Many thanks to Jenne Gray and C.E. Ayr for their photo prompt, The Unicorn Challenge (05/24/2024). No more than 250 words in length.

I can’t say I hadn’t been warned. Miranda had told me time and again that when dealing with this particular type of book at my stage of apprenticeship, it was critical that I read carefully, and be sure to look neither backward nor forward. It would be seen as an impertinence…as if I hadn’t cared enough to pay attention the first time.            

Grimoires can be quite particular on that point. After so many millennia of existence, they didn’t have time for little snot-nosed lazy boys. And moving one’s lips while one read? That was just plain dangerous. Very little volume is needed for such powerful spells. An extra breath of air through the lips, and who knew what would be awakened!

So I made stupid assumptions, and I didn’t go to the hedge witch by the troll’s gate for a simple syrup to quiet my cough. Damned COVID fogged my brain, I guess.

I’d gotten up before sunrise to study for mid-quarter exams, sat outside with a candle, and hoped for quiet, since my brain wasn’t tracking at its best. I’d gotten to the bit on transformation when I coughed. I could feel the stiffening in my feet and calves, the creep up my thighs as I wracked my soon-to-be-wooden brain for the location of the section on the Green Man and transformation. I should know this!

So here I sit, a wooden boy, hoping Miranda can appease the book and conjure a cure. Otherwise, I’m next Winter’s kindling!

© Liz Husebye Hartmann (2024)