Originally this story was really different and has a kind of interesting story behind it. Initially I asked someone of whom posted a picture if I could write a stroy based on it. (unbeknown to me he wasnt actually the original artist, it was a gift... that misunderstanding was kind of awkward...) and as it turns out, I missed the point of the picture entirely. I was really upset and it was requested and offered for the story to not be posted at all. Once the original artist was contacted about this he was also upset by the misinterpertation of the work but he was actually very understanding and said I could still post the story if I edit it to be unconnected the picture, so I changed the species of the antagonist and the catalyist of the climax, so if there are some wrong things said like species change, I might have missed something by the editing.
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Taking a strole, I went around the block to go to my usual magic shop for a performance I'm doing in a few days. I needed to pick up some fake milk pictures and a real one to 'accidentally spill' to show them they are real... plus some other stuff. I also wanted to flirt with the cute owner, Trixie the skunk, she is the one who got me into magic in the first place. She always gave me a discount because I came by a lot and gave her a lot of buisness. At first I just went to see her, but it really grew on me itself, so now I go even on her days off. I mastered many trick"s, from the simple rings connecting to making people jump into a large box, lift it up, setting it on fire, and having the subject come out safely. Honestly the only trick I have yet to master is hypnotizing an act so they can be able to levitate and such, I never could get that one dow, heck even Trixie couldn't get that one down, despite selling the supplies. There was a lot of traffic right now, a lot more than usual, but normally I didn't mind, I ride a bike instead of drive so I'm not ruining the enviroment or anything. While waiting, I used some tricks on people as pranks... I saw a pair of squirrels and I put a fake phone number in a squirrel girl's jacket pocket with the name 'Natalie' in it and watched the fun begin... I finally arrived to say hello and pick up my supplies not long afterwords. I managed to put my bike in a rack, locking it without a key, my magic's that good!

Once I got there, I noticed that the sign had changed from 'Trixie's Tricks' to "Furry Tricks" which caught my attention. Trixie told me she was thinking of changing the name but she told me she wanted my final approval. I opened the door and looked around, the store has been totally rearranged, the fake toys were on the left not the right, the wands that take out the ribbons were top shelf, everythign was off. I got to the front desk, when nobody was there, I rang the bell and noticed that there was somebody out back... "Hey there Trixie, someone needs some supplies and an answer as to why you changed the store without me!" I jokingly yelled out, being kind of upset that it changed without me, but I'm not really mad or anything. Don't worry, Trixie gets my sense of humor well and finds it a great addition to my acts. I then saw a 'return in twenty minutes' sign on the counter and decided to wait for her to come back.

While waiting for her to come back, I looked around some more and noticed some new products, some casual and some that looked kind of strange, at first I just played around a bit waiting, which she knows I do and doesn't mind. I picked up some trick swords and swallowed one and jokingly stated it was the generic brand and threw it up... I then cut myself in half with it, then flung it the opposite direction to put myself back together. I then noticed that there was something right above the swords, they were hook swords, which I was constantly asking Trixie to bring in. There was something off about them though, they seemed like they glowed a bet once I looked at them... That was creepy so I left them alone till I cold ask her about them... Later I saw some cool looking faux paws around, the tag said 'monkey paws' and naturally I avoided that, and wondered why Trixie wuold have those, that's not even her kind of magic... I started to get creeped out now...

Soon a badger came in and was walking towards me... "Sorry, I don't work here, you've got the wrong skunk, Trixie will be back soon though." I told this badger and he simply laughed at that and responded to me in a deep and mildy soothing voice...

"Oh haha, no skunk sir, I own this shop, Trixie sold it to me." he simply said, leaving me confused, why would she sell this place, why woldn't she tell me, etc...

"But why? And how did you set it up so fast, and where did all this creepy magic stuff come from?" I asked this badger, worried and upset.

"Oh don't worry, she's not in trouble or anything, she just needed to retire, that's all." he told me.

"But she's 26...?" I responded in confusion.

"Well what did you want from here anyway?" he asked, changing the subject, and showing me around.

