Image by Frank Becker

The Wishing Map is a full-length fantasy that is being posted episodically at this site. To read the previous episode click here. To read the entire novel, begin here.

In an attempt to break free from the childlike naims (gnomes) who’d chosen him as their new Storysmith, Zack pushed them beyond what they could comprehend, and unintentionally sparked an armed conflict!

“Uncle Zaggy, it hurts!” The naim child Bud had been pierced by an arrow! Zack picked up the squirrel-sized boy and, in an attempt to shelter him with his body, shoved him under his layered shirts, hoping they might provide some sort of protection.

“Stop!” Zack roared over the din. But no one heeded. It wasn’t that they were unaware of him; to the contrary, two large factions were working their way toward him at this very moment. One was Bulgy’s gang, now swollen to nearly two hundred. The other was Lyffwin’s hoard, brandishing spears, bows, axes, and broadswords.

“Nay!” cried the wizened naim Tuber. “Yer don’t have ter choose this! Yer can change the way the story ends!”

“Listen to Tuber!” Zack ordered. He waddled about like a pregnant woman (with Bud under his shirt), kicking at the clumsy little warriors. They were running on pure rage, striking at everything in their path. He stopped some, but others stabbed at his legs with sharp sticks and bashed at his knees with rocks, and the pain from so many minor blows was building. Twenty thousand naims at war, and it’s my fault! Oh, God! Oh, Uol! “Please!” Zack prayed. “Please!”

The two formally armed factions finally arrived at Zack’s location. The fighting subsided—even in the midst of their rage, the naims wanted to see what would happen to the disgraced Master Zaggyzim.

“Kill him good!” Bulgy commanded.

“Pierce his lying heart!” Lyffwin screamed.

“Wait!” said Zack. “This is all just a misunder—”

He never finished the sentence, because at that moment the largest fellows from both the Leaf and Root Naim militias simultaneously thrust out their lances…

…and impaled him!

His first thought was, At least now they’ll stop fighting. And it almost made him smile. But his heart tore when he realized that little Bud must have been pierced by the lances as well. He looked down at the Root Naim lance plunged deep into his abdomen and the lethal end of the Leaf Naim lance sticking out from his chest. Why didn’t it hurt? Zack had heard of people with horrible injuries feeling no pain, but that didn’t explain why he was still standing.

The naims with the lances must have wondered too. They pulled them out, causing Zack to lurch forward and then backward (Bud’s muffled cry came from under his layered shirts). The deadly instruments were clean: no blood, no entrails.

“Stick him again!” Lyffwin ordered.

“Kill ‘im better this time!” hollered Bulgy.

Zack started to shout, “No!” hoping to free Bud before the skewering resumed, but then a female voice, commanding and powerful, shook the glen:

“Stop!”

φ

Thoughts: Have you ever thought you were about to die, and suddenly realized, everything that matters most in life is tied to death?

To read the next episode, click here.