Bread

Bread. The bread I just got from the city’s magic bakery. There it was sitting on my stone topped table. I admired the bread that I had bought with my own hard-earned money. I admired the flaking crust, the bubbles from the dough rising and the cuts plastered over the bread's top. I hadn't realized but the drool from my mouth was hitting the floor. The sound of it snapping me out of my bread induced trance. However, to my dismay I could not eat it. “Why” you might ask? Because I was fired from my previously well paying job just last month. This bread is what I bought with the last of my hard-earned cash. I can't just eat it all now. It's all the food I have.

I proceeded to shout “I AM PISSED”. I calmed myself down, however, there was no other way to put it. I WAS UNFAIRLY FIRED! Sorry, let me calm down. I was unfairly fired. I had done nothing wrong. Let me fill you in. In the city I live in named “Wysteria” most of the residents are witches. If you don't already know, witches work with the occult and magic. The occult and magic being the second and third main dealings for a witch. What's the first you say? Well, wasn’t it obvious from the beginning? It's bread. Why is bread so important for a witch? Well, for one, it provides sustenance for just about the entire city. There's almost no one in Wysteria who doesn't eat just bread, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I mean why wouldn't you just eat bread? Due to the way the dough rises, witches can infuse it with “Bread Magic”. This is done before the dough rises. This is because as it does rise, the potency of the magic used on the bread can double or if done by a true professional even quadruple. Now just what is Bread Magic? Well, it's actually just a process by which dough is imbued with basic nutrition enhancement magic. However, as previously mentioned. due to the dough rising, it can more than double the effect of the applied magic.

By now you should be seeing the benefits right? Well, if that wasn't enough to convince you of Bread Magic then wait until you hear about its more advanced forms. When the dough is imbued by an advanced witch, you can use all kinds of magic on it. Healing and poison magic even elemental attack magic like fire, ice, earth, air, etc all of these can be infused into bread. Yes, people even use bread as an attack. Now back to the main point. Why I was wrongly fired.
It's not like I'm bad at being a witch. I think so anyway? But I was working in Wysteria’s main bakery named “Wise Bake Magic Bakery” for around two weeks. Not long, right? IT'S ALL BECAUSE OF THE HEAD BREAD WITCH. Sorry, I need to watch my tone. I just recently graduated from an all purpose witching school where I majored in Bread Magic. I received above average marks in my schooling which landed me at wise-bake. Now even if I scored above average, how did I get into such a prestigious bakery? I got in due to it being largely understaffed. Why is it understaffed? because of its high standards, which I thought I could put up with. However, sadly I couldn't keep up with their impossibly high standard for quality.

So it turns out that even after being lucky enough to land such a great job it wasn't enough. Why is this world so cruel? If only some magic bread could cure my depression and unemployment. But this world is not perfect so life keeps going. Now what am I gonna do for a job? Every other magic bakery in the city is overstaffed. It seems I don’t have a place anywhere here in Wysteria… maybe it's time to move. With what money? I'm so screwed…

I might be able to ask a friend for help and a place to stay temporarily. And I better do it soon because I'm being forced out of my house. I haven't made any house payments yet since moving here. It was a bad decision picking an expensive place to live just because of my job.

Do I even have any friends that would let me stay with them? Well… maybe Rose would. She did say if I ever needed a place to stay she would always be there. But- well, she's kinda odd. But I guess it wouldn't hurt to go say hi.

I took one last look at my bread before putting it into my side bag and heading out. Now content with my own hunger I started on my way to Rose’s house. After a pretty short walk, I was now in front of my friend’s house. The house was a large two story building and was made of some kind of cobblestone brick, and wood. It was a little plain looking and still looked relatively new as it was recently built. I approached the house and hesitantly knocked on the front door. I expected a loud welcome. But there wasn't any welcome at all. Huh? How odd I thought. Rose loved guests. Is she out right now? Just for good measure, I yelled, “IS ANYONE THERE?”. I then heard a faint sobbing noise quickly getting closer to the door. “AAAAAAHHHH” I screamed. The door burst open. There now stood my friend. She started speaking

“M- mAYyYyY!”

“What's up?”.

“John is gone! He ran away and hasn't been home for three days!”.

I replied “John?" I had forgotten. John was Rose's cat. She chose a very odd name for a cat but oh well.

“Oh, That's really sad. Anyway, would you mind if I lived with you until I found a new job?”

“Sure I don't mind, but- but John-”

“Good luck finding him, I'm coming in.” I said as I pushed past her forcefully.

“B- but May aren't you gonna help me find him?”

“No.”

“N- no?”

“Yaaaaaaaa, no.” I shut the door behind me as I walked inside. She didn't even attempt to open the door again.

