“If you put away your staff we can explain why we're here.” Q appealed to the cloaked figure, but got no response. Sighing inwardly, she brought out the note she had found in the Gemstone Caverns. “Okay, this is why we're here.” Q held out the note.
A strong gust of wind came by and caused the note to fly out of Q’s hand and into the hand of the cloaked figure. After taking a few seconds to read it, the glow on her staff became even brighter.
“This handwriting… Where did you get this!?” There was now a dangerous edge to their voice.
“I found it in a place called the Gemstone Caverns, alongside this ring which was inside a box.” Q showed off her Ruby Ring of Flames.
Though she couldn't see it, she felt that the figures eyes widened and heard it muttering to itself. “That idiot… warned him… how could he…”
Wendy pulled on the figure’s robe with a worried face. “Master, is everything alright?”
“I… yes, I'm alright.” The figure took a deep breath and finally put away their staff. “Hmm… you girls don't seem to be here to cause harm. I bet you don't even know what's in this forest.”
The three girls exchanged looks and all shook their heads. The figure sighed and then finally let down their hood. What was revealed was a beautiful mature face wearing large glasses with ruby red hair. The person looked like a woman in her thirties, though Q felt she was a little older than that. “I suppose that you are the new 'adventurers’ we’ve heard about lately. Maybe you won't be so prejudiced against us.”
Q tilted her head as she asked, “Why would we be prejudiced against you?”
At this, the woman finally let out a smile. “That's because we're witches.”
For a moment Q stared blankly at the woman before saying, “That's cool. So what do you witches do?”
“Puhahaha! Cool she says… You're very interesting girl. As for what we do, you might want to see that with your own eyes. How would you like to visit our village?”
“Heck yeah.” Q instantly responded. She then looked at the other two girls who nodded as well.
“Follow me then. And don't fall behind. You might get caught by the Kindersnatch.” Q and the others were confused at the name, but Wendy began trembling.
“What is a Kindersnatch?” Brie asked.
“You don't know what the Kindersnatch is?” Seeing that Brie shook her head, Wendy began to explain. “The Kindersnatch is a terrible creature that takes the form of a woman with thin, wispy hair. It uses its spells to trick and confuse travelers, and then once they become tired, it eats them! It also has a special taste for little witch apprentices...” The last sentence was said with a little more urgency, as Wendy began looking around her in a slight panic.
Seeing her frantic face, the red haired woman slowed down and walked beside Wendy to pat her head. “Don’t worry Wendy, as long as I’m around, you’ll be fine.”
“Y- yes master!” Wendy’s confidence soared back up now that she had her master by her side.
“A kindersnatch huh. It sounds like a field boss… not that I want to meet it though.” Q didn’t like the idea of a creature messing with her mind.
“Yeah. We’re just barely able to stay calm with the wisdom boost. I don’t think we can handle something like that just yet.” Despite her words, Kukis was already thinking of ways to deal with the Kindersnatch.
“Speaking of the wisdom boost, I believe it is running out soon.” Brie said as she saw a symbol flashing in the corner of her eyes.
“Uh-oh.” Kukis grabbed onto Q’s hand. “Th-this doesn’t mean anything okay? This is just to make sure that I don’t run away, or something like that…”
Q rolled her eyes as she lightly squeezed Kukis’ hand to assure her. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed that Brie was holding onto the hem of her shirt. In this fashion they continued to follow the master/student duo for a few minutes and reached a line of trees which was possibly seven or eight times larger than the trees around her. I wonder how we didn’t notice these giant trees while we were approaching the forest… Q wondered. Her thoughts were interrupted as the master muttered a spell and the trees bent to the side to create a gap. The group walked through the trees and finally broke through the fog.
On the other side was a village which could be described with two words: dark, and magical. The large trees which surrounded the village loomed over it, covering the entire area with dark shadows. The village itself was less than half the size of Foria, but the buildings and houses were placed closely together in order to maximize space. There were cobblestone roads which weaved throughout the village, and colorful floating lanterns littered the air around them. Each house was made with different materials, but they were all strangely shaped, almost as if they were twisted into existence.
The thing that caused Q’s eyes to sparkle with delight though, were the residents. Many people moved around in robes and wore wide-brimmed hats, though some seemed to be dressed normally (for the people of this world at least). While they were all doing different things, there was one thing they had in common: magic. Some people who were casually talking summoned creatures and began comparing them, while merchants made their items to float around their stall to attract customers. Looking to the sky she saw that there were even people who were drifting through the air while sitting on brooms!
