Missing Magic

Deep in the woods, Stella set the old tome upon an ancient stump and opened the pages. The dusty book had been in her family for years but none had the courage to use it. ‘The modern world wasn’t ready for magic to return,’ they warned, so she snuck the volume from their library without a word. Sure, she’d heard the stories of the dangers it contained but couldn’t shake the ache in her heart that longed for a more magical world. Besides, tonight would be her only chance.

With pages wide, the full blood-moon revealed the hidden magic. Gilded words shifted and turned, writhed and crawled across the weathered pages until she had little trouble reading them. Anxious now, she flipped to the part she knew was there, the chapter on restoration spells.

Stella scanned the incantations and mystical phraseology. She began aloud, giving voice to the forgotten knowledge. Even with her arcane lessons, she struggled a bit with with the words, the disremembered vocabulary lost to modern tongues. Finally at the end, the woods were silent and she wasn’t sure if she’d succeeded or not.

Then, from the deepest recesses of the forest, the slightest glow announced their arrival, fairies of every sort, wood nymphs and tree folk. Dwarves crawled from the earth and elves stepped from the brush. A magical world unfolded before her eyes, everything she knew it would be. Then suddenly, the Earth quaked and her wonderful world scattered, for there were more than kindly creatures trapped by the spell. A terrifying howl announced the werewolves while screeching harpies soared. Fiery dragons lit the sky and reverberation of the ground proceeded massive ogres, hungry for an overdue meal.

She grabbed the book and fled for her life, thinking, ‘What have I done?’