On Merlin's Shelf

Chapter 1
Playing with Fire on Rainy Days

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Chapter Description: Rickie and his friend Tommy discover Merlin's Shop of Mystic Wonders.

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Hello, folks, my name is Merlin. Yes, that Merlin. The blue robe wearing, gray beard growing, half-moon glasses donning Merlin. I am indeed a wizard, I have advised many people in my eternal life, King Arthur, Julius Caesar, George Washington, how the list goes on! I have aided evil men and righteous men. The strong and the weak. I have lived both sides of the coin and quite frankly I have had enough. That was why I established the town of Newlote in Masschusetts. It was quite a nice place to live and remains so to this day. However, I confess. I am quite the wanderer. It was only recently, with the end of a glorious adventure, that I have decided to take up permanent residence in Newlote. Not that anyone could remember me. The oldest people of the town were young children when I departed. I like to remind myself of whom they were every now and then.

Newlote itself is quite a lovely town to live in, it has everything a small town needs. A mall, a police station, firefighter station, a mall, many, many shops. And in one of those shops is where I live. I run a store, it has been a fancy of mine to give people the power to change their fates. It’s quite humorous to me whenever people’s magic-enhanced plans blast in their faces. Its become so much fun that I decided to open my archive. Magical memory books litter the shelves, and on rainy days I love to reminisce about the errors of people. Every now and then I’ll chuckle at what my scrying orb says became of them.

However, I don’t really care fore what is on my shelf now, rather what will be on my shelf in the future. So sit your bones for a spell and watch at what happens when the residents of Newlote play with fire, and get burned . . . .

~Merlin

60th LVL Wizard

[size=4]Book One[/size]

On this particular rainy day, Rickie looked outside his den’s window and was depressed that he could see nothing beyond the drizzling rain and the grayish sky. He sighed loudly at the though of an entire day of play wasted. Rickie was eight years old, and he certainly had no time to waste with an inconvenience such as rain. With his head in his arms, he stood up, looking through the window and hoping that the rain would stop.

“Rickie, what are you doing?”

“Nothing.” Rickie sighed at the truthfulness in that statement.

“You know sweetie, you can play in the rain. Just make sure to warm up after.”

“It’s boring.”

“Pop into your swimsuit and head over to Tommy’s house. You can play in the puddles.” Rickie’s mom’s suggestion sounded better then doing nothing, so Rickie walked upstairs, sulking, and closed his door to get changed.

“Honestly, you’d think I’d asked the boy to swallow poison!” Rickie’s mother said to herself as she went back to washing dishes.

* * * * *

Rickie was wearing his leaf-patterned swim trunks when he departed for Tommy’s house. He lived only two houses down, but it was raining hard enough to make him completely soaked by the time he got there. Rickie’s mother had called in advanced to let Ashley, Tommy’s mom, know that Rickie was on his way.

“Yeah sure, Heather. I’d be happy to have him over. I just need to do some quick errands in the shopping district first. Great, I’ll have him tag along. Here he comes now, okay, I’ll talk to you later.” Ashley hung up the phone as Rickie walked up the small staircase leading to the porch.

“Come in, Rickie. Your mom let me know you were coming.”

“Hi Mrs. Misanko.” Rickie said dutifully.

“I need to go out and do some shopping before you and Tommy play, okay.”

“Can we walk? I’m already soaked.”

“I see that. Well, its not thundering, so I guess Tommy can put his suit on too and we can walk there together.

“Oh boy!” Tommy said. Rickie didn’t notice Tommy’s soft, milk chocolate hair peeking from the side of a wall upstairs, but Tommy was easy to spot now that he made his presence known. His hair was long and messy, while Rickie’s own darker brown hair fell straightly to its sides.

“Hi Tommy!” Rickie yelled as Tommy bolted into his room to put on his own swim suit. Rickie ran upstairs too.

“Hurry back boys, we’re going to be leaving in five minutes!” Ashley called upstairs. She found it to be amazing at the closeness of those two boys’ friendship. After all, Rickie and his family had barely lived in Newlote a week before Tommy and Rickie became inseparable. They were closer then brothers, and Ashley found it humorous at how they were so different, yet exactly the same. Her Tommy was loud, rambunctious, and hyperactive while Rickie was polite, quiet, and rather shy. However, together they were both screaming balls of eight year old energy that were polite enough at the same time. Ashley found it funny that at such an early friendship neither of them had problems striping down to their skin in front of each other. But then again, the less time worrying about shyness the more time worrying about playing Ashley supposed.

