Chapter 6/Spitting Mad Over Tangled Knitting
Marianne flicks a banana-shaped ear back at the sound of chaos happening behind her but keeps her eyes on the Highland calves playing in the nearby pasture. She can't stop the large smirk as Beaks screams for mercy, though.
If he had thought the others would have forgiven him by now, he was sorely mistaken. She had only known them for two weeks and she knew better than that!
Marianne jolts in surprise as she realizes that she's been a llama for two whole weeks as of today. Strange how she had gotten so used to everything. Even stranger is how it only took less than a week at the farm before she settled into a routine.
Every morning she'd follow Thang and Prim to the llama, alpaca, and sheep barn for food before returning to the living room and watching cartoons until BK finished his own morning routine. The day's activities varied for whatever was on the schedule for the day but the evenings were always consistent with them watching movies together as BK knitted on the couch, sometimes being joined by the others. It was an almost sedate life.
Not that she really minded. It's much better than what she can remember of her life with Roland.
The human-turned-llama grunts angrily at the reminder of her former boyfriend. As grateful as she is to have gained some memories of her previous life, she really wishes that HE wasn't what she remembered first. Poor BK had panicked when she started crying unexpectedly while they were watching a movie after her failed attempt to snoop a week ago. Who knew that an animated movie with a scene of a con artist trying to bewitch his former girlfriend would be just what she needed to help jumpstart her memories of her last day being human?
Some things were still out of reach even a week later, like her last name or where she lived, but at least her memories are still there and not permanently gone. Brutus speculated that it's likely that whatever she can remember now was on her mind right before the accident and that the rest will start coming back the more she heals.
"Ready to go?" BK calls out from the treeline, interrupting her thoughts.
"Beaks still alive?" Marianne asks with a snicker as she stands to her feet and follows him.
"For now," BK chuckles. "Mugs suggested that his punishment be to do the barns' spring cleaning by himself and the others sound like they're agreeing to it. That's the equivalent of Heracles cleaning out the Augean Stables since that includes spreading the manure piles over the areas we'll be plowing in a few weeks."
"What a shitty job," Marianne quips.
BK's laughter drowns out Beaks' distant wails of horror and Marianne hums happily at the joyous sound. The return of some of her recent human memories also gave her reassurance that she wasn't in danger of cheating on a forgotten significant other by letting herself grow more fond of the tall and lanky man beside her. Something she teased the easily-blushing man about a few days ago. The resulting conversation had been amusing for everyone but BK as he tried to convince her that she only liked him so much because of her present predicament.
"Well, I called Mom so she knows to expect me and she said that both Lucas and Gary are there right now as well, so you should be human again by nightfall," BK informs after a while of walking.
"And what makes you think it'll be that quick?" Marianne questions lightly.
"With the magic of three druids? I doubt it'll take even that long but I was being generous," BK comments.
"Don't you mean four druids, Kaleb?" Marianne growls.
"Oh no. I told you what happened the last time I used my magic around my family and I don't plan to do so again. I've just gotten onto good terms with my older brothers, so let's not somehow mess it up," BK argues.
Marianne huffs but doesn't say anything more about it as they keep following the beaten trail through the thick forest. She understood, especially after he told her the part of his life story that Thang hadn't about how he was the youngest of seven brothers and had accidentally transformed his eldest brother's head into that of a donkey's when he was sixteen, which resulted in him running away from home after his dad planned to send him away to distant relatives. But that doesn't mean she likes it.
BK's rough sigh after several minutes causes her to look at him. He gives her a crooked smile before reaching over to pet the back of her long neck.
"It's not that I'm giving up or doubting myself," BK mutters. "It's just better that they do the magic without me."
"I didn't say anything," Marianne defends.
"But you're thinking it," BK comments.
"What are you, a mindreader, too?" Marianne scoffs.
"Not exactly. Stuff growled to me about the same thing when you were still out in the barn with Thang and you two are very similar," BK chuckles. "She also wanted me to make sure you know that you're welcome to come home, no matter what happens."
