As he traced the last line of the sigil on the cave wall, it began to glow...
He meant no harm---had never meant harm---was only taking these actions to protect the people.
They called him the white wizard and his forced retirement was about to end...
~~
At the edge of the forest, another wizard invoked the spirits and cast his enchantment, feeling a thrill of triumph.
The elephant would fly to the forest kingdom and destroy the log-palace---the people would be groveling in their subduction and clamoring for his help.
He stroked the trunk of the beast and thought of the weak-willed white wizard---off in his cave, still licking his wounds...
He made a shrill whistle, calling his beloved bat.
~~
He knew a direct assault on the black wizard would fail---had failed him those nineteen moons ago...
He knew his nemesis would strike in darkness---knew the animal the evil one would enslave with enchantment.
He'd chosen his defending animal with care---smeared the poison on its teeth, assured it would find its mark...
~~
As darkness approached and the elephant's airborne and appalling sounds reached the people's ears, the King was cowering in his inner chambers.
All bemoaned their fate---all had lost faith in the white wizard...
~~
The moon rose with a strange haste...
No sounds in the forest, not even the frogs...
~~
A chambermaid of the Queen, on her terrified way to find an herb---forced to leave the palace because the plant must be plucked in moonlight---was frozen by an apparition---a tortured trumpeting coming from an impossible elephant, soaring above the trees...
~~
The white wizard held his defending animal before the glowing sigil---informing it of its mission---then, released it to its task...
~~
The elephant hovered over the palace, terrified in its ensorcelled plight, terrifying the people with its otherworldly screams---the black wizard drooling in his mad control of the people's fate...
~~
In the cave, prayers were ascending---supplications of intense longing---pleas for otherworldly Aid...
~~
A small animal flew through the chilled night air...
~~
The elephant was straining against its imposed suspension---legs thrashing, ears flapping wildly, trunk whipping the air...
~~
The black wizard didn't noticed the bat alighting on his shoulder, didn't feel the bite---his body slumping from the poison...
~~
The elephant was freed from its spell---its frenzied motions imparting a momentum, carrying it just beyond the palace to crash into the lake.
~~
No one believed what had happened...
Still, as is natural, they repeated the story down through the ages...
And, as is natural, they appended a moral:
"The struggle of good against evil is only won when evil defeats itself..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Strange Fantasies
Fantasy"...mysterious and fantastical story telling with an amazing and often thought provoking twist." ~~ Author, Jane D. Watson ~~ "I have to applaud an author that can make me consider the human condition while presenting me with dragons and spirits and...
