Cedar Sanderson is doing N'inktober, so I'm going to follow along and do what I've been trained to do by the Raconteur Press Postcard books: come up with a story to match her visual prompts. I can't guarantee that I'll have a complete story for every image, but I'm going to at least try to come up with a scene, a start, or an idea!
Diamond Found
The wraith rippled in a way that caused the fabric of reality to writhe disturbingly. “You are Garkuul of the Desolate Waste, Bane of Life, Destroyer of Carad-Dorn. What do you mean, ‘No’?”
The wraith’s gyrations made Gar’s eyes water and his skin crawl slightly, but that was it. This wasn’t his first time dealing with Inhuman Resources. He sat up straight, clutching the dandelion he’d been nibbling on, straightening the diamond held on his head by a a fine silver circlet.
“Just what I said. I’m not going back until I get this resolved.” If his voice was a tad deep for your typical mouse, well, he supposed that’s just what you got when a chaos sorcerer’s wild magic polymorphed an ancient dragon.
The wraith was having none of it. “The Contract –”
“Clearly states,” Gar interrupted, “that I alone am responsible for dealing with any magical, divine, sorcerous, or technological impediments that might befall me in the course of my duties. I will take care of this myself, as required.”
“Meanwhile, the Wastes lie unguarded for the first time in a millennium!”
Gar shrugged. “Not my business. Section seventeen, subsection five, paragraph three. While I’m responsible for dealing with my current situation, IR is responsible for assigning a temporary agent if needed or desired.”
“Your horde has been stolen!”
“Not all of it. Besides - that was bait, and you know it. Aside from one or two magic items, it was mostly copper with a little bit of silver. Again, it’s IR’s responsibility to replace it.”
He’d never actually seen a wraith get truly angry before. This one was fuming. It was working its skeletal claws reflexively, trying ineffectually to rip its way through the local reality to get to him. Like all wraiths, though, it was completely immaterial and unable to get to him. It snarled, slashed, then stilled.
“You leave me no choice.” Its voice was a sibilant hiss. “What has been Bound may be Unbound.” It sneered. “This will be charged to your Account, impudent wyrm!”
“Now that’s just hurtful.”
The wraith ignored him. “By the authority vested in my by Inhuman Resources…” It switched to speaking in Infernal and droned on for what seemed like an eternity. Gar caught the occasional term - “abjure”, “broken”, “restitution”, “contract violation”, and so on. He yawned, waiting for the inevitable as the wraith’s voice became gradually louder and more frenzied, until it jabbed a bony appendage at him triumphantly.
“I COMMAND THY BONDS BE BROKEN! RETURN TO THY FORMER FORM, BY ORDER OF INHUMAN RESOURCES!”
Cold, black magic tore from the wraith’s hand and washed over him. There was a loud pop followed by a flare of brilliant white light.
Gar twitched his tiny little pink nose and sneezed. Dandelion seed scattered everywhere. The wraith hung motionless in the air, staring.
“What… HOW?!?”
Gar sneezed again. “Tol’ you. One or two magic items, right? Including this minor little one.” He tapped the diamond on his head. “Ring of Protection against Abjurations. Quite handy if you want to keep someone from breaking a spell you cast on yourself. Or, for instance, a spell that some random sorcerer cast on you.”
“You… you…”
“… will figure this out on my own, as I said.” Gar stretched, standing up to his full six inch height. “Probably won’t take me more than, oh, I don’t know. Two or three decades.”
“DECADES?!?”
“You heard me. Now, go on, crawl back to your masters and let them know I’m working on it.”
The wraith spun in place like a top, howling in frustration, until it drilled its way back through reality to the lower planes and disappeared, leaving a foul, cold feeling in its wake.
Gar contemplated the lack of wraithness before him, shaking his head. “Idiots. A thousand years on the job, and they thought could deny me my vacation request? Just for that, I think it will take me, oh, half a century to break this spell.” He chuckled and ambled off into the field to find a new dandelion to nibble on.
I love how you take it in entirely different directions than I'd ever expect. This is a very fun collaboration, thank you for doing this!