Wood Sprites

It was odd that she realized that the few times that they’d gone to church with their Grandma Mayer had sunk deep roots into her psychic. She wanted to believe in God because she wanted to believe he would hear her earnest prayer that she would actually draw the spell correctly. The consequences for failing were all too easy to imagine, and she was afraid that meant she would fail.

She clicked out the pen and knelt on the floor. Dear God, please. Please.

* * *

She was just finishing when she realized someone was calling her name.

“Lou! Lou!”

She looked up to find one of the mice was standing beyond the edge of the cage, waving to get her attention. “What are you doing here? I told you to stay!”

“They’re loading all our stuff onto a truck. They’ve taken Tesla to the garage and put him in a giant box. We don’t know what to do! We can’t get him out. The Jawbreakers are watching over Tesla, and Chuck Norris is looking for Joy.”

Where the hell had Joy gone? Last Louise had seen, the baby dragon was in their bedroom. Joy had been trying to pack the cans of freeze-dried food and complaining that she was hungry.

“Oh! Oh! I bet she went to the kitchen. Did Chuck look there?”

“There are people in the kitchen!”

Louise felt a flare of panic at the idea of the babies trying to search the big gleaming kitchen. It was so brightly lit and sparsely decorated that a moving mouse would stand out. “Tell her to stay away from the kitchen. We’re almost out of this and we’ll. . we’ll get the gossamer call. Joy will answer it.”

Behind her, Jillian hissed out a swear word. “Oh, I’m so stupid! I have the gossamer call! Joy can get us out of here.”

Jillian took the small whistle out of her shoe and blew it. Most of the sound it produced was inaudible to humans, but the lowest frequency notes echoed through the caves.

“Jilly!” Louise cried. She thought she heard something rustle in response to the sound but it was gone before she could identify it.

“Sorry! Sorry! I forgot that it isn’t totally ultrasonic.”

“What’s this?” Joy appeared beside Nikola with a big tub of ice cream that she could barely carry. Her face and both front paws were smeared with white cream and little blots of chocolate. Joy held the nearly empty container out for inspection. The label stated “Stracciatella Gelato.” It explained why the babies couldn’t find Joy; she’d been sealed in the massive walk-in freezer. It also confirmed that the monster call traveled on a magical wavelength beyond normal sound. “What is it? What is yummy cold stuff?”

Louise rubbed her face to stop the scream of frustration and anger from coming out. Joy was a baby and didn’t understand the danger they were in.

Jillian, though, didn’t muffle her scream. “It’s ice cream, you greedy little—”

Louise slapped her hand over her twin’s mouth. “Shhh, shhh, we don’t want anyone to hear!”

Jillian continued for another minute, muttering angrily against Louise’s hand.

Louise ignored her sister. “Joy, can you get us out of this spell?”

Joy eyed the gleaming cage of power. “Oooh. Nasty cage spell. No.”

Jillian mumbled, “Mm mm mmm mmm.”

Louise translated. “Can you at least try?”

“There is no try.” Joy pointed at the shimmering bars with a crème-covered paw.

Jillian growled with frustration and pulled Louise’s hand from her mouth. “I’m done with the shield. What about you?”

Louise eyed the spell nervously. It looked right. “Yes, let’s do this.” She waved at Nikola. “Get back. We’re going to try blasting our way out.”

Nikola scurried back into the shadows. Joy waddled away, carrying her tub of gelato. Jillian spoke the command word and then “oohhh” in surprise.

“What?”

“I can see it. It’s like. . black glow. . all around us.”

“Good.” Louise took a deep breath. She spoke the command word.

With a loud crack, the spell activated and arrowed force along the directional arrow drawn in the runes. It plowed through the glyphs of the cage spell, instantly reducing part of the floor into rubble. The sudden trench continued to plow forward, into the distant casting room. The cage vanished as if it had never existed, and they were plunged into darkness. Dust and pieces of the ceiling rained down around them, the sekasha shield protecting the twins.

“Whoo-hoo!” Jillian shouted and cancelled the shield.

They did the dance of joy, jumping up and down, screaming with excitement until Louise remembered that they might be heard.

“Shhh!” Louise smacked her twin.

“If they didn’t hear that, they’re not going to hear me!” Jillian cried. “And how did you hit me? I can’t see anything.”

“I could hear you!” Louise took the spell light out of her pocket and panned it across the room. First thing she spotted was the now empty gelato container lying abandoned on the ground. Then she spotlighted Joy licking her fingers. There was no sign of the little white mouse. “Where’s Nikola?”

Joy looked around and then shrugged.

“Nikola?” Louise called as Jillian picked up Joy, muttering darkly about the baby dragon’s eating habits.