"Thang told me the same thing this morning," Marianne sighs. "But like I told you the other day, I don't even have a job to go back to once I'm human and the money I had is probably lost by now. I have nothing to support myself."
"And we told you that it doesn't matter that you have no income. You don't need to work to stay with us," BK counters forcefully, narrowing his blue eyes slightly.
"A layabout llama is one thing but it's different once I'm human again," Marianne argues, butting his shoulder with her head when he tries to speak. "It feels wrong to not be doing something. I feel useless."
"You're not useless," BK insists.
"I haven't done one thing in the past two weeks I've been at the farm except lay around," Marianne mutters.
"Nonsense. Not only did you not have to do anything but you've helped us out plenty of times as an extra han...helper," BK argues. "You even paid for your keep. After all, I did get a lot of yarn from your shorn fiber."
"Which you're turning into a sweater for me, so that doesn't count," Marianne laughs.
When BK started knitting five days ago, she had been surprised when he answered her inquiry that he was knitting her a sweater to replace the one she remembered being ruined by whatever Roland threw at her. It was such a sweet gesture that she nearly started crying again. Her newly returned memories couldn't show one instance of Roland even bothering to do anything remotely like that.
And BK insisted that her growing infatuation was somehow related to his part in her rescue?
Even Stuff laughed at his poor argument, citing agreement with her, despite not hearing it, that Thang would have been the object of her affections instead since he was more responsible for saving her life than BK.
"The point remains, though. You don't have to do any work to stay with us at the farm. We don't expect it of you. We want you to stay with us," BK insists before amending quickly. "I mean, if you want to, that is! If you want to go back to the life you had before, then that's fine. We won't take any offense."
"I like it at the farm," Marianne admits softly, ducking her head to rub against the arm still petting her neck. "I just don't want to be a burden to anyone."
"You're not a burden. You're one of us," BK comments.
"At the moment, I'm a llama," Marianne reminds.
"A drama llama," BK teases.
"And proud of it!" Marianne remarks, posing momentarily with her head held high. "Why are we just walking anyway? Wouldn't it be much faster to your parents' house if you were in your wolf form and we could run there?"
"That's what I planned to do, hence why I didn't bother putting on any shoes, but I figured it'd be better if we talked first. You know, before anything happens. I wanted to make sure you know that just because you'll be human again, that doesn't mean you have to leave if you don't want to. As I told you before, I'll help you as much as I can to find your home and who you were before but I...I would...well, what I mean to say is...is that I hope you'll see the farm as...as a home, too," BK explains softly, removing his hand from her to scratch the back of his neck. "Well, anyway, I guess I better get undressed so I can transform. Give me a minute."
"What's the point of going behind a tree? I've already seen everything you've got multiple times thanks to your love of walking around naked," Marianne teases as he walks off the path.
"I do not love walking around naked!" BK defends.
Marianne snickers at his high-pitched whining tone. Not that she'd admit it out loud but teasing him has become her favorite game, especially since he always blushed so heavily. Sometimes, she swore the blush reached the whole way to his chest.
The sight of him placing his blue t-shirt on a lower limb draws her attention and she cranes her neck slightly to get a better look around the tree he's using as a cover as he removes his black jeans. Good. No underwear. That just makes the mischievous thought that popped into her head that much easier to do.
As quickly and silently as she can, Marianne reaches her long neck toward the tree limb before bounding down the beaten path with her prize securely in her mouth.
"Wha...Marianne!" BK yells. "Get back here with my clothes!"
She can't stop her laughter, the continuing hum muffled by the fabric between her jaws, as BK starts chasing after her. The sound of four paws replacing two feet causes her to change the bouncing gait she was using to a full run to keep ahead of her pursuer as they both speed down the beaten path through the dense forest.
"Marianne! Get back here with my clothes! You don't even know the way! Marianne!" BK continues, sounding increasingly desperate. "Marianne! You can't show up at my parents' house with my clothes!"
Bog finishes fastening his jeans before glaring at the snickering brown-and-white llama nearby and reaches for the t-shirt she's holding in her mouth.
