Pumpkin Pet
A Halloween tail
I was looking through old stories and thought I’d share a fun Halloween story from 2022. I wrote it when I was experimenting on Midjourney and came up with some interesting images. I’m hoping to get out an original story this weekend, but if not, at least here’s something to read. Happy spooky month!
Shortly after her fourteenth birthday, Miranda discovered she was a witch. The problem was, she was the only witch in her family and didn’t have anyone to teach her how to control her powers. And things were getting out of hand.
Today was the worst day of all. Today, she had been cuddling with her pet, Toby, and, as usual, bent down to pat him, calling him her cute little pumpkin. Unfortunately, she sneezed at that exact moment. Sparks flew from her fingertips, and Toby’s head now stuck out of a bright orange pumpkin.
Just how she was going to explain it to her parents when they got home, she didn’t know. Toby, at least, didn’t seem to mind. He just lay on her bed, soaking up all the attention she was guiltily lavishing on him.
A flash of lightning split the air beside Miranda’s bed. When her eyes stopped seeing afterimages, she made out the woman who had apparently arrived in its wake.
“Who are you?” Miranda asked, not certain she was going to like the answer.
“I’m your tutor,” the woman answered. “All new witches are assigned one. We’re backlogged at the moment, or I would have been here sooner.”
Miranda stared at the witch, then hazarded, “Would your arrival now have anything to do with Toby’s condition?”
“What?” The witch suddenly noticed Toby on the bed beside Miranda. When she had stopped laughing, she said, “No. But I can see I haven’t come a moment too soon.”
She murmured a few words in a language Miranda didn’t understand, and, with a puff of smoke, Toby returned to his old self. Well, at least Miranda wouldn’t have to explain a pumpkin pet to her parents. She sneezed and her bed turned into a pumpkin coach.
“But I didn’t say anything!” she said, clamping her hands over her mouth.
The witch set the bed to rights and then fixed Miranda with a mom look. “Young lady, we’re going to have to do something about that sneezing, at least until you gain control of your powers.” She took out a wand and waved it, chanting a few more words.
For the first time all fall, Miranda’s allergies seemed completely gone. Maybe this witch stuff wasn’t going to be so bad after all. Breaking into a grin, she asked, “When do we start?”
“Why, on Halloween, of course!”
This fun Halloween flash was inspired by the image. I was messing around on Midjourney, trying to create an animal with a pumpkin body (and preferably legs, but that didn’t work out). This little one was the best of the lot.
Then, of course, I realized that I had written the prompt as a cute animal with a pumpkin body and that I had no idea what kind of animal this was. So I was careful not to mention any species in the story.
I also tried “hedgehog as pumpkin.” Here are a few of the better images. None worked out incredibly well, but, it was fun.
The one coming out of the pumpkin is the cutest, I think, though it looks least like a hedgehog.
Happy Halloween week, everyone!
What fun! Your images are as amazing as your imagination 🤸. Great story!