Joolira's Escape
A water imp finds a way of taking revenge on a bunch of pirates. Obligatory pun: This story is rated ARRR.
Credits:
Story commissioned by and Joolira created by Meister_Li.Cover image by FA: T-Bone
At scarcely four feet in height, Joolira would be politely described as unimposing. This is not to say that her fiery red hair and ample chest were incapable of garnering attention, but the imp barely came up to the chest of most of the humans wandering around the port. The Sad Seagull's Tavern was full of jovial laughter and potent ales, but Joolira was interested in neither of those. Instead, she wanted to get out of this village and sail the high seas for herself. It was little secret that most of those here were pirates, spending their plunder as if it were going out of style, but those pirates seemed far less than interested in having an imp on board.
"You? A pirate?" One wiry old man asked, unable to believe Joolira's story about wanting to sail the seven seas, of her imagined adventures, and the trove of treasures she wanted to bring home. When she nodded, he just leaned down and laughed in her face, leaving her cringing from the stench of overpriced booze. "You'd have better luck convincing the sirens not to drown you, little girl! Hey guys!" the man shouted, drawing the attention of the entire pub. "This little... thing thinks she could be a pirate!" The laughter reverberated throughout the room, causing Joolira's ears to droop. Before anyone could say anything else to her, she turned and ran out to the cold, dark, quiet streets.
Joolira's running took her out to the docks, and the dozens of boats moored along its length. The few people that were out at this hour simply stayed out of her way, allowing her to flee until she simply ran out of room to run. At the pier's end, the imp finally caught her breath and sighed. Those pirates treated their own kind terribly. Why had she thought they'd treat her any better than that? Why did she get stuck in this crappy little port town anyway? As she silently cursed everything she could think of, a quiet song filled the air. A single female voice, soothing as can be, seemed to dance along with the waves. It was only after the mer-lady leapt from the water and splashed Joolira did the imp notice she was no longer alone.
Startled, Joolira got to her feet and took a couple of steps backward. "Calm down. I don't mean you any harm," the lady said as she raised her entire human half out of the water. "I'd never dream of hurting another lady. But what are you doing out here at this hour? And... what are you, for that matter?" Though the imp had her suspicions, there was something compelling about the mer-lady's voice. She began to talk, to explain how much she longed to be anywhere from here, her wish to take to the seas, and her unpleasant encounter with the pirates from a short time ago.
"How sad!" the lady said, sighing right along with Joolira by the end of her story. "You certainly don't deserve to get laughed out of town like that. I'm sure you could take over any ship you wanted out here!" The lady's expression turned devious as she looked Joolira right in the eyes. "Humans always seem to fear things they don't understand, though. Surely they're just afraid of you," The lady emphasized her words carefully and her grin broadened with each sentence. "You could probably scare them into letting you join them. Can you just imagine how terrified they'd be of an imp as a Captain?"
As the lady spoke, the imp's mind began to run with the possibilities. She could certainly spook the pirates with a little creativity. She'd just have to make up for her size with her wits. She even knew who she wanted to give the scare of his life. "Thank you!" Joolira said, as she started the trek back to the village, and to put that little plan of trickery into action.
By the time Joolira was back at the tavern, about an hour had passed. The moon was at its zenith in the clear night sky and the pub's patrons were all thoroughly drunk. As the imp reached for the door, one of the pirates stumbled out. He was busy trying to sing some old folk tune he'd forgotten the lyrics to three drinks ago and didn't notice the grinning imp at the entryway. Joolira pushed the door shut behind him, causing the man to shout and look back. With a bit of impish magic, she made her hair look as though it were burning, with flames dancing in a light gust of wind. She smiled even wider as she walked toward the drunkard, who shouted incoherently and turned to run.
While the pirate ran away, now it was her turn to laugh. Those humans... so self-assured until even the slightest surprise caught them off guard. Joolira felt empowered and knew that, if she could get one guy to run away screaming with such a simple trick, surely she could have even more fun with the rest of the group. She moved toward a window, rather than running into the building again, and looked around for the old man from earlier. He had moved to a larger table in the center of the pub and appeared to be busy in a drinking contest, chugging one pint after another while onlookers cheered him along.
Joolira waited until the man slammed down one glass and reached for another before setting her plan into action. As the pirate lifted the alcohol toward his mouth, Joolira created another illusion in the liquor. The liquid coalesced into the form of a kraken, rising from the mug to roar at the crowd. Immediately, the man shrieked and threw the glass across the room, shattering it upon the wall. The room fell silent, as everyone tried to figure out what they'd just seen. Joolira, once again, felt a sense of glee seeping through her body. She wanted more, and created similar illusions with another couple of mugs on a table nearer the window. The men looked down at the mugs, then up at each other, then down again just in time for the beer to jump and hit them in the face.
