VIP (Very Important Potion)
A fantasy flash fiction
The only problem was this pumpkin prep.
WHY did it have to be brewed in a PUMPKIN?
Lillie hissed, seething, as he tackled the too-large squash, his arms windmilling: a knife in one hand, a spoon in the other. His eyes sparked with all the charge of a dragonfire forge.Â
By the time he finished hollowing out the damn thing, he was too exhausted to do any more.Â
It was also past midnight.
The magician retreated to bed. From the other side of the keep, however, before he settled down, he glared at his would-be cauldron. So much work, for such a simple desire…
The pumpkin simply glowed in silence.
In the morning, Lillie felt fresher than the crisp October air. He completed his potion easily:
Feed frozen leaves
And ink to write
With untouched seeds.
Then, stir for five.
As the tower bell chimed noon, his face loomed over the cool liquid: waiting for the swirling to stop, waiting for the white leaves to thaw and whirl and whisk up, wriggling, into the word he so longed to uncover: his true name.
‘Lillie’, of course, was never really him.Â
Thanks for reading…
…and a big welcome to explorers old and new!
Okay, so this week’s story is more spoopy than spooky… what can I say?
You have to go where the story leads you. My natural style has always been ‘cute witch autumn’ (rather than, say, ‘gothic vampire lightning storm’).1
In the fantasy genre, names are often very important. They tend to enhance a character’s identity - much more, even, than our names do in real life.
Sometimes, they’ll foreshadow a character’s to-be-revealed identity, or their role/arc in the story.2
At other times, they’re a way to power… particularly in fantasy. Characters often go by monikers. They don’t reveal their true names - because, if someone else knew what these are, they can then control them.
I was working with the latter idea, here. That’s why we readers don’t learn our magician’s true name.
It’s a private moment.
Next Time:
Our third spooky story!
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That said, I do enjoy a bit of gothic literature. My current novel gets very dark in places, too…
This isn’t exclusive to fantasy, though. I’m reading Bleak House (Dickens) at the moment, and Esther’s love interest is called Woodcourt. The Victorians seemed to love hidden-in-plain-sight puns like this. Now, however, these can be considered a bit… twee.