"Do you have any idea how much trouble you could have gotten us into?" Bog growls lowly, roughly putting his shirt on.
"I stopped before I left the forest," Marianne chuckles.
"That's not the...," Bog starts to yell before hushing and looking toward the large clearing past the forest's treeline. "That's not the point. My family isn't one to stay in the house, anyone could have been out here and seen that, and then my mother would find out. My mother, Marianne!"
"Now who's the drama llama?" Marianne teases.
"You don't know my mother. My mother is very easygoing, not one to pressure her kids about anything unless it's about doing the right thing. But! She's worried that no good woman will even take a second glance at me once they find out about my criminal record and those that do, will be turned off once they find out that I was in a mostly male gang that was run by a woman," Bog explains quietly.
"I thought Thang said that Angelina was dating Stuff by the time you joined the gang and they were still dating when you were set up to take the fall for the robbery," Marianne mutters.
"They were. It's just that all of us guys had a crush on Angelina at one time or another, me being the most recent since I was somewhat new to The Goblins, and Mom is worried a future girl might think I was a boy-toy or something since I did choose to take the prison term willingly as a way to protect Angelina and the others from being revealed as involved in that truck heist," Bog answers.
"So you were in love with Angelina?" Marianne questions.
"A crush. I had a crush on her. It never got deeper because I knew it wouldn't amount to anything and because I was terrified of getting Stuff mad," Bog chuckles. "Anyway, Mom's just worried about my future. I don't know exactly what she would do but I do know a shotgun wedding would probably be in our future if she saw you running with my clothes."
"Yeah, that's probably right," Maya agrees.
Bog isn't the only one to jump in alarm at the unexpected presence but unlike Marianne, he manages not to scream. Barely.
He quickly looks around and groans at the sight of a red fox sitting on a nearby boulder. His groan deepens as the fox's grin gets larger. Great, just what he needs. Seems someone in his family was out in the woods today, after all.
Why, oh why, couldn't it have been one of his brothers?!
"How long have you been sitting there?" Bog asks.
"Is this the friend Mom said you said needed magic help?" Maya questions instead, her fox tail swishing. "Seems like a nasty hex. She smells kinda weird, too. How long has she been hexed? Do you know who...OMG! Did you actually shear her?!"
"That's enough questions already, Maya!" Bog groans loudly. "I'll explain everything at the house. Alright?"
"Oh, alright," Maya huffs before perking up. "You missed such a lovely wedding! I know you and Sam haven't gotten along since 'that fateful day' but he really did want you to be there."
"It's better that I wasn't, you know that," Bog sighs, turning to the confused llama beside him. "I'm sorry, Marianne. Marianne, this is my little sister, Maya. Maya, this is Marianne."
"Nice to meet you," Marianne murmurs.
"Pleasure is all mine!" Maya cheers, jumping off the stone and walking to the pair. "Kaleb probably hasn't said much about his family, has he? Well, I'm the baby of the family and the only girl. Mom says that I'm God's reward for dealing with the hormones of eight men."
"And we boys say it's God's mercy that she wasn't born until I was nearly twelve," Bog quips.
"Haha," Maya mutters dryly. "Anyway, Mom said that you needed some help, so everyone is waiting. Even Nichole."
"Nichole? Sam is here, too? I thought they were going on a European tour for their honeymoon," Bog comments.
"Well, they would have been," Maya starts slowly, her foxy grin getting larger and her bushy tail twitching. "Seems they were a little farther in their relationship than they let on and it wasn't wedding preparations that was making Nichole sick. Her doctor doesn't think they should travel internationally while she's this far along in her pregnancy, so they're just doing some state-to-state traveling instead."
"Sounds like...don't you dare transform, Maya! We have a guest!" Bog yelps as Maya moves to stand on her hind legs.
"Oh, sure. You guys can flash your googly-bits to the whole wide world but if I do it, it's indecent," Maya scoffs.
Running his hand down his face, Bog resists the urge to sigh as his sister runs through the forest with her furry tail swishing in the air. No doubt she couldn't wait to tell their mom what she saw.
