Chapter 2 - The long road to Paris
The midnight coach was just leaving behind the gates of Cologne when Lawhinie managed to land on top of it. The mouse had to sit down some seconds to catch her breath and check on her arrow wound. It really was hard to maintain her flying spell with the jolts of pain that kept coming from her right arm. Damn that bratty squirrel! Damn these heroes! She raged inwardly. That feeling didn t last long, however, because a chilling wind began to blow. Cold enough to make her have second thoughts on her choice of transport.
A long hour later, the coach made a stop at one of the many checkpoints built along the road between Germany and France. As the human passengers were requested to show their traveling documents, a freezing Lawhinie decided it wasn't worth it and climbed down into the space that lies between the luggage area and the cushions of the passenger s seats. That's where the rodent s section was located .
The blonde haired beauty in a rich satin dress didn t pass unnoticed by the fellow passengers that were already camping around a tiny-sized cage with fireflies. They all turned their eyes on Lawhinie the moment she walked closer to them.
"Oh my!" smirked a middle aged mouse with a big belly. "Looks like there is an aristocrat traveling with us today!"
"Indeed! This doesn t happen often, huh?" remarked another common mouse, this one tall and slim.
"Enough you two!" interrupted an old female mouse standing up and offering a warm blanket to the teeth chattering newcomer. "This girl is freezing! Here, young lady, take a seat with us."
"Th-Th" mumbled Lawhinie.
"Sure girl, you are welcome" answered the female mouse.
"Th-there is no bonfire?"
"Oh missie! I take you've never traveled by coach before!?" The plump mouse laughed. "Nope, we can't start a fire here or might end igniting the whole place, you know, cotton and wood is all around us"
"Indeed..." continued the female mouse. "We got to take care of our children."
"Children?" A bunch of very young mice raised their heads and looked curiously at Lawhinie. The ones who were more awake waved their paws at her with broad smiles. The witch started to have third thoughts about her choice of transport.
"Don t worry, though!" Exclaimed the slender mouse searching inside a bag. "There are many ways to stay warm besides sitting in front of a fire For example, singing and dancing all night long, romani style!"
"Sing and dance?" echoed Lawhinie incredulous.
"Of course!" Confirmed the mother, signaling the rest of her family to bring out their instruments. At once, everyone took guitars, flutes and drums out of their luggage. "All night long!"
"Oh hell no!" swore the witch inwardly.
Two hours later...
The rodent's section was peacefully quiet. The rodent family soundly asleep beneath her luggage and bags. Even the fireflies were snoring, laying on the bottom of their cage with their lights shut off. And yet, the compartment wasn't surrounded in darkness. On the contrary, a yellowish flickering light was making shadows dance while keeping all the passengers warm and cozy. The children, above all, were enjoying that comfort as far as their smiles could tell.
Well, not every of them were smiling. One of said children awoke violently from his slumber with a gasp. Startled, he crawled to her mother and shook her.
"Mom... wake up... mom!"
"Hey kid, don't awake her!"
Shocked, the young mouse raised his head and looked around for the person who scolded him in such rude way. There, on a corner, the aristocrat mouse of blonde hair who had joined them that night was sitting glaring at him. Something was off with her, the kid realized, as she was cupping in her paws a hovering ball of fire. That's where the surrounding light was coming from. And that same combination of light and shadows was turning the aristocrat's face into something terrifying for a young boy to withstand. He promptly bowed his head to avoid Lawhinie's gaze. "I... I'm sorry. Please, don't eat me!"
"Eat you? And why would I do that?"
"Because..." The boy gulped, and dared to watch at Lawhinie with the corner of his eye. "You are... you must be... a witch?"
"Ah, maybe, maybe not... In any case, I have plenty of food in my backpack, thank you very much" Lawhinie followed her own words by taking a big sandwich out and biting it in front of the kid. He couldn't help but to stare at the witch munching the deliciously looking snack.
