Molly was never quite sure what to make of rainy days. On one hand they prevented her from doing the watering (which was always a plus since she had gotten ambitious enough to fill her entire field this season). However, there was always this boring air of melancholy that she couldn't shake.
It always seemed to sap any of her motivation completely. Moreover, given that it was still very early into the fall season, Molly was sure that she only had plenty of days like these to look forward to.
"It's raining Finn..." Molly, seated with her head resting on her palm, inclined her head to the left slightly.
Finn floated lazily somewhere she assumed to be near the top of her head. "Yeah..."
"I've been wondering, Finn..." Molly paused to put a finger to her bottom lip, "Don't your wishes count towards this bell thingy?"
"I'm a sprite, Molly!"
Finn's pace became a little more frenzied and she could feel the breeze his little wings were creating against her face. Why did this have to be so complicated? The other bells just consisted of her timing things right and collecting stuff...
"...So what's your point? You have wishes, right? I still think wishes are wishes no matter who they come from."
Finn stopped his mad dash around Molly's head for a few brief moments before finally seating himself near Molly's head on the windowpane, looking a little forlorn.
"...I want to be just like the others. I don't want to be tiny and special..."
"Pfft, conformity is overrated!" Molly scoffed.
Finn looked hurt, and, as per usual, was on the verge of tears. Honestly, he should have expected her to say something like that by now! She still felt a little guilty though. The little guy was pretty unstable after all.
"You're mean! You have to tell me your wish now!" Finn stamped his little feet around on the ledge, making tiny 'tip tip' noises that were barely audible over the rain outside.
"Nu uh!" Molly shook her head. No way was Finn going to extract that information out of her! Definitely not!
"Molly! No fair! No faaair!"
Finn leapt off the windowsill and began to circle around her head before deciding to settle on her shoulder. And promptly beat her with his tiny fists.
Molly folded. Folded like a folding chair. She did have to share the house with him for an indefinite amount of time.
"Fiiine. Um, I don't know. To have a shapely figure and influence people?"
Finn settled on her shoulder and folded his arms. "...I'm not sure if that's a very good wish."
"...Me either." Molly sighed. "We need to get out of here and find something else to do."
"Yeah..." Finn nodded.
"We're running out of food again..." Molly shifted her head to her other hand and continued to gaze absent-mindedly out the window.
Finn mimicked her gesture from his perch on her shoulder. "Yeah..."
"We could, um, look for some herbs and stuff?"
Molly always hated the start of the season. She didn't quite have the entire farming business down yet and always had a hard time making her money last until the crops grew while feeding herself, Finn and her sparse amount of livestock.
"I'm sick of those..."
"Isn't that what you guys always eat?" she couldn't imagine Finn making those complaints to the Harvest Goddess.
Finn twiddled his tiny thumbs. "Not all the time...I like it when you bring back cake better."
"Stop being so picky!"
By the time Molly arrived at Fugue Forest, she was soaked. What had started as a foraging trip had turned into a 'Let's see what the witch is having for lunch' trip. Sure, she had collected some herbs (with every intention to force Finn to eat them, serves him right for being picky!) but really, Molly was more interested in something less bland. And less likely to kill her if it was the wrong colour.
"Molly, we hardly have any herbs or mushrooms collected..." Finn switched from flying in a straight line in favour of more haphazard circles.
Molly made a sharp right down the nearest path, trying rather vainly to remember which path led to where. Everything just seemed to be the same set of randomly generated trees, stumps and paths.
Finn paused and gazed at Molly skeptically.
"Molly," Finn narrowed his eyes at her, "are we going to see the Witch again?"
"...Maintaining friendships is important!" Molly was many things, but a liar wasn't always one of them.
Finn assumed his usual pose to berate her, but before he could start, something caught his attention.
Molly continued down the path, oblivious to Finn, before coming to a grinding halt.
...Oh, so that was it. Barely a few steps away, Molly stumbled upon a rather familiar scene. The wizard and the witch fighting over something sparkly. Molly assumed it was one of those odd purple mushroom things she usually found. Or drugs. But really, those could be considered one in the same.
Hmm.
She couldn't put anything past magical beings or blame them really. It was probably really boring living for like, hundreds of years and junk.
"I saw it first!" The Witch tugged hard, causing the Wizard to stumble, but not relinquish his hold on the object.
"I tried to grab it before you..." The Wizard yanked back, putting them at somewhat of a stalemate.
Neither appeared to notice Molly, who had her head cocked in morbid amusement.
"Meanie! Let go!" Witch gave it another pull and Molly wondered just how sturdy that mushroom had to be not to succumb to squishing or breaking into chunky pieces.
"No, you let it go..."
It briefly occurred to Molly that this argument caused Mr. Wizard to speak more words than she had ever heard him utter to her on a regular basis. Usually it was just a word here or there. And not very interesting words either!
The Witch gasped, causing Molly to snap out of her thoughts and wrench her head towards the pair again.
"You idiot! The Fugue mushroom!"
Molly noted the absence of the sparkly mushroom and even she could manage to put together the result this time.