"Googly-bits?" Marianne snickers.
"She's fourteen. There is no explanation," Bog mutters before finally letting out a sigh. "If Sam is here, then that means Elijah, Robbie, and Tony are still here as well. Would you rather have me get Dad, Lucas, and Gary to come out here, so you're not subject to everyone?"
"It's fine. Or are you afraid I'll be flashing my googly-bits to everyone?" Marianne teases.
Bog shakes his head in amusement before continuing down the beaten trail at a walk. It's not long before he catches sight of his childhood home through the thick trees and he pauses in his step.
Far be it from him to be ungrateful about his family but sometimes, most times actually, he can't help feeling like an outcast whenever he's around them. They were more supportive than Brutus' cruel relations who opposed his every chance for medical school because they felt he was too stupid, more loving than Stuff's parents who used tradition as an excuse to isolate and degrade her, more understanding than the many foster families of Beaks, and far more caring than Thang's superstitious relatives who punished him every time he revealed his color-blindness. Yet, no matter how great they are compared to his friends' families, there's always a gulf between him and them.
Hard to say when it happened exactly. After all, every youngest kid must have felt a little inferior whenever they trailed after their older siblings. It was hard being the youngest of seven brothers with the oldest two only ten years older than him. Even harder was watching two of them learning to control their magic effortlessly only to fail repeatedly when he got old enough to display the hidden abilities himself.
Dad hadn't been the only one getting frustrated whenever he failed the simplest of incantations, as not even Lucas and Gary could figure how he went wrong whenever they tried to help by showing him how to do it.
Then that fateful day happened. No one's quite sure how he managed to turn Sam's head into that of a donkey's during an argument about Bog being lazy in his studies but it took Dad three days to reverse Sam's transformation. It wasn't too long after that he was informed that a plane ticket was already bought for him to go stay with his father's great-uncle in Scotland. Sure, Dad said that he had thought of sending him there for better training before that fateful day but he even admitted that they weren't going to mention it until after he graduated. He didn't even have a choice in the matter since the arrangements were already made and no amount of arguing worked.
So he made his own choice. A choice that got him into a whole lot more trouble than wayward magic did.
"So much for the seventh son of the seventh son being lucky," Bog mutters.
"Oh, I don't know about that. You're pretty lucky from where I stand," Marianne comments beside him, startling Bog.
"What do you mean?" Bog questions.
"Well, if your magic did work all like it should, then you wouldn't have run away from home and met The Goblins. You wouldn't have taken the fall for the robbery and Stuff and Thug might not have gotten suspicious enough about Angelina's resulting flippant attitude to start tailing her. So from the other gang members' side of things, you kept them from even greater trouble than just short prison sentences after they discovered that Angelina was using the gang as a way to fraud her brother's company's insurance by having you guys steal from his company and then unknowingly selling the stuff back to him cheaply while he collects the insurance money," Marianne points out. "Then there's what would have happened had you not wound up in prison. You wouldn't have met Gus and then you wouldn't have saved Primrose and Prim when you went to work for his dad after you were released. You wouldn't have started Dark Forest Farms and would not have been able to give the others jobs when they finished serving their prison time. And more importantly from my end, you wouldn't have been here when I needed help and I probably would have wound up wolf chow."
"What are you, a mindreader, too?" Bog teases.
"After dealing with you for a week and a half, I think I'm quite the expert on what you're thinking about," Marianne remarks. "If you'd rather not deal with your relatives, I can always go on alone."
"I'm not leaving you now," Bog states firmly, walking down the path again. "Besides, I have to walk you home once you're human again, so there's no point in me avoiding my family."
"Still on that, are you? Where would I even stay? Did you and Stuff think about that?" Marianne asks.
"Stuff said that you can take her set of rooms and she'll move into Thang's," Bog answers.
"Thang's? I thought she didn't want the others to know about her and Thang's relationship," Marianne mentions.
