A/N: Ah. Finally the US X UK interaction you've been waiting for (3/4 way through this chap ^_^ and in following chaps). Enjoy!
Step 2: Gather Ingredients
When Arthur awoke, he found himself lying on a couch in a comfortable home. A fire crackled in the hearth and the scent of cinnamon, roses, and other sweet, delightful scents flowed through the entire room. Arthur stretched and yawned, then noticed that the couch was huge. In fact, everything was.
He also noticed his body didn't feel quite normal when he'd stretched, so he looked down at his hands. Only they weren't hands anymore. They were little yellow and white paws. "What the?" Arthur exclaimed, but only a "Meeww?" came out.
"Ah, you are finally awake!" a brunette woman said as she walked in. Her accent sounded Welsh, yet Arthur noted that her English was unmarred by it. A purring black cat with yellow-green eyes and a white star on her forehead smiled at him from the woman's arms. The cat jumped down, and as she did, she turned into Seren. She landed lightly on the floor without a sound.
"Dychwelyd i'r dynol," the woman said, waving her hand above where Arthur was sitting. He felt his limbs stretch and his face tickle as the whiskers disappeared. "Sorry about that," the woman said. "The only way for Seren to take you the rest of the way to my home was for you to be turned into a kitten. One of the side effects of transformation spells is kipping off. I didn't turn you back right way because you have to be awake for the reverting spell to work."
"That was both weird and fascinating at the same time," Arthur said, clearing his throat slightly and adjusting his clothes. "I didn't know your . . . erm . . . apprentice could perform such elaborate magic. You truly are amazing, Madam Ceridwen Irfon."
The woman laughed, and her violet-blue eyes sparkled with mirth. "I see, Mr. Arthur Kirkland, you are as clever as Seren said," she said, "and you don't have to be so formal. Call me whatever you wish, so long as it's not 'witch' or anything that rhymes with that word."
Arthur guessed immediately why some people in the town had been "cursed". "Well then, Ceridwen, you may also call me whatever you wish," he said.
"Even England?" Ceridwen asked.
Arthur gaped.
"Don't be so surprised," she said, laughing. "I know your older brother Wales; he is the living representation of my home after all, and as a witch, I've lived a very long time."
"Ahem! Well, in that case, I may not need your services after all," Arthur said, cringing at the thought of his brother's smirk.
"Don't worry, Arthur. Your brother does not influence me at all," Ceridwen said. "I have no desire to cause you any mischief. Not only are you a paying client, but you've also proven yourself worthy of using my magic. You saw through my Seren's transformation spell beautifully."
Seren nudged her head up under Ceridwen's hand; she patted and stroked the girl's hair. Seren smiled gratefully at the affection. "As for earlier, I hate to disappoint you, but Seren's magic ability is limited. She's unable to perform that complicated of transformation magic," Ceridwen said. "What you experienced is an overflow of the transformation spell I've put on her. Anyone she kisses becomes a kitten or a cat, depending on the image she holds in her mind."
Arthur blinked. "Oh."
"I didn't discover this myself until I noticed that some of the young men in town were turning into cats," Ceridwen said with a laugh.
What that Gregory fellow said earlier now makes perfect sense, Arthur thought.
"Mistress! I keep telling you the boys kissed me, not the other way around!" Seren said, stomping her foot.
"Darling one, I'm not accusing you," Ceridwen said. "It's not your fault those boys don't respect boundaries; they deserved a few days as animals. But you wouldn't have had to learn karate if not for them."
Arthur cleared his throat. "I'm sorry to rush you, but I'd like to get what I need and get home before tomorrow," he said. "I'm running out of time to do this spell."
"Of course," Ceridwen said. "I'm sorry. I get distracted sometimes. Do you have the payment?"
Arthur handed her a little over $1,500 in US bills. "I still don't understand why you didn't want £1000," he said. "You'll have to convert this to use it."
