A small child has an imaginary friend, a favourite stuffed toy, and a puppy. The three do not get along — the puppy has tried to eat the toy many times, the toy endlessly needles the imaginary friend for not being real, and the imaginary friend has learned a piercing whistle to annoy the puppy. But now they must put aside their differences and work together… to defeat the monster that lives in their child’s closet. -- Tergon
Everyone who knows about magic knows two things. First, those born with magic in their bones can have that magic... leak. Second, belief is a tremendously powerful thing. In the wrong circumstances, it can change the nature of reality.
Elven parents know this from the start. Parents of other natural-born magic folk... tend to be surprised. But not so as surprised as the children themselves.
Koyok was five, and had the kind of parents who said, "That's nice dear," and hushed him off to other places. Preferably where he didn't bother them with whatever he was talking about. It was no surprise that a child in those circumstances had imaginary friends.
He had three.
Mr. Poko, the doll he got for Midwinterfeast at age three, Huppy, the puppy he got for last Midwinterfeast, and Ms. Whispers, the invisible friend. None of them really liked each other. Most of Koyok's day was in peace negotiations between his three friends.
His parents only knew that he was entertaining himself. If they paid attention instead of buying him things, they'd have noticed how truly strange things were around the boy.
To begin with, the dog could talk now. Mr. Poko and Ms. Whispers also talked, and the poppet could move around on his own. As for Ms. Whispers... an attentive soul might notice an extra crayon helping the lad colour in. But of course nobody around Koyok was attentive. That was why he had three imaginary friends.
And one imaginary foe.
Motania dwelt in the recesses of the wardrobe. A creature of shadows and Koyok's nightmares. It could lurk under the bed and night and threatened the boy's hands and feet if they dared peek out under the covers.
And like Koyok's other creations, it was starting to become... real.
Koyok believed in Motania like he believed in Greatfather Langeven and any of the gods he prayed to. He expected it like he expected sunshine to be there in the morning. And he feared it as much as he loved his three friends.
And his parents, of course.
His parents tucked him in and read him a story as they always did. They didn't really listen to Koyok as he worried about Motania coming out of the wardrobe in the night. They said, "That's nice, dear, but it's time to go to sleep now."
In their vaguest favour, they were very important and busy people who didn't have time for the concerns of a child. In any other circumstances, they would have been mystified by the appearance of cuts and wounds on Koyok in the morning. Or... bloody remains, shortly before Motania gave them the same treatment.
It was becoming that real.
Fortunately, Koyok's friends were smarter than his parents. They waited in silence for the parents to leave and soothed Koyok to sleep.
"Something must be done," murmured Ms. Whispers. "His parents aren't going to do anything. It's up to us to protect our boy."
"I'm not working with that dog," grumbled Mr. Poko. "I'll never forget how badly she chewed my legs when she was new. I'm still patches and stitching where I should be plain and smooth."
"I was a puppy, I didn't know any better," whined Huppy. "I don't need to chew things now that I'm grown. I don't have the thumbs or the means to mend it."
The wardrobe creaked open. Fingers made of nightmares and fears curled around the merrily-painted door.
"Our boy gave us life and words," Ms. Whispers picked up a bright yellow crayon, holding it like she wished it was a dagger. All she had was the knowledge that it was the happiest colour that they had to hand. "We owe him our best."
"I will bite it," decided Huppy. "My claws and teeth are sharp, but I will not bark and wake our boy."
"I will stab it with happiness," Ms. Whispered used the crayon to make a smile of a blade in the air. It fit her invisible hand well. "And I will not stop until it was gone."
Mr. Poko wriggled out from Koyok's arms, lingered a moment to lay a soft, cloth hand on his boy's brow. "I have been with him the longest," he said. "I can direct his power, and I know one other thing that will harm Motania. But we must get it all out of the wardrobe. If it can shelter, it will come back."
"It might hurt us," said Huppy. "But we love our lad enough for it to not matter."
Ms. Whispers readied her happy sword. "Come, monster. Come and see what we can do."
Fingers like a thousand knives. Arms long enough to grab and grasp young and tender flesh. A slithering body made of shadows and darkness, and an appetite built for the unique hunger of loneliness.
Huppy, as the most solid of them, slammed the wardrobe shut when the last of Motenia's tail slipped out. Ms. Whispers stabbed it with her happy blade and Mr. Poko... made magical light. The one thing that killed all monsters of the dark.
Four orbs of bright light danced around and through Motenia, making the beast hiss and snarl. The happy blade sliced through it as only imagination could slice through a nightmare made almost-flesh.
Koyok didn't even murmur in his sleep.
His mother on the other hand, had the feeling that something was amiss and took a lantern to check on her son. When she did, she saw...
A beast of shadows and fears. The dog Huppy worrying at its snakelike tail. Some crystalline feminine shape wielding a child's drawing of a yellow sword, stabbing the beast in its chest again and again. Standing on the bed, commanding dancing orbs of light like any regular flesh-and-bone Wizard, was the torn and patched Mr. Poko.
Koyok's mother made a flame above the palm of her hand and lunged with it, pressing it into the beast's gigantic head.
That was when it screamed as it died. The corpse would be gone when the first rays of sunshine touched it.
"Mama?" said Koyok. "W's goin' on."
"Motenia won't bother you any more, dear," she whispered. "I'm so sorry we didn't listen to you." She put the lantern safely down so she could hug her son. "I'm sorry we didn't see how magic you are. Tomorrow, I'm going to look for people who can teach you how to use your magic."
Huppy carefully added Mr. Poko to Koyok's arms. She sat aside from the familial reconciliation, right next to Ms. Whispers. "When he starts to learn," she warned, "he'll forget about you. You'll fade away to nothing more than a memory."
"Good," breathed Ms. Whispers. "That means we've done a good job."
[Photo by Naoki Suzuki on Unsplash]
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