'In the Manner of Fairy Tales' by Luanne Castle

Magda broke off a hazel twig she passed on her path to the magistrate’s office. What had she really done anyway? Magda hadn’t realized there was a law prohibiting her chickens from wandering into her neighbor’s yard. As soon as she noticed they had gotten through the fencing, she rounded them up and led them home. They hadn’t even had time to shit over there. Now she saw she had been picking bark off the twig. Better than biting her nails. Magda pictured the magistrate’s sour face and stabbed at the air with the twig as if to puncture that nasty look. Instead, the air parted, just for an instant, and a dragon ghost stepped through and sat down on Magda’s shoulder. Seeing the woman’s shock, the ectoplasmic miniature roared with laughter. Of course, being small, his roar was not too loud for Magda’s ears. And being a ghost, he didn’t spew fire. Although the Wawel Dragon had demanded cows to eat and occasionally possibly maybe been responsible for eating human flesh, he had been dead now for many years. Magda grew brave and insisted he go back where he came from. Instead, the dragon ghost insisted on traveling with her to the magistrates. “Thank you for your hazel twig magic,” he crowed. Magda insisted she was not a magician or witch, but the dragon ghost just laughed. The magistrate seemed especially sour this morning, but when he glanced up and saw the dragon ghost he paled. “Hey there, judge! Remember before you were so high and mighty? Before you were chosen to judge others? Just a whippersnapper shoemaker you were! Feeding me that poison ram!” Just before the dragon ghost dragged the magistrate back with him through the thin air, he forced him to sign Magda’s papers of innocence.