The Enchanted Inkwell: Tales of Fishblood and Wonder

"Era 1: The Present"

Blood splattered all across my face. The body wriggled in front of me but I couldn't muster up the strength to hold it in place. It sounded terrified like me, but I wasn't terrified in a scary sense. I was terrified at its burlish courage to shake out of my hands. I tried to strangle it to death but it wouldn't let me do that easily.

So, I acted as fast as I could, grabbed the knife and sliced it down its throat. The glistening scales parted with a sickening sound. The blade glinted and blood oozed out of its throat down onto my hands. The dead cold eyes stared me up and the body lay limpless in front of me.

At that moment, I felt nothing less than a murderer. My kitchen felt like an area of a crime scene, where a 20 Pound Redfish lay limp on the shelf, covered entirely with blood as much as I was myself.

"Hey, Dad! Woah!! That is way too big! Where'd you catch it? Jeez, you're covered in Blood!" Bode called from the other side of the kitchen.

"Yeah, it's a lifetime Victory! I caught it near the Savanna Hillshore. I wished to keep it alive for some time before actually slicing it but it was way too sturdy to be kept in the pool."

"No way! I've never seen you hunt down such a big fish! I wonder how would it taste. What species is it anyway?"

"It's a Redfish. It tastes as Delicious as any other fish. You'll see it for yourself. Will you help me clean this up?"

"Sure thing. I would love to have a go at it! Take me with you next time you go fishing. Okay, Dad?"

"Sure. I'll teach you some tricks to catch a fish too. Now let's get this cleaned up before your Mom freaks out at the sight of her kitchen getting bloody."

Bodie giggled and said, "Yeah let's make it quick! I wanna go for my Baseball practice with my Dad Coach!"

"Let's get going then!" I said, not quite matching Bodie's enthusiasm.

We got done with the cleaning in half an hour and I put away the magnificent catch in our deep freezer until we came back.

Bodie had been asking me to take him to baseball practice for some weeks now and I had been postponing it for reasons that weren't to be told to a kid.

The last couple of weeks have been rough and tough for my crew. You might be wondering who my crew was and what purpose we served.

It all started back in my School days when I was a high schooler. I lived in my Ancestral home back then which had been a part of history for centuries in ways no one could ever comprehend. It used to be a fortified war base back in the World War days, so you can imagine how enormous would it be. I had my sister and brother sharing the fortune of magic with me. It was running in our family for years but we were the ones to revive it back to life.

I was the middle kid, with an elder sister, Jamie and a younger brother, Harriss. We all have been so close since childhood till the time we aged.

-Era 2: A Trip to the Young Era-

"Jamie, I ought to use the pen today. I need to get some things ready for my sleepover tonight!" I yelled standing just outside Jamie's room.

Jamie was sitting at her desk sketching something with the pen. Turned out she was drawing some books to read for the weekend, just as they popped out of the page into life.

"Here, take it Iorek. Bring it back to me safely! I don't want it in the wrong hands." She handed it to me with precise control.

"Thanks, Jam!" I said and ran back to my room.

I took out my sketchbook and sat down on my bed, handling the enchanted, mystical, wondrous pen with utmost precision. I started drawing the outlines of a mini fluffy animal with beady eyes, and two sharp fangs coming out of its mouth and filled it with shades of sea green and purple. I made it a smiley face just in case it turned out to be evil.

As soon as I finished, I signed at the bottom of the page and with sparkling pixie dust arising from the page, it sprung to life. It was hardly the size of a hand. It had a glittery look in its eyes and it blinked at me. The sheer vivaciousness of its adorable charm left me awestruck. I tickled it with my index finger and it started laughing adorably.

"Let's name you Monsi!" I cooed at it.

It stared without blinking an eye and smiled a monster kinda smile, if that makes sense.

My friends had planned a sleepover tonight at my home just for the fact that I had told them I had a cute little Moshling as a pet. I didn't have it before but now I do. No one except my family knows about the mystical pen we found behind one of our Great Great Grandfather's frames on the wall of our Ancestral home. We were getting the house furnished and we came across it during that renovation.

We get turns on using it and being the middle kid as I was, I was the third one to use it because my elder sister had her own super sibling power to get hold of it and my little brother had his innocent mischievous grin to get it, so that left me in the middle somewhere, I mean the end.

Things seemed a lot of fun in the start but little did we know, with Magic comes Tragic!

After some years of finding the pen, every time we used it to draw something, a thing got lost from our home, like something important to our family, something our ancestors had left us in possession of.

