#the owl house original characters

[linnyphoenix]

parent drama !!

[jutsei]

The Beast Sanctuary Chapter One: Frightened Student and Secluded Witches

(Good afternoon! I’ve been writing this story for two months, it’s been a while since I got an idea for a fic, but I got a good one, so I decided to write a story about another version of my OC/also kinda persona Juniper that provides another perspective of the story of The Owl House throughout all three seasons! The story begins just a few days before Luz arrives on the Boiling Isles, and will soon sync up! This is as canon compliant as I could get it-... well, at one point things will likely diverge, but we’ll get to that when get to it!

This is Self-Insert-y in that Juniper is based on parts of me, but also has enough differences to be an OC, and I also have a few other characters based on friends, most of the time this will focus on original characters, but every so often, canon characters will appear and affect the story!

Synopsis: Juniper Sails, a young witchling who recently moved to Bonesborough to attend Hexside, finds themselves having trouble fitting in due to how strangely they act, and after a rough day, runs into three Wild Witches in the Woods, could they be the solution to his woes?

(Content Warning for: Mentions of Spiders, as well as Parasites, other than that, read away!)

If you prefer, have a AO3 Mirror!

Thunder crackled in the skies of the Boiling Isles, thick green clouds hung above as burning rain fell below, bouncing harmlessly off the roofs of Bonesborough, keeping any witch, demon, or otherwise trapped inside, unable to leave, lest they wished to be scalded by the burning rain.

"This is the exact opposite of the bee’s knees... I was going to go out and play!" One demon woman who was quite old cried.

“Oh, if only someone wonderful and charming would come to solve all our problems and brighten our day with a radiant smile!” She said with deep lament

The crone was about to cry out in despair, when suddenly..!

There was a poof of pink smoke in the shape of a heart, revealing a young teenager with red hair with shades of pink at the tips, they were in a simply lovely outfit, gaudy red glasses rested atop his nose, looking as if they were covered from head to toe in pink cloth and hearts

"Fear not, my dear demon friend, the Messenger of Love is here to fix your woes!" They declared, throwing their arms out as bright pink hearts flew from their cloak and into the skies above, causing the clouds to part, the rain to cease, and a beautiful shade of red to fall over the island, causing everyone  to shuffle out of their homes and rejoice! Even the oft-secluded Emperor Belos had exited his castle to exclaim joy and happiness!

 They cheered and applauded.

"Why, this is a miracle worthy of even the Titan! I think you deserve a very special award! The highest of honors to all witches ” The masked emperor said with pride, holding out his armored hand, a golden star flew from his mitt towards the beloved Messenger, resting onto their chest. 

“Thank you, Juniper!” The semi-old woman said gratefully, looking like she was ready to burst into tears of joy, and soon, the other citizens of the Boiling Isles joined in with the praise, adding their voices to the chorus of compliments

Juniper, the Messenger of Love, beamed with pride as the people below threw their arms up and repeated their saviors name

"Juniper! Juniper! Juniper!" I They repeated numerous times as the teenager in pink smiled radiantly

"Juniper! Juniper!” Then, suddenly, as if gripped by an evil force, the sound became exponentially louder, their voices shrieking in unison “ JUNIP-AHHHHHH!!! "

With the sound of a shrill scream, a teenager jolted awake, their frazzled and messy red hair dangling over their eyes, they sat up and looked around their room, still unfamiliar to them as they groaned in annoyance, they were having such a lovely dream, they were the Messenger of Love and everyone... 

Well, loved them! And it was cut short by the-... alarm!?

 Wait! That's right... Today was a special day, a very special day indeed...!

Their green eyes, which looked as if they had hearts visible within them, sparkled as they reached down towards their nightstand, and donned simple red cats' eye glasses, with yet another heart matched onto the side

"I can't be late for my first real day at Hexside!" They proclaimed proudly 

Jumping up from their bed and casting their blankets aside as if it was holding them down, they happily began the process of changing into their uniform, adorned with bright yellow to symbolize Potions Track, while thinking about just how lucky and joyous they were to be here-....

Until recently, they were enrolled in Glandus High, and while they did perform somewhat decently there, the fact they didn't fit in and were ostracized for their strange behavior, lack of focus, and tendency to sit alone 

…Not for a lack of trying, people tended to move away from them.

All of this made them an easy target, and the sheer fact was that the school’s curriculum simply didn't fit them very well...

Juniper refused to drop out, they wanted to make the Boiling Isles a better place for everyone, and they couldn’t do that without a proper education, and a coven to call home certainly wouldn’t hurt either! 

But… Glandus was simply overwhelming and was beginning to take a toll on them.

But what could be done?

Their parents couldn’t just move somewhere else for a better school, but, as luck would have it, Juniper’s mother had a sister who lived in Bonesborough, practically right next to Hexside!

After an extremely short meeting, and a tearful farewell to their parents, Juniper was situated in the home of their Aunt and Uncle, two very well off witches!

With an aunt who was a famous artist, and an Uncle who helped with the upkeep of Bonesborough with his powerful construction magic, it finally seemed like things were coming up Juniper Sail!

With a wide smile and sparkling eyes, they stumbled down the stairs and eagerly poked their head into the kitchen

“Good morning~!” They said cheerfully, only to be greeted by silence and nothing, there wasn’t even a breakfast prepared, only a note

Reaching down, they read it

“Hey, Juniper! Me and the missus have extremely important business to tend to for most of the time, but we should be back to welcome you to Bonesborough by tonight. See you soon”

Their smile soon began to falter and become a frown. They did it again. 

They said they were going to be there for Juniper’s coven picking, but weren’t, leaving the young witch to stumble through Bonesborough to Hexside, and even arrived late

After that, they at least showed up at night afterwards with false promises of walking them to school the next day…

Their eyes clouded over as a quiet calmness washed over them, placing the note down, they sighed and rubbed their temples.

“Gotta remember, they’re so so so busy, they’ll make more time for me…” They said to themselves. But truthfully, they just weren’t used to being so alone.

…

Well, ok, they were used to being alone after all these years of no one approaching them, but… not at home!

…

Not at home.

Home was supposed to be their sanctuary, where they could at least look forward to seeing someone after any bad things that happened! Home was-...

They shook their head quickly, nearly knocking off their glasses, and quickly adjusted them before they’d ended up blinding themselves.

“No… no. Not going to worry about this… especially since I have to get to…” Their expression continued to falter into one of annoyance and disappointment

“Potions… class…” They grumbled, before grabbing a brightly colored fruit off the counter and walking out the front door, their hand resting on the door, poised to slam it shut to vent out some anger, before they took a deep breath and simply let go, the door closing gently.

That wouldn’t do. Just because they weren’t adjusting to their new surroundings didn’t mean they could potentially damage their gracious host’s house… and… what if they damaged the hinges? What if that broke the door? What if they had to go back to Glandus simply because their anger got the better of them and their aunt and uncle went bankrupt having to fix the door!?

Their mind swam with all sorts of negative outcomes, before the sound of a crow passing by with a caw brought them back to reality

They were lost in thoughts again, an unfortunate habit, before realizing they hadn’t locked the front door

“Oh right, can’t forget” They muttered, placing the fruit into their mouth and holding it with their teeth as they moved their hands, going towards a fake rock, lifting it up to reveal a key. They put the key into the lock and turned it, making sure the house wouldn’t be broken into, before returning the key back to where it was before, safely nestled beneath the rock. 

“Alright, now that that’s done… I should just get going…” They said to themselves quietly, turning on their heels and beginning to walk towards school, which hopefully would go much better than this rough start to the morning.

Quietly, they  began to gnaw on their brightly colored fruit, the sweetness at the very least distracting them from the thoughts that were beginning to cloud their mind.

So lost in thoughts were they, they nearly tripped over a knocked over glass bottle, quickly catching their footing by leaning onto a building and holding the fruit with their teeth. 

They’d been here a week, and yet they still weren’t used to the chaotic hustle and bustle of the streets of Bonesborugh, its stone roads clanking beneath their feet.

“It’s a good thing I’m at least used to scams…” They said to themselves as they walked down the streets, ducking under passer-byers, running past shady looking customers, and making sure to not be taken off guard by any offers

As they walked, they found themselves walking through the shopping district, and going past numerous stalls, promising potions to help one see better, books from beyond that held secrets, and of course, the stall which had “treasures from the human realm”.

Juniper scoffed, turning their head… huh. Was it… quieter than usual?

They turned their head to get a good look at the stall that was usually simply bustling with activity.

The human treasure stall was empty…

Looks like that weird woman with the gray hair wasn’t here today. 

Well, maybe she was busy with something? Either way, Juniper counted it as a blessing they wouldn’t have to hear her trying to sell something to them…

And almost on cue, when Juniper was a fair distance away, he heard the distant hooting and calling of a familiar lady.

They sighed, pinching their forehead.

“Least she didn’t see me this time.”

Time passed, and soon, the beautiful, massive structure of Hexside came into view, and Juniper found themselves on the familiar stone street leading to it.

Before them was a massive structure, in some ways, it almost looked like a castle, with two large towers, one on the left, and one on the right, but in the center was a large circle building with one more tower in front of it, and finally, at the top of this central tower was a large, red, peering eye

Juniper’s green eyes were sparkling beneath their glasses as they looked upon the large building before them. They still couldn’t believe this was actually happening, even though they were here yesterday! To be at a school that might actually help them further their education… they began to bounce up and down eagerly

Juniper’s smile began to return as they began to run towards the steps of the school…

… Before coming to an abrupt stop, they looked all around them and noticed that other students were here before them, and it certainly felt like every single one of their pairs of eyes were fixated on Juniper. As if they were staring at him for being so excited to be at school.

Stopping in their tracks,the red haired witchling began to shiver, looking back, forth, up and down and all around, placing their hand upon their arm, which they began to rub nervously. Their stress was already building.

They were new here, yes, they were bound to be the center of attention, this was their one and only chance to make some kind of first impact, and they could not, would not mess it up. They had to break the ice…

With a deep breath, they raised their right hand in greeting

“Hello! It’s so very very very nice to see you, fellow students! I hope today is a wonderful day filled with learning!”

…

. .  .

No response, everyone just looked at him awkwardly, before coughing and going back to what they were doing.

Juniper stood there, frozen in place, with an expression of awkwardness beginning to grow, sweat began to drip from their face as the full force of how stupid they sounded sunk in.

Too many verys, using “Students”, actually saying “wonderful day?” All of the missteps in their head were being listed neatly against them, especially since it felt like the gaze on him was completely unbroken.

There was no doubt in the witchling’s mind that the people here were already thinking about how much of an annoying, awful, weird person Juniper was.

“Yyyyyyyyyeah…!” They said, holding their arms at their side as they very quickly and awkwardly made an exit up the stairs and into the school proper, a bright shade of red adorning their face.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid!” They said to themselves quietly. That’s what they get for expressing themselves and acting like themselves. Why were they so off putting to others?!

Was it their glasses? Was it their weird eyes? No, no, it had to be their attitude.

Why would anyone want to be friends with someone who was so overly peppy and positive all the time?!

No, no, nonononononono. Their thoughts were going to a bad place that was hard to get out of, that couldn’t happen. Not when they were in school at least

They shook their head, collecting their thoughts before slapping their hands against their face to regain focus.

“I just need to focus on learning and not even try to act like myself. If I just act like Juniper I won’t learn anything.” There was a pause, their expression softening considerably as they frowned and felt a pressure against their face as they looked down at their feet.

“And I won’t make any friends either…” They said to themselves. “ I just need to act like what people expect me to and everything will be alright.” 

Though they truly wanted to express themselves as much as they did at home, every time it felt like there was a brick wall, like no one truly understood them at all, as if they were following other rules that they weren’t privy to…

With a sigh, they emerged from their hiding place and began walking towards… Potions…

A scowl began to grow across their lips as they walked.

“Potions were my second choice… I still can’t believe I got that and not Oracles…” They thought to themselves

 In their heart of hearts, Juniper didn’t really know what they wanted to learn, but it was always a mix between Oracle magic, Potions and-... something else..

They thought that maybe if they could see what oracles saw, people might just be easier to understand for them, or, better yet, be used for reaching out and making people happy.

Potions were fine too, it’s just that it wasn’t their first choice. They were hoping to figure it out, but their parents, Aunt Minerva and Uncle Leif truly thought Potions would work best for them, and Juniper didn’t want to argue with that. They probably knew better

It’s just that… now they’d never know if Oracles was the right choice for them or not. Only one track per student, they weren’t allowed to mix magics, Principal Bump made that exceedingly clear.

It’s fine… it’s fine. There were no issues. They weren’t going to worry about this…

Maybe potions could be used to make other people happy all the same… like… with some kind of potion that shot brightly colored lights into the air… yeah, yeah!

Their mood began to go back on the upswing, maybe Potions would be fun after all!

With a reassured smile, they got up to their feet, dusted themselves off, and took several steps forward, before pausing once again. .

“Oh, right, I almost forgot!” They quickly made a pitstop at their locker, a fusion of flesh and metal, but smiled as they approached.

They bowed their head in respect at the strange, metallic creature as it opened its mouth and  relinquished the textbooks and school supplies for potions class.

“Thank you very much!” They said with a  wink at their locker, which winked in return

Alright, supplies, focus, they were finally ready for Potions Class!

They took a brisk pace and walked down the hallway, walking past numerous students who were making their own way to their respective classes, a girl with ram-like horns walking into Abominations class alongside another who wore round glasses, students with red walking into Bard Class…

Eventually, they found it! Potions class… and right across from it was a supply closet for Oracle supplies. Great.

Juniper’s eyes narrowed in annoyance and sighed, looking forlornly at the mystical power just beyond their reach…

 “One day.”

With that, they turned on their heels and finally entered Potions class.

It was a large class room, with a large black board in the front and a desk for the teacher not far from it, across from that there were six or so wide tables set up, with six windows on the far right, Juniper knew that if they sat by a window, they’d end up missing something, so, they took a seat in the far back on the left side of the room, making themselves comfortable as they took a seat, inching closer towards their desk, and making sure to  also be a fair distance away from whoever sat next to them.

