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Chapter 4 of The Great Wish Movie Rewrite is up on AO3

Read here: Link

Blurb: Magnifico kept his shoulders back and head held high as he stepped through his castle’s arched entranceway, into the grand, circular courtyard’s expanse, onto the stage where he’d face his hardest task as king: choosing one person’s deepest desire out of the thousands of tear-wet, expectant faces peering back up at him.

He announced himself to the sea of breathless souls by casting spells with sweeping gestures. With each wave of a hand, radiant, variegated star showers unfurled through the air that transformed into delicate butterflies, and gasps of awe rippled through the courtyard as they left trails of sparkling hope behind them that rained down gently, in the king’s attempt to raise spirits before he would, inevitably, leave some of them broken-hearted, their sobs destined to disturb his dreams for years to come.

Magnifico’s voice, amplified by a spell, echoed across the courtyard. “My dear subjects.” He raised his arms as if to embrace. “On this enchanting night, as the stars illuminate our beloved kingdom, it is not only good to see you, but also an honour to be seen by you. I am deeply moved by the sight of all of you gathered here. Your presence brings warmth to my heart, and a profound sense of gratitude. In your faces, I find the strength and resilience that define our people, and it is your unwavering spirit that guides me in all I do."

Cheers rose to a crescendo, and tears glistened in the eyes of each person as they applauded the king who had brought them peace for nearly two decades.

Magnifico’s gaze shifted to his wife, who had just taken her place on the mainstage, and brought Asha with her as instructed. He gratefully nodded toward her, then turned back to the crowd. 

“Now, we shall begin with a matter that concerns the heart and soul of our kingdom. We have two new citizens ready to give their wishes. Helena, Esteban, you are going to be very happy here, I promise you.” He extended a hand to welcome his new subjects who’d sailed from across the sea onto the stage. 

The couple, still so young as to be untarnished by the joys and trials of parenthood, climbed the stairs to the stage. Magnifico looked into the eyes of the future of Rosas, and took the young woman’s hand into his own first.

“Now make a wish, and hold it in your heart.”

The woman closed her eyes, then opened her hand in the sorcerer’s, so they both began to glow. Her breathing relaxed as a terrible weight evaporated from her consciousness, and her wish materialised in her palm in the form of a glowing orb.

Her husband did the same in Magnifico’s other hand.

The king swept both wishes toward his chest. “It unburdens the soul, does it not?” Then he raised his arms so the wishes ascended into the sky, where they floated to join the others at the top of his tower. He smiled upon the husband and wife. “Perhaps I will stand here and make them realities one day.”

The man and woman smiled, and left the stage with a new spring in their steps, as if lighter than before.

Once again, Magnifico turned toward the place Amaya sat, and searched for signs on the face of the young woman next to her of understanding or empathy. Surely she’d grasped the weight of his ceremonial words, and the sacrifices they represented. But the young woman’s eyes were clouded, and her fingers fidgeted with the hem of her garment. She looked unmoved and unchanged.

Magnifico exhaled sharply, then turned back to his audience. "Thank you for your applause. Tonight, it brings me great joy to welcome these two new souls into our realm. They have passed through my Eclipse Enclosure, a barrier few are granted to cross. This shield is also a testament to the trust I place in those who enter. Not everyone finds their way through my curtain of star silt, yet here they stand, embraced by the safety I've woven. May their presence enrich our land as we share in the journey ahead."

The king waited as a roar of applause rose and fell, and he knew this was the real moment everyone had been waiting for. He released a final cascade of light from his fingertips that arced across the heavens in a concluding streak. “Now then, who is ready to have their wish granted?”

The crowd’s thunderous reaction was like a storm breaking out, as each person brought to mind their unique wish for a brighter dawn, and Magnifico knew that if witnessing this collective flame, igniting every heart, not solely your own, was not enough to stir someone, they must be beyond redemption in their selfishness.

For the last month, the king had sweated blood and tears discerning which wish he should choose, and deciding was no easier a task than it was any other ceremony. The wish had to be something genuinely harmless, yet selfless enough to make Rosas a better place. Wishes like this were surprisingly few and far between, as most people were not selfless, or wanted to twist fate too drastically. When he came across one that was selfless, but too drastic, his eyes often overflowed with sorrow at a young girl watching her mother die from illness, or a farmer whose crop had failed, who had lost everything he loved. 

