Mid-Week Flash Challenge - Week 100

This week's picture prompt is going uncredited, because, although it doesn't appear that much on the internet, where it has been shared there is no credit and I can't find an original. Shame.

I went for a more humourous tale this week, with a hint at something darker. I rather enjoyed it. Hope you will too. 

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Magical Feud

 

Lesley scrabbled at the book on the shelf, trying to get hold of a particular one.

“Bloody talons! Ugh!”

She scrabbled some more and finally prised it out, letting it drop onto the floor. Then she moved her massive bulk round, being careful her gigantic tail didn’t knock the bookcases over, managing to pick it up and slowly back out of the aisle and back to the table in the large university library.

She was grateful that she could at least read in her current state, because otherwise she’d be in real trouble.

Audrey was such a nasty cow, but at least the spell she’d used was in here; all of them were. They weren’t of age yet to officially learn to write their own, so it would be in here and the counter spell would be alongside it, thankfully.

She heard the door go at the other end of the room and the sound of giggling as a group of girls spotted her. The amount of rage it sparked within her was overwhelming and she wrangled with it, forcing herself not to open her mouth and breathe fire on them like she wanted to do. She had to consider that fire breathing was not a good idea in a library – not in one that held the answer to her predicament.

She could of course go straight to the head of her house; he could resolve this in a second with a wave of his wand, but that would spark an inquiry and lead to expulsion – and not just for Audrey, even though she deserved it. They would find out what Lesley had been up to as well and that was not a good idea.

“Bitches!” she muttered under her breath, referring to the little group that had uncovered her secret and started this feud. If they dared to open their mouths about what she’d been doing in the dungeons under the university there’d be hell to pay. There went that rage again! Gosh, no wonder dragons got such a bad rap for burning everything to the ground; it didn’t take much to spark the urge.

She considered that she could easily resolve the problem of Audrey and her cronies with what she’d been working on in the dungeons, but their disappearance would be noted, and a search of the building would be a really bad idea for Lesley. Rock and a hard place – especially when she could do with some humans to practice on. Mmm, she’d come back to that later, for now she needed to resolve the immediate issue, then she would work on a plan to exact revenge.

She’d managed to work out how to turn the pages with the claws, and within minutes she was staring at the spell that that little busy-body had used. She read through the counter spell underneath and prepared herself. She had a cloak ready on the chair next to her, so she wouldn’t be naked for long. She took a deep breath and recited the words in a whisper. She felt the familiar tingle, and relief flooded through her as she watched her hands return.

Lesley grabbed up the cloak as soon as it finished and wrapped it round her. She thought about returning to her dorm, but the residual anger she had experienced as the dragon still lingered and it powered her thoughts of revenge. A rather lovely idea had come to her and she wanted to get it in motion as soon as possible. If it worked there’d be no coming back for Audrey this time, and they’d never be able to trace how it happened.

Lesley chuckled to herself and rushed along the corridors in the direction of the dungeons. She’d been ready with this for a while, but thought it’d be a few years yet before she tried it.