Over the past month, I've immersed myself in practicing spells and honing my spellcasting abilities under the night sky within the woods. There have been nights when I've chosen to stay at Emma's place, seeking both company and a comfortable night’s rest, while other times, I've embraced the wilderness and spent the entire night there. During these solitary forest stays, I've been removing my necklace, so that I can revert to my original form. However, my parents' cautionary words about potential side effects have left me a tad apprehensive about wearing the necklace for extended periods. The ambiguity surrounding the definition of "long term" is where my uncertainty lies, leaving me wondering whether it signifies days, weeks, months, or even years. With a sigh, Maya continues to contemplate the implications of her nighttime practices.
In the initial week of my arrival, finding excuses not to be at Emma's house proved challenging. Lack of funds and nowhere else to go left me with limited options. However, by the second week, our cabin had taken shape, affording me a convenient excuse to feign vigilance over its safety. On the backside of it though, it left me looking like a worry wort. This fabricated pretext helped me a lot, and Emma would often tease me upon my early morning return, thinking I had fallen asleep while on guard duty.
During this time, Enit remained a steadfast companion and teacher, guiding me through more magical lessons. My repertoire expanded to the basics—creating light, manipulating objects with my wand, conjuring fire, water, and even gusts of wind. I practiced honing my focus and attempted flying on the broom once more, only to experience another crash shortly after takeoff. I feel like the experience should resemble trying to ride a bicycle, but with how poorly I've been doing I shouldn't be thinking it’s that easy. I'm pretty sure that my subconscious unease of falling seems to break my concentration. Quite a few of my lessons included drawing magic circles with chalk, which Enit explained to be advantageous for the present but potentially obsolete as I progress. For now, it ensures the spells function reliably, minimizing the risk of backfires.
I sense there's a vast realm of magic left for me to explore including the actual understanding of it itself. The prospect of delving into more advanced types of magic is an exciting thought; wielding greater and more potent spells in the future is hard to get off my mind. With a family lineage being known for how powerful they were, I anticipate that becoming strong won't be a challenge. However, my late entry into the world of magic due to my upbringing may present a unique set of setbacks.
Still lost in thought while lying in bed and gazing up at the ceiling, Enit perched atop her head, Maya mulls over everything. "Hey, Enit, do you think I'm prepared enough?"
~ We have been practicing over the past few weeks out here in the woods alone, I think your ready ~
“That’s reassuring to hear, because we don’t have much time left until the full-moon and I don’t want to mess this up. This will be the first time I’ve done something so significant in my life.”
~ The best thing to do is to make sure we have everything ready and that you are well rested. Long days plus the lack of rest practicing most nights means you need to recover energy yourself ~
“Well, I have already gathered the materials we are going to need from the forest. And we should be able to borrow a small pot or cauldron from Emma for the potion we will be making. Even though Emma hasn’t really pried on the topic, I wonder if there will be a problem when she realizes I’m a witch?”
~ Before we left this world, witches were in high praise due to the families in charge, obviously there were bad witches in the world but there are bad people everywhere regardless. With that said, I don’t know if anything has changed since then ~
“If I cure her sister, I don’t think it will be a problem, but depending on her reaction we should be able to determine if this will be an issue going forward. Anyways, that just leaves making an incantation circle to do the ritual for the spell and potion.”
~ That we can do quickly, best if we can get some more chalk from town since we will want to do this outside and that will require more than you currently possess ~
“Shouldn’t be a problem since Johnathan has been paying us with some money, it should be plenty for a basic material such as chalk.” Maya then takes Enit off her head and removes her necklace changing back into Kozmo. Getting comfortable for bed, “Goodnight Enit” as Kozmo drifts off for the night.
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“HEY MAYA!”
Suddenly Kozmo wakes up from yelling outside. Grabbing the necklace and transforming back into Maya, she grabs Enit and drowsily walks out to the front door where she heard her name yelled from.
“HEY MAYA, WAKE UP!”
Opening the door Maya sees Emma outside with a cart and something large in the back. “I’m awake, what’s up with this Emma?”
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“I brought you a housewarming gift. No one in our home uses it anymore and I know you don’t have anything inside your place yet so here you go.” As Emma throws her arms out showcasing the large wooden box in the cart.
“What is it?”
“You have to come to this side to see it.”
Maya walks around to the back of the cart. As she walks around the large wooden box, the front of it has a mirror and what looks to be a small knob on the front left side. “A large mirror with a wide back?”
“I know you don’t have a lot of clothes with you but it’s a small closest with a mirror in front so when you change you can see how it looks.” Emma excitedly exclaims.
“Thank you, but this looks expensive. I really can’t take this.”