“Why did you take your suit off if you didn’t have one to change into?” Ashley heard Rickie say as she laughed. Her son was never much of a planner and she often found the same scene whenever he changed.

“Because I need to undress to put it on, duh!”

"But now you’re naked without a swimsuit.”

“Well, you can’t be naked at the shop, so hurry up you two!” Ashley called upstairs.

“Mom!”

* * * * *

“Mom, do we hafta go there? It’s a girl’s store!” Tommy whined as his mom got ready to go inside of a salon.

“This is the last thing to do on my list, honey. If you want, you and your friend can go look around at a few shops.”

“Can we have some money?” Ashley complied and gave the two boys five dollars each.

“Now be careful how you use your money, kids.”

“We will.” The two sang back at her as they ran out into the bazaar.

“Where do you wanna go first?” Tommy asked Derek, who thought hard.

“A toy store?”

“Sounds cool!” The boys ran off to the nearest toy store, Uncle Maurice’s Mega Toy Emporium, but they found out that Maurice was on lunch break, meaning the store closed.

“Man, I can’t believe he had to take a lunch break!” Tommy whined.

“Yeah, that’s lame.”

“What do you want to do?”

“How about that store over there?” Derek pointed over to a small, old store that looked like it would break apart any day now. An old-fashioned sign hung in the window, declaring it to be ’Merlin’s Shop of Mystic Wonders’, and it was open.

“Sure!” Tommy said as he sped off to the store with Derek following close behind. A doorbell rang as Tommy pushed the door open, and a thick layer of dust settled on top of them.

“Oh, sorry Tommy, sorry Derek. I haven’t finished my dusting yet.” A chipper old man an isle back said to them as he dusted off some strange vases with a large, pink feather duster.

“You know our names?” Tommy asked curiously.

“Of course!”

“How?” Rickie asked, he was especially curious since no one around town called him by his full name.

“Let’s see. Goofy robe,” the old man said in a implying voice while modeling the robe for he boys to show off its strangeness.

“Goofy hat,” the man adjusted his pointed hat as he spoke this time.

“And a long, gray beard. What could I possibly be?”

“Are you a wizard?” Rickie asked.

“Now, whatever gave you that idea?” the old man said, astonished.

“You’re Merlin the wizard, aren’t ya?” Tommy asked.

“Caught red handed! So, what can I do for you two boys today?”

“Well, my mom gave us some money while she got her hair done.” Merlin’s eyes started sparkling.

“Well, why don’t you look around my shop to see if there’s anything to brighten your boring day.”

“Okay.” The boys scoured the store, which was much larger then it had appeared on the outside. They found all sorts of things, and curiously enough no one else ever entered the store.

“Rainy days drive all the grown-ups away.” Merlin laughed when they noticed this. They found a lot of cool things, like a board game called ?The Game of Change’, but Merlin told them it was pretty boring for younger kids. They also saw a doll which Merlin called “The Jason Doll”, but neither of them were interested in dolls, even ones of boys. Finally, Tommy saw something interesting at last. Unlike many of the things in the store, which let out an air of oldness and previous ownership, Tommy found what looked like a brand-new lava lamp with two dials on it.

“Ooh, what’s this Merlin?” Tommy had to stand on the tips of his toes in order to get a look at it, and Merlin chuckled as he walked over to it.

“Ah, that my dear boy is an authentic lava lamp from the 1960s. It’s sure to bring back some fond memories while bringing around some new ones.”

“How much is it?” Tommy asked while staring at the globs of goo as they floated around. Merlin and turned it on and it sprang to life instantly.

“For you, my dear boy. Only five dollars.”

“Awesome! That’s just enough.” Merlin rang up the lamp on his old register and placed it into a bag for Tommy.

“Here you go, but be careful with it. They those who play with fire always get burned, and lava is hotter then fire.”

“I’ll be careful.” Tommy promised.

“I wanna get this!” Rickie held up an old box. Merlin’s eyes grew wide and he grabbed the box from the boy’s hands.

“This most definitely isn’t for sale, I’m not sure how it got there. Why don’t you take this instead, it?s even better and its only five dollars too.”

