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The Worst Wish

By FOXCARROTS

Chapter One:

“Rosa.”

    Rosa had enough of Lyra’s constant bragging, showing off, and general prissy attitude and she had to do something to take her down a peg.

    Rosa was a young fox girl with short pink hair cropped to her shoulders. She had long fox ears and a bushy pink tail. She had a pretty face with striking green eyes. She was usually grumpy but knew her worth and those who could not see it she had absolutely no time for. She decided that she was going to head off to the markets and see what she could find. She dressed in a simple tight sleeveless violet dress that came down to her thighs. it showed off her slim but curvy figure well. She wore nothing else save for her ornate silver collar that all foxes wore when they hit the age of maturity. Her feet were bare, as was custom for foxes and her beautiful narrow feet were well maintained and her toenails were painted a delicate green. She admired her feet for a few moments before heading out. She prided herself in her looks, but she knew her feet were almost irresistible to those who liked such things.

    The markets were housed in a large building built a century before. It had many levels of old and new shops and had nearly anything a young fox might be looking for. She browsed ornate jewelry, the latest fashions from across the seas and unique curiosities and antiques on the foundation level.

    That was when she saw her, Lyra the fox who gave Rosa so much frustration and anger. Lyra had chestnut brown hair tied up in pigtailed braids and pale violet eyes. She was dressed in a white tank top and fashionable black pants that ended at the calf. She was talking to several other foxes, and they were laughing at her jokes. Rosa could not imagine what Lyra was saying that was so funny, but she knew that it probably wasn’t. She was sick of the fact that whatever Lyra did people took notice and seemed to notice no one else. Rosa had been competing with her for years and was at a point of desperation.

    She looked over to a magic artifact shop and thought that perhaps she could find something there that might finally get her ahead of Lyra, or at the very least put her in her place. She walked up to the shop keep, a handsome older fox woman with white streaked black hair.

    “I need something to…” Rosa thought to herself as the best way to put it. “Something to help me in a long rivalry.”

    “Well, I might have just the thing. The shopkeeper said as she held up a small stone. “This is a wish stone, it only has three wishes left but they are for use for anyone who buys it. It’s very rare and you can’t tell anyone you got it from me”

    “If there are wishes on it then why aren’t you using them?” Rosa asked. “You could be queen, or rich, or the greatest sorcerer ever.”

    “Wishes are fickle and hard to control.” The shopkeeper admitted. “I have used a couple in my time and found it a little too dangerous for my liking. I would much rather take gold for them.”

    “How much?” Rosa asked.

    “Five hundred gold.” The shopkeeper replied. “That’s less than a hundred a wish.”

    “I’ll give you four hundred.” Rosa insisted. “Not a coin more.”

    The shopkeeper looked at Rosa, as if trying to gauge if there was any point in arguing. “Fine I’ll take four hundred.”

    Rosa counted out the coins and snatched the wish stone in and began her pursuit of Lyra, she found her near a clothing seller. Rosa crouched down behind a plant and readied herself to strike. “I wish that Lyra finds sticky permanent glue under her feet!”

    The stone lit up just as Lyra turned to a mirror to look at herself, the light distracted Rosa and the wish seemed to fail. Lyra walked to the next stall; her feet visibly not stuck at all. “Damn low budget wish stone! Her feet aren’t even sticky!”

    Lyra took a pair of ornate high heeled pumps off of a shelf and slipped them onto her feet. Rosa crinkled her nose in disgust. "Shoes Lyra? How tacky of you. But that gives me an idea.”

    Rosa clutched the wish stone once more, causing it to light up. She looked right at Lyra in the taboo heels and focused. “I wish that those heels never ever come off of Lyra’s feet!”

    Lyra looked at the shopkeeper. “These are interesting, but you know foxes don’t really wear shoes.” But when Lyra reached down to remove one of the heels it refused to budge. She tried the other foot, using the toe of her shoe at the heel to try and kick them off. However, the shoes stayed put. After a few more tugs she began to grow embarrassed. “I guess these are tighter than I thought. I can’t take them off it seems.”

