by Susha Golomb
“The Three C’s,” I chimed in.
“Yes,” he answered dryly. “That’s the way we explain it to little children.”
“Oh,” Reduced from ten to two years old by one short sentence, my ego plunged to an all-time low.
Still, I was never someone who knew when to keep her mouth shut. I had more to say and I wanted to say it. At least I took my time and chose my next words carefully.
“I only know one formula. That’s the one you taught me for writing with. But I can’t just say the words and make the writing appear. I have to really work at it. Is that what you mean by Concentration?”
“Well done, my little koi,” he said. I was caught between my dislike of being referred to as a goldfish and the first thing remotely resembling a compliment I had heard.
“Only after you have learned to write easily, will you be able to begin learning basic magic,” he said. I resolved to take my writing practice a lot more seriously.
It was about a week later. I was sitting in the storeroom next to the workshop practicing writing and getting pretty good at it. I looked up and saw Zazkal floating in the doorway staring at me. He looked mad.
“Where did you get that?” he said sharply. I had gotten into the habit of holding my pet rock in one hand when I practiced writing. It helped me focus.
“Don’t look at me like that.” When the subject was not magic, I was a lot less intimidated by Zazkal’s bad manners. “I’m not in the habit of taking things that don’t belong to me, you know. I found it on the Maiden Voyage after the pirates left.”
The falling-apart fishing boat had belonged to four seriously weird looking and weirder acting people. On my way to visit Grandma and Grandpa Sky, I had gotten caught up in their fishing net and hauled in with a bunch of random fish. None of us were what they were looking for.
My rock was just a big pebble really, hardly big enough to qualify as a rock, but it was so pretty, all blue and green swirls and warm from the sun...so I sort of pretended that they were pirates and that this was an uncut jewel that had fallen from their treasure box. There was, of course, no way I was going to say this to Zazkal.
“May I see it?” Zazkal said with uncharacteristic courtesy. I opened my hand and showed him the stone. He took a good long look at my pet rock and at me, then swam up to one of the three gently bobbing globes that lit the storeroom, reached out and put his hand right through it.
The globe part of the fairy light closed over his open hand like a soap bubble, leaving no entry. He withdrew his fist, the hole in the globe followed the contours of his hand so that there was never any visible opening. The light had gone out.
Zazkal opened his fist and showed me the small stone that he held. It was bright with blue and green swirls that seemed to move as I watched. I’m sure that if I held it, it would feel warm in my hand.
I had seen how the fairy lights worked at Casalot. I knew that each globe held a small, shiny stone. They were the light bulbs of the fairy lights.
“My pet rock is a power-pebble? That’s what the pirate treasure was?”
“I’m going up to the surface to get a traveling bubble ready,” he said. “Get the sampo and meet me at the bubble. We’re going to Casalot to see your grandparents.”
READ THE REST OF ZAZKAL SOON
( Try to imagine Miriam and Zazkal stuck together in a traveling bubble for days on end. #recipiefordisaster)
Dear Reader,
If you enjoyed this book, please tell your friends. I am working hard to finish Zazkal. Please be patient.
Out of Place is the second book of The Fairy Gifts. If you haven’t read the first book, it is called Magic Sucks. Magic Sucks is a story about Miriam, her cat, Tefnut, her parents...and the entire kingdom of Ardu, which is located in the SE corner of Fairyland.
Zazkal will be the third book in the series. In Zazkal, Miriam and Zazkal become detectives, working more or less together to locate and bring to justice the shape-shifting pirates that she met in the beginning of Out of Place.
The fourth book will be the story of what happens to Miriam when she finally arrives in Ailuria to meet Tefnut’s family, friends...and enemies. There is also a prequel that will tell the full story of how Tefnut came to live with Miriam and her family. All the characters are cats.
So that’s where The Fairy Gifts is now. I am writing as fast as I can. I don’t have a website, but you can write to me at [email protected].
Sincerely,
Susha G.