Billy's Book

Sometimes a stable boy should just stick to shovelling muck...
Sick of cleaning out horses, Billy Crump sneaks into the local wizard's lab and accidentally blows up half the room. In the aftermath, he makes a extraordinary discovery: a scuffed almanac that can actually talk.
Billy's first thought? Sell the snarky book for a fortune and retire early!
But when a cheated merchant comes demanding a refund and the damaged book goes silent, Billy and his old master try to recreate the magical accident—with disastrously unexpected results.
A 5,000-word comedic fantasy short story by Simon Haynes, author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series.