    “Well, if you can’t take them off you have to buy them.” The clothing seller replied as she crossed her arms.

    “Yeah, give me a sec.” Lyra said as she lifted up one of her shoes and wrenched at them with her hands. After several hard tugs they stayed tightly put on her feet. “I guess I will buy them.”

    The clothing seller was delighted as Lyra counted out the gold. She then headed off, her arms waving around as she struggled to walk in them. Her friends all came around and supported her. She looked to them and smiled. “Let’s go to the café and figure out how these come off.”

    “Good luck ever getting out of those!” Rosa said with a laugh as she stood. “I hope you like those heels because they’re on you forever!”

    Lyra walked off with her friends, awkwardly trying to get used to her heels as she went. Rosa thought to whether she wanted to continue shopping or follow the group and watch them fight for hours and fail to free Lyra from the heels. She decided she could do a little of both and went to walk off but was shocked when her legs flexed to walk but her feet suddenly revealed they could not follow.

    “What the hell?” Rosa said as she looked down. She struggled harder to move her right foot froward, but it stubbornly refused to move. Her heel with much effort began to come up and she could feel something very real and very strong holding her skin tightly. As she looked closer, she saw thick yellow glue training tightly from her heel to the floor. There was no puddle just strands outlining the diameter of her foot to the floor going from her heel to the bottoms of her toes, locking tight to every part of her foot that connected to the floor. The glue twanged and snapped her heel back to the floor so hard and suddenly it made Rosa yelp. She looked at her other foot, this time focusing on her toes, struggling to lift them from the floor. The rubbery glue was thick and strict, giving her toes only half an inch of stretch while keeping the rest of her foot locked tight to the floor. It was as if she was fused in her own footprints, the glue snagging her soles as if applied by a surgeon by hand.

    “Where did this accursed glue come from?” Rosa asked before looking back over to where Lyra was moments ago. She saw the mirror that was facing back at her. “Dammit my wish went off after all, reflected back at me!”

    Rosa went to task to step out of her glue wish, struggling to test the glues strength and limits. It was dried and set on her, no longer sticky but every part that was stuck to the floor or her skin refused to let go. The strands could be forced to stretch but as she looked not one broke, just stretching straight from the lift before snapping back. Rosa struggled and moved, throwing her weight around and using her arms to add strength and leverage. However, there was no outsmarting the glue it was doing its job and it was doing that job rigidly well.

    Rosa tried to lift her foot directly up, attempting to stretch all of the glue on one foot at once. However, the glue responded by not moving at all locking her sole and toes flat to the floor. When she fought it in that way the glue was monumentally strict and gave up nothing. When she focused on her toes the glue would stretch, when she tried to arch her foot the ball of her foot stretched sightly from the ground. Her heels would provide the most stretch but would only do so when the other points were firm against the floor. No matter what she did only one part of her foot could stretch at the glue, the other points locked tightly in place. Both feet were in the same boat and though she could move different parts of each foot from the other it didn’t help at all.

    “Are you ok?” A shopkeeper said as she noticed Rosa was having issues.

    “I am very much not ok!” Rosa snapped. “My feet are stuck in glue. Go get me a solvent or something!”

    “Oh no!” The shopkeeper replied, concerned for Rosa despite her attitude. “I think we have some universal solvent around here.”

    “Well go get it!” Rosa demanded. “I have shit to do!”

    The shopkeeper ran off in search of the solvent as Rosa stared down at her feet. She was in utter disbelief that she was in a situation she could not get herself out of. She focused her efforts, fighting the glue as hard as she could and forcing it to stretch. However, the glue seemed to have its own ideas. It stretched when she fought but if she went to its maximum stretch, it would activate its elasticity and snap her feet back in place. No matter what she did she would be snapped back, and her feet would end up in the mathematically exact pace they started. Eventually Rosa had to take a break, she was exhausted from the struggling and her feet were sore form all the snapping back to the floor.

