“First things first, child, Ah, no no no, that won’t do not at all. Proper manners, proper manners must be observed.. This is quite the momentous thing to happen” She spoke quickly. Her walking pace quickened as she circled around him.
“Chil-Ezra it was?Ezra.. follow me to my accommodation - as it were” She replied with a circular wave of her hand. Ezra found himself almost spellbound by the strange behavior she exuded as he picked up his pace to keep up with her.
The never ending bog grew ever denser as Ezra followed Drells lead. He couldn’t make heads or tails out of the new fauna as his senses were barraged by the odors of an oddly sweet scent of damp decay. Giant mushrooms seemed to replace trees. Their colors started out a sickly red brown color that faded to a pale yellow the closer to the tops he saw. The tops themselves were overinflated puffball shaped. His mind was amazed by the size of some of them, they were taller and thicker than any English oak in his memory. He continued to look around and tried to take in everything he saw. He wondered how differently it looked by daylight, if there even was a day cycle here. More questions he hoped to ask later started to pile up in his head the more they walked on..
The damp ground was littered with various smaller mushrooms and fungi were growing between thorny, leafless bushes. Ezra wondered if it was winter here or did things always look like this. His ears were trying to pick up on what the strange clicking noise was he was hearing in the background when Drelle came to a sudden halt.
He hit her back with a soft “oof” and came to realize she had stopped in front of a mushroom as wide as a house and taller than any of the surrounding mushrooms. As he craned his neck to look up, it didn’t seem to have an end. Even the full moon didn’t cast enough light. It was green, it was so oddly green in its red-brown to yellow surroundings. Drelle stepped to the side and to his further astonishment he saw a wooden door in the center of this giant yellow-green mushroom. He looked at her in wonder while she scratched the top of her head
She opened the door and he followed her inside to be greeted by pitch black and the faint glowing of a bunch of tiny lights in the far distance that grew in intensity and size as those little balls of light seemed to come to greet Drelle and Ezra the further that they stepped in. As the light penetrated the darkness of the interior, familiar objects began to slowly take shape. Windows, cupboards, tables, chairs, all the trappings of a home just took shape as the light grew. A strange piece of furniture under a window did catch his eye as it emitted a red light from an orb in its center.
“Other than that one odd piece of furniture the rest could have been a small cottage back home.” Ezra mused to himself while he placed a tentative hand on the surface of a plain brown wooden table and marveled at its creation. “What is it in the light that created this?” He wondered aloud while turning his gaze to Drelle.
She paused and scratched under her nose. Throwing her bag onto the table where Ezra had his hand, she plopped herself down into a chair at the table with a deep and weary sigh.
“Well now, that’s the wrong question one should be asking.”
He gave her a puzzled look as she placed her elbows on the table and used the palms of her rather dirty hands to cradle her face.
“It’s Whom” she continued with a knowing grin. “Whom in the light created this, would be the proper question to be asking. Then again, you can’t see them, can you? You’re not OF here, so I thought maybe just maybe you’d see them as well, but alas maybe not, Well, see, best to put it as they are of what here is made of, Ah, how to describe, they are picky though..”
Ezra looked at her with continued amazement as she rambled on and her speech became almost too quick and erratic to keep up with as he took the chair near her and tried to take it all in. With a wave of her hand she halted herself and changed the topic as quickly as she spoke.
“You’re not here to listen to my talk, no no, you’re foreign thing introduced here, and you need to know what I saw and where that puts you, Yes?It's strange, there will be magic that might behave differently with you. I’d imagine you would burn to death, so let's not try the usuals shall we..”
“Stop, please” Ezra pleaded, desperately to her. His mind, unable to keep up with her ever changing pivot of topic.
Her mouth contorted into a grimace and her head shook left and right like a metronome. “Ezra of Eng-land, you are foreign. Now elemental magics should proper end you, but other types would be trial and error. You might be immune to it all, but your eyes are so cloudy and uncertain. What are you, what are you, what are you,” she trailed off, continuing her head shaking motion.
“That is true.” He replied, nodding. “I am not of this world.” Pausing for a moment, he looked at her with concern “But what do you mean by trial and error?”
She pursed her lips for a moment then flashed a toothy grin. Her teeth were sharp and jagged like a predatory fish. “Let's test you with MY magics first. The dirt brought you to this land so best to test your mettle the natural way.”
An audible gulp was heard coming from Ezras throat as his pupils dilated in fear. “Do you do magic with poisons?” he asked nervously. Not wanting to doubt what appeared to be his benefactor, he couldn’t help but give some pause due to her unsettling manner of acting and looking.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“What? No!, Well, yes it happens sometimes, but I won’t currently poison you on purpose, I promise!Look, remember that potion you wanted to buy with that useless currency? How about you try that one, and then that would really be the best way to tell how a person such as yourself can deal with the magics of this world.” She then reached into her sack dress and pulled out a small round bottle that was filled with what looked like liquid gold. “Drink this” She bade while handing him the bottle.
