Pirate.” in red. She had a title. Someday, he would regret this.
She flew out the window and free into the open sea. She was going to become a pirate. She passed several cargo and passenger ships. She stopped on a few and stole a little food. Finally, she found a beautiful fleet of black sailed ships. She went to the biggest and spotted the captian. He turned from talking to one of his crew.
“Hello, my name is Cleo.”
“What's that?”
“I’m a pixie. But i'm just as capable as a big folk.”
“What do you want?”
“To join your crew.”
“Why would a fairy want to join my crew?”
“I'm a pixie. And I like adventure, and breaking rules.”
He tried to hide a laugh to himself and smiled, “fine, pixie. My first mate tried to mutiny so i need a first mate. You on board?”
“Aye Aye,” she saluted.
She knew he thought it was funny and he was just humoring her, but she worked hard and had good instincts. He quickly made her truly important, not just a joke. He trusted her. She proved herself over and over and was truly loyal. At some point, he gave her a ship o her own. The sailors trusted her. She was a pirate. She was a captian. They ran into the ship that captured her and was overthrown and she saw the captian who tried to kill her.
“It's that fairy!”
“Call me Captain.” Captain Cleo Beryl.
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If you ever want a short story to read and don't mind suicide, depression, death, etc, just ask(literally have over a hundred of my short stories at easy access)
this is the short story that insired the homebrew races, sunborn and moonborn(though there moonborn are chaotic good typically and sunborn LG. i don't think I need to argue that the sunborn who killed the entire human race to save the world or the moonborn who adamantly refused to disobey orders from dead leaders regardless of how much things changed are the opposite alignment. i believe cyro meant well.). aways look up what my characters names mean.
“The day the world began, as the first tiny seedlings grew and the first people came into being, the sun and moon turned their faces to the tiny planet. As their glory rained down, the first drops of sun and moon light fell. Where the sun hit, a person appeared. Her skin was tanned and her hair golden, her eyes like molten amber. Her name was Ray, first of the sunborn.
The moons light followed, and beside her stood a man. His glowing pale eyes were the deepest of blue, his hair shone silver, his skin was pale and glowing. His name was Beam, first of the moonborn. The light continued to fall, and for a precious moment these creatures were created one after another, 50 Moonborn and 50 Sunborn. Then it ended, and the light illuminated instead of created. At least, not in that sense.
The sun created life, growing plants and giving heat and light. He gave fire and life and aided the humans. His sister moon played with water. She protected nature. She destroyed so there was space for the life.
The sun and moon children worked to aid these goals, working in perfect harmony, a yin and yang. Ray and Beam lead the two. The sunborn created and controlled fire, healed and grew and nourished. The moonborn controlled water. They withered and destroyed. They defend nature.
Aside from Ray, all of the sunborns were men. Aside from Beam, all Moonborns were women. At the end of the creation spree at the dawn of the world, the very last moonborn to ever be created was named Aiday.
As time passed, the humans grew destructive, and the populations of Sun and Moon born dwindled, nature and all it's courses with them. Ray and Beam were the first to die. Slowly, all the others did, until today, only I survive. My name is Aiday, and I must save this world. But the only Sun and Moon borns to ever be created was the dawn of time. The Moon and Sun grow old and weary. It is imbosible at this point.”
She glanced up at the figure she was speaking to. It was a carved stone person. She hoped this would work… she used her powers to cover the statue in water and decayed the outer crust of the stone, crumbling it.
Underneath, there was stone. It hadn't worked. She destroyed it all. She had to do something. Without a sunborn, life would stop coming to be. Without her, life would indefinitely continue. She jumped as a voice spoke behind her.
“Truly?”
She turned and saw a man with dark skin and golden hair.
“I am Cyro. only a Moonborn would know that. I am the last of the sunborn. When I saw what was happening, I hid, and kept life sputtering forward. What were you trying to do?”
“I know you,” she had met him once or twice. “I was trying to make another. I'm not sure why I thought it would work.”
“Hide with me. I've been fine so far.”
“No. I have to find a way to fix this.”
“We have to survive or the world will end.”
“We have to fix the world so it won't end.”
“Fine. want to know a secret?”
