Abuse of Magic

Chapter 25: Not A Fairy

He was on a boat, out at sea. The waves were gentle, and a salty breeze gave just enough of a chill to his skin that the warm sunlight didn't make him too hot. The boat was pulling into dock at an island he was excited about. There hadn't been a lot of information about it, other than it would make a great vacation spot. The ship out hadn't had a lot of people either. When he got off at the dock, he was happy to see that he was one of only a handful of people here.

It was his first vacation in two years. He was exhausted and wanted to get away from it all. The island was gorgeous. Everything about it was amazing. It stuck up in the middle of the sea from a long dormant volcano and was completely covered in green. The trees all gave edible fruit that looked like a spiky orange, but the flavor, when he tried one, was so much more than just sweet. He couldn't describe it beyond amazing.

The vines growing through the trees, blocked the sunlight above from reaching the forest floor, and leaving the entire place in an eternal gentle twilight. The flowers that were everywhere had dark blue rims with electric blue insides. He had never seen flowers like them before. The scent from them pervaded the entire island.

Birds sung sweetly as they flew from branch to branch, flashing their bright colors as they winked among the trees. None would settle long enough for him to see them clearly, leaving him with the feeling they were wild little rainbows left to grow up here, before heading out into the big world to form much larger rainbows somewhere.

Approaching the beach in the cove, the water was so clear that he could see all the way to the ocean floor, and with the slight green tint, it made the fish and plants even more vibrant. Coral grew in patches, too deep for any boats to hit, but shallow enough that he could see the multitude of fish swarming in schools, glinting in the last rays of the sun, as it lowered to kiss the horizon. The sky erupted into reds and purples as the sea swallowed the sun.

As the day faded to night, moss on the base of all the trees began to glow, and it made the forest feel magical. He began to wander, watching as small glow bugs winked to life among the glowing moss, taking flight and floating through the air. Then he saw her.

She was bathing in a stream. Her pale skin gleamed in the moonlight and was beautiful. Turning quickly, she saw him just as he turned away in embarrassment.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

He could hear the water lapping against her skin as she moved.

"Turn around," she said softly.

He turned back around, slowly, to see her in a soft green robe, that glowed like the moss. Her long hair was wet, showing the tips of her ears peeking through. Glowing ruby eyes seemed to glint on their own.

"Beautiful," he whispered.

She looked stunned.

"I haven't charmed you, human. Don't you find me strange, frightening even?"

He blushed liked a small child, even though he was a grown man, when he realized she must have heard him. Looking around, he waved at the surrounding forest.

"Don't you think this would be the kind of place a mortal could meet a fairy?"

"Ha!" she laughed out loud, and a tip of fang flashed.

"I am no fairy," she said in a deep husky voice.

His breath caught in his chest at the beauty of her. Between her smile and her voice, he couldn't tell which was sexier.

XxxxX

With a start, Joseph woke up. What was that?

He saw her face and yet it was a memory from one of his past lives. This was the first time he had seen a face clearly. His heart was racing.

This was way better than all the television shows that he had remembered that talked about how to make random things, some of which made no sense in this world, but obviously seemed like a good enough idea to warrant time on the air. After all, who needed to know how to make a pencil?

With a groan he realized this meant his skill of walking in on naked women was also brought over from a previous life. It didn't show up on his status though, so he felt a little cheated. If he was going to get such a skill, it should at least show up with the others.

Rubbing his face, he decided he wasn't completely awake yet. Getting up quietly so as not to wake Stella, he started to perform two rounds of his sword forms as a wake-up exercise. It helped him get into the right frame of mind for practicing his jet type magic, like flame blade. It was wielded like a sword, and he found moving his body helped with it. While he wasn't sure what actions he needed to take to practice gaze yet, he had a feeling he would need eye drops by the end.

The image of her face, her long wet hair not hiding the tips of her ears, and those ruby red eyes, kept distracting him. When Stella got up, she kept looking at him confused, as if she wasn't sure what was wrong. There was no way he could explain to her that the girl in his dream was so beautiful, it kept distracting him. Especially after he had finally gotten her over the issue with him walking in on her.