“Like I already said, it’s no longer getting used at home so it’s yours to keep.” Emma says smiling “Now help me get this inside, it’s heavy. I had to get a neighbor to help load it up to begin with.”
Maya and Emma work together to move the heavy closet into Maya’s bedroom. Still looking absolutely barren since it’s just a bed and a standing closet in the room. After they set it down, Maya looks into the mirror, now realizing how messy she looks from just getting out of bed. “Well thank you Emma for the wonderful gift, I guess I need to get some clothes now to fill it up.” Maya says with a chuckle in between heavy breaths from carrying it inside, thinking “If only no one was around I could have used magic rather than lifting this.”
“That is only part of the surprise I have for you today.” Emma replies.
“Only part? Really, you don’t have to do or get me anything, especially with all the help you have already given me.”
“Too late.” Emma opens the door to the closet “Ta-da!”. Inside the closet was a handful of clothes, not even enough to fill half of the closet but enough to have a few different outfits throughout the week. “I went through some of our clothes at home that we don’t wear anymore and brought them over. It’s not a lot and some of it may not fit but we can always tailor them down some to fit if too large.”
“This is too kind Emma; you really didn’t have to do any of this.”
“And finally, I ran into Johnathan on my way out here this morning, looks like something came up so he is needing to leave town for a few days with a bunch of supplies, so we have the next few days to relax until he gets back. I figured if you were up to it, we could do some shopping around town. Whether for more clothes or house supplies.”
“Sure, I already needed to go to town for chalk to help with your sister tomorrow night.”
“We won’t need to buy any; I have a lot of chalk at home, Lizzy use to play with chalk all the time but now we have a lot of extra than hasn’t been used due to what’s happened so no need to worry about that.” Emma reassures Maya. “Anything else?”
“Well, I was hoping to borrow a large pot or a cauldron from you to make the cure for your sister if that’s ok?”
“No problem, we can grab both of those things later today.”
“Then I guess we are off to the market then, maybe I could try on some clothes you brought to wear into town?”
“Please be my guest, that’s why I brought them over, and well, because you’ve literally been wearing the same stuff every day since we met. Hopefully at least something will fit right off without tailoring it.” Emma laughs.
“Thanks, I’ll be out in a minute.”
Emma leaves the room, gently closing the door behind her, allowing Maya the privacy to change. With a sense of curiosity, Maya begins to explore the contents of the closet, a task she hasn't concerned herself with much since her arrival, as she had been wearing the same clothes. As she rummages through the array of garments, her fingers brush against a light-yellow sun dress tucked away amidst the collection. Deciding to give it a try, Maya removes her clothes and slips into the dress, the fabric billowing around her like a sunlit cloud. Yet, despite its charm, the dress is too big for her, seeing as Emma is close in size to me this must have been her mom’s dress at some point. Slightly disappointed that it was a tad too large to wear out…maybe, Maya now gripping her wand, she envisions the dress contouring perfectly to her form, the fabric hugging her figure in all the right places. Uttering the incantation "Transmute," she feels a surge of energy flowing through her, a breeze of transformation sweeping over her being. When the sensation subsides, she stands before the mirror once more, this time clad in the dress that now fits her perfectly. "Wow this looks cute on me...." Maya suddenly realizes what she said, and that had never really been something she had really thought about before. Pushing that thought to the back, she examines herself once more in the mirror. Now in her sun dress, the soft, light-yellow fabric dances gracefully around Maya's frame and the shoulder straps cover most of the shoulder. With Enit comfortably settled on her head, she examines her reflection, noting the mismatch of styles between the dress and Enit. "Hmm, this doesn’t really go together but I’m not going anywhere without you so this will have to do” she murmurs. Before leaving the room Maya notices some shoes at the bottom of the closet and picks out some that remind her of flats, again being a little to large to walk around in, she uses her wand and focuses on the shoes fitting her feet just right.
~ You know there is a special spell that allows you to change my appearance if you wanted everything to match ~
“No way! But I can’t use that just yet. Emma didn’t drop off any hats so I feel that would be a little too suspicious for now. You will need to teach me that soon though Enit.”
~ We can practice it after the full moon then ~
“Thank you Enit.”
Maya promptly heads out her bedroom door to Emma so they can head to town. Immediately after exiting her room Emma was standing in the main room waiting for Maya.
“Wow! You look great Maya. I honestly didn’t think that would fit you without a little bit of tailoring, but it has been a long time since mom wore that, so I wasn’t sure.” Emma says gleefully.
“Thank you.” Maya says while thinking, “Looks like I was right about it being her mother’s” Now smiling she asks, “Should we head to town then?”
“Yes, lets! We do need to return the cart first.”
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