"...This isn't good." Wizard's eyes darted from a direction in the woods, to the Witch, back to the woods again and finally settled on Molly.
There was a brief moment of silence while the Witch's eyes began to settle on Molly too.
"Hey, human. Do us a favour. Gimme that mushroom. It's um, got spots and stuff. And it's rare. This idiot..." The Witch Princess started nonchalantly.
"Who's the idiot...?" The Wizard frowned and gazed away from the Witch. "Molly, if you find it, bring it to me."
The Witch Princess stamped her feet impatiently and did a flail that the farmer thought looked suspiciously akin to Finn and his fits.
"Noo! I saw it first! If you find it, give it to me! And make it snappy!"
"I trust you'll know who to give it to." The Wizard nodded to Molly.
Molly was understandably confused as both Witch Princess and Wizard began to stomp off in opposing directions.
"...Don't I give you guys those mushrooms at least once a day...?"
It didn't take Molly more than fifteen minutes of aimless wandering before she stumbled upon the Fugue mushroom. Or one of the mushrooms. She didn't really see the difference or care anymore about what made them so special anyway.
Conveniently, it wasn't that far away from the Witch's house anyway. Maybe she could extract some lunch from her after all. Shiny objects usually accomplished that anyway. Nevertheless, today it was a shiny object that the Wizard wanted, which just had to make it a way better bribe.
Within a few minutes, Molly found herself on the doorstep of the Witch Princess' humble little pond shack. She only had to knock once before the Witch ripped open the door.
"Do you have it?"
"Um, yes, but..." Molly had to admit that being this welcome by the witch kinda startled her.
"Then get in!" The Witch grabbed Molly's hand and yanked her in the door.
Molly smelled something funky. Well, more funky than usual. The house always smelled a little off-putting. Finn remained oddly quiet during the ordeal.
After a few abrupt seconds of awkward pondering, the Witch released Molly and proceeded to hop up on her stool, and begin mixing her gigantic cauldron while humming something Molly didn't recognize. It scared her a bit, actually.
"Soo, I figure I probably should have asked this earlier, but...What do you plan on doing with this Fugue mushroom that's different from usual?"
"Tee hee! Somethiiing."
She was just entirely too happy. There had to be something wrong with this decision, but Molly couldn't place it exactly...
"Well, if you aren't going to tell me, maybe I should take it to Wizard..."
That got her attention. The magical user immediately climbed down from her perch and placed both her hands on Molly's shoulders.
"You can't do that! You brought it for me! We're...friends, right?"
Molly sighed, "Yeah..."
Witch removed her hands from Molly. "Well, what's the problem then? You don't want to give it to that meanie, he'll just use it for 'research' and some kind of 'greater good'! I'll put it to good use!" she grinned broadly.
"You mean pranks, don't you?"
"Yup! And if you give it to me, I'll even make you lunch! You like blueberry cake!" The Witch replied without missing a beat.
"...Well, your uses for it sound more fun anyway!" Molly unzipped her rucksack and began to remove the mushroom.
The Witch Princess grinned and nodded briefly before snatching the item right out of Molly's hands and returning to her place by the cauldron.
Finn complained in her ear about the injustice followed shortly by a lecture about the untrustworthiness of the Witch. The farmer quietly promised him leftovers and his qualms suddenly ceased.
"Hee hee! Just let me finish this and I'll get us lunch after!"
Molly decided to take a seat on the Witch's bed. Usually, she would be scolded for it, but the Witch was too preoccupied to really care anyway.
Finn had settled himself near her window and stayed uncharacteristically quiet.
Molly found herself drawn to the window for some time. The rain was pouring outside in an oddly mesmerizing sort of way. Maybe there would be some thunder later too...
"Okay! You do want cake don't you?" The Witch had somehow managed to sneak up in front of the farmer and proudly held a plate with a delicious looking piece of cake and matching fork.
Under normal circumstances, Molly may have actually thought about what the Witch was up to, but the cake just looked so good...
She snatched the fork and gave it a gracious sniff before diving in and devouring most of it with vigor.
Whoops, she was almost forgetting her manners!
"Didn't you want any, Witch?"
"No, no, you go ahead and enjoy it." she smirked, but Molly was too enamored to pay it much thought before savoring the last few morsels.
"Mm, that was really good!" Molly felt entirely too satisfied, having accomplished her goal of sponging off one friend for the day.
The Witch frowned. "That's it?"
Molly didn't understand. What else was there that she could possibly praise of the Witch's culinary skills?
"What do you mean 'That's it?'"
Then it hit her, hard. Almost as if someone has sucked all the breath from her body in one fell swoop and punched her in the gut, for good measure. She could see the edges of her vision go fuzzy and dark before starting to funnel.
"What did you...?" Molly attempted to start.
"Hmm...This isn't what I planned..." The farmer could hear the Witch say, but her voice was growing faint.
Was she dreaming? Had she fallen asleep? She thought she was conscious, but everything was starting to look foreign and...Why couldn't she move her body?
"...Oopsie." mumbled a faint voice.
Then, there was nothing but darkness.