the mulinians

The boat swayed back and forth across the murky river. It had been days without food and I was beginning to lose all hope. The thick trees appeared to sway, almost as if I was high on some sort of hallucinogenic drug. I wished it were so, because then my life wouldn’t have taken such a turn for the worst. The trees disappeared in an instance; there was no trace that they were ever there. It was a Phantom Illusion, the signature trick of the Mulinian folk, and this one illusion was clearly placed with malicious intent. Alas, I dropped the anchor and stumbled out of my raft to investigate. And behind that illusion was a gorgeous square, wrapped in banners and flowers and the liveliest groups of people I’d ever seen. There were stalls branded with vibrant colours and full with various items. I skipped past, there were apples, pears, bananas, honeydew, mangos and so much more exotic fruits. I dashed over to the mangos and stuffed my face. The juice dripped down my chin and onto my ragged clothes, but I soon found myself holding nothing but air and kneeling on nothing but grass. I looked around to see that there were no longer any banners, and no longer any stalls. The only thing there was a single Mulinian giggling himself silly at the desperate attempt to settle my hunger. I took a long stare at him. I’d never seen a Mulinian before and always assumed they looked just like humans, but my assumption was wrong. The thing was short, like an elf, but lacked the stand-out ears, and instead had a long grin that wrapped around, almost to the back of its head. Its eyes were black and soulless and its body was a strange, faint hue of crimson. It wore a wrap-around toga, made from a single palm leaf which covered all it needed to.

I was enraged by this vermin’s mischief and, in my anger, set it ablaze with the flick of my hand. It melted to a pile of ash on the ground. The screams were music to my ears, but the overexertion of my powers caused me to fall flat on the ground.