On top of each desk was a small cauldron with a stirring spoon inside, and Juniper eagerly reached forward to poke at both. Ooooh. They couldn’t wait to get stirring!

They looked forward with curious eyes, watching as numerous students began to pour in, some were witches, some were demons, but they were all here for the same purpose: To Become Witches and learn! A smile came across their face, before they saw someone looking at them, quickly, their smile went to a more neutral expression.

They shook their heads and only waved at them, being quiet, they didn’t quite trust their mouth to not run laps and cause a scene. 

With a sigh, they quieted down, and sat up at attention as their teacher walked 

So, with a sigh, they watched as their teacher walked in, and Juniper sat up straight, looking at attention and focusing their eyes. Their wandering mind wouldn’t fail them this time!

Their teacher was a humanoid being with very light green skin, with a small pair of glasses atop what looked like a beak on the upper part of the face, and they were dressed in all yellow with a matching beret and black sleeves, their blue hair completed the quite striking look.

“Good morning, class! Why don’t we skip past the decorum and get right to our plans for the day?” They said with a playful tone of voice.

“We’re going to start off simple, this semester’s almost over, so why don’t we make something that will help us prepare for what might get thrown at us in the coming weeks?”” A pause for effect

“We’re going to make an invigoration potion! One sip will energize you for an hour, and the whole thing will have you going for an entire eight hours! Very useful to have for hard working witches like me” They said with a playful giggle.

The red haired witchling’s green eyes sparkled with interest, leaning forward with curiosity…

An invigoration potion…! Yeah, that sounded great! Something to make someone energetic!

Not that Juniper needed it.

They were energetic all the time…

“Now, pay attention, there’s always a margin of error with spells, but more-so with potions!”  Their teacher said, wagging their finger as they opened desk drawers.

Juniper nodded in agreement, leaning forward, their eyes focused underneath their glasses. They couldn’t look away.

 The teacher soon placed the ingredients onto the center desk. First a mortar and pestle, then three small leaves that looked like they were howling in agony, and two very small branches with two berries at the end of each, during the explanation, they made sure to show the class exactly what to do, narrating over each of their actions carefully

“It’s really simple, actually! You just need three leaves of a Screaming Pepper, two sprigs of a Wasteberry, and then crush them together once in a bowl, and remember to not stir until they’re in the cauldron-... then you place them all together into your cauldron, stir as you would any other potion…  and voila! You have yourself an Invigoration potion! Now, let’s get stirring! Begin!”

That sounded… simple! Even someone like Juniper could do that, reaching under their desk, they carefully looked underneath their desk, taking care to find the supplies they needed…

Leaves of a screaming pepper… well, obviously, those are the ones whose leaves look like a face in grimaced pain

Sprigs of a wasteberry… sp-... sprigs? Those had to be those little branches that were on the teacher’s desk!

Those were like, cut off pieces of a plant, right? … These looked like Sprigs… were they from a wasteberry though? They couldn’t mess this up… But, then again? Why would supplies for something unrelated to the potion for the day be there?

Nervously, they looked over to their right, seeing that one of their classmates had reached down and gotten two sprigs of… something that looked like there were two berries at the end.

Was that a sprig? That was two…so was that four Wasteberries?

…

With a gulp, Juniper looked down and reached for two sprigs, and hoped that his classmate was right.

Alright… all five ingredients, now all that was left was to crush them together once.

Placing them into the mortar, Juniper reached for the matching pestle and then leaned over the bowl, then placed the pestle down and crushed once with all the force that their tiny body could muster, making sure to exact a lot of pressure so that all of the ingredients would be mixed together properly.

They looked down and were greeted with a light green substance, a smile came across their face as they pushed the pestle forward with glee. “Yes!” they exclaimed happily

… Though this show of joy had a bit of force to it, unexpectedly pushing the pestle with a bit of momentum, causing it to spin around once, twice, three times, before coming to a rest, causing the green substance to instead take on a sickly orange hue. 

Juniper looked on in horror.

Oh no

Oh no no no-...

They were supposed to just crush the ingredients once, not mix them, they weren’t supposed to be mixed until the paste was in the cauldron!

This was all wrong, they’d have to start over-... could they even do that? They quickly looked around the room in a panic, catching glimpses of students doing their assignments, no doubt properly and following instructions to the letter. They saw no station for dumping out bad mixtures, at least from a first glance.  They nervously looked around, beginning to take deep breaths in an attempt to calm themselves

There was no time to ask where the clean-up station was either… 

They would just have to use this mixture and hope everything would turn out alright.

Maybe if there was time, they could make a second potion…

After all, there were multiple bottles for containment within the desk…

They sighed, deepily. They poured the mixture into the cauldron and began stirring with the spoon. At the very least, they were capable of gently stirring without any problems, there was a poof of orange smoke as the concoction came to a rest.

They stirred three times before pouring the concoction into a potion bottle, before putting a wooden cork on top of it, sealing the mixture inside.

The Sickly Orange contents floated about inside, before coming to a complete stop, as if frozen in time, Juniper leaned in forward with interest.

“Cooooooooool…”

…

They shook their head, quickly scrambling beneath the desk to retrieve the ingredients again.

This time, they made sure to crush only once, and set the pestle aside, they were greeted with that light green substance once again, a small smirk came across their face. Once more, they poured the mixture into the cauldron, this time letting out a green puff of smoke as they stirred. Once more, the contents came to a rest, and Juniper poured them into another bottle, sealing it like the other; there were now two bottles on the young witchling’s desk. Juniper leaned in close once again, looking at the proper invigoration potion

Inside, it looked as if the bubbles were constantly zipping and bouncing around, as opposed to the stagnated bubbles of the orange one. Their eyes were fixated on it, then looked up…

…

And were greeted with the curious eyes of their bird-like teacher.

Who was staring directly at the two bottles on their desk.

Juniper froze in fear, their glasses nearly falling off as they sat upright and tried to make themselves look calm.

“Two potions of differing color, Sail?  Did you perhaps botch the creation of one of them?” The teacher asked with a gentle, reassuring tone of voice.

“That’s ok, potion making is an art, as long as you don’t cause trouble in my classroom… but what I’m most interested in is the coloration of this one…” They said, lifting up the orange mixture, even when being moved, the bubbles remained stationary

“Crush once is the most important part, do you want to know why? Because if mixed, you do the opposite of an invigoration… you created a paralysis potion!” The teacher said, holding up the orange potion for the class to see, causing Juniper to sink into their chair like a deflating balloon as numerous other eyes began to look at them and the potion.

“This does the exact opposite of what we intended to make, if anyone sipped this, they’d be unable to move for hours on end. Pranksters often use it to put teachers or other students in silly poses…” They said, turning their attention back to Juniper, causing them to nearly slide out of their stool in embarassment.

Their teacher had a grin before placing the orange potion back down next to the green one..

“But, you don’t strike me as a prankster. You made a paralysis potion entirely by accident… or perhaps you intended to! That means you have either luck or talent… maybe both!” They said with a tone that sounded supportive. “Color me interested. We might just have a future mixologist on our hands.” 

I-interested? Mixologist…?

Was that good or bad? Was their teacher now going to watch them more closely…!?

Their teacher turned around and went back to inspecting the other results of the class.

“Keep at it though, not bad for your first potion!” 

… A-ah!?

Not… bad…?

Juniper had somehow managed to turn this around, but maybe not in their favor.

Once more, they felt the presence of many staring eyes upon them, even if this somehow became a boon, it got them unwarranted attention… 

The Witchling sighed and quickly tried to shake it off, but they couldn’t help but hear some whispers and chatters from behind them

“Gonna have to keep an eye on that kid. He might make us look bad”

“Fresh from Glandus and already making a name for themselves huh…”

They sat perfectly still, trying to calm themselves by bouncing their leg below the desk,  their eyes darting left and right.

Attention wasn’t good. Even if it wasn’t negative, the idea of them being perceived was far too immediate and off putting.

They returned to sitting upright, and tried to pay attention to what was left of the class.

But focusing was hard when it felt like everyone was staring at them…

Time passed, and soon, the telltale scream of the bell signaled that this class was over. With a sigh, Juniper stood up and began walking out, dusting themselves off

“Juniper!” Their teacher said gently

Though it was a kind tone, it caused the witchling to freeze, instinctively thinking that they had done something wrong, and that it was finally time for their paralyzing potion roosters to come home to roost, nervously, they gulped and turned around with one foot at a time

“Y-yes?”

“Don’t forget to take your potions with you, those are yours to keep, I’m sure you’ll find a use for that paralyzing potion…”

… Oh

“Y-yes, teacher.” They said nervously, going to retrieve both of their potions and placing them very gently into their pockets

“Even a potion made by mistake has its uses! Don’t forget that! I’ll see you next time.” The teacher said, waving Juniper off.

“Even a potion made by mistake has its uses…” They repeated, before shaking their head and walking out into the hallway with a sigh.

Well… they still somewhat wished they were in Oracle's class, they groaned lightly as they leaned against the wall, pressing their hands to their forehead.

“Rough start… I just need to not draw any attention to myself and just act normal like everyone else… then no one else will look at me ever again…’ A pause. 

“A-and then after a while I can approach them and ask them questions and maybe, just maybe, they won’t be weirded out by me like everyone else” They said to themselves, a frown beginning to form, they shook their head, trying to look determined.

“This time’s gonna be different… I’m not gonna be left out all the time like at Gladus…”

They held their hand to their chest and nodded. 

“Can’t try to do it my way, at least not here. It’s too risky…” 

… Dang it, they were lost in thought again! They shook their head and walked down the hallway to proceed to their next class, stopping for a moment to peek in at the room where Oracles was being held.

If only…

But, they were Potions Track. Maybe they could transfer one day… but, for now, it was alright.

Maybe their teacher was right.

If them being in Potions was a mistake, they could still make sure there was some use to it!

…

Juniper sighed as they walked into their next class, holding their head against their hand as they looked towards the blackboard. It wasn’t nearly as eventful as Potions class; so, without much more to do, they watched.

They watched and watched and read, and although there was some information that was being retained… 

They couldn’t help but have their thoughts drift towards that failed potion. What if they kept making failed potions? Would they be kicked out of potions track? Out of Hexside?

Horrible scenario after horrible scenario played in their head as they imagined the possible worse, and it was with such frequency, that he has spaced out and missed an important tidbit about the history of the Boiling Isles!

Juniper genuinely hooped that it’d be mentioned again…

They sighed, and refocused their eyes, trying once more to pay as much attention as they could

Time passed, and soon that class ended as well.

Afterwards, Juniper quietly walked out of the classroom, catching themselves and beginning to walk down the hallway. It was time for Lunch, and hopefully, that would be the reprieve they needed, a small smile came across their face as they imagined the kind of delicious food that they’d be sampling soon…

…

Only for the familiar voice of someone to call out to them

"Well well well! I can’t believe my eyes, is that Juniper Sail?" It said,

Juniper's expression fell into a sour, angry look as they closed their eyes in annoyance, they began walking faster.

"Hoho, not like Juniper to ignore someone, are you really just gonna ignore a former classmate?" 

...

Juniper gritted their teeth and turned around, being greeted with exactly who they thought they had heard

A teenage boy with somewhat beige skin and dark brown eyes,with a smirk that gave a look of superiority, dark brown leggings and sleeves with the rest of the Hexside uniform,  brown hair that was straight in the back,  yet in the front it looks like he styled it himself, looking jagged in places, with triangular ears at his side, like most witches of the Boiling Isles

"Hello, Matthomule." Juniper said with a very tired expression.

"What're the odds huh? You transferred to Hexside too? What, were you just tired of being on the bottom of the ladder all the time? I would be too!"

"Rich coming from someone who kept getting thrown into detention literally all the time..."  The red haired witchling muttered

"What was that?" Matthomule said with an annoyed expression

"Nothing, thought your ears were filled with rocks like usual." Juniper’s eyes narrowed

A scowl came across the other student’s face.

"You should probably be nicer to me, after all, I might be the only one here who knows your nickname from back in Glandus..." 

An uncharacteristically angry glare was given from Juniper, whose face was beginning to turn red from both anger and embarrassment.

"Isn't that right, Punyper?" 

"Shut up..." The red haired teenager said, their tone turning into a quiet muttering, a flash of pink appearing on their face.

"Aw what's wrong? Don't want Hexside to know how you can't hack it as a witchling in Glandus so you came crawling here? That sounds like something they should know!" Matthomule said with a mocking tone of voice

"Tell them if you want then, because I'm gonna do better and your stupid nickname won't be applicable to me, and even if it does I'm not gonna let you get to me you dumb-... whatever!" 

Juniper said with an overly animated rant, getting closer and closer to their antagonizer, who’s expression of smug superiority only deepened with each step…

Before Juniper crossed their arms, turned on their heel and resumed walking down the hallway, hearing Matthomule's cackling laughter from behind them.

"Hahaha, alright Punyper, I'll give you some time to think of some better insults the next time you see me. See ya arouuuuuuund!" Matthomule said  as his voice grew farther and farther away

With their back turned to their "classmate", Juniper pulled the cowl of their uniform over their head and tightened it, to give them some comfort.

They couldn't believe this. Of all the luck for someone else to have transferred to Hexside that knew them… and it had to be one who knew the go-to-insult for Juniper Sail.

For now, they just had to call his bluff and hope, pray that he didn't actually spread that embarrassing nickname around...

Punyper... ugh...

Just because they were small and not great at a lot of schools of magic didn't mean they were puny! One day they’d be strong!

One day Juniper would be loved by everyone!

One day, they were going to be the Messenger of Love, one who brought joy, love, and unity to the Boiling Isles! 

The child’s heart swelled as their annoyance soon went away, a smile coming across their face as they walked to the next class.

…

Before it once more fell.

“That’s gonna take a long time and a lot of hard work though… especially if I keep messing up like I’ve been doing…” They sighed, adjusting their glasses. Trying to mentally prepare for whatever else this day might throw at them..

…

Hours passed, and after a day packed to the brim with knowledge, Juniper stumbled out of Hexside,, catching themselves before they hit the stairs and stood upright, walking down them slowly.

