Since it is taking me WAY too long to finish typing up my (already written on paper) story "Saltwater Wishin'!", I figured that I'd just copy and paste what I've already typed up of it into a blog and post it on here.
I'll likely edit this portion of the blog at least some once I've finished it and submitted it to be featured in its complete form, but in the meantime, y'all can (hopefully) still enjoy this sneak peek, which will give you somewhat of an idea of what to expect.[Spoiler=Saltwater Wishin'!]The following story (which I actually wrote back in 2020 to enter in a story contest here on Paint) takes place in an alternate version of the same Sangai universe that my Master of Death fantasy series takes place in, where (unlike in MoD) genies that have the power to grant wishes exist.
(I just hope that I'll have it finished sometime this month...)On the southeastern coast of Terrapin, in the small Sea Elven fishing village of Pescataria lived Ray Saltwater and his family.
Ray Saltwater was a 124 year old Sea Elf boy (which is around 12 in "Elf years", who lived with his mother Aquaria Saltwater, his father Marino Saltwater, his big sister Sharka Saltwater, his little sister Chimaera Saltwater, and a number of (mostly saltwater) fish that they kept as pets in very well-maintained marine aquaria.
Like most Pescatarians, the Saltwaters were a family of saltwater fishermen catching fish from the waters of the Endless Sea, not only to feed themselves and to sell as food to others, but also to sell as pets to other aquarists like themselves.
One day when his father and his big sister were out fishing on his father's ship, the S.S. Cretoxyrhina, Ray decided to sneak out and go out and do some fishing himself, hoping that he might actually be able to catch the living fossil fish of legend, which was said to reside deep in the depths of the Endless Sea, just as they were hundreds of millions of years ago.
Although Ray had gone on fishing trips with his dad before on the weekends, he was still "too young" to go on those deep sea fishing trips on the Cretoxyrhina like his sister got to, and so in an effort to impress his father, he got his rod and his reel, and then he, his little sister Chimaera, and his girlfriend good friend Remora Seagreen all got into one of his dad's small fishing boats, and went out to sea...
Remora: So was your mom really OK with you "borrowing" one of your dad's fishing boats to try to do this?
Ray: Yep, and she was even cool with my lil' sis coming along!
Ray: She knows that I've been out fishing with Dad like a zillion times before, and that I already know how to handle Dad's fishing boats by now.
Chimaera: But what about the weather? Isn't it dangerous to be out at sea in a small boat like this in the rain?
Ray: Nah, the waters around here are pretty calm, especially during light rain like this.
Ray: According to legend, the Coelacanth is said to leave its secret hiding place in the depths only during "dark stormy nights", not light afternoon showers like this, but I'm still hopeful that we can catch it anyway!
Chimaera: "Rainy days make the fish come play", right?
Ray: Yep, that's how the old saying goes!
Of the three of them, Ray was the one with the most fishing (and boating) experience, but Remora and Chimaera weren't without some fishing experience themselves either, and so all 3 of them tried their hand at trying to catch ther Coelacanth that they all hoped might be hiding somewhere in the beautiful aquamarine waters, awakened by the falling raindrops from above.
Unfortunately, although they were all able to catch plenty of fish (especially Horse Mackerel), most of the big ones got away, and they didn't catch a single Coelacanth.
Ray: Man, this stinks!
Ray: We've been out here fishing for, what, 4 hours? And what do we have to show for it? A bunch of Horse Mackerel, Sea Bass, and old boots?!
Remora: Hey now, you shouldn't be so dismissive of everything that we caught today.
Remora: We may have all hoped that it was a Shark, but it was still fun watching your sister reel in that Ocean Sunfish all by herself.
Chimaera: Yeah! Ocean Sunfish are AWESOME!
Remora: And don't forget that I caught that Blue Marlin earlier.
Ray: Yeah, those are pretty hard to catch...
Remora: And don't forget about yourself! Not only did you manage to catch all of those Red Snappers and Barred Knifejaws, but you even managed to catch a Ray, the fish that you were named after!
Ray: OK, so I guess it was a pretty good fishing trip after all, but you still can't blame me for being disappointed.
Ray: I mean, every time that I saw a large shadow out in the water I thought to myself "this is it!", only for it to get away or turn out to be another stupid Sea Bass.
Remora: Hey! Sea Bass are Evelyn's creatures too, and don't deserve to be insulted just because you wished that they were something else!
Ray: I'm sorry, I'm just frustrated by how things turned out.
Remora: That's understandable.
Ray: Anyway, the rain has already stopped, and Dad and Big Sis will be heading home soon, so we probably should too.
As they they headed back home, they took the time to catch every fish that they happened to see in the water on their way back.
There were far fewer (and far less valuable) fish in the clear weather than their had been in the rain, but they still managed to catch a Red Snapper or two, as well as plenty of Sea Bass, Horse Mackerel, old boots, and empty cans.
Upon arriving back at Pescataria, Chimaera happened to notice one last fish in the water.
Chimaera: Hey! We missed that little one over there!
Ray: Bah! It's probably just another empty can or something...
Remora: You shouldn't be so dismissive of smaller fish like that.
Remora: There are plenty of small reef fish that would look cute in a nano-reef aquarium.
Remora: And it doesn't even look that small, really. It could even be a Cookiecutter Shark, or one of those Magic Carps that grow up and turn into Sea Dragons.