"Well I was wanting some simple milk pictures and stuff but right now I'm kind of curious as to what all this creepy gothic stuff is, I thought this was just a simple magic shop?" I asked him, wondering what the heck was going on, this place was creepy. It was then that the wolf walked through a door leaving. I truned around and he was right behind me... "Nice, that trick took me weeks to get down!" I said in small admiration.

"Well this is a special kind of magic, I not only sell tricks, I sell powers, spells, potions, everything a true magician would need," he told me as he held up a potion with a heart on it.

I was confused and stunned by this and wanted to know what some things were, but hoping not to get anything evil, something seemed off about this wolf, in fact, I don't trust him one bit, "Hold up, are you like a demon or something?"

"Why would you say that?" he asked me as he swung a magic wand to make a slice of cake appear, "Want some, it's red velvet."

I couldn't resist redvelvet, I took it, "Oh I don't know, old creepy stuff, the store appearing out of nowhere, the hot skunk vanishing, where is she by the way, and honestly you give off that vibe... good cake by the way, love the butter cream icing." I told him, getting suspicious.

"She just thinks that she needs to handle her magic more personally, don't worry, you two should see each other again, this crystal ball says so..." the wolf says as he shows me something you would think a gypsy would own, then it shows my favorite singer's new album debuting at number one and winning an award. I comply and assume this place is safe... more or less... "So what do you want me to show you?"

I wanted to just get mi pictures and head out, but now I wanted to know what some of this stuff was, starting with the glowing hook swords. "What's up with those glowing swords, it's kind of creepy, what does that mean?"

"Oh those, tose are really interesting, what you do is..." he says as he cuts his own head off as it falls off... I freaked out but then his head grew another body and the body grew another head... "Interesting, is it not?" they asked me as I gasped.

"Wow, that's pretty cool, what else do you got?" I asked the wolves, as they walked right into each other and merged into one again.

He then showed me the monkey paws and handed me one... "Give it a shot, just make a wish... " he told me in a sinister tone, that I ingnored.

"I wish I had more red velvet cake" I said as my plate refilled with more cake. The badger was annoyed and told me to try again... "Ugh now I've got a stomach ache, I wish it was gone...!" I said as my stomache felt much better. The badger put his hand on his head and told me to try again, "Alright, I wish the new Avril Lavigne CD would be on my iPod!" I said as the badger was really loosing patience, but trying to hide it, and told me for my last wish to really make it important! "Fine, Fine, I wish the wishes on this paw and the paw itself are free to me." I said, and felt much more confidant. The badger looked really annoyed, but shrugged it off, he didn't want to come off as an evil creature, at least not yet.

"So what else you got? I kinda want to bring something to Trixie to show her her shop is still a magic shop," I asked the badger, then showing me some interestingly looking coffins... Once he opened one he asked me to look into it and I saw nothing important, but then he closed it and reopened it. This time when I looked into it, I saw a world with fire and lava everywhere and everyone was laughing maniachally. He then tried to push me in to it but I grabbed some of those magical hook swords and jumped in myself! The badger looked confused and once he looked in he noticed all the people there were singing fun pop songs and all the lava was turned into ice grownds that some coyotes were skating on. I then jumped back out and told the badger that that would be a fun place to vacation, but I had to put some swords through a guy with red horns... he wasn't very nice to anybody there...

Well now he was getting mad, none of these curses seemed to be working on me. I still remain unaware of his intentions, or at least I just plain don't care about them... He wanted me out of here but he wanted to do something bad to me, but I remained nonchalant. I also know sense this badger seems to know his magic, I thought he would be a good person to ask this... "Hey, sense you know all the tricks in the book it seems, mind if I ask you if you have something that could help me with a certain trick?"

"What is it?" he intriegingly asks, hoping that something like this could finally work on him.

"Well for my magic acts, I've never been able to use hypnotism in them, and that works great for things like levitation tricks and such, do you have anything that could help me with that?" I asked the badger as a strange grin shows up on his face...

"Oh I think I have something that could help you with that my skunk friend..." he said as walked through the back room, wanting to presumably fetch the prefect object for that. "Feel free to look around whil'e I'm getting it." he told me as he walked off.

