Kamilis set down a nearly empty jar, all that remained was a small amount of a coarse powder on its bottom. There was a label on the side of the jar and on it was scrawled the words “Powdered Snake’s Bladder” in an ancient elven dialect. It joined a collection of other jars and bottles of various sizes sitting on the table.
Kamilis moved to the center of the table where a small sized cauldron sat. It was situated on a wire frame stand which glowed red where it touched the cauldron. He picked up a piece of parchment that had been lying to the right of the cauldron. On it was scribbled notes and a list of ingredients and at the top was written a title, “Vitality and Necromancy Awareness of Herpetological Knowledge.”
He read over his notes once more and shook his head as he thought, “These young ones can make the most inane spells.” He had found a new spell while he was looking through some new magical tomes that he’d bought a little while ago. Originally, it would just allow the caster to detect reptiles and amphibians within a range of 30 feet. A unique but rather useless spell. The ritual he was now casting was based off that rather narrow formula. This ritual would let him cast a much better version.
He read over the ingredients once more. Every time he read one of the items on the list he searched through his jars and bottles, making sure each ingredient was there. There was an assortment of processed animal parts; ingredients needed for the base ritual. Next to the jars were a few bottles, most of which were filled with various concoctions that were needed for the ritual’s modifiers. The largest container was a large jar of powdered platinum, which was required for both the base ritual and the modifications.
He read the last item on the list and began to panic as he realized it wasn’t on the table. It was the rarest of all the ingredients, without it, his alterations to the base spell matrix wouldn’t combine, the ritual would fail, and all his ingredients would be lost. In fact, it was the only ingredient he had to journey to find, the Eye of a Sainted Croakanth.
Kamilis looked frantically through the ingredients once more but stopped, realizing where it must be and said under his breath, “Drat… I must have left it in the cellar.”
From behind him, in the corner of the room, came a voice, “hmm… did you say something?”
Kamilis turned around. In the corner of the room, on a shelf, there laid a small calico cat. He lifted his head off his paws, waking up from his nap. “You forgot the eye, didn’t you? I told you. I said, you don’t need to put it in the cellar, it will stay fresh, plus you’ll forget it and here you are, forgetting.”
“Aw, yes, well, would you be so kind as to go get it for me?”, asked Kamilis. “I can start the ritual while you retrieve it.”
The cat stood up, arching his back, stretching while he yawned. “Yes, I guess.” He jumped down off the shelf and walked over to the open door. He turned his head around before leaving and stated, “You will owe me some cream after you give me fish for lunch.”
Kamilis had already turned back to his table and was sorting the order of the ingredients. In response he halfheartedly waved his hand at Melya. “Yes, yes, I’ll get you your favorite fish and some cream when we are done.”
Melya twitched his tail in response and walked out of the room.
Kamilis started by adding a small bottle of swamp water to the cauldron. It made the base of the ritual. Then he added in dirt collected from a high desert and a pinch of the platinum powder. He waited a few moments while the cauldron worked its magic, and the ingredients properly combined. This would have been a much more time-consuming task without the magic cauldron. It was an item of his own design.
After the mixture was infused, he began to add in the various animal parts. They consisted of various snake, lizard, and frog parts. After each ingredient, he paused, letting them combine with the liquid at the bottom of the cauldron. Slowly, but certainly, the liquid began to turn into a paste.
He placed the last of the organic ingredients into the cauldron. He was just about ready to add his modifications to the ritual. Without them this spell would not be very useful. Just a minor curiosity, if that. While it was combining, he walked over to a cupboard and got out his scales and brought them to the table and began to weigh out a large amount of powdered platinum.
Meyla happened to return when Kamilis was just finishing weighing out the metal, just as he happened to be needed. He walked through the door with a small jar hovering about a foot off the ground behind him. Inside was a large amphibian looking eye, it was suspended in a green liquid.
Kamilis glanced as Meyla walked through the door “Oh, good timing. Just put it on the table. I’m ready to add my modifications.”
Meyla walked over to the table, and he had the jar float up, over him and onto the tabletop, next to the scales. He followed it by jumping up on to the table while Kamilis was adding in the weighed platinum powder to the cauldron. The vessel began to do its magic, and the ingredients fused. What was once a paste was now more a lumpy damp metallic gritty mixture.
