Along for the Broom Ride
-by CascadeBeige-
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+songs: 'Rainy Day' Susan Christie; Tom Day ft Monsoonsiren 'Dreams'
I do NOT own anything from Studio Ghibli, all rights to respectful owners.
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Jiji looked to the night sky from the powdery balcony, as if begging the clouds to show him a drop of rain.
He would regret the wish to the skies once the drop from the heavy slate clouds brushed his nose. It froze whatever breath remnants.
He sneezed and shuddered. "Oh gawwwd," Jiji poked his head back into the quilt lined cage. He came to like the idea of a flying cage device, since it left no risk of being blown in a messenger bag behind Kiki.
"You alive… back there?" Kiki piped through chattering teeth, behind the scarf obscuring her nose and mouth. She received a muffled "Alive still," through the whistling winds.
Kiki soared through brittle air. Though wrapped in a thick quilt, over carefully layered clothes— the rushing bitter cold replaced the acerbic feeling of nostalgia.
Wearing trousers borrowed from Tombo proved her memory to be fickle. She remembered his smell: parchment paper, bicycle metal, and earth. He hugged her goodbye, albeit she held back tears and a limp tongue from parting sorrow.
Kiki convinced Jiji to come along to say hello to her family, as a makeshift road trip before he had to return to his husbandly and parental duties with the creamy she-cat. A note from her ailing father urged her sense of duty to her family. Anything could happen, even in her rural hometown.
Her new-found family and companions from the City waited behind her, her quest in return from the year-long hiatus from home to mature. But she found something in that city.
The sea breeze in her hair, embalming her skin in micro particles after the mist evaporates. The cobbled streets and wood beamed apartments ushered in every kiss from the sea in daylight. The Good Cooking Pan Bakery. Osono.
Ursula and the cottage, the newfound confidence in witchery skills. and Kiki's ability to make assured decisions as a Witch with a capital 'W'.
Bicycle rides along pedestrian parks.
Sunrises with dewdrops, even the days of rain when she rode the updraft in hopes the fresh yeasted breads didn't soak through. The brickwork, stone, and wood facings on the houses in each district moved her brain through nonlinear images.
Even if she planned to return to the City within a few months, her recollection of leaving hit her senses with tinge of frustration. Frustration at allowing her chest to pull with loss.
And to return to her much-missed family all the miles away. As a changed young woman.
She blinked back more tears and winced as the air pinched with ice threats. But flying lower meant being soaked through from the rainfall beneath. She breathed in. "Jiji, we're ascending!" She projected her voice as much as possible to warn the feline.
"'kay!"
Kiki aimed her broom and immediately regretted the yank of gravity as the rapid ascension threw her layers into her skin. She gripped with her thighs and bent leg, crossed boots, in desperate hope she wouldn't slide down. "UUrrgHHHh!" She screeched as her burning hands gripped the wooden pole through the layers of gloves.
She felt the broom's mild slip beneath her and knew she needed to fly horizontally in order to re-balance. Or she would fall from the damp heavens into earth-knows-what.
Kiki hunched down, pushing her weight into the broom. She flipped aside and panicked, thinking Jiji and the Radio were soon to fall. She heaved her body left, and the broom arced down slightly.
The howling wind stopped and her ears popped once more. Head thrown forward in momentum, her neck ached and brain fogged, she gasped in a breath. Slumped over shivers with adrenaline strain.
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What seemed like hours passed.
Kiki's mind awoke. She must have napped on the mild winds. It was dangerous to fly exhausted, but the threat of time and rains or ice pushed her trip along.
She remembered her broom training with the Witch-Headmistress in her home town.
The peeling voice hit Kiki's memory: "Now, Witches-in-Training—Never, never, hold your breath for more than it takes to ascend and straighten. Or you'll faint from the pressure! Repeat after me: 'Rise to Count of Three, then Lower Broom and Breathe!'"
Kiki mouthed the chant behind the frigid scarf. Her younger, brain-twistingly academic days proved more useful for basic broom survival skills.
Her anxiety reminded her of her closest companion. "Hey," she coughed. "Jiji!" She tried to get his attention. Even under the layers of frigid clothes the tied-to-her-waist cage seemed to hold no weight other than a slight pull.
"I-huh! I'm here, Kiki." Jiji voice crackled with something akin to terror. No doubt the force of rising broom hit his poor body as well.
"I think we're almost, urngh," she projected her voice as best as she could. Kiki re-straightened again straining her back and arms, "almost back home,"
"Good, my back paws might be paralyzed if we keep flying forever!"
The clouds and damp weight left as the two glided through a clear space.
Kiki smirked for the first time in a while. It was good to have a familiar with an opinion, and humor.
The dark brunette witch yawned, and in the glistening tear of her eye found a flash.
She readjusted, looked around, down. Dark patches. Presumably forest.
Lights.
LIGHTS!
A city below, the shape almost familiar.
"Jiji—I think we're close to home! Compass says we flew in the right path!"
Tombo's compass, dutifully strapped to the broom-rod, read Southeast. This had to be it.
"All right co-pilot…Ready for rapid descent!"
"Home again, I hope!"
"Oh come on Jiji,"
"Just sayin'…But we'll get there,"
"Hold on!" She prepped for the rapid descent. The gravity pulled taut. She knew it was now or never to increase speed.
All would be well, Kiki mused. It felt right. With Jiji along for the broom ride.
She remembered not to take everything so seriously. Life wasn't here for impressing others.
It was about impressing herself, and that was what her life as a Witch would be.