Storytime: Summoning Spell

The Storytime Blog Hop is today! This means two things. One: I have another totally free flash fiction story for you today. And two: I have a list of a few other authors publishing their own free stories. So lots of goodies for you today!

Onward with my story.

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Summoning Spell

My wand shook in my hand as I tried to wave it in the complex looping pattern for the advanced spell. I got out the first word of the incantation, only for the long thin piece of wood to slip from my hand and clatter on the floor of my grandmother’s old greenhouse. 

Oh no…

I froze; sometimes partially casted spells did nothing. Sometimes.

Black clouds started to swirl up from the floor itself just in front of my feet.

…And other times, they went horribly, horribly wrong. 

My eyes when wide as I jumped back. But I was right in front of the ricketty table I had been preparing my potion on. I spun around. Multiple open glass jars of ingredients toppled over and the mug of unfinished potion spilled, mixing everything.

No no no no! 

I tried to stand up the various glass containers, but the potion hissed, flashed a blinding light, and burned a hole in the middle of my grandmother’s old table. My jaw dropped. I peeked under the table, to find the now green magical liquid drawn to the growing black clouds that had started to envelop my feet.

Move! Move! Move now! 

I dodged around the black cloud, grabbed my wand from the floor, and ran to the other side of the small greenhouse. I held out my wand and looked at it. But then realized I had no idea how to deal with… whatever those black clouds were. How was I going to fix this?

When I looked up from my wand, there was a huge green slimy creature in the (still growing) black cloud from the spell. I didn’t even know what the thing was called, let alone anything about how to deal with it either. As soon as it saw me, it lobbed a slime ball at me. I ducked. The window behind me shattered. I groaned; glass repair spells were a pain. So delicate and finicky. 

It started to make another slime ball. So I hide behind a set of drawers.

As I crouched there, I grabbed the edges of the sides of my witch’s hat and pulled them down. This was so beyond bad. I wasn’t supposed to be out here in grandma’s greenhouse, or practicing magic by myself. If my mom found out, I was going to be in so much trouble. 

I took a deep breath, waited for the creature to fling the slime ball, and then I popped up to try a simple banishing spell. But the spell went right through the creature, like a fist through self-healing jello, and banished one of the little bitty flower pots under the old table. I smacked my free hand to my forehead. At least we had so many of those that no one would miss only one. 

Meanwhile, the creature just kept working on making another slime ball, totally unphased. So I ducked down again. 

Was this… thing immune to magic??

I wasn’t even sure this thing was a creature, let alone what it was called. And it wasn’t like I had time to go searching through my family’s entire library of magic books for ‘slimy thingy.’ How did I think I could ever do magic? “I didn’t even know unfinished spells could make creature things!” I yelled to no one.

Unfinished

The word echoed in my mind as I stared at the black clouds that were soon going to fill the entire greenhouse, and it hit me like a bolt of lightning: The spell was going wrong because it wasn’t finished. But… what would happen if I finished it? I squeezed my wand. The over-the-top spell my mom had told me not to try because it was too complex for me. The spell that I messed up before there was a slimeball-launching pile of ooze in the greenhouse to contend with.

No pressure, right? 

I didn’t know if the botched potion that had joined the unfinished spell would cause problems. But finishing the spell was the only idea I had. 

So I scoped out the furniture, and decided the small cabinet I was already behind was my best bet. I guess my snap decision in a moment of panic had been a pretty good one. I moved from squatting to standing on my knees. At least Mr. Oozy hadn’t figured out that whole moving thing yet and was still content to try flinging balls from his original position surrounded by black clouds. At that point, I could barely even see him in there. 

I took a deep breath to steady myself. Then without giving myself more time to worry about messing it up, I started the complex pattern again with my wand and focused on keeping hold of the darn thing while I made it through the rest of the incantation. 

When I finished it, all the black smoke pulled itself in, as though it was all being sucked back into where it came from. I got out from behind the cabinet to find a small black cat staring up at me with green eyes. The tips of his paws were green, and so was the end of his tail… from which hung a small slime ball. 

My new familiar started to walk toward me, but then stopped “What’s on my…” He looked back at his own tail, wiggled it, and flung the slime ball down to the ground. “Oh, now that’s cool!” He smiled, then squinted at his tail, focusing to form another one. He launch it at the floor as well, and giggled to himself. “Nice!” 

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Stories by other Storytime Authors

• Midnight At Christmas by Juneta Key
• I Do Believe In Faeries by Vanessa Wells
• Summoning Spell by Jacquilyn Walker (you’re here now!)
• Passing The Buck by Bill Bush
• Ark-Ship One by Katharina Gerlach
• A Halloween Costume by Jodie Nahornoff

Next Week

Next week I’ll be back to the normal posting schedule: Thursday at 6pm EST/EDT.

I’m so excited because my flash fiction anthology is almost ready. It’s going to be released here soon in December. I’ll have more info about it for you next week. Join the List to make sure you don’t miss out!