The cat put his paws on the edge of the cauldron, lifting himself up and raising his head high enough to look in at the lumpy mess. “Are you sure this spell is worth the effort?” He removed his paws, lowering himself back to the table, sitting and looked over to the jar with the eye. “That was rather annoying to obtain.”
Kamilis was uncorking the various liquid concoctions that made up the modifiers of the spell. “Oh, I don’t know, the spell could be useful. Besides, those towns folk are probably happy the Croakanth was taken care of. He could have rallied his tribe and made trouble. Not just for the town, but the whole kingdom, if he wasn’t taken care of.”
Meyla sat down, his tail twitching slightly across the tabletop behind him. “I guess.”
Kamilis glanced over at his cat, “You just don’t like we had to go to a swamp.”
“They are wet! My fur gets damp, and afterwards my paws take forever to clean.”
Kamilis started pouring the liquids into the cauldron, one at a time. There was no need for him to wait for the ingredients to fuse. They wouldn’t need to mix till the eye was added. “You could have stayed behind; you had that option.”
Meyla stood up and casually walked over to the jar with the eye, rubbing up against it as he walked by. “Yes, but who would look out for you if I didn’t go. You know you’re half lost without me.”
Kamilis smirked as he reached for the jar next to Meyla “Yes, I’m sure I am.” He took the lid off the jar and poured in the eye, green viscous liquid and all. “Now come over here and keep an eye on this while I imbue it with the needed power.”
Meyla said “fine, if I must” and walked over to the cauldron, sitting down a few inches away. He began to stare at it with the intensity only an unblinking cat can manage.
Kamilis lifted his hands and put them above the cauldron and spoke. “Cuina ro Cuinaló, tulu nye i na lómë, Lakar ar ranor, lirwen tyar cuina tasari.” As he recited the words the material in the vessel began to glow bright green. When he finished there was a green flash that filled the room and then the glow was gone.
The calico cat finally blinked, having no need to watch the cauldron anymore. “You put a lot of power into that for such a simple spell.”
Kamilis smiled slightly “Well, I may have gone a little overboard, but the base spell was really dull.”
Meyla stood back up and put his paws back onto the cauldron, looking in. It was nearly empty except for a large drop of greenish silvery liquid. It looked like liquid metal of some sort. “What did you do?”
“Like I said, it was too simple. I increased the range to five miles. I added the ability to see undead reptiles and amphibians, as well as humanoid variants of those species. Plus, full knowledge of their strengths and weaknesses, as well as being able to see through any illusion or shape changing effects that they might be under.”
Meyla stopped looking at the liquid and put his paws back on to the table, “As impressive as that sounds, it still seems pretty inane. I can understand why you needed that eye though. Do you think the creature’s god will care that you killed him?”
Kamilis scoffed, “God! It was probably just some uppity nature spirit who turned him into a saint, nothing I can’t handle. I highly doubt if the entity would even be able to find me if it wanted to.” He reached for the eye dropper on the table and used it to suck up all of the silvery green liquid. He sighed as he prepared himself for the uncomfortable task ahead.
Kamilis leaned his head back and brought the dropper to his right eye and let a drop of the liquid cover it, then moved to his left eye and repeated the process. He blinked several times, absorbing the mixture into his tear ducts. It was an odd sensation; like a film pressing against his eye. He could feel the liquid seeping into his eye ducts. He shuddered slightly as he felt the magic spread across his body as the silvery green liquid disappeared from his eyes. It only took a moment till the magic was absorbed into his essence. Allowing him to use his power to activate the spell anytime he’d like.
Meyla jumped down from the table and walked towards the door, “Good, you’re done, now it’s time for you to get me my fish and cream.” With that he hurried out of the room.
Kamilis smiled and shook his head as he followed Meyla out the door.
Author’s Note
I wrote this as an entry into a arts and sciences competition in Amtgard. I had a lot of fun writing it, it started as a free writing exercise. Eventually, the process of editing this short story inspired me to run the Build a Scene Fantasy Writing Contest.
Additionally I used a fun program to create an elven language unique to this story. The phrase “Cuina ro Cuinaló, tulu nye i na lómë, Lakar ar Ranor, lirwen tyar cuina tasari” translates to “Living or undead, show me what’s ahead, reptiles and frogs, reveal their life’s thread.”
Additional fun fact, the cat’s name, Meyla, translates to Cookie.
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