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Stone in the shoe

When you were a kid, you lived with your grandmother in the small town of Silvertree, on the edge of a magical forest. Grandma is a witch, and she taught you how to use your magic to affect the natural world, too. “Magic is a part of you,” she always told you. “Learning how to use it means figuring out who you are.” Now you’re 19 and on your own. After years of living in the forest while you perfected your witchcraft, you’ve returned to take care of your grandmother’s house and crow-familiar while she’s gone. Figuring out who you are feels more important than ever - not to mention, figuring out what Silvertree is. A lot is just as you remembered: the friendly generous next-door neighbors with a kid just your age, the proud town council, the quaint little shops with quirky punny names, the gentle shadowy forest full of magic.

PlayerOliver · Fantasy
Not enough ratings
443 Chs

22

Nic grins and shakes her head enigmatically.

"I'm afraid I can't betray my arcane secrets," she says in an exaggeratedly deep voice. She laughs and quickly switches back to normal. "Unless you want to try and guess?"

You think about it for a few moments, going over every move Nic made. You're not exactly an expert in this kind of magic, but you think there must be something about the trick you can figure out.

"I mean…you definitely could have snuck the card into your shoe while everyone was running around."

Nic smiles even wider.

"I could have…but maybe I didn't have to," she says in her most mysterious voice yet, just to leave you guessing. "Anyway—it's kind of nice when I get to perform. I'm not usually one for this kind of town stuff, but all my friends have seen my tricks about a hundred times, so it's good to have an audience that doesn't know how it all works. It's all about misdirection—even the costume is a good way to distract people from what's really going on. But even if I didn't just kind of like showing off, this is still the best excuse I have for getting out of that."

She nods at another stand a little further along the row, and you see a glossy "Tall Tails" sign over a stall selling toys and treats—and next to it, a person dressed in a full-body bunny costume, complete with its own top hat, frantically waving at passers-by.

"I said I'd take over this afternoon," Nic tells you with a sigh. "At least I'm getting a little fresh air for now."

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