    “This suck!” Rosa said as she crossed her arms. “As much as I hate to admit it, I can’t get myself out of this crap.”

    The shopkeeper ran back and produced the solvent. Rosa just looked at her like she was expecting something. The shopkeeper nodded and got to her knees and began to apply the solvent to Rosa’s feet.

    “I presume that I will not be charged for this.” Rosa commented. “Or else I will never shop here again.”

    “Don’t worry!” The shopkeeper assured. “My concern is getting you out of this.”

    “Good.” Rosa said as she watched the shopkeeper apply the entire bottle of universal solvent to the glue, stretching at her feet as best she could to allow her to apply it thoroughly.

    “There you go.” The shopkeeper said as she stood up. “You should be able to step free.”

    “About time!” Rosa said with a huff as she went to step out of her sticky footprints but instead of any forward movement, she was instead restricted and nearly fell forward. “The solvent did nothing! I’m still stuck tight!”

    “Oh dear.” The shopkeeper said in shock. “Maybe we could cut you out.”

    “Then do it!” Rosa replied. “I want out of this stuff!”

    Over the next two hours the shopkeeper and several others began to try and free Rosa, before long a small army of people from the shop, bystanders, and emergency personal were on the scene. They tried sawing the glue, cutting it, burning it, and anything else they could think of. The glue stubbornly held tight and didn’t become damaged at all. A worker brough a jackhammer and tried to break the cement around her feet but anything within ten meters of Rosa’s glued feet could not be damaged. One of the paramedics, a beautiful young red haired fox girl tried to cut some of Rosa’s skin away from the glue but discovered that a strange force prevented any action that might free her from working.

    "Wait this is magic!" Rosa said as a solution popped into her head. “I wished this glue into existence I can wish it off!”

    “That seems to be the only way.” One the paramedic said with a nod. “Only magic can undo magic.”

    “I’ll be out of this in a second!” Rosa nodded as she took the wish stone in her hand. “I wish to be unstuck from this glue!”

    The wish stone flashed, and Rosa nodded in triumph but when she tried to take a step, she found that both of her feet were still glued tight. “What the hell? I’m still as glued as ever! The wish went off why am I still stuck?”

    “What were the words of the wish that got you?” The paramedic asked. “Wording is very important in wishes.

    Rosa thought back for a moment. “I wished for permanent glue under someone’s feet, but it got reflected back at me by a mirror.”

    “You used the word permanent in your wish?” The paramedic asked.

    “Yes and?” Rosa asked.

    “The wishes are literal and you have to be very careful.” The paramedic explained. “By wishing for permanent glue you ensure the magic makes sure the glue is permanent and can never be undone. No magic, no wish, nothing we do will make the glue come off…it is by definition absolutely permanent in every way.”

    “Like I can never get unstuck from this shit?” Rosa asked in shock. “I don’t believe it.”

    “You better wrap your head around it.” The paramedic replied. “Because wishes like you just wished are very bad and never ever come off.”

    Rosa began to panic, struggling as hard as she could to fight to get free, however the magic glue stayed put keeping her linked to the spot just as it was commanded.”

    “One thing doesn’t make sense.” The shopkeeper suggested. “If the wish failed to undo the glue, then why did the wish go off and use up the wish.”

    “No idea, it should have failed and left the wish to be cast again.” The paramedic said with a shrug of her shoulders, she went to take a step back toward the others but found her feet could not respond. “What the? I’m stuck too!”

    “So am I!” The shopkeeper replied as she struggled with her toes, finding them inescapably linked to the floor. “I can’t move!”

    One by one the dozen or so people who had gathered to help Rosa checked their feet just to discover they were firmly and permanently glued to the floor. No one could move, no one could escape.