It was finally quiet. Now that that was out of the way, I made my way to one of the many available empty rooms in the house. The only reason Rose had a house so big was because her parents gave it to her. When she turned fifteen her parents gave her this house, a lot of money, and then just left. They haven't been back since then. Not that I really care as long as I have a place to stay.

I had now settled all my belongings (which was not a lot) into my new room and sat down. As soon as I did I started to think of a new career path. What jobs could I qualify for? I mean in middle school I was pretty good at botany. But everyone I knew who chose botany as a career path ended up really weird. And I mean “everyone”. So that doesn't really bode well.

After thinking about it for a few more minutes I gave up and decided to take a nap. After about thirty minutes of me napping I was now awake and abruptly at that. After rubbing my eyes I looked out towards the door of my room. There standing in the door frame was Rose calling my name. She seemed to be holding some odd creature. “May, I found John!” she screamed. “That's great, but where is he?” There was no way that that “Thing” she was holding was her cat. “May do you need glasses, he's right here in my arms?” “No, but maybe you do because that “Thing” is not a cat.” “No May, I think you're wrong. Listen, he even meows!” “Grbllbllb” “Umm Rose I'm sorry to inform you, but I don’t think that’s the sound a cat makes. I think you might need your hearing checked as well as your eyes at this point.” while she stood there speechless for a minute I decided to inspect the creature she was holding a little more closely. It seemed to be dark green in color. And it did seem to be about the size of a cat. But it was scaly and was round like a slime. What in the hell was that thing? Anyway, there was no mistaking it for a cat.

“Y’know maybe everything being blurry isn't normal!” she said, sounding dumb founded. “Huh, Rose. You think so?” “I thought everyone's vision blurred when entering adulthood!” “ Wellllll, that would be wrong.” I said plainly.

“A-Are you sure this isn't a cat I’m holding.” “I'm pretty sure.” “Well, May could you hold it for me? I'm gonna go look for my mom’s old glasses.” Then without me saying yes or no, she shoved the creature into my hands and ran off. “H-Hey! Wait- no.” God damn, this thing is disgusting I thought to myself. I was trying to make myself feel less disgusted by cursing this awful creature. But finally Rose came rushing back to the room, this time with glasses on, however. “May! Everything is so clear! And- wait… WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!” “This is supposedly your cat John.” “No, I handed John to you. What did you do! Unless- ! You weren't lying, that isn't my cat.” “Great, so now we know you're blind and this isn't your cat! Perfect, problem solved. NOW PLEASE TAKE THIS THING!” I harshly threw it in what I thought was the direction of Rose. But I was so disgusted that my eyes were closed the entire time I was holding it. So I missed, and ended up throwing it out of the window. And for your information, the room I picked was located on the second floor. “MAY! Why did you throw it out of the window!” “Sorry Rose, I didn't mean to.” I wasn't actually sorry. In Fact, I was ecstatic at the fact that that evil beast might be dead. “Well, we need to go see what happened to it. Come on, let's go outside and see!” “Ok.” I simply agreed and went out with her. I hoped to see its corpse lying on the ground flattened.

We both walked down the steps to the first floor and then out the door. We now headed to where the creature should have landed. “O-o o-o-h. May!… sob.” Rose then proceeded to throw up all over the grass next to where she was standing. I now saw the corpse of the creature. After falling out of the window from the second story it landed on a pointed rock. Its body was now chunked into many pieces after splitting in half from hitting the rock so fast. Its guts strewn about the rock like the insides of a pumpkin. That creature also seemed to have a lot of blood. That's because, from the rock it hit to a good portion of the side of the house was all covered in dark viscous blood. After seeing the scene I smiled and felt much better. But I had seen enough and decided to head back inside while Rose was still recovering from the sight of everything.

After coming back inside and sitting back down on my bed I waited peacefully for Rose to come back up. But it wasn't until about twenty minutes after that she came back. “May… I'm just gonna forget everything I saw out there for now. But for now, what that means is I didn't actually find John.” “That's pretty obvious.” I said in a demeaning tone. “Wait! You're a bread witch can’t you use some magic to help me?” “I mean I could if you have the ingredients for bread and an oven.” “Did you not look at the first floor at all? I have an entire kitchen with ingredients and I happened to have just made some dough that hasn't risen yet.” “Well, that's convenient. And also how did you make the dough half blind?” I said, confused. “I guess you adapt?” “Right… Ok well, I'm gonna go get everything ready.” Normally I wouldn't do any favors for anyone. But she was letting me stay at her house indefinitely so it was the least I could do, especially after I “Cleansed the evil” she thought was her cat.