"I have one more client after you, and then Seren, Kaydin—my dog—and I are going to the United States," Ceridwen said. "A descendant has asked me to visit. This way I don't need to convert my spending money."
"Your child is an American?" Arthur asked.
"Not child, descendant," Ceridwen corrected.
Arthur tugged at his collar; he didn't dare to ask how old she was.
"The river is named after me, not vice versa," she said, referring to the Irfon River that was nearby the town. "That's how old."
She stuffed the money into a velvet drawstring purse. "No, I can't read thoughts," Ceridwen said with a sly smile when Arthur gasped, "or can I?"
Arthur swallowed hard. "I— "
"Let's get started," she interrupted, motioning Arthur to follow her into another room. "You said over the phone that you wanted to scare the living daylights out of this friend of yours?"
"Alfred is not my friend!" Arthur protested. "He's a former charge of mine and an obnoxious associate, nothing more."
"According to you, you participate in an annual 'scare off' with this nation," Ceridwen said, "as well as participate in activities and meetings and have holiday celebrations with this nation and other nations. If it was only the meetings, I'd understand 'only associate'. But the rest qualifies someone as a rival, a lover, a family member, or a friend in my book. Which is he?"
"Friend," Arthur said immediately, "No, probably more a rival than a friend." Arthur felt a pang in his heart; family member was no longer an option for him, even if it had only been "adopted" family member.
Ceridwen smiled but didn't press further. "Well then, the kind of spell you said you wanted was one where you could control a ghost or monster of some sort and make it haunt the person of your choice, correct?" she asked.
Arthur nodded.
"That kind of spell is a little tricky," Ceridwen said. "You'll need to perform the incantation over a potion at midnight. Then you need to get the target to drink the potion. Can you handle that?"
"Of course," he said. Even when he complained about it, Alfred ate and drank almost everything Arthur gave him.
Suddenly a "Moo!" bellowed from the next room.
Ceridwen's eyes grew wide. "Excuse me for a moment," she said. "I was making darnau lleuad in the kitchen for the other client, and it appears things have gotten a little out of hand." She gathered up a velvet rope and a pile of hay. "Seren, give Arthur his spell and the potion ingredients he needs! They're marked in the spell book," she said pointing at a thick, ancient-looking book as she dashed out of the room.
"What is she making in there?" Arthur asked Seren.
"I think it translates to 'moon pies'?" Seren said.
A dog started laughing a barking laugh.
"Quiet Kaydin! Stop that cow!" came Ceridwen's shouts from the other room, followed by some crashes. "She'll ruin them if she keeps jumping like that!"
Seren looked toward the room and then at Arthur. "I should hurry and get you what you need," she said in a panicked tone. She flipped open the book where it was marked with two slips of paper. She handed one of them to Arthur.
"I'm not sure I can read this," he said. "It's written in Welsh. Could you translate it into English for me?"
"How do you expect the spell to work if it's not in Mistress's native tongue?" Seren asked. "It's her spell, after all."
Arthur held the paper out to her. "Would you please tell me how to say it then?" he asked.
Seren sighed. "I'll try, but my Welsh is really not very good," she said. "I was originally a London cat." She snatched the paper back and looked at the writing on it. "What's your target's name again?" she asked. "I have to fit it in the spell."
"It's Americ—no, that's the name of the entire country . . . his name is Alfred," Arthur replied.
Seren looked at the paper and read the words on it aloud slipping Alfred's name in at the beginning.
"Wait, repeat that again. Slowly please," Arthur said, grabbing a pen and notepad out of his jacket pocket and jotted down the words phonetically as Seren said them.
"By the way, how long did you want it to last?" she asked.
"What? I only need it for Halloween night. Why?" Arthur asked.
"Then you'll want to add 'ar gyfer noson Calan Gaeaf' to the end of the spell," she said. "If you don't say it at the end, then the spell might be permanent like my transformation spell is."
Arthur jotted down the words.
There was another crash in the kitchen. Seren looked disturbed by the noise. She looked at the other slip of paper. "Let me get you these ingredients too," she said, distractedly. "I doubt you have some of them."