 The sun still hung in the sky above the Boiling Isles, and classes had ended for the day…

And how did it go?

…

Not… well…

An accidental paralyzing potion which caused them to be noticed by classmates.

Thoughts causing them to space out and miss at least one factoid about history in the Boiling Isles…

A former classmate from Glandus may or may not be spreading their embarrassing nickname of “Punyper” at this very moment.

And at least one person tried to prank them due to being a transfer from Glandus. Juniper was still shaking glitter out of their hair

Not to mention all the new information they’d have to memorize due to this being a different school…

They’d manage, though. At least. They hoped they’d manage.

If they wanted to get a good job and help people, this was the best thing they could do…

With a sigh, they kept descending down the steps, making sure to keep their distance from others, only stopping to give them an occasional wave, which they returned.

No one attempted to talk with them, thankfully, they reached the end of the steps and took a deep breath, looking to the right and noticing a group of witchlings and demons sitting down to play a game of Hexes Hold ‘Em, just to the side

Walking closer on instinct, and with genuine interest, they drew closer to watch the game unfold, even if they were supposed to be staying away, they couldn’t help but stand and simply observe as the stakes began to rise and the game began to unfold into its final hour. 

They watched… and watched… their gaze only being broken to blink and sometimes lean forward to get a better look… but, eventually, they coughed gently, and in response, the group looked up with a confused look

“... Isn’t that the new kid from Glandus?”

“Yeah I think it is. Red glasses.”

“ You wanna play or are you gonna stand there all day?

A-ah, no!

They had been spotted, immediately, their heart began to race and beat rapidly.

“N-no, I just… thought I… saw something… over there, I totally wasn’t watching you play!” … They said, pointing out towards the treeline, the group looked over towards the trees and saw nothing, once more returning their gaze onto the transfer student, who’s expression was now one of nervous horror, they were frozen in place, sweating.

A pause. They gently said one thing.

“I need to go.” 

They turned on their heels and ran as fast as their legs would carry them away from school, and into Bonesborough.

“What a weird guy… alright, back to it.” One of the three said.

Juniper was in full retreat, fleeing as quickly as they could down the road to Hexside and back into town they now called home.

“Dang it, dang it! Why can’t I help but be weird?! I should’ve just asked if I could watch them play instead of just staring at them like a creep!” They gently reached up and lightly hit their head, hoping to collect their thoughts, they found themselves continuing to lightly hit their head, hoping that would fix how strange they were.

“How many times am I going to mess up today!?” They said out loud to themselves as they jumped, dodged, and weaver through any obstacles that appeared in theri way, dashing past the market.

“Geez, kid! Calm down, it’s not like there’s a fire!” The white haired lady witch at the human treasures stall added before resuming her sale of garbage, and ignoring a plume of smoke that was growing just a few blocks from her stall.

Juniper kept running, and running and running, before soon, their breath began to grow short, and they had to come to a complete stop, pressing their back against the wall of a store not far from their house. 

They paused to take some deep breaths to relax the rapid beating of their chest, and to distract from the fact their legs were sore.

.

“Perfect… just perfect…” They muttered to themselves, letting their body slide down against the wall as their legs went to the ground, taking a seat by the house.

“That’s three people I can never, ever, ever, EVER talk to again!”

They muttered something under their breath, why was acting normal so hard? It was like everyone else knew what “normal�� was, but wouldn’t tell it to them!

They lifted their glasses with the palm of their left hand, and rubbed at their eyes in frustration with their free hand, before letting the glasses return to where they were moments before

“I need to get home. Seeing Aunty and Uncy will help…” They said to themselves as they sighed, leaning more against the wall.

They could hear footsteps and the jingling of many items clanging together. They sighed. Now was not the time for pushy scammers.

They held up their hand to the left without looking. “Go away, I don’t even have any money” The Witchling said.

A salesman with an impressively large sack on his back hissed and growled, before backing away into the shadows from whence he came, grumbling to themselves.

The red haired child sat there for a few more moments, trying to collect their thoughts and hopefully clear their mind.

Unfortunately for them, neither of which happened.

They couldn’t just sit here all day, someone might think they’re an orphan. With another deep breath, they rose to their feet, dusted themselves off, and continued walking down the streets of Bonesborough.

After a little bit more walking, Juniper stepped over a pothole in the ground, jumped over a sleeping rat, and soon found themselves standing in front of a two floor house, it looked pretty well maintained, it wasn’t much nicer than most of the other houses in Bonesborough, but the fact it didn’t have any cracks, damages, or anything of the sort certainly made it stand out.

They sighed, reaching towards a familiar rock and lifting it up to once more retrieve the key, placing it into the lock of the front door, twisting it once to hear a click,  and then returning the key to it’s snug home beneath the rock before walking into the house and locking the door behind them.

“I’m home…” They said out loud, hearing their voice reverberate through the house, almost echoing.

They stopped, waiting for a response.

…

There was none.

The witchling paused.

“Aunty? Uncy…? Leif? Mina? C-cmon, you promised.”  Another pause, they looked around the room, nervously reaching to touch their right arm anxiously, they gripped gently, trying to keep themselves calm

“They didn’t…” They repeated to themselves as they ducked into the kitchen. No one was there.

Living room? Similarly empty.

The Study with tons of books to read? Also bereft of any residents. Though there was an open book waiting on the nightstand next to the reading chair across from the fireplace!

A smile came across Juniper’s face as they noticed that. Someone was here very recently

“M-maybe they’re here after all, maybe they’ve got a surprise for me!” They said to themselves

Hope began to well up as they ran up the stairs, checking the Bedroom. … No one

The uplifting feeling in their bosom began to waver as something else began to set in, a looming dread of realization

“No… or… maybe…”

With one more door left, they swung open the door to their guest bedroom to reveal….

Nothing and no one. 

Well. Nothing except a note which was gently placed upon their made bed.

… A very long sigh escaped the witchling’s mouth as they bent down to pick it up and read it

“Dear Juniper, we’re really sorry, but the Emperor’s Coven contracted us to help reinforce parts of the Conformatorium and paint Warden Rath a simply beautiful portrait.” 

A groan of annoyance. The Conformatorium, really!? That place was where all hope and uniqueness went to die, how well were they paying?!

Exasperated, they looked down and continued reading the note.

“We’re probably not gonna be able to see you for a few days, there’s plenty of food in the fridge though, and you have plenty of books that you could read in the study to keep you occupied though! We’ll see you soon! Sorry to leave you alone with the house. Have a nice few nights” 

Their hands began to shake as they finished reading the letter before gently placing it back down upon the bed.

They removed their glasses and placed them on the nightstand next to their bed as they covered their eyes, falling backwards onto the bed and rolling onto their side to stare at the closet, as blurry as it’d look without glasses.

 They reached behind them and grabbed a soft plush of a three eyed toad and held it extremely close, hugging it for comfort.

“I… just… really didn’t want to be alone… yet… here I am again…” They muttered to themselves, trying to not have their voice tremble from the overwhelming emotions that took hold of them

A lukewarm first day at their new school, and then they got to return to an empty house with no one to keep them company, now, more than ever, they felt so alone. With no parents to comfort them, and no friends to talk to, it felt like they might as well be behind the bars of the Conformatorium

“Maybe they should send me there. I bet I’d fit right in there… and then I’d at least see those two foronce!” They yelled in anger before flipping over to the other side of the bed to glare outside the window, being greeted by the beautiful sky.

 That was at least some comfort.

They reached towards their neck and pulled the cowl of their school uniform tunic over their head and looked down at their plush toad friend, tightening their grip on it as they placed their head against it, wishing it could return the affection. They reached up and rubbed their eyes, brushing away small tears that had formed.

“I’m not that much of an outcast though, am I…?” A pause. “I don’t have any friends, I act weird, but is that really enough for me to get put into that awful, awful place…?” They shook their heads, reaching towards their glasses, they put them back on and sat back up, still clenching their plush friend as if it was a lifeline.

They pulled their knees up to their chest and sat there for a while, sometimes rocking back and forth, and occasionally looking out the window, watching people pass and go… they occasionally even saw some students from Hexside walk by… it was nice, but… they weren’t doing much. Could they really just sit there all day feeling sorry about themselves?

“... I’m not gonna get anything done  if I just sit here all day… at the least I should get out of my Uniform…” They said, sighing as they went behind the changing cover, before coming back out and wearing a light red jacket, underneath was a white and yellow striped shirt as well as a light purple pair of shorts, their light brown boots from school were quickly placed back on as well.

As they looked in the mirror, their eyes widened as they stumbled behind the cover, before jumping back out and wearing a pink scarf with a small heart decal on it, a wide, bright smile came across their face as they pressed their head against it, gently nuzzling it for comfort.

“That’s much better-... wait, hang on, ugh!” They said, before groaning and remembering something else

Reaching down behind the cover, they pulled out the two potions from their uniform’s pockets, the light green Invigoration potion, and the sickly orange Paralysis potion.

They narrowed their eyes at the orange one, scowling at it. “I should just pour you out the window and see what happens…” Juniper muttered, pulling back their hand to remove the cork , before stopping and rubbing their thumb along the glass.

“... But. You’re one of the first potions I ever made… that’d be really mean to you…” they sighed, recalling their teacher's words.

“I’d be hard pressed to find a good use for you though…” With an annoyed look, they put both potions into the pockets of their jacket, before sitting back down onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling and narrowing their eyes at the creaky wooden beams

“...........................” They pressed their lips together and began making noises boredly, then rapidly kicked their feet back and forth from the side of the bed.

This continued on for a grand total of one minute before they made a grunt of displeasure and jumped forward

“Auuuuuuugh! There’s gotta be something to do around here! I don’t wanna read anything in that study. At least not right now… not when my head’s already full of information” They muttered to themselves.

Walking out of their guest bedroom and once more began the process of going up, down,  and all around through the house, opening every door and checking every room thoroughly in hopes of finding something to do that didn’t involve sticking their nose into a book.

Nothing. There was nothing here that they wanted to do. 

And there was no one around to talk to either except for their plush friends!

A pause. Gears began to turn in their head

… Wait, no one…

No one was here… no one could judge them for acting strange… or for acting like themselves…!

A smile began to creep across their lips as they looked around to confirm what they had just thought.

 Absolutely no one. They already checked twice, why even check a third time?

With a sly grin, they sneakily went through the house a third time and began to cover any windows across the house with curtains, or simply by lowering blinds if they were available. 

When each window was sufficiently covered, Juniper once more went down the stairs into the living room and beamed with pride

“It might be time for the Messenger of Love to make his grand debut…!” They said with joy as they cleared their throat, placing their hand upon their chest, before pointing their arm outwards with a courageous expression across their face

“Fear not, citizens of Bonesborough, for I have come to deliver you from your malaise and bring you the joy and happiness that all of you deserve, and for those with truly wicked hearts, I shall banish you to the realm of eternal darkness as you deserve!” The young teen said in an overly dramatic fashion as they moved their hands about and began walking around the house, emoting all the while.

Reaching down, they grabbed a nearby tasty fruit from a tray, and gave it a small toss above before catching it again, they had a feel for how light it was, and smirked as they turned around.

“Back, foul beast, for though everyone should be loved, I cannot possibly allow you to harm anyone, hiyah!” They cried as they threw the fruit with the tiniest amount of force towards a door, causing it to bounce off of it harmlessly to the ground below.

“Oh, sorry fruit!” They sheepishly said, before scrambling to pick it back up before five seconds had passed… With a small smile, they rubbed the fruit on their shirt, before holding it up to their mouth to take a very small bite. Still tasty! They chuckled, before swallowing, looking up and down at the wooden door.

… It didn’t lead anywhere, did it? Curiously, they reached up towards the door’s knob and gave it a turn, opening it gently as it let out a creak… A sharp gasp escaped the witchling.

This wasn’t just any old door…

IT WAS THE DOOR TO… A CLOSET!

How could it possibly have slipped their minds?! 

Closets held all kinds of cool stuff, like clothes you could hide under, mysterious magical objects, and of course, it was a good place to hide when the world was simply too much to bear!

Grinning,Juniper reached towards the door and pulled it open, revealing the full contents of the closet.

 Clothes, old wands,  construction tools, some rejection letters as well as bills…

But then, something caught their eye

An object which glistened from the light of a nearby candle.

A round, spherical… thing

Juniper’s jaw dropped as they realized exactly what it was. 

There was no doubt in their mind, this was a custom made crystal ball! The type oracles used to summon spirits or gaze into the future!

There was a small note attached to it.

“For years of distinguished service “ 

Ohhhh… that made sense… Of course.

Juniper’s two well off family members…

Leif Grail, one of the foremost Construction Coven witches, while he wasn’t fit to be a coven head, he enjoyed great success repairing and performing upkeep for Bonesborough! Though, given how shady and dangerous the town was, it seemed so often that he’d have a job to do…

And, of course, Juniper’s aunt, and their beloved mother’s sister, Minerva Grail (Stable)! Though she became distant from their mother, Minerva always kept in touch, and made many waves in the art scene by creating works of art for numerous businesses, and had a habit of attaching a gargoyle to the ones she preferred the most. Due to her art being a commodity, she was also often busy…

So, this could’ve been a gift to either of them! But “Years of distinguished service” made Juniper think it was a gift to Leif.

A gift… that it seemed, was going unused!

The Witchling leaned closer and peered, narrowing their eyes from beneath their glasses.

They gasped sharply.

Layers of dust…! They hadn’t even touched this…!

Were they not even bothering to use it since neither of them were Oracles…!? 

A thought crossed their head.

A forgotten crystal ball… Juniper being passed over Oracles for Potions… a bad day… what if…

What if this was a sign from Titan?

This simply had to be, it was too perfect!

They were going to use this orb as it was intended. Just because they were in Potions track didn’t mean they could use Oracle magic in the comfort of their own home! 

Once more, they looked back and forth. The curtains were still drawn. No one was looking

They took a deep breath. The coast was clear

They didn’t want to break anything, so they left the Crystal Ball exactly where it was, even if it was a little high up on a shelf.

Holding their left pointer finger out, they traced along the air, creating a rough purple circle which hovered around their wrists as they reached out and very gently touched the ball.

