The Witching Hour

I didn’t wake until around noon. When I got into the living room, I could see Miva rushing around the room, playing tag with Ivy, Soot, and Midnight. “Glad to see the three of you are all up and running. However, if you want anything to eat before dinner, I would ask you to help me set the table and stuff.” It took little in the way of convincing Miva at all, and I was just glad to have an extra set of hands. As under normal circumstances, I didn’t have a choice but to do all that alone.

Breakfast, or rather lunch, was a noisy affair as a squabble broke out about what to make. To the surprise of no one, Ivy wanted pancakes, Miva wanted toast, with various calls for meats and the like from my trio of familiars. In the end, I settled on a specialty of mine.

Ham Sandwiches. And not those flimsy things sold in the states. This was rough bread, butter, ham, homemade ketchup, and cheese. Fifteen minutes in the oven and five minutes’ rest, and you would have a juicy yet crispy warm lunch ready to go. The reception was positive overall, although Ivy was, to the surprise of no one, disappointed at the lack of pancakes.

I suspected that the familiar bond let my familiars eat things that would usually be poisonous to them, since neither bread nor cheese would be the usual fare for Winter and Midnight, but, understandably, they didn’t want to test it. Now granted pure greens were off the table, not because they couldn’t eat it, but they didn’t like it. Both Midnight and Winter were… picky eaters, to be mild about it.

After the late lunch, we gathered in the living room. We considered sitting on the landing outside, but the weather took a turn for the worse. And I knew from experience that messing with the weather caused more problems than it was worth. So rather than being eaten alive by mosquitoes hiding from the rain, we stayed inside.

The others already informed Miva about the whole story-time going on of late and Miva was as eager as the rest of them, that I continue it all. “Alright everyone, now where was I?” Soot chirped for a bit. “The last part was the familiar ritual between you and me. Which means we’ll have to jump a few years for anything worth mentioning to happen now. Unless everyone here is interested in the same daily life routine repeated for ten years straight.” I looked up at Soot in surprise.

“Was it really a decade?” Soot gave me a sidelong glance as he rinsed some crumbs out of his feathers. “If we are thinking about the same event, it’s about that, yes. Give or take a few months.” Huh, time flies when you’re just enjoying life. Although, now that I thought about it, he was right. “So as Soot was saying…”

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“It’s almost coming up to our ten-year anniversary now. How are you feeling about it?” Soot looked up from the plate of various meats he was eating. “Ten years? That long already?” He seemed perplexed for a bit. “Huh, well, I don’t really feel any different. Aside from the usual elation at living the good life, of course.” He kept eating in silence some more. “By the way, Mistress. I saw some smoke rising from the southern valley earlier today. We might want to check it out in case it’s a bushfire. I mean it’s not likely to hit the forest, but you never know.”

To the south of the swamp, the terrain would slowly turn more like a highland landscape for about ten minutes of flight, before it would dip into a deep river valley with various plants and the like. The forests to the east and west of the swamp would actually grow all the way into the valley itself, however. And I didn’t want a forest fire to cause mayhem among my food supply, or endanger our new friends in Nettledale.

“Guess we’re off to the valley. A nice way to celebrate our anniversary anyhow.” Soot finished his dinner, and I made the plate hover into the kitchen to wash off. “Said anniversary would have been a week ago during the festival, would it not?” I shrugged. “Close enough, besides would you have the anniversary celebration that close to the festival?” Soot looked at me for a few seconds before giving off the chirps I knew to be his laugh.

“You got a point there, with how stuffed that festival makes me, there is no way I’d be able to celebrate that at the same time. Just thinking about it is making me feel overly full.” I arched an eyebrow. “And I’m sure the literal bowl of meat you just devoured has nothing to do with it.” Soot ignored my comment and instead landed on my shoulder. “Shall we go? If it is a fire, it’s better to get it dealt with sooner rather than later.”

I headed out on the landing and grabbed my broom. This one was a far cry better than the rickety old one I made way back when. It even had a cushioned seat. A few moments later, we were in the air and flying southward. “So where in the valley did you see the smoke raise from?” Soot pointed to the southeast. “The smoke came from the area of the valley where it turns a sharp north.”

That explained why Soot didn’t know whether it was a fire or not. “Alrighty, off we go then. Letting a forest fire burn is such a waste, so don’t delay, but let’s make haste!” The magic began taking hold immediately. Soot looked at me, and if he could make expressions, I am certain it would be annoyed or hateful right now.

“You piece of -” His words were drowned out as the magic took hold and the brooms’ acceleration and speed both tripled. Soot’s words died in the resulting roar of wind, as he now didn’t have a choice but to hang on for dear life. Right, forgot about that. A quick silent spell later, and we were shielded from the wind itself. “Couldn’t do that in the opposite order, eh?” Soot ruffled his wings and began fixing the multiple misaligned feathers. “Sorry about that, Soot. I got too carried away.”

With the increased speed, my new broom got to the area where Soot saw the smoke in about half an hour. But it was also taking its toll on the broom. It was missing a bunch of straw at the end. At this rate, I’d have to make a new one soon. As we neared the area, a light drizzle fell from the skies. If we were lucky, it wouldn’t turn into a deluge.

I turned the bend in the valley and so a most unwelcome sight. A small grouping of houses and wagons. People, joy. And here I was hoping, I’d never have to deal with any again. On the plus side, the construction and lack of any modern implements suggested at the most medieval era tech.

