Image source: moddb.com 

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.

For the second time, Zack and his sister Gina had fallen into the world of Ismara. And now Zack had encountered a party of childlike naims who were enchanted with his ability to reveal the “story” in a plank of rainbowwood.

“Go on,” said Tuber, “finish it!”

“Well,” Zack continued, stealing from his own comic book character, “the only person brave enough to take the piece of the sun out of the pond was Zachary Zinn.”

“And who’s this here Zaggyzim?” blasted their self-proclaimed leader Bulgy.

“Aye! Who?” the naims begged, their mouse-like ears and button eyes intent on everything Zack said.

“Well, he’s…kinda me, actually,” Zack admitted.

“Aye! Look!” Noddie pointed at Zack’s Green Lantern hoodie. “It’s Zaggyzim holding up the sun piece he took from the Pond a’ Steam!”

Zack looked down at his hoodie, chuckled, and said, “Oh, right. That’s the lantern I carried it in. Its yellow-power made me afraid at first, but then I used green Starheart-power, the power of imagination, because imagination can overcome anything — kushong!”

“Traith!” cried the naims.

A tiny naim boy, Bud, wriggled and giggled in the middle of the table, squealing, “Kushong!” Grown-up naims tittered and poked at him, exclaiming, “Ooooo, this little piece a’ the sun is soooo hot!”

“Quick, Zaggyzim,” said Sniggle, the boy’s father, “take away this blazing piece a’ the sun!” He tossed him into Zack’s arms.

The boy was as small and excitable a squirrel. Zack carried him to the meeth bowl, complaining, “Woah! You’re piping hot!” The boy giggled riotously as Zack pretended to pull him out of the bowl. And then, putting him up on one shoulder, Zack said, “ZZ called for his faithful steed El Furioso!”

“Look!” Noddie pointed at a horsey shape on the plank, “There he is!”

“And they rode up into the sky,” Zack continued, “past the moon…”

“I see it!” said Tuber, pointing at a whitish circle on the plank. It was a profound moment for the old naim. Bulgy scowled, annoyed at the loss of fealty.

“Then ZZ threw the flaming piece back into the sun where it came from!” Zack tossed the giggling child into the waiting arms of half-a-dozen miniature adults.

The naims pounded the table, cheering, “Hey-fah for Master Zaggyzim!”

Zack sat down and looked around at their upturned ears and shining eyes. “So, you guys like to make up stories, huh?”

Bulgy stepped forward. “On’y more ‘n we likes ter eat or sleep!”

A round of guffaws followed. Several naims reached up and tugged on Zack’s earlobes in teasing affection.

“Everything begins with Story!” Tuber explained.

“Traith!” others responded.

The naim-boy Bud climbed up onto Zack’s lap. “Nuther story, Uncle Zaggyzim! Nuther story!”

“Hey-fah for Master Zaggyzim, the greaty-est storysmith as ever was!” heralded Tuber. And every naim in the room echoed “Hey-fah for Master Zaggyzim!”

It seemed Zack had finally found his tribe.

φ

Thoughts: Have you ever discovered some skill or calling, and thought, “This is what I was made for”?

To read the next episode, click here.