“Okay, thanks!” Rickie smiled as he took a much newer and more brightly colored box from Merlin, placing his money on the counter. Rickie opened it up and was delighted to see on the title that it was a coloring book.

“It?s a special book. The pages change depending on when you color. There?s always something to color in it.” Merlin said as the boys walked out the door.

“Gee! Thanks.” Rickie replied. After the doors shut, Merlin pulled out what looked like a blank book and waved his hands around it. Words began to appear as if a spectral force was scribing for him.

“Ah, children and magic is always a fun combination.” Merlin smiled as he started to read.

* * * * *

“There you two are, I’ve been looking for you!” Ashley said as the boys walked out of the shop.

“Come on, its stopped raining. Lets go home.”

“Okay.”

“Whatcha got there?” Ashley asked as the two boys practically skipped down the street clutching their new treasures.

“It’s a lava lamp! I got it from a magician.”

“Oh, I see. And I guess that’s a magic box?”

“Yeah! It has a coloring book inside. How?d ya know it was magic?” Rickie pouted from loosing his chance to show off his treasure.

“Just a guess.” Although they were dressed for playing in the water, the two of them decided that they wanted to turn on the lava lamp first. Ashley decided to go and unlock their swimming pool. After all, it wasn’t raining and she didn’t want little mud prints from two boys decorating her house.

“It’s so cool! It doesn’t need a plug!” Tommy declared as the lamp burst to life.

“Eww, what’s on your hands?” Tommy looked at his hands to see what his friend was talking about.

“Well, Merlin said he hadn’t cleaned his store yet, so I guess it’s a little dusty.”

“What’s that?” Rickie pointed at a little picture next to the second knob.

“It looks like a little man! Go get a washcloth so we can see if there’s anything else cool on it.” Rickie complied, and to their surprise the lamp was prismatic in color, changing from a purple to a light blue. From there the lamp became light green, then a lovely, fiery orange. However, it dulled into a violet before turning white, then black. However, to their surprise the cycle started all over again.

“It’s so pretty.”

“Yeah. What do you think that does?” Rickie asked, pointing to the knob.

“Let’s turn it, maybe it changes the colors.” Tommy turned the knob, and to his surprise the globs in the lava lamp branched out like tentacles, bouncing against the glass.

“Ooh, it looks like one of those things where you touch it and the lightning tries to touch you too.” Tommy said in excitement.

“That’s cool, I wanna try.” Rickie said as he put his hand out towards the lava lamp. As his hand came closer, the tentacles seemed to sense him, and they wriggled around as if they were looking to attack. Finally, Rickie put his hand on the glass and instantly he began to feel strange, as as if his entire body was being tickled.

“Rickie! Stop! Get away from it!” Tommy pushed Rickie back. Rickie fell on his side and looked at his friend angrily.

“What did you do that . . .” but Rickie stopped as he heard himself. Something sounded wrong.

“What’s wrong with my voice?”

“Take a look in my mirror.” Tommy said as he flipped the knob back to its starting position. Rickie stumbled over the mirror and he gasped in horror at what he saw. His face, normally thinning of baby fat, was now completely puffy and round. His clothes, which fit perfectly seconds ago, were now draped ridiculously over him like a robe. He hadn’t noticed, but he lost his bathing suit on the way over to the mirror.

“I’m a baby!” Rickie wailed.

“Lets see if we can fix you up.” Tommy said as he walked over to his shrunken friend and picked him up with relative ease.

“Wow, you look as old as Mitch’s baby brother!” Tears built in Rickie’s eyes at the idea of being three again.

“I dun wanna be a baby!” Rickie said through his tears while his friend comforted him.

“We’ll figure it out! The wizard’ll be able to help.” Tommy tried to assure his now tiny friend, but he was interrupted when a loud knocking disrupted him.

“What’s going on in there?”

“Nothing mom!”

“It sounds like there’s a little kid in here.”

“I’m not little!”

“Ssh, quiet Rickie!” It was no use though, Ashley had heard a small child and opened the door.”

“Who is this?”

“Mom, it’s Rickie.”

“Rickie? Rickie is your age! This boy looks like he’s barely three! Does his mother know he’s here?”

“Yup. Because he’s Rickie.”

“This isn’t funny. Tell me who he is.”

“Rickie. The lava lamp shrunk him.”

“The lava lamp?”

“Yeah, I flipped a knob and it went all weird and he touched it and he shrunk.”