    “All of us are stuck!” One of the helpers called out. “Glued tight!”

    “The wish must have malfunctioned!” The shopkeeper replied in shock. “It couldn’t change things from the first wish so instead changed the fact we are free to match the first wish.”

    “Hey you!” The paramedic shouted to a shopkeeper across the room. “Can you move?”

    “No, I seem to be stuck!” The distant shopkeeper shouted. “I can’t move!”

    “I’m stuck too.” A customer added. “My soles are locked tight to the floor with like glue or something.”

“Pick me up!” A nearby fox girl said as she looked up at her taller friend. The friend lifted her by the armpits but could not separate her bare feet from the floor. She tried to shift to get a better position, but her feet would not move either.

    The paramedic looked around the crowd finding a large fox guy who was giving his tired girlfriend a piggyback ride. They had stopped to watch the escape attempts before the wish backfired. The boyfriend’s feet were clearly glued. But the paramedic looked down to see the girl’s feet were off the ground. She looked to the guy holding her “Her feet weren’t on the ground. You need to put her down and so she can get help.”

    The fox guy shuffled for a moment before looking back at the paramedic with ashamed eyes. “I can’t”

    “This wish really screwed us.” The paramedic replied. “We can’t get around it at all.”

    “Can anyone move?” The shopkeeper by Rosa shouted to the market room at large. “We need someone unglued; this is an emergency.”

“I can’t budge.”

“What is this stuff?”

“Someone help me!”

“I keep getting snapped back.”

    It slowly became clear that every person in the room was stuck. Every foot connected to the floor was now securely glued to it and anyone lucky enough to not be on it was stuck to whatever was. No one was free and no one could get free.

    “This is bad.” Rosa said as she looked to the others, her defiant demeanor crumbled away.

    “Were all stuck.” The shopkeeper added. “Everyone in this shop is glued.”

    The paramedic looked to the others with a grave look on her face. “And the glue is permanent.”

To be continued.

-

Description

The Worst Wish

By FOXCARROTS

Chapter One:

“Rosa.”

    Rosa had enough of Lyra’s constant bragging, showing off, and general prissy attitude and she had to do something to take her down a peg.

    Rosa was a young fox girl with short pink hair cropped to her shoulders. She had long fox ears and a bushy pink tail. She had a pretty face with striking green eyes. She was usually grumpy but knew her worth and those who could not see it she had absolutely no time for. She decided that she was going to head off to the markets and see what she could find. She dressed in a simple tight sleeveless violet dress that came down to her thighs. it showed off her slim but curvy figure well. She wore nothing else save for her ornate silver collar that all foxes wore when they hit the age of maturity. Her feet were bare, as was custom for foxes and her beautiful narrow feet were well maintained and her toenails were painted a delicate green. She admired her feet for a few moments before heading out. She prided herself in her looks, but she knew her feet were almost irresistible to those who liked such things.

    The markets were housed in a large building built a century before. It had many levels of old and new shops and had nearly anything a young fox might be looking for. She browsed ornate jewelry, the latest fashions from across the seas and unique curiosities and antiques on the foundation level.

    That was when she saw her, Lyra the fox who gave Rosa so much frustration and anger. Lyra had chestnut brown hair tied up in pigtailed braids and pale violet eyes. She was dressed in a white tank top and fashionable black pants that ended at the calf. She was talking to several other foxes, and they were laughing at her jokes. Rosa could not imagine what Lyra was saying that was so funny, but she knew that it probably wasn’t. She was sick of the fact that whatever Lyra did people took notice and seemed to notice no one else. Rosa had been competing with her for years and was at a point of desperation.

    She looked over to a magic artifact shop and thought that perhaps she could find something there that might finally get her ahead of Lyra, or at the very least put her in her place. She walked up to the shop keep, a handsome older fox woman with white streaked black hair.

    “I need something to…” Rosa thought to herself as the best way to put it. “Something to help me in a long rivalry.”

