Day of the Witches

Serila giggled at Camli's reaction. "Well, I had to get better at this since certain blue sorceress wouldn't catch my advances, even when I literally said my bedroom door was open." She finished with a wink before grabbing the bags and offering one to Camli. "It's not my house, I haven't lived here since... You know..." Her tone lost energy as she remembered that day, it was still painful for her to talk about it. "It's a friend's house, I met her a few days ago. I offered to teach her magic." She explained.

---

"Even the best have to start from the beginning, Dot. Same way as you blow things, Serila burnt them but she was determined to learn so, she learned and she's not going to give up on you. You are her third pupil you know? And cares deeply for you." Chatty floated, landing next to Dot.

Dot worked away at fixing her latest tear as she listened to Chatty's words. In a way, they were familiar, to a lot of things people had told her, back at the academy.

"Chatty, I'm gonna be completely honest with you...my magic...kinda scares me. Like, for everyone else, sure, people might have some bumps along the way, or hard to learn one thing or another, but have you ever heard of someone causing explosions from the most basic of spells? I know I sure as hell haven't, and that makes me...unpredictable. Like I don't even understand why I'm like this."

Just then, Dot had finished the final stitch in her hat, one that Chatty would notice is one of many. It made it looked banged up a little, but also gave it character.

"Some people at the academy had tried to help me, too. Private tutoring, and all that. Some people were like Serila, and genuinely wanted to help. Others saw it as a claim to fame, that they'd fixed a problem student. Either way, I suppose at the time, I was desperate. And each and every time..." Dot mimicked the look and sound of an explosion with her hands. "It always ended up with some injury I gave them. Some of them minor and barely meaning anything, but took it as a personal offense. Others serious, like, not being able to stand, serious. And afterwards, they always had that same look on their face. I could never blame them for it, even if it hurt. I suppose that's one reason I left the academy: I didn't feel like anyone there could help me."

Dot took her newly fixed hat and dropped it back onto her head, leaning back into her chair and covering part of her face with it. "I want to learn magic, I really do. And, I don't doubt Serila is, incredibly skilled. But, part of me doesn't want her to try. If I ended up doing something like that to her, then...I dunno what I'd do with myself." In a way, this was why she never really liked to remember her time with the academy. It brought all of Dot's insecurities to the forefront, in a way that she normally never lets show.

"Well you know me, this gal ain't ready to hang my fiddle up yet. But if I get the itchin', I be callin', Seril. " Camli replied with a wide grin, her old maverick attitude back in full swing. That was momentarily dampened by Serila's brief melancholic state. The gun witch may be somewhat unfettered but even she is mindful of the crestfallen expression on Serila's lovely face.

Camli decided to steer to another subject. "So pray tell of that pupil ya got there. Didn't take ya fer a school ma'am." She jested with that same grin.

"Before that, there is something I'd like to ask you, Cam." Serila looked at the gun witch, her expression had return to normal. "I have been travelling a lot lately, seeking materials to teach to another pupil that is waiting for me back home, tell me Cam..." She started, looking pretty serious. "Has someone accused you of kidnapping people lately? I heard the rumors and decided to investigate while searching for magic books and tomes." It was true, the main aim of her journeys was to find books she could use to teach Leanne, besides being Sila's birthday, that was the second reason that pushed Serila to return to her hometown and just in the middle of her journey, someone started to accuse her of kidnapping people. "Seems like someone is out there, giving witches a bad name."

---

Chatty was starting to run out of patience, Serila had told him to stay with Dot in case the girl needed some help, but she was taking to damn long, how long was she going to take to buy some damn groceries? The magic lamp started to float around, clearly annoyed with the delay. "Hey Dot, I'm going out to look for Serila, don't push yourself too much, understood?" He said before floating out of the house and headed towards the market.

She could tell from the annoyed huff that he was getting sick of waiting. Serila was taking a little time, that's for sure. Chatty said she just went out to get some things, right?