"Everyone already knows about it and have for the past two years," Bog confides with a chuckle. "We've just been waiting for Stuff to feel comfortable enough to come out about it. She told me that she and Thang are planning on telling the others today, so they'll already have her things moved by the time we get back home."
"Have all the answers, do you?" Marianne teases.
"No, but I do the best I can," Bog responds.
He chuckles when Marianne lightly headbutts his shoulder and he pets her long neck before turning his attention to his childhood home. Maybe things won't be so bad this time around, after all.
"Kaleb! I raised you better than that!" Griselda yells out.
"Maya, I'm gonna hex you!" Bog groans as his short mother speed-walks toward them with his long-legged father running to catch up.
"Kaleb!" Griselda growls, grabbing his t-shirt to pull him down enough to grab his ear. "What's this I hear about you flashing a girl in public?!"
"Maya! Just wait until I get ahold of you!" Bog yells.
"Don't blame your sister for something you did," Griselda warns, tugging his ear harder.
"It's not like that, Mom!" Bog cries. "Maya just saw me shifting. That's all I was doing!"
"See, Grissy, the boy is innocent," Lochlan puffs, leaning on his knees to catch his breath. "No need to get all upset."
"Not like it was the first time he flashed me in public, anyway," Marianne snickers, getting a surprised look from both parents.
"I thought you were bringing a human friend over, not one of your llamas," Griselda comments in confusion.
"She's not a llama, Grissy," Lochlan mutters. "That's one nasty hex. How ever did you manage to do that, Kaleb?"
Bog's immediate shame at his father's assumption that he caused Marianne's predicament is replaced by shock when Marianne spits at the older man, causing Lochlan to cry out, and shock is quickly replaced by horror when the grey-haired man is forced to run away from the pursuing lamoid. No amount of pleading works as the angry woman-turned-llama relentlessly chases her quarry around the gathering crowd of stunned onlookers.
"Marianne!" Bog cries out.
"Don't bother stopping her. He deserves it," Griselda states, finally releasing his ear. "Now, tell me what happened?"
"But, uh...," Bog tries, gesturing to his running father.
"I mean it! He's getting what he deserves. Automatically assuming you caused whatever happened? Bah! He's lucky that she's the one chasing him," Griselda huffs. "So, what happened?"
"We're not quite sure, exactly," Bog admits. "Thang found her like that on the side of the road two weeks ago and she was at the farm when I got home. Up until last week, she couldn't remember anything other than her first name and that she's actually human."
"Memory loss caused by the spell?" Griselda questions.
"Marianne had...well, she still has, a concussion, as well as a few other injuries. She remembered being in a car accident and Brutus thinks the concussion might be more responsible for the memory loss than the spell," Bog answers. "I've been giving her healing tonics and they seemed to help. Then when she started gaining a few memories last week, she remembered having a foul-smelling pale pink liquid thrown onto her just hours prior to the car crash and her llama transformation, so I've also been trying an incantation to locate the maker of the potion. But that was as successful as my attempts at returning her to being human."
"Of course you couldn't find the potion maker, sweetheart. Magic can't track magic. Not that your father even knew that himself," Griselda murmurs before turning her attention to the fast-approaching llama. "Marianne, dear, please stop chasing my foolish husband so we can get that nasty curse off you. He's too old for that much exercise, anyway."
"Too old?! Now you listen here, Grissy, I'm many things but too old ain't one of them!" Lochlan growls, stopping to pound his chest with one fist.
"Oh? I'll guess you'll just have to prove that after lunch, now won't you," Griselda teases saucily.
"Mom, please, we don't need any more siblings!" Sam cries.
"There are such things as condoms, sweetheart," Griselda comments.
"Mom!"
"What?! There's eight of you! Do you really think your father and I don't know about sex?" Griselda huffs.
Ignatius folds his ears back at the growling coming from beside him. He hasn't seen her this furious since the day they first met. Not that he didn't understand. He is pretty upset about it himself, after all.
After a whole week of being forced to slowly follow the very faint trail of errant magic to find the poor woman accosted with his stolen potion only to lose the trail, who wouldn't be upset?