With each passing moment, the imp felt ever more excited by her tricks. She also noticed that she was looking down toward the tables that were nearly at her eye level earlier. Curious, Joolira decided to push her efforts a bit further. She saw the freshly-tapped wooden kegs of beer behind the bar and focused on the liquid inside, slowly forcing it back and forth. At first, little happened, but after a few seconds the force rose and the front of those barrels exploded, sending a shower of splinters and alcohol across the room. That felt really good to the imp, as she felt herself rising even higher into the night sky. She now had to crouch down just to continue watching the mayhem through the window. She figured that mer-lady had something to do with it, but she didn't care how it was happening. She only wanted it to keep happening.
By now, several of the patrons of the tavern were hysterical. One had fainted from shock. The others were all uneasy, until one particularly well-dressed pirate shot his pistol in the air and shouted for silence. That calmed the group down, much to Joolira's displeasure. No, she didn't want them calmed down. She wanted them scared to death and back again. As Joolira knelt down in front of the window, she heard something from behind her. A policeman had been on patrol and heard something was going on, though he never would have imagined this was going on. The imp simply raised one finger to her lips, instructing him to be quiet, and getting only a nervous nod from the human. She then reached that same hand down and punched the window in front of her, which shattered it and frightened the patrons into a frenzy.
The scream of the pirates was met with a moan of lust from the imp, who now was on all fours and looking directly into the new hole she'd ripped in the building. "Hello boys. Remember me?" she taunted, shooting a broad grin to the crowd. "So, you still don't want me? Because I definitely want you." She licked her lips as she spoke, all while leaning even closer to a few men who suddenly realized that they wanted to be anywhere other than here. When they turned to run, the others quickly came to the same conclusion and began to flee, causing chaos near the door as fifty people all tried to squeeze through it at once. "Awww. You men don't know how to treat a lady? Am I just too much for you to handle?"
While the men tried to escape, Jtried to crawl through the broken window, but her growth was accelerating. Her head alone was nearly the size of that broken window, while her body approached the size of a small house. Grunting, she moved forward anyway, causing her shoulders to destroy another chunk of the wall, while her hands and breasts swatted away tables, chairs, and people alike. One particularly drunk man was just waking up as Joolira moved over him, and the only thing he saw were the cream-colored breasts of the imp, each larger than his body, swaying heavily with every move the female made. He was about to hug one of them in what he assumed was a booze-fueled dream, but at that same moment the imp moved forward again. The breast crashed into him with the strength of a stampeding horse, knocking him off his chair and back into a daze.
Joolira reached out for the crowd in front of her with hands that were larger than the men fleeing from them. She poked and prodded at the pirates, pressing them against the walls or forcing them to the floor with little effort at all. "Goodness, you'd think big, strong men like you could at least win an arm wrestling contest against some little lady like me, hmm?" She laughed again, accompanied by another surge of growth that left her back pressed against the vaulted ceiling. As she swayed toward the doorway, her hips finally reached the building, slamming against it and knocking over the entire wall at once. The debris carried through the crowd, covering everything in a haze, including the imps hands. She slammed them down forcefully, deliberately and narrowly missing men who were slow getting outside, until the last of them had finally forced their way through the door.
With everyone more-or-less out of reach, the imp decided to show off. She knew she could probably just crawl backward through the hole she made, but where would the fun be in that? No, instead she pushed against the floor with both hands and started to rise up to her full height. The ceiling strained and buckled, support beams snapping one after another, before the entire roof finally caved in around the imp. The remaining walls didn't even reach her knees, as she stood several times taller than the two-story tavern that now lay in ruins at her feet. Thanks to both the moonlight and her elevated perspective, she had a clear view of the men running for the docks and the perceived safety of their ships. If they could just get the hell out of here, they reasoned, they might have a chance to do so with their lives. Joolira chuckled, amused by their desperation.
Though Joolira could have easily overtaken half the group, she decided to make a game out of it. She took slow, deliberate steps, very nearly stomping on the men from time to time. Her feet barely fit in the street, and occasionally she would crush an unattended cart or other object that had been left too close to her path. With each step she gained just a little more height, as each stomp reminded the pirates that the imp could crush any of them like bugs if she felt like it. It was simply more amusing to her to let them run for their lives, as she laughed at them.
"C'mon, faster. Faster! You don't want me to catch you, right?" She reached down and grabbed two of the slower pirates on one hand, then lifted them slowly to her face and presented them with that devious grin. "If you were any slower I could catch you just by standing still! But here, let me help." She placed the two terrified men in a wagon, one that had been tied up to a building. With one finger, she pushed them down the slope toward the sea, sending them on a wild, out of control ride to the docks.
With only another couple moments of walking, Joolira reached the docks and saw the men trying to undo their boats. A few had already set sail and were making their way for open waters as fast as the wind would fill their sails. "Oh, you silly pirates," Joolira mused. "I'm a water imp." She waded into the shallows, walking right for a group of boats that hadn't gotten free just yet. The giantess didn't even break stride as she walked into the first group of them, smashing them into bits. One's hull completely collapsed as her shin made contact with its side. Another capsized as her foot caught its deck, pushing it decisively beneath the surface and crushing it into the ocean floor. The pirates barely had time to get out of the way, and most were left paddling on the surface of the chilly water or clung to the floating remnants of their once-proud ships.
