Ezreldia Merrin has been locked away in her dark, oaked cabin along the Yeltzin River. Desperate to get the elusive healing spell, she had seen that magical—beautiful—witch known as Aida Sparrow cast all those moons ago. Although it still felt like a memory from yesterday rather than such a distance. Over and over in her mind did the incantation loop in her brain. She could practically hear Aida’s voice as if she were right here in this very room.
“Dhragcia Urtins Masinea”
That is what the witch said on that day. Those were the words that had helped the elderly fisherman whose working hands were damaged beyond repair. Those words and many other things had allowed that poor fisherman to set sail again and fish with the village's best young men. He also brought back the biggest catch of his entire career. She had saved that man’s life and his family, and only all the Gods knew who else.
Ezreldia uttered those words now, aiming her open and outstretched arms towards a white rabbit lying in a woven basket—its leg was broken.
“Dhragcia Urtins Masinea…” she spoke, hoping, praying, that the creature’s leg would heal and that he would begin to sit up and hoop right out of the basket. But it didn’t.
Ezreldia slummed onto her chair. “Will I ever be able to do it?” She asked herself, brushing her long silver hair out from her face. “Will I really be able to do just as she did? Could I save all those people that she could no longer?”
She had to try again; this was too big to give up on, and how could she? Not after all the years she had spent trying to learn and perform some type of magic. Any kind of magic, really. But so far, she had been unsuccessful. Whoever said performing magic was easy had told you one large pack of lies. Ezreldia had been trying for more than six years, and so far, all she had managed to do was blow out some candles, and even then, she wasn’t sure if that was actually done by magic.
“Come on, Ez, you can do this. You have this.” She willed herself. Although she didn’t know for certain, she was pretty sure that magical abilities came from calming one's mind as a way to channel your inner energy and the energy of the world itself. But it was just an educated guess at this point.
You see, there haven’t been many magically capable humans in Anakiea since the fall of the last Golden King—a damned long while ago.
Ezreldia rolled her robe sleeves up to her elbows, rubbing at her knuckles. Her eyes closed, and faced the rabbit once again. “You can do this,” she repeated to herself.
“Dhragcia Urtins Masinea…” she spoke, hoping, praying, that the creature’s leg would heal this time and that he would begin to sit up and hoop right out of the basket, not just stay there like he had all the other many times she had tried this. But that didn’t happen. In fact, what she had expected to occur after it had not healed the rabbit's leg didn’t happen either. It didn’t just lie in the woven basket with barely any life. Instead, the rabbit began to grow.
Yes. Grow. It got bigger.
It kept getting bigger and growing larger and larger until the wooden table was full with its entire white fluffy body. The table began to creak and moan, but the rabbit kept increasing. Eventually, the table gave in, legs snapping and crashing to the floor.
What in the Golden Kings is happening? What have I done?
The damned rabbit, in all its enormousness, filled the kitchen around Ezreldia’s cabin and continued to get bigger. It was showing no signs of wanting to stop growing. Pushing the chairs screeching across the wooden floor until they reached their respective walls, ending with a snap and crunch.
Ezreldia had left the kitchen area and pushed through the narrow hallway to the front door. It hadn’t been long since she had gotten outside, where the sides of her cabin were beginning to stretch and lean.
Suddenly, the entire cabin burst, sending planks and logs of oakwood flying in all directions. Ezreldia couldn’t believe her eyes. What have I done?
The rabbit kept growing and growing, getting faster and faster. It grew further and more extensive than the village where Ezreldia’s cabin had sat. It grew further and more significant than the entire continent until nothing on Earth was left to hold it.
If you were a space traveller flying past Earth on your way back from the grocery store, you might be reasonably surprised to note that Earth was, in fact, not there, and in replacement was a gigantic, dead, white rabbit the size of an entire planet.
Well, even planet-sized white rabbits needed to breathe oxygen.
Comments