"Shall you pick the direction or shall I?" Ignatius sighs, looking both ways down the highway they lost the trail at.
"No need to guess. We'll just head that way," Aura comments sourly, pointing a paw down the road.
"That way? How can you be sure Marianne is that way?" Ignatius questions.
"Take a whiff," Aura orders.
Obeying, Ignatius points his nose in the indicated direction and immediately scents the faint hint of magic. It's not traces of his own magic from his potion, though. It's another's magic scent and he nods his head in understanding.
They may have lost the scent to find Marianne but they do know that she is near enough to another magic worker to disrupt their tracking magic, so finding the worker should result in finding Marianne. Hopefully.
"Can you tell who's up ahead? Witch or warlock or...ugh...wizard?" Ignatius groans.
"You know very well something like that can't be figured out from this far a distance," Aura reminds tartly.
"But you've already guessed it, haven't you?" Ignatius teases, grinning sharply at the answering growl.
"It's just a guess," Aura huffs, her fluffy blue-silver tail twitching in irritation as she walks toward the magic scent's source. "I mean, I can't be accurate, especially since it's been such a long time since I had the displeasure of meeting one in person."
"Can't be a wizard then. We just crossed paths with one of those pompous windbags a few decades ago," Ignatius muses. "Who could be more unpleasant than one of them? Well, other than a dark magic worker, but it doesn't smell like tainted magic up ahead."
"I'd almost prefer a dark magic worker," Aura mutters.
"Oh, it can't be that ba...," Ignatius starts to laugh before silencing abruptly when everything around him goes dark. "Aura?"
Well, this is new. The transformed warlock tucks his furry tail beneath him and curls his small body together as he peers into the darkness surrounding him but not even his cat eyes can see anything in the nothingness. His ears turn to catch the faintest sound, except even they fail to discern where he's at.
This has certainly never happened to him before.
Just as quickly as it appeared, the darkness disappears and Ignatius breathes a sigh of relief at the return of light, color, and sound. A relief that vanishes instantaneously when he notices that his feet are not touching anything substantial. Looking down only confirms his suspicion and a loud screech fills the evening air as a white cat plummets into the cold water below his summoned form.
"Cold! Cold! Cold!" Ignatius yowls as he swims as fast as his paws can to the pond's shore.
"Oopsie! I forgot I threw the old summoning stone back into the pond after the last time I used it."
Ignatius glowers at the feminine voice's source as he pulls himself onto firm ground. He may have promised to never use a love potion again, especially once he realized for himself how disastrous they truly are, but that doesn't mean he's above cursing someone with it, temporarily of course. Aura would probably even agree with him if this red-and-gray-haired woman is the magic worker they're looking for.
His thoughts of revenge is derailed once he catches sight of the large animal standing among the group of humans and he shifts effortlessly into his human form to walk on two feet toward the magically transformed woman.
"Miss Flint!" Ignatius cries happily. "I'm so hap..."
Ignatius groans as he wipes his hand across his face to remove the liquid Marianne spit at him. Apparently, today is not his day. This is why he does not do customer service! Not that he blamed her for being upset.
"So, you're the creep who sold Roland the potion that turned me into a llama," Marianne growls.
"Correction, if I may," Ignatius mumbles, reaching into his wet shirt to pull out an equally wet handkerchief to better wipe his face. "But I did not sell that idiotic cad anything. He stole it."
"Stole it?" Marianne repeats.
"Indeed. He apparently thought he was stealing a love potion since he's under the impression that your sister is under the influence of one. Which is ridiculous," Ignatius scoffs. "Oh! Where are my manners?! I am Ignatius the Magnificent Sorcerer!"
"More like a cocky warlock," a grey-haired man chuckles.
"That too," Ignatius concedes with a wink. "Am I correct in assuming you're a druid?"
"That I am. Lochlan Boghan and this is my wife, Griselda," Lochlan starts, introducing the others before continuing. "Marianne has been with Kaleb for the past two weeks and he's been unable to undo the hex that is on her. He brought her here this morning but even I, Lucas, and Gary, can't seem to break it no matter what we've tried these past several hours, so my wife used a summoning to bring you here to remove it yourself."