It mostly mattered to our parents who would notice something going missing and all of a sudden we were alerted.

-5 Years Later in the Past-

Our Uncle Benjamin, my Dad's brother passed away in a terrible road traffic accident. He was our beloved and only uncle. He was hardly 5 years older than Jamie, my elder sister and we had a great bond with him. Losing him felt like the loss of a lifetime.

They were gloomy days. One Friday night, I suggested an idea to my siblings, which now I regret having even come across.

"I don't think this is such a good idea. We don't know about the consequences it could bring us." Jamie said worriedly.

"I'm telling you it'll work. If not for a lifetime, can't we at least meet him? Please!!!"

"Fine! I'll try. Bring me a photo of him!"

Jamie was an amateur artist and she drew the perfect sketch of our Uncle and as soon as she signed, she felt a powerful surge of a wave and with a flash of pixie dust, our uncle was sitting on the bed.

We were so shocked it actually worked. The magic worked and brought our uncle back to life. We siblings huddled around him.

"Who thought of this plan? I'm amazed to be here honestly! It feels so real. But I feel an emptiness, sort of vagueness in me."

"Are you with or without your soul? It might be that emptiness!" My sister asked with a confused look.

"I'm not sure! I guess it's just my body. Where's your Dad? He'll be amazed at what you've done!"

"He's probably in the study. I'll call him to our room. You should stay here. Mom shouldn't know or she'll freak out!" I said and went away to call Dad.

I knocked on the door to the study room and entered without waiting for an answer, rushing in to get Dad upstairs. The chair was pulled out and the papers and books were scattered over the table but Dad was not there. I was surprised to see this. I checked the bathroom but no one was there either. I rushed out to their bedroom to see Mom sleeping soundly in the bed. I tiptoed to check the bathroom but couldn't find Dad there either.

I ran back to Jamie's room and they all seemed too excited to notice me returning.

"Dad's not in the study nor even in his bedroom," I spoke out of breath.

"What do you mean? He can't be anywhere else at this time of the night. Plus the car is also parked outside." Jamie sat up from bed.

"Maybe he's in the basement to check in on his projects!" Hariss said.

"I'm afraid he might not be there!" Uncle Ben said and got up from the bed to close the door behind us.

"What do you mean? We ought to check every corner of the house. How can he go missing all of a sudden!" Jamie exclaimed.

"I guess Uncle's right. I'm afraid, what I'm thinking is true." I said with utter guilt.

Our uncle nodded.

"No Dad can't just go missing because we brought you to life from that Sketch!! What will we tell Mom? Oh no! What have we done? Oh God! Uncle Ben, you have to find a way out of this!" Jamie cried out with tears in her eyes.

"Relax Kids! There's a way out of this. You just have to erase me from your sketchbook and your dad will come back. This is the rule of Life. No living can roam in the territory of the Dead and no dead can roam in the territory of the living." Uncle Ben smiled and nodded towards us.

"But we don't wanna lose you either! Can't Dad and you both stay with us?" Hariss asked and hugged him.

We all huddled together and hugged our Uncle with tears welling up in our eyes.

"I'm sorry Hariss. I have to go. You need your Dad. Your mom needs him. I'll be happy up there. And I'm really glad you guys summoned me! Jam, go erase the sketch but use the eraser at the back of the Pen. There's a button for it." Uncle told Jamie.

"Can we spend some more time together? Please, Uncle Ben? Just some hours before sunrise?" I urged him.

He nodded in response. "Only two hours! Got it?"

We were all glad to have spent some time together. At least we got to say our Goodbyes. It was hard letting go of him. Uncle told his best secrets and we vowed not to break them, laughing our heads off at his mischiefs back in Childhood days. They were the loveliest of hours ever.

"It's time for me to leave now, buddies! Jam, do as I told you. Start erasing from below. I'll miss you guys! Tell your Dad I miss him too." Uncle sat near the sketchbook and kissed us all on our foreheads.

Hariss was holding Uncle's right hand and I held onto the left one. Jamie started erasing from below, finishing at the top. There was pixie dust all around Uncle Ben and he started disappearing into the thin air, waving his last goodbye.

We were all crying and smiling too.

"I'll go check on Dad! You guys get fresh." I said and went downstairs while wiping off my tears.

I opened the door and saw Dad with a confused look on his face sitting at his study table. He seemed to be in shock.

"Oh, Hi Dad! Still working on your Research Papers?" I asked, hiding my excitement and gladness to see his face again.

