Lester didn’t see the eyes watching him from a little distance. He thought out loud, “I am very important and have helped the woodland creatures and Nogdorf is simply not respecting me and treating me the way he should. Why, the magic, non-lettuce plant picked me out of all of the animals in the forest. What should I do?”

  The eyes moved in closer and Juniper said, “I think this is my opportunity. Well hello, Lester. I haven’t seen you for a while. How have you been? You look a little down. What is wrong?”

  Lester, feeling sympathy coming from Juniper and knowing Juniper had been helpful to them, unlike Lucent, decided to confide in Juniper. “I am the Herbal Wizard and do a wonderful job protecting and healing the woodland creatures, but Nogdorf doesn’t respect me the way he should. He wanted me to do odd jobs for him. He should get other animals to do those tasks and leave the wizard jobs for me.”

  Juniper asked, “What wizard jobs are you working on at the moment?”

  Lester said, “An invisibility spell so the humans can’t see us.” After he told Juniper about the invisibility spell, he felt a queer feeling, like he had said something he shouldn’t have. He didn’t see Nogdorf, who was listening to the whole conversation.

  Nogdorf was tempted to go into another wizard depression and that led him to remember how Lester had saved him out of the last depression and then he thought about how Lester had cared so much about the mice his wife had been killing and worked with him to find a solution to her problems. He also thought about how Lester had helped Lily Hog, who was one of his favorite people, by finding Lion’s Mane and cooking it for her. He was actually becoming an integral part of the forest. However, he saw warning signs.

  Nogdorf didn’t know what to do. He knew for sure that pride comes before a fall and he could see Lester not just proud of what he had accomplished, but getting lifted up in pride. Juniper was obviously up to no good, making Lester feel he was on his side, but Nogdorf didn’t know what Juniper’s angle was. This couldn’t have come up at a worse time. Tomorrow was the celebration and Nogdorf needed to not only be in attendance, but needed to help oversee everyone since Lester was not going to. He also needed to keep an eye on Lester. The wolves were not to be trusted, in spite of how friendly Juniper had acted before and even how friendly he was acting toward Lester now.

  Nogdorf sighed a big sigh and transported to the creatures who were preparing for the cotillion. He went first to the great forest flats and was delighted to see the Japanese lanterns hanging from all four corners of the dance floor, from tall pine trees, into the middle. They were beautiful. The forest’s best artists must have worked on them. They all had drawings of cherry trees painted on the thinnest paper and were framed by such thin pieces of wood that they appeared fragile. He exclaimed as he caught out of the corner of his eye the cut outs where the creatures would stand to get their pictures taken.

  Millicent Badger, Sarge’s wife, told him how they had come up with the idea for the cut-outs. The cut-out for the large animals showed a fighter in armor with a raised sword. The place for the head was a big empty circle where the animal would place his or her head. The cut-out for the small animals was actually made for several animals to be photographed at one time. It was a picture of several mice sewing. Both cut-outs were beautifully colored and so attractive that Nogdorf knew this would be a popular spot during the cotillion.

  The small make-shift kitchen had been set up across from the cut-outs on the other side of the dance floor. Nogdorf went home after checking on the set up and got his boombox and plenty of batteries. He was encouraged that everything was coming together so well, in spite of Lester’s rebelliousness. The animals would have a fine time, celebrating their victory, dancing, wearing custom made formal attire, and Lester’s favorite, eating.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Speaking of Lester, he needed to go check on him. Nogdorf transported back to Lester and Juniper. They were in a shallow cave behind some shrubs, obviously hiding and Lester was saying, all pompously, “Yes, to achieve invisibility, all I need to do is say these magical words and tap you with my wand. Here we go. See through, saw through, won’t be seen. Invisibility cloak Juniper.”

  “Nothing happened, Lester. What is wrong?” Juniper asked impatiently.

  Lester hopped nervously in place and answered, “Sometimes it takes a second try, Juniper. Just wait. Again, he said his ‘magic words’...See through, saw through, won’t be seen. Invisibility cloak Juniper.”

  Again, nothing happened. “I thought you were the great herbal wizard, Lester. What is going on? Why can’t you do this simple spell for me?” Juniper razzed JJ.

  Lester sputtered nervously, “Don’t worry Juniper.”

  “Oh, I’m not worried. But maybe you should be. You do realize rabbit is my very favorite food?” Juniper said threatenly to Lester. “I’ll give you another try to prove yourself and if it doesn’t work, I’ll assume you are a fraud. Can you guess what happens to posers? Ok, my pal, Zonkers has a long, infected, deep cut from a barbed wire fence. If you can heal him, I will go easy on you.”

  Lester was just now realizing he might have made a bad judgement call, trusting Juniper. However, having just reviewed all of the spells he had learned, he knew what to do for Zonkers. Lester found a rose bush and crammed his rainbow shirt pocket full of petals. Then, he had to walk a ways, looking under and around bushes and off of the path, with Juniper nagging him negatively the whole way. By this time, Lester was shaking, afraid of what might happen if he couldn’t help Zonkers. “Voila!” Lester said, as he found yarrow. He quickly picked it and asked Juniper to take him to Zonkers.

  They found Zonkers laying under a spruce tree, groaning, with his front leg swollen and red and the cut being 8 inches long. He obviously had a high fever and not long for this world, unless something was done. Lester jumped into action, asking Juniper to boil water and get him a clean cloth. Lester put the cloth into the boiling water, after taking it off of the fire, wrung it out and gently cleaned the wolf’s infected leg. Zonkers flinched, initially and then relaxed from the warmth of the cloth.

  Next, Lester laid rose petals all inside the cut and then alternated it with yarrow. Zonkers fell asleep, peacefully. Juniper said with a snarl, “Ok, herbal wizard, now that you have fixed my friend, I am going to fix you.” He menacingly started toward Lester and a strange thing happened. Nogdorf, who had been watching, knew Juniper was about to make short work of Lester and he stepped in, invisibly. He waved his arms in a big arc and noiselessly said, “Alakazam.”

  Juniper stopped short as he saw Lester’s rabbit nose stop twitching and start stretching. His hair grew course, the rainbow clothing disappeared and his body stretched out. Then his legs stretched out and Lester got a snarl on his face. Standing before Juniper was the biggest, baddest wolf he had ever seen. Lester glanced down at himself and started toward Juniper. Juniper ran as fast as he could and didn’t look back.

  Lester looked himself over, wondering what had happened. Nogdorf appeared just then and Lester ran over and gave him a great big wolf hug. As Nogdorf was turning him back into a rabbit, Lester was saying, “Nogdorf you saved my life. I’m so sorry I didn’t listen to you. I thought I was pretty important, but if you hadn’t been here, I definitely wouldn’t be here now.”

  Nogdorf said, “I’m sure that makes sense to you, Lester and I think I know what you mean.”

  “What I mean is, I wasn’t thinking about how very important you are, but you get involved with all of the creatures’ lives and activities and never think you are too good to do what needs to be done. I think I have learned a valuable lesson here,” Lester said.