Today's #flashfiction #MagicIsAHammer

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.”

Wile E. Coyote*

       I was playing my 3D game today so I was walking through the game world in 3D! And fighting enemies in 3D! And getting hit by enemy attacks in 3D! And dying in 3D! 3D!And then I did things in not 3D! when I didn't feel like sitting in that cross-legged position I talked about in the other post because otherwise its too hard to get good looking 3D! on the 3DS to play in 3D so I just play normal when lying down. Otherwise I worked on other writing stuff today and saved nuns and babies. The usual.

      Anyway onto the flash fiction!

Magic is a Hammer

       I've found out that magic is like a hammer. Give it to a responsible adult and they can build wonderful things. Give it to a child and they just end up hitting their thumbs. Maybe their work together some shambling shack with nails that makes a sensible structure quake in shame.

      I'm a god that traveled from my world to another and decided to give it magic. Tons of magic. Then select myself the races that should use it. First off elves. They had long life spans so I thought it was appropriate. They used it responsibly. Like adults. They warred with it but any tool could be used for anything. It was used more for making marvelous things than for evil ends.

I then gave it to humans with a bit of hesitancy. They were responsible too. Sometimes even more than the elves. Sometimes less. They created marvelous things as well. Both races had their own forms of wizards and used magic in their own ways and made their own magical arts. The world in the end became better as they worked with it.

       Next I gave it to the fairies. I thought to myself “Aw, look at the little fairies! They're so cute and they can fly already and they're so nice and adorable!” And they were the children I talked about. They couldn't use the hammer like the others to build wonderful things. As tiny, weak creatures that survived either through diplomacy with other talking intelligent creatures or just their vast numbers magic was their first taste of power. They made magical “castles” for themselves that looked like honeycombs of dirty rock. All these castles tore away at whatever was in the way. They didn't care because it was shaped good for them to live in. The magic of the castle and its form protected them from protected them. But its spawning tore away forests and meadows and so much more.

      They waged war with the beasts of the land that were their natural predators for generations and even the talking sentient creatures that did not wield magic that had taken advantage of them in generations past as well. Those being the goblins and imps. Though just as people or species it is never the individual. When the fairies got revenge for their ancestors they never killed a single person who harmed their ancestors just the children of those who did. The faeries waged war after war for reasons besides their ancestors now that they had the power. When born as the weakest species and now free they had to seize the opportunity.

I let this go on for generations. When I was going to take away the magic of the faeries myself they attacked the humans and elves. They got bold. They thought with numbers and magic they could conquer their oldest enemies of all. Before the war began I looked at what the elves, humans and faeries had built. When I started giving out the magic I wanted not to interfere. I had hoped that the faeries would stop being so destructive after a few generations. The elves and humans evolved to make many great things so my philosophy of not interfering had worked so far.

      And I didn't need to interfere to wipe out the faeries. I called magic a hammer. And with theirs they crushed the faeries. They had mastered it and created so much more. And they crushed the faeries so elegantly. Elegantly may be a twisted word to describe the war. But with how quick and perfect the war was with how well honed their magical warfare was compared to the erratic faeries the poor child-like creatures died swiftly.