After Vespera showed us around the strange little floating island that was right next to End Forest, I decided to take a dip in the water to see what exactly was keeping the island floating, since it looked like a rock basin filled with vegetation that absolutely should not be able to float around.
I took most of my clothes off, except for my pants, and jumped in.
I dived down and noticed that the island had nothing under it, at least not what I was expecting. I thought I would find some sort of magic propeller or arcane circle with an enchantment that made the island float. But it was just simply rocks, floating rocks, to be more precise.
I went back to the surface and climbed back onto the island, where the rest of the group was waiting for me.
"It really is just floating around. I don't see any spells or enchantments…" I said as I shook my head.
"Miss Vespera said she was going to look around again, just in case. Although, I don't feel any monsters or people near us." said the maid Carli.
"So, all we know about this island is that it floats, and the crops grow extremely fast…"
"It seems that way. Should we gather some of these fruits again?"
"I don't see why not… There is one thing bothering me though."
"What is it?" asked the princess.
"You said that your father used to get chocolate from another kingdom that suddenly stopped producing it, right? I mean, there is a small chance that they were getting their ingredients from this island, don't you think?"
"That's exactly my theory, yes."
"Well… What if I anchored the island here so that it can't move?"
"That would certainly be ideal…" said Carli.
"Alright then, let me try!" I exclaimed as I stood back up and walked to the edge of the rocky island shore before diving back into the water.
The island was floating on a somewhat shallow area. I could see the ground a few meters below, which meant my job would be easier.
I focused magic on my hands, then slowly began raising a pillar from the ground towards the rocky bottom of the island.
Just as the pillar began to combine with the floating land, it suddenly exploded, creating a shock wave that pushed me from my stomach, making me lose my breath.
The debris and dust that was raised from the explosion didn't let me see what was happening, and although I could've stayed underwater for another minute, having half of my air knocked out was a problem.
I focused magic on my hands again and imagined an unbreakable bubble. One that could cover my face and allow me to breathe underwater. I thought it would be harder to imagine, but I supposed the heat of the moment had my mind sharp, since the spell worked perfectly and the bubble that was created out of my right hand, slowly placed itself around my face, allowing me to breathe.
As the dust and rocks settled and sunk back down, I spotted the silhouette of an animal that was getting bigger by the second, until I was able to see it clearly.
A giant, glittering shark was swimming straight at me with its mouth fully open, so my only reflex was to raise my hand and expel a powerful force that could get him away from me.
However, as the wave made contact with the shark, it dematerialized and disappeared, leaving only a trail of glittering dust behind. At that moment, I pointed both my arms down, and used water magic to propel myself upward out of the water and a few meters into the air, making me land on the island, right next to the princess and the maids who were waiting on high alert after hearing the rock pillar exploding.
"What happened!?" asked the princess as they all approached me.
"A monster attacked me after I started building the anchor… It looked like a shark, but my magic didn't touch it…"
"Is that what made that loud noise?" asked Gina.
"Yeah, it destroyed the pillar like it was nothing, but then it disappeared when my spell hit it… Should I try again?"
"Hmm, I wouldn't recommend it. This doesn't sound like a normal type of monster," interjected Carli.
Although she was right, I still wanted to try one more time. Not because I had some sort of obsession with the island, but because I was incredibly curious about what that shark was.
It seemed to react when the pillar made contact with the island, but one attack from me was enough to send it away, which just didn't feel right.
("Is the shark protecting the island? How did it disappear?") These were the main questions that clouded my head.
"I'll try again… I just need to check something." I said as I stood up once more, and dived back in the water.
I took a look around and there was no sign of the shark. I used my "Search" spell, which I mostly used when hunting, and noticed that there was nothing around me in a 100-meter radius, only the normal fishes and seaweed that I expected.
("Let's see…") I thought as I focused again on raising a pillar from the ground upwards. However, the pillar didn't even manage to reach the rocky bottom of the island before it was blown up again.
I readied myself by casting another bubble around my head, gathered water in a vortex around my hand, and shot it straight at the cloud of debris underwater, dissipating it away and giving me a good look at the glittering shark who had just slammed down the rock pillar with its body.
The shark moved towards me for a second, and once again, it disappeared leaving only trails of sparkles.
("It's not coming for me?") I thought as I made my way back to the surface, and climbed back on the island.
"Ahhh, will you stop that already!?" said a girl's high-pitched voice that made me and the rest of the group frantically look around.
"Who said that?" I asked loud and clear, and just a few seconds later, the same type of glittering dust that emanated from the shark began to appear in front of me, although in much smaller amounts.
From the dust, a small girl with wings appeared with a pouting face. Her hair was light green and her wings glowed with a turquoise hue of light. She was about the size of my hand, but the energy she radiated felt like I had a fully grown adult woman in front of me.
"A fairy?" asked Gina as the rest of the group stayed in silence, staring at the hovering girl.
"That's right! I didn't think anyone would annoy me to this point! Ohhh, but you guys did." said the fairy with an irritated tone of voice.
"Umm, sorry. We weren't trying to be annoying or anything, I was kinda curious about the shark, so I did that thing with the pillar again to see if it would come out…"
"That shark is just a spirit I summon to protect my island, it's not a real monster!"
"I see… So this is your island… I'm truly sorry for barging in like this!" I said while slightly bowing to the fairy.
The way I saw it, we had walked right into someone else's territory, taken their crops, and tried to anchor them next to us. I could see why the fairy was annoyed with us, to be honest.
"First that scary spider lady took all my fruit, and now you guys are trying to steal my whole island!"
"Uhhh, again… I'm sorry, but that spider lady is my familiar…"
The fairy's eyes widened in surprise. "What!? A legendary beast with a human boy!?" she asked frantically, then after a moment of staring at me, she settled down with a much more relaxed expression. "Oh, I see…" she said while switching her view from me to the princess. "You are both quite special, huh?"
Now that the fairy had calmed down, we had an easier time talking. Her name was Ivy, and she was the owner of the floating island we were standing on. She told us that fairy islands were constantly traveling around the ocean, sometimes stopping near towns or cities and sharing their crops with the residents.
Apparently, a few years ago she was stationed close to a city in a country called Tonaro Kingdom, who used the choco beans from the island to make their own chocolate, which was in fact the same chocolate that the father of the princess had as a gift a few times. Fairies like to trade their crops and plants for gems, or any shiny rock, so in return for her choco beans, the king would give her any shiny stone that he could find.
The king only had to give Ivy one crystal any time they wanted to harvest the island, which would grow back up again in one day. Even with a deal that favored him greatly like this, the Tonaro Kingdom tried to forcefully take the crops and anchor the island next to them without giving Ivy her respective shiny stone, so she left.
("Oof, that sounds kinda like what we were doing here…")