Weekly Wordzzle Challenge # 163

I'm tired and lazy today so I thought maybe I'd give Fred Johnson, Paragon of Virtue, another week. His tory began here.

Update: I just realized (7:00 pm Friday) that today is not Saturday and yesterday was not Friday and that I posted this a day early. I don't know how I got my radar all out of whack like that. Hmmm. Senility?

Words this next week's 10-word challenge: chalk, pattern, built-in bookcases, psychopath, a wolf in sheep's clothing, hot and humid, fanciful, ugly duckling, braggart, salad   And for the mini: peace, purple, pelican, particular, pugnacious

My mega: 

It was now three months since Fred Johnson had been drawn into the kingdom of Sunday by the Spark the wizard and his magical tree stump to replace the recently executed Paragon of Virtue. He was beginning to feel more at peace with his new situation and to in fact enjoy the unique perks of his new title. For one thing, he had now lived in a lovely farm house.  He had planted a vegetable garden just outside his study and his chef - yes, he had his own chef - prepared him a home grown salad along with the superlative meals he had every evening, usually in company with the wizard and his stunning daughter.  Despite being quite large and lavish, the house had a homey quality to it. The decor - which he should have hated - made him feel at home in some odd way. There were carpets with exquisitely detailed patterns that seemed to sooth the eye at the same time they inspired a feeling of strength and purpose. His favorite room was the library, which had built-in book cases full of amazing volumes and curious instruments of magic. The art in the library was composed of fanciful chalk drawings of different fairy tales. His favorites were the ugly duckling, Little Purple Riding Hood (the kingdom of Sunday tended to fancy the color purple), and Sleeping Beauty. But his particular favorite was of a story unique (at least in his experience) to Sunday about the Bird of Paradise, the story of a pugnacious bird, which in this drawing looked rather like a pelican. In the story the bird confronts and outsmarts a braggart psychopath usually portrayed as a wolf in sheep's clothing and transforms him from a being of evil to a doer of good deeds. Months later, when he had learned all his magic spells and passed a number of tests, he learned that the Bird of Paradise was also known to citizens of Sunday as the first Paragon of Virtue. No shortage of wonders befell him in his new world. On a more mundane plane of wonders, another thing he loved about his lovely home was that no matter how hot and humid it got outside, the house was always perfectly comfortable. He rightly suspected that this was probably some kind of magical enchantment bestowed on him and the house by Spark. He loved that tiny old wizard. 

My mini: 

One night in early fall, about six months into his Paragon training, Fred told Spark about a particularly amazing dream he had had the night before. In it, the pugnacious pelican from the Bird of Paradise drawing in the library had visited him in his garden three times. On her first visit, she had plucked a feather from each of her wings and one from over her heart and had somehow tied them together on a chain of tiny gems that shone with every color of the rainbow. This she had blessed and put around his neck, kissing him lightly on each cheek. On her second visit she had handed him a crystal goblet inviting him to drink the shining liquid it contained. Tasting it, he knew without knowing how, that he had drunk a cup of her tears. Amazing as the first two encounters had been, it was her last visit that was the most profound. This time, she transformed from the awkward pelican into a beautiful maiden in a flowing purple gown that looked like water and clouds and radiant light all at the same time. Kissing his forehead this time, she placed a crown of flowers on his head and lightly touching his heart, had whispered, "you are ready," only to vanish as though he had merely imagined her presence. He awoke with a feeling of such profound peace that he felt rather like he was made of radiant light himself.  When he told the wizard and his daughter about his awesome dream, they had both beamed with joy and Spark had cried. "I thought she might visit you! Congratulations. The Paragon has ordained you. You are ready to assume your duties."

And the 10-word: 

Following his dream time ordination, the 2nd phase of Fred's Paragon of Virtue training was begun. Much to his dismay, it seemed he was required to do more than just admire the books in his lovely built-in book cases; he was expected to read them. All. Every one. As he sat contemplating this seemingly impossible task he felt as though the chalk drawings he had been so fond of just days earlier were now mocking him from the wall. Several times he felt with the grim certainty that fanciful ideas sometimes produce in imaginative people,  that Purple riding hood and the ugly duckling were each and both shaking their heads in disappointment at his unworthiness. And as for that wolf in sheep's clothing in the paragon drawing - he felt with great chagrin that the miserable braggart psychopath was literally jumping up and down in scornful delight that the new paragon was to be no match for the forces of darkness. It was a special blessing then, that the paragon painting always filled him with the memory of his dream and a vivid memory of the taste of Paragon's tears and of her touch and gentle whisper. Outside the house, a pattern of hot and humid weather seemed to have resumed with a vengeance and his salad garden, sadly, was paying the price. The up side of this, was that it made the cool embrace of his house all the more welcoming and much to his own shock, almost without his realizing it, the impossible task of reading through the library books was getting accomplished.

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Words for next week's 10-word challenge: water-logged, pillows, cane, winding roads, pumpkin, music, German shepherd, flying, fortress, poetry

And for the mini: salivate, enriched, eastern, proposal, movies

Thanks you for playing.  Newcomers can check here for some guidelines to make the game more fun. There are no rules, just some general guidelines and tricks.