“What?”
“I think I know what happened.”
“Yeah?”
“It was the humans. Maybe not on purpose, but theyre destroying things, unnaturally destroying.”
“So?”
“I know how to fix it.”
“I’m afraid to ask.”
“I would have done this myself but I needed a Moonborn. Destroy them.”
“Absolutely not! Have you forgotten raising the first of the humans? Remember when they were vulnerable babies and we took care of them? I remember the 5th human. When I took her she was so peaceful. She asked me to defend her people as her body withered away.”
“These aren't the same. These humans are abusing the world. They don't take what they need. They don't take at all. They destroy and leave no room for new life. They destroy but don't decay. They’re unnatural!”
“I won't destroy the humans!”
“Then destroy the world, humans with it!”
“We’re supposed to protect them.”
“We’re supposed to protect the world! And nature, which the humans blatantly abuse!”
“When the world crumbles into ash.”
“It will be too late then!”
“It will never happen!”
“We have to downsize the life scale anyways. There are two of us and too many creatures. Why not start with the root of the problem?”
“You can't prove they caused it!” she knew they did. She wouldn't kill them all the same.
“I know you know it.”
“I won't destroy them.”
“Then save some of the children, start the world over!”
“No. We can leave the humans to their own devices, they have things to take care of growing and killing themselves.”
“Then they’ll never kill! But they’ll take more space from nature. I've already stopped growing them.”
“Thats why the population went down.”
“Yeah. So will you help me?”
“No.”
“...yes.” with the look he gave her she was really glad sunborns didn't have brainwashing powers.
“No.”
“Fine.”
How come he gave in so easily? She didn't know him well, maybe he just avoided conflict or something. She glanced up. The sun was entering his full glory as sunrise perished.
“I’m turning in now. See you at dusk, I guess.”
“Good… Day, I guess.”
Aiday walked to her cave. She didn't wake up that night.
As Aiday, the young one, walked away, Cyro followed, carefully concealig himself. H may not have been as stealthy as Moonborn, but she couldn't see well in sunlight. He was going to kill those humans with her. The Sunborn had a secret power, sworn to secrecy, not even shared with the Moonborn.
Aidays eyes blinked open as moonlight streamed through the branches. Cyro sat beside her, staring disintrestedly into the distance. She stirred, muttering some nonsense to dream Beam. why wasn't she in her cave? This was the old camp.
“C...Cyro?” she muttered, spitting out some light blue hair. He glanced at her.
“Good morning, Aiday.”
“What are you doing here? Why aren't I at my cave?”
“Because I forgot to put you back.”
“What?”
“Never mind. I didn’t know Moonborn could destroy so much. You can mass kill?”
“What? Thats a secret.” She was sworn to secrecy. They had the power to kill entire speices at once, and even Sunborns or Moonborns.
“Considering the circumstance, I'm not putting much stock in the secret powers being secret. So I’ll tell you mine.”
“Are you going to exlain what you were doing with me in my sleep?”
“You’ve been asleep for about a week. Must be killing all the humans really drained you.”
“WHAT?! I didn't kill anything! How do you know the secret?!”
“Our secret is control. You wouldn’t do it yourself, so I made you.” He said it so, dispicably simply.
“Another part of our secret is we can kill Sunborn!” she Stood up swiftly and put a forceful hand on his chest, “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t drain you for what you’ve done.
“I have two. You need me, since I'm the only Sunborn, and you were the one who killed them.”
“If Ray and Beam were here I’m sure they’d side with me.”
“Oh, undoubtedly. But they also didn't listen to me, and look where we are. I had no choice.”
Her eyes flared and she clenched her fist, watching some of his gold hairs turn grey and the begining of wrinkles appear. “When I fix this and get more Celestialborn, I’ll take the rest. In the meantime, you’ll do exactly as I say and if you don't, I’ll find you and destroy you. If you control me again, I’ll destroy you. And you only have about 50 years, aging started working on you.”
His eyes widdened and he nodded.
“Didn’t think I could do it? I’ve killed trillions of creatures. I was tasked with taking some of humanities most notorius. None of them were as dispicable as you. I’m the youngest Moonborn. But I’m not young.”
