A Fairy Tale

Chapter 1
A Fairy Tale

Chapter Description: An old man has spent his life studying the ancient texts, and now he plans to summon a magical being and claim their powers for himself. But things don't go quite the way he planned...

Elijah had spent his whole life studying the ancient magical texts, and now he was finally ready. He lit the black candles, drew a pentagram on the floor of his study and chanted the incantation that would summon the nearest magical being.

He was surprised a moment later when a little girl in a pink, sparkly dress appeared. She had fluttering, semi-transparent wings like a dragonfly, and she was carrying a wand with a tip that twinkled pink. She had a rather sour and very grown-up look on her cute little face.

"So," she said. "You summoned me. What the hell do you want?"

Elijah bent down so he could get a better look at her.

"I was expecting a demon," he said. "Or a djinn. What are you?"

"I’m Azalea Springbloom," she said with a sneer. "Fairy princess of the azalea bush. Can we get on with this? It’s spring and those damned flowers ain’t gonna bloom unless I sprinkle ’em with my fairy dust."

Elijah chuckled. This was his first attempt at summoning a magical being to claim their powers for himself, and perhaps it was a lucky break that instead of a fearsome demon he’d called forth such a silly, harmless little creature.

"Tell me, little Azalea, what are your powers?"

She sighed.

"Flying, invisibility, teleportation, making flowers bloom. That’s about it. So if you brought me here to magic up a pot of gold for you, you’re out of luck."

Elijah stroked his chin. The ability to make flowers bloom would be of no use to him, but he could get up to all sorts of mischief with flight, invisibility and teleportation.

"Very well," he said. "Fairy, I command you to give me your wand, so I may claim your powers."

The fairy looked surprised, then she grinned a huge grin.

"It’s all yours, pal!"

She shoved the wand into Elijah’s hand, then as he watched she shot up several feet in height and became an old man with a black robe and a long white beard.

"At last," the old man cried. "You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for somebody to say that!"

Elijah was about to ask what the old man was talking about, but the wand in his hand began to glow brightly and he suddenly found himself surrounded by a pink cloud that smelled of flowers. He felt strange twinklings on his skin, tugs and shoves and pinches and tickles, and when the cloud cleared he was looking up at the old man.

Elijah looked down at himself and saw that he was now a little girl in a pink, sparkly dress. He felt something moving on his back, and craning his neck around he saw that his dragonfly wings were fluttering nervously.

The old man bent down and pinched Elijah’s cheek.

"Better get to work," he said. "Those flowers ain’t gonna bloom by themselves, Azalea!"[img align=left; footer=’’; border=0; showfooter=1;]http://i64.tinypic.com/2ccmm8n.jpg[/img]