“Crystal ball, please show me the future, and please, please please please show me a future where I’m happy…” They said, as the ball began to glow, sending a light purple energy coursing through it towards Juniper’s arms, which then reached their eyes, which began to shine brightly as their vision began to fade, they closed their eyes and let the magic wash over them as their consciousness faded

-....

When Juniper’s eyes opened again, they found themselves in the middle of an abandoned Bonesborough, bereft of life, they blinked curiously, before looking around and letting out a noise of surprise

They began  to  look around nervously. What…? 

Why on Titan would this place of all places be empty…!? 

“H-hello? Friends?” Juniper sheepishly asked. There was no response. Nothing but silence.

Taking a step forward, they cleared their throat and raised their voice hoping to hear a response this time. 

“HELLO? Anyone!? Please answer me!” Once more. Silence.

. Granted. It was a vision, but… there weren’t even shadowy figures or something to symbolize people being there.

The witchling began walking, checking as many houses as they were able, though some appeared to be fake buildings with nothing in them, a few had windows, which were broken in places, but provided a viewpoint inside.

Looking through, Juniper leaned in closer… and was  given yet another empty house in return. They gulped, moving forward and repeating the method once more.

Abandoned.

Again. This time would be different

Vacant.

Again. Surely this time?

Bereft of life.

Juniper began to sweat as this went on, their eyes beginning to dart left and right, hoping and praying that they’d see someone in their peripheral vision. But there was no one here.

No one at all.

Empty house after empty house after empty house…. 

“No… no. Why is it empty!? Why am I still alone even in the vision…!? This can’t be right, this can’t!” They cried out in disbelief, running down the road, and very quickly entering a grassy field, before stumbling and tripping over a rock, they looked up and found that it was night time in the vision, with an absolutely stunning view of the sky greeting them, with countless stars, shooting and otherwise being visible, and the moon hanging over head.

It gave them a small comfort, at the least, they sighed with a smile “At least I’ll always have the stars for me…” 

Scrambling back to their feet, in the distance, they saw… Hexside? Its lights were on…!

M-maybe that's where all their friends were!

They ran, they ran as far as their legs would take them, yet no matter how much they ran, stumbled, or fell forward, their new school never grew closer, it was always beyond their reach.

“N-no, come on, please, I’m sure my friends are there!!!” 

…

 But it was no good, it was always just beyond the horizon, never coming closer.

The witch fell to their knees. Looking around, they found themselves back in Bonesborough, still abandoned, still damaged, and still so painfully lonely.

“N-no… come on… this can’t be right… even here I’m… alone…?” They choked, clumsily rising to their feet, they turned around and were greeted with their home in town, where they were in the waking world, and out of the vision, they looked up once again, being greeted with the night sky, which seemed to sparkle with stars in return, as if it was looking at them.

Once more, Juniper couldn’t help but smile even just a little bit. It was calming… but was that… really the only thing here…?

No, maybe their friends were in this house and they were looking in all the wrong places. They placed a shaky hand upon the doorknob and pushed forward as they walked through the door…

…

And found themselves within a deep wood, cloaked in orange.

The woods outside of Bonesborugh…? Why here?

They took a few steps  forward, going past miles of woods in mere seconds, passing by an abandoned village, an ancient, forgotten castle, and other strange sights that went by too fast for them to process it, before resting in an open clearing in the middle of the woods.

This was the last stop. They couldn’t go any farther.

Every step taken returned them to this clearing. And once more, there was no one here.

“-... No one… there’s no one here… but the stars…. And the night sky…”

It dawned on them, their eyes widening as tears began to lightly flow from their eyes.

“I-... I’m meant to be alone… I’m never going to have any friends…!!!” They wailed, looking up at the night sky, which somehow, also looked as if it was weeping, with numerous shooting stars falling through.

“I’m going to be alone for the rest of my life… and my only friends are going to be the stars in the sky and the moon… and of course they’re not gonna talk to me… Oh Titan…I’m… I’m gonna be alone… I’m gonna be alone…!!!” They repeated as the shooting stars increased in number, before it looked as if one crashed in front of the witchling, growing with brilliant white light…

“I’m gonna be alone… I’m gonna be alone…” Juniper chanted to themselves in the real world, as the magic extending from their hand to the crystal ball soon began to recede and fade, returning to the crystal ball’s center and fading away, causing Juniper to fall backwards, breaking the vision.

The Night sky and the woods soon began to fade from sight as the witch’s vision returned to the real world, they shook their head, they were back in their guest house, and now tears were streaming down their face as they hit the ground, sniffling.

They looked at their hands, which were shaking,  their chest was pounding as the water gently flowed from their eyes. 

They weren’t full on weeping, but there was enough to make their vision blurry.

Looking up, they saw the crystal ball, still nestled where it was, and with a yelp of fear and frustration, they kicked the closet door closed with as much force as they could muster, slamming it shut.

They took several deep breaths, reaching towards their face to lift their glasses and wipe the tears from their eyes.

Soon, their heart rate slowed back to normal as their eyes began to dry, they were  returning to whatever their version of “Normal” was, and,the witchling was still shaken… but getting better.

Was it… a coincidence that this vision had a lot in common with some nightmares the teenager had had a few times before?  

They shook their head once again to clear the thoughts lingering around

.  Certainly, this had nothing to do with their recurring nightmares, could it?

It… it was just a bad vision

That’s what they told themselves in their head. 

They hadn’t practiced Oracle Magic lately and were winging it.

 It had to be wrong. They got something wrong with the placement, it was too high.

There…. There was no way that was their actual future, was it?!

Being eternally alone with no one but the night sky for company… that sounded like a punishment that’d happen to a bad guy in a story! 

They… they weren’t bad, were they?

No… no, they were good! They stood up awkwardly, stumbling and catching themselves on a nearby wall, looking out a window to see that it was still daylight, the vision hadn’t even lasted more than a minute.

They were still shaking. Their head began to hurt. Was it from the stress of the vision? From school? From being alone? 

… Perhaps it was all three.

They were unable to collect their thoughts, because their head began to throb with pain due to something else.

Noise. Noise. Noise. A lot of noise. Coming from outside

There was screaming outside, and the sound of animals running along, it seemed like someone tried to seal a deal, but all the noises scraped against Juniper’s mind, causing the pain from his headache to grow even worse.

Looking out the window, they could see two different demons, one very short who looked like he had only one eye, and another who was very tall with lanky limbs. They were arguing and screaming about… something. It couldn’t be made out.

 All Juniper could think about was how bad this was causing their head to hurt.

“Sh-shut up… be quiet!” They said to themselves, only for there to be an extraordinarily loud crash outside, as if a plate broke, and soon after, the sound of a fight breaking out.

Fists as well as insults were flying, and it resulted in an absolutely horrendous cacophony of noise.

It was overwhelming, they covered their triangular ears with both of their hands, but the sound kept pouring , and the pain in their head kept increasing. They couldn’t focus.

This combined with the vision proved to be too much

They let out a shrill shriek and turned around, opening their eyes, they noticed the backdoor, they flipped it open with a free hand, slammed it behind them, before making sure it was locked with another hidden key.

Then, they took off, trying to put as much distance between them and that awful incident causing noise as they could. They didn’t care where they were. They just needed some peace and quiet to think about what they saw, and what they would do.

So, they ran. 

They ran as far as they could away from that awful noise that was just making things worse.

The sound grew farther and farther away, until Juniper noticed it was finally quiet.

 For a brief fleeting moment, it felt as if the headache, stress, and fear was gone..

 Letting out a sigh of relief, they finally released their hands from their ears. “Finally” They said with a grin, before blinking and noticing they were surrounded by woods..

“.. W-... wait… where am I?”

Looking around, they noticed they were someplace familiar… a deep forest with numerous red trees, they had entered the forest just outside of Bonesborough

“I-I at least  got away from that awful noise, but how far did I run…!?” They looked behind them, trying to get to a landmark to help them grasp exactly where they were, only to be greeted with more and more trees that all looked the same.

 They were so focused on running away from the noise that they didn’t even notice where they were going…!!!!

Panicking would get them nowhere. It’d only make things worse

They began to take several deep breaths again, pressing their back against a nearby tree.

“I-It’s fine Juniper, you’re just lost in the woods just outside of the city you moved into just a week ago, totally fine, it’s not like there’s wild animals out here that want to eat me! Wouldn’t that be a funny way to end this day!? Awful first day of school, I’m found in a ditch after I weirded out three strangers?! Haha! Yeah! That’d be really funny!” They said, their eyes beginning to widen with each passing moment.

“Oh, Titan I really might die out here… no…. No no, I can’t think like that. I have to remember what Mom and Dad said, if I’m lost in the woods, I need to stay completely still so someone can find me” … They said, holding their arms and legs out as stiff as they could

“Stay… still..”

…

They continued for a minute. “No, that’s stupid! Leify and Miner aren’t gonna notice I’m missing for a few days, I need to move!” A noise from closeby caused Juniper’s ears to twitch as they looked around. A snap of a twig, a tree’s bark being cut and dug at.

“Oh no, what was that?” They looked around, trying to find the source of the sound. More sounds came

The sound of what sounded like hoofprints, grunting, and a mystical hum.

… And it was getting louder with each step. It was getting closer.

Juniper’s eyes widened in shock

“... I’M NOT STICKING AROUND TO FIND OUT! FORGET THIS!” 

With that, they turned on their heels and began running towards the exact opposite direction of the sounds they heard, not caring if this would get them even more lost, they stumbled, tripped, and picked themselves back up, running as fast as they could.

They kept running, and running, and running, until they were out of breath, they stopped to catch their breath and decided to look up and see where they were

They were greeted with… what looked like a long forgotten and abandoned village, this place hadn’t been populated for years, and it looked like it was falling apart from neglect.

 Well, this was at least a little better than just hanging out in the woods, even if there were vines growing on half the buildings, they sighed and looked around, perking their ears up once more, holding up a hand to them as they leaned upwards

…. Fwsh… fwsh… fwsh…

“Huh? What was that sound?”They tried to triangulate the sound of the noise

Fwsh… Fwsh… Clang!

It sounded like.. Magic?

Wait… Magic?!

That was perfect, that meant someone had to be near, and they could help them find their way home!

It was better than nothing, especially since the strange noises had returned, they were far away, but it was clear that the sounds were following Juniper. They had to get out of there.

With a gulp, they ran towards the sounds, ducking and weaving past trees,  jumping over debris, and other things.

This continued for a few minutes, but soon, Juniper found themselves in a wide open clearing. 

It looked… very familiar…

There was no way this was what they saw in their vision, was it?

… But what if it was?

Their blood ran cold as the fresh memories of what they saw were poking at them.

They shook their head and tried to ignore it, leaning upwards and listening once again.

The sound of what was hopefully friendly magic drawing them closer like a lure as they ran past each brown and orange tree, and further away from whatever beast was growling at them.

They ran and ran, stopping to catch their breath every so often, with the sound of magic growing louder with each step. And soon, as they were about to stop once more, they saw something in the distance.

Buildings!

Oh, thank goodness! It had to be some kind of forest keeper or something.

With a sigh, they patted down their hair and brushed away any debris that might be there, and tried to make themselves not look like some kind of person who lived in the woods without a permit, and took a step forward out into the clearing..

….

And were greeted with a curious sight.

Before them was yet another clearing, but this time, there were actively repaired buildings, with a large two, maybe three story building in the middle, with two smaller buildings nearby, and numerous other buildings close by as well, it looked almost like some kind of-...

Fwsh, FWSH!

There was that sound again, the magic! They ran towards the source, but soon, there was a loud crash, causing Juniper to be lifted up into the ground by the sheer force that had hit the ground, oh, no, was that the beast?!

Quickly, they ducked into a nearby pile of hay, poking their red head out, which now had  bits and pieces of hay stuck in it and watched…

A figure was taking steps backward while holding their palisman staff upwards. They were very clearly muscular, and had dark chestnut brown hair that was braided carefully with some forest green mixed in as well.

Their golden eyes were focused intently, as they stared down at something just out of view-...

 They were wearing a practical dress in earthy shades with sleeves and leggings,  with damaged ears and scars on their tanned and freckled skin, they proved that they were familiar with this sort of thing.

Suddenly, what looked like a massive falcon lunged  at the stranger, swinging both talon and wing at them, attempting to blow them away or knock them off balance

The stranger swung around a palisman staff which looked like a combination between a goat and a dragon. They weaved a circle with their free hand as small spiders reared from underground, firing restricting silk at the falcon’s wings.

In retaliation, it pecked angrily at the person trying to bind them.

“Th-they’re trying to capture that bird! Th-they must be Demon Hunters!”  Juniper said to themselves as they watched the battle unfold

 Oh, great, of all the luck, Juniper must’ve wandered into a Demon Hunters den, they were dead for sure! Demon Hunters wouldn’t hesitate to hurt children if they got in the way of things!

The Witchling quickly ducked back down beneath the hay, looking up as the falcon thrashed and cawed in fury, trying to break the string which bound it.

“Calm it down, Zephyr!” The muscular person said, before a very scruffy looking man who looked like he dressed himself with whatever he could find walked in, being clad in shorts, a large shawl, and a dead expression beneath square glasses, an equally scruffy looking cat resting on their shoulders, his outfit was overwhelmingly dark black and purple.

The cat purred and rubbed its head against the man, who looked somewhat pale, with dark blonde hair, green eyes, red frames around his glasses.

“Yeah, yeah Keeper, you got it… we’re gonna be fine once we get this.” The man spun his fingers around, creating a bright blue circle, and from it, a poof of light blue smoke, from the smoke appeared to be another large falcon, which caused the original to stop thrashing and look at the other longingly, at which point the muscular person finished creating more spiders and binding silk, which caused the bird to fall to the ground, tied down. 

Shortly afterwards, “Zephyr” had conjured a large rock, which bonked the falcon on the head, temporarily dazing it. “Yeah, get ‘em with the rock after the distraction. Works everyyyyyyyyy time.” They said, lazily giving two finger guns to the bird and “Keeper”

“Th-there’s another guy here!? Oh Titan, they must be an elite squad if they’re working together like that!” Juniper said.

