rismic came up with the character "Spearmint" and I thought she was a super cute character. Talking back and forthwith Rismic, I eventually wrote a back-story for Spearmint. Here it is.

Spearmint belongs to  rismic. Artwork done by  Muzz Story belongs to me. Character and artwork used with permission.

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Spearmint was born into a family who had been in the candy business for generations. Her families store was well known by candy connoisseurs throughout the city and the surrounding area. She began working in her families shop at a young age and proved to be a talented candy-maker.

All was not well for Spearmint though, she had been born with a rare genetic degenerative muscle disease and as she grew, her mind and candy making skills became sharper, but her body became weaker. Before she was even a teenager she could no longer walk without crutches. Spearmint didn’t let this slow her down at all, she adapted to her weakening body, though she was no longer able to do tasks involving heavy lifting. Customers and her family were impressed by her perseverance, though they could see that the disease was taking a physical and emotional toll on her. It was their appreciation and support that kept Spearmint going, determined to continue helping out at the store as long as she could.

As Spearmint entered adulthood, her ability to use her arms and hands began to degrade to the point where it was difficult for her to move around, even with crutches. Doing any work at all was becoming virtually impossible. It wouldn’t be too much longer before she would lose all motor control and eventually die.

As Spearmint had aged and her condition worsened, a longtime customer who had known Spearmint since she was a baby took pity on her predicament and was determined to help her. He was an experienced wizard with a sweet tooth, but helping her would be a daunting task. Most healing potions and spells worked by simply supercharging the body’s natural repair mechanisms. Repairing a genetic disease like Spearmint’s was extremely difficult and dangerous. Undeterred, the wizard combed his library and after years of experimenting in his free time he devised a healing spell that had a chance of helping her, but there was no way to be sure.

The wizard approached Spearmint and her family with his offer. He was honest about the untested spell he had devised. There were no guarantees as to what would happen, but he was certain that it was her best chance to be cured. After much discussion and reflection, Spearmint and her family decided to go ahead with the spell.

The wizard made the preparations and then called to have Spearmint come over to his place when he was ready. Spearmint asked her family to stay and tend to the shop, if she died during the spell she wanted their last memories of her to be of her at the shop and not on the wizards spell table. Her parents helped her into the cab to take her to the wizard's home and then watched as the cab drove away.

When she arrived at his home, Spearmint didn't wait for him to come out. She struggled to get herself out of the cab on her own, refusing help from the cabbie. She always had to try by herself before accepting help from others, but her work ethic and determination were no match against her condition as she fell from the car. Thankfully the cabbie had parked next to the grassy berm, cushioning her fall and preventing any injury. By this time the wizard had made it to the street to help Spearmint up, but she again refused. The wizard sent the cabbie on his way as Spearmint struggled to pick herself up, but her disease was so advanced and her muscles so weak that there was nothing she could do.

The wizard sat down next to Spearmint and comforted her as she lay there helpless in the grass, after a couple of minutes of silence he picked her up and took her into his home. Once they got inside Spearmint stopped holding back and began crying into his shoulder, frustrated at her weakness. The wizard carried her through his home in silence. She was dying, what could he hope to say to her to make her feel better?

As they got to the spell room, he gently laid her down on the table and made sure she was comfortable. Once she had regained her composure, the wizard carefully went through with Spearmint how the spell was supposed to progress. It was vital for her to keep a mental image of herself with a healthy body in her mind for the spell succeeded.

The wizard arranged the ingredients and began casting the spell. Laying on the table, Spearmint felt the magic flow through her body. The spells unintended side effects made it difficult to concentrate; her mind began to wander to the memories of her in her families candy shop. She then thought about the Fox shaped mint lollipop in her pocket that her parents had given her earlier in the day, before she left. She had forgotten to eat it on the way over to the wizards place. The thoughts of the mint lollipop and wanting to have a body not plagued by her disease flowed together as the spells side effects were on the verge of putting her into a soft sleep, exactly what was not supposed to happen.

The spell was powerful, but not powerful enough to fix Spearmint’s human body. Despite his great skill, the wizard was not aware of either that or that the spell was affecting her concentration, as he applied the final step and the spell took effect. Immediately the spell, Spearmint’s dreamy thoughts, and the lollipop in her pocket, combined. With a bright green glow enveloping her, Spearmint’s body was transformed.

As the glow dissipated, the wizard was horrified at what had happened. Where Spearmint had been a moment before there now was a large green fox. As soon as it was safe to approach the table he rushed to her side. He tried holding her hand, but found that her body was now made completely of mint-green hard candy, except for her hair, which seemed to be made of some sort of soft candy. He tried feeling for a pulse, but her body was as rigid as a statue.

