Source: Image Abyss

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 Master Storysmith, Zack had picked twenty semi-finalists, from whom he (secretly) planned to announce his replacement.

“Who thinks Tuber won?” Zack asked the crowd. The Root Naims began to butt their heads and fluff each others’ hair, shouting, “Fee-hey!”

A few Leaf Naims started to “fee-hey” as well, but were immediately silenced by their comrades. “Poop (eliminate) Tuber!” one fellow shouted, and other Leaf Naims quickly took up the chant. Several dozen of Lyffwin’s leaf-squad rushed onto the field, ready to literally eliminate Tuber, but Zack stepped out in front of them.

“Wait, wait, wait!” he shouted. “We’re not done yet! Who thinks Slipstreak won?” The Leaf Naims stomped, butted, fluffed, and fee-hey’d, while the Root Naims took up the chant, “Poop Slipstreak!” Once again, Zack stopped a gang of on-rushing ill-wishers—this time from Bulgy’s side.

And so it went. Each of the Semi-Finalists received 100% approval from their side and 100% disapproval from the other. This was not going the way Zack had expected. “OK, you guys, I gotta break the tie, so here’s the Final Four: Tuber…Thistlecress…Reetie…and Slipstreak!” Partisan cheers filled the glen. The naims had embraced the idea of more than one storysmith just as Zack had hoped, and if he’d stopped there, all would have been well.

But he didn’t.

He had the four Finalist’s mouselike ears covered, and then announced, “Now we’re gonna use the same piece of wood all four times!” To naims, this was like saying, “We’re going to eat the same meal four times.” It was impossible.

Zack signaled the volunteers to bring in a new rainbowwood plank. It had swirls of green and gray rolling out from a cross-cut streak of rose-pink near its center, and scattered throughout were clusters of red, white, and gold–images that could have been anything. Which was Zack’s whole point.

“OK,” he ordered, “bring out Thistlecress!”

Thistlecress Twig-Bender grinned cockily as her friends and family stomped and fee-hey’d. This was the greatest moment of her life, and theirs as well.

“OK, Thistlecress, for the title of Naimian’s Greaty-est Storysmith…what do you see?”

She stared deep into the virgin rainbowwood. “I sees that time long past when Rhema, Queen a’ the Fae, stretched out her hand an’ made the grass green…” (It was said that in ancient times Rhema had created color, making the world more beautiful–and practical.)

Leaf Naims began acting out the story, experiencing the exquisiteness of color in the world. Several Root Naims ran onto the field as well, but others called to them to return to their “own side.”

Then Bulgy’s bullies started tossing obscenities…

And rocks.

φ

Thoughts: We rarely recognize the seeds of conflict while we’re sowing them.

To read the next episode, click here.