    “Well, I might have just the thing. The shopkeeper said as she held up a small stone. “This is a wish stone, it only has three wishes left but they are for use for anyone who buys it. It’s very rare and you can’t tell anyone you got it from me”

    “If there are wishes on it then why aren’t you using them?” Rosa asked. “You could be queen, or rich, or the greatest sorcerer ever.”

    “Wishes are fickle and hard to control.” The shopkeeper admitted. “I have used a couple in my time and found it a little too dangerous for my liking. I would much rather take gold for them.”

    “How much?” Rosa asked.

    “Five hundred gold.” The shopkeeper replied. “That’s less than a hundred a wish.”

    “I’ll give you four hundred.” Rosa insisted. “Not a coin more.”

    The shopkeeper looked at Rosa, as if trying to gauge if there was any point in arguing. “Fine I’ll take four hundred.”

    Rosa counted out the coins and snatched the wish stone in and began her pursuit of Lyra, she found her near a clothing seller. Rosa crouched down behind a plant and readied herself to strike. “I wish that Lyra finds sticky permanent glue under her feet!”

    The stone lit up just as Lyra turned to a mirror to look at herself, the light distracted Rosa and the wish seemed to fail. Lyra walked to the next stall; her feet visibly not stuck at all. “Damn low budget wish stone! Her feet aren’t even sticky!”

    Lyra took a pair of ornate high heeled pumps off of a shelf and slipped them onto her feet. Rosa crinkled her nose in disgust. "Shoes Lyra? How tacky of you. But that gives me an idea.”

    Rosa clutched the wish stone once more, causing it to light up. She looked right at Lyra in the taboo heels and focused. “I wish that those heels never ever come off of Lyra’s feet!”

    Lyra looked at the shopkeeper. “These are interesting, but you know foxes don’t really wear shoes.” But when Lyra reached down to remove one of the heels it refused to budge. She tried the other foot, using the toe of her shoe at the heel to try and kick them off. However, the shoes stayed put. After a few more tugs she began to grow embarrassed. “I guess these are tighter than I thought. I can’t take them off it seems.”

    “Well, if you can’t take them off you have to buy them.” The clothing seller replied as she crossed her arms.

    “Yeah, give me a sec.” Lyra said as she lifted up one of her shoes and wrenched at them with her hands. After several hard tugs they stayed tightly put on her feet. “I guess I will buy them.”

    The clothing seller was delighted as Lyra counted out the gold. She then headed off, her arms waving around as she struggled to walk in them. Her friends all came around and supported her. She looked to them and smiled. “Let’s go to the café and figure out how these come off.”

    “Good luck ever getting out of those!” Rosa said with a laugh as she stood. “I hope you like those heels because they’re on you forever!”

    Lyra walked off with her friends, awkwardly trying to get used to her heels as she went. Rosa thought to whether she wanted to continue shopping or follow the group and watch them fight for hours and fail to free Lyra from the heels. She decided she could do a little of both and went to walk off but was shocked when her legs flexed to walk but her feet suddenly revealed they could not follow.

    “What the hell?” Rosa said as she looked down. She struggled harder to move her right foot froward, but it stubbornly refused to move. Her heel with much effort began to come up and she could feel something very real and very strong holding her skin tightly. As she looked closer, she saw thick yellow glue training tightly from her heel to the floor. There was no puddle just strands outlining the diameter of her foot to the floor going from her heel to the bottoms of her toes, locking tight to every part of her foot that connected to the floor. The glue twanged and snapped her heel back to the floor so hard and suddenly it made Rosa yelp. She looked at her other foot, this time focusing on her toes, struggling to lift them from the floor. The rubbery glue was thick and strict, giving her toes only half an inch of stretch while keeping the rest of her foot locked tight to the floor. It was as if she was fused in her own footprints, the glue snagging her soles as if applied by a surgeon by hand.

