Page 1 of Mountain Orc Daddy

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BLAIR

“Let’s just get this over with,” I grumble to myself. Then I look around to make sure no one is around to hear me.

I seem to be in the clear. I’m alone in my childhood bedroom. Just like when I was growing up, no one is paying attention to anything I say.

I poke my head into the hallway just as a toothbrush magically floats out of the bathroom and down the hall to my brother Remus’ room. I walk into the bathroom and grab my own toothbrush. It’s really not that hard to do, even without magic powers.

“Just get it yourself. Why does everything have to involve a trick?” I complain to myself as I pack my toothbrush away in my suitcase. I’m in a house full of show-off witches, and it’s not as fun as it sounds.

“What was that?” I jump at the sound and turn around. My mother is now standing in the doorway. She raises an eyebrow at me.

“Uh, nothing! Just, I’m ready to go.”

“Oh, good!” She smiles at me. “Don’t get me wrong, I love Boston. But it will be nice to get out of the city for a bit! Let me get your bag for you.” My mother waves her hand around, and my suitcase lifts into the air.

I grab the handle before it can get too far away. “I can do this myself, Mom. Don’t worry.”

“Suit yourself.” My mother walks away, and the magic on my suitcase fades. I’m just barely able to keep it from crashing to the ground as the full weight of it returns.

This is why I moved out. I am the youngest child of the Morgan family, directly descended from the ancient Witches of Mesopotamia. My family are all some of the most powerful witches I have ever seen, and they really like people to know it.

Meanwhile, I can’t even do card tricks. I have absolutely no magic powers to speak of, and my family never lets me forget it. They use their powers to step over every minor inconvenience. Dinner too cold? Magic. Can’t find your keys? Magic. It’s exhausting to be around.

Usually, I’d try everything to get out of a family vacation like this. Especially a camping vacation, where we will be forced to be so close together. I got out of a lot of these in college. But my mom basically begged me to come along. As much as they all may annoy me, I still love them. Maybe this won’t be completely awful.

Based on the way the day is starting, however…I’m not convinced.

I carry my suitcase and sleeping bag downstairs, dodging a floating pile of my brother’s laundry along the way. At the bottom of the stairs, my sister Jade is waiting. She smiles up at me and starts to wave her hands in the air.

“No! Jade, I have this. I can carry it on my own.”

“Fine.” Jade rolls her eyes and walks over to an empty cooler. She waves her hand, and it fills with ice. She then uses magic to scoot a chair closer to her so she can sit down.

I’m almost at the front door when it swings open. My father walks in. He notices me carrying my own stuff and frowns.

“Oh, Blair, you don’t need --” He starts to raise a hand, but I don’t let him finish.

“I got this, Dad.”

“Okay, okay, just wanted to help.”

I bring my stuff outside the car and toss everything in the trunk. My family uses magic as quickly and as subconsciously as breathing. It’s like it’s never occurred to them that there is a non-magical way to get things done.

I close the car trunk and catch my reflection in the mirror. My whole life I was the ugly duckling of the family. Everyone else could magically beautify themselves. It wasn’t until I left home that people started noticing me like that.

According to my new, regular,non-magicalfriends, my straight brown hair is pretty. Boys love the freckles on my nose, and everyone is mesmerized by my bright green eyes. Eyes like these go unnoticed around magically beautiful people, but anyone not used to magic would be caught off guard. Maybe they can’t rival what you can accomplish with powers, but nature didn’t exactly leave me wanting, either.

The car trunk opens back up, and I’m shoved aside as a line of luggage and camping supplies magically float out of the house and to the car. I walk back into the house to find my family sitting around, laughing.

“Oh, honey.” My mother laughs. “Remember when we couldn’t do this? Before The Veil fell, we’d have to pack the car ourselves, just to be safe. Make sure no one saw.”

“How annoying. Plus, we got our camping reservation on a discount for helping that park ranger with his bear problem, thanks to our magic,” my father adds. “Couldn’t do that with The Veil still up!”

“God,” Remus says. “I can’t believe you and Mom lived so much of your lives with The Veil. How did you survive it?”

“I couldn’t do it.” Jade laughs. “It sounds so… boring.”

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