Thexar

by

Elton Gahr

“Yup, whatcha got there is a Thexar,” the old wizard said, tapping the door with his staff.

“What do I do?” Linda asked.

“Have you tried put’un up a sign that said ‘Danger Thexar”?”

“I would have, but I did not know what it was and any signs I put up disappear,” Linda said.

“Yah, ya got a big’un. The old ‘uns can read,” The man said, planting his staff in the ground and a puff of power grew out from the bottom.

“People are disappearing. You’ve got to do something,” Linda said.

“Can’t. Thexars are an endangered species and I could lose ma mage license,” he said, as he spoke the door seemed to shake and the building not to her shop shifted from an old brick building to a modern glass and steel building with fashionable clothing in the window. As she watched the building shift, she saw a pair of shoes appear and knew she had to have them.

The old man caught her shoulder as she took a step towards the door and he said, “I think it’s getting hungry.”

Realizing she had almost walked into the two wide glass doors, Linda stepped back.

The wizard raised his staff, and a white light orb of light appeared above it. The light bent until it was focused in a bright beam on the Thexar and the feeling disappeared.

“There has to be an exception if the thing is eating people,” Linda said.

“I could request a tribunal ‘ut the archimages won’t be meet’n for three months and I reckon they’ll care more about the Thexar,” the wizard said.

“What do you suggest then?” Linda asked, she no longer felt any urge to go in, but she had seen others walk into the building.

“Gotta starve it out,” the wizard said.

“How am I supposed to do that?”

“Ah can block its mind wammy, but you’ll still need to convince people to come ina your business ‘nstead of going into the Thexar,” the wizard said.

“How do I do that?”

“A good enough sale outta do it,” the wizard said.

That wouldn’t be easy, but Linda didn’t see how she had any choice. It wasn’t just that the mimic was taking her customers. It was eating them, which would make it far harder to win them back.

“I suppose I could probably lower prices some,” Linda said.

“Ya’ not understand. The Thexar will be a beauty. Ya gota go hard if ya wanna starve it,” the wizard said.

“I’ve been losing customers, and I had to pay half of my savings to get you out here. If I run a sale like that, I’ll go out of business,” Linda said.

“If ya don’t people gonna die,” the wizard said.

“Fine, but you better keep that spell up,” Linda said.

“That’s what you’re paying me for,” the wizard said.

***

The shopkeeper slammed the door behind her as Carl leaned his staff against the side of the Thexar and pulled his cell phone from his wizard’s robes.

“Mick here,” a voice on the other end said.

“It’s done. If you wait two weeks and make an offer, she’ll probably sell it to you for a couple of sandwiches,” Carl said.

“Did you use that absurd accent again?” Mick said.

“People like it. Just keep those people the Thexar captured in one of your hotels for a couple weeks. The target is paying my salary,” Carl said, and he couldn’t help but grin. Who said being a wizard couldn’t be profitable?