    “Where did this accursed glue come from?” Rosa asked before looking back over to where Lyra was moments ago. She saw the mirror that was facing back at her. “Dammit my wish went off after all, reflected back at me!”

    Rosa went to task to step out of her glue wish, struggling to test the glues strength and limits. It was dried and set on her, no longer sticky but every part that was stuck to the floor or her skin refused to let go. The strands could be forced to stretch but as she looked not one broke, just stretching straight from the lift before snapping back. Rosa struggled and moved, throwing her weight around and using her arms to add strength and leverage. However, there was no outsmarting the glue it was doing its job and it was doing that job rigidly well.

    Rosa tried to lift her foot directly up, attempting to stretch all of the glue on one foot at once. However, the glue responded by not moving at all locking her sole and toes flat to the floor. When she fought it in that way the glue was monumentally strict and gave up nothing. When she focused on her toes the glue would stretch, when she tried to arch her foot the ball of her foot stretched sightly from the ground. Her heels would provide the most stretch but would only do so when the other points were firm against the floor. No matter what she did only one part of her foot could stretch at the glue, the other points locked tightly in place. Both feet were in the same boat and though she could move different parts of each foot from the other it didn’t help at all.

    “Are you ok?” A shopkeeper said as she noticed Rosa was having issues.

    “I am very much not ok!” Rosa snapped. “My feet are stuck in glue. Go get me a solvent or something!”

    “Oh no!” The shopkeeper replied, concerned for Rosa despite her attitude. “I think we have some universal solvent around here.”

    “Well go get it!” Rosa demanded. “I have shit to do!”

    The shopkeeper ran off in search of the solvent as Rosa stared down at her feet. She was in utter disbelief that she was in a situation she could not get herself out of. She focused her efforts, fighting the glue as hard as she could and forcing it to stretch. However, the glue seemed to have its own ideas. It stretched when she fought but if she went to its maximum stretch, it would activate its elasticity and snap her feet back in place. No matter what she did she would be snapped back, and her feet would end up in the mathematically exact pace they started. Eventually Rosa had to take a break, she was exhausted from the struggling and her feet were sore form all the snapping back to the floor.

    “This suck!” Rosa said as she crossed her arms. “As much as I hate to admit it, I can’t get myself out of this crap.”

    The shopkeeper ran back and produced the solvent. Rosa just looked at her like she was expecting something. The shopkeeper nodded and got to her knees and began to apply the solvent to Rosa’s feet.

    “I presume that I will not be charged for this.” Rosa commented. “Or else I will never shop here again.”

    “Don’t worry!” The shopkeeper assured. “My concern is getting you out of this.”

    “Good.” Rosa said as she watched the shopkeeper apply the entire bottle of universal solvent to the glue, stretching at her feet as best she could to allow her to apply it thoroughly.

    “There you go.” The shopkeeper said as she stood up. “You should be able to step free.”

    “About time!” Rosa said with a huff as she went to step out of her sticky footprints but instead of any forward movement, she was instead restricted and nearly fell forward. “The solvent did nothing! I’m still stuck tight!”

    “Oh dear.” The shopkeeper said in shock. “Maybe we could cut you out.”

    “Then do it!” Rosa replied. “I want out of this stuff!”

    Over the next two hours the shopkeeper and several others began to try and free Rosa, before long a small army of people from the shop, bystanders, and emergency personal were on the scene. They tried sawing the glue, cutting it, burning it, and anything else they could think of. The glue stubbornly held tight and didn’t become damaged at all. A worker brough a jackhammer and tried to break the cement around her feet but anything within ten meters of Rosa’s glued feet could not be damaged. One of the paramedics, a beautiful young red haired fox girl tried to cut some of Rosa’s skin away from the glue but discovered that a strange force prevented any action that might free her from working.

    "Wait this is magic!" Rosa said as a solution popped into her head. “I wished this glue into existence I can wish it off!”

