© J.B. Norman — Published by Emona Literary Services™
“This is vexing,” Tenebella mutters. “I am quite vexed.”
“But you’re so cute!” Kat says.
An unfortunate magical mishap has left Tenebella trapped in a small, child-like form with much-reduced magical powers. As the five members of the Four Horsemen of Castle Ansangaar — including the female Gwaedbran, who objects to being counted as a Horseman — feverishly pore over an entire library’s worth of magical tomes for a potential solution, Kat works to keep up Tenebella’s spirits.
And resist an overwhelming urge to pinch her cute little face…
Tenebella glowers up at her. “Stop patronising me. It is especially vexing. Particularly because I’m four months older than you!”
“Ahem,” Kat stammers. “Why don’t we get some lunch?”
She glances over her shoulder to the Horsemen — and Gwaedbran.
“I think it’s still going to be a while.”
“Take heart, my lady,” Captain Ratsumies says. “We’ve found a promising lead.”
She points down to the dusty old book on the table.
“Although it’s written in ancient Tanithite, we’ve found something that’s either a spell to reverse the effects of other spells, or a bawdy limerick,” he says.
He flips over to the next page. A deep blush creeps into his face.
“Apologies my lady. It is most certainly a bawdy limerick. And quite the bawdy limmerick, at that.”
He hastily slams the book shut.
“Rest assured, my lady, we shall do our utmost from allowing this material from scandalising any innocent sensibilities.”
“I would like steak,” Tenebella informs Kat.
She glowers up at Kat again.
“I will not suffer any smart comments about serving size,” she says.
“I didn’t say anything!” Kat protests.
“I may not have access to my magic, but I am the perfect size to kick you in the shins,” Tenebella notes.
“I didn’t say anything!”
“Very well,” Tenebella declares with a nod. “Let us be off.”
“Where is it going?” Kat cries, watching the tiny Tenebella eat a steak that’s nearly as big as she is.
“Yes, well,” Tenebella says, dabbing her mouth with her napkin. “Now you know how the rest of us feel watching you eat an entire cow.”
Captain Ratsumies and the other Horsemen — and Gwaedbran — burst into the room.
“My lady,” Captain Ratsumies pantes, clutching another old book. “We’ve found it. We’ve deciphered yet another ancient Tanithite spell!”
“Cast the spell, Captain,” Tenebella bids.
Captain Ratsumies consults the book. The words of the incantation echo off the walls and every starts to feel that weird magicy way that makes Kat’s teeth chatter and makes colours smell like sounds.
Kat notices that Tenebella doesn’t look all that different. Then, she notices something else has clearly gone terribly wrong.
She gasps.
“Wait,” she says. “Why do I feel small?”
“Ah, apologies,” Captain Ratsumies says, flipping to the next page. “It has been a while since I formally studied ancient Tanithite. It seems I’ve gotten a little rusty.”
“Kat,” Tenebella says, moving towards her. “Your little face is so cute. I must pinch it!”
“I’m still bigger than you!” Kat cries.
The master list of all my Short Scenes is here.
If you’ve enjoyed my content, please consider supporting me through Ko-fi or Patreon, or through Paypal by scanning the QR code below:
Follow Realmgard and other publications of Emona Literary Services™ below:
Subscribe to the Emona Literary Services™ Substack newsletter here.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The author prohibits the use of content published on this website for the purposes of training Artificial Intelligence technologies, including but not limited to Large Language Models, without express written permission.
All stories published on this website are works of fiction. Characters are products of the author’s imagination and do not represent any individual, living or dead.
The realmgard.com Privacy Policy can be viewed here.
Realmgard is published by Emona Literary ServicesTM
