The Missing, Magical Shoelace: A Short Story

To get away from the rather depressing poetry posts, I’ve decided to share an excerpt from a short story of mine. It was for a Wattpad contest, and contained some. . . interesting prompts, to say the least.

I created a basic cover for it which I’m rather proud of, considering my graphic skills are lacking.

The maximum word count was 1,000, but I hope to expand it once the contest is over. The story follows the journey of Astra and her father and their quest to recover their lost magical object, a shoelace. There will be humor, some sweet father/daughter bonding and a unique world that I hope to expound on in a later edition.

Brief Description

What do you do if a temperamental immortal steals your magical shoelace?

Why, you get it back!

Astra and her father, the Tinker, must journey through the fantasy world of Lithe in order to retrieve their magical shoelace, the only one of its kind with the capabilities to travel in between fantasy worlds.

Will they succeed? Or will they be stuck in the land of acid-spitting dragons forever?

Excerpt

“Come again?” Astra demanded. “You lost the shoelace?”

Her father laughed nervously. “Well, I didn’t exactly lose it. It was stolen.”

Astra sighed in exasperation. She loved her father dearly, but losing the shoelace was a big deal. It was their only means of fantasy world traveling and it had been stolen. “Who took it?”

Her father looked up from the wand he was tinkering with, his leather chair squeaking as he turned. “Hmm?”

Astra rolled her eyes. Her father was a brilliant man, one of the few beings able to fix magical objects, but he could be a bit spacey.

She sat down in a chair next to him and gave him a fond smile. “I asked, who stole it?”

He paled slightly. “Well, umm, it was Muto.”

“Muto? Well that isn’t good. We both know how he gets.” Muto was a rather harmless immortal, but he could be temperamental.

“When are we getting it back?”

Her father rose from his seat. “We’re not. I’m not having you gallivanting across Lithe. We don’t know anything about this world, except for the fact that it’s inhabited by acid spitting dragons, and Muto I might add.”

“What do you mean? Of course we have to go find it! The shoelace is our only way home.” Astra fought back tears.

“We’ll figure something out, we always do.” Her father pulled her into a big hug and rested his chin on her long black hair.

Astra snuggled up against her father, enjoying the smell of wintergreen that always seemed to follow him. “Can we at least try? We have plenty of magic at our disposal should we need it. I’d just hate to not try at all.”

He laughed and squeezed her tighter. “Astra, my bright star. You are so much like your mother. She always tried her hardest in everything.”

Astra only had vague memories of her mother. Her father had been a Tinker for many years, traveling from fantasy world to the next, fixing their magical objects. On one such trip, he met her mother, Luna, a star. Luna had since returned to the stars, but Astra hoped she would return soon.

“Please?” She wrapped her arms around her father’s neck, her eyes pleading. “Can we please try?”

He sighed and looked away. “Fine, but you must promise me that you will listen to me when I say we need to give up.”

Astra nodded her head vigorously. “Deal.” She scrambled off of his lap and headed to her room. She shoved some spare clothes into her backpack, making sure to grab the enchanted one which was much roomier.

She grabbed a magic dagger and a wand before heading back to her father. “Ready.”
He chuckled and quickly packed a bag for himself. “What did you bring to defend yourself?”

Astra showed him the dagger and the wand. “The dagger makes the wearer invulnerable to stealth attacks and the wand can produce simple curses and charms.”

He nodded in approval and grabbed a sword and another wand. “Alright, let’s go.”

What are your thoughts on this short story? Does it have potential? I’d love to hear your thoughts.