“Alright, Lunie, do your thing” “Zephyr” said with a bored tone, still holding out his arms as the illusionary falcon cooed and rubbed against the real falcon, which still seemed to soothe it, despite the fact  it got hit in the face not too long ago with a rock

From the large building, the door creaked open, and a purple mist bellowed out as a woman with brown roots in her hair with purple highlights at the tips with a silver tiara stepped forward, her dress was black over purple leggings, and a crescent moon necklace hung across her neck. She was holding some kind of brew. She spoke in a soothing sing-song voice, a malicious grin spread across her face as she stepped ever closer, her pale skin almost making her look like a ghost.

“Hush now, it will all be over soon and you will be free from all suffering~”

Well. This was now officially a wide-awake nightmare.

Juniper froze in place as they watched, the new woman blew some of the purple smoke towards the falcon, which caused it to stop thrashing entirely as it fell asleep, laying its head against the ground.

“That’s a good bird~” She hummed.

“Alright, guess we’re doing this,” Zephyr added.

“Yes we are… Now comes the hard part” the muscular person said as they held their staff against the ground, before reaching down into their pockets and pulling out a large, jagged knife, holding it to an area around the falcon’s neck, pushing it ever closer.

Juniper gulped and watched with horror, adjusting their glasses. 

“Th-they’re gonna cut its head off…. I need to get out of here, and fast!” They muttered to themselves  as they backed away,  trying to be as quiet as possible.

The tall person stopped as they held the knife to the  falcon’s neck, pulling it back. They turned their head around and began to sniff lightly at the air, the other two witches looked a bit confused.

“Hang on. Something’s not right. There’s a scent here… an unfamiliar scent…” They said, turning their head to the source of it, Juniper ducked.

“An intruder? The Church Grim will get ‘em” The Scruffy one said.

“Oh but that’s no fun-...” A cough, the purple haired woman cleared her throat “Let’s just find them and give them a good scare.”

Juniper’s eyes grew wide open. Oh no, that muscular, tall person was Beastkeeping… th-that meant… their scent! They could literally smell his fear!!!

Their head began to pound as the pain in their head returned, they were beginning to stress themselves all over again, ice beginning to form in their veins.

“I have got to get out of here!” They said, jumping away from the hay bale and retreating from the three witches who so effortlessly captured a large eagle.

“They won’t get far…” “Keeper” added, tapping their staff against the ground in a show of intimidation

Juniper dashed as far as they could, they needed to do something if they were to escape.

They were really between a rock and a hard place. 

Did they want to risk being mauled by a wild animal? Or perhaps being offered up as a blood sacrifice to the Titan which was very clearly what these Witches were going to do?!

Think, think…, They were still in the general area, and now three Demon Hunters were after them, they had to do something. There was no way they’d outrun them, so maybe if they hid, the three of them would think they just smelled something?

Maybe they could drink the invigorating potion and run for their lives? … Towards nothing!

 They were still lost in the woods!

Maybe they could stop and try talking to the Demon Hunters-... no, they’d just take them down and cook them like they were gonna cook that bird!? 

They were looking back and forth in a panic, before noticing they were  in front of an apparently disused house

“I-I’ll hide in here and get a better plan, yeah!” They quickly ran in, and closed the door behind them, not even remembering to lock it.

They looked around and noticed there were a lot of tools, old furniture, and even older books hanging around here. The boards creaked with each step they took, and they could hear scuttling all around them.

This house was apparently used as… some kind of storage closet, there were plenty of items that wouldn’t be out of place at a farm, they could hear footsteps approaching  from outside.

“Do you think you saw them come through here?”  “Keeper” asked, the tall one who looked strong

“I wasn’t looking. Sorry.” “Zephyr”, the lazy one who used illusions

“We’ll give them one last dream before we send them on their way when we find them~” The extraordinarily creepy sounding one must’ve been “Lunie”.

O-One last dream!? Sending them along on their way? Oh Titan, they really were going to kill them!

They gasped and quickly put a hand over their mouth to hide their breathing, hoping that the three would walk by the shed and Juniper could come up with a much better escape plan.

A noise began to distract them.

Skitter, skitter, skitter.

What was that…? It kept going on

Skitter, skitter.

… They looked up, and it looked like several small shadowy creatures were hanging up in the rafters of this storage house. Juniper’s eyes widened as they looked at the creatures. They were looking at them in return, tilting their hands and chittering with a high pitched sound.

The Witchling tried not to scream, but failed.

A yelp escaped their throat, and it was muffled by their hand, and almost as if sensing their fear, a mass of several of the creatures fell onto Juniper, causing them to hold their arms out in self defense as they shrieked and fell to the ground, being covered by a squirming mass of… whatever these were! They tried to shake them off, but they were persistent, and kept coming back on for every single one they shook off.

“G-get off of me!” Oh no… they spoke. They were dead. They were totally dead.

“Ah, there they are~!!!” The creepy woman said cheerily

The door to the storage house swung open, and the three figures appeared as if they were cloaked in the deepest night as they took several steps forward, their shadows beginning to overtake the Witchling

Juniper began to shake and shiver, looking up with terrified eyes

“What a lost little rabbit… don’t worry, we’ll take good care of you, you’ll be fine.” Lunie said with a giggle.

“You’re a long way from home, what’s up with that? No one can hear your screams from out here” Zephyr added as they put his arms behind his head

“Rest now, you won’t be feeling scared for much longer” Keeper said as they reached out towards Juniper’s face

Their heart pounded like a drum, a deathly chill ran over their body as the three figures reached out to them, coming closer, and closer, and closer.

And with each step they took, the red haired witchling’s fear grew and grew as their head kept pounding and the fear made them hyperventilate, it reached a fever pitch until…

Their vision faded, their eyes frozen in fear and rolled into the back of their head  as they fell backwards, their back against the floor, having fainted from sheer fright.

Darkness overtook them as only sound greeted them, the sound of what sounded something being dragged, and several small squeaks

“A-ah… I’m dead… this is how it ended huh? I made a few small mistakes and that ended up killing me…” They said to themselves in the endless abyss.

“And there’s nothing here for me… I guess I was a bad guy and I got what I deserved…” They sighed, looking down at the darkness around them, closing their eyes once again.

“I guess that’s the end of Juniper Sail… dead after one day of school…”

“I’m dead… dead… dead…” They repeated to themselves.

Before the cold, clammy touch of a hand woke them and broke the darkness around them.

Their eyes opened, before them were the three witches from before, all looking at them with… concern?

Juniper yelped, crawling backwards and hitting their back against a wall, they were sitting on a bed.

“... H-Huh?” They said in confusion

They looked around and saw they were in what looked like a guest bedroom of some sort, with a soft bed (That Juniper was on), wardrobe, and a window leading outside.

“O-oh, I get it. I’m dead, so I guess I have to haunt you for the rest of eternity… Um… boo!” They said, holding their arms up in a  poor attempt to scare those that supposedly killed them

…

All three of the strangers looked at each other and laughed.

“Has the gall to sneak into our Sanctuary and then thinks they’re dead!”  The shaggy looking man said

“ So cute, this one… I feel kinda bad we scared him so much he passed out…” The purple haired one said

“Well, we’re no strangers to guiding the lost…” The muscular one added

… hhhhhhhhuh? What on Titan were they talking about…?

“B-But I’m sure you killed me! I’m dead! I’m-” The purple haired woman poked Juniper’s arm.

They noticed it did not phase through.

“... You passed out in our storage shed” The tired looking man added

“B-but, the creatures that fell from the sky to snack on me!” Juniper retorted, before looking around them and seeing they were surrounded by curious small rodent-like creatures.

“Which is where we let our  rodent palisman friends stay.” The Muscular one said.

… The witchling looked forward and back in confusion, trying to make sense of this.

“O-only because I was hiding from you since you were about to cut that poor falcon open!” Juniper said, trying their best to look intimidating and failing miserably.

Once more, there was laughter, this time from the tall one with the scars.

“What? Do you mean our patient? It had a parasite in its neck and the pain the little bugger was causing was making our feathered friend violent, so we cut it out!” They said with a chuckle. “I can get you it if you want, it’s in a jar, we’re gonna set it on fire this afternoon and use its ashes to help grow plants” They said casually

“We had to stabilize it so it wouldn’t hurt us or the other things here” The brown haired woman added.

Juniper sat there, flabbergasted, their heart still racing.

“O-other things-....?” There was a collective sigh as the purple haired one helped Juniper up and held their hand gently, she walked them forward towards the door, and pushed it open, with the witchling being given a small shove through the doorway…

And they were greeted with a hallway with numerous doors, and once they were past that by taking a few steps forward, they saw they were on the second floor of a well put together house with numerous pieces of furniture, it was a little messy with damaged and fallen items, but overall, it looked very cozy.

After looking around, Juniper noticed the three were out of the room. Nervously, the red haired teenager put his back to a wall and let them speak, he couldn’t sit down in front of them, that’d be rude, so hanging against a wall for support was the next best thing.

“This is the Beast Sanctuary, it’s where I live and take care of injured beasts, palismans, and also protect the graveyard not far from here.” The tall person added, and Juniper realized they also looked quite laid back.

“I used to live on my own, then these two showed up because they apparently ticked off Belos.” They added.

“Hey, I just didn’t want to join a coven or finish school and relax. Can’t do that apparently” The lazy looking man retorted.

“And excuse me for wanting to really study memory magic and the magic of dreams so we could have a sweeter sleep. Apparently that’s super duper illegal!” The not as creepy as before woman added

Juniper stood there dumbfounded, before leaning their head against the wall and letting out a groan.

‘So was I never in any danger at all?” The Witchling asked

“Well we were going to give you a good spook until you literally fainted from fear” The scruffy one added.

“But no, we’re pretty much just veterinarians and palisman protectors” The laid back one said.

Juniper almost had a heart attack from fear due to veterinarian care.

How… embarrassing… they just slid against the wall making noises of discontent

“I can’t believe I thought you guys were Demon Hunters…” They said

“Oh no they show up, we just kick their butts every time” The brown haired one added.

Groaning once more in annoyance, they shook their head and stood upward, feeling something brush against their legs.

Looking down to see numerous small eyes looking at them, focusing and adjusting their glasses, they could see that these were what fell onto them.

And with closer inspection they could see that they were all small animals, rats, mice, bats, possums, even a capybara was there.

“Did they fall on me because they thought I was an intruder?” They asked

“Maybe, or just maybe they liked your scent” The one in purple said with a giggle.

Juniper sighed and pinched the bridge of their nose.

“Look, can you introduce yourselves so I can stop being confused?” The teenager asked

“Oh, certainly. The one in purple is Zephyr, he’s a Hexside drop out.” The tall person said, shaking their head.

“And that’s Lunella, as you might’ve heard, she seeks to unlock the mysteries of the mind to help people sleep better.” The person said, pointing towards Lunella

“And this here is the Keeper, they’re very secretive, they were here first and told us their name, but we’re not allowed to tell you.” Lunella responded

“Or I’d kick you out” Keeper said flatly

“Or she’d kick us out, yes.” Zephyr responded

Now Juniper was confused.

Here first…? What did that mean?

“What do you mean here first?’ Juniper asked sheepishly

“I found this place when I fled from the Emperor’s Coven” Keeper said, leaning against a nearby wall, directing Juniper’s attention towards a distant graveyard, which was visible from even this far away. Around the headstones, a massive black shadow was prowling, with two glowing eyes staring directly at Juniper, causing them to freeze in shock

“I found the Church Grim there, and earned their respect. I asked if I could stay here, and they said if I could help any palisman or beast that passed through, they’d earn their blessing” They said with a grin. “So here we are”

“What? Why would a graveyard need protecting?” Juniper asked, tilting their head, looking at the three. 

All the magic these witches used, now that they weren’t scared that they were going to kill beasts with it was… pretty neat, the way Zephyr used the illusions but attacked with real magic, how Keeper expertly bound the beast… and of course, Lunella and her strange use of wild magic to lull it to sleep…

Hopefully they’d get answers-

“I don’t think you need to know that, at least right now.”  Keeper said, before turning around to face them. The red haired teen tried to look them in the eye, but began to sweat and looked away.

“Now I think it’s only fair you tell us about you, why are you here? You must still be in school when you're so young.”

“Unless he’s running away.” Zephyr chimed in

“Or maybe they sought us” Lunella added

-... It was obvious that they were all fresh out of answers, and now it was the young witches' chance to share.

They looked down at their feet nervously, and their legs began to bounce rapidly, and very anxiously as they had their back pressed to a wall, they were still a bit shaken up and were rocking back and forth on their heels, but at the very least weren’t shaking in fear…

“I-I’m Juniper… Juniper Sails…” They muttered

“And is that all? You’re Juniper?” Zephyr asked with a bored tone. “ Cmon, there’s gotta be more.”

They looked down, their legs  increasing in speed, their nervousness rising.

“Calm down, you’re fidgeting like a frightened rabbit.” Keeper asked, placing a hand on Juniper’s shoulder, which caused them to freeze in place. And just a moment later, they were shaking once again.

Noticing this, the Keeper relinquished their hand. “Sorry.”

“N-n-no it’s fine…” They responded.

“It’s… just…” The Witchling let out a sigh

They pressed their hands into their face, covering it, letting out a noise of displeasure.

All three of the witches present tried hard to not chuckle at the noise this tiny student just made.

“I moved into Bonesborough last week! I transferred to Hexside because Glandus was filled to the brim with absolute jerks, and I thought this was my chance to start over and finally get friends because no one on the entirety of the Boiling Isles likes me!” They said, sliding down the wall and sitting criss-cross.

“It’s because I’m weird and energetic and it’s just so hard to understand people, and I have trouble focusing on things that don’t interest me, even when I take special potions to help me focus…” The continued on, not being interrupted once

“But I’m trying so hard to not be off putting to others and it feels like it never works because everyone operates on rules differently than me-” 

Lunella very gently held her finger to her lips and made a shushing gesture, interrupting them, but not rudely, at least.