She led Arthur back to a room filled with drying herbs, live plants, and jars filled with mysterious-looking things. She grabbed a bunch of little plastic bottles and measured out sweet myrtle, lilac, damiana leaves, ylang-ylang, early purple orchid, anise and some strange looking spice, each herb into its own individual bottle.* Then she put the filled bottles into a velvet bag. She continued to glance at the list and then around the room.
More crashes and "Moos" erupted from the kitchen.
"Some of the ingredients aren't here in Mistress's stockpiles," she said. She reread the list. "Ah, that's why!"
"Seren! I need you to bring the fiddle!" Ceridwen called from the kitchen. "The dish is running away with the spoon!"
What the hell? thought Arthur.
Seren placed the ingredient list and the velvet bag in his hands and grabbed a golden-colored fiddle from a shelf as she hurried toward the door.
"Wait! The other ingredients!" Arthur said, following her back through the spell book room.
"You can buy pomegranate juice and sugar at most grocers," Seren said. "The other ingredient is red rose petals, which is a coincidence because that will also help you go home."
Arthur raised an eyebrow.
She pointed towards the room Arthur woke up in. "Go out the front door, and to your right, you'll see a red rosebush," she said. "Even though they are dying right now, the rose petals should still work. To get home, you'll need to pick the largest rose and prick your finger with a thorn. You need the blood as a 'toll' to open the portal. Then hold the rose in your hands and walk toward the front gate. Just before you reach the gate, close your eyes and then walk through it."
"Seren!" Ceridwen called again.
"Coming Mistress!" she called, hurrying toward the kitchen. She stopped at the doorway and made eye contact with Arthur one last time. "It was nice to meet you, Arthur. You make a very adorable kitten, and I'm sure you would make a handsome tom."
Arthur felt his cheeks grow hot as he watched her leave. He heard fiddle music start to play and the dog laughing again as he walked out the door.
Everything was just as Seren said. He picked the largest rose and pricked his finger on one of its thorns. He winced as the thorn produced a bright red bead on his fingertip.
Arthur glanced around and almost fell over from shock. Where did this dense forest come from? he wondered. The town I'd just been in had nothing like this in it! He tried not to pay attention to the sounds flowing from the forest as he closed his eyes and walked through the gate.
Suddenly the sound of the forest disappeared and was replaced by automobile horns and city sounds. Arthur's mouth fell open from shock when he opened his eyes. The sunrise lit up Big Ben as it tolled eight o'clock in the morning.
"England! I'm so glad you're all right!"
Arthur felt little arms hug his face.
The fairy from the night before fluttered into the air. "The witch's cat told me to wait here for you and promised you'd be fine," the fairy said. "I'm glad she wasn't lying. I didn't trust her, but what choice did I have? That cat turned you into a cute little yellow and white . . ."
"Thank you for your help and concern," Arthur interrupted, smiling. That part of the adventure didn't need recounting. He scratched his cheek and thought about his long white whiskers. "Would you mind heading home without me? I sure have some people like me have arrived there, and they might need monitoring."
The fairy smiled, nodded, and then disappeared in a cloud of sparkles.
Fortunately, Arthur was able to easily find a grocer nearby who was opening up for the day. When he returned home, he found his former charge had, in fact, decided to invade. He had a pile of containers from McDonald's piled on the table and was eating some pancakes from the open container in front of him.
"Hey Artie," Alfred said as Arthur walked past him to the refrigerator, "You're up early." He stabbed a sausage with his fork and ate it quickly. "I've been thinking. You sure you want to have this Halloween party of yours? I don't know if you really want me to embarrass you in front of all of the nations you've invited when I scare you this year," he said with a grin. "I've got something really good planned this year too. You'll never see it coming."
We'll see who embarrasses who, Arthur thought. He felt a smile creep up and forced it away. "Actually, I was thinking we'd put aside the whole scaring each other this year and just have a nice party," he lied as he put the pomegranate juice in the refrigerator.
