“Grab your brooms, girls,” Dala shouted as she hurried down the steps of her hut, “we’re going flying.”
“Hell yeah!” one of the pink-skinned girls shouted, quickly shooting to her feet and running inside her hut.
“When did I say about invoking hell, Anna?” Dala called out after her.
Dala carried a large, twisting branch of wood far too thick to serve any purpose as a walking stick. Iris trailed behind her, conjuring her walking stick from her palm with an uncertain expression.
“I keep telling you it’s not a broom,” Iris said, “it doesn’t even have bristles.”
“And neither do any of ours,” Dala pointed out.
A puff of smoke erupted into existence beside Iris, and out of it stepped one of the swamp elves holding her own long, gnarled branch, “there’s actually an interesting story about why they’re called brooms! See, we actually use them to kind of sweep the air—”
“You’re skipping ahead in the lesson,” Dala chastised.
The elf gave an embarrassed smile, “sorry matron!” she turned back to Iris and held out a hand, “I’m Ellie, nice to meet you.”
“Iris,” she said as she shook the witch’s hand.
Ellie had a messy bun of black hair, large round glasses which were faintly speckled with mud, and a thick book that was strapped to her waist in a leather contraption that resembled a holster or sheath. Her face was kind and friendly, and she spoke in a sing-song voice. Anna returned quickly with her broom, and was soon followed by the final two witches as they all gathered in the clearing.
Dala pointed at the other elf, who had short black hair, a scar on her cheek, and was currently giving Iris a nasty look, “that’s Grey.” The matron then pointed at the other pink-skinned girl, “and that’s Relena.”
Relena gave Iris a curt by friendly wave and a small smile. She looked almost indistinguishable from Anna, even having a nearly identical ponytail. The only distinguishable features between them were slight variations in clothing, Relena being about an inch taller, and Anna having a few loose strands of hair hanging around her face.
Iris waved in return, and nodded along as if she was actually going to remember everyone’s name. For now, she decided to at least remember Ellie’s, as she seemed the nicest.
“Grey, show her how it’s done,” Dala said.
Grey nodded as she tilted her broom and swung a leg over it, pausing to adjust her grip into the grooves of the twisted wood and check her footing. A gust of wind erupted beneath the elf as she kicked off the ground and launched with surprising speed. She shot forward at a low angle, twisting side to side to navigate through the branches until she broke free of the swamp and looped around to fly over the small gap in the canopy over the clearing.
“Grey makes it look easy,” Ellie said, “she’s the best flier we have beside Dala.”
“That’s really cool and all,” Iris said, “but I keep telling you guys I don’t even have a broom.”
Dala sighed as she walked up to Iris and extended a hand, “may I?”
Iris hesitantly offered her walking stick to the witch as she handed her staff to a waiting Ellie. Dala twisted the stick around in her hands to inspect it, then lightly tossed it a few inches to test its weight. She swung a leg over it and launched into flight as a massive gust of wind splattered mud behind her — which Iris only narrowly avoided with an almost subconscious blip, reappearing with her mouth agape.
Through the leaves, Iris watched Dala circle in the air and shoot back through the canopy, hopping off the stick and holding it one hand as she ran across the ground until she slowed to a stop. Her hair was frazzled from the wind, and she had an uncharacteristic energy to her expression.
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“Woo! This one’s got some kick to it!” she handed it back to Iris with an excited smile.
“How did you do that?” Iris asked in bewilderment.
“Hang on,” she turned to Anna and Relena, “you two go catch up with Grey and bring her back, she’s trying to bail on the lesson.”
Anna groaned, but the two girls hopped on their brooms and shot off into the sky.
“Sorry about that,” Dala sighed, “sometimes this coven feels like a school for troubled teens. Where did you get this broom?”
“My mother gave it to me,” Iris was still staring at the walking stick in her hands, “she wasn’t a witch, though. She said it was an enchanted walking stick.”
“Enchanted to do what?” Ellie asked.
