text: Blum was a duck. He lived in a small pond in Salem. Blum loved this pond, and he loved the town, but Blum did not like the people in the town. Blum only liked one human in that town, Sabrina. Sabrina was a young woman, maybe early twenties, that lived in a small hut near the pond. Oftentimes, she would come outside, and toss some seed into the pond for Blum. She had been the one to name him. Blum never particularly disliked the people of Salem, until February. In February, there were many hoards of people who would show up to Blum’s pond, and toss a defenseless young woman into it, and yell “Witch!” whenever she would resurface. Blum did not like it when they did this. It would ripple the water, and awaken Blum when he tried to rest. They would drag the kicking and screaming woman back to shore with a rope, and pull them to a large elevated wooden post, with a rope necklace hanging from it. They would put the necklace around their neck, and drop them. This was when Blum had developed his hatred towards the people of Salem. They would ripple his water often, keeping him from sleeping, and it was annoying to Blum. One day, Blum had reached his breaking point. Blum was sitting in his pond, trying to get the rest that the people of Salem would intrude on. He was sitting, hidden in the weeds and moss, when he heard the approach of a mob. He sat and braced for the splash in the water, when he heard a voice that he recognized. He peeked through his patch of weeds, and saw none other than Sabrina. Arms and legs bound with a rope, about to be thrown into the pond. Blum shouted, and begged for the villagers to stop, but they didn’t understand him. Or they just didn’t care. They threw Sabrina into the pond, and waited. She resurfaced moments later, just like all the others did, and just like every other time, they cried,”Witch!”. They dragged Sabrina away with the ropes. There was nothing Blum could’ve possibly done to stop it. As it tends to do, life continued for Blum. The water continued to ripple with every “Trial”, and the only thing he cared about was gone. A day or two later, Blum noticed the window to Sabrina’s house had been left open all this time. Being curious, Blum waddled his way up to the side of the house, and climbed a pile of rocks stacked by the window. Once he got to the windowsill and looked inside, Blum saw the whole house was ransacked, and torn apart. All except one thing. A large book, lying open on the floor. Still rather curious, Blum hopped down from the windowsill, and made his way over to the book, and looked at the page that was open. Blum didn’t fully understand all the symbols and words on the page, but he understood enough. At the top of the page, read one word, in big bold letters. “NECROMANCY” Blum chuckled to himself, this was a grimoire. He could get his friend back. The villagers wouldn’t be rippling his water anymore.