Source: worldanvil.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.

Gina Dore had set off to find her missing brother Zack. Meanwhile, Zack had slept on a carpenter’s shelf inside a rainbowwood tree, halfway between two naim (gnome) boroughs, in order to avoid favoring one over the other.

He spent the night in a dreamy haze. At first he clung to the edge of a cloud, with only Liulah’s kiss to keep him from falling. And then a Dark Tinkur in an insectoid amber-eyed mask pressed a burning object into his forehead. Instantly, Zack understood that the Dark Tinkurs had this same burning within them—they wanted to possess all things. The object turned him into a beast whose hunger could never be sated. He lurched forward, trying to rip the man apart, to consume him, but his leg was caught in…

Zack’s eyes snapped open. He was hanging over the edge of the carpenter’s shelf fifty stories above the ground, and the only reason he hadn’t plunged into the depths was that his right foot was lodged in a knothole! He slowly, carefully pulled himself back onto the ledge…then skittered as far away from it as he could, spluttering, “Uol’s beak!” Well, there’s a story to tell, he thought. How I Almost Fell From the— Tuber’s words suddenly flashed across his mind: “Everything begins with Story.” “That’s it!” he shouted so loudly that the sap-lamps flickered a hundred feet above and below. “The naims need someone to show them how to see the stories in the rainbowwood! And then I’ll be free to go!”

The Naim Games were slated for that afternoon. Once they got going, Zack had been told, no one ever wanted to stop. So Zack had to perfect his plan before they began.

The heartwood lift arrived with delegations led by Lyffwin and Bulgy. It’s just like Middleton Middle School, Zack realized. Bullies like Fierce Fischer take over unless someone stops them.

Bulgy and Lyffwin (who, despite her lyrical name, was every bit as bumptious as Bulgy) were still arguing about who was in charge, when Zack insisted on being taken to Root Naimian. Immediately. They stopped arguing and glared.

“OK. Whatever.” Zack turned and barked, “Surwood!” The lift began moving downward. Lyffwin’s and Bulgy’s eyes grew as big as shooter marbles.

When they reached Root Naimian, Bulgy stepped forward, saying, “I, as natural chief a’ the Root Naims, do hereby—”

“Take me to your best imagineers!” Zack interrupted. And Bulgy and Lyffwyn were left muttering to themselves as Zack and a dozen other naims marched away.

Zack insisted, like the prince with the glass slipper, on being taken to every humble abode. He was led on hands and knees through increasingly small dirt tunnels, and rudely probed by wandering roots, as he shouted:

“Send your greatest pretenders to the Mushroom Chamber!”

φ

Thoughts: Have you ever found yourself the reluctant mediator between two factions?

To read the next episode, click here.