A Fairy Tale of Magic

Bard's friends gather around him curious at the unknown contents of the journal and Emily points at the drawing of a fairy. 

"It's so adorable!" 

"Yeah..and probably the least scary thing in the journal," Ed commented as Bard mumbled the words beneath the picture.

"Dispiert... Luver?"

The pages glowed yellow as a small orb floated out from the middle, revealing the form of a fairy. They all gasped as it began to stretch its arms not noticing the group. She was a tiny little woman with short brown hair, transparent wings, and wearing orange tulip-like petals as a dress.

"Ahh... it feels nice to be out for once! What can I do for... you?..." The fairy's voice trailed off as it stared at the unknown faces. 

"Where's Iris? I had no idea she had kids!" She began to frantically fly around looking for the woman. 

"Um...my name is Bard, my friend Reggie found this journal. Is Iris a witch?"

"A witch?! Oh heavens no! Witches are wicked, Iris is a wizard; I'm Lulu the fairy of spring!" She proudly puffs her chest out.

"So witches and wizards are real?!" Reggie exclaimed at the shocking discovery, but that made Lulu lose it even more.

"Oh my goodness, you're witch hunters aren't you?!" 

Bard held a hand defensively trying to calm the fairy down and explained that they were not witch hunters, but Lulu was still confused about one thing.

"I see, but only magic beings can cast spells, not humans."

"Bard, how come ya never told us about magic?"

"Because I can't use magic, there's no way!" 

"Oh, so you summoned me?" Lulu attentively looks at Bard and makes him a bit nervous. Everyone observed as she held onto Bard's index finger with one hand and held out her other hand to Emily. She carefully leaned out her hand as Lulu grabbed a hold of it, closing her eyes as she started to glow like a firefly. 

Bard started to glow as well and Lulu looked at his confused face as to why he was the one glowing and not Emily. 

"Only other magic beings can glow like us Bard. You have powers." 

She released her touch and the two stopped glowing as everyone was in awe. Reggie and Ed began spitting questions to Lulu as Bard sulked on the edge of the fountain.

"It's a good thing no one is around, but before I answer questions we should go somewhere else before we get caught..."

The guys nodded in agreement and Emily suggested to hide Lulu in her dress pocket. As Reggie began to walk off holding onto Fern's reigns, Ed patted Bard's shoulder to get a move on, but unknown to the group, a shadowy figure had witnessed the whole thing from the corner of an ally. 

Reggie being the oldest, lived on his own in a cabin on the outskirts of town. The only other resident is his donkey, Dee Dee, tied to a wooden pole. Ed carried Emily off the horse and Bard tied Fern on another pole next to Dee Dee. 

They all stepped inside and sat on the stools by the table with the journal on top. Lulu flies out of Emily's pocket and starts telling the group a story. 

"A long time ago, a shooting star collided with the Earth and two curious brothers, Teru and Saru, ventured out to find its remains. Up close it was a wonderous purple gem that glowed and as each brother held their half of the stone, an immense sense of power bonded with their hearts. However, not knowing how to control them, brought terror into their village and they banished the brothers. During their travels, they were able to discover more about themselves and Teru documented a series of spells. This journal for example is of Beasts & Beings. Eventually, the brothers settled in Idris, but it was in the middle of a war with rouge pirates. Before the ships could dock again for an attack, Teru summoned a powerful water dragon and destroyed the enemy. The king was grateful to the brothers and all the land knew of their glory. However, Saru became fascinated by the gothic legends of Idris like the sword of death. This led him down the path of the dark arts and even had a following that worshipped him in blood. Upon discovering this, Teru sealed Saru back into his stone but was stolen by the cult. These became the witches we know today, evil masters of dark magic, and with a sole motive; to summon their leader Saru. To protect the people, Teru decided to open an academy of magic to identify suitable students through more civil means. His method was called Aura Meris, he'd make his magic aura visible and by touching people it would cause them to glow as well if they had magic. The first class was known as the Magi Cantes and became powerful wizards with Taru's instruction. He selected 3 of his promising students and granted them an equal amount of his tomes before departing to hunt down the witches. Even though the king respected Taru, his cousin despised their friendship and the work of the wizard academy as he felt like their existence was also a threat. The king unfortunately passed away due to an illness and when his cousin came into power, he commanded an army to burn the academy and kill anyone who bore magic powers. A few of those survivors fled Idris in hiding and became common folk. It's been over a hundred years, but the tradition of magic has been deeply suppressed since. People call it natural disasters, but the witches have been doing their work like causing the great plague or the dance of Strasbourg. Iris is a descendant of one of the top students and has been tracking down suspicious events in hopes of catching a witch. However, it's hard to do work when you also have crazy people who call themselves witch hunters accidentally killing wizards too! It's disheartening that the people have lost so much faith in them..."

Lulu moped in a sigh just at the thought of it. 

"If Teru and Saru were the only ones who touched the stone, how come other people can also have magic?" Bard asked the fairy. 

Lulu tapped her chin in deep thought but shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not sure. I haven't been summoned in a long time so there are things I don't know, but Iris could probably answer that question."

"How can we find her?"

"The reason why witches and wizards don't battle in plain sight is that they have found a way to conceal their magic, so I cannot sense her presence. However, after performing Aura Meris on you, your magic has been untapped and is now detectable. Iris tends to lose her tomes so as long as we stick together with this journal, she'll find us! There aren't any witch hunters here right?"

Ed's heart dropped at Lulu's question. "There is one..."

A banging on the door startled the group, cautiously standing up in fear as they heard a cackle.

"I know you're in there witch!"