Contest July-August 2019 Short Story Contest (entries now closed)

The theme for our 19th seasonal short story contest provided by @Killer Angel is "Magic and the Mundane."

The Rules
-We would like you to try to keep your story between 500 and 2000 words. I am requiring that entries do not exceed 2400 words. This is counting title, poems, quotes, any add-ons. If I get a submission that exceeds 2400 words, I will trim it till it meets the limit, and you may not like what I choose to cut.
-Your name must appear nowhere with the story. There is no point in having an anonymous competition based on skill if we know whose entry is whose.
-You must send your story via private message to Scalenex before midnight (US Central time) on July 31st.
-The story must be new. No dragging up a story you wrote months or years ago.
-No plagiarism. This means no stealing a story verbatim. You are free to use characters or settings from other works including other writer's fluff pieces and past short story contest entries.
-The story must involve Lizardmen (or Seraphon or Salamanders or Saurian Ancients), at least a little
-The story must stick roughly within the theme, at least a little.
-No comics or illustrations. This is a short story contest. Visuals are limited to fonts and text colors.
-Only one entry allowed per person.

I will do my best to providing proofreading and general advise to writers who ask for it though real life is full of many challenges for me right now. If you wish me to provide a detailed edit, please try to get your draft to me as muc before the deadline as possible. You are welcome, nay encouraged, to ask anyone else you wish for help or advice.

Once again, the winner of this contest has the honor of choosing the next contest theme if they so choose. This time because I do not want to be saddled with coming up with a last minute topic. If the winner does not give me a topic, I will pass this burden honor on to the runner-up. Or if Scalenex wins somehow, he will pass the burden on to Killer Angel.

If you want to talk about the theme or your eagerness to write or read something. Please do so below!

 

Now, i am morally forced to write a story...

 

Good that you are working on this early. Often when I consult TV tropes I find myself spending two hours clicking and reading related links. If you start writing three or four days before the deadline I would recommend skipping TV tropes.

 

This round i cannot afford to wait for the sign "the end is near".
I am already writing different parts of the story, while developing ideas on how to joint them, improving concepts yet to be written, and so on.

 

The first draft of my story has been completed. And it's darn good!

 

this of course could be avoided if all of you vote directly for me.

ok, the idea for the theme came from the title of this song. So many intriguing possibilities.

 

So far you are the only one who submitted a piece. I guess everyone is taking the panda's advice...

 

Then my final victory will be even simpler.

...but less satisfying.
Come on you lazy writers! Send your stories!