A wish is a powerful thing. You only get one.
Be specific. No pauses. No mistakes.
Pronounce correctly.
And one last thing.
Be careful what you wish for.

        James dropped the Wisher's Handbook. The librarian hissed at him, snake eyes blazing. James was not one of the librarian's favourite people.
        James lived in a world where about half of the human population, like this librarian, weren't actually human beings at all.
        The Authorities called these things Evolutionaries, or Evos. Nobody knew where they came from, or why they are more animal-like than humans.
        Some Evos were more normal than others, like James' father. John Gates was completely human, except for the mountain goat's horns on his head. His wife, Lucie, on the other hand, was not an Evo at all. Neither were their children, James and Liana.
        But James had a friend called Eve. Eve was not the Evo, though. It was her grandfather. Eve's grandfather, was, in fact, the local librarian. He was very protective of his books, as if they were his own young. He had beady eyes, like a snakes, and a forked tongue. He had no skin, only scales. From a distance, they resembled tattoos. He had nostrils, but no nose. He had a human mouth, and lips, but his teeth were pointed, and he had venomous fangs. He still wore clothing, as a human would. He shopped at clothing stores, and went to restaurants. He ate normal food.
        But sometimes the Authorities allow the Evos to eat what food they like. So in Eve's grandfather's case, rats and mice.
But James didn't know this. He didn't know that some people were Evolutionborn, and others chose to join the Evolutionaries. He didn't know how Evos were treated.
He thought Evos were exactly like humans.
As James bent down to collect the dusty book, he realized one of it's pages, yellow from age, was not connected to the spine. Before Eve's grandfather could notice, James quickly gathered the book in his arms and hurried to the table farthest away from the check-out desk.
James whipped through the wrinkly pages until he found the one that had become out of place. He took out the page. It read:
It is, of course, the rarest artifact of all time. He whom may find it shall come across extreme power. Scientists have never approached it, for as well as power, it holds curses of many. They have, obviously, located it. It is found in the
And that was all. The page had not been one of the pages of the handbook. It must have fallen out of another book, or perhaps guide, and someone had blindly shoved in into James' Wisher's Handbook.
James began searching for the book the page had come out of, to put it back. The number at the bottom of the page said 483. So the book had lots of pages, which helped quite a bit.
Then a thought crossed James' mind.
He could keep this page. He could find the object and use it for power. He could help Evos become more understanding! He could-
He could not do any of those things.
He has not found the page's book, which holds the not-so secret location of the powerful object.
The book may not even be in the library. It might have been destroyed, along
with almost all the old library books, with the exception of Wisher's Handbooks.
This page might be the only bit left of the artifice's book.
The only thing James could do was go home. So he did.