“It has been a challenge for me to make a final decision today,” he said without betraying emotion, “And it is with clarity and an open heart full of love that I grant today’s wish to someone who has very patiently waited long enough.”

Eyes were wide, breaths were bated, and the courtyard was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

“Sania Osman,” said Magnifico. “Step forward now.”

There were gasps and murmurs, and the crowd slowly parted to reveal a young lass with burning joy on her face. 

“Is it really me?” She came forward, swaying as if she would faint. “What have I done to deserve it? Can this actually be?” She was helped onto the stage by those around her when she threatened to fall off her feet.

Magnifico outstretched an arm to help her up. “I mean it when I say, it truly is my great pleasure to grant your heart’s desire, to sew the most beautiful dresses in all the land. It is a rare and noble heart that seeks to bring beauty and joy to others with such selfless devotion."

In the background, Asha was clenching her fists as if ready to throw a fit.

“Never, ever get your hopes up.” A sarcastic whisper came from a clique of teenagers lounging at the courtyard’s side. Their whispers and stifled laughs sliced through the solemn silence, drawing disapproving glances. To crown it all, one of them wiped his nose disrespectfully on his sleeve in front of everyone.

Finish reading here: Link

One reason I rewrote the Lorax the way I did was actually because I got annoyed at a book I was reading. Books always give the youngest child the hardest role, which is kind of cliché. But the last straw was that this main character had to help provide for their family. And that just hit a nerve. It's one thing to use the typical trope of 'the oldest got all the attention, but the youngest was ignored' for the millionth time, but why does it always make it seem like the oldest child has no struggles, all while giving their more common struggles to the youngest just to fit a marketing cliche? Anyway, it gave me the urge to write some realistic oldest child representation for once, and it happened to fit the archetype for this story really well. (Kind of a random priority, but I have a lot of random priorities that cause me to write). Sometimes there's just a story where you feel like "okay, wait, wait, stop. I'm the one who actually knows how this really happened though."

Chapter 5 & 6 of The Great Wish Movie Rewrite Up on AO3

Read here! Link

Excerpt: Chapter Five: A Mysterious Light

That night, the king did the same thing he did after every Wish Ceremony, and sought solace in his observatory to avoid those who felt badly done by, and because he could not face their tears. 

"How I long for simpler times," he said to himself, "when my only concern was learning the names of stars." He remembered a peasant who’d once told him he was so devastated at his chance to have his wish granted being pulled out from under him, that after that ceremony, he could not whistle again for a whole week.

The king moved to a nearby shelf lined with books, and pulled out a weathered volume, its spine cracked and pages yellowed. He flipped through its diagrams and notes, seeking to distract himself, before his gaze wandered to an ornate clock on the wall, its hands ticking steadily. 

“Midnight,” he realised, “in just a few seconds. It is still very early in the night.”

He shut the book, and no sooner had he lifted it to put it back on the shelf, than a blinding light cracked across the sky, and the hopeful hum of the wishes ceased inside his Wish Chamber.

“What?”

Magnifico burst into the chamber. “No. It cannot be.” He found the wishes quaking like leaves, not dancing, but dimming, and some even rolled across the floor like mere balls of pigskin. No warm glow greeted him, and the air in the chamber hung cold around him. “What has happened here?” He rushed to the room’s centre, gazing up at the terrible sight.

Finish reading: Link

Chapter 7 (The Wrath of Nature) is up. Excerpt below:

(This specific scene was one of the main reasons I wanted to rewrite the movie).

"If you meant no harm, then why did you put my bed in a river?!"

"I didn't mean harm, my touch was light, a gentle breeze, for the softest flight. I merely meant to float you away, to a land of dreams, to another day."

"ARE YOU STUPID?!" Once-ler exploded. "I FIND THAT VERY HARD TO BELIEVE! OF COURSE THAT WAS A DANGEROUS IDEA! And you're telling me you didn't know there was a waterfall there when you're supposed to be the all-knowing Guardian of the Forest?!"

The Lorax was speechless, caught in his lies. "Remember your promise, I'll hold you to it now. In the river you swore and made a vow."

