EXCERPT One night I was later than usual returning to the farm. I’d been late arriving
at the meadow due to a stone that had badly damaged my plow, and my unicorn had
been grazing right alongside the stream when I’d arrived. This provided the best
view of her I’d ever gotten, from the tip of her horn all the way down her
slender, yet strong, legs.
On top of this, my wife had been especially foul-tempered of late, convinced
that I could do nothing right.
So when I returned to the farmhouse, instead of just entering through the front
door, I crept up to a partly open shutter. I moved as stealthy as I’d ever moved
in the meadow itself so long ago, hoping to hear just what kind of reception was
being prepared for me.
The fire burning in the hearth had an unnatural brilliance to its flames.
Usually I had to rekindle the fire each time I returned since my wife wouldn’t
bother maintaining it. But tonight the flames leaped high, and unusually
brightly. The entire inside of my farmhouse was thrown into sharp relief.
My mother-in-law, who never lifted a finger to cook or clean, was standing over
the large, black pot. She was actually stirring whatever bubbled inside.
“But what kind of animal will he become?” simpered my wife, looking even fatter
than before in the harsh light.
“Whatever he sees first,” snapped her mother in response.
“He could be a rat, or a bug, then?” my wife questioned.
“Yes. Or a mouse, or a rabbit, or a woodchuck.”
“He’d make a good snake,” my wife pronounced. “Then someone could run over him
with their wagon and kill him.”
“Where’s the hair?” the mother demanded, truly looking like the witch she was
in the light of her witchfire.
“I have it!” pouted my wife.
“Give it to me now while the flames are their hottest. Any longer and the spell
will go bad, and it’ll have to be redone from the beginning. Besides, this will
be best if we finish it before he returns.”
My fat wife fished among her pockets without finding the requested item.
I thought I was off the hook. They couldn’t complete the spell without this
last item. Now with this evidence in front of me I could be divorced on the
basis of witchcraft. The law provided that no man need remain married to a
witch, or her descendant, against his will.
As my mother-in-law angrily tapped her foot my wife suddenly dashed into our
bedroom. She returned a moment later with a lock of my hair. I quickly reached
up to my head, finding the bare spot.
“Now stand back!” the mother cautioned, before casting my hair into the pot.
A moment later a brilliant flash blinded us all.
* * * *
Unable to see anything, I had the good sense to keep my eyes tightly shut. It
was too late to stop them now that I had belatedly realized what they were up
to.
I was in a panic, knowing that my life was going to be over in seconds. The
exact second I opened my eyes, to be precise.
I could hear them inside cackling as I stumbled about. You don’t realize just
how much your vision contributes to your sense of balance until you lose it.
In the blackness I stumbled over a washtub and fell, throwing my arm across my
eyes to block my vision and protect my face just as I hit the ground. For a
moment there was silence as I lay without moving. Then they started cackling
again, making too much noise to clearly hear anything else except themselves.
It’s the most animated they’d been in months.
As I lay there, eyes still tightly squeezed together, I knew I had no plan. I
could lay here until the sun rose, but I’d just be discovered, prodded and
kicked, until I opened my eyes to stop it. That’s unless I just fell asleep and
opened my eyes afterwards before I remembered why I didn’t want to do that.
Or I could just give up and open them now. Why prolong the agony a few extra
seconds. I’d lost and they’d won.
As I lay there I felt a beetle climb over my hand. I brushed it off, but it was
the indication of my very near future.
And I might have just given up right there, except for one thing, the secret
meadow and its reminder that there really are beautiful things left in this
world.
If I’m going to be a beetle, I thought, then I’d like to be a beetle there.
It was that thought that finally calmed me down enough to start thinking
rationally again.
I wasn’t in immediate likelihood of discovery. Neither my wife, nor her mother,
ventured out at night without a good reason. They both despised the night
creatures for no good cause I could think of. There’s little bad to be found in
any living thing, and the night is just a whole new world to explore.
From that thought I wondered, If I have to become a creature, what creature
would I like to be?
A unicorn! That was my immediate thought. But that was never going to
happen.
Birds have a lot of freedom to just fly through the air and land where they
please. That might be nice. Most barnyard animals lived rather carefree lives,
even if their eventual fate was to land in some cooking pot. A cooking pot fate
was a long way removed from this particular moment, however. Other wild animals
had to be ruled out as not being nearby for me to see. My real choices were
rather constrained.
Why it took me so long to settle on a horse is hard to answer. I must have just
been avoiding the obvious. A horse isn’t a unicorn by any stretch of the
imagination, but it’s a large animal who would truly enjoy the meadow, and as
close to a unicorn as I’ll ever get.
But the meadow wasn’t even on my mind at this moment. As a horse I should be
able to go into town and find someone who will recognize my plight and rescue
me.
A horse it is! There was no other good choice.
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Children`s Fiction
Erotica Fiction