“It’s fine, sometimes people are hard to understand, is that why you’re here?” She asked

A pause, a flash of red came across Juniper’s face.

“N-no… that’s not all… w-well, it’s one thing. My first day of school was rough because I messed up on the first potion and everyone was staring at me, then I just watched people while they were playing Hexes’ Hold Em, and there was this other guy from Glandus…” … They paused, looking at the three, who looked as if they were confused. “A-am I rambling?” They nodded

“... s-sorry. I just. It’s been a rough day.” They responded sheepishly

“It sure sounds like it.” Zephyr said flatly.

“S-so, I’ve moved in with my Aunt Minerva and Uncle Leif who are really well off and let me stay in their house so I can attend Hexside but.��� A pause. 

“It just feels like they’re never around… like they only let me stay there so I can watch the house and I’m so not used to being alone…” They murmured, looking down at the ground and sighing

“So I didn’t have anything to do and I messed around with a crystal ball because I wanna learn Oracle magic…” they trailed off, beginning to shiver.

“And I saw a really scary vision where-”

“Stop. If it’s bothering you, you don’t have to tell us what happened.” Keeper added

… With a small smile, Juniper nodded. “M-maybe another time then. But… it really scared me,  and there was a lot of noise so I just… ran off.. And I guess I ended up in the forest… s-so that’s how I got here.”

…

The three witches sighed collectively.

“Huddle up.” Zephyr said, causing the three to loom close together, hushing their voices.

“I’m not sure if we should help them out, but it sounds like this kid’s dealing with a lot, and with no support either” He said flatly.

“I feel really bad for them, I can only imagine the bad dreams that haunt them…” The Dream Witch added.

“Is it even legal to leave a kid alone in the house for that long?” Keeper asked.

“We can’t just leave them like this, if we do they might fall in with a bad crowd or end up working… retail…” Zephyr suggested, all three of them shuddering collectively at the mention of the worst punishment known to witch and demon alike.

“Maybe we could show them around some more and see if that calms them down?” Lunella asked

“I think that’s the least we can do.” Keeper responded

Nodding in unison, the three broke the huddle and turned around to face the frightened witchling.

“Well, we’ve put it to a vote and think you could use some help. At the very least we can escort you home, the forest is very dangerous” Keeper added.

“Plus you’re still shaking like a little rabbit, we can’t possibly send you home like that” Lunella responded

“Hah, yeah, a rabbit-... but yeah, don’t worry Juni, we’re not gonna hurt you” Zephyr said with a nod.

The teenager let out a deep sigh of relief as they leaned forward

“Th-that’s good.. I’ll um, be on my best behavior, but I’m really sorry if I do something weird…”

“Define “Weird” ”” Lunella asked with a grin

“U-um, you’ll see” Juniper responded with a very nervous chuckle

“Oh, we just can’t wait!” Zephyr said

“I bet it’ll be great.” Keeper added

“Don’t be shy now” Lunella said as her smile widened

 They all said, before Juniper shook his head and got up to his feet, still trembling a bit as he followed the three downstairs and then outside.

“As mentioned before, this is the Beast’s Sanctuary '' Keeper said proudly, holding her arms out to show the full breadth of the site, the large house, the smaller houses, the extra buildings… it was pretty, and quite a few beasts and palismans were scurrying around

“As I promised the Grim, I care for any beasts that are endangered or hunted, as well as taking in and healing any Palismans I find that the Bat queen doesn't find first.”

A pause. Juniper held their hand out in the air to ask a question.

“B-... Bat Queen!?”

“Oh yeah, richest demon on the Boiling Isles, pays a lot of money, is friends with Keeper, we’ve seen it” Lunella said in a teasing tune

“Pretty creepy but who am I to judge?” Zephyr said flatly.

“Are we finished?” Keeper asked with a stern tone.

“As you can see from our friend from earlier…” They said, pointing towards the eagle, which now had bandages across its neck.

 “We help those who need it so they can keep living in the wild and doing their own thing. Though, sometimes a beast is dangerous and can’t stay.”

Dangerous beasts…? …

A thought crossed their mind

Juniper raised their arms once more.

“U-um, Keeper… when I first got into the woods, I heard grunting that was really really close to me… there were branches breaking and I think I also heard hooves clomping “ 

All three of the witches looked at them.

“You sure you didn’t just hear someone’s pet swine carried in the wind? Plenty of things in the forest grunt though, it could’ve been any manner of beast”” Zephyr said, before holding his hand to his chin

“Well, there is this one thing that sounds like that that’s been causing problems for us…”” Lunella added

Juniper began to sweat.

“Th-thing?”

“Oh yes, a massive boar with terrifying tusks, it’s been wreaking havoc all over the land for us, but it’s on the other end of the forest, and we always draw it off because we can hear it coming a million miles away! It’s not subtle. “ Keeper said with a chuckle.

“But if something were to distract us it might be able to-” Zephyr was saying before-

The sound of a large crash and what sounded like stones hitting the ground rang through the air

On instinct, all three of the witches reached for their palisman, and ran to the source of the noise

“Get inside, Rabbit, we’ll handle this.” Keeper said as they ran towards the source of the noise

No, no, no-... could it really be!? Did that horrible boar find Juniper when they first arrived; and could it have been following them!?

Defying their order, Juniper followed the witches path to behold a massive, sickly green boar with crystalline tusks running back and forth across the plot of land, trampling through any grass that happened to be nearby, and also damaging one of the buildings  it had come close to!

“Damn it, the roof’s collapsing, I’ll handle this!” The tall Keeper said as they charged forward, holding their arms up. “I’ll get the animals out, you hold that overgrown slab of bacon off.”

 Keeper charged forward, and holding their arms up, managed to  catch a peace of the ceiling with one of their arms and using her strength to hold the building in place while using their free arm to summon small insects to carry away any beast or palisman that was still in the building

“Pacify it, the Grim’ll be pis-... ticked if we kill it!” They barked at the other two

“You got it!” The two responded

 Lunella held her left arm out and wove a dark purple circle in the air. 

Soon, from the circle emerged an extremely round, pale white creature with stubby arms, it looked like a round ghost, and it was big. The Spirit rushed forward towards the boar, flying all around it and distracting the rampaging creature. 

While it was distracted, Zephyr spun his staff with a cat on the top through the air, suddenly, a gust of wind blew past him and at the boar, pushing  it back several feet.

It squealed in anger and began to drag its hooves in the ground, preparing to charge.

“Oh no, I don’t think you’re doing that!” Lunella said as her round companion reappeared in front of the boar and grabbed hold of one of its tusks, holding it in place as it began to try and push through.

“Titan you don’t get the message-...”  Zeph said as he chucked another rock at the boar’s head, which briefly stopped it, before it began pressing forward even harder, pushing back both the spirit and Lunella.

“I think making it angrier is working out great, Little Zeph!” Lunella said with the smallest hint of sarcasm

“Well it’s a little too angry for illusions, sorry about that” He responded with a bored tone

Keeper kept their arms raised and the ceiling of the small building remained in place, and soon enough, all of the assorted beasts and palisman were free. They grinned before pushing their arm up and shooting the piece of the ceiling up into the air, scattering assorted rocks and thatched roof through the skies… which began to rain down

By sheer luck, some of the pieces manage to fall directly onto the boar! Unluckily, Zephyr and Lunella had to dive out of the way, causing the spirit to follow suit

“Oh, I didn’t even mean to do that. Nice!” They said

“Yeah, and now our guest is free to gore you” Zephyr said flatly

Snorting in rage and defiance, the Boar once more began to charge, but this time, it sprinted forward, intending to impale the witch upon its tusks.

But just in the nick of time, Lunella’s spirit friend appeared in front of it, grabbing the boar’s right tusk and holding it in place.

With a smirk, Keeper grabbed the left tusk with all of their might and buckled their feet.

“Alright, three… two…” Keeper said to themselves, before letting out a mighty roar as they used all of their strength to fling the boar up into the air, with the spirit helping

And it worked!

The porcine threat was now high up into the air before it crashed down with a mighty “THUD!”, with a plume of dirt following in its wake

Keeper proceeded to dust their hands off.

“Problem solved-” They said to themselves, before sighing

It was getting up, it was on its back but it was in the process of getting up.

The laid back witch let out a sigh, pinching the bridge of their temple

“Sturdy little guy, isn’t it?” They asked.

“Stubborn is right. I’m starting to get tired. We did use a lot of our magic today…” Zephyr responded.

“Maybe we should just let the Grim handle it.. But, we gotta try, right?” Lunella asked, tilting her head

“We gotta, alright… let’s do it again!” Keeper said, spinning their staff and slamming it onto the ground and summoning spiders, who once more spat out silk to bind the boar in place. But it was writhing and occasionally breaking the silk

“Alright, time to calm down…” Weaving a light blue circle, Zephyr created a bright pink boar with a bow on its head appeared before the angry beast, and while it stopped for a moment, it continued to thrash. “Man, that usually works…”

“Alright, that’s enough, time to sleep~” With a handful of purple dust, Lunella blew the mixture into the Boar’s face, and while its movement grew sluggish, it continued to thrash and break the silk, if this kept up, it was going to be free!

“You gotta be kidding me… alright, that’s it, I’m summoning the Grim!” Keeper said, holding their free hands to their mouth and blowing a loud whistle

…

From afar, from the safety of a nearby smaller building that wasn’t damaged. Juniper watched in enraptured awe as the three witches used everything in their arsenal to fight this adversary, it was… amazing! They were certainly capable of handling themselves, and it came as little surprise that they were able to survive out here so long.

Keeper’s strength and cunning, Zephyr’s cleverness and pragmatism, Lunella’s helpers and strange magic… they all complimented each other well, they were like an unstoppable team…

And yet… they were having trouble with this boar, it was so resilient, it wouldn’t stop!

And it was Juniper’s fault that this creature came here and laid waste to the Beast’s Sanctuary, a building was damaged because they didn’t think something would follow them here!

“I should’ve never come here, now they’re getting hurt and all their stuff is getting broken… I can’t fix this! I’m such a screw-up I just drag down everything around me when I act like myself…” They said, looking down and kicking at the dirt.

“I’m just such a big mistake…!” They wailed.

A pause.

They froze

Wait…

Mistake… Mistake… Mistake.

The gears in their head began to turn. They happened to have a mistake on them this very moment.

Their green eyes glistened, reaching down into their pocket, they flipped it open to see the sickly orange mixture still in the bottle. The Paralyzing Potion. The thing they made by mistake…

… Could that really help?

… What other choice was there?

… And better yet, what kind of Messenger of Love would run away? 

They took a deep breath, placing their left hand upon their chest, and reaching down with their right hand to grasp the Paralysis potion firmly.

They had to make it up to the three witches who showed them kindness. They had to make this right

They nodded in response, turning around and peeking around the corner. The Boar was still restrained, but it looked like it was on the verge of escape. Dusting off the hay from their sides, they adjusted their glasses and made sure they were on tight.

A boar was great at charging and doing unpredictable movements, their tusks could run a man through, their back hooves could crush ribs with ease, but there was one part of a boar’s body that wasn’t a death machine… its side. Unprotected.

With a nod, Juniper quickly slid along the sides of the building, ducking and going under  to make sure they wouldn’t be seen by the witches or the boar, they dove to another building, ducking behind that as well, and sidling as quietly as they could, they turned aroud the corner and had a perfect shot at the boar, but they’d need to be closer

If they missed, it would be all over

They heard a sharp whistle pierce through the air, maybe that was the signal they needed. Holding the potion in their right hand, they turned around from the corner, and took a deep breath, taking several steps forward.

The boar thrashed and writhed, and soon, it had managed to break free of its bindings, it snorted in defiance and once more began to drive its hooves into the ground, getting ready to charge at Keeper and gore the rest of them

Suddenly, frenzied footsteps came from the south, and a certain red headed witch was running with an orange potion in their hand. It looked like they were frightened as heck, but they moved regardless.

“What on Earth is the Rabbit doing…?” Keeper asked

“I dunno but I respect the courage.” Zephyr added

“We’ll protect them, right?” Lunella said with a soft chuckle

“I’m gonna make this right… because even a potion made by mistake has its uses!” They yelled

With an underhanded toss, Juniper threw the sickly orange bottle with all their might directly at the boar’s side, hoping to hit anything…

…

And with the loud crash of broken glass, the orange juices were all over the side of the boar, it quickly turned around to face Juniper with a grunt, it immediately charged towards them

Their eyes wide with fear, their body froze, all they could do was hold up their arms to protect their body as the boar raced towards them.

“I-it didn’t work, it didn’t work, I can’t do anything right!” They said to themselves as they closed their eyes

This time they really were gonna die, they could feel it.

Juniper allowed the sounds to grow closer, while there was the sound of rapid footsteps, no doubt the witches trying to rescue them, the sound of hooves clomping towards them grew closer, and closer… 

… Until it stopped.

Juniper’s eyes opened

All three of the wild witches were in front of them, forming a shield around them.

The witchling blinked.

“H-huh?”

The three of them looked a little surprised.

Juniper leaned past them to see why.

The Boar was frozen mid-charge, it seemed like it was trying to move, but couldn't. The boar’s eyes darted back and forth until it fell onto  its side with a loud thud.

….

Immediately, the three witches burst out laughing.

“A paralysis potion… why didn’t we think of that!?” Keeper said with a hearty chuckle.

“Not a bad plan, you probably shouldn’t have given yourself away though” Zephyr said with a smirk.

“Bravery is only one part of it, but you certainly helped~” Lunella cooed.

…

They…  They did it…

The potion worked.

The boar was paralyzed… and the three witches were… ok?

…

A joyous laugh began to emerge from Juniper was they fell backwards onto the soil, a wide smile plastered across their face, they didn’t even mind if they were looking directly up into the darkening sky, they could only laugh and raise their right arm up with a thumbs up towards the endless sky.

They actually did something right and helped someone for once. They weren’t a failure. They weren’t a mistake.

And neither was the potion that they considered getting rid of. It helped.

The laughing soon stopped, and the three Wild Witches were looming above him.

Nervously, he chuckled.