I looked around and really nothin else seemed interesting, I had pretty much seen all of these in the movies. When he was gone I stopped the dumb guy act and knew this guy was a demon, and these games are done, it's time to leave now. I was about to leave but before I could turn around, something glowing caught my eye, and I was wondering what it was. When I stepped closer to it, I saw this rose, this white, glowing, beautiful rose and I couldn't look away... it was almost, hypnotic! As I walked closer and closer to it, I couldn't take my eyes off of it, it was too bright and beatiful. As I starred into it, the badger reappeared by me (he is really good at that trick...) and he softly spoke to me but I didn't really care, I was focusing too much on the rose to even notice. His nice and calming voice made me feel so relaxed and safe, and this rose made me feel like I was in another world. The more he spoke to me surprisingly the less I was able to hear him, like I wanted to lisetn much less, I was getting sucked into this thing so much. Despite not really listening to what the badger was saying, his words made me feel very calm and honestly, a bit submissive... The more I focused on this rose, the more I sunk deeper into some kind of trance, and I was not worried. The more the badger spoke, he got more and more sinister, and his words seemed to go from just making me relax, but to somewhat guide me. His words somehow managed to get me to feel amazingly calm and loose, like I didn't need to think, he could do that for me, which allowed me to focus even more on this rose. The more and more I stare and listen, the more I want to be guided by this badger, because any thought I managed to have myself made me very weak, I was wanting to fall deep asleep with everything. My mind was unable to understand the wolf's amazing words, but it did manage to take them to heart, and when he finally told me I could go to sleep, I finally went to sleep.

Unbeknown to me, I was fully put at the mercy of this badger's will. While I was sleeping, I could only think of two things, the rose, and the badger, and the longer I dreamt, the less I even thought of the lotus, and more about just this badger. While I was asleep, the badger was revealing his true nature to me, that he truly was evil and that Trixie didn't really retire, she was thrown out by the badger, but still safe, in face he expects her to return... I would normally have been terrified and enraged by these acts, but i wasn't. In my dream I was admiring all these actions, everything he did was a wonderful and magical skill, and I wanted to learn how to do it myself. I would do anything to be as skilled as this badger, anything, from following his lessons to obeyng his orders, I don't know why but his words seem to guide me now. The badger was able to tell about my new mind before even awaking me, he knew I was nothing but willing to please my new master, but he wanted to do a few tricks first... (he picked up a wand and moved me all around the shop...) Once he tapped my head then tail with the wand, I had awaken and had a new mind set that was devoted to this badger... It is now thime to show my devotion and once I had awaken, I instantly bowed down at his paws, and he gsve a grin and knew his work was done. He had ordered me up and my eyes were glowing in bright aquamarine colors starring right at this badger.

"I believe I that I have a new apprentice... isn't that right skunk?" the badger asked me in a lighter, somewhat accomplished/smug tone... I simply nodded in a humorless manner and grabbed a pair of those magic hook swords. "Now about that girl you keep talking about, uh, Tixie..." the badger said as the camera faded out...

About three days later, I'm working at the counter and Trixie walks through the door, looking confused and wonfering why he called her into this place, "Um, why did you call me here exactly, and why are you wearing a name tag?" she asked me, wondering why I would work there after she left.

"Oh I just needed some extra cash so I picked up a parttime job here, my boss is pretty great so I thought why not, and I wanted to tell you something..." I responded, making her look kind of happy and relieved...

"Really...?"

"Trixie, you got me into magic, you are pretty, you are talented, I like you and I want to give you something to show it..." I say as I go off to bring her something nice and beautiful...

"Oh my gosh... that's so sweet...!"

I return and hand her a flower, a special flower... a glowing rose...

"That's... beautiful..." her eyes started to glow then...

That night, the badger had his two new minions learning his skills, knowing with their loyalty to him and the lotus, they would not let him down. These skunks are very skillled with simple tricks but with their new master, they know they can do so much more... and they have managed to sell many monkey paws and crystal balls. So what if they have brought great chaos to the world and fear to the lives of many citizens, that's the way the rose demands the world to be, only the rose can be nice and beautiful....