You slowly sit up from your sleeping bag and take stock of what is happening within the room. Thankfully, nothing seems to have happened in the night, and one look toward Yoru still on the shelf confirms that. You look down toward where King spent the night and find that he is still curled up like a cat around Francois. You give a nod toward Yoru, and he dismisses himself, returning to the Pride to spread the news.
You gather up the needed items for a trip to the bathroom alongside a new set of clothes. Thankfully Eda showed you where it was last night before she turned in for the night, so you head directly there. You pause only to knock and ensure that no one is in there before slipping inside. The room is a bit rundown but after roughing it in the woods for several months you are eternally grateful that you finally have indoor plumbing again.
A kunai is in hand before you even recognize the sound of the window creaking open. You and Hooty stare at one another as you hold the throwing knife ready and willing to throw it squarely between his soulless eyes if he dares to make a move into the bathroom more than he already has. Thankfully he seems to realize the danger he's in and leaves, but not before squeaking out a loud "GOOD MORNING" in that annoying off-key mouse voice of his.
After that delay, you briefly make sure that he isn't coming back before hopping into the shower. Ten minutes later you're leaving the bathroom with old clothes in hand as you consciously raise your internal temperature using your fire-aligned chakra to essentially dry yourself without a towel or the like. Stopping only briefly in the room you're staying in to drop off your old clothes and check on King, you head down to the kitchen.
You consult the fridge for possible food items and decide on an old classic, eggs and toast. The eggs you grab might not be chicken eggs(the container does say Griffin Eggs) but you have had to work with slightly more exotic eggs before in your cooking career, and these eggs behave too much like chicken eggs to be a coincidence. And while you can't find a toaster, you manage with a bit of butter(or butter adjacent you're not quite sure) and a frying pan.
While rooting around in the fridge you find the drink from last night in a jug proclaiming it as 'Apple Blood'. Then with a bit more digging, you find another bottle of Apple Blood way in the back but this time with the word 'hard' written in tiny letters before the Apple Blood. You figure that Apple Blood might just be a version of Apple Cider for Witches. You take a hesitant sniff of the regular Apple Blood and scrunch your nose as the scent of not only cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves assault your senses but also the faintest hint of irony blood. You hesitantly pour yourself a little, take a sip, and find that while this will never be your favorite drink in the world, it does beat drinking boiled water.
You're just plating up the food as you hear the scratching of claws on the wooden floors of the stairs. When he sees you at the stove King briefly stops before he climbs atop of you reminiscent of a kitten. With him on your shoulder, you're able to plate up both his and Eda's food to their preferred liking, though at the sight of the eyeballs King has you dump on his portion you almost shudder in disgust. When Eda comes in minutes later, with a very familiar look in her eyes you pass Eda her filled 'thirty and flirty' mug of apple blood without a word, you can still remember the zombie-eyed looks on the customers' faces back when you worked in that coffee shop at seventeen.
Breakfast is a quiet affair, but with each passing moment, you can see some 'life' returning to Eda's eyes, which King seems to pick up on as well. By the end of it, King is acting very similar to some of the brats you once babysat for your D-Rank missions once upon a time, and you hope that this child is a smidgeon better. As King runs off to play with his stuffies in the main room you get started on the dishes, only to be stopped two dishes in as they start doing themselves. You turn and look at Eda only to find her waving you back over to the table.
Once sat down the two of you hash out the details of your staying here in the long term. You agree to deliver her potions on weekdays and help out at her Human Stuff stand on the weekends. In return, she will allow you to use the room you slept in the night before, provide you with food, and give you a small allowance to spend as you wish at the end of each week. You ask if you would be able to go back to the Human Realm to pick up a few things every once in a while, to which she tells you she'll give you the chance to head out with Owlbert when she sends him out. You blink before asking if that was the name of the tiny owl to which she rolls her eyes and says in a slightly sarcastic tone, "Yesss" to which you respond in kind, "Wellllll, you never spoke his name before now, Owl Lady."