"O-Okay, I'll...stay put, I guess..." She said as the lantern floated out of the house and after her master.

Dot huffed a little to herself, feeling a little down, but knowing just what she needed to do to get out of this funk. All those memories were in the past, and they're not what she is now! Which means, the best way to get out of feeling like this is to do something about it!

"Alright, you lazy butts, wake up!" She said as she outstretched her arm, letting her own lantern dangle in front of her. From it popped all 4 of her familiars, ready and waiting. "I'm not gonna get anything done sitting here like a lump, so I'm gonna need your help to get active and stay active, alright? Hop to it!" At her command, the four moved towards Dot and slowly helped her up, her legs shaking but with their leverage and support she was able to bring herself to her feet. Florae stayed in front of her, providing her with something to let her body lean on like Chatty had earlier, and the others stayed close by as Dot tried to ready herself.

"Now, we're gonna go downstairs and finish what we started, alright? I'm not gonna leave that thing looking like an exploded mess, even if it does work. So, let's get to i-" Dot's excited stupor was almost cut off from her losing her balance, but Florae was quick to adjust its weight to catch her. She breathed a sigh of relief after righting herself. "Okay, so we won't work too hard on it. But, painting's not too strenuous. Jack, Frosty, go grab me a new bucket of the orange, alright? You two, help me get down there!" The two familiars ran off to grab what they were asked while the remaining ones, Florae and Pluto, helped Dot slowly make her way back down to the basement. If there was one thing that Dot hated doing, it was sitting around doing nothing all day. Even if it probably wasn't healthy, she was going to get at least one thing accomplished today.

"Kidnapping ya say? I reckon that it was a cross-grained lone set-to when someone be jawin' at me for stirrin' trouble. Usually they clam up when I point the ol' iron at them. But if someone is yammerin' about you doing it too, then I reckon there is a heap more to this." Camli held up the arm that wasn't carrying Serila's bag, the sleeve slid down to reveal two more runes on her inner arm. "Packin' more for those that are too big for their breeches." She said after lowering her arms to let the sleeve slide back down and shrugged afterwards as if that was enough of a solution to any problems she face. "But let's talk about filling ol' coots with lead later. Better haul the chow back home and tilt on with your student."

Serila was still chating with Camli when Chatty arrive, pretty annoyed with the witch's delay. "What's taking you so long? Come on!" "Fine, fine. Let's go Cam before the lamp explodes from annoyance." She joked and started to walk towards Dot's house.

As the 2 witches and the floating lantern opened the door, they'd find that Dot had moved from the spot she had been sitting in when Chatty had left. Likely to cause him a bit of distress at first, considering the state she was in when he left, the group would then be hearing a familiar voice from farther down in the house.

"...ring me...yeah, that's....ight there..." The voice was definitely barking out orders to someone, and was clearly into it, too. The voice was coming down from the basement...

"What in tarnation is that? Reckon you know this glowy thing, Seril?" The gun witch quirked a brow at the oddity that was speaking to them but figured that they'd best be gittin' 'fore Serila's partner blows a...lantern top? Upon arrival to the house, the first thing Camli heard was a voice of someone shouting in the house. She figured that it was Serila's student. "Sounds like yer pupil yammerin' o'ver there. She always a ruckus?"

As they arrived, Serila could hear Dot down in the basement, she turned to Camli. "She's a really hard-working girl." She replied before heading towards the basement and knocked on the door. "Dot? I'm back."

The click of the basement door opening was not by Dot herself, but Pluto: being the lazy cat that he was, the guests would find that he laid himself onto the knob and gravity did the rest. As the door swung open, the group would find Dot, sat in front of the earlier exploded furnace, various paints all around her and clearly absorbed by the action.

