Angel Feathers

Horsing Around

Josiah is gone. Yeah, that doesn't sound like much. But mind you, when Josiah is the wizard and I'm the apprentice, things do start to go haywire when I've accidentally turned him into a horse and he took off for greener pastures. If I hadn't been so stupid, he'd still be here. I guess I should apologize to King Alwyn. But he'll probably have my head on a plate, and I can't blame him. Josiah was the top wizard in the land, with the knowledge of a thousand mages and a zillion books stuffed in that wizened head of his. Now what?

I decided to put off the apology and try to rectify the situation, but in the meantime, Alwyn would be wondering where Josiah was. Standing in the middle of the underground magic lab, I flipped through the giant textbook chained to the desk until I came to the formula for duplicating and taking on the guise of someone else. It was almost as complicated as the spell I'd been working on when the catastrophe happened, the one that promised to transform a truckload of coal into a field of fine horses.

Rats! I'd need a sample of Josiah's hair or fingernail clippings to replicate him. I ransacked his room and found some hairs in the washbasin. That would have to do. If I could pull off pretending to be Josiah and keep Alwyn from getting suspicious, that would give me enough time to haul back the horse Josiah and try to reverse the spell. What kind of horse would he be? He must be pretty wild and ornery to have galloped away instead of staying close in the hopes of getting turned back into himself. It was going to be tough even to find him. I'd have to cast some divining spells, maybe ask advice from the Elves.

As I ruminated, I ran circles around the lab, gathering ingredients and setting up test tubes and Bunsen burners. When everything burbled together into a noxious blackish brew, I spoke the magic words and poured myself a serving of it. Looking in the mirror, I could see it working, transforming me from a lanky kid to a scraggly old geezer the spitting image of Josiah.

Ok, got that done. Now, to stroll casually outside, fetch a lasso and some feed at the stables, and try to figure out how to get Josiah back into his own form.

King Alwyn stopped me as I scooted across the hallway.

“I say, Josiah, is Steve ok?”

What a confusing question! I almost forgot who I was as I stuttered to answer.

“I'm on my way out to the hill country to look for, uh, some herbs. This might take a while. Don't expect to see Steve around, he has a big experiment going on in the lab.”

Alwyn looked at me funny.

“That wasn't the same answer you gave me ten minutes ago.”

My stomach sank into my boots.

“It – wasn't?”

“No. You were rushing towards the lab in a growling huff about getting your hands on Steve.”

“Oh… But… Yeah, I remember now.”

I shook under my oversized wizard's cape. Did Josiah somehow “un-horse” himself? In that case…

“Steve!” A distinctive voice bellowed. “What have you done!”

I spun around to see Josiah, very much “un-horsed.” His eyes sparkled daggers at me like a knife thrower at a tournament.

“Oh, hello, sir… Uh, shouldn't you be out in the stables?”

“That was a time-restricted spell! Now look what you've done, you idiot. The imposter spell is irreversible!”

My stomach leaked right out of the holes in my boots and disappeared through a crack in the floor, all the way to the dungeon below.

Alwyn looked from one to the other of us, lips trembling somewhere between a laugh and a sigh.

“I'll call in the Elves and see if they can run a reset spell on you, Steve. We'll probably have to wait until the right astrological alignments. In the meantime, I'm not averse to having two Josiahs on my staff.”

This was gonna be a very long week.

Words: 687
Written for "Starting Stories" 
Prompt phrase highlighted in green

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