Following that you only ask a few more questions, (what are the prices like, how much is a loaf of fresh bread, are the potions paid up front, etc.) before Eda sends you out alongside King to Bonesborough with a sack of potions. You only pause long enough to transform into your witchling disguise and summon Senna, who immediately shrinks into the size of a kitten and hops into your hanten. King scrabbles onto your head and 'commands' you to march, which you do so with a small smile.
Bonesborough seems to fit the mold of your average European town if it weren't for all the bloody eyeballs everywhere. On the lampposts, the houses, everywhere where an eyeball shouldn't be there was one just staring at you. You try not to think much about it but you know that even Senna is slightly creeped out about this, and not much can unnerve them.
You start going through the different potions in the pouch that Eda gave you, looking for either a list or something to tell you who to deliver these to. You do eventually find a list, but it takes the combined effort of both you and King to decipher the chicken scratch that is Eda's writing. King helps point you in the correct direction once you match a potion with the correct order. It pains you to keep your feet firmly placed on the ground, wishing that you could take the shinobi highway, i.e. the rooftops.
Along the way you come across a centaur with eyes on their chest instead of their head, (which makes you take a second, sneakier, look) looking at something called gourdbeast eggs, which honestly look like pumpkins more than anything else. Through the next two hours, you sell everything from Snake Oil to Boil-B-Gone. You have to stop twice due to something that King calls a Skin Fairy, that demands your skin. You skewer both swarms that attack you using your kunai, while Senna helps by puffing up in size and chopping down on the stragglers that try to come in at you from below.
To your surprise, this somehow doesn't cause a scene, other than a vendor asking for the corpses. You give him the results of one swarm while packing away the remains of the other when you catch sight of Senna ripping into them with a look of delight. The resulting pile of snails you get from the vendor is enough for three loaves of bread if Eda were to be believed. King tries to pickpocket the cash on multiple occasions, which prompts you to ask him about petty crime here in Bonesborough. From there if you happen to I don't know... bump into someone whose... entitlement is apparent just by looking at them, then you have no problem with keeping your skills sharp.
With the resulting snails, you manage to buy yourself and King something called a Not-Dog, which looks like a monstrous hotdog that surprisingly tastes exactly like a hotdog. You then head out to deliver the final potion of the day, to one Adeghast. The moment you step out past the curtain to see his house, red flags are immediately set off. The beautiful castle without any eyes like the rest of Boneborough is making your stomach churn.
You try to take King's advice and just leave the potion on the porch just outside the front door. But the moment you try to take a step back, the front door opens without a word. Standing in the doorway was a Dumbledore wannabe, which makes the hair stand up on your neck just staring at him. You say nothing trying to keep this man within your eyesight as King calls him a "Weird old man in jimjams." Which would normally make you laugh but you can't be bothered to do so.
The old man stares at you for a moment before smiling at you making you want to puke. He tries to invite you into the castle several times, but you 'politely' refuse each time, until he 'wisens' up and tempts King into the castle with the offer of scones. You try not to leave more than an arm's length between you and King at any given moment as you settle down on the couch across from this weirdo. You take a lone scone feigning politeness and bring it to your mouth. You focus a bit of chakra to your nose before inhaling deeply as you open your mouth. Suddenly your senses are almost overwhelmed with the scent of blueberry. You break into a slight coughing fit but wave off the old man when he moves to help you.
After detecting no hint of poison or off scents you take a small hesitant nibble on the scone. Almost immediately you want to spit it back out. You have no idea how King is currently scarfing the rest of the platter down, but this scone has to be the worst-tasting one you've ever had. When it looks like the man isn't looking you sneakily place it back on the tray before you have to take another bite.
As you try to regain your taste buds you notice, just out of the corner of your eye, a few potion vials sitting on a cart. You look back at the old man only to pause at the sight of a tiny fox hidden within his beard. You can feel the moment that Senna also notices as their body stiffens before they duck down to avoid their gaze.
The man introduces himself as the Wizard Adeghast, making your eyebrows furl. Eda had mentioned the species name was Witch, not Wizard making your head spin as you desperately try to figure out the puzzle before you. The man goes on to try to make some small talk, mostly about where Eda was, who you were, etc.. You don't bother trying to answer him, all thoughts of speaking to him have fled the building and you're not afraid to give him a beat down if need be.