Alfred narrowed his eyes. "I'll believe that when pigs fly," he said, shoveling in some scrambled eggs from a different container. "It would be too obvious for you to scare me on Halloween night, so I'm going to watch you every moment that I can."
Arthur smiled to try to hide the truth. "Come now, Alfred," he said, trying to sound as sincere as possible. "Can't we be mature this year and just have the party?"
Alfred stopped mid-bite. "Hmm. You've got a point there," he said. "A hero should be able to do that. All right. No scaring each other this year." He pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number.
Arthur raised an eyebrow. Who would he be calling this early? he wondered.
"Russia?" Alfred said.
Arthur cringed.
Alfred listened to Russia for a minute. "No. I've changed my mind," he said.
Arthur frowned. How many times is he planning to use Russia to scare me? he mused. Well, Alfred is the king of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Whenever he finds something that works, he uses it to the hilt.
"No, you can't. I don't care if you enjoy it!" Alfred said into the phone. He listened for a moment and frowned. "Artie and I have agreed to not do it this year . . . Well if you do, it's all you, I'm not participa— . . . No I don't think that you are invited to Arthur's party unless you promise not to do anything creepy, and that's impossible."
The voice on the other end of the line got really loud, and Alfred pulled it away from his ear.
Arthur was positive that he was hearing Russian curse words. Whether they were actual curses or foul language, he wasn't sure because he didn't recognize anything he heard.
"I hate you too!" Alfred said before hanging up on Russia. "I don't really hate him," he told Arthur, "but I don't like that big creep either. We use each other, and that works for us."
Arthur tried to smile, but this time it was difficult.
Alfred bit a piece of a bacon strip he had taken out of another container. "I think that I hurt his feelings, but I'm not sure I care," he said. He chewed thoughtfully. "Maybe you should invite him to the party? Not to scare either of us but just to let him feel included." He finished off the bacon.
Alfred looked at Arthur, then at his piles of food, and frowned. "I'm being a pig," he said. "Do you want some, Artie? I've got lots."
"Why not?" Arthur as he grabbed a strip of bacon. "Accepting your offer of breakfast is the mature thing to do after all." He took a bite of the bacon and started chewing it. The food made him realize how hungry he really was.
His former younger brother smiled. "Yeah! Acting mature is way better than trying to outdo each other all the time," Alfred said. "I kinda like it." Then he drank some orange juice he'd poured into a glass.
Arthur swallowed and the mouthful of bacon hit his stomach like a small stone. I am not going to feel guilty about tricking him, he told himself. He deserves this payback.
A/N
*I don't recommend mixing any of these herbs or drinking them together. I don't know what they'd do when mixed (usually you only use them by themselves), and they'll probably taste awful.
And yes, that whole scene at Ceridwen's was a play off of the nursery rhyme ""Hey Diddle Diddle" (a.k.a. "Hi Diddle Diddle", "The Cat and the Fiddle", or "The Cow Jumped Over the Moon"). I just couldn't help myself. ;P
The town I used for this story is loosely based on the real town of Builth Wells, Powys, UK (Welsh: Llanfair ym Muallt). Powys is a county that has a reputation for having the many police reports of "strange things" such as witches, werewolves and other weird things. The town lies where of the River Wye and the River Irfon meet.
Translations:
Seren = Welsh name for "star"
Dychwelyd i'r dynol = Revert (return) to human
kipping off = English slang for passing out or losing consciousness
darnau lleuad = moon pieces [remember Seren said her Welsh wasn't very good].
Kaydin = Welsh name for "companion"
ar gyfer noson Calan Gaeaf = for Halloween Night
If you liked what you've read, please let me know in a review. Faves and Story Alerts make me as happy as the cat that got the cream. If you have some concrit for me, please let me know as well (you can leave it in a review or PM me, I'll be happy for it either way). If you didn't like what you've read, thank you for taking the time to read this far ^_^