A little short story from my campaign world.

[cabbagesquirrel]

This is a short story that takes place in Ajur, my campaign setting that is currently being fleshed out in the Homebrew forum if you want to take a look. Any constructive criticism please feel free.

Ensu awoke with a start, the rumbling cracking sound that permeated his odd and sometimes down right weird dreams echoed through his hazy waking mind, indeed his very room seemed to vibrate and rock with the booming sound within his ears. The acrid flair of oily smoke penetrated Ensu's nostrils through a loosely curtained off window, the sea salt sprayed summer breeze that was the norm now a sickly metallic stench that stuck to the throat.

Leaping naked from his ramshackle bed, a down stuffed mattress that had seen better days coupled with a loose collection of woven sheets and the half dead carcass of what could have been once called a pillow; Ensu wrenched aside his lack luster curtain to spy the scene of destruction that awaited him.

Bjarma, second greatest city of the Circle Sea and capital of Khazar was aflame, or rather a small select portion of this great monument to civilization was. Down towards the bustling dockyards, smoke and flame poured up in great serpentine gouts that lashed the sky. Ensu could hear the screams of the panicked populous, fire was a problem for the entire city, should these tongues of fire leap from building to building, spitting out spark laced curses as they roared it could lead to utter devastation.
He would have to help these common folk, lest he be blamed for the raucous for being a foreigner.

Ensu collected himself in a mere moment, aware of his rather exposed state; he blushed and quickly covered his shame before shielding himself with the dilapidated curtain. Spying his semi fitting, knee high blood red robes of his order, coarsely woven black dyed slacks and itchy beige underpants, he quickly dressed. Patting down the lint that had collected during the night Ensu scanned his meager accommodations for the tools of his trade.

Gathering up several slender and small staves of wood that lay upon the floor, each scrimshawed with a litany of symbols, Ensu tucked these under his makeshift cord belt before slipping his robust leather sandals on and making for the door.
As a near afterthought Ensu snatched up the large gnarled staff currently employed as a cloak rack before leaving his abode. The staff was worn through constant exposure to the elements, both natural and magical in nature, yet it had served Ensu well.
For Ensu Juskin Nessik, second son to Lord Exarch, Minous Nessik, Praetor to the Emperor of Khern, was a wizard.

A damn good wizard, even if it was only Ensu that said so. Which he did, to anyone who would listen, mostly wide eyed, snot nosed children.

His sandals slap slapping against the large square set stones of Bjarma' wide cart laden trade streets, Ensu flew helter-skelter towards the billowing blaze that had now fully engulfed a warehouse filled with gods know what.

A witness would later remark on the peculiar nature of Ensu as he passed by, his short wizardly robes flapping behind him, his britches a blur of commotion as he blurred down the sloping byways towards the shore. Perhaps the witness would also note the spiel of curse words he spouted when moving at such break neck speed, some of which even a seasoned sailor would find abhorrent.

Ensu's short cropped raven black hair fluttered over his sweating forehead, sticking occasionally and annoyingly with the gluey perspiration upon his brow, before he skidded ungracefully to a halt. A team of dock workers had set up throwing urns filled with sea water over the blaze, but it was like spitting into the roaring furnace of a blacksmith's forge, unproductive and inevitably pointless. Evidently many of the urns had been used to store oil at some time in the past, their rainbow slicked contents only adding strength to the blaze.

In the true fashion of cities everywhere, such commotion had gathered a throng of watchers, an audience of those with nothing better to do than stand and gawp. 'A crowd of no good fly catchers' Ensu stated as he passed the wide mouthed onlookers, probably have three teeth between all of them the wizard sighed as he followed several urn bearers down to a pier on the northern shore of the Circle Sea.
Selecting a fine, willowy and slightly green wooden wand from his makeshift belt and dropping his staff to the clay red stone pier, Ensu began focusing his thoughts and shaping the spark of arcane essence that dwelled within his psyche. Seeing the mystical algorithms scroll impossibly across his minds eye until they reached their final conclusion, Ensu rocked on the balls of his feet and uttered a single word of ancient power.

Twisting sharply with his wand hand, pointing the slender whittled branch to the fire and emphasizing the motion with his other hand, fist clenched white. Ensu literally ripped a giant sphere of water, sea foam, sand and all, from the nearby slip slopping shore and sailed it like a crazed captain bent on flying over a waterfall. A blue-silver nimbus glowing between his hands, Ensu willed the globe over his head, through the air, and for it to slam headlong into the now raging inferno that had left little but the blackened skeleton of the dockside warehouse intact.

Great gouts of steam poured from the remains, obscuring the view of the crowd of onlookers in great breeze wisped swaths. Ensu lowered his arms; suddenly aware of the awkward pose he had stuck, and became rather self conscious. Adjusting his robes, dusting off some strewn cinders and ash and scooping up his staff he made to leave before having to deal with annoying people and their even more irritating questions. Ensu was mildly exhausted from his heavy use of arcane power, and spotting a nearby alleyway he made to sneak off, however a great cracking, snapping sound could be heard coming from the jagged black remains of the warehouse.

Ensu spun on his heels and eyed the popping cooling remains of the ruined warehouse curiously. Within the middle of what was once its great wood and stone structure, the calcified remains of buttresses and plinths could be seen rising and falling, their still ample weight bending and breaking under the strength of whatever was pushing up from below.
Muttering a quick protective incantation, Ensu's mind conjured a ward about his person, as a wizard he knew it always paid to be prepared, because what you don't know can kill you, sometimes bloodily and loudly.

A pale and slender feminine forearm punch-thrust its way out through the rubble, the remains of a large wooden frame were cast aside like a child's toy. The crowd sauntered back several long paces, evidently still curious, just not stupid.

Closely following the arm, a head rose from the ruins, laced in a thick veneer of jet black glossy hair, still smoking with steam and topped with two pale grey-blue horns above a twin pair of white hot glowing eyes and a sharp canine tooth filled, shapely mouth.
Ensu starred aghast at this recent development, the shapely creature emerging from the tinkling destroyed warehouse edifice was eerily familiar, if a little ash stained currently. When a serpentine tail slunk up from the remains, coiling about the newcomers back, images conjured up from long ago in Ensu's twenty five year past, that tail, those horns, that razor toothed saucy smirk.

Ensu edged closer, his sandals slipping over wet slick ashes, half whispering, half rasping he moved towards the devilish female, 'Helani?'

Those two star fire fueled eyes turned upon the wizard, searing his thoughts still within his mind, something was wrong, and when she leapt catlike from the ruins, claws raised towards him, Ensu knew in that split moment in time, that he had made a dire mistake'¦