"I said that because you were threatening my life. Do you really think you've accomplished anything?"

"Hear this important plea, loud and clear," said the Lorax. 'Everyone needs the trees that are here! 'We need the wood,' the voices cry, 'To live and stay, or else we'll die.'"

Once-ler felt a speck of pity when he realized the Lorax really was that dumb. In his simple mind he’d really thought his plan to blackmail Once-ler into a promise was going to guarantee the safety of his sacred Truffula Trees. Typical fey creature.

"Okay, that's it." Once-ler finally grabbed the Lorax by the scruff of his neck. "You've manipulated and tricked me. You've tried to kill me. Let's have this out once and for all. I refuse to be bullied out of this forest. If you can actually give me a logical explanation for why I shouldn't cut down the trees, then I'll stop. How bad can this really be, huh?"

"Fine, have it your way, we'll talk, indeed," the Lorax said. "But know I'm earnest, and please take heed."

"Fine."

Once-ler dropped the Lorax onto a stump, where he stood up straight and cleared his throat. He said in a meaningful voice:

"You think you can chop down whatever you please. But everyone here needs the trees."

"That's too vague," said Once-ler at once. "You have to explain what problem it causes, so we can figure out how to solve it."

"Well," said the Lorax, "my feathered friends have all made nest, in the trees they decided they liked best. You can't impose upon their tweets, and come and steal their cozy retreats."

"Okay," said Once-ler. "Then I just won't cut those ones down."

"Oh, great excuse, I'm sure you know best, but how will you tell which ones have nests?"

"I promise to use my binoculars every time."

The Lorax considered this. "Well, my dear sir, even if that part might be alright, what about the fruit in which Barbaloots delight? This fare is their favorite sweet, juicy treat. They aren't the type of bears that just eat meat."

"Wait," said Once-ler. "There are a bunch of other trees around here that have fruit. So they won't be affected."

The Lorax sighed. "Beyond that, other things are at hand. Trees create fresh air for the rest of the land. Through leaves so frugal, they drink the air, and give it life, don't you even care?"

"Okaaaaay," Once-ler considered. "But counterpoint: there are still lots of other trees and plants around here to contribute to photosynthesis."

"I'm afraid I haven't been explaining this right," the Lorax said frustratedly. "Because the Truffula Trees are a special type. It takes hundreds of years for them to grow. Why waste them on cheap products, I don't know!"

Unfortunately, the insult only distracted Once-ler from his strongest argument.

"Hey, my product is NOT cheap! I put tons of effort into developing it. The Thneed actually took lots of research, and I had to fight and sacrifice a lot—"

"Alright, alright, you're getting offended! This conversation should really be ended. I'm just saying don't waste ancient trees. I don't see why it's so hard to agree…"

(Read the rest on Ao3).

It was really hard not to make the Lorax seem like a psychotic jerk here. I decided to make him into more of an unpredictable fae creature who will show more depth and have his say later.

I wanna try my best to steelman both sides in this, because the movie accidentally made Once-ler the most sympathetic by far. (Though even he didn't go far enough). Gonna give the Lorax his due soon.

The argument was important for me to include here, because the Lorax had no arguments in the movie and only relied on manipulative music.

I was only going to release one chapter every Wednesday, but felt like posting more for fun. Comments/likes/kudos are REALLY appreciated, so I can get an audience. Please share this novelization with anyone you think would enjoy it.

I've been working on it for an abnormally long time, and got really carried away doing multiple drafts, especially for the later parts. The aim was to make it better than one of those professional Disney movie novelizations. Hopefully it feels like a full satisfying book with a lot of little things that connect and foreshadow.

Chapter 5 & 6 of The Great Wish Movie Rewrite Up on AO3

Read here! Link

Excerpt: Chapter Five: A Mysterious Light

That night, the king did the same thing he did after every Wish Ceremony, and sought solace in his observatory to avoid those who felt badly done by, and because he could not face their tears. 

"How I long for simpler times," he said to himself, "when my only concern was learning the names of stars." He remembered a peasant who’d once told him he was so devastated at his chance to have his wish granted being pulled out from under him, that after that ceremony, he could not whistle again for a whole week.