    “That seems to be the only way.” One the paramedic said with a nod. “Only magic can undo magic.”

    “I’ll be out of this in a second!” Rosa nodded as she took the wish stone in her hand. “I wish to be unstuck from this glue!”

    The wish stone flashed, and Rosa nodded in triumph but when she tried to take a step, she found that both of her feet were still glued tight. “What the hell? I’m still as glued as ever! The wish went off why am I still stuck?”

    “What were the words of the wish that got you?” The paramedic asked. “Wording is very important in wishes.

    Rosa thought back for a moment. “I wished for permanent glue under someone’s feet, but it got reflected back at me by a mirror.”

    “You used the word permanent in your wish?” The paramedic asked.

    “Yes and?” Rosa asked.

    “The wishes are literal and you have to be very careful.” The paramedic explained. “By wishing for permanent glue you ensure the magic makes sure the glue is permanent and can never be undone. No magic, no wish, nothing we do will make the glue come off…it is by definition absolutely permanent in every way.”

    “Like I can never get unstuck from this shit?” Rosa asked in shock. “I don’t believe it.”

    “You better wrap your head around it.” The paramedic replied. “Because wishes like you just wished are very bad and never ever come off.”

    Rosa began to panic, struggling as hard as she could to fight to get free, however the magic glue stayed put keeping her linked to the spot just as it was commanded.”

    “One thing doesn’t make sense.” The shopkeeper suggested. “If the wish failed to undo the glue, then why did the wish go off and use up the wish.”

    “No idea, it should have failed and left the wish to be cast again.” The paramedic said with a shrug of her shoulders, she went to take a step back toward the others but found her feet could not respond. “What the? I’m stuck too!”

    “So am I!” The shopkeeper replied as she struggled with her toes, finding them inescapably linked to the floor. “I can’t move!”

    One by one the dozen or so people who had gathered to help Rosa checked their feet just to discover they were firmly and permanently glued to the floor. No one could move, no one could escape.

    “All of us are stuck!” One of the helpers called out. “Glued tight!”

    “The wish must have malfunctioned!” The shopkeeper replied in shock. “It couldn’t change things from the first wish so instead changed the fact we are free to match the first wish.”

    “Hey you!” The paramedic shouted to a shopkeeper across the room. “Can you move?”

    “No, I seem to be stuck!” The distant shopkeeper shouted. “I can’t move!”

    “I’m stuck too.” A customer added. “My soles are locked tight to the floor with like glue or something.”

“Pick me up!” A nearby fox girl said as she looked up at her taller friend. The friend lifted her by the armpits but could not separate her bare feet from the floor. She tried to shift to get a better position, but her feet would not move either.

    The paramedic looked around the crowd finding a large fox guy who was giving his tired girlfriend a piggyback ride. They had stopped to watch the escape attempts before the wish backfired. The boyfriend’s feet were clearly glued. But the paramedic looked down to see the girl’s feet were off the ground. She looked to the guy holding her “Her feet weren’t on the ground. You need to put her down and so she can get help.”

    The fox guy shuffled for a moment before looking back at the paramedic with ashamed eyes. “I can’t”

    “This wish really screwed us.” The paramedic replied. “We can’t get around it at all.”

    “Can anyone move?” The shopkeeper by Rosa shouted to the market room at large. “We need someone unglued; this is an emergency.”

“I can’t budge.”

“What is this stuff?”

“Someone help me!”

“I keep getting snapped back.”

    It slowly became clear that every person in the room was stuck. Every foot connected to the floor was now securely glued to it and anyone lucky enough to not be on it was stuck to whatever was. No one was free and no one could get free.

    “This is bad.” Rosa said as she looked to the others, her defiant demeanor crumbled away.

    “Were all stuck.” The shopkeeper added. “Everyone in this shop is glued.”

    The paramedic looked to the others with a grave look on her face. “And the glue is permanent.”

To be continued.

-