I want that. Q instantly made her resolve to get a broom and fly in the sky. Brie and Kukis let go of her as they also stared at the village.
The master looked over and saw Q’s shining eyes. “I take it you like what you see?”
“Yes! I want to get on a broom and fly!” Q answered enthusiastically.
“Haha, perhaps you’ll get the chance sometime…” Before the master could continue, she was interrupted by a group of people who approached her.
“Master Pamerun, welcome back!”
“Master, I’ve finished reading ‘The Basics of Summoning’. Will you teach me how to summon a familiar now?”
“Master Pamerun, the council requests your presence.”
Oh… it seems like she’s quite the important figure around here. Q inspected Pamerun again with a different perspective. Noticing Q’s look, Pamerun turned to face her.
“That’s right. I never introduced myself did I? I’m Pamerun Aeolrave, one of the Grand Witches. I’m more or less the leader around here. That being said, I have a meeting to attend to. Wendy, why don’t you show them around the village until I come back?” Pamerun was already walking away from the group and talking to each of the people who approached her.
“Master’s always so busy. She barely has time to accompany me with my training…” Wendy looked downcast for a moment, before regaining her cheer. “That aside, follow me! I’ll show you the best spots in the village!” The girls nodded and began following Wendy through the village. The moment they stepped on the cobblestone path, a notice appeared above their heads.
[You have entered the Village of Malse. This area is currently a safe zone.]
“I guess other players have come here first, otherwise we’d get a bonus for finding this village.” Kukis noted.
“Yes. There was someone else who came here before you three. I think their name was… Clover? They came by and learned some magic before going out the forest to train. That was a week ago though, so they might be somewhere else now.” Wendy explained as they walked through the village.
Many curious eyes were staring at the group, and strangely enough none of them felt hostile. Maybe that’s because Wendy’s guiding us… Q thought. Eventually the group reached the center of the village where many residents were crowded around. “This here is the main plaza. You can tell by the fancy fountain in the center,” Wendy indicated the large fountain in the center.
Q blinked her eyes multiple times and even rubbed them, as she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. What she saw was indeed a fountain, except for the fact that it was upside down. The base of the fountain faced the sky, and the water was propelled at a leisurely rate towards the ground. The water didn’t even touch the ground though, as it stopped just a few centimetres short and flew up to the fountain’s base. The fountain seemed to be stable though, as there were some residents who sat on top of it, while some children passed through the water on the ground.
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Wendy giggled upon seeing the girls’ faces. “Hehehe, this fountain was made by one of our founders, the Grand Witch Veilra. According to her she wanted visitors to be amazed at our magic prowess. Anyway, if you look closely at the ground you’ll see large arrows pointing towards the center of the village. You can always use those to find your way back here and regain your bearings.”
The girls looked at the ground and did notice that there were some arrow-like symbols which pointed at the fountain. Among them were other strange symbols which they couldn’t make sense of, but they returned their attention to Wendy who continued speaking. “The place we just walked through is the main road. It goes from north to south through the village all the way, and the north side has a black stone path, while the south side has a white stone path. Other than that, there’s the districts of the village. There are three main districts, those being the residential district, the merchants district -though we just call it the shopping area-, and the ‘experiment’ district.”
“Experiment district?” That name caught Q’s attention.
“Yes. It’s just over there,” Wendy pointed to the south of the village. “It takes up all of the south side of the village because everyone loves experimenting by making new potions or coming up with new spells. In fact, everyone pretty much spends their entire day over there. Oh yeah, you can tell which district you’re in by the colored lanterns.” Wendy then pointed at the floating lanterns above their heads. “The experiment district has the color red, the residential district has the color blue, and the merchant district has the color green.”
“Potions you say?” Kukis was instantly interested in the experiment district.
“Your town is very organized, if not a little confusing.” Brie praised the town.
“Yeah! It’s hard to understand at first, but you’ll get used to it quickly. Hmm… I think the only thing I haven’t covered is the landmarks. First is the Town Hall, well actually it’s more of a village hall, but that’s besides the point. It’s located in the residential district, and is the biggest building there. Master’s probably in there right now talking with the other elders. There’s also the Underground Library which you can only get to through Town Hall. Only full-fledged witches are allowed in there, because there’s a lot of traps and monsters roaming around. Finally, there’s the statues of our founders, which is in the merchant’s district. The merchants gather around the statues and sell their wares according to the element of the founder they’re near. *Phew*” Wendy took a deep breath after finishing her explanation. “Do you have any questions?”