"So, why are you not asleep like the rest of your family?" asked the witch bluntly while wiping the crumbs away with her pink silk napkin. "Ah, never mind kid... I'll just make you sleep again"
"I don't feel like sleeping anymore..." the little one whined. "I had that bad dream again... and mommy always helps me to..."
"A bad dream?" Lawhinie interrupted him grinning wolfishly. "You mean a nightmare? Now that's interesting! Come here and tell me more about it, kid" Lawhinie let go the ball of fire, which kept floating nearby, providing just the exact amount of heat to keep them warm but without setting the materials around in fire.
"Um... well..." The boy walked towards Lawhinie while glancing at the flame. "I dreamt that my family is so poor that we have to live in the sewers... and then my dad arrives with a bag of rocks to eat. Rocks instead of bread, and mom gives us green slime instead of soup and I don't want to eat it. It's disgusting, But to my brothers it's fine, is like normal food to them. Then I puke dirt and everyone stare and yell at me"
The young mouse ended his story abruptly, as he was now sobbing and rubbing his wet eyes. Then, he smelled something good. Butter, cheese and salami. He looked up and found out that Lawhinie was offering him a portion of her own sandwich. His grief quickly turned in a broad smile.
"It's... for me? Wow! thank you!" After a chew, he added: "its so delicious"
Suddenly, Lawhinie looked away puzzled by what she had just done. "Don't thank me" She answered nervously. "My servant made it. Just eat it!"
"Oh..." Said the kid looking at the tasty gift. "So, what's your servant's name?"
"...Sabrina" answered the witch casually, looking at her own portion of buttered bread.
"Well, thank you and Sabrina!" He exclaimed and then took another chew. Lawhinie couldn't help but smirk, imagining the reaction of her dear servant at such joyful and innocent gratitude. For some seconds, both witch and kid ate in silence, watching at the dance of the flame that was keeping them warm.
After wiping her lips, Lawhinie was the first to speak again. "So, what's your name, boy?"
"I'm Timothy Traugott, my lady, but everyone calls me..."
"So, Timmy, your worst nightmare is to be poor and starve in a filthy sewer, huh?"
Timothy gulped his last piece of meal and looked down. "Yes my lady. I don't want to be poor! I don't want to be... hungry..." Then, bit by bit, he rose his head and stared at the fire. Lawhinie could notice sparks reflected on the kid's dark eyes. "But I will be rich someday!" the kid stated with renewed enthusiasm. "Like, really rich! I will have lots of gold nuggets, then I will buy plenty of food, then a nice house in Paris for my parents and younger brothers with nice curtains and toys and servants and then..." The boy blushed and kicked his legs back and forth. "Then I will marry a pretty princess! Someone as pretty as you, my lady!"
Lawhinie smiled at the innocent wish of that boy. "As pretty as me? Why, thanks kid! Now... what about if I tell you a story about someone who wanted exactly the same things as you?"
The boy's ears perked up with curiosity. "He wanted to be rich too?"
"Oh yes he did!" The witch began. "His name was Geegaw Hackwrench and he was a poor but talented alchemist from Cologne"
"What's an alchemist?" asked Timmy .
"What, you don't know? geez! An alchemist is someone very smart who creates potions, drugs, ointments and jewels by combining different ingredients. Well, they sometimes use a bit of magic... and this one, Geegaw Hackwrench, was the best alchemist of the world. He was so smart that one day, after years of study, discovered how to transform lead into gold!"
"Really? Lead into gold!? That's amazing!" Exclaimed the boy wide-eyed. "So, he became rich?"
"Of course! Rich and famous among alchemists and wizards. He had to keep the secret from normal people like you, but anyway... he moved from the slums to the elegant side of the city and mounted a big laboratory beneath the walls of the human university of Cologne, where he continued his experiments and transformed a lot more of lead pellets into gold. He bought rich clothes, a nice manor next to the Augustusburg Palace's gardens and more importantly... he got married to a very pretty girl from the nobility. She later gave him two girls. A family."