Still, the pirates knew how to make a quick getaway, and six of the ships had left the harbor and were making their way for open waters. Without even hesitating, Joolira kept moving for them, gliding through the water as if it weren't there at all. She caught the first ship in just half a minute and leaned in closer to its decks. "Hi boys. Did you miss me?" A few shouted curses at her. "I'll take that as a no." She puckered her lips and blew on the sail, a single gust of breath that knocked the ship onto its side.
The next ship was the smallest of the six escapees, and Joolira was barely interested in it. The deepening waters rose up the imp's body, past her thighs, as her midsection sank toward the surface. The wind came out of the boat's sails as Joolira's body blocked the breeze, while waves started to rock the vessel thanks to the giant being moving ever closer toward them. With a smirk, the imp hip-checked the ship, allowing her rear to smash into its side. That single impact was enough to shatter the hull, leaving the boat slowly sinking in the rising tide.
By now, the remaining four ships had started to scatter. They hoped, desperately, that the imp couldn't catch them all. Joolira, on the other hand, was convinced that she could. "I'm gonna get you," she mused, sing-songing toward the remaining boats. She ducked her head under the surface to vanish from the pirates' sight. In her natural element, Joolira could swim easily in the relatively shallow water, until she was directly beneath one of the boats. She quickly rose to the surface; her body erupted from the sea with the ship held precariously atop her breasts. The men grabbed for the nearest surface they could, though a few fell atop the giantess' chest, while others tumbled to the water far below.
"It looks like you've beached your boat! That's not very good sailing, is it?" As she spoke, the imp's hands moved to her breasts, taking one of those heavy mounds in each hand. she began to move them about, slowly guiding the ship into the valley between them. The ship's mast broke off first as it hit the female's chest, while the rest of the ship was fed bow-first between the breasts, which worked with terrifying efficiency. They molded to the ship's curvature before smashing right through it, breaking one beam after another as she ground it slowly, steadily, into nothing more than a collection of toothpicks. The ship's crew was largely safe atop her breasts, though they could only watch in shock as the boat they'd sailed around the world and through the most violent of storms was crushed by a horny, several-hundred-foot-tall imp. When there was nothing left of the ship to speak of, she sank slowly into the water again, leaving the crew floating in the tides until their eventual rescue.
The lookouts on the other ships saw what was happening, but said as little as possible to the crew. They were panicked enough without knowing that the breasts of this imp could, unto themselves, be weapons of destruction. The nearest ship was too busy thinking about that to notice the shimmering glint of orange beneath the surface in the moments before Joolira's head rose from the water, with her chin just above the surface. "You know, I'm getting kinda hungry. How does pirate taste?" She laughed and opened wide, revealing her glistening teeth and slimy tongue to the men before her. They tried to turn the ship around, but she simply took a deep breath, guiding it inescapably toward that gaping maw.
On the ship's surface, the captain could only think of one thing. "Abandon ship! Abandon ship!" he shouted, not that his crew needed a reminder. Even before the order was given, some had thrown themselves into the lifeboats, while others simply dove off the ship's stern and took their chances in the water. All the while, the imp's mouth came ever closer to the bow; after half a minute, the ship was slowly riding into her mouth,. Once the sails tickled her nose, the giant imp bit down with full force and tore the ship in two. The crack carried like a roar of thunder, echoing across the water's surface as Joolira once again sunk beneath the waves.
Two left. Just two ships. But if she smashed them all, that would be the end of her fun, and Joolira wasn't about to just let this go. Not when it felt so good to toy with pirates. She swam to the nearest ship and rose to just beneath the surface, creating a tremendous wake that pushed the vessel along with her. They very nearly rolled over, but the giantess watched carefully. To her it was a game to see how fast she could push them along without tipping them over. To the pirates it was a sea-sickness inducing ordeal that caused the entire ship to creak and groan with the forces carried through its straining hull.
Shortly before the ship she was carrying would collide with the other remaining vessel in the pirate's fleet, she came to a halt. The wave subsided, leaving the two boats just a few dozen feet from each other, before Joolira's head rose from the surface once again. "So, I've had fun tonight, haven't you?" Nobody on the ship agreed. "Good. Because that's about how I felt when you told me off in the tavern earlier tonight. And now who's scared? Now who's wondering if they're ever going to get out of here?" Her grin was purely malevolent as she leaned in closer to those ships.
"But no, I'm going to let you go. For now. You don't know when I'll find you again, but know that one day you will see me again. It might be tomorrow, or it might be a year from now, but this will not be the last time we meet. You'll tell every other pirate you meet to fear the name Joolira, and that if they do anything other than kiss the ass of every imp they ever meet, they'll barely live to regret it. Got it?" She paused for only a moment. "Good. Goodbye. Good riddance."
With those final words, she dove beneath the surface, allowing the pirates to go about their business. For now. But it had been a long night and even a giant, devious imp needed to get her rest. As she drifted off to sleep beneath the water's surface, her mind swirled with dreams of new places to go and people to play with. She didn't need a crew, or a boat, or anything fancy like that. She just needed to have a whole lot of fun.