“I did the only thing I could.”
“Don't defend yourself,” she spat, taking another five years. She took her hand off him and slammed the dirt beneath. It crumbled and a broad pit opened. He fell in. “Stay there.”
She turned and ran aimlessly through the trees to a cliffside overlooking the water. She lapped the waves as her gasping tears lasped, staring up at the moon through wet lashes.
“Help…” she muttered in Moonborn. The waves started moving on their own. One of them lapsed high enought it doused her. She opened her arms to the spray and felt something. She caught it instictivly, looking down and what she expected to be a conch. It was a human baby. Another wave crashed and she caught a second.
“Thank you…” she muttered. Then she turned and walked to the nearest town. It was gone. Rubble. Hate swelled back in her and she turned towards where she left Cyro.
She walked back to her cave with the babies, leaving behind the now empty pit. As she walked, she heard something like a fyrework. She looked up. A star shot across the sky.
“When the day comes that you have the deepest need, wish on a star.” Beams voice echoed.
“I wish for more Celestialborn.” she heard a loud noise. 99. No, 100. She turned and saw white people, hair to toe, heads bowed and waiting. As the sun rose, she assigned them. Sunborn, Moonborn. She split them in two and told the story. Not just the story of the behining, the story of the disappearence, and of Cyro. she handed the children to the two she assigned first as the dawn began to close, A man for sunborn and a woman for moonborn yet all the others were the wrong gender. Before the moon set, both the sun and moon struck her and she was lifted by swirling rays of light.
The creature that came down was color. It was power. It's hair was neither golden nor silver, it's skin neither dark nor pale. It was light in every sense.
“I am your leader. I am Nova, the Galaxyborn.”
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If you ever want a short story to read and don't mind suicide, depression, death, etc, just ask(literally have over a hundred of my short stories at easy access)
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Sayah is my shadow sorcerer. shadw is a homebrew race. i wrote a short story about her. shes suicidal. maybe ill post the story I'm working on in a reply(a pixie pirate character. homebrew pixie. no, she isn't a sorcerer or a wizard or something. that would be too useful.) I think this get across the race pretty well but basically: shadows can turn into any huminiod form but their base is a pool of shadow like the shade under a tree.they have flying speed of ten, burrowing speed 10, and a climbing speed in shadow from. they are deathly allergic to fyre and water. fyre taking half their hit points and water a quarter(so they don't need water to live. or food.). right now her party knows what she is and shes learning. her arc wont end in suicide because my dms younger daughter plays with us and he doesn't want her exposed to suicide, so she'll rejoin her own and ill get out my pixie.
Sayah reached into her satchel for the thousandth time and pulled out her flint and steel, sitting and staring at it. She stood over a river, beautifully churning. Lethally churning.
Was it really worth trying to find out what she was when the answer would probably lead her back here? But she had to know, where was she from, and what was she for?
It would only take a few moments to rid the world of her evil, nothing destroyed shadows like fyre, though that water was lethal as well. What if she caused the destruction of the world in the process of finding where she was from?
She sighed and put it back, she had been here before. She wouldn’t burn herself until she knew what she was.
Within a few beats of a heart she wished she had, she subconsciously got it back out, caressing it longingly, thoughtfully. She could possibly save thousands of people from herself. She could feel phantom flames flicker…
She had tasted flames before, though not of her own accord. She might not be able to hold herself still, and when she left it she would be doused, there being nothing to burn in a shadow.
She would take a human form and tie herself to a dead tree, with hay at her feet. Her hands would be free. She would take her beloved flint and steel and spark it into the hay. It would explode into a beautiful, glowing red.
She could almost feel the flames exploding from her body, freeing her. Hear their crackles promising in her ear that the feywild was safer now. Promising to end the evil in her. For a brief moment, she would have wings as the smoke and flame exploded across her back.
She could feel the phantom pain, it felt good. It felt like security. Freedom from the prejudice, and the fear of what she might do. She would concentrate all of herself on remaining in that human form where she wouldn't be able to leave. She would fly on that fire.
She could jump into a river, too. Another fantasy she often had. Feel the water dispel her, distort the shadow. Feel her darkness washed away. Feel the pain of cleansing, the beautiful, awful pain. The pain she imagined almost constantly.
