Aelrick didn’t hear the bear foraging outside when he cast his first love spell. He strove to get the words right. He liked his favorite wizard’s lilting incantations, so he worked on that as well.

The bear pushed the back door open, rose on his hind legs and made for Aelrick. Aelrick dropped his grimoire and started to run, but the bear caught him in a hug. The look on the bear’s face told Aelrick what he’d done.

Aelrick grabbed his book. Chanting as fast as he could with no lilt at all, Aelrick turned the bear into a man.

Author’s Note: I set out to play with what could go wrong, or right, with a spell, and this came to me.

Categories: Bryce Hughes, Fiction | No Comments »

I took the captain’s medallion back where it came from. I felt compelled to when I scooped it off the beach.

I fingered the wedding-knots disk as I searched its history and followed it to the captain’s house.

The young woman, last of his line, pointed to the shadowed figure on the widow’s walk. “They say it’s the young man he took to sea with him, still waiting for his captain to come home.”

I pitched the medallion up to the widow’s walk. My aim was true, and the metal weighty. It didn’t land. I kept the kiss to myself.

Author’s Note: I’m fascinated with sea-faring and artifacts. I thought of an unsettled ghost on a widow’s walk and followed where he led.

Categories: Bryce Hughes, Fiction | No Comments »