The king moved to a nearby shelf lined with books, and pulled out a weathered volume, its spine cracked and pages yellowed. He flipped through its diagrams and notes, seeking to distract himself, before his gaze wandered to an ornate clock on the wall, its hands ticking steadily. 

“Midnight,” he realised, “in just a few seconds. It is still very early in the night.”

He shut the book, and no sooner had he lifted it to put it back on the shelf, than a blinding light cracked across the sky, and the hopeful hum of the wishes ceased inside his Wish Chamber.

“What?”

Magnifico burst into the chamber. “No. It cannot be.” He found the wishes quaking like leaves, not dancing, but dimming, and some even rolled across the floor like mere balls of pigskin. No warm glow greeted him, and the air in the chamber hung cold around him. “What has happened here?” He rushed to the room’s centre, gazing up at the terrible sight.

Finish reading: Link

Last chapter of The Great Wish Movie Rewrite up today!!!!!!

Guys!!!!!! The last chapter of The Great Wish Movie Rewrite is up today!!! Read here: Link

This rewrite was so much fun! It was especially pressing for me since we can all agree Magnifico deserved better! Haha. It's a good thing we can always rewrite these things if we need to, and have a lot of fun doing it, too! Thanks to everyone who read this novelization/rewrite to the end! Link

Excerpt: Chapter Ten: Rosas Restored

Magnifico awoke on top of his tower.

The hopeful hum of the wishes had returned.

He sat up on the stone cold floor, and stared at them floating in the dawn with utter reverence for so long he almost forgot his kingdom was still in ruins.

He reached out to let one land on a finger. “How glorious.” 

The skies above told him two days had passed since he'd entered the black hole. 

He had so much time before him now.

Magnifico got to his feet, and walked out onto the edge of a platform. He looked down upon his kingdom of sticky rubble and wreck. “I have a great deal of amends to make,” he sighed as he bowed his head. "And I do not blame my people if they do not forgive me after this." 

The first thing he did was to snap his dark staff in two, and toss it over the tower's side into the sea. He picked up his old, less potent sceptre and used it to close up his tower again, its spiked platforms folding in from their star shape back into a dome that protected the wishes once more. Then he went down from his tower, out into the streets where he used it to stop the rhinoceros still barreling around. He shrunk the animal down to the size of a mouse, and gave it to a little girl skipping past to keep as a pet, and she was too overjoyed to be scared of him when he handed it to her.

“Why bless my soul! It’s Magnifico,” said a peasant woman when she saw him strolling around the town, putting things back in order. 

“It is I!” he said as he shot down the dragon with a fiery arrow from his scepter, that crashed down into the forest, and he looked so disarmingly cheerful that a grin nearly escaped her as she took in his metamorphosis, and everyone wondered what had come over him a second time.

Magnifico was in such high spirits that if he were wearing a crown and it was knocked off his head by the wind, he'd have been too cheerful to notice and gone right on without it.

Next he sealed up the tears in the earth, then herded the stampede of unicorns into a gated pasture to give to Farmer Finnegan as an apology for destroying his other livelihood, after which he turned to the dark castle he’d grown out of the ground and shrunk it into a merry go round for children to ride in the middle of his courtyard. He found that everything could be reshaped into something joyful.

“Good morning sir!” he said to the baker as he put his bakery back in order with a few zaps. “Such a fine craft you’ve perfected. I have always held it in high regard."

Once all his paradoxes and anomalies had been sorted out with some serious conundrum-solving that left his head in a guddle, and he was sure each of his subjects were as safe as could be, he went down to the edge of the forest where he found Asha and Star Boy bouncing up and down on a discarded trampoline in the shade of the trees, and walked up to them. 

The pale white wand in Asha's hand had been mended, and she held it carelessly above her head as she bounced, a few sparks leaking out its end that she didn't even notice. 

"A fine day to you!" Magnifico called to them, and their mouths fell open at the sight of him. They ceased bouncing. "What have we here, my dears? Let's have a look." He approached them with a smile on his face.

Asha's face scrunched up into the same one she'd made when her Saba's wish had been yanked from her days earlier. “Go away," she told the king. "Everyone was a lot better off without you. Do you think anyone is going to listen to a big stupid-head when they could listen to me? People just have to believe in themselves to make their dreams come true. You just have to follow your heart, and anything is possible. All it takes is a little faith and a wish upon a star.”