She remembered the flint she held. Should she do it now? Maybe. She wouldn't. Her need for the answers drove her to continue to live.
“Soon.” she whispered to herself, promising for the millionth time.
“Soon I will find out what I am, and when that day comes I’ll be ready. When that day comes, I’ll be free.”
If you ever want a short story to read and don't mind suicide, depression, death, etc, just ask(literally have over a hundred of my short stories at easy access)
Cleo had done it. she had finally escaped! She flew in circles on tiny gossamer wings in joy. She was out of the pixie realm and she was never going back. Oh, Feywild she was sick of idiot pixies darting around worrying about their hair or which petal dress was in season(rose petals and peonies looked the same to her). She was in the human realm for good.
She was going to find a human city. She didn’t know much about humans, but she understood them to have a complex crime system in cities. She understood crime to be breaking rules. Her specialty. She would fit right in. she was known as the rebel, she was the one who stirred things up. She was just alive, she would say. But no, she liked it. She was different and she liked it. So she was the rebel. Rebel Cleo Beryl, at your service.
She wondered how big they were. She knew how big a foot was, like 4 times her size, but the humans were 6 feet. And elves even taller! Dwarves were shorter, but they were massively wide. She had heard of other races, but those were the primary ones.
She flew so far her wings absolutely ached. She passed several small towns, but they weren't what she was looking for. She was looking for adventure, and those small sleepy towns weren’t it. In the meantime, she slept in forests, a lot like the Feywild, but less vibrant. Leaves made comfortable beds and raspberries filling meals. At last, she found it. A massive city on the seaside.
She joined the line going through the gate(but cut). The guards didn't even notice her, and the line didn't stop to wait. She was pushed in. fine, she was there illegally. Behind her a person was aproved.
“Welcome to Waterdeep,” the guard said. Waterdeep… Incredible. If only she were welcomed. Or unwelcome, because who wanted a troublemaker?
She flitted about the city, shocked by how vast it was. She wondered if they had anothing for 3 inch folk beside rat holes. The smallest things she saw were for gnomes and halflings. 3 foot gnomes and halflings(though halflings are slightly larger). But in the overwhelming massiveness and chaos it was almost relieving.
She quickly found the darker areas, where the thieves played. The outcasts. She smiled as she flew to them. They didn't notice her. She smiled as she went and tapped a pickpocket on the shoulder to ask him to help orient her.
“Oy? Wots this?” he called to the others.
“Um, hello. My name is Cleo, from the pixies. Or I was. I got sick of how frivolous they are.”
“It talks! Wot do you want fairy?”
“I’m not a fairy. I don't know what I'm doing here, it's a big city. I was hoping you could orient me. I'm quite a troublemaker.”
He laughed at her, “Run back to your flowers, fairy,” they all laughed at her. She swelled and left. She tried again several times but to the same end. Fine. if they wouldn't help her, she would help herself. But first, this petal dress wouldn't do. It was pretty bruised and tattered, which the others shook their heads at, but it was alive by the magic of just being around her. She ripped off a swatch of cloth from a humans shirt and turned it into a quick tunic and leggings, then ripped the stupid petal to shredds.
She turned out to be an excellent pickpocket. She could use how small and unnoticable she was to her advantage. She hoarded her finds, from scraps of paper to heavy coins, in a hidden location. She finally found a bag of holding, which weighed 15 pounds. She stole it and akwardly dragged it to her stash, stuffing it all inside. She was stronger than the average pixie. by a little. She took it to a wizard to have it shrunk. It cost a wing and a half, but it became backpack sized.
She still didn't have a single wanted poster. She once flew in to a wanted poster artist and asked him if he wanted to sketch her. He laughed too. It wasn't her pixie vanity that made her pose- it was just respect. She wasn't a vain idiot like the others and vanity didn't manifest in multiple ways.
After that expiriance she was questioning herself, so she went to a city guard and asked if he wanted to arrest her. She could then escape and be important enough to have been in jail and skilled enough to escape. He laughed too. She returned to the alleys and tried to get someone to team up with her, but got a different reaction.
