he Grand Wizard had reason to fear if not for his head, at least for his position. Dumb as he was, the King of the Barrens would not threaten him directly, but he could have him replaced by one of the many aspiring master wizards if he couldn’t come up with a little magic to make the people happier.
Times were hard for everyone, well, not for the king and his court, but even they were annoyed to run into glum faces and snarly comments when the business of running a kingdom forced them to step outside the palace’s gate. But, what with the nasty little war that had been dragging on for years and the need to raise the taxes and generally everything going wrong, the King had nothing to offer his subjects.
Grand Wizard Alfonse had a limited array of tricks up his ample sleeves and relied mostly on his scary bird-like features and booming voice, ideal for sowing fear in the simple folks of Barrens.
The best he could offer was a magic spell of multiplying the food, a cool trick he had picked up from another almost magical figure at a wedding in another country. However, he must have misheard the other guy, as for some reason, he didn’t quite manage to produce more food, but the potatoes in the land did grow as big as pumpkins, which was quite a feat. The people were happy for a time, although a little bored with the endless potato dishes the crafty women of the land came up with. They did appreciate the ample quantities of moonshine, the schnaps, which meant they could do without the dubious beverages sold by the royal winery at outrageous prices.
All went well for a while in the kingdom and the grateful ruler sent his faithful wizard a great ball of gold thread for a new embroidered robe, which Alfonse melted promptly and hid the ingot in his light emergency travel-kit, a smart move in light of things to come.
Freed from the worries about food and drink, the people had ample time now to muse over things and soon discovered plenty of other problems, like how come they had no say on how things were run if it was their taxes the ancient king and his useless sons got to spend on foolish endeavors. Why was it, for instance, works had begun on a palace for the king’s youngest son when most of their roads weren’t even paved? Not to mention the palace was being built in honor of the boy’s wedding to a foreign princess, who had unnaturally rosy cheeks and a huge nose. What’s wrong with our own daughters, are they not beautiful enough?
Called once again to the rescue, Alfonse found himself at a loss, as all he could offer was a spell to make the pigs as big as cows, which was quite a stupid idea as everybody knew the locals were quite partial to beef.
‘And they have plenty of food as it is, you idiot’, the King shouted and sent the hapless wizard packing, which he readily obliged.

wasn’t long before another wizard came forth and promised the king he’ll take care of the problem. Gonzalo was famed for his ability to conjure bad weather and terrible storms. Not due to his great magic powers, but thanks to his aching joints sensitive to the slightest weather change. Most of his tricks Gonzalo had picked up during his years at the Great School of all Sciences, in faraway Moonblat. He wasn’t a great student, but he kept a keen eye on things that might come in useful at a later date. It took some convincing, but in the end Great Wizard Gonzalo was granted a trunk full of gold and an armed escort for a trip to Moonblat, the only place the incredible magical device could be found.
The King had his doubts his ungrateful subjects would be willing to pay themselves for the magical boxes, yet Gonzalo insisted the novelty item should be very expensive. So expensive that, at first, only the royal household could afford the magical box full of lights and sounds that kept them entertained for hours. The kids would sneak out of their beds and the servants would drop whatever they were doing just to peek at the marvelous little figures that lived in the box.
Soon, all the people in the land wanted one and Gonzalo had to make several trips to get more boxes. In less then a year, the people of Barrens had forgotten all their grievances. Who had time for the stupid King when they had the people in the magic boxes to keep them entertained for hours? The King himself was very devoted to his magic box, which suited Gonzalo and his masters in Moonablat quite well, as they had big plans for the Barrens kingdom.

Story written for @mariannewest's freewrite challenge, today's prompt was: idiot! Check out her blog and join our freewrite community.

Thanks for reading!

Image: 1, 2.