“Enough of these idiotic phrases.” Magnifico plucked the mended wand from her hand, and snapped it in two with a satisfying crunch. 

Asha's face went pale, and her jaw nearly hit the ground.

"Asha, it seems you’ve finally earned yourself a proper sentence," he said, and raised his sceptre, but Star Boy was ready, and the fire he shot from his palms collided with Magnifico's spell. 

But this time, the fire was no match for the white light bursting from the king's sceptre, and the star was not prepared to be hurled backward into the trees like a worthless gnat. 

Star Boy emerged from the prickly plants with the look of a crumpled fly, his hair, full of prickers, sticking up as if he'd been electrocuted. He staggered forward, too dizzy to walk straight, and cried, "The earth's a mess, there's no more delight, I'm done with this, time to take flight." He shook his hair back to normal as he leapt into the air, and a suitcase materialised in his hand. "I've had my fill, this game's a bore, I can't take humans anymore. I'm packing my bags, going off with a zoom, no more human games, I'll return to the moon."

"Wait!" called Asha as Star Boy disappeared in a streak of light like a comet, right after which Magnifico sealed up the Eclipse Enclosure behind him with his sceptre, stronger and more secure than ever, ensuring he could never breach the realm again.

Asha's lip trembled as she watched.

Magnifico turned to her. "For your insolence, you will tend the chickens kept by your people day after day, from sunrise to sunset. No magic, no shortcuts. You will protect them and learn to do some good for society." And with a flash, he transported her back to the Hamlet, where she materialised surrounded by chickens inside a run closed off with barbed wire, outside which she could not step foot without getting a zap.

From then on, Asha had no choice but to follow the chickens, feed them, sweep up their dirty hay, and gather their eggs, all to the tune of relentless clucking. With no escape, she slowly, but eventually learned to focus on her tasks until she found a strange rhythm in the routine that wasn't quite pleasure, though she was no longer restless and wishful.

The same night she received her sentence, Magnifico gathered his guards into a search party to find Amaya, who had gone into hiding after his disappearance. 

"I fear she is like a serpent in tall grass, watching and waiting to strike," he told his guards. "She must be found and captured at once."

It was only midnight when his guards returned with his wife, who had been hiding out in a cave in the forest.

"Magnifico, I was possessed," she tried to lie as the guards dragged her off to the dungeons. "I do not know what came over me. It was the dark magic, I swear it was." Her protests faded as she was marched down the dark lower stairwell out of sight. Finish reading: Link

The Lorax Novelization

Do you ever kinda wish something would exist, so you just decide to make it yourself?

Read here. I release new chapters every week.

Chapter 14 is up!

Super late post today, but here it is! THIS PART IS THE MOST SAD. The movie didn't make enough consequences for his actions.

Excerpt:

"How've you been, sir? Are you doing well, Mr. Once-ler?" a forlorn voice asked.

Once-ler spun around. "You?!”

The Lorax didn't say anything for a while. The sound of rain over the balcony grew heavier as the storm rumbled behind him.

"Just came to look at the view. You've accomplished a lot, haven’t you?"

Once-ler backed away at the sound of thunder as the Lorax entered the office. The mossy old creature hopped onto his desk to stare at the model city. His torso was matted and streaked with grease. Wiry hairs stuck out from his mustache and eyebrows like bent broom bristles. The fur that had once had an attractive orange sheen was all brown now, caked with dirt, and had a damp, washed-out look. The Lorax might have been a chewed up jelly bean that had been spat back out.

"The Virtue of Selfishness," the Lorax read the title of one of Once-ler's books, stroking his mustache. "Lessons we could all learn from, I'd guess."

"You know what? I don't want to hear from you right now!" Once-ler yelled. "All you do is say everything is bad, and I'm really sick of it." He seized the Lorax and hoisted him under his arm, ignoring the creature's protests.

"It's not just the trees I'm trying to save,” the Lorax’s voice cracked, “but you, from digging your own grave."

