“I have,”—Sohvi panted heavily, struggling to open the door to the witch’s dirty hut—“everything you…asked me for…”
Each of his steps left deep thuds on the old, wooden flooring as he made his way to the back of the building carrying a large bag.
“Good, good!” A shrill voice cackled. “Any longer and the deal would have been nullified!” Although not particularly ugly, her face became significantly creepier when she smiled, sending chills down Sohvi’s back.
“Whatever.” He coldly disregarded with a huff. “I have the…ingredients. Just ge…get it over with!”
After gently placing the large bag onto the floor at the witch’s feet, the knight located and dropped himself into a wooden rocking chair. It creaked, but held.
“You seem unhappy.” The witch chortled, taking out and inspecting the items from the bag.
“For good reason!” The knight clenched his teeth. “I apologize for the outburst, but you should have told me how…difficult, acquiring those things would be.” He slumped back into the chair and closed his eyes, trying to ignore the pain from all the various cuts and bruises on his body.
“That was your punishment for squishing my little demon.” She replied matter-of-factly, clearly feeling justified in her actions.
“The demon which you did not have enough control over.” The man growled.
“Well, I had plenty of control over it…just before you squashed it.”
“It was about to attack some children!”
“But it didn’t.”
“Because I killed it!”
“Anyway…” The witch whistled a sweet little tune before bringing an ingredient closer to her face, eyeing it with great interest. “This is the wrong mushroom-“
“Damn it all!”
“-but it will work even better than the one I told you to get!”
The knight massaged the bridge of his nose with a sigh. “Nevermind.” Then, he lifted himself from the chair. “I’ll be going now. Good luck with your spell, potion, or whatever you’re going to make. I have a life to get back to.”
The witch cackled.
“No, I think you’ll rather stay.” A round cauldron appeared in front of her. “Lest you wish to miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime!”
With the flick of her hands, the large bag full of ingredients opened and its contents floated into the air. One by one, they magically began preparing themselves for the cauldron. One onion’s outer shell peeled itself, the heart of a goat mixed with the enchanted spring water, a bird’s beak shattered into dust, and so on.
The knight watched as some of the ingredients made their way to the cauldron, which now floated atop a green flame!
“What exactly are-“
“You’ll see, you’ll see!” The witch interrupted.
The process continued for only a few minutes, resulting in the cauldron’s contents becoming a puddle of orange goop. Another flick of her hand and the green flame disappeared, followed by the cauldron tipping over. Surprised, the knight moved to catch it, but the witch held onto his shoulder, stopping him in place.
The cauldron tipped to an angle of only a few degrees, but didn’t hit the floor. Instead, the orange goop within flowed out. The knight expected to see the goop splash onto the floor, but was met with the sight of a cylinder forming instead. The liquid had taken the shape of…a candle?
“It’s complete!” The witch cried, lifting her hands into the air in celebration.
“Well, what is it?”
Instead of replying, the woman grabbed the orange cylinder and inserted a wick into the center. It was indeed a candle.
“What do you think?” Her smile caused the knight to shiver again.
“I think you endangered my life and wasted my time in order to create a candle!” He growled through clenched teeth again, putting a hand on the hilt of his blade which hung on his hip. However, the action was automatic. The knight would never hurt the witch without a good reason, but he definitely needed to blow off steam by striking a practice dummy.
“Even if it’s magical, what could it possibly do?!”
The witch’s smile never left her face as she stared into the knight’s eyes, causing the man to falter.
“Again, I apologize. Please, just get on with it.” He sighed.
“You’re forgiven because I know of how many times you nearly died gathering the ingredients for this candle. Now, since you gathered them, you’ll reap in your effort’s rewards!”
The witch abruptly slapped the knight, startling him. Yet, before he could demand a reason for it, the candle in the woman’s hands blazed with the light of a fire.
“The last ingredient: to slap an apologetic man.”
The knight knew she was joking as he could sense a strand of magical energy from the witch ignite the candle, but he let go of the matter…on the assumption that the candle was useful to him.
Blazing with an orange flame, the candle began releasing wisps of black smoke, causing the knight to take a step back in order to avoid them. Yet, the smoke followed him! Despite his best attempts to dodge, the smoke hovered toward him face, and entered his nose. Immediately, the knight’s body numbed and began burning as though his insides were on fire.
“Poison! She’s trying to kill me!”
The knight filled with rage, his face turning red and veins popping out of his skin. The next second, his sword had been pulled out of its sheathe.
“Wait…”
Then he saw that the black smoke had also entered the witch through the nose, who sat down on the floor, unconcerned.
Slowly, the man sheathed his blade before sitting beside her. Unless she was planning to kill herself as well, there was little chance he was being harmed.
The numbing and pain continued for an hour while neither of the two said a word, simply fighting to stay conscious. At some point, the candle went out, and the smoke ceased its flow into their bodies.
“It’s over.” The witch smiled. “You’re welcome.”
The knight stood, then flexed his arms. Besides the color of his skin darkening slightly, knew that he’d gone through a great change.
“I’m stronger.” He observed.
“We’re stronger.” The woman corrected.
“But why?” The knight implored.
“Because I have plans for us.” The witch cackled. “And we need all the strength we can get to survive them.”
