Hey friend and welcome to the funny fantasy blog, The Diary of a Wizard. This week I meet a mysterious stranger, a wise old owl. He has a task for me and as we know in the Enchanted Woods, anything can and does happen. Should be interesting.

The day started normally enough. You know, the usual tanglings with the mischievous house brownie I’ve never quite managed to vanquish and the dwarfs from the valley making me remove a curse from their chief. He had been turned into a belching swamp toad, and a warty one at that. Turned out he only needed to get a princess to kiss him to turn back but you should have seen her disappointment. The poor girl thought she was getting a tall handsome and strapping young prince as opposed to a 739-year-old dwarf that barely reached her knee. Anyway, the usual kind of day, like I said.

It was in the night that things got interesting. I went for a midnight stroll as I sometimes do. The Enchanted Woods has a different atmosphere and is kinda misty and spooky but being a wizard, I don’t mind that kind of carry on. Anyway, I came to the ancient tree that’s nearly as tall as a mountain and whispers tales to the wind and that was when I heard a voice. This wasn’t a whisper so it couldn’t have been the tree. The voice went “Hey, you, down there.”

“Who, me?” I said.

“Yeah, twit, you.”

“Bit rude,”

“No, I’m an owl, a wise old one at that. That’s how we talk. Look up in the branches.”

I did and sure enough a big plump owl was sitting there talking at me. I would say I was surprised but honestly, around here this is nothing out of the ordinary. The owl told me it had a special task for me, and I should return the following night, but a little earlier this time. I agreed. It was so intriguing, I simply had to. Then I swear I looked away for no more than a split jiffy, and as if it had vanished into thin air or teleported to another realm, just like that the owl was gone. I suspected some trickery.

The following day dragged a bit as I was always thinking about what may lay ahead with Owlie. Finally, the evening arrived and I went to the very same tree that’s nearly as tall as a mountain and whispers tales to the wind. I looked up into the branches and the owl wasn’t there. Then I blinked. Then it was. It really was like it appeared out of thin air. Stealthy little so and so he was, let me tell you.

Anyway, the owl informed me that we needed to go to the secret faery garden, a 2-day trek from where we were. He said he has to meet a certain fae to get a precious stone with magical properties that was stolen and he can’t communicate with it because it doesn’t believe owls can talk. Kinda strange conclusion when the owl must have tried to talk to it or he wouldn’t know he couldn’t communicate with it.

For 2 days we trekked which is unsurprising when you consider I already knew it was a 2-day trek as stated above, before we arrived at the faery garden. I have been here before back on Week 56. You can check it out here if you missed it [LINK]. Anyway, the faery garden is a dangerous place indeed. There are trixie pixies everywhere tryna trix you or me in this case. But apparently, we needed to find Bargo the fungus nymph who dwells near the pond. Fae-folk never live somewhere, they always dwell, ya see.

I was hyper-aware as we entered the garden cos of all the trixie fae-folk, and I nearly was struck by deadness, but it turns out having an owl with me was quite useful. Owlie made short work any nearby brownies, pixies or even nymphs that didn’t even see him coming. He loomed over them like a shadow of death, silently swooped in, carving through fae flesh with his wicked talons. Also, he can see super far and spot the little blighters long before they spot him. Must remember to ask Owlie if he wants to come be my bodyguard any time I have to tangle with fae-folk from here on out. He’s much better equipped to deal with their kind than I.

Shortly, presently, and in good time we reached the pond. We needed to be cautious as there are many biters and stingers in that area as well as twisted thicket of thorniness. Owlie called for the fungus nymph which seemed a little pointless if it can’t communicate anyway but nevertheless, from a squelchy muddy patch up Bargo came all dirty as he was. As he approached, I caught a little whiff of his stinkiness. As it was my job to communicate, I wished him greetings after putting on my handy nose peg. I didn’t waste time and got down to business. He told me he did have the precious stone with magical properties, but he had misplaced it. Frankly, him being a trixie little blighter I wasn’t sure I believed him and he was trying to pull a fast one. So, using Owlie’s wingtips we gave him a jolly good tickling with the feathers just to make sure he wasn’t holding anything back. He wasn’t but the tickle thing was a huge mistake causing him to let out a bottom burp. Handy that I had my nose peg on, Owlie wasn’t quite so lucky, however.

Bargo did give us a clue though, that he’d seen enormous footprints the next morning headed towards the crooked mountain. Gladly we left the faery garden behind and headed back into the woods and towards the mountain. The precious stone with magical properties was sure to be around there somewhere and huge footprints would indicate either a giant, a cyclops, an ogre or a cave troll so we had to be on our guard. We set off with me wishing I’d brought my sword.

As we approached the crooked mountain a looming cave appeared ahead. It was kinda scary, so I just knew that’s where we’d have to go. I always have to go to scary places, so it made perfect sense. Holding my staff in the most menacing way possible so as to frighten the pants of who lay within, we crept inside. Moments later there was a loud roar and then an ogre came running from the shadows with intent to eat me and Owlie where we stood or indeed flew in his case. The ogre’s intent was clearly to squish me into a sad flat pancake but with quick thinking I cast a freezey make you as stiff as a board spell and just like that the ogre was stiff as a board and frozen as the spells name suggests. It was then we demanded the precious stone with magical properties but to our great disappointment the stone had been stolen from the ogre. He described the pilferer and my heart nearly stopped for this was an enemy I knew. The Dark Wizard. He lives many days mooch away from this place so it stands to reason that my journey shall continue next time. Hopefully our mission while fraught with the deadliest danger will be a success but having tanglings with dark wizards is never an easy task, let me tell you.

To be continued…..

I hope the week brings you love and laughter, sunshine, roses but mostly I wish you peace.

See you next time friend!

BB

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Dreamland Part 1 – The Fabric of Dreams
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Dreamland Part 3 – The Veil of Shadow