“Yeah, where’s a place we can sleep?” Q asked.
“There should be an inn in the merchant's district. No one really uses it though. Come on, I’ll show you!” Wendy began leading them in a north-eastern direction.
While walking towards the merchant’s district, the background noise gradually became louder as they heard lots of people talking. On the way Q noticed that there were quite a few animals moving around, like cats or ravens. As soon as she spotted the first cat, Q almost jumped towards it if it wasn’t for Brie and Kukis holding her back. After that display the animals seemed to become far more wary towards Q, and vanished from sight as soon as she looked at them. With a depressed Q in tow, the group made it to an inn with a cat’s paw on the signboard.
[Nine-Lives Inn]
When the girls entered the inn, a pleasant jingle of a bell sounded and a small figure moved at the counter. “Mnyaa~? Is it customers?” A black cat with a white diamond on its forehead lazily stretched on the counter. “Hi Clair! I brought you som-” Before Wendy could finish her sentence a red figure flashed behind her and instantly grabbed the cat on the counter. Of course, this figure was Q who had a red aura glowing around her as she stroked the cat in her arms.
“Unbelievable. She used her racial active for that…” Kukis shook her head.
“Wha- put me down! Don’t you know how to treat a lady? I- oh, th-this is…” Clair trailed off as Q continued to pet her. “I-it seems that you’re quite good at this. Ah, yes, right there! That’s it! Meooow~.”
“Hehehe… I can finally pet something soft!” Q’s tail rapidly swayed back and forth. For a moment Brie and Kukis were thinking of stopping her, but seeing her happy expression (and Clair’s contented expression) caused them to refrain from doing so. In the end this petting session continued for half an hour before Q was finally satisfied.
“Ahh~ I feel refreshed.” Q’s face seemed to be shining as she was all smiles.
“Well someone’s satisfied.” Kukis gave her a wry smile.
“Count me in as well. I haven’t been touched like that in years. You’re free to do it again anytime.” A wink accompanied Clair’s slightly suggestive sentence.
“So what are our plans now?” Brie asked.
“After settling in here, I plan on logging out because I got a warning in the middle of petting Clair.” Q stretched herself slightly. “I also don’t remember when I last got some good sleep in real life, so I probably won’t be back in game for at least a day.” Since playing T.W.O, Q had only been getting the minimal amount of sleep required in real life.
“Good idea. I think I’ve been playing for 12 hours now?” Kukis chimed in.
“Seriously!? Take care of your body. Jeez.” Q got up and was about to log out. “How about you Brie?”
“I believe I shall follow suit. When shall we meet up again?” Brie replied.
The three girls synced up their schedules and planned to meet up again after at least 8 hours real-time. They all said their goodbyes to Wendy and Clair, and then logged out.
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What? Another chapter without any significant developments? Well I consider them to be significant at least, since the Witches' Village will be very important now and in the future (it's also why I described it in such detail).
Actually, speaking of chapters without any significant developments, have you read TurtleMe's fiction (more like novel really) called 'The Beginning After The End'? You can find it over on g r a v i t y t a l e s . c o m , and it's a pretty good story. Right now though the chapters are slow and building up a huge event - which for some reason is pissing off the readers there.
Makes me think of my own uploading pace. Do you guys ever get annoyed of the one-week uploads? I mean I'd do more if I had free time but unfortunately RL-chan has a strong grip on me. That and I've found many, MANY distractions as of late. I started playing DOOM (on PS4, and hot damn is it awesome), started to re-play Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan (I actually went up to the second labyrinth before, but for some reason I started over), and was also reading this light novel I found a few days ago.
Woah. A blog-like authors note at the end. Haven't had one of those in a while huh? Anyway, let me share an image which pretty much has all my favorite things about the internet (back when they were relevant anyway).
http%3a%2f%2fi.imgur.com%2flcUZfFH.jpg [http://i.imgur.com/lcUZfFH.jpg]
That's right. Memes. Which I assume means something like MEmorable MEssage. So, that's all for now guys. See you in the next chapter!
Fun-fact: 'Weight' is actually a measurement of the force of gravity that's acting on you. So if you want to lose weight, just go to the moon.
P.S: I recently realized P.S means post-script, but before I had been typing extra post scripts as P.S.S, which makes me feel stupid now.