"So, we're all in agreement that we need to do something different this time, right? The orange from before was good, but we've done that like...the last 3 times it's blown up! We need something new, fresh! But...what would look good?" The other three familiars were gathered around her, listening intently. "Hmm...I've seen golden pumpkins before...usually that means they're not ripe, though. I feel like I saw a purple pumpkin before, though...I've seen purple carrots, at least! Frosty, go grab me a book out of my room!" At her motion, Frosty got up and ran off, the action turning her around to watch, and noticing the crowd watching her barking out orders.

"Oh, hey Serila! You know how I like to stay active! Sorry if I worried you. And...who's your friend?"

"Howdy there, the name's Camli. Gun witch. Nice to meet ya, partner." camli, turned her head to look around the place with the familiars and a rather wrecked furnace. Looks hell-fired busy about here. Havin' a ho down or something?" She took a few sniff in the air. "Or rousing something and all the caboodle." The tall woman decided to lean against the wall so not to track some of the ash onto her boots.

"I'm gald to see you back on your feet." Serila shaked the bag with groceries. "I went a bit overboard with the breakfast so I bought groceries to refill the food I used. I hope you liked it."

The three remaining familiars helped Dot to her feet, showing that she wasn't quite recovered yet. Her legs wobbling as she did only reinforced the idea that she was pushing herself to work, as usual.

"Hi! I have no idea what you just said, but it's really nice to meet you! I'm Dot!" She said as she took Camli's hand and gave it a hearty shake. Maybe she was a friend of Serila's? 'Gun Witch' sounds really cool just to think about. Something about that seemed really familiar to her, that combined with how she looked. It feels like she might have seen her once or twice back at the academy, or overheard people talking about her through gossip. Well, secondhand gossip, at least. Not like any of them would want to gossip with her to begin with.

"Breakfast was perfect! Just enough to get me going. Thanks for doing all of that, Serila!" Right as she finished her sentence, the ice familiar waddled his way back into the room with a book titled "Mysteries of Nature". "Ah, perfect! Right on time!" With the others keeping her stable, she reached down and grabbed the book, but not before patting it on the head for a job well done.

"Well, I miscalculated a little, and I ended up...blowing this up." She gestured to the now mostly repaired furnace. "It works fine now, but all the paint and details have been ruined, so I figured I'd start fresh with a new look..." Dot absentmindedly flipped through the book, page by page, until she found what she was looking for: a picture of a Pumpkin that was naturally a deep purple.

"I knew it! Okay, let's do it!" Closing the book and flipping it behind her, Florae darted into the air to catch it before dashing off to her room. Even as she had trouble walking, she was still determined as ever to finish what she started, cracking her knuckles in excitement as she moved her way back down in front of the furnace.

Camli returned Dot's handshake. Dot would notice that the gun witch had quite the grip, not enough to really crush her or even uncomfortable but firm enough that her fortitude was not just her appearance. The brief greeting that allow the taller woman to look at Dot for a moment before trying to figure where'd she seen the frantic work place before it hit her.

"Oh right, yer the one with a Hog-Killin’ time with gears! Didn't spot ya 'fore then cause the dreadful lot of nippers." She exclaimed. Her eyes looking over some of the things Dot is working. "Some of iron and copper looked similar to what I scare up with the ol' iron." She pats her pistol in its holster.

The mention from Camli was enough to stop Dot in her tracks, ripping her out of her own thoughts.

"You, uh...you remember me from the Academy? Can't imagine anything you heard was all that good, honestly..."

It was as if a lot of energy had left her just as the topic came up. Remembering all of that always seemed to take it out of her. She let out a sigh as she was mentally picturing how the furnace was going to end up looking, moving her hands to get a good look at the fine details.

"So you graduated the academy, like Serila did, right?" Dot didn't look at her two guests as she continued to scope out the furnace, mentally making notes of what details to paint where. "I guess it just...never really mixed with me, all that well. Serila probably told you a little bit, right?"

"Eh, chin up. Everyone skips a cog now and then. After you get dusted, just brush yourself off and get back on the horse. Ain't worth spit if you keep kissin' the ground. And all those fices that telling you to git. Go tell them dunderheads their words ain't worth spit." Camli reached to one of her sleeve to pull back her sleeve to reveal the runes that held her weapons.

