Chapter One:
The Cat That Brings Magical Fortune
The sun shone brightly through the crystal clear blue skies. The leaves on the trees rustled ever so slightly as a light breeze blew. Beneath one tree lay a teenage girl.
"First day of summer vacation..." she mused, "I wonder what I'll do..."
She lay there, closing her eyes, feeling the moist morning dew against her skin, as the breeze blew over her. A small smile creeped upon her face, "Feels nice..."
She lay there momentarily, taking in the surroundings. Suddenly, she jumped to her feet. "I know, I'll run." she said, adjusting her blue headband, getting into a starting position. Her green eyes quickly scan the park's outline. "GO!" she shouted, as she darted off ahead.
As she ran, her face met the grass. She growled in annoyance at the interruption. She looked around, seeing no rock or twig to trip over. She then noticed a rustle in the bush and 20 feet away. Nothing but curiosity (and possibly vengeance) on her mind, she quickly went after the possible culprit.
She was glad she was blessed with speed. That cat did NOT want to be seen, let alone get in a fight with a crazy human. "GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE-" Again, she tripped. She held her head in pain, rubbing it to soothe the boiling vein. "What's gotten into me today..." she mumbled. She then opened her eyes and glanced at her surroundings.
The trees were tall, yet thin, and had leaves so thick, that there was barely any sunlight from the top. With what little sunlight that had shone, the trees cast odd, distorted shadows. The dark brown leaves crunched under her hand, and there was a stench of rotten eggs in the air. "Rotten eggs?" she questioned, confused at the surroundings. "It's practically Fall in here..." she mumbled, feeling the temperature suddenly drop. She then stood up, gathering her bearings she closed her eyes for a moment, and picked up the faint sound of a meow. "THAT DAMN CAT!" she cursed running in the direction of the noise.
'Uhg... why am I chasing that cat again?' she mentally whined, crawling through a prickly bush. 'Maybe I should go back to the park.. but how'd I get in here to begin with? Then again, the cat ran in here, so maybe it's owner lives here?' She dismissed that thought as crazy and decided to keep following it anyway. As soon as her head poked through the other side of the bush, she spotted two almost-black navy blue pointy boots.
"Hello, deary." Came an old crackly voice.
The girl looked up to the source of the voice, seeing an old, wrinkly, tanned face. Her nose had a small black mole on the right, and her dark gray eyes gave off a mysterious vibe. "A little lost, are we?" She asked. The girl simply nodded. "Deary, how did you get in here?" The girl remained silent momentarily until she spotted the cat she had been chasing, giving it an angry glare 'DAMN THAT CAT!' she mentally shouted.
"Ah, you followed my cat... such a feisty one, are yea? I have just the thing for you..."The lady said reaching into her pocket, the girl could almost swear she saw the lady's pendant glow for a split second as she handed her a small charm. It appeared to be in the shape of a fireball, but had blue waves on it. The girl examined it closely, noting how it felt hand-made, she could almost swear she could see an eye hidden in the design. 'Probably just my reflection.' she thought, tying the charm around her neck. "Come, youngin, sit down and have some tea." The lady requested. The girl remained silent, thinking her next move, 'This old lady seems pretty weird.. I could run now and pray to whatever god exists that I manage to get out of here... but, maybe she thinks I came to visit her... which, is pretty odd, seeing as I've never seen her in my life. I suppose I should follow her... I don't see anyone else here after all, so she's probably my only hope.' The girl then followed the old lady as her cat climbed onto her shoulder.
The old lady made no conversation on the way, and instead, the girl decided to examine her more closely. Her long hair was as dark the shadows, and rather knotted, unkempt, and slightly greasy. She had a strange dark blue outfit that could nearly be mistaken for black, that appeared to have a hood and cape. On her hands where a gloves colored light shade of dark blue with black accents. 'Her boots are pointy at the toes...' The girl thought, 'Not to mention that hooded cape... and her DAMN CAT.' she nearly hissed at those last words, 'What a weirdo...' she mused, as the lady finally came to a stop in front of a wooden cottage.