“I-is this the part where you say that was stupid?” Juniper asked

“No, this is the part where I say that was very brave of you. You may be a frightened rabbit, but you have heart all the same.” Keeper said with a reassuring tone of voice

“We probably had that in the bag but… thanks, Juni.” Zephyr added.

“You helped three strangers who you thought were going to murder you, that’s awful sweet… oh, you remind me of a Shortcake!” Lunella said with a smile

Juniper chuckled before sitting up, wiping away any dirt that might’ve hung onto their jacket.

“I couldn’t sit around doing nothing… you were going to get hurt because I was stupid and ran off into the forest without any thought.” They said quietly.  

“I would’ve been awful if I just left you alone.” Shaking their head, they looked back up at the stars, and then back down to see a shadowy mass looking right at them.

It was horrific, a pitch black mound of the deepest shade of nightmares, with two milky white eyes staring at the witchling, as if judging them

Juniper froze in place, crawling backwards in fright.

“Th-there’s another beast, and it’s looking at me…” They said, beads of sweat dripping down their face as a deathly chill fell over them.

“No, no, that’s the Grim I was talking about. He protects the Graveyard just beyond  the sanctuary” Keeper explained. 

“If you show it respect, it won’t hurt you, and if it respects you, well, that’s great because it will protect you as well” The tall witch said with a smirk

The Pitch Black amalgamation continued staring at Juniper, before it bowed its head gently, before it shot back to the graveyard

Juniper once more fell backwards onto the dirt, their green eyes narrowed in annoyance. “How many nightmares for life am I gonna get today!?” they said exasperatedly.

Once more, the three witches chuckled, Keeper smacked their knee

“Well, there ya go, The Grim respects you, which is great, because this lines up with what I was thinking!” They said

Juniper blinked.

“Huh…?”

All three of the witches smiled as they helped Juniper up.

“We were going to give you our blessing for you to visit here whenever you wanted, Grim doesn’t need to respect you for that, but it certainly helps” Keeper said with a nod.

“Yeah, I mean, kinda hard to be mad at you when you paralyzed a boar and also gave us a laugh not long before that.” Zephyr said, shrugging.

“And you are so sweet, Shortcake! I simply wish to see you around again!” Lunella said with a toothy smile.

Juniper stood there, completely still, a vacant look on their face.

“I don’t… get it…?” They said flatly

“You’re free to visit the Beast Sanctuary whenever you want” Keeper said flatly

“And it sounds like school is stressing you out, I get that, coming here might help clear your head… also we’re cheaper than therapy” Zephyr said with a chuckle.

“Plus, we can help teach you magic for more potions, or help show you things only a Wild Witch can teach you!” Lunella said with a wink

… Juniper’s heart began to beat faster, their eyes beginning to sparkle, and a warmth began to grow in their face and chest

“Y-... you… you… really… want to see me again?” A flash of red across their face formed, looking at the witches and for once, not breaking eye contact, they were too focused on this moment.

“Of course!” They all said in unison.

A deep shade of red came across their face, there was a pressure in their eyes, they felt like crying, but they wouldn’t.  Not this time. They didn’t have a reason this time. Finally, someone besides their immediate family wanted to see them.

“Y-... you really want to see me again…” Despite all their flaws, somehow, someway, people wanted to see them again

Their lips quivered, but shook their head. They didn’t want to look said, looking up at the three who towered over them. Juniper gave a smile. The best they possibly could.

“Hey, are you ok with being touched now that we’re not strangers?” Keeper asked gently

“... I-I guess?” The Witchling said in response

“Good.” Keeper said as they pulled the Juniper into a hug, with the other two joining as well. A hug with three people… they all felt so soft, even with Keeper’s muscles being so strong.. It was a warm embrace, and the relief that they felt from it… it was too much.

They wrapped their arms around the three best they could, leaning into them and gently nuzzling their face against each of them. It was getting hard to see, and they could tell that they were close to crying, and tears were beginning to fall from their face, but only a bit.

It wasn’t sad… it was like… a blanket wrapped around them, providing them warmth and comfort.

It reminded Juniper of when their mother gave them a hug before bed… with all the anxiety and worry of the day fading away into the night air as sweet dreams followed suit…

It was… nice. It was very very nice.

Juniper didn’t want to let go.

They held tight, leaning into it…

…

This went on for about half a minute

A pause.

“A-alright, letting go now, this is getting weird.” Zephyr said, before letting go, Lunella and Keeper following suit, after a few minutes

“S-... sorry” Juniper said sheepishly as they raised up their glasses and wiped the tears from their eyes.

They blinked in surprise, looking up once more at the night sky

It was… dark out. Like…

Dark dark out!

How long were they here?!

“A-ack, it’s night! I need to study and get home!” Juniper said, yelping and looking around in shock

“C-can one of you take me home!? … Sorry to impose!” They said nervously

“Fine fine, I’ll do it…” Keeper said with a chuckle, holding out their goat-dragon staff which floated perpendicular to the ground, hovering above it. “Hop on. I’ll take you home, plus you look tired.” They said, getting on the head of the staff.

“We’ll see you tomorrow or the next time, alright? Take care of yourself, Juni” Zephyr said with a wave

“And this time, try not to let a beast follow you here, Shortcake!” Lunella said with a teasing tone before also waving off

Juniper smiled and nodded at the two, taking a seat on board and kicking their legs eagerly.

“I-I will! Thank you… thank you, I can’t wait to see you two again…”

Keeper chuckled and nodded. 

“Alright, off we go.”

Juniper held on tight as the staff shot forward up into the sky above the treeline, wind flowing into their hair.

“I’ll take you home, just outside the forest though, alright? You’ll have to walk. Me and the Emperor’s Coven don’t exactly get along…” Keeper said with an annoyed tone of voice.

Before Juniper had a chance to truly enjoy the sights, in just a minute, they were outside of the forest, just a half block away from their backyard, and they were hovering just above the ground.

“Aw, over already…?” they said, somewhat disappointed

A chuckle escaped Keeper.

“There’ll be plenty of time to bond on other days, Rabbit”

Juniper sighed, hopping off and turning around to face Keeper once again

“I’m glad I’m still breathing thanks to you three… I promise I’ll visit, I won’t leave you alone!” 

“That’s good, ‘cuz between you and me I think Zephyr and Lunella were getting tired of seeing just us three every day…” They said with a chuckle, before turning their staff around and pointing at the trees.

“We’ll make a path for you through the forest tonight, alright? We’re gonna paint trees with a symbol which will lead you to a general area where the house is, after that, you’ll probably remember the way.” Keeper said, pulling out a scroll, which unfurled to show a symbol, it was a goat-dragon hybrid with its arm held forward in a defensive  stance.

“Don’t sell us out, though, I don't  need to tell you that," The muscular witch said with a smirk.

“P-promise” Juniper said with a nervous chuckle.

Putting the scroll away, Keeper leaned onto their palisman.

“Good job, by the way. You did lead that boar to us, but now that it’s paralyzed, we can either try to tame it, or relocate it to somewhere where it won’t be a problem for us. And if it’s too much, we can always see what the Grim thinks!” They said with a laugh.

The bespectacled Witchling was rubbing their left arm nervously as they looked down, Keeper turned their head and sighed. 

“Rabbit-...” They said

Juniper closed their eyes and looked up, pressing their hands down.

“Is it really ok though!? That building-...” They said

“Can be fixed and rebuilt” Keeper responded, they sighed, before looking at Juniper in the eyes

“It’s fine, really… c’mon, Rabbit, you’re overthinking this.”

A frown was still plastered across the witchling’s face.

Keeper frowned, but took a deep breath and floated closer to them, reaching out, they put a hand onto Juniper’s head and gently patted them

“Don’t blame yourself too much, ok?  We all make mistakes. I mean, I’ve taken on beasts that could have bitten my head off, and they came pretty close a few times!” They said, gesturing to the various scars on their body.

“But it happens, alright? Sometimes because we don’t think things through we get put into weird situations. It’s part of growing. You’ll learn from this and you’ll become an even better person!” They said reassuringly.

Juniper looked down, before looking back up at the wild witch.

“But… What if the person I am is weird? I act and think differently than almost everyone else. Even when I try to fit in by acting like everyone else, it just never works because I’m different…” They murmured.

… Keeper looked away, but leaned down and put their arm upon Juniper’s shoulder, looking them in the eye.

“Just because you act and think differently doesn’t mean you need to try and act like everyone else. You’re you, there’s no other Juniper Sails out there, alright? You’re different from anyone else, and you shouldn’t try to change that.” They said, patting the witchling on the shoulder one more time

Juniper looked up at Keeper, keeping eye contact, and smiled.

“... Th-... thanks… you’re right!” There weren't any other Juniper Sails on the island that they knew of, so why were they trying to be someone else?

They chuckled and looked up at their new Wild Witch friend with glittering eyes

Keeper chuckled before placing their hands upon the staff, getting ready to leave.

“We can talk more about this tomorrow-... ah, dang it, our time’s getting cut short”  They said, ducking behind a nearby tree, and gesturing to an area behind Juniper.

Juniper looked, and a white masked figure was looking around the are suspiciously before turning around and leaving.

Keeper lowered their voice to a whisper

“Just try and be yourself more when applicable, ok? And smile more, you got a great smile! You smiled better than some of my classmates when you paralyzed that boar!” They chuckled”

… They looked up at Keeper, before smiling as widely as they possibly could have

“I’ll try!”

The muscular witch grinned and smiled in return.

“Great, see ya tomorrow!’ They said, before flying off into the dusk, growing farther and farther away from view until they were as distant as another star on the horizon

With a content sigh and a smirk, Juniper turned around and began walking back towards their house… it thankfully wasn’t a long walk, because after roughly ten minutes of walking, they saw the familiar sight of numerous Bonesborough buildings coming into view. With an excited chuckle, they ran forward, and soon found themselves back in the backyard of their guardians house. They never thought they’d be so glad to see it again.

With a deep breath, they looked upwards towards the sky, and were greeted with thousands of stars twinkling in the sea of purple above them, it was simply beautiful, it was almost as if it was looking right back at them.

A frown came across their face as memories of the vision flooded into their mind, shaking their head.

It couldn’t have been right, right?

Was Juniper really meant to be alone forever with only the night sky as their companion? It didn’t make sense…

They paused, looking down at themselves, and looking at their hands, which were still dirty from their adventure in the woods, but shrugged and once more gazed above. A thought crossed their mind

“... Is that really so bad?” They asked, raising their pointer finger towards the sky.

“If the stars are my friends… then that means I have hundreds of them up there, not even counting the sun and moon…!!!” They stopped. Their eyes began to grow wide in shock

A sharp gasp escaped them.

“W-... wait…! What if… what if-...!” It was as if a ton of dots began to connect within the witchling’s head, their mouth only growing wider in surprise.

“My vision meant… that the stars are indeed my friends… and the stars could also symbolize how many friends I’ll have!?”  they froze in place, looking up, as if expecting an answer… before shaking their head

… “Ok maybe not, but… maybe!” They said with a chuckle. 

“It’s possible… there’s a lot of ways to interpret a vision after all…” The young witch said to themselves quietly as they walked up to their backyard door, reaching for the hidden key, using it to unlock the door, and repeating the process of hiding the key and locking the door inside.

They looked around nervously, hoping that nothing was amiss.

Everything in the house was as it was. Nothing was moved, barring the closet door being a bit ajar.

Juniper walked from the back door and pushed the closet shut, they looked around, and their guardians were still missing.

A deep sigh escaped them.

They were all alone  once again.

But…things felt different this time.

Was it perhaps they now had three people they could visit whenever they wanted if they were feeling lonely? Maybe!

The witchling shook their head, they needed rest…

They took several steps up the stairs before returning to their bedroom in the guest room, diving behind the changing cover and quickly changing into their very comfortable pajamas. 

They let out a loud yawn, taking off their red glasses and placing them onto the safety of the night stand, after that, they stood completely still and fell face first onto the bed.

“What a day… I guess I have three real friends now-...”  They said to themselves, opening their eyes to see a familiar three eyed toad plush in their vision

Juniper let out a gasp. They covered their mouth before reaching over and grabbing their toady plush and holding it close

“Sorry I said that, Kemmy! You’re still my friend” They said, pressing their head against it.

“But three friends who live out in the woods and help animals… I-I mean… maybe they’re more like teachers…? I dunno…” They muttered, before shaking their head and rolling over, pulling a blanket over them and letting its warmth wash over them

“They were really scary at first… but… now I’m really excited to meet them again…” They said, a smile growing on their face wider and wider.

“M-maybe I could… even act like myself in front of them and not pretend to be normal…” Juniper said as they made themselves comfortable, remembering Juniper’s words to them

“W-we’ll see! I’ll see them again tomorrow…” Juniper said, clapping their hands together as the lights in their room, and soon, the entire house went out

“I should really sleep-”  Almost on cue, they closed their eyes and began snoring, sleep taking them almost immediately.

As they began to drift off towards sleep, they could only think about how it started off so poorly, but then ended with them meeting with some strange, if charming witches. Even with a vision that said otherwise… they had a feeling that soon, they would have many more friends if things went well…

And they could not wait to see what happened next…

The Young Witch’s consciousness soon began to fade as they fell asleep

They hoped tomorrow would be even better.

They had a feeling it would… after all.

Now they had three people they could talk to, and that was three more than they had when they started the day!

[turquoisespace35]

Banshees' captain 41

Previous

Next

Cover

[mentalmeles]

Dream.

[kaereth]

TOH themed commission I did for @victoryfroststarlight! :D

[rincolonthree]

Vee-xolotl because yes :3

[skipppppy]

Accidentally pours my heart out onto the page and shares the characters from a story I’ve been working on since I was 15 ahaha (cries)

A rough summary of the plot:

Alba knows she’s marked for death on her 16th birthday as part of a prophecy to become a mortal vessel for an incorporeal goddess, who also happens to be her mother. When she’s transferred to a school for spellcasters, she finally decides to do something about it.

It’s called “School of Crows” and I’d love to make a show or a webcomic out of it one day!