“Show me, then.”

“Okay, but don’t touch it.” Tommy flipped the knob on the lava lamp again, and it burst into tentacles again.

“Mom, what are you doing?” Tommy asked as he mother moved in closer to the lava lamp.

“I’m going to show you that this thing didn’t turn Rickie into a little boy.”

“I’m not little!”

“Mommy, don’t touch it!”

“Sit down and don’t move.”

“Okay, but I warned you.” Tommy said as he sat onto his bed and picked up Rickie and held him in his lap. Ashley reached over and touched the lava lamp.

“Whoa, it tingles.” Ashley was entranced by the orb.

“Mommy! Stop! You’ve been touching it for too long!” Ashley snapped back to her senses after realizing she had zoned out. She let go of the lamp, and was greeted by the top of the dresser Tommy had put it on.

“What the hell?” Ashley clasped her throat after hearing her voice. She waddled to Tommy’s mirror and screamed when she saw that she was almost completely naked except for her shirt, which hung over her like a gown. She was barely as old as her son now with a light sprinkle of freckles dotting her face.

“I’m a kid! So, you’re,”

“Rickie.” The toddler sulking nodded.

“Where did you get this?” Ashley asked in a bossy little girl voice.

“From the Merlin the wizard.”

“Well, can we fix it?”

“I dunno, we can switch it to the other side.”

“Try it.” Tommy flipped the switch again, this time to the right instead of the left.

“Well, what now.” Tommy asked.

“I guess touch it.” Ashley said, staring at the ooze in the lamp, which was moving around the glass again. After the three children stared at the lamp for a few minutes, Rickie toddled up to the dresser and stepped on his tippie toes, touching the lamp. Ashley and Tommy watched as Rickie began to grow, and grow, and grow. Soon he was leaving his normal age of eight and going into the teens. The shirt he was wearing that was too loose on his toddler body before was stretched to its limits on the teenage boy.

“Let go Rickie!” Tommy yelled at his teenaged friend. He snapped out of his trance several second later, and Tommy and Ashley looked at what the lava lamp did to the once toddler. He was lean and lanky now like any teenager; Ashley would have put him at sixteen. They had a clear view of his private area and were disturbed to know that Rickie had grown at an appropriate speed.

“You’re so big Rickie! Look at your wee-wee!”

“Oh, wow.” Rickie said in a cracking voice. His face turned bright red as he instinctively covered his area.

“A little shy now, huh?” Ashley laughed.

“It feels weird to let everyone see me naked now.” Rickie admitted.

“Do you think it will make me bigger too?”

“Hey, wait honey!” But it was too late. Tommy stripped down into the nude and tapped the lamp. Ashley watched in horror as her son grew up before her eyes. She watched every body part on her son go through puberty.

“Honey, stop!” Her son didn’t move from his position. However, after a few moments he stopped growing. He looked to be a fully grown young man of twenty to Ashley.

“Wow! Look how big I am now!” Tommy said in a deep voice.

“You’re an adult now, you better go put on some of daddy’s clothes.”

“I don’t think I was finished yet, Mrs. Misanko.” Ashley looked over to Rickie, who now was clearly a young adult as well.

“You better go get dressed too.”

“Okay.” Rickie walked out of the room, and Ashley dashed up to the lamp and felt the familiar tingling sensation. However, it stopped too soon and Ashley found herself a girl of about 15.

“Noo!” Ashley moaned. She was younger then her son and his friend. And she was 15! She ran into her room to see about getting some of her older clothes to fit, and she saw two young men dressed in her husband’s clothes. Her teenage hormones raging, she couldn’t help but feel turned on by them.

“Is this okay?” Tommy asked his mother.

“Yeah. It’s fine sweetie.”

“It’s a lot of fun being big. Why are you still little?”

“I think that you took mommy’s age, sweetie.”

“Oh, that stinks.”

“Yes, it does. Do you think that Mommy can have her age back?”

“Umm, no.”

“Excuse me?”

“We like being big.”

“Yeah! It’s a lot of fun.”

“I’m your mother! I can’t be younger then you.”

“Its okay, I can be your big brother instead.”

“I’m, I’m,” Suddenly, the front door opened. “I’m going to tell your father! Honey!”

“Ashley? Is that you?” Justin, Tommy’s father, ran upstairs to see what was going on. He’s mouth was wide open when he saw a younger version of his wife and two young men wearing his clothes.

