Title: Magical Mishap
Fandom: BtVS
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Willow
Rating: PG
Word Count: 350
Setting: Season three, just before Gingerbread.
Summary: Willow is teaching herself to summon the four elements.
Content Notes: None needed.
Written For: Challenge 405: Amnesty 67, using Challenge 79: Element.
Disclaimer: I don’t own BtVS, or the characters.



Earth, air, fire, and water, the four elements. They’re kind of the basis for most magic, and Willow’s been working on her summoning skills, which is going really well. Mostly. Okay, summoning fire was a bit of a disaster, she almost set fire to her bed, and in retrospect maybe she should have worked on summoning water first; it would have been a sensible precaution in case of mishaps. But she hadn’t been getting anywhere with the water spell, and fire turned out to be way too easy… Who knew?

So now she can summon two of the elements, fire, and also air, although not together because that would be bad. Fire feeds on air and she doesn’t want to burn the house down.

Earth is messy and unpredictable. She’s almost managed it a time or two, but for some reason water still eludes her, which is why when she practices the fire spell, she keeps a jug of water handy. Precautions are wise, even if they have to take a physical form.

One she’s mastered all four, then she can move on to more intricate spells, minor enchantments, maybe levitation because being able to make things float would be really cool, but it’s important to get control over the basics first. That way hopefully fewer things can go wrong.

So, earth. It takes more energy than summoning fire, and it usually gives her a headache, but she’d getting stronger, mentally, and she knows she can do it if she tries hard enough. She just needs to practice more, and focus, concentrate. Air is just a few molecules, and fire is a chemical reaction, but earth is solid, weighty, complicated. There’s so much more to it, particles of so many different substances involved…

Something makes an ominous SPLAT and Willow slowly opens her eyes, frowns. Okay, so not exactly what she was aiming for, but it’s progress of a sort, she just needs to refine a few details. In the meantime, she should deal with her summoning before her parents get home.

“How d’you get mud out of a carpet?”


The End