Now you might be asking why I couldn't just use normal magic to help her. Well, I'm not the strongest witch in general so my spells aren't super powerful themself. But when mixed with the effects of the rising dough my magic power is much more useful. And especially with a spell as tough to use as “Findr” which is the spell used to track things that have been lost. Normally how this is performed is by imbuing part of something you lost into an item and that will lead you to the main object. However, when imbuing the item into dough and letting it rise it will increase the spell's area of effect.

I had now made my way down to the kitchen and was stunned. I knew this house was nice but wow was her kitchen insane. The whole thing was massive, it housed many cabinets all filled with ingredients and spices. There was even a frost-crust fridge which is incredibly expensive because the magic it uses is the utmost expert level.

I now took the dough which Rose pointed out for me and set it on the marble countertop. I proceeded to knead it multiple times while chanting a spell. After ten minutes of kneading and chanting, I put a piece of John's fur inside the dough and finished the chant. I now wrapped the dough and left it to rest. In the meantime, I walked back up the stairs and started talking to Rose in my room. “So how long ago did you lose John?” “About an hour before you came.” “Today, ok this should work.” The conversation continued a little while longer and switched topics throughout its length. After I finished my talk with Rose I walked back downstairs to the kitchen. Now that I thought enough time had passed I checked the dough and it looked good so I unwrapped it. After unwrapping it I put it into the oven and started chanting a second part to the spell. This second part was what separated normal witches from bread witches. Skill-wise at least. The specific spell I was using enhanced each property of the dough. further increasing the already increased effectiveness of Bread Magic. This enhancement of each specific property in one spell was very difficult for normal witches. I had, however, practiced this extensively during my schooling. I now stood against a large cupboard opposite of the oven and watched the bread bake. I smelled the bread as it baked and it smelled quite musky. Had Rose been bathing her cat? Who knows. Anyways, about thirty minutes had passed and the bread was beautifully baked, however, it was a little plain and hairy. But none of that mattered, it didn't need to look good, it just needed to work. And work it did. As soon as I pulled it out of the oven it started to slightly tug me in the direction of what was supposed to be John.

I called Rose over and told her it worked. “Thank you, May! My sweet John will be home soon!” I wasn't super excited to help but at this point, it was an obligation. After getting my side bag back from my room we both set out.

After shutting the door behind me to leave I felt the bread pulling me in the direction of Lake Thistle. Lake Thistle is located near the back entrance of Wysteria and is not very far from Rose’s house. After setting off I made sure we started in the opposite direction of the “Cleansing” I did earlier. And from then on We both walked silently for a while. We ended up taking a shortcut through a back alley located in the Thistle district just before Lake Thistle . And after just a few more minutes of walking, we could finally see the lake.

 Now standing at the foot of the lake the bread started to pull me towards the lake's east side. Rose now began to get worried and broke the silence. “May, what if John drowned!?” “I’m sure he's ok.” I said without a care. “Well, if you say so…” At this point we were stopped in front of a tree and the bread was pulling my hands upwards. Rose sighed in relief at the fact that her cat was not sitting thirty feet deep on the floor of the lake, lifeless. We both looked up and saw what was most definitely a cat this time. “May I just realized, how do we get him down?” Rose started to become panicked again. I thought about what to do for a moment. While I was, Rose was looking back and forth between me and John in the tree anxiously. I then stopped thinking and released the bread from my hands. It flew towards John and knocked him out of the tree. Everything was going as planned until I realized the bread wasn't stopping. John was now being pushed into the lake. “I hope he rests in peace.” “Wha- What do you mean?! John’s not dead yet! I'm going after him!” she said aloud as she ran over to the edge of the lake and jumped in. “Oh wow.” I exclaimed emotionlessly but surprised over the fact that she managed to actually grab hold of John before he met his watery end. Rose was now slowly walking out of the lake drenched and crying and holding John. “May! I can't believe you!” “what? We got John back, right? All’s well that ends well.” I said confidently. “No May, this didn't end well. I’m soaked, John almost drowned and I can’t see again.” Rose had lost her glasses in the lake when she jumped in. She now started crying again before I could say anything else, so I grabbed her hand and started leading her back home. Rose didn't say another word for the rest of the day. And the walk home was very silent.

Now after taking the shortcut again through the back alley we finally made it back. Rose was of course still silent. We both entered the house and went to our respective rooms. I walked up the stairs, ran, and plopped loudly onto my bed. “Sigh,” That was enough bullshit for one day. Tomorrow I needed to talk to Azalea about the creature I cleansed so I could make sure to avoid any more of them in the future. Azalea is a wildlife preservationist and researcher. But for now, I should just sleep. I’ll bring Rose along with me tomorrow when I go to Azalea’s place.