Once again, the door wouldn't open when Once-ler tried it, and the alarm wouldn't go off when he pulled it. But he wasn’t going to  be defeated. He carried the Lorax to the balcony and held him at arm's length. The Lorax hovered over dark hills that had been uniformly sheared—bristly white stumps where once had been trees dotted the shaved hills of dead grass. Advanced axe-hackers rolled by like monsters, searching for more wood that they couldn't find, before wheeling away to look deeper into the mist.

"Are you going to kill me?" asked the Lorax.

"I know you're causing the storms," growled Once-ler, shaking him. "The thunder that never stops, the lightning that strikes my tower.  And all the clouds that have that same purple hue as when…" He trailed off, remembering the first tree he'd cut down, when he'd first seen the Lorax come out of the sky. 

If it wasn't for that day, he'd have believed the Lorax was no more than a funny animal like the Barbaloots or humming-fish, with a higher cognitive level and more annoying voice box. But it had been the sight of him that day, coming out of the sky with a terrible look in his eyes, that, as much as he tried to forget, made Once-ler secretly terrified he really was a deity. 

His hands trembled as the Lorax's beetle black eyes bored into his, suddenly looking very old and very powerful. Once-ler wondered if it was even possible for the Lorax to die. “Whatever you're doing, I want you to stop it. Right now," he growled, not recognizing his own voice. With each word, he leaned closer over the edge of the balcony.

"Why?" asked the Lorax. "You don’t seem to care how your own actions are fouling the air."

"Yer rusting up my factory. We got work to do. I’m the one in the legal right here. So make it stop." His face was close enough to feel the Lorax’s mustache.

The Lorax chuckled at this, legs dangling over the parapet. "Laws and codes, written by man. What have they to do with nature's plan? What have they to do with morals or your soul? Are laws the things that define all your goals?" His long, spindly hand slowly reached out and grabbed his tie.

Before Once-ler knew it, they were both falling. Through wind and rain they plummeted as the storm thickened. Soon a churning mist concealed everything around them as they tumbled through a funnel of purple clouds, a passage that went on much longer than Once-ler knew it should have. 

As they spun round and round, reality evaporated. It was as if Once-ler was melting into the Lorax and the Lorax was melting into him, until nothing but a haze of orange and green remained. Then they unconnected, plunging their separate ways.

Once-ler's spine cracked against a pipe, and he bounced onto the black, dry riverbed where water no longer ran. His head spun; reality had not gone quite back to normal. Somehow they had survived the fall as if it had been merely from a playground, rather than half a mile from the tallest building in the city. His back, however, would never be quite the same. Sharp pains when he attempted to straighten himself told him it had been fractured.

The Lorax was standing on a rock, eyes aglow, fixed on his enemy. An army was growing around him of bloodied, skeletal birds missing patches of feathers, a few crinkled fish that had been too weak to leave, and the ghostly Barbaloots that hadn't died yet.

Once-ler choked, and limped behind a rock. "I don't want any trouble," he pleaded. 

The Lorax gave a slight nod to the army behind him, and they marched somberly back into the gray expanse. As they trailed away, single file, Once-ler knew in his heart they were marching to their deaths. At the end of the line he spotted an animal he hadn't thought of in a long time. His old friend, Melvin.

"Hey…!" He crawled up to the trembling old animal that fell to the ground. Melvin put his head in Once-ler's lap. His coat was thin and sooty, breaths slow and tired. The eyes that met his master's were filled with sadness that slowly dimmed into an empty stare as his head slumped to the ground.

READ THE FULL CHAPTER ON AO3~!

Chapter 7 of The Great Wish Movie Rewrite up on AO3!

It's up! Guys, I'm excited, Star Boy comes on the scene today. Read the story here: Link

Excerpt: Chapter Seven: The Duel

The Hamlet, a mossy place secluded by forest, where inhabitants made bread from pinecone flour, and kept more chickens than charts or charms, came into view. The moon cast it in sharp-edged shadows as Magnifico readied his staff, murmuring last incantations over it. Before leaving the castle, he’d imbued it with extra power from the night sky, using a spell from his only remaining book, the one he’d been reluctant to use because of its relation to dark sorcery. 

“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” he told himself, though he’d immediately locked the book away again after referencing this spell. He thought mournfully of the rest of his destroyed resources, original manuscripts he’d compiled, containing centuries of study by other sorcerers. “Now I have no idea what a star might be capable of.” He caressed his staff’s fine point that could stab if needed. “The hour has come.”