“Hey… I bet some wealthy lords would pay a fortune for a pet fairy!” a woman said. Her eyes widened and she backed away. The woman lunged and she darted away. She was tough from the streets, at least more than most pixies. Not tough enough. The woman caught her and she was roughly thrown into an iron cage.
A musty bag was thrown over her and she was jostled a lot for days, heard muffled voices, and then the burlap was removed and a massive hand reached in and pulled her out. She was roughly shaken, her bag was emptied, her vision blurring to much to make out where she was, and thrown into a gold cage.
She passed out instantly.
When she woke up a tall man(by human standards) was prodding her with a poker, obviously bored.
“Ouch! Thats sharp!”
“It really does talk,” he muttered to himself. “A fine pet, fine indeed.” he carried her swinging cage to a different room and sat her on a desk. She fluttered as the cages swung but it hit her a couple times. He dropped an apple slice in.
“Eat.”
“What are you, 5? Back off.”
“I am the captain of the Black Pearl and i just spent a good deal of money on you. You do what i say on my ship.”
“Yeah, no. see, i don't like doing what i'm told. Back off.”
He smiled. “Got some kick, eh? We’ll break you.”
“We’ll see about that.”
“What would a fairy look like if i shredded her wings?”
“They grow back.”
“And do the legs? So fragile.”
“Does your nose grow back if i bite it off? It looks more apitizing. No, nevermind, it's covered in grease. And on the ugliest face i've ever seen. Keep your nose.”
He shoved her cage and she held to the golden bars for support and leered at her. She stuck her toungue out. He laughed softly and left. Over the next years she watched the pirate lifestyle and decided it was the life for her. If only she could… she heard shouts. Another fight. She watched enemy men board the ship and everyone start fighting again.
This time, her captors didn't win. They all died. The new captian found her.
“What have we here?”
“I am Cleo, of the pixies,” she eyed him. “Release me.”
“A fairy? How useless.” he stabbed his saber through the cage and she dodged.
“Get your stick out of my space, idiot.”
He laughed malevovlently, “you’re right. I’d rather watch you starve.” she stared up as he pulled the sword out. She jumped up nd snatched it, breaking off the tip. He swore at her and left. She smiled and flew down to the peice of metal.
It was a bit heavy but she lifted it to the lock and carefully picked it. She dropped the peice of metal and swung the door shut, locking it. Then she put an illusion in the cage. The words “Don’t cross The Pixie Pirate.” in red. She had a title. Someday, he would regret this.
She flew out the window and free into the open sea. She was going to become a pirate. She passed several cargo and passenger ships. She stopped on a few and stole a little food. Finally, she found a beautiful fleet of black sailed ships. She went to the biggest and spotted the captian. He turned from talking to one of his crew.
“Hello, my name is Cleo.”
“What's that?”
“I’m a pixie. But i'm just as capable as a big folk.”
“What do you want?”
“To join your crew.”
“Why would a fairy want to join my crew?”
“I'm a pixie. And I like adventure, and breaking rules.”
He tried to hide a laugh to himself and smiled, “fine, pixie. My first mate tried to mutiny so i need a first mate. You on board?”
“Aye Aye,” she saluted.
She knew he thought it was funny and he was just humoring her, but she worked hard and had good instincts. He quickly made her truly important, not just a joke. He trusted her. She proved herself over and over and was truly loyal. At some point, he gave her a ship o her own. The sailors trusted her. She was a pirate. She was a captian. They ran into the ship that captured her and was overthrown and she saw the captian who tried to kill her.
“It's that fairy!”
“Call me Captain.” Captain Cleo Beryl.
If you ever want a short story to read and don't mind suicide, depression, death, etc, just ask(literally have over a hundred of my short stories at easy access)
this is the short story that insired the homebrew races, sunborn and moonborn(though there moonborn are chaotic good typically and sunborn LG. i don't think I need to argue that the sunborn who killed the entire human race to save the world or the moonborn who adamantly refused to disobey orders from dead leaders regardless of how much things changed are the opposite alignment. i believe cyro meant well.). aways look up what my characters names mean.