“The lava lamp! Switch the bottom knob on it to the left and make the boys touch it.”

“The boys? Is one of these guys Tommy?”

“Hi Daddy!”

“Who’s this?”

“Rickie.” Rickie put his arms behind his back like a guilty child who stole a cookie from the cookie jar.

“Okay, will it fix this.”

“Yeah, it should.”

“No! Daddy! We want to stay big.”

“Now, that’s a no.”

“Not if we get it first!” Tommy and Rickie ran towards Tommy’s room to grab the lamp, but as they got it Justin grabbed it as well. The three men fought and fought, equally matched. It was two against one, but Justin was far more used to the body of an adult. However, suddenly the three of them were sent spiraling to the ground, and all three men found themselves clutching the lava lamp by its middle. The ooze latched onto the three of them flooding Tommy and Rickie with the familiar tingling sensation. It was a new feeling for Justin though as he shrunk down into boyhood with his sons. When the lamp stopped leeching years, all three of them were reduced to eight year olds. They promptly began wrestling.

“Be careful! What’s going to happen if you break it?” Ashley screamed.

“Daddy was being mean!” Tommy said as he pinned his father to the ground with the help of his friend.

“We’re gonna make him even littler!”

“When I’m back to normal . . .” Justin gritted from under the two boys. Tommy held the lamp by its handle and shoved it against his father’s face, watching in satisfaction as he shrunk right out of Rickie’s grasp, becoming a cute and lovable baby.

“You are in so much trouble young man!” Ashley yelled as her husband gurgled on the ground. However, Tommy lunged forward and caught his mother with the lamp, and watched with a grin as his mother also became an infant.

“That was kind of mean, Tommy.” Rickie said as he put his babified parents onto the bed wearing absolutely nothing.

“Oh, really?”

“Uh huh. They’re your mommy and daddy. Who’s gonna make you dinner or help you take a bath?”

“With this, I can be big enough to do anything I want.”

“But that’s not nice.”

“Wanna see not nice? I’ll show you not nice!” With that, Tommy lunged at his best friend and smacked him with the lamp across his face. Rickie cried from shock as he too was reduced to infancy.

“Nothing can stop me now!”

“Oh, can nothing, Thomas?” Tommy flipped around to see Merlin the wizard standing behind him.

“Alas, I should have known. As with all boyhood fun, your game has gotten out of hand and I must reverse the damage done.” With a wave of his hand coupled with the magic incantation, the lava lamp flew out of Tommy’s hand and into Merlin’s boney, outstretched hand.

“Almera! Alshenka!” Merlin yelled as be placed a hand on top of the lamp. With that, all of the ooze changed into three colors, red, light blue, and green, with each color flying to baby Ashley, Rickie, and Justin respectively. As soon as the gel hit them, they grew to their normal age, completely unclothed. With a wave of his hand, Merlin fixed that.

“And now, punishment. I knew you would play with the lamp, but for wanting to harm others with it, I sentence you to one year of age until the spell is countered by a change of heart!” Merlin’s eyes began to glow as did Tommy’s body. He felt himself being compression like a soda can being stepped on by a giant foot. When the glowing stopped, Tommy was a baby wearing nothing but a disposable diaper.

“Graggh gaa goo?” Tommy babbled, surprised to find that his own voice didn’t work and that he could barely get his body to sit up.

“If my baby-speak is as good as I think, you want to know when the spell will end. When you are truly sorry for what you have done and hold no resentment, you will return to normal. For now, goodbye.” And with that, Merlin vanished.

* * * * *

“It’s such a nice day, honey.” Rickie’s mother said to him as he colored in his new coloring book on the ground.

“I’m gonna color.”

“You don’t want to invite Tommy over?”

“No, he’s grounded.”

“Grounded? Why?”

“His mom and dad says he needs to grow up a little.”

“That seems rather harsh.”

“No, he does need to grow up, more then a little really.” Rickie smiled as he colored in a bassinette in his book.

“Drink up, little man. You need to be good and drink to grow up big and strong.” Ashley said as she fed a bottle of formula to a small child she held in her arms. She snuggled him close, and sat down to admire her baby boy, who she knew was too stubborn to grow up any time soon.

* * * * *

The End of Book 1

* * * * *

TO BE CONTINUED . . . . . .

 

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