"I've been searching for Miss Flint since I was informed of her misfortune last week, so being summoned to fix what that monstrous cad did is no trouble at all. But it's strange that you couldn't reverse it. That transformation potion was very weak and should have easily been broken," Ignatius murmurs.
"Then you will reverse this?" Marianne asks, nodding her head to herself.
"Yes, I...oh. That's not good," Ignatius mutters, squinting his eyes to peer at the magic's aura. "Something's not right. This...this isn't entirely my potion."
"What do you mean?" Griselda questions.
"What I mean is that there's another's magic intertwining around the potion I created, something that's interfering with it," Ignatius answers.
"Oh, no! It's probably because of my earlier attempts at reversing it!" Kaleb groans.
"Certainly not," Ignatius assures. "Looks like this spell activated at the same time the potion did. It's hard to make out, though, since it's nearly completely hidden. This isn't something I've come across before personally, so I'm going to need to..."
The screeching sound of a distressed cat rings through the air once more and Ignatius cringes moments before the pond's cold water gets its second visitor that evening. That's definitely not good for Aura's present mood.
Well. At least it saves him from trying to figure out how to get her here himself.
"Who in their right mind puts a summoning stone in a pond?!" Aura screeches once she makes it to shore and transforms. "Don't you know that once you use a stone for that purpose, it becomes permanent?!"
"It does?" Griselda asks in surprise.
"Yes!" Aura answers in exasperation before perking up. "Oooh, a wiccan! Much better than I was expectin...oh. Druids. That explains a lot."
"What are you doing here, Witch?" Lochlan growls.
"If your significant other disappeared into thin air while they were with you, wouldn't you follow the magic trail, oh high-and-mighty stick-in-the-ass?" Aura counters haughtily.
"Aura, love, these druids are the reason Miss Flint has been safe for the past two weeks, so play nice," Ignatius chuckles nervously.
"The past two weeks?! Why didn't you reverse the potion then?" Aura questions.
"Because we just returned home last night!" Lochlan explains defensively. "She's been with my youngest son, Kaleb, and his magic is..."
"Faulty," Kaleb mutters. "None of my incantations work properly."
"Oh, goodie, a non-self-righteous druid! I'll just talk to you then and ignore him!" Aura comments happily, grabbing the flustered Kaleb's hands.
"Sorry to interrupt, but I'M STILL A LLAMA HERE!" Marianne screams. "Will someone please turn me back into a human!"
"Of course, dear, right away," Aura agrees.
"I'm afraid that it's not going to be that easy, Aura," Ignatius warns. "It seems Roland Darling added someone else's magic to my potion."
"Is there no end to his idiocy?" Aura huffs, letting go of Kaleb to reach for the llama Marianne's head. "Let's take a look. Just relax, Marianne, and I'll see what I can find."
"So?" Ignatius questions after a few minutes of silence.
"Interesting," Aura murmurs. "Marianne, have you and Kaleb met before?"
"No idea. Up until last week, I couldn't remember anything about myself except my first name thanks to a concussion and since then, I've only remembered very little," Marianne mentions.
"How about you, Kaleb? Do you know if you two have met before?" Aura asks.
"Not that I know of. It's kinda hard to know for sure since I don't really know what she looks like," Kaleb answers.
Grateful for his magic bag's inherent waterproofing, Ignatius browses through the satchel's contents until he finds the picture the Flints gave them last week and hands it to Kaleb, smirking at the young druid's rising blush. Seems he hadn't expected her to be so pretty.
"I...uh...I don't think we've...uh...we've met before," Kaleb stutters, scratching the back of his neck. "But, hey! That's...that's my sweater!"
"Your sweater? That's my sweater. And Roland ruined it!" Marianne grumbles, peering over Kaleb's shoulder.
"No, I mean, that's one of the sweaters I made," Kaleb explains before laughing. "I don't believe it! I'd recognize that ugly sweater anywhere!"