That aside, these people being here was a concern. In the worst-case scenario, they might hunt in the nearby forest or harvest herbs I needed for my brews. The forest to the east of my swamp contained vastly different plants to that of the western forest, most likely because that forest contained Nettledale and thus more magic, while the western forest was utterly mundane.

That was another thing to think of, too. Nettle and the other pixies didn’t like ‘Biguns’, or humans, as I’d learned the name meant. Yet another reason to keep these people as far away from the forest as possible. As I neared the place, I could see a group of about twelve people milling about the collection of four houses. They were busy putting the finishing touches on the fourth one.

A few moments later, they spotted me as I went in for a landing, and a group of three people approached me. An elderly fellow with a cane, but well-defined muscles showing from his sleeveless shirt, and with a sword strapped to his side, likely a retired soldier or the like.

The second was a giant of a man, over two meters easy, that looked like a weight lifter, and was walking somewhat hunched over. Despite the mountain of muscles, I wasn’t intimidated. Not only did I have magic, but my supernatural strength would at worst match his, if not allow me to outright overpower him.

The last one was a woman dressed in a brown cloak and dress and was carrying a staff. I could sense mana flowing around her, so it was obvious she could manipulate mana. As they neared, she whispered something to the man with the sword, who tensed up. It wouldn’t surprise me she felt the same about me.

The man with the sword stepped up. “Greetings, ma’am. Welcome to what will become our home in the days to come.” I took a deep breath to steady myself as I looked over the small area. “So I see, and since we will become neighbors, I will simply say this once. The forest up there, the swamp to its west, and the forest to the west of that again are my domain. Stay out.” The mountain of a man stomped up to me and leaned in so close our noses almost touched. “Or you’ll do what, exactly?”

The woman’s eyes opened in shock, as she could likely feel the magic surge without me saying a word or making a single gesture. Before she could utter a warning, however, there was a poof of smoke and the brute was now a small frog on the ground. I leaned down and snatched it up before it could dodge out of the way. “If you’re going to make a threat, make sure you can follow up on it, little man.” I glanced over to the woman and the man with a sword.

I put him back down and undid the spell. “However, I am not unreasonable, so I will give you an incentive to do as I say.” I looked around until I found a rock the size of my palm. I picked it up and began to channel mana into it while casting a spell on it. Once it was done, the stone took on a soft, dark green glow.

“The enchantment on this stone will last for as long as you stay out of my domain. Plant it in the ground and any farmland nearby will be safe from pests and destruction. It will also always yield a good harvest. However, any wandering into my forests or felling my trees and the spell will break.”

I didn’t mention that if the spell broke, I would know. Not that I’d need to, the woman undoubtedly knew. “And where, then, am I to source my ingredients?” I turned towards the woman, who was now clutching her staff so hard her knuckles were turning white. “Elsewhere. Although, if you have a familiar, you can send a request to me, as I live in the swamp between the forests.

Should I find the request reasonable, I might trade for eggs, milk or similar produce, and in that the case, I will come here to conduct business. Never enter my domain under any circumstance. That is all.”

Before they could say anything else, I hopped on my broom and flew off. “You know, Mistress. You seemed rather err…” I glanced over at Soot. “I have a rather… complicated history with people. I am fine with the inhabitants of Nettledale and the like, but humans make me, well. It’s been about a decade since the last time I’d have to deal with them, and it’s still a bit too soon, it seems.”

Soot eyed me for a moment. “Not a people person, eh?” A pretty dead-on assessment, even if it was meant as a quip. “Not at all. I used to have a job that involved dealing with some of the most entitled, self-centered and unreasonable people imaginable, before I became a witch. It has made me rather… antisocial, I suppose.”

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Soot’s chirping laugh brought me out of my tale. “An apt way of saying it, indeed. Not sure what your job entailed exactly, but knowing what I now know, I suppose it might have involved even more people than I can imagine.” I looked over at Soot. “Imagine being stuck at a desk for eight hours every day. And from the moment you sit down, people are making inane demands at you that you can’t really hope to fulfill. Then, on top of it all, they get angry when you try to tell them why you can’t, and demand you do so anyway. Every work day, for nearly a decade.”

Soot visibly shuddered. “Although I can understand why you’d develop a few… bristles, when having to deal with people after that.” I couldn’t suppress a chuckle. “I believe I have mellowed out somewhat over time, but yeah, my first interaction was rather… brusque… to be mild about it.” Midnight glanced up at me from where she was lying in Miva’s lap. “Only slightly. When your mod drops, you get rather...” Her voice trailed off as I waved her off. “Fair enough, fair enough. Now, where was I?”

Before I could get an answer, there was a noise coming from Ivy. To be more exact, her stomach was growling. I took a deep breath. “I guess that means we should take a break for dinner. Any wishes… besides the obvious pancakes from Ivy?” I could see Ivy visibly deflate as I preempted her suggestion. “Umm, could we have that meal you mentioned the last time I was here? What was it called again… meatballs? No wait, that other thing, ugh, I don’t remember the name.”

Not meatballs… oh, Norwegian meat cakes? Hmm, couldn’t even remember the last time I made that. I should have some moose meat still, and it would undoubtedly be popular with everyone, even the resident pancake fanatic. “Hmm, sure, why not? It will take a bit to make, so why don’t you all get comfortable in the meantime, and trust me Ivy it’s tasty, so no need to cry over the loss of pancakes.” With that, I disappeared into the kitchen to get dinner ready.