You notice King finish off the plate of scones out of the corner of your eye and thankfully he quickly takes 'control' of the situation you find yourselves in. As he utters the words, "Your food is gone and so are we," you scoop him into your arms and speed walk your way out of the castle. Adeghast protests stating that he has a prophecy about a young witch concerning a powerful staff while waving around a 'map'.
Your internal shackles go up, considering that you were the recipient of a 'prophecy' in the human realm, you were not a fan on that particular subject and that wasn't even touching on the fact he just said witch and not human, meaning he was most likely trying to scam you. The more he tries to shove the map into your face the more corner you feel, you were never one for having strangers getting into your personal space, and you were planning on changing your stance anytime soon.
You snatch the map out of his hands hoping that will make him leave you and King alone sooner, and thankfully that works. As you walk out into the courtyard you can hear him muttering behind you, the only word you can make out is the word 'soon' making you hurry up your walking speed. You give King the option of walking once you deem yourself a decent amount away from the creep, which he takes you up on.
King shows you how to get back to the house using the backroads, and points out a few landmarks and buildings. Along the way you see the main library off in the distance and what King calls the 'Slayground' which you can only assume that it's the BI version of a playground, just with more bones and eyes.
When you get back Hooty pulls himself out the door to welcome you back, but you just duck underneath his elongated neck, not up for social interaction just yet. You place the empty potion sack in the kitchen, as King rushes into the living room, before making your way up to your new room. Once in there, you let Senna out of your hanten before unsealing your sealing supplies. The first thing you start to mark out is a series of silencing seals, named that because they are essentially noise canceling to the point you couldn't even hear a nuclear bomb go off inside the affected area. The next is an alarm seal, making it so that whenever someone who isn't on the 'whitelist' so to speak sets off an audible alarm only you can hear. The final seal you place down is actually a series of storage seals along the wall, taking the place of a bookshelf, but for misc items rather than books.
You're at this for a good hour before you hear Eda making her way up the stairs. At this point, you're just adding the finishing touches to the last storage seal before you take out all the scrolls you had taken from the Conformtorium. Eda lightly knocks before sticking her head into the room, finding you placing the last detail on the 64th storage seal on the wall in an 8x8 configuration. When she raises an eyebrow at you you just hold one of your storage scrolls and slam it into one of the seals while activating the seal on the wall. The scroll disappears in a puff of white smoke while Eda looks on in slight curiosity before she shakes it off.
"So kid, what's this I hear about a wizard?" You momentarily stop and work your jaw for a moment before spitting out, "Scammer, scorned business rival, fraud," before passing her the map that Adeghast had given you. She seems interested in your choppy to the point words as she takes the parchment. Barely a look, and she snorts as she christens it a fake like you hadn't already figured that out. She proceeds to rip the map into tiny pieces as you remove your demo scroll from the storage rack and start to place all your storage scrolls into a bin for later organization before you seal them away.
She motions for you to follow her once you're done and you do so after you gather Senna into your arms. She leads you into the kitchen where on the stovetop is your stereotypical witch's cauldron, which has something simmering away inside it. Propped aside it is a book that you can only assume contains potion recipes, and on the table are what can only be boiling isle takeout menus. You catch several options, one offers fried orbs, another offers spaghetti and eyeballs, and another offers cockatrice pot pies. Funnily enough, you don't find anything that resembles 'Asian' cuisine anywhere on the menus.
With Eda's help, and finding out that the demonic chicken from last night was Cockatrice, you hesitantly agree to the place offering the Cockatrice Pot Pies. While you wait for the food to arrive, you question Eda about potion making, and how similar, or dissimilar, it is to cooking. To your great surprise, not, you find that Eda is more of a hands-on teacher rather than a lecturer, which is right up your alley.