"I.. uh… yeah. I.. uh..feel… dizzy. It .. was like I.. had a dream. I must have gone to sleep while working. There was darkness all around me." Dad replied still in utter shock.

"You must have worked tirelessly. You better go to sleep. I'll make you some Coffee?" I asked smiling at him.

"No wait. I feel like someone summoned Ben and I went in place of him and he was there one minute and the other minute I was sitting in his place. I know it doesn't make sense. Wait wait wait. I get it now! Why are you not in bed Iorek?" He asked with a frown.

I felt like he got to know what we had done but I wished otherwise. "I.. uh.. was thirsty. So I just came to get water. I thought to check up on you!" I replied not being able to find the right words.

"I know where this is going Iorek. Did you guys use the pen to bring back Ben to life? Tell me the truth!" He asked with bewilderment and a hint of rage.

I felt like I had no words to reply to. I stayed quiet, realising just in time that Jamie and Hariss were right behind my back.

"Come in, all three of you, and close the door. This is highly wrong of you to use it for a purpose which is against Nature! That pen is something precious and for a bigger purpose.

You can't just bring back Dead to life. I know you all miss him. But that's destiny and you guys should accept that. Death is a Destiny we all have to endure at one point in our life. Thousands of people lose their loved ones but can they bring them back? No, they can't. So why do you want the privilege when no one else has it?" Our Dad adopted a tender tone.

We felt sad and kind of ashamed too. "We're sorry Dad!" We all replied and nodded in harmony.

"Good. And you wanted me out of sight. Eh? So you won't get caught up late in bed!" He laughed and we joined in on the laughter.

"Uncle told us he misses you! He asked us to give you the message." Hariss said while smiling.

"I miss him too!" He replied, returning the smile.

Later that day, Dad asked us a thing we couldn't believe he made us do. We went out fishing on the Lake of Bucharum near our home.

We caught some decent amounts of fish, mostly the Red type.

"Now I want you three, to hold onto this one enormous Redfish. Don't let it die."

He took out the pen from his back pocket and raised it to show us.

"No Dad, you can't do this. I know what you're thinking. Please don't!" Jamie urged.

I couldn't understand for a moment but it all flashed to me in some seconds.

"Dad, please! We're sorry. We won't do anything wrong again. Don't do this." I joined in on the pleading with Jamie.

Harriss looked confused but worried.

"Relax kids! I'm not punishing you. You didn't do anything wrong. The thing is, we don't want trouble. Magic is a vivid thing, trouble is destined with Magic. You are just kids who want to have fun with it. But you don't know the dangers it carries along with it."

We had stopped pleading but our faces were turned down. It was devastating, we could get anything we wanted by just a drawing and now we'll have to live without it.

"You guys are strong. Do you Love it enough to let it go? Now, come on, I want smiles on those solemn faces. Hurry up. Isn't it like an adventure? You guys should feel it like it happens in the stories. Are you all ready?"

We all nodded and smiled painfully. We still held onto the fish but Harriss had been popping splashes of water onto the fish, so it still wriggled under our small hands.

Dad stroked the fish's scales slightly and traced a line on its back. Suddenly, the gills opened up to a hollow and it looked like a tiny tunnel going through the gills. We all made eye contact with Dad and he asked for a signal. We nodded and sobbed.

He carefully put the pen inside the tiny tunnel and stroked the gills again and traced a line on its back. The tunnel got closed smoothly. The fish still wriggled under our grasp.

I did a thing in utter confusion which no one noticed except Jamie and she grinned. I took out a pebble from my pocket and stuck it in the tunnel on the other side of the fish while the gap was closing which stuck permanently onto its side. I ensured it wouldn't get unstuck and smiled.

"Let's get it back to swimming or it'll die out of thirst!" He laughed. We all smiled a heartfelt smile.

Dad put the fish back into the waters with swift hands. We saw it swim back and it jumped with excitement returning to its land of waters.

"Well that was a wholesome day. I know you guys must be sad. Let's go to the Arena today to make it up for you!" Dad smiled and we all hugged.

We spent the day at the Arena and felt better for the time being. Deep in my heart, I knew I had a mission to look forward to and grinned to myself.

Era 3: The Present Timeline Resumes

To this day today, my hunger for Magic is still lurking within me when I am married and have kids. Jamie and I share our little secret.

We didn't tell Harriss for he's far more vulnerable than me and he would've dug up every lake and seashore to find it.

But I guess the heritage of owning the Magic was limited to our generation of the family and it wasn't destined to pass on to our kids.