"No pain, no gain, this enchantment grafted on the skin hurts like the dickens but worth it. Also nearly blew my arms off at one point when it went off badly. Got bad enough that I had to actually needed the doc. Taught myself what I skip the cogs on and made sure it ain't happenin' again, cause I hell ain't going to lose my arm now." She then taps her temple with her gloved hand.

"Still guts ain't enough though. Gotta use your noggins. Not to the point that you're thinking with 2 left feet though, but enough that the road is straight and clear. You got me?"

Dot stopped halfway through her work to try and listen to what Camli had to say. Mainly because a lot of it sounded almost near impossible to understand. Camli's accent was hard to parse, and she used a lot of terms she'd never heard before, with a drawl that made it difficult to fully process. It took her a moment to work through the words and put them in a language she could understand.

"...I think so, at least. You're saying that I shouldn't let them get to me, right? You know, for the longest time..I didn't. I guess it was more that I just didn't think about them until only a little while ago."

Dot sighed, a little upset that she'd been doing that a lot more than usual, lately. She was usually so bouncy and fun, and now all this academy stuff came out and it completely soured all her enthusiasm.

"I'm not sure what you mean by..."skip a cog", though?

"Yeah, the ol' tear squeezer can creep up to you.  Ain't nothing wrong with not feeling fair.  Again, it is how you bounce back up, and from I reckon from the school days, you're a gal that does that pretty damn well, if I say so myself."  She walked up and gave Dot a hearty pat on the back, not enough to move her but enough that it was firm.  Despite being a witch by profession, she was physically fit.

"As for skippin' a cog...well I reckon my words be plaguin' your noggins so I'll ease it up on it.  It's just a mistake, people do them all the time.  Ya gotta remember that the past ain't changin' but how it heaves in sight is.  See it as a failure and it is gonna be a failure.  See it as a lesson and you'll learn something from it.  You getc- ACHOO!"

Unfortunately, Camli's nugget of wisdom was interrupted by a rather loud sneeze, followed by 2 more in a chain.  Apparently something in the air of the basement ticked the blue witch's nose.

Dot was starting to piece together what Camli was trying to get through to her, even if it was a slow process. Camli felt like...a really nice person, even if she was really odd. Dot couldn't think of anyone she'd ever heard or met before that spoke like her. Even though she was holding back, the pat on the back was pretty firm enough to make her flinch. If anything, Camli was a lot closer to her than she might realize. She was definitely well toned, despite the magical aspect, and was clearly using some kind of mechanical aspect to her own magic, as well. Dot could only imagine that Camli wasn't using it for the same reasons as her, though.

"Feels like I've made a lot of mistakes over the years, sometimes...usually I just pick myself up, brush off and try again, though! No matter how many times things, uh...blow up. Which isn't often! Usually." Dot was trying to push back her own feelings for now. It was out of character for her, and she didn't like that one bit. She was about to go on but was cut off by Camli's massive sneeze, powerful enough to make Dot jump with a squeak in surprise.

"Hmm...is dust a bad thing for you, Camli? I try to keep things clean around here with my familiars, but it always seems to get dusty anyway. I can finish this later, let's head upstairs. There's some stuff I wanna show both of you!"

"Sounds dandy.  Gonna skidaddle out of this dust ball 'fore I sneeze the critters outta this room.  I ain't kickin' about the cubby-hole though." She turned towards the fire witch that had kept quiet since they have been chatting about the academy days. "Ey' Seril, you paddlin' up as well?  Gonna see your ducky pupil's work."  With that, the tall witch moved to step out of the basement to trail behind Dot to see what was she working on.  The sneezing fit seemed to have stopped at least.

Serila nodded. "Alright, let's go before the fierce Camli is defeated by dust." She teased before following them upstairs.