The carriage silently rolled to a stop behind a towering oak thick as a dragon’s tail, just on the hollow’s edge. Magnifico looked to the driver and raised a finger to his lips, then motioned for him to drive away unseen, as he stepped out into the Hamlet, and the crunch of leaves, which set a carpet of gold beneath his boots, was concealed by ceaseless clucking as chickens talked in their sleep inside their roosts. 

The hollow’s modest shielings, stone houses shaped like mushroom-caps, unadorned except by moss or the occasional clothes-line, stood huddled close together, intertwined with roots of trees for protection. The humble hollow did not look like the kind of place to hide a criminal. The king held his staff before him to light the way as he crept between the shieling huts and oaks tall as mountains. As he stepped over a root as thick as one of the castle's pillars, his foot landed on a pinecone, and he clasped a hand over his mouth when he nearly screamed. Just as he approached the centre of the cluster of homes, the staff began humming faintly, its sound growing in intensity. 

As the king crept, the staff’s hum shifted in pitch, resonating with a particularly small shieling hut which he paused in front of. He noted a faint glow seeping through its rough, timbre framed windows, and the murmur of voices within. Even muffled by stone walls, self-satisfied pauses emanated, it was the girl showing off, he knew that. Without hesitation, Magnifico raised his staff, then forced the door open with a bang.

The conversation stopped abruptly as Asha’s gaze met his, the recognition in her eyes confirming what the staff already indicated. Its sharp end was pointed up at the star hovering inches below the aisins.

“What folly is this?”

“It isn’t folly at all! It’s simply glorious!” The star did a somersault in the air.

He was a flicker of ghostfire in the form of a young man. Clad in changing hues of white, topaz, and misty red, his clothes echoed the night sky. His bright eyes held glints of mischief, and moving with grace, his cape trailed sparks behind him as he flew in and out the aisins, twisted a picture frame, peeked into a drawer, then sent a stack of books tumbling from a shelf, as if dropping stones from the sky. The playful spirit who’d come down from the heavens laughed, each note twinkling like a warning sign.

The star continued doing flips in the air as he addressed the king. “You see, mighty king, with a crown shining bright, the stars in the heavens dance all through the night. They laugh at your trials, they chuckle with glee, as they dance in the moonlight, wild and free. They meddle for fun, oh, but fret not dear king, for your country will fall, but it’s a burdensome thing.”

Asha laughed, and though she had a hand over her mouth, she looked impressed. “Star Boy,” she said.

Magnifico’s eyes blazed as he raised his staff, and he unleashed a striking green beam that cut through the air. Star Boy, now idly twirling a ribbon of stardust around his finger, tried to dodge, but was struck directly in the heart, and like a mosquito swatted, fell to the ground with an expression of stunned surprise, his stardust trail dim and scattered. 

From the floor he looked up at Magnifico, shaking off the remnants of the spell’s green glow. “All right, you’ve got me, you’ve proven your might, I underestimated you, and I’ve lost the fight.” He grinned, then added, “But watch your step king, as you tread. Anger the stars and you’ll find yourself dead.”

Magnifico’s staff crackled again, and he struck at Star Boy with a wave of green fire. The house’s beams groaned under the strain of magic, and shards of stone rained down.

Star Boy darted around, a streak of incomprehensible light, and he paused only to withdraw something from his pocket, a slim, pale stick he tossed down to Asha. “Take this wand, a gift from the heavens. You’re a fairy godmother now, my dear.”

“Aeeeeegh!” Asha let out an excited screech as she caught it. 

The wand was swiftly knocked from her hand by a wave of Magnifico’s staff. “You are both banished from the realm for threatening my kingdom.” He raised it again, when Star Boy, hovering just out of reach, laughed as he conjured a torrent of fire, and flames lashed out from his palms, catching Magnifico’s cloak in a dance of light and heat. 

Asha scurried forward to her wand, and brandished it as he stomped on the flames. With a quick flick, she sent a stream of light to blind the king. The spell struck his eyes in a burst of bright sparks, so he staggered back. He growled as he struggled to regain control. 

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