Although he knew it wasn't a small shark or some magical sea carp, he found Remora's imagination (which reminded him of his own) intriguing, and so he went ahead and tried to catch it.
Immediately upon casting his line the small shadow bit down on it, and so he reeled it in.
Ray: See? Just another empty c–!
Ray: What the heck...?
Remora: It looks almost like the magic lamp from that old Sunarian fairytale.
Chimaera: Do you think that it has a Genie inside?
Remora: I don't know, but it might...
Ray: One thing's for sure though: we shouldn't mess with it until Dad and Big Sis are back home, and we've shown it to them and Mom.
Remora already had her parents permission to stay over at the Saltwaters' for dinner, and so the 3 of them went back to Ray and Chimaera's house and informed their mom of what they had found.
Aquaria: Well, this is definitely a magic lamp, but there's no guarantee that there's still a Djinn living inside of it.
Chimaera: What's a "Djinn"?
Aquaria: It is another name for Genies.
Chimaera: Oh...
Aquaria: You see, for hundreds of thousands of years there have been legends of people finding lamps like this one with Djinni trapped inside of them.
Aquaria: Many of these legends originate from the Suna region to the west, but people have actually found lamps like this in other parts of the world as well.
Aquaria: The Djinni are believed to be the children of the goddess of Chaos, and that she unleashed them upon the world with their godlike wish-granting powers long ago, simply because she thought that it'd be funny at the time.
Ray: ...Really?
???: That's what she said!
Remora: OK, who just said that?
???: Just lil' old me.
Whip: It is I, Whip Anarchy, Chaos goddess extraordinaire!
Aquaria: ...Could you please leave? I was trying to tell my children about the history of the Djinni.
Whip: Oh...
Whip: Meh, whatever! This whole non-violent fishing story schtick is boring as heck anyway.
Whip: Ciao!
Aquaria: ...Anyway, where was I?
Chimaera: The Chaos goddess making Genies because they're funny?
Aquaria: Right...
Aquaria: Anyway, after she did this, it obviously led to great instability and chaos here in Midgard, as you can't just have a bunch of beings that can make anything that they wish a reality without there being a lot of consequences.
Aquaria: It is said that the Cosmic Regulator then intervened, and placed a number of restrictions on the Djinni's wish-granting powers, and imprisoned them all in magic lamps.
Aquaria: The biggest restriction that he placed on their wish-granting powers is to force them to use them for their "master" rather than themselves, and to limit them to only being able to use this power a certain number of times.
Remora: Just like in the fairytales?
Aquaria: Yes, just like in the fairytales.
Aquaria: Crystalline Lamps contain S-class Genies that grant 10 wishes, Platinum Lamps have A-class Genies that grant 5 wishes, and Golden Lamps like this one contain B-class Genies that grant 3 wishes.
Ray: Are there others, or did we find the worst type?
Aquaria: There are also Silver Lamps that have C-class Genies that grant 2 wishes, as well as Bronze Lamps that have D-class Genies that grant only 1 wish.
Ray: Oh...
Ray: I assume even Bronze Lamps are still super rare and valuable though, right?
Aquaria: Absolutely, although selling Magic Lamps is somewhat awkward because of how they work.
Ray: Why is that?
Aquaria: You see, once a Genie is awakened for the first time, the person who did so becomes their "master".
Aquaria: The Genie can then only grant their master's wishes, or the wishes of their master's friends and family and only if their master specifically instructs them to do so.
Aquaria: Even if the master wanted to sell the lamp, they couldn't get the Genie to recognize the person who they sold it to as their master, nor could they get them to grant the new owner's wishes.
Ray: ...Unless they were selling the lamp to a friend or relative, right?
Aquaria: Yes, that is correct.
Remora: What about selling the lamp without awakening the Genie first?
Aquaria: That can work, but there's no way for the buyer to know that they aren't getting a used one without testing it themselves first, which would make them the Genie's master.
Marino: Only a fool would want to sell something as powerful as a Magic Lamp anyway.
Chimaera: Yay! Daddy's home!
Aquaria: The kids were just showing me a Golden Lamp that they caught while fishing earlier today.
Sharka: You guys went fishing too?
Ray: Yeah, but we didn't catch much...
Ray: I took one of Dad's boats out in the rain hoping to catch a Coelacanth, but the best thing that we ran into was a Shark that turned out to just be an Ocean Sunfish.
Marino: Wait, the 3 of you actually caught an Ocean Sunfish?
Chimaera: I caught it all by myself!
Marino: My little girl caught an Ocean Sunfish all by herself?!
Marino: Tell me, what else did you kids catch?
Ray: Other than the Sunfish? Well, I caught a Ray, and Remora caught a Blue Marlin, but that's about it.
Marino: My son Ray caught a Ray?!
Marino: It sounds like you 3 had a GREAT fishing trip, and I'm incredibly proud of each of you!
Ray: ...But I did catch a Coelacanth...
Sharka: You caught a Magic Lamp, Ray. You do realize that you could just wish for a trillion Coelacanths with that, right?
Marino: We don't know that for sure just yet.
Marino: Anyway, go ahead and give Mom that lamp Ray.
, who lived with his mother Aquaria Saltwater, his father Marino Saltwater, his big sister Sharka Saltwater, his little sister Chimaera Saltwater, and a number of (mostly saltwater) fish that they kept as pets in very well-maintained marine aquaria.
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