A Boy and His Racoon

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PHOTO PROMPT © Lisa Fox

“Oops.” Twenty-year-old Calvin Weiss wiped a clump of dark hair out of his eyes with one hand while balancing his grandfather’s mystic tome in the other. “That isn’t what I wanted.”

“I keep telling you Cal, it’s long-A on the umlaut and short-A on the tilde. Geez, will you ever get it right? The pudgy racoon reached into Cal’s backpack sitting near the discolored tree trunk and pulled out another beer. Popping the tab, he took a swallow. “That’s better.”

“Not better for me, Tubby. I was supposed to summon the wood Fae out of this tree, not dye it.”

Happy New Year. It’s Wednesday and time once again to participate in Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ 10 January 2025 edition of Friday Fictioneers. The idea is to use the image at the top to inspire a poem or short story no more than 100 words long. My word count is exactly 100.

I mined my current WIP for this one, a young wizard who inherited his grandfather’s mystic tome without being taught how to use it. Since you get the animal familiar you deserve, Cal’s familiar is an alcoholic, pizza-devouring, chubby racoon with nicotine stained paws.

Sounds like fun.

To read other stories based on the prompt, visit inlinkz.

shoot the devil 3 banner

Promotional image for “Shoot the Devil 3: Militia of Martyrs”

My short story “The Book of Names” is now available in the anthology Shoot the Devil 3: Martyr’s Militia. It’s a collection of tales chronicling the ages old battle of good vs. evil, mainly from a Christian perspective.

My story is a little more circumspect, although it does lean heavily on demonology and how the final utterance of one Name will defeat all evil. I hope some of you pick up a copy and have a read. Thanks.

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