The girl decided to break the silence, "You LIVE in this forest?" she questioned.
"Why yes, deary. Come in and have a seat." The old lady responded, opening the door to the cabin's interior. The cat immediately jumped off her shoulder and scurried up the small, windy, crooked staircase. The girl cautiously walked in behind her, keeping the door open by about an inch, just to be safe. "Make yourself at home deary, The tea will be ready in a few moments."
The girl watched the woman slide into the kitchen to her left. The girl shrugged and looked for a spot to sit. She spotted a light purple cushion resting on a small red, plush chair. Seeing no better looking spots she settled on that, picking the cushion up as the plopped herself onto the seat. As soon as she got comfortable, she glanced around the room. The walls where made of light tanish wood, and there where various pictures scattered on the walls. One picture in particular caught her eye, but the lady appeared in front of the seat before she could get a good look at it.
"Here it is, deary." the old lady kindly offered. The girl thanked her and took a sip, as the lady pulled up an old wooden rocking chair that appeared to have been painted a very faint blue. The two conversed for a while, as the cat ran about randomly. It then sat next to the old lady as once again the girl spotted the picture she previously looked at. It appeared to have a young girl, about her age she guessed. The girl was dressed in what appeared to be a blue witch costume as well, however, her's appeared to be more simplified, yet cute. The girl was rather curious about the picture, as the girl resembled the lady.
"MajoArakni, who is that, in the picture over there?"
The old lady turned to look, "Why... That is my little granddaughter, Airiel."
"Airiel? What a fun name."
"Indeed it is."
"Say, what about your daughter or son then?"
The old lady stammered a bit, "I.. haven't seen them in a long time... sometimes little Airiel comes to visit, but I hardly see my daughter"
The young teen slouched back in her chair and huffed. She could tell something was off about this lady, and she was going to figure it out. The old lady raised an eyebrow and turned to the girl, "Ada, is something wrong?" she asked.
"Nothing" She lied.
"Uhm... okay then."
"Say... can I have some crumpets?"
"Why of course, dear, anything!" MajoArakini cheerfully said, stepping from the rocking chair and heading to the kitchen. Ada waited a minute and silently tip-toed to the opening between the living room and kitchen. The old lady snapped her fingers as a tray of crumpets appear. Ada's eyes grew wide, as her jaw dropped, and nearly locked itself in place. She just stood there, as MajoArakni puttered around making noised like she was getting them out of the oven. MajoArakni waited momentarily before coming out, only to see Ada standing right there, glaring at her. MajoArakni nearly dropped the tray. Before she could say anything, the girl had already started, "Y.. You.. You're a real witch!" she stated, giver her the pointer finger.
Suddenly, in a puff of smoke, a tiny green blob took the place of the old Witch.
The young teen just stood there, motionless in shock. Suddenly she made a break for the door, but was stopped by the cat blocking the door. The cat glowed and transformed into a tiny little pixie-like thing, sans the wings. It floated up to the doorknob, blocking the girl's hand. "Oh no, you don't!" it said. With that, the poor girl fainted, knocking random objects of a small table.
The blob bounced over as the faerie floated over to the girl's body."That little-" the blob cursed, "As soon as she wakes up she's going too-" the little faerie poked the girl's cheek, "Hey, hon!" the faerie then opened one of the girl's eyes "GIRL! HEY! WAKE UP!" she shouted. Nothing.
"Well, Coco, as soon as she wakes up we'll have to make her a Majo Minarai..."
"But... Airiel, how are we going to do that?"
"What do you mean? We give her a Mahouni Tap!"
"Airiel... we..."
"We what, Coco?"
"We don't have any taps..."
"That's just great... if we don't make her into a Majo Minarai then she might blow the secret!"
"What if we just set her under a tree in the park... when she wakes up, maybe she'll think it was a dream..."
"And what if she doesn't think it was a dream?"
"Either way, you're stuck like this!"
The blob just froze.
"Coco, we have to go see the queen. NOW."
