A. L. Kaplan

Tag: magic

  • Ape Case

    “Please, believe me,” I sign.

    Kate looks skeptical. Can’t say I blame her. Who expects an orangutan to claim to be your human boyfriend? If I don’t get that antidote soon, I’ll be stuck as an orange haired ape for the rest of my life. I don’t want Kate to be my zoo keeper. Besides, I have to stop Jimmy.

    DNA experimentation is always a risk, but Jimmy and I came up with a safe shape-shifting elixir. He just wanted to test it one last time. Boy was I a fool. Never even saw the tranquilizer gun. Next thing I knew, there was Jimmy, walking across the Whitehouse lawn toward the president. Jimmy hates this administration. I had to warn him. Maybe I did go a little ‘ape’ when I climbed onto the lawn and jumped the guards, but I had no choice. Now I’m the one stuck in this zoo prison. Jimmy was still out there.

    “Please,” I sign again. “Just get the vial of antidote I hid outside the park gate and you’ll see. The president’s life is in danger.”

    I pace the enclosure, waiting for her return. My heart pounds. I only have a few minutes before I’m stuck as an ape. Finally, Kate walks in, a small vial in her hand.

    “This what you’re looking for Paul?” her blue eyes match the liquid in the vial. “Thanks for telling me the hiding place. Jimmy and I would never have found it without your help.”

  • Freedom’s Globe

    Ramone shivered, his head pressed against the glass. Every limb felt numb, as if they belonged to someone else. Candlelight flickered in the distance, illuminating familiar stone walls. He knew this place, had been there often. How many times had he snuck into this chamber as a young student to shake the globe? Had there been another poor fool trapped inside when he had done that?

    An old man toddled into view and leaned toward the glass until his eye filled Ramone’s vision. The chastising gaze made his heart fill with shame. He should never have tried to make a portal without supervision. He should never have taken yet another dare, all for the sake of adventure.

     “Ramone?” said the wizard, “Good heavens, boy, we thought you long dead. So glad you survived.”

    Ramone’s glass prison echoed with the booming voice, then the air began to shimmer. A moment later he found himself sprawled at the old man’s feet. Afraid to look his master in the eyes, he gazed back at the fist-sized glass globe on the pedestal. The snow crystal, or globe of shame as it was more commonly called, seemed to laugh, the freezing blizzard still swirling within.

    “I trust your little adventure has prepared you for serious study, Ramone. The wizard towers are no place for slackers or dare seekers. The balance of the universe is in our keeping.”

    Ramone nodded, thankful to be alive and looking forward to a simple, uneventful life.

    For now….

  • Freedom’s Landing

    Still propelled from his cliff leap, Ramone smacked face down onto a snowdrift only to look up into a maelstrom of flakes. Nothing but swirling white met his eyes. The sweat on his body froze into an icy sheen that fell in crackling shards as he moved. Ramone’s belly twisted. At least in that dreadful island prison he hadn’t frozen. Fifteen years, wasted, imprisoned for opening a portal into the wrong world. All he wanted was to go home.

    Beneath him the ground lurched, tossing Ramone into the air before dumping him back into the snow. Earthquakes and freezing cold. What hellish world had he landed in this time? He brushed away as many flakes as he could and trudged forward. There were no more spell components, but he’d come too far to give up now. Eyes down and half closed against the biting wind, he continued moving. It was all he could do. All he had left was hope.

    Something hard smacked his forehead, nearly knocking him over. Ramone looked up, his brow wrinkled in confusion. Behind him the storm raged, but in front, a bright open space. There was no rock, no wall, only an invisible barrier. He pushed against the smooth surface, moving along its length while his heart galloped. Step by step he broke trail through the snow drifts, stopping only when he reached a set of prints identical to his own. Tears streamed down his face, freezing as they fell. A rat, caught in a crystal cage.

  • Freedom Jump

    “Quae me domum ad locum regione viarum.”

    Ramone spoke the words of the spell as he ran, praying that the improvised components he had collected would work. Powdered rat liver just wasn’t the same as that from a hippogriff. Same went for the cockroach legs he had substituted for locust. But it was all he had.

    Vines tangled his feet, sending him crashing into the hard packed dirt and rock. He muttered curses as the spell slipped from his grasp. Ignoring the lancing pain in his knees, he scrambled to his feet and continued to run. Only once had he seen the outside of the island prison, fifteen years ago when they had shipped him here, but he had heard plenty of stories through the years about the snake infested jungle and deadly cliff that sandwiched the place.

    That same cliff loomed ahead. The other inmates called it the leap to freedom. Ramone had no more desire to die than he wished to rot in a dark stone cell. He wanted true freedom. It had taken years to dig a tunnel under the walls. Now his only hope lay in a handful of junk and a half remembered spell. Behind him the hounds closed in, close enough to hear their panting.

    Grasping the last of the components, Ramone repeated the spell.  This was his last chance.

    “Quae me domum ad locum regione viarum.”

    He leaped from the cliff’s edge just as the portal opened and disappeared into the void.

  • Og Returns

    Og limped into the cave, cursing as the porcupine quills in his arm dug deeper. He was supposed to bring back meat for the tribe to prove he wasn’t cursed. That plan backfired horribly. Not only would the medicine man not treat Og’s wounds, they banished him forever. Alone, hurt.

    Something small and dark moved in the shadows making strange grunting sounds. Og tensed, ready to run but it was only a small bear. It would make a good dinner, but Og was too tired. Besides, he lost his spear and stone knife fighting the porcupine. He had only his two hands which the baby bear began to lick. Og picked up the bear and carried it outside.

    “Og need cave for new home. You too little for nice big cave. Go play in grass with pretty flowers.”

    Sad brown eyes stared at Og, alone, driven from his home. Og wiped a tear from his eye and carried the bear back into the cave. They curled up together all warm and cozy, friends.

    Og woke to a loud roar and a big angry bear. He stood over the baby bear, facing the vicious teeth and razor sharp claws.

    “You no hurt little bear. He Og’s friend.”

    Shimmering light surrounded the bear. Og rubbed his eyes, confused. When he looked again, the big bear was gone, instead a pretty woman in a bear cape smiled at him. Women never looked at Og like that before. Maybe Og finally did something right.