Here I am, in Toowoomba. What a nice place, and what a nice name. Rolls off the tongue…Toowoomba. I have to be careful while I’m saying the name, because it’s phonetically almost identical to the spell of ear enlargement. I remember that one being a favoured prank in the academy; just whisper it from the back of the class while someone is talking to a girl they like, and boom. Instant embarrassment! Ho-ho!
Anyway, since I was getting the hang of Australian life, I thought I’d go on a little trip across the desert, have a little Australian cuisine, and experience a little Australian engine trouble. It’s a good thing they have mechanics! Toowoomba is quite isolated if you don’t have transport. I estimate that it would take me weeks of travelling to get back, probably months, and surely along the way I would succumb to the temptation of my aching feet and draw a summoning circle so that I could call forth a winged beast to carry me the rest of the way. And that would be cheating.
No, no, I’m just happy I made it to the mechanics in Toowoomba so that I may rest easy, let them fix the problems caused by many days of driving, and perhaps go to a cafe. We had coffee on our realm, but now that I’ve tasted it here- freshly ground from the bean and mixed with steaming milk, as opposed to brown sugar water that tastes like boiled eyeballs- I can’t believe what we’ve been missing. Banishment really is turning out to be the best thing that ever happened to me.
And cars! Many of my brothers fear them, but I love the feeling of the engine, the control over the wheels using the one smaller wheel. You can take courses to become an auto mechanic, and I’m considering. I will forget magic and go full machine. Cars are super great, so great that they even have auto electrical mechanics working in Toowoomba.
Oh, dang it all, my ears are now four times their original size! It takes six hours for this spell to wear off!
-Tom