“Um— I guess it’s easier to show you,” Iris blipped straight up into the air and bent her knees so the walking stick hit the ground before her feet, demonstrating how it absorbed her momentum and slowed her to a gentle landed, “first it does that, and stores energy inside. And then,” Iris blipped a small rock out of a void-tear in her palm and swung the stick, releasing a burst of force as it hit to rock to blast it out into the swamp, “and then I can release the force to hit stuff really hard.”
Ellie and Dala stared at her blankly.
“You use it to hit stuff?” Ellie asked hesitantly, as if she were scared that Iris might not be joking.
Dala chuckled incredulously, which spiraled into a full on laugh. When she finally collected herself, she placed a hand on Iris’s shoulder, “girl— who trained you?”
“Um, my friends? None of them are witches though, or wizards, and I had to figure out how to use the stick on my own.”
“This here,” Dala tapped a finger on the walking stick as she still smiled wide with amusement, “is a witch’s broom. It’s designed to store energy from the wind — and to recapture it while you descend — and then use that stored energy for propulsion and lift. Whatever you’re doing with it— I don’t even know what to say about that.”
Iris looked down at the stick, and then to Dala, and then back to stick, “okay, I’m convinced. How do I fly?”
Dala clapped her on the shoulder and stepped away, “Ellie, since Grey’s flown off, why don’t you show her how?”
“Yes matron,” Ellie didn’t even try to hide her excitement as she handed Dala back her broom and then stepped up beside Iris, “alright, first thing to worry about is your grip. Usually that’s what the curls and twists help with, but your stick’s pretty straight, so you’re really gonna have to hold on tight.”
“That won’t be a problem,” Iris assured her.
“Next, you want to place the broom just above your knees like this,” she demonstrated by swinging a leg over her broom, “you pinch with your knees, and then as you take off, you lean back until you’re sitting on the broom. It’s very important you never stop pinching your knees, or the broom will get away from you.”
Iris mimicked her actions and posture until she was pinching the stick with her legs as Ellie was.
“Always remember,” Dala interjected, “it’s the stick that’s flying, not you. You’re just holding on for the ride.”
“Yes,” Ellie nodded, “you really have to think of it like that or you’ll get thrown all over the place. Now, very gently apply some mana—”
A burst of force erupted from the end of the walking stick and launched it forward, pulling it free from Iris’s legs and stretching her arms as it yanked her forward to fall face first into the mud. She groaned as she climbed back to her feet and tried fruitlessly to wipe the mud from her robe. Dala stifled laughter with a clenched fist.
“Hey, that’s okay!” Ellie assured her, “at least you didn’t let go! Let’s try again.”
Iris walked back over to her spot beside Ellie, inspected her stance once more, and this time paid extra attention to how she placed the stick. Clenching even tighter with her legs than she had before, she trickled a small amount of mana into the stick. It launched forward with a jolt, briefly lifting Iris from the ground before her feet touched down again and she staggered forward awkwardly with the broom bouncing between her knees, ultimately tripping and falling sideways into the mud.
Iris groaned angrily this time, jamming the stick into the mud once she had climbed to her feet, “I don’t get it!”
“It makes sense,” Dala said, “you’re used to releasing a whole bunch of energy all at once. To use it properly, you need to draw out that release.” Dala demonstrated by mounting her broom and easing into a slow and steady flight, meandering around the clearing in a tight circle before touching back down, “I’d bet that whole flight took less mana than you’re putting into your broom with just your takeoff.”
Iris nodded and swung her leg over the broom again, settling into a half-crouched posture with a stubbornly dedicated look on her face. She took a deep breath, and then talked herself through it, “okay, just a small, drawn out trickle of man—AAAAHHH!”
Iris shot forward, launching from the ground and twisting in the air like a corkscrew. Her hat was flung from her head, and she only barely missed a straight on collision with a tree. Instead, she glanced off the side of it with a thunk that knocked the wind from her lungs and her grip from the broom, throwing her into the muddy waters of the swamp.
“Are you okay?” Ellie called out with genuine concern.
Iris once again climbed to her feet, now dripping wet and clutching her side, “I’m really glad the others aren’t here to see this,” she groaned.