“The day the world began, as the first tiny seedlings grew and the first people came into being, the sun and moon turned their faces to the tiny planet. As their glory rained down, the first drops of sun and moon light fell. Where the sun hit, a person appeared. Her skin was tanned and her hair golden, her eyes like molten amber. Her name was Ray, first of the sunborn.
The moons light followed, and beside her stood a man. His glowing pale eyes were the deepest of blue, his hair shone silver, his skin was pale and glowing. His name was Beam, first of the moonborn. The light continued to fall, and for a precious moment these creatures were created one after another, 50 Moonborn and 50 Sunborn. Then it ended, and the light illuminated instead of created. At least, not in that sense.
The sun created life, growing plants and giving heat and light. He gave fire and life and aided the humans. His sister moon played with water. She protected nature. She destroyed so there was space for the life.
The sun and moon children worked to aid these goals, working in perfect harmony, a yin and yang. Ray and Beam lead the two. The sunborn created and controlled fire, healed and grew and nourished. The moonborn controlled water. They withered and destroyed. They defend nature.
Aside from Ray, all of the sunborns were men. Aside from Beam, all Moonborns were women. At the end of the creation spree at the dawn of the world, the very last moonborn to ever be created was named Aiday.
As time passed, the humans grew destructive, and the populations of Sun and Moon born dwindled, nature and all it's courses with them. Ray and Beam were the first to die. Slowly, all the others did, until today, only I survive. My name is Aiday, and I must save this world. But the only Sun and Moon borns to ever be created was the dawn of time. The Moon and Sun grow old and weary. It is imbosible at this point.”
She glanced up at the figure she was speaking to. It was a carved stone person. She hoped this would work… she used her powers to cover the statue in water and decayed the outer crust of the stone, crumbling it.
Underneath, there was stone. It hadn't worked. She destroyed it all. She had to do something. Without a sunborn, life would stop coming to be. Without her, life would indefinitely continue. She jumped as a voice spoke behind her.
“Truly?”
She turned and saw a man with dark skin and golden hair.
“I am Cyro. only a Moonborn would know that. I am the last of the sunborn. When I saw what was happening, I hid, and kept life sputtering forward. What were you trying to do?”
“I know you,” she had met him once or twice. “I was trying to make another. I'm not sure why I thought it would work.”
“Hide with me. I've been fine so far.”
“No. I have to find a way to fix this.”
“We have to survive or the world will end.”
“We have to fix the world so it won't end.”
“Fine. want to know a secret?”
“What?”
“I think I know what happened.”
“Yeah?”
“It was the humans. Maybe not on purpose, but theyre destroying things, unnaturally destroying.”
“So?”
“I know how to fix it.”
“I’m afraid to ask.”
“I would have done this myself but I needed a Moonborn. Destroy them.”
“Absolutely not! Have you forgotten raising the first of the humans? Remember when they were vulnerable babies and we took care of them? I remember the 5th human. When I took her she was so peaceful. She asked me to defend her people as her body withered away.”
“These aren't the same. These humans are abusing the world. They don't take what they need. They don't take at all. They destroy and leave no room for new life. They destroy but don't decay. They’re unnatural!”
“I won't destroy the humans!”
“Then destroy the world, humans with it!”
“We’re supposed to protect them.”
“We’re supposed to protect the world! And nature, which the humans blatantly abuse!”
“When the world crumbles into ash.”
“It will be too late then!”
“It will never happen!”
“We have to downsize the life scale anyways. There are two of us and too many creatures. Why not start with the root of the problem?”
“You can't prove they caused it!” she knew they did. She wouldn't kill them all the same.
“I know you know it.”
“I won't destroy them.”
“Then save some of the children, start the world over!”
“No. We can leave the humans to their own devices, they have things to take care of growing and killing themselves.”
“Then they’ll never kill! But they’ll take more space from nature. I've already stopped growing them.”
“Thats why the population went down.”
“Yeah. So will you help me?”
“No.”
“...yes.” with the look he gave her she was really glad sunborns didn't have brainwashing powers.
“No.”
“Fine.”
How come he gave in so easily? She didn't know him well, maybe he just avoided conflict or something. She glanced up. The sun was entering his full glory as sunrise perished.
“I’m turning in now. See you at dusk, I guess.”