"It's not ugly!" Marianne argues.
"The yoke's too big for the sweater's small size, the sleeves aren't the same length, the color pattern is a complete mess, and it's long enough to be a tunic or a short dress," Kaleb points out. "But I can't believe you actually have That sweater. That's the first sweater I ever knitted, made it even before I got out of prison."
Ignatius nearly groans at Aura's emerging smirk. It wasn't her matchmaking smirk or the one she wore when she was about to cause more mischief than even he could create or even the smirk that usually foretold a very pleasant night to come. No. It's the worst smirk. Whatever she had found while examining the foreign magic has just been explained somehow and she's about to gloat.
He really hopes he and the wiccan woman can keep their respective partners from coming to blows, be they physical or magical.
"Humor an old witch, Kaleb, but why do you think your magic is faulty?" Aura questions suddenly.
"Because it is," Lochlan sighs. "No matter how much training or studying he tried when he was younger, everything always comes out wrong."
"I didn't ask you!" Aura growls snidely.
"Who better to ask? I trained my son, just like his brothers before him and now his sister. I know how his magic works," Lochlan states firmly.
"You know nothing," Aura huffs, waving a hand dismissively at his immediate protest. "If you did know how your son's magic works, you would have gotten him the training he needs and he would have been able to undo Marianne's present curse with absolutely no effort."
"I did try to get him more training! He's the one who refused to go study under my great-uncle!" Lochlan defends, drawing himself to full height to loom over the young-looking witch.
"You self-righteous ass! How are you so blind to your own son?!" Aura yells into the taller druid's face.
"Watch it, Witch, you're on druid land!" Lochlan warns. "You have no business meddling with me and mine! My son is a druid, the same as I am, as my father was, and as was his father before him, and he's no concern of a witch!"
"AGH! I have never met a druid who didn't have their head so far up their ass they couldn't see the light of day!" Aura screams in frustration, burying her hands in her blue-silver hair before poking the man before her hard enough to make him stumble backward. "You listen here, child, I have lived for centuries! I have traveled most of the world over. I have seen things that never made it to the history books. In my childhood, I watched a man, with magic much like your son's, be trampled into the mud, beaten and bullied, and then rise to such heights of power that killing him became the only way to stop the horrific terrors he created in revenge. Your son has such great magic that he's been casting spells without even realizing it, weaving it into the sweater he created, which activated when Ignatius' potion hit the fabric and caused the potion's magic to intensify."
"But he's a druid! Druids can't do that," Lochlan states in confusion.
"How are you this blind?!" Aura groans. "Your son is not a druid! He's a witch! Well, more of a druid-witch, actually."
Silence reigns as even the waking creatures of the night quiet their voices at the shocking revelation. Well, not entirely silent as the sounds of crunching is finally noticed among the gathered group of humans.
"Why are you eating popcorn, Mom?" Kaleb asks.
"Just enjoying the show, sweetheart," Griselda answers, adding another kernel to her mouth. "Lochlan, I love you with all my heart and I've told you before that you are an ass."
"Griselda!" Lochlan whines, ignoring his snickering children.
"If she's right about Kaleb, then listen to her!" Griselda orders. "I'm tired of watching my family be torn apart because of all this magic business! Just because I don't have any magic abilities myself, doesn't mean that I don't have an opinion in the matter. Now, you're going to get our son the help he needs, not what you think he needs, and you're going to help this poor woman become human again. Do I make myself clear?"
"Oooh, nicely handled!" Aura praises as the eldest druid shrinks under his wife's glare.
"I try," Griselda chuckles. "How about we take a break for something to eat before we attempt anything else?"
"That would be splendid. We haven't stopped to eat since breakfast and I'm quite famished," Aura moans. "It's hard to practice magic on an empty stomach."
Ignatius snickers at the horror lining Lochlan's face as their wives start chatting amiably as they lead the others toward the nearby house. Aura sometimes had that effect on people and he can't help wondering how long it'll be before the druid tries hexing her. It doesn't have any chance of working but it'll sure be fun to watch.