"What should we do about the girl?"
"Ada... we'll have to take her with us."
"Take her with us? Airiel, how do we do that? She turned you into a Majogareu..."
Again, the blob froze. Reaching a tiny arm to wipe of the sweat on her forehead she replied. "You are right about that Coco... but we can't leave her here. either..."
"Airiel, can you use any magic at all in your state?"
"Perhaps, why?"
"Maybe we can make something appear that will help us... like..."
In a flash the three where up the stairs in front of a glowing door.
"Coco, you were right. I probably can't do that again though."
"Are we going to go in?"
"We have no other choice. We can't drag her all the way there, but if you would be so kind as to open the door, we can get her inside."
The faerie looked toward the blob and girl worriedly before floating up and opening the door.
"Good, now help me drag this girl in, she's heavy!" Suddenly a plate broke on top of her. Ada had awoken, looking very ticked, "You did NOT just say that." she said, angrily glaring at the blob. The faerie floated up to her. "Sorry about Airiel-Sama, but she's still mad that you turned her into a Majogareu. Now, please follow us."
Ada's eyebrow raised in confusion,"Woah, wait a minute. Airiel? Majogareu? I thought I saw MajoArakni using magic and I..."
The blob sighed and turned to the girl, "We'll explain on the way... if you will follow us."
"But, where are we going? How do I know you're not going to eat me?"
The blob stared at Ada like she was crazy. "Why would I want to eat someone who's annoying? Besides, then I can't turn back..."
"Well, okay then..." Ada considered running away, but decided to follow the blob. "It will be an adventure, right?" she declared, stepping foot into the strange magical world.
The trio walked down a bright colorful, twisty road, randomly dotted with white wispy bushes. Ada stared up into the swirly pink, orange and green sky, noting the giant music notes floating around. "So this is the Land of the Witches?"
"Majo-Kai, we call it." The blob corrected.
"And this Queen... rules this... place?"
"That's why she's the Queen."
"Duh. I meant... how do you control magic?"
"The queen will explain when we get there."
"You said you'd explain everything on the way! So tell me... what the hell happened back there?"
"Language young lady..."
"Uhm.. sorry? Please?"
"Since you were SO polite.." the blob said with a hint of sarcasm, "Okay, about a thousand years ago..."
"Woah woah woah, I'm supposed to be part of a prophecy here!"
"You humans ask so many menial questions!" the blob remarked. "ANYWAYS. About a thousand years ago, the Former Queen married a human man. Eventually, the children grew away from her and lived independently. Eventually, her husband died. After that, she got so depressed that she cast the Curse of the Majogareu and locked herself away deep in the Forbidden Forest. Ever since then, if a witch's identity is discovered by a human, the witch is then turned into a Majo Gareu, and that human must then become that witch's apprentice."
Ada didn't know what to think. "Ancient Queen... Curse... Apprentice" she mumbled something inaudible.
"Airiel-Sama, you said we'd visit the queen... but, there's a problem with that." The faerie suddenly said.
"What, Coco?" The blob hastily replied.
"2 things, actually," the little faerie started, "Number 1, The girl doesn't look like an apprentice or witch. Second, you're not wearing your special outfit..."
Ada butted in: "Wait, I thought the Queen appointed apprentices?" she said confused.
"Not really." The blob started,"When a human turns a witch into a Majogareu, it's up to the witch to make the human an apprentice. However, if for any other reason a human is to become an apprentice the request goes straights to the queen"
"So why do we need to see the queen?" Ada replied, questioningly.
"To put it simply, we need a special object to make you an apprentice, but I don't have it, so we'll have to talk to the queen."
"Oh, I understand." Ada responded, moving her head back up to the sky, as if in thought.
As if on cue, a huge white, shiny, sparkly, glowing chariot descended from above. The horses pulling it appeared to be flying. Ada slowly unclasped her hands to catch one of the pink flower petals that fell from the sky. She never took her eyes of the sky. "I don't care if we never see the queen. This place is AMAZING."