"And he lived happily ever after?"
"Actually... no. Listen close. His wife turned out to be an abusive and manipulative woman, a greedy and drunk harpy who mistreated him and her own daughters. Only interested in wealth and titles. Poor Geegaw was never able to stand against her, blinded in love as he was. Totally blinded. That monster forced the house servants to quit and flee the manor, which only worsened the situation..."
Timmy raised his paw and interrupted the tale again. "Then that woman... she was a witch?"
"A witch?" replied Lawhinie laughing. "Of course not, she was just an idiot!... it was a miracle her daughters grew up mentally sane. Anyway, This fool woman convinced Geegaw to teach her the procedure to turn lead to gold. She wanted to create more gold for herself, of course, but the lovesick husband though she had a sincere interest on science and his work. So he started to explain the steps and how his machine at the laboratory worked until one night... she insisted on run the experiment herself with way too many ingredients. That was a huge miscalculation from her part; the machine exploded and kill both Geegaw and her. I'll spare you the gruesome details, but to be fair, Geegaw died while trying to save her. After that, nobody cared about the orphan girls they had left behind. People just wanted to find out how that machine worked, but Geegaw didn't left many notes, he was so smart he didn't need to write down the steps or ingredients. Time passed on, some more accidents occurred and the church end up prohibiting any more experiments. Today, nobody remembers poor Geegaw or his surviving daughters"
"That is very sad tale..." Concluded Timmy with a sympathetic shook of his head.
"Well, sad tales have better teachings than happy tales" Lawhinie shrugged. "What do you think is the lesson here?"
That was an easy question for Timmy. "Be careful who you marry?"
"Exactly!" The witch gave him a wink. "Or you wife can become your ruin"
"Yeah! That woman from your tale was evil, my lady. I still think she was a disguised witch!" The kid regretted these words as soon as he uttered them. Covering his mouth, he turned to Lawhinie and found her gaze had turned cold and dangerous.
"Enough for now, Timothy... it s time you go back to sleep"
Timmy tried to apologize bowing his head. "Oh, I m sorry my lady, I didn t..."
Lawhinie interrupted him abruptly. "Stop it, kid. It s past midnight and I d like to be alone now"
"No, please! Let me stay here with you! I'll sorry for what I said! You are a good witch!"
"There aren't such things as good witches, Timmy. Seriously, I want to be alone!" With a pass of her paw over his face, Timmy fell asleep immediately, sat next to the witch. With a quick weave of her fingers, Lawhinie made him walk to his mother's side, where he cuddled and started to snooze. The witch, back on her brooding state, whispered to the air: "Mother... you give us witches a bad name"
A new morning came, and the plump mouse welcome it with a big yawn and the mandatory limb's stretch. Upon opening his eyes, he found her wife already handing out slices of cheese to their kids. His brother, the slim mouse, was absently contemplating the road by a crevice in the wood plank of the compartment.
"Good morning, dear" Greeted the female mouse.
"Good morning, sweetie!" greeted her back the proud husband. "Oh boy, I hadn't sleep so good in ages... I knew making this trip would be good for my health!"
"It seems we all slept like rocks" Fred commented his brother. "It must be the clean air of the countryside." The mouse took a deep and pleasant breath. "I could get used to it"
"Well..." Commented Timmy almost casually, looking down at his slice of cheese. "I again had that dream about the sewers"
"Oh my poor baby!" exclaimed his mother hugging him tight. "Why didn't you awake me?"
"Umm, I tried mom, but you were so deeply asleep. But don't worry, I m not afraid of that dream anymore because, you know... I already decided what will I become when I grow up!"
Timmy's whole family turned to him expectantly. The boy just puffed his chest and glanced at a still asleep Lawhinie. "I will become an alchemist!"