Dot's familiars helped her up, a clear sign that she wasn't quite as well as she wanted the three of them to think. "We'll pick this up tomorrow, guys! Go make sure the rest of 'em are working right, now? Last thing we need is something else blowing up today!" Righting herself and sure that her body wouldn't keel over, Dot led the way out of the basement, her familiars darting ahead to other parts of the house.

She struggled just a little bit going up the steps, but right now she was too excited to let something like that get her down. She led the two of them to a room on the way, opening up to reveal a rather well kept room with a strange device in the back that took up the middle of the wall.

"I don't get a lot of people to talk about the things I make. Most of the time, people just want things fixed, or an easy solution, or they think I'm crazy. I don't think I'm crazy, though! But this one here, this is one of my favorites!"

It was multi colorled, like a rainbow, and cylindrical in shape. It has an opening at the top like a funnel, and the step ladder next to it indicated that things definitely went in the top and something came out the bottom, if the tray at the bottom was any indication. On the side was a crate of some kind, that definitely seemed chilled somehow. Possibly another instance of Dot's own inventions.

"So, I sometimes get sugar cravings. I just really get the need for it, you know?!? So, I ended up designing a way to fix it myself!" Dot went over to the crate next to the machine and opened it, revealing an absolutely massive collection of fruit. Fruits that ranged from everything that was sold at normal markets, so things that the group with Dot would likely have never seen before in their lives.

"So, I just put a few up here, and..." Dot took a few oranges off the top, scooping them up and dropping them into the machine. It seemed to whir to life, gears turning and seeming to glow a little, before, with a ding, out slid a few perfectly wrapped candy orbs, colored as bright of an orange as the oranges that she threw in. "There you go! Sometimes I mix 'em together a little, for experiements, but it doesn't always work out well. Go on, give it a shot! Pick your favorites, this one always works well!" Dot picked up the wrapped candy, unwrapping it and popping it into her mouth with a pleased hum.

"Crimany! Dust will be have me bite the ground!" Camli shouted towards them in mock fear, the sheer volume of her voice made it extremely audible even at a fair distant behind them. However, it was her position that she noticed that Dot was struggling a bit trying to get up. It was even more noticeable when they all ascended the stair. The girl looked as if she could collapse at any more. The stout witch prepared to catch her should that happened but fortunately it wasn't needed. Maybe the girl could use a rest seeing she's all tuckered out.

Though all of that thought of Dot's state went out the window when she saw her contraption. It looked like an over-sized saloon keg mixer had sex with a rainbow and gave birth to this child. And surely enough, the student witch popped in some fruits in it. Camli was have expecting it to spew up a nice drink in a cup or mug but the small round object quashed that expectation. Was that candy?

Hesitantly, she picked up one of the fruits from the crates Dot stored them at and found herself with a pineapple. "'Ey Dot. This fiddle faddle gut the innards and skin of the chow?" Without waiting for an answer, she tossed the whole fruit inside without bothering to remove the top, skin, or the core; she figured if Dot tossed the whole orange in there, a pineapple would be no problem too.

Dot watched as Camli lobbed the pineapple into the top of the machine, and it flaring to life. For once, she was able to parse out what Camli meant instantly. "Mhm! I made it so that it extracts the juice out of any fruit, and rolls out one of these!" Dot grabbed one of the small orange capsules that she had made with the orange. "Some fruits take a little longer, though. I'm not sure the exact specifics of it, myself, but it's probably my most stable invention. I've never had this one break, or blow up before."

It took a moment of turning gears and cranking noises before a ding rung out in the room, producing a few yellow-ish candies. The little tablets were entirely free of pulp, and looked almost lovingly crafted with the twisted wrapper. It was clearly something that Dot was quite proud of, even if it mostly an invention that only really benefited herself.

"Well, go on! Give it a try! You too, Serila!" Part of Dot was just happy to have someone interested in the things she comes up with at all, but being able to share them with people to boot makes it even better, and she couldn't be happier.