foxglove jamjar’s magical adventure chapter one

Friday, January 2, 2026

auth0r’s n0te: good morning everyone! here’s to our first full week of the morning hues, here at substack. i hope that january is finding you well. this winter is going to be bitterly cold so i decided that every friday i will offer up one chapter of one of my many stories for you to devour. hopefully this will result in them getting finished one by one. it is so difficult to hold one’s ownself accountable especially with the nipping wind swirling just beyond our walls. it is also worth mentioning that all of these posts are the first drafts with some errors. this is because 1) i am focused on simply writing and 2) i refuse to be accused of using ai to craft my work. today’s tea is a classic green. so brew a cup and cuddle up because we are going through a portal in today’s story.

chapter 1: in which foxglove jamjar meets a b.i.t.c.h

foxglove jamjar, affectionately called fj, was getting tired of laying by the meridian river bank, and of the sluggish heat that was beating on her back. the concrete was getting too hot, but she had hoped that someone would come by and stop to hear her recite a scene from shakespeare or sing a song. yet none had come.

this was quite unusual, you see, since it was a saturday. and saturday’s were always poppin’ by the american river bank. always, even well after the city paved the river in and put the bank there— musicians, actors, fortune tellers and the like crowded the streets like a rainbow flood. if you were so blessed to see the mesmerizing pool, it would draw you away from the long night’s work to dance under the watchful eyes of the moons above.

it was quite unusual indeed, fj wondered, as she gathered up her little bag of things. she considered as well as she could with the heat melting her mind, whether or not she had missed an announcement about a parade or some other event sanctioned by the federal aesthetics executive it was june afterall, but to her knowledge high city’s pridefest wasn’t for another week still.

fj stood dusting off the grit from her clothes and shouldered her bag. it was then that she saw the white cat. at least what she thought was a cat. it had the ears of a cat, but the body of a cloudlike creature with furry little ruffles along its bottom. it glowed softly, with l0ong thin black arms and legs. it had no nose, no mouth, or any whiskers to speak of just small button like eyes the color of nothingness. fj shook their head, and decided that it must be a cat. what else could it be? and since fantastical things such as this were not out of the ordinary in high city— so, fj turned to walk the other way. best to avoid any magical circumstances, we can’t afford a ticket for not having a license.

“hey! wait!”, the “cat” said, “you’re supposed to follow me.”

“what for?” fj questioned. she has better street smarts than to follow a strange talking cat but she found herself unable to resist turning to talk to it. though the cat was no longer standing there waiting for fj, its tail disappeared around the corner into the alley. and so she followed it.

“better hurry, for the portal closes! ” the “cat” called over its shoulder, jumping through a whirling hole at the dead end of the alleyway.

“where’s it heading?” fj asked, chasing the “cat” through the portal in the brick wall.

the portal went on for a while, the walls rounded and bowing vibration around fj. without warning or explanation the tunnel dropped off. she let out a short scream as she fell rapidly, but the bottom never came and eventually, her fall became a float.

foxglove once again found herself bored as she floated downward. someone must have lost something, she noted as random pages of notes, and pens began to float by her. she grabbed one of the papers, which read: our query begins in a small farming town just outside of high city. truthfully foxglove had never been much of a reader since she had entered into her early adulthood, something in opposition to the truth that she held when she was just a child. often she found herself portalling into another person’s world through her words enclosed between the two covers of a book. she allowed the page to flutter from her hands as she continued to descend.

foxglove had been used to waiting, so being patient for this unusual trip to end was not beyond what she was used to. in fact ever since she had left her elven home, she had found herself spending most of her time loafing around. though she had gotten to recite her favorite plays for a few coins, she also had trouble finding consistent work in high city. this was in part due to the impossible to meet guild requirements needed to acquire employment within the city limits. this was the reason foxglove started busking by the meridian river bank in the first place.

lower, lower, lower, she fell. fj observed the random white letters that were caught wishing the portals space time continuum. fj had gone through some wormholes before, but never one one so viscous and black. fj glanced below her feet, capturing a glimpse of the cat’s glow scampering off.

“hey wait,” fj yelled at the “cat’s” retreating glow. the act of which broke the float spell that had been placed on her.

rapidly, rapidly, rapidly, she descended with a scream ripping from her throat. the tunnel whipped and zoomed her in every direction guiding her towards the end. fj felt sick from being slung around, but even more so from the rapidly approaching ground. she clapped her hands together, and prayed: “if there is a god, please don’t let me die here. i promise i will fulfill whatever purpose it is that you have for me.”

“and, so it is,” responded a rumble from nowhere and fj was very gently placed at the end of the tunnel.

fj, unhurt, quickly jumped up to look around for the source of the voice but all was quiet. she did however notice pinned to a nearby tree was a key with a tag which read: take me. so, she did.

in her looking, fj realized that the white cat was nowhere to be seen. checking again, she saw that there was truly not a whisker or a tale to follow.

