Light at the End of the Tunnel

Saratoga began to rise up from her now quelled plight. She was kindly forced to consume a cool drink to ease her return to the conscious world. Watchfully leaning over her was Moliugas, who wore an expression of relief upon seeing her active again.

Her eyes scanned the surroundings of the wizard's mountain den, making her recall the events that occurred prior to her falling asleep. She had no memories of what happened after the curse took effect, and was baffled even more at discovering she was cursed at all.

With a series of questions, it didn’t seem that she had any idea where such a curse could have come from. As far as she could recall, no one had ever spoken ill fated words against her. And curses weren’t exactly contagious.

“Are you sure you haven't come in contact with any agents of chaos since you left the Eastern village?” the wizard asked.

She pointed humorously to Moliugas.

“Why I never!” pouted the rind.

As far as the witch could actually recall, nobody on her journey would have been considered an ‘agent of chaos.’ But her trek wasn’t without fresh faces. One of which being the prince, and another being the wizard, but she already knew him from his visit to her village.

In between those two people was another though. A particular person, who although she’d never met, had such a profound impact on her life. Someone who assumedly had lived safely in this forest for years, despite a purge that had forced out her own kind.

It wasn’t just Saratoga who was coming to this conclusion. It even dawned on Moliugas…

“The coven mother…” the duo uttered.

Saratoga could see things coming together in her mind's eye, but she didn’t want to believe it. Who would savagely betray her own kind, much less a member of the coven? Or perhaps, she put too much faith in a long dead collective of already fractured strangers. The only witch she’d met before this day was her mother, so there wasn’t much of a frame of reference to go off of.

As the matter filled her with dreadful confusion and woe, a stampede of glassy gallops scratched in from the cave entrance. The light at the end of that tunnel grew brighter, as if the sun was entering and forcing back the dark of the cave.

First came one lux… A scout sent to charge into unknown territory. Then one turned into two, and two turned to ten. Before long, lux swarmed the cave, lighting up every corner of it and fully fleshing out its details.

Numbers like these had never been seen since their original reveal many years ago. The wizard acted quickly, tossing the duo into a broom closet where they would be hidden for a short while as he sought the meaning of this madness.

At the very end of the lux’s offensive lines came a crude sounding cackle. One so awful that it caused the wizard's skin to crawl as he remembered it in his youth.

Riding in on a large lux construct was the coven mother. She had a wicked grin on her face to accompany her frightfully flashy sense of fashion. Gems hung around her neck and decorated her hat, and jeweled rings were all over her fingers. Each of these precious stones caught and dispersed any light, appearing to be glowing on their own.

“Wizard, I’m so glad I finally found where you live!” she laughed. “This is where you’ve been hiding those tears, eh?”

“Even if you’d found it on your own, nature would never allow one such as yourself to steal a teardrop,” replied the wizard. “You always seemed like such a simple old woman. I never would have thought you were that dastardly coven mother.”

With a shrug, she gave a pet to the large lux she sat on.

“It feels good to show off again. Now, I’d like to have one of those tears, if you don’t mind. They’re quite useful. And well you're at it, why don’t you get me the body of Saratoga? Unless, she happens to still be alive…”

The coven mother pointed to the broom closet, forcing it open by sheer willpower and discovering the young witch and her pumpkin friend.

“There you are!”

A bolt of electricity lit at her fingertips and shot toward the duo, but the wizard countered and dispelled the electricity with a powder he tossed.

“Saratoga, flee!” he called out, rolling black and white gel in his hand and causing orbs of darkness to form in his palms.

The orbs shot forth, clearing out a large portion of the lux that surrounded the cave.

The duo attempted to flee on foot, but a wooden broom hovered right under the witch until she was sitting on it. This broom took her up into the air.

Before being left behind, Moliugas hopped on too, and both were escaping by way of flying broomstick.

“Look at this!” Moliugas cheered, throwing his little mitten-like hand up in the air. “You’re a witch flying a broomstick!”

“I suppose we can consider it a right of passage,” she said, turning back to see the coven mother’s lux had also taken flight after them.