“Good… Day, I guess.”
Aiday walked to her cave. She didn't wake up that night.
As Aiday, the young one, walked away, Cyro followed, carefully concealig himself. H may not have been as stealthy as Moonborn, but she couldn't see well in sunlight. He was going to kill those humans with her. The Sunborn had a secret power, sworn to secrecy, not even shared with the Moonborn.
Aidays eyes blinked open as moonlight streamed through the branches. Cyro sat beside her, staring disintrestedly into the distance. She stirred, muttering some nonsense to dream Beam. why wasn't she in her cave? This was the old camp.
“C...Cyro?” she muttered, spitting out some light blue hair. He glanced at her.
“Good morning, Aiday.”
“What are you doing here? Why aren't I at my cave?”
“Because I forgot to put you back.”
“What?”
“Never mind. I didn’t know Moonborn could destroy so much. You can mass kill?”
“What? Thats a secret.” She was sworn to secrecy. They had the power to kill entire speices at once, and even Sunborns or Moonborns.
“Considering the circumstance, I'm not putting much stock in the secret powers being secret. So I’ll tell you mine.”
“Are you going to exlain what you were doing with me in my sleep?”
“You’ve been asleep for about a week. Must be killing all the humans really drained you.”
“WHAT?! I didn't kill anything! How do you know the secret?!”
“Our secret is control. You wouldn’t do it yourself, so I made you.” He said it so, dispicably simply.
“Another part of our secret is we can kill Sunborn!” she Stood up swiftly and put a forceful hand on his chest, “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t drain you for what you’ve done.
“I have two. You need me, since I'm the only Sunborn, and you were the one who killed them.”
“If Ray and Beam were here I’m sure they’d side with me.”
“Oh, undoubtedly. But they also didn't listen to me, and look where we are. I had no choice.”
Her eyes flared and she clenched her fist, watching some of his gold hairs turn grey and the begining of wrinkles appear. “When I fix this and get more Celestialborn, I’ll take the rest. In the meantime, you’ll do exactly as I say and if you don't, I’ll find you and destroy you. If you control me again, I’ll destroy you. And you only have about 50 years, aging started working on you.”
His eyes widdened and he nodded.
“Didn’t think I could do it? I’ve killed trillions of creatures. I was tasked with taking some of humanities most notorius. None of them were as dispicable as you. I’m the youngest Moonborn. But I’m not young.”
“I did the only thing I could.”
“Don't defend yourself,” she spat, taking another five years. She took her hand off him and slammed the dirt beneath. It crumbled and a broad pit opened. He fell in. “Stay there.”
She turned and ran aimlessly through the trees to a cliffside overlooking the water. She lapped the waves as her gasping tears lasped, staring up at the moon through wet lashes.
“Help…” she muttered in Moonborn. The waves started moving on their own. One of them lapsed high enought it doused her. She opened her arms to the spray and felt something. She caught it instictivly, looking down and what she expected to be a conch. It was a human baby. Another wave crashed and she caught a second.
“Thank you…” she muttered. Then she turned and walked to the nearest town. It was gone. Rubble. Hate swelled back in her and she turned towards where she left Cyro.
She walked back to her cave with the babies, leaving behind the now empty pit. As she walked, she heard something like a fyrework. She looked up. A star shot across the sky.
“When the day comes that you have the deepest need, wish on a star.” Beams voice echoed.
“I wish for more Celestialborn.” she heard a loud noise. 99. No, 100. She turned and saw white people, hair to toe, heads bowed and waiting. As the sun rose, she assigned them. Sunborn, Moonborn. She split them in two and told the story. Not just the story of the behining, the story of the disappearence, and of Cyro. she handed the children to the two she assigned first as the dawn began to close, A man for sunborn and a woman for moonborn yet all the others were the wrong gender. Before the moon set, both the sun and moon struck her and she was lifted by swirling rays of light.
The creature that came down was color. It was power. It's hair was neither golden nor silver, it's skin neither dark nor pale. It was light in every sense.
“I am your leader. I am Nova, the Galaxyborn.”
If you ever want a short story to read and don't mind suicide, depression, death, etc, just ask(literally have over a hundred of my short stories at easy access)