“now where did that cat go?” fj asked aloud, wandering further into the forest. just then, out of thin air, she saw a sign. it was a simple wooden sign with a crudely painted white arrow pointing deeper into the trees.

and thus, fj traveled deeper into the woods. after all, it was important to follow trail signs even if she weren’t labeled. funny enough, even though she had been raised by elves in high city, she could barely identify the fauna that surrounded her. her parents had spent a pretty penny sending her to the indigenous elf scout troop meetings for a summer when she was twelve though. she had truly tried to pay attention but the ies had really watered down a lot of elven lore, and though fj was a human herself even she could smell the bullshit a mile away. am i even in the commonwealth anymore? she wondered as she wandered deeper in the forest.

her surroundings seemed to thicken as she progressed on the path. the flora nestled closer to the path, the bushes, and trees clustering closer together the further in fj walked. if you looked close enough beyond what your eyes could see, the bushes and leaves bristling as fj walked by as if yearning to stroke her legs.

soon she found herself breaking from the trees and emerging into a clearing. the clearing was well lit despite the heavy tree coverage, and featured a small tea table and chair in the center. despite her better judgement, fj very swiftly decided to rest her feet at the table. she had been wandering forever and had grown quite tired. upon realizing her own exhaustion, her stomach rumbled.

“i wish there was something to eat,” fj said aloud, “or that i could find that weird cat.”

it was then that fj noticed the pastel pink china plate, with a mushroom risotto on top. next to it was a glass of milk — presumably non-dairy. fj very swiftly set about consuming the meal. it was only after she finished eating that she noticed the little paper card on the table which read: eat this.

unfortunately, fj had failed to notice the ring of fly agaric toadstools that had formed a ring around the clearing. she shimmered and lit up shooting beams of light up into the tops of the trees. the lights folded down and pointed at fj. who soon began to unfold and expand until she were quite ridiculously large. her head popping out above the trees.

it was not unusual for just things to occur in the commonwealth of hix, but fj was surprised that she had survived such a faery prank. she was lucky, and used the opportunity to scout out what existed beyond the trees.

she could see the meridian river bank building far in the distance. its blue glass peaks showing over the treeline. fj was confused as to how in such a short time she had managed to wander so far from mainstreet.

“hello, up there!” called a chime-like voice below near fj’s feet.

looking down, fj couldn’t make out the exact creature below her but was able to make out her vibrant multicolored outfit contrasting against the dark green grass of the glade. it was only then that fj really took exactly how large she had grown with the way that her feet had stretched and knocked over the table she was sitting at just previously.

“hello!” fj called in return, “you’ll have to forgive me! i can’t quite make you out with how tall i have stretched!”

“well, well. that won’t do!” called the voice, “have you tried shrinking yourself again?”

“of course, i have! do you think i want to be this big!” foxglove shouted, rather cluelessly and childishly stomping her foot!

“hey! watch out!” shouted the voice, “you don’t have to have a tantrum about it! i was just asking.”

“you’re not asking the right thing, then” whined foxglove, as she slowly found a seat in her clearing. her body taking up the space that she had occupied so little of before.

up onto her knee scrambled a badger wearing a cowboy hat, “ well, excuse me for asking if you’d even tried before complaining that you don’t know how to do something.”

the badger in the cowboy hat, though its friends called it itch, dusted off its fur which had become rather dirty when it had dodge rolled foxgloves foot.

“oh, why don’t you just go away and stop bothering me!” foxglove pouted, resting her chin in her hand and her elbow on her knee slumping in defeat.

“now, now, now, who said i’m here to bother you, “ said the badger, itch, wearing a cowboy hat, “in fact, a white cat asked me to come find you. said you were probably lollygagging in your head and gotten lost.”

“a white cat?” foxglove wondered and then with much urgency grabbed the badger wearing a cowboy hat up into her hands bringing it up to her face.

“hey, hey, hey!” itch chided as it held its hat on its head as to not lose its signature look, “watch it! who said you could just swoop me up like that?”

“you said a white cat. where did it go? i’ve been looking for it!” foxglove said shaking the badger.

“animal cruelty! abuse!,” the badger wearing a cowboy hat screamed.

“that’s nonsense,” scoffed fj, “i only gave you a little shake. i won’t do it again if you tell me where the cat went.”

“fine!,” shivered itch , “ put me down and i’ll show you.”

as fj placed the badger in the cowboy hat, she found herself shrinking with every breath she took. soon she found herself having corrected to regular size.

“much less scary when you’re not all puffed up, “ itch said, looking fj from head to toe.

“what’s that supposed to mean?” fj glared sideways at the badger in the cowboy hat.

“oh, nothing.” it said turning to guide fj back into the forest.