Wraithvine's Wanderings

A 101-post collection

Challenge #04371-K353: Itinerant Educator

Magic done improperly by a person very new to it can go very wrong. Fortunately, a very kind wizard helps fix the mess and gently teach proper safety. -- Anon Guest

Magic is everywhere. Many find it as natural as breathing, but there are those who can learn to harness it via education and skill. Teachers find those with magic in their bones, usually before a great upset causes trouble for them. Or for anyone around them.

But for those who choose to learn... there's not always a ready source of formal education. This leads to what sages refer to as Interesting Times.

In extreme circumstances, the result is a Wild Magic wasteland. Places where gravity operates under its own rules, floating islands are an everyday occurrence, and M. C. Escher may well have been an entirely rational architect. Places where monsters are born in otherwise normal circumstances. Places where nightmares become flesh, and we're not talking about the one where you have to give a speech in your underwear.

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Challenge #04360-K342: Flight of the Unwelcome

Moving day for such a huge household is SO much easier when you're friends with a wizard, and a dragon is willing to play with the littlest ones while everyone else is packing. -- The New Guy

[AN: following on from this tale ]

It's never easy to be a surprise parent. Bliss appointed himself as suprise parent to a dozen pitiful lives on one harsh stormy night. He managed to pick up five more in the process of seeing to the needs

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Challenge #04356-K338: To Change...

Oh great wizard, my one dream was to have children. But this illness has robbed me of the chance. My home is large, as is my land, what do I do now? I just want a family. Please help me? -- Anon Guest

"There's nothing that can be done to reverse catching swellneck as an adult," sighed Wraithvine. "Short of praying for a miracle, there's only one option."

"Which is?" prompted the Lady Derisdranya.

"Either adopt one of your husband's by-blows... or

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Challenge #04353-K335: Health, Wealth, and Happiness

I asked them to bless my newborn. Their reply was "I bless thee with great richness of spirit, abundance of life, and a beautiful heart."

That was the most wonderful blessing I could ever imagine. -- Anon Guest

Blessings can be curses, and vice versa. It's all about the heart and intention involved. And whether or not some malicious entities want to take things literally. Fortunately, there are those whose intent trumps malice in all its forms.

Well. At least one.

The

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Challenge #04344-K326: Just a Pause

"You're going to die if you don't stop."

I don't care I have to keep going.

"You've done so much to help everyone already. See? The crisis is now very well in hand."

But it isn't enough yet.

"Please, you're hurting yourself, your feet in in blisters, you're growing so thin, forgive us.. but if we have to, we'll make you rest."

This prompt strongly reminds me of this story. A person driving themselves to pain and possibly to a death that

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Challenge #04340-K322: A Pound of Protection

The elderly grandmother asked for some of the very long locks from Wraithvine. There were many squares being added to the quilt. Long fur, hair from other elves not too proud to donate, plants turned into linen, silk squares from spider weavings, and from silkworms, etc. All of it blessed. Who was this blanket for? A set of quadruplets, two hellkin, one halloblood, one human, who were happily cuddled together in a large cradle, that their exhausted, smiling, mother lovingly rocked while

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Challenge #04338-K320: Help With Moving

Hefting yet another box of books outside and leaning against a sore back.

"This would be so much easier with magic"

[Wraithvine shows up] "Someone say magic?"

"You don't mind helping clean a library?"

[Wraithvine with a grin] "Libraries are my favorite places to relax."

"Great, grab a box" -- Anon Guest

[AN: Wraithvine's a lot more subtle than that, lol]

Moving a library is difficult business. It has to be done when the old library runs out of room or falls

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Challenge #04296-K278: Essential Parts

They turned off their machines, crawled into bed after turning off the light and slept. And Dreamed. The wizard in their dream introduced themselves as Wraithvine, and smiled. "So, what is your time like?" "A time of peace, I guess, lots of hard work, but, meh, not so bad." -- Anon Guest

[AN: Are you trying to tie my universes together, Nonny? It doesn't work like that. Alfarell has a history incongruent with Amalgam Universe. That glue won't stick]

So many machines

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Challenge #04289-K271: The Wanderer's Guide

An immortal elf meets the much better known immortal elf. Wariness, tenseness, then laughter and talks of old times at a table with drinks and introductions of friends. -- Anon Guest

The problem with being immortal and ageless is having to move to a new country every five to eight hundred years. Well. It is if you're an Elf. Humans have it worse, having to shift residences every decade or so. Some just surrender and live a life on the road.

Dragons

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Challenge #04282-K264: Trust Issues

They wandered the land, traveling mostly at night. When they found those enslaved, or were runaway slaves, they only asked one question. "Will you trust me enough to take you somewhere safe?" They took those willing to follow to a village that shattered the shackles, broke off the collars, and taught those once enslaved how to live free. The first lesson? "Think for yourself, and never let anyone force you to do that which you do not wish to." -- Anon Guest

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Challenge #04279-K261: Revenge on the Rocks

Why did you do that?

"Kill me if you must wizard, but they deserved it after what they've done to me, to my siblings."

I won't kill you, but you need a place to channel that rage appropriately.

"And where would that be?"

I will show you a better path. -- Anon Guest

Some fates are worse than death. Some crimes deserve death. I survived the first. Committed by the one who did the other one. There's a god of justice, but

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Challenge #04248-K230: Good For What Ails You

An adult and an adopted child. The adult a hellkin, the child, half-giant. The child was sick, very much needing medicine they refused to take. Seeing Lilbit, they ask, politely, to pet the cat. And told only if they allow the adults to give them medicine, and rest a lot. -- Anon Guest

Family is whatever it takes to become one. Many frequently take foundlings into their fold. There's many an Adventurer who asks, "Is nobody going to adopt this urchin/orphan/

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Challenge #04235-K217: Clever Uses

Even the best of the best can sometimes lose. This magic fight was simple. No major spells, just minor pranks. Wraithvine hadn't counted on this silly jokester to have two wands, but was amused when ze slipped onto their keester. Well, ze doesn't always win, and this was fun! -- Anon Guest

No matter how good you are, no matter how wide your reputation, there's always someone who believes they're better. There's always someone willing to prove it. Whether or not they

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Challenge #04230-K212: Testing on Offer

My name is Vizmo, what is your answer my Mage friend? For your sweet little friend here? You have a home that travels do you not? She could be safe there when your travels become dangerous. My offer still stands.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04046-k028-a-portentous-offer -- Anon Guest

"We will renegotiate once a century," decided Wraithvine. "If we are going to see what happens. And she will have normal kittens, should she ever have kittens. I am responsible for enough changes

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Challenge #04203-K185: A Welcome Place

A family unable to bear children, but had a large house and farm, asked Wraithvine and hir friends to help find children to adopt, for they lived far enough from most places that finding unwanted children was actually difficult. -- Anon Guest

It's a familiar beginning to a nursery tale: Once upon a time were a loving couple who could not have children...

In most stories, it's the origin point of something or someone wondrous. They inevitably leave the humble farm and

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