Eda teaches you the proper way to handle and prepare Bloodroot, Fairy Wings, Ratworm livers, Firebee wax and honey, and snakeweed. Bloodroot leaves are used in healing potions, while fairy wings are grounded into dust to be used in cosmetic balms. Snakeweed is unsurprisingly used in Snake Oil and Ratworm livers are used in poison neutralizers. Firebee honey is used in many different potions, most notably a scrying potion while the wax is used in the Boil-B-Gone.
By the time the food arrives, you've already broken out a notebook and started to scribble down the important things that Eda has mentioned about the ingredients along with their preparation methods, hoping you could commit it to memory much faster. You all settle down at the kitchen table to eat and are once again joined by Hooty who stares at you with his soulless eyes. The faux chicken pot pie is decent enough, though you could have done with a slightly less crunchy outer pie shell but beyond that, you have no trouble finishing the pie.
You reserve a few pieces of the Cockatrice in a napkin and take Senna outside once dinner is over. You offer Senna the meat and watch as they devour it with fervor as out of the corner of your eye you see Hooty popping his head around the corner of the house. After the meat is gone you start to slowly go through a few more common words in English after saying their Japanese counterpart. And just like you had expected, Senna has a hard time learning the words you try and teach them. But considering you know that Kakashi, ex-teacher, had his summons, a pack of dogs, recognize more than a few hand signs from his ANBU days you're sure with a great deal of practice Senna will be able to understand what was being said with time.
Your session is cut short however when you see a weird fog rolling closer to the house. You whisper to Senna to look alive before motioning to Hooty toward the coming fog. You stand a few feet from the fog as a familiar form appears from the fog. Adeghast appears with a flourish with the look of a disappointed grandfather on his face. You know the face well and honestly, not even The Third's look caused you much shame, and that man was your guardian between ages four to twelve.
Hooty slowly slithers up your back as Adeghast starts up a monologue that would make most grandparents seem inadequate in their lectures. From the fog appear more figures, a fairy, a small cat humanoid, and a masculine figure that wouldn't look too out of place on the cover of your average teen romance novel. You huff as Senna's hackles raise slightly as the group makes their way closer and closer. Hooty with his head on your shoulder started to puff up his feathers like a pissed-off cat and you could hear the beginning of a hiss building in his throat.
Unseen to the approaching group you hand Senna a few explosive tags before dropping a kunai into your hand from an arm sheath. You tune out the monologue as you begin to realize that the clunky movements are becoming more familiar to you the longer you gaze upon them. You remember a year or two ago while you were in Suna, the village in the desert, you had come across a group of puppeteers, one of the village's specialties (the other being poisons). The clunky movements of the beginner class remind you of these fools before you.
To Senna, you say, "There is a Puppeteer hiding behind them, find them for me, please," before you turn to Hooty and ask, "As the protector of the house, would you like to deal with them?" You watch as Hooty throws himself against the four, as Senna bolts around the resulting dust cloud into the surrounding forest. You get into a combat stance as you watch Hooty cleanly deal with the intruders, kunai in hand. Moments later a loud ka-boom resounds in the woods and the puppets collapse like their strings had been cut.
Flying out from the forest is a large mass resembling a squid or octopus quickly followed by Senna as they bulk up into their natural form, the one the size of a St. Bernard. You watch as Senna rips into them with their sharp teeth, you raise an eyebrow as instead of spilling blood the squid figure shrinks smaller and smaller the more 'damage' Senna does to them, until they can fit into the palm of your hand. You dangle the creature from your fingers in interest as Hooty gazes at them with wide eyes. You 'jokingly' dangle the creature above his face and are only slightly surprised when he snatches them from your hand, and only your quick reflexes keep you from losing your fingertips to his beak.
With a quirked eyebrow, you turn to head into the house as Senna shrinks back down into their kitten-sized form after kicking some dirt onto the puppet 'corpses'. Before you can enter the house however the door is jerked open to reveal the forms of Eda and King gazing out from the house. You can only assume that the resounding explosion caught them off guard and try to defuse the situation, "Well I don't think Adeghast is going to be much of a problem anymore Eda," while pointing over your shoulder to the puppet pile and Hooty. You're not surprised in the slightest when they both just stare at you in disbelief.