Taking it gingerly, Ezra swirled the concoction before opening the cork at the top. Bringing it to his nose, he took a small whiff off of the opening. Burnt twigs, and licorice assaulted his nose as he quickly pulled the bottle away. “Smells right rancid, and I’m supposed to drink this?” he asked while she gleefully nodded. He sighed slowly and put the bottle to his opening mouth. The scent did not betray the taste as he winced when he tasted burnt twigs and licorice. As the last of the liquid went down his throat a warming feeling followed. Then all became cold, so cold he thought his insides were freezing. He curled into a ball as best he could in his chair while he gave Drelle a pained look as she returned with one of amusement.
“Ooh, now that’s interesting.” She said while tapping her sharp teeth with her long brown red fingertip. “Your eyes changed color, they did” She scratched the top of her head and began muttering in a language he couldn’t understand.
As swiftly as the deathly cold gripped his entire being, it passed away in a sensation that was warm and gentle. Still gasping to breathe as his body relaxed, he gave her a heated stare. “You utter bitch, what was that? I thought I was going to freeze to death.”
“See now, you paid for that, then blame me. Odd how that works, mortal fool. Let’s not argue over what you went through. You survived, and that is the important part, right?” The words out of her mouth were biting but the tone was oddly light.
Ezra soon started to feel the beginnings of a headache as his time with Drelle continued and wondered if it was the potion or her. Giving a small exasperated sigh he looked at her and asked what the potion she created was.
“Look, I’m not sure what really happened to you or what will happen but something DID happen, that is for sure. Now, while I don’t quite recall everything in it or what everything really was..”, she answered with a laugh. “Nature witches like myself brew potions, control flora and fauna, what have you. Well there were these strange mushrooms growing where you were around before. I decided to see what would happened with them. If Arrundrelle has not seen a mushroom, then something is amiss. It must be from elsewhere, as are you, as I wonder if all Realmers are from this Eng-land, or are all people of Eng-land from Realm… ahh the quandaries never end, now do they?” She started tapping her fingers on the tabletop while an eerie grin spread across her face.
Ezra quietly wondered how one being could say so much in one breath, or if a being like her even needed to breathe. She reminded him somewhat of Tom. The sudden thought of Tom made him pause. He hadn’t thought of anyone back in England since he stood up in this strange place. He had a good idea of where that bush was from the mushroom house, but he wasn’t exactly sure. A strange prickling sensation hit his heart as he realized that he wasn’t that worried about if he ever made it back or not. He didn’t have time to ponder this thought and what it ment when she started to poke at his forehead, bringing him back to his current situation.
“Ezra, did a Drog take you away?” she asks while continuing to poke at his forehead. “Nah, a Drog being a just pest of a creature. Takes ones soul away if allowed to get big enough. Gonna be strange educating one on everything. I might forget a thing or two about all living things. Speaking of little pests, Gynder never lets me forget that. In fact I think we should give him a visit first. Spells have spell masters, and maybe a spell master came from this Eng-land. Does Eng-land have spell masters?”
“No magic other than that what exists in legends.” Ezra replied with a raised eyebrow. “We have a Merlin from old tales. Mostly dragons, unicorns and fairies though… Do those things exist here?”
“Dragons? Ah they’ve been known to occur. Not often times.” She interrupts herself with a derisive snort. “Been ages since even I’ve laid eyes on a unicorn. The dires fair wiped them out rather quickly. As to the fairies, I couldn’t be so lucky as to have them all wiped out. Nasty little tricksters they are.”
“A dire?” Ezra asked searchingly. “Do you mean dire wolves? Those did exist in England also, but soon became just some sort of legendary beast.” He paused and bit his lower lip, finding himself oddly comforted by this familiar tie to where he came from. “I think we might have had a hand in eradicating them.”
Drelle stared at him through her curtain bangs for an awkward amount of time before she broke into peels of laughter. She wipes under her nose and giggles. “Hah, Relmers use them to hunt down the beasties. Have bred them to be quite big and nasty. I here tell some of the Emperors knights have a pack they use as mounts. Kinda a right dumb thing, ‘cause things with sharp teethies do tend to bite when they feel the need. And blame them if they do. I’d do the same”
Images of her own particularly sharp teeth flashed into Ezra's mind. With what little he had witnessed of her, he had no doubt of it. A question sprang to his lips, “So, Drelle, you speak of everything as if it is a thing or a species apart from you, so I guess I have to ask, just what are you? Not a Huma-Realmer, or whatever you call them, us. Is a witch a species here, or a job title one trains for?”
Again the brown stained finger reaches up to scratch under her nose, becoming a somewhat characteristic trait. “You talk a lot, Ezra”. She replies with little mirth. “Doesn’t your mind wonder about far grander things?” She starts to trace the wood grain on the table with the same finger. “For what it is, a witch is a title one earns with traits born.” The side of her mouth curls into a smirk. “Our recent times find it to be a less than desirable title. So I guess with that I don’t come across many that have the smell, less that admit to it.” She then immediately stands up scratches her back, turning to face Ezra she places her hands on her sides and slightly tilts her head as to examine him. “Are you coming with me to see what will become of you? I do hope that you are quick to pick things up, I don’t remember half of what I say to even care to repeat it.”
Scrunching his mouth up, Ezra looked to the side and contemplated his choices. Weighing his possible poisoning to the matter at hand had sealed his decision. He slowly stood up and reached out his hand, “Allright Drelle, I will follow you and we will see just what you have done to me.”