The wizard thought that he had killed Spearmint and began crying and calling her name in mourning. In actuality, she was still asleep from the spell and was just beginning to wake up. The wizard jumped back in surprise as the candy fox opened her eyes and looked at him, then began to move. Spearmint raised her hand to shield her eyes from the lights on the ceiling. She was shocked to see that her hand was now a smooth and shiny green. She touched her face with her hand, finding that not only that she had a muzzle, but that her hand making contact with her muzzle made a sound that reminded her of pouring hard candy into a bag. Rubbing her fingers together made the same sound. Sticking a finger in her mount she found that her skin tasted like mint candy.

Still in shock of what had happened, Spearmint sat up. The first thing she noticed is that she had no weakness whatsoever. The second thing she noticed was the large fox tail between her legs on the table. She curiously stared at it for a moment, tapping the large candy tail with her fingertips. She could feel the tapping in the tail. It took a moment for everything to fall together in her mind.....that was HER tail. After a few more moments she figured out how to move it. She was able to move it easily, but it was solid and had quite a bit of weight to it, not light and fluffy like a regular fox tail. As her mind continued to clear from the after effects of the spell, she realized that she was now a vixen made entirely of hard mint candy.

By this point the wizard had realized that the candy vixen was Spearmint and came back up to the table and made sure she was OK. A quick X-ray spell confirmed that her body was made entirely of hard mint candy except for her hair. Slowly experimenting, she found that she could move her body as if she was made of flesh and bone. Soon after that she learned that she could make her body candy-hard or skin soft with no impact on her ability to move. Shock soon turned to elation as she found that her new body had none of the weakness of her old body, she seemed to be as strong as a human of the same size.

After she felt like she was properly accustomed to her new body, the wizard helped Spearmine off the table and onto her feet. Getting used to her new didgitgrade feet took a few minutes of practice. Trying to take her first step she fell over backwards as her solid candy tail came off the table and upset her balance. As she fell, Spearmint reached back to try and catch herself on the table, but instead hit her forearm hard against the edge. She heard a loud cracking sound before finally landing on top of her tail.

Spearmint looked at her arm and to her horror saw that a chip of candy was missing from her arm, along with a large crack radiating from it. She grabbed her cracked arm with her good arm and held it in place, she was afraid her arm was going to fall off. As the wizard rushed to get supplies to make a splint, using magic on her at this point was too risky, Spearmint watched as the crack slowly began to disappear. Within a short period of time, the crack was gone and the chip in her arm had filled in. Relieved that her candy body seemed to be able to repair itself, Spearmint carefully got back to her feet with the wizards help.

It took quite a bit more practice for Spearmint to learn how to walk with a tail. Not just any tail, a solid mint candy tail. It wasn't hard for her to move of course, but it moved her center of gravity quite a ways back from what she was used to. She steadied herself with the table while the wizard stood by to catch her if she fell again. After walking around the table a dozen times, Spearmint laughed with glee as she let go of the table and walked without crutches for the first time in years. After another hour or so of practice she could walk as if she had always had her tail, though she still needed practice to make sure she didn't knock anything over with it.

After the two of them reflected for a bit on what had happened, Spearmint called her parents. They noticed right away that her voice was different, but she talked with the same mannerisms as before. She told them that she was OK, but her appearance had changed quite a bit, and not to worry about her.

Since Spearmint now had a body that was part magic, the wizard had to be sure that the magic that allowed her to move, talk, and heal would not hurt others. After several days of testing the wizard found to his delight that the exact opposite was true. Spearmint’s body emitted an invisible aura like that of some healing spells, but it didn't actually interact with living beings. As they were taking a break and sharing some of the wizards stock of sweets, he noticed her aura interacting with the candy. Moving the piece of candy away from her revealed that the candy now had a weak healing spell bound to it. Further tests showed that any candy that she got close to would gain this healing spell. Spearmint got a large foxy grin on her face at the thought of making it healthy for people to eat candy.

Spearmint’s parents and family had been told that she would have a new appearance, but there was no way for them to prepare for such a drastic change. After the initial shock wore off, Spearmint’s family was elated to have her back home. Spearmint was extremely pleased with her new body as well. Sure she would occasionally knock something over with her tail and she sank like a stone in the swimming pool, but being able to walk and work like everyone else in the shop made it all worthwhile. Her ability to give candy healing properties greatly increased sales as well.

On the evening of the one year anniversary of being turned into a candy fox, Spearmint lay in her bed and reflected on her good fortune. When she was sick, Spearmint thought she would never have the chance to live a normal life. With her new body, her life would still not be normal, but if the last year was any indication, that was not a problem at all.