[strawbbz]

still have artblock but heres some stuff I've done since last time 👍

[6kai3]

art dump lallaa

[autisticgayplushie]

Clover Plushie, based on the character from The Owl House :3

[linnyphoenix]

lil fella 💚

[jutsei]

The Beast Sanctuary Chapter Two: Earning Your Stripes

(Finished Chapter two of my fic, of twenty for the first “season”! This one took a lot less work since everything’s established, I’ve even already gotten the third outline ready to go! I hope you enjoy this chapter as well!)

Chapter Summary: After befriending the witches of the Beast Sanctuary, Juniper is in a better place than they were before, but still finds themselves lacking in courage and conversational skills, so they attempt to improve them in hopes of inquiring about a particular book series! If it works, they may even get two new friends! Which will certainly help when two students careless mistakes result in a problem growing out of control.Meanwhile, the Witches of the Beast Sanctuary attempt to tame an unruly patient before it causes problems further down the lines, could the solution be simpler than they think?

If you’d prefer, here’s a link to the AO3 Version!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/46887817/chapters/118404745#workskin

Silence filled the air of Bonesborough.

No birds chirping, no carts moving, no doors opening and slamming shut… gone was the usual cacophony. 

It was so early in the morning, that not even scammers were about! 

But as the violet of dawn began to fade, the sun in response started its rise.

The shining star hung above in the sky, bringing wondrous light to the Boiling Isles as various demons, witches, and animals roused from their slumber, shuffling out of their doors and beginning to scuttle down the stone streets, making an awful racket.

While before there was not a peep, soon, a myriad of noises began to fill the air.

Doors opening, shoes against cobblestone roads, animals chirping peacefully before cawing angrily, in a sheer matter of moments, life and movement began to pour into the town and made it feel truly alive!

 The shine of a beautiful morning peeked into the window of a red headed witchling’s bedroom, and soon, fell upon them as well.

 Letting out squeaks of annoyance, Juniper groaned, tossing and turning in their bed, hoping  to get just a few more minutes of rest, but soon, that infernal ball in the sky reflected a light off of a nearby window directly into their eye, and the young witch yelped as they fell out of their bed, taking their blankets with them

 Now firmly on the floor, they groggily sat up, poking their head out from their blankets.

“ I guess I’m up now.” They murmured to themselves as they reached for their glasses on the nightstand and gently placed their three eyed toad plush onto the bed along with the blankets.

 Letting out a yawn, they stretched and shook their head.

“Another day at Hexside! And then, after school, I can go meet my new friends…!”

 They paused, a flash of red coming across their face as they held their chest.

“Right… I-I have friends now! Actual friends! Friends who are… older than me… and who are… wild witches…” They said, their tone quickly changing from hopeful to a little worried.

 “... Th-That sounds far-fetched, am I sure I wasn’t dreaming it…?” Juniper said to themselves, flopping onto the bed and leaning towards their clothes from yesterday, feeling around for something

 “Let’s see…” They said to themselves, pulling various things from the unused pockets, lint, some gum, the Invigoration Potion…-... they didn’t use that at all yesterday…?

 Grabbing the green flask, they gently placed it safely into a nearby cabinet. “Hope I won’t forget about you….”

 Returning to their search, they paused and grabbed something that felt like a sheet of paper, nervously, they looked at it and…

… Nothing. Just a blank faded piece of parchment

 “Dang it….! It was just a dream. I’ve still got no-...” They lamented, before noticing something  visible through the other side of the paper.

 Flipping it around, they gasped.

It was there…

 The symbol of the dragon-goat, like the one on the Keeper's staff…! It was all real! This would be the symbol that guided them to The Beast Sanctuary!

 “I-I didn’t dream it! Yes!” They cheered as they hopped onto their feet and did a celebratory fist pump

 “I can visit them… I can see them!” Juniper said happily, rocking back and forth, before placing the symbol down on their bed.

 “... If Miner and Lief come back and see you, I’m worried they might think I’ve fallen in with some shady business…” They said to themselves, before placing the symbol into a drawer and hiding it away onto their nightstand.

 “So I’ll just use you after school so I can get changed!” The witchling said with a happy and cheerful tone as they got changed into their school uniform, skipped downstairs, grabbed a snack from a nearby fruit bowl, and hummed to themselves, they leaned into the kitchen to sneak a peek. Still no Aunt and Uncle present.

 But this time, they shrugged.

“Oh well, maybe in a few days, once that Conformatorium is fixed up I bet I’ll see them again…” They said, before smiling with a chuckle.

 “ ‘Sides, now I can have company out in the woods!” Juniper said as they opened the door to outside and repeated what they were instructed to do every time they left the house. Lift the rock for the key, lock the door, return the key under the rock, off on your way!

 With their guest housing safely secured, the happy student skipped and walked, weaving through the crowd as they walked towards Hexside, their heart was absolutely brimming with joy, delight, and eagerness to see  those three wild witches again!

 So merry were they, that they even stopped at the stall row of the market for once, spinning on their heels to greet the shopkeepers. A few were annoyed, most didn’t answer, but quite a few appreciated the greetings from a teenager in a good mood.

 The gray haired woman at the “Human Treasures” stall snorted and leaned onto her elbow while looking at the peculiar sight

“Well someone’s in a good mood!” She said to herself. “Shame it looks like they don’t have any snails. Ooooooooh well” . With a stretch, she resumed  her usual game of peddling glorified trash.

 Once they were past the Market, Juniper hardly lost any of their energy, and soon, they were once more at the long pathway to Hexside.

 While still brimming with happiness, as soon as Juniper saw other students pouring in, they stopped, taking a deep breath. “Right… gotta act-...” They paused, the advice from yesterday still fresh in their head.

 “... I don’t need to act normal, maybe I could act like me this time!” They said, preparing to resume their skipping and not care what other people might say about them…

 …

 Before shaking their head, holding their arms at their side, and went back to walking normally.

“B-but maybe I’m not ready for that…” They said, their smile turning into a  more neutral expression. Though their chest was still filled with warmth, their outside appearance wouldn’t have given that impression…

 They sighed as they walked forward, but as they stepped forwards, they couldn’t help but notice there was a bounce in their step, and after just a few seconds, their smile returned. They couldn’t help it, they were happy…!

 They didn’t have to act like themselves yet… but there was no reason they had to hide their joy!

 … They were still nervous of what people might think of them, but was school so utterly crushing that they couldn’t even smile?

 No. It was not.

 So,  with that, Juniper walked up the stairs of Hexside, a smile still clear on their face, as they walked through the lobby and down the hall, they couldn’t help but hear at least one chuckle, not from a student, but from a teacher who seemed to be on the way to their own class.

 “Hahaha, well isn’t someone eager to learn!? That’s great! “ 

Did Juniper really look that eager? People might think they’re some kind of nerd who tries their best to please others… but, that was a teacher… they had to make a good impression in case they showed up later!

 “Of course! I’m ready to fill my brain with knowledge. Or. Something!” Juniper said with a slight chuckle as they entered their first room and took a seat.

 They were bouncing up and down in their chair, eager to head to The Beast Sanctuary after school, and yet. They had to calm down.

 They tried their best to try and keep those thoughts out of their head,  trying not to imagine all the fun they’d have later with their new Wild Witch friends… 

 And failed, they were still rocking back and forth eagerly, thinking of all the fun that could be had!

Looking at animals with Keeper, Zephyr showing off illusions, and Lunella elaborating on her mysterious dream magic…

 They sighed dreamily as they leaned forward onto their arms, before shaking their head and staring forward

 This wouldn’t do…! They had to calm down or else they’d miss knowledge or mess up in Potions Track later…

 With a deep breath, Juniper narrowed their eyes, clasped their hands over one another as they were placed down onto the desk, and leaned forward, trying to look as absolutely serious as possible.

 ….

 And failing, they looked more cute than anything.

With a sigh, they threw back their head in annoyance and looked up at the ceiling.

 “Sure hope this doesn’t mess up my day.” They said to themselves as the teacher for the day walked in and began talking about runes as Juniper leaned forward with interest and tried to listen

.  . . 

 Hours upon hours passed, and soon, class had ended for the day, and to Juniper’s surprise… no!

 Their boundless energy and joy did not ruin their day, in fact, they found it a little easier to focus than before. Was it their good mood? Perhaps it was the promise that they had something to look forward to once school has ended? It did not matter.

 It wasn’t a very eventful school day, regardless.

Potions Track covered how to tell if a potion was viscous, gaseous, or a bunch of other ___ouses.

General history covered the period right after Emperor Belos united the Isles…

And of course, writing class happened today. It was mostly there to increase skill for rune writing. Juniper had liked writing, but the thought of sitting still for hours breathing life into writing sounded a little exhausting. Maybe they should try it sometime?

With a spring in their step, they walked down the steps of the school and began their long walk home, brushing past fellow students, including one who wore the blue of Healing Track and had their hood held tight around their head, with hair hanging loose in front, and another with side swept hair in Abomination Track, it seemed they were chatting about something, though, Juniper could not hear it. The fact they had matching books nestled under their arms made it seem like they were talking about something…

 They were curious now, perhaps Juniper should reach out and say hello? With a bit of a stride, they got closer to the two chatting witches… only to freeze in place as a thought entered their head

 “What if they find me weird?” They thought “What if I’m off putting to them and I can never talk to them about their book ever again?”   “I need to keep quiet, three friends is enough, right?” They said quietly to themselves

 As they stood still, the other two strangers stopped and looked around, all around them, seemingly hearing something

 “Did you hear something?” The one with the hood asked “Yeah I did, maybe it was in the woods? “ The girl with side swept hair said, before shaking her head

“... Anyway.” Their conversation continued, but thankfully, it looked like they didn’t notice Juniper at all. For a moment, they were terribly afraid they had bungled it again like yesterday

 They stood there as the two strangers grew ever closer away, and soon, out of sight.

…

The witchling let out a sigh. “Maybe I can try again tomorrow.” They said to themselves as they returned onto their trek home.

Clack, clack, The sound of their shoes hitting the pavement below echoed around them as they walked through the stall section of the market, ducking over the outstretched arms of shopkeeps who wanted to sell them something. They waved their hands to assure the waiting vendors that he simply didn’t have any money to spend.

While some might find it annoying, Juniper did enjoy seeing what strange stuff people had to sell.

For example . . .

They passed by the “Human Collectibles” stall once again. That was odd, wasn’t it “Treasures from the Human Realm?” … Maybe that was just a mistake yesterday, or maybe the actual sign was stolen? Either way, it was “Human Collectibles” now, and while that fluffy and white haired woman was there earlier in the morning, she wasn’t here now!

 There was only a sign that said

“Special weekday and a half sale has ended, back at my usual times - E” 

 “E”? So her name started with E? Odd. Maybe on the weekend Juniper could ask her some stuff? … But what stuff?

Well, for starters, maybe they could ask if that different sign was for this supposed day and a half sale…

 With a shrug, Juniper resumed their walk, and after about ten minutes, returned home, doing the usual ritual to gain entry, and eagerly ran up the stairs to change into their casual clothes as quickly as they could!

 So eager to get changed, they noticed their shirt was on backwards, and quickly went back behind the changing cover to get everything fixed. Their heart was beating and they were humming happily as they opened the drawer to their night stand to retrieve the symbol on the paper.

 With a deep breath, they prepared themselves, and also got themselves a flask of water in case they got lost and needed a drink. Holding up the symbol, Juniper looked closely. Yep, still a goat/dragon hybrid.

 So all they had to do was follow the symbols on the trees…? Sounded simple enough.

 With a sigh, Juniper pocketed the paper, and went downstairs, before going out the backdoor and making sure to lock it

 Looking up at the sea of orange trees  in the distance, he steeled his heart and took a step forward into the woods of Bonesborough as they began the trek to The Beast Sanctuary… this time, with actual guidance!

 Carefully, the witchling took guided steps into the forest, making sure to not let panic grip them like they did the last time they were here. For every few steps they took, there was a symbol on a nearby tree that matched the one that Keeper had given to them.

At first, they were confused. There were no arrows to point them in another direction, but then, they noticed something.

 There were many trees with many different symbols, sometimes the dragon and goat were flipped, other times it was something else entirely,  and other times it was inverted, but on each tree with the proper symbol, there was some kind of arrow that led them to the next correct symbol. It made sense. 

The false symbols were meant to beguile and lead astray everyone else in circles… but because Juniper had the correct symbol, they were being guided by the correct symbols!

 Over a river, through a fallen log, past the long forgotten village, under massive trees, and once more passing through a familiar clearing, Juniper’s green eyes widened with joy as they followed each correct symbol, and soon, once more, there was one more symbol.

With a proud, deep breath, they walked forward past the last tree, before taking a small drink from their flask of water, and looked forward…

 And the familiar Beast Sanctuary came into view, all the buildings were still there, even the damaged one! (Which had a tarp hung over it). The large building, the smaller buildings, the stables… it was all still here!

 The witchling looked on with awe beneath their glasses as they walked around, taking note of all the sights. 

Some animals wandered around, the hoofprints from the boar yesterday were still there… Yep! It was all still here!

With a smile, they stepped up to the front door of the main house and knocked.

 “Lunella! Keeper! Zephyr! I’m here!” … They said,

… No response.

 … Blink. For a brief moment they wondered if they were being pranked, a chill worry washing over them.

 Turning the door knob, Juniper walked in.

“Hello…?”

 Looking around, they saw that the living room was empty, no one on the couches, chairs, or other assorted furniture, there was a note, though!

This was becoming a theme…

 They sighed, reached down, and read the note

“Rabbit, if you come to see us, we’re in the stable. - Keeper”

 Oh! That’s good then! With their smile restored, they pocketed the note, walked out the door, and held their hand above their head to get a better look

 The stable would be a long building , right?

 That’s the one you’d keep something like a wild beast! And, what luck! There happened to be a very long building right there!

 With the instructions clear in their head, the young student walked towards the Stable and opened the door, their hands held up high happily, waving it around to say “Hello!”

 “Hello, my new Wild Witch Friends-”

…

Only to be greeted with the sight of Keeper holding the sickly green boar from yesterday in a headlock.

 “Oh, hello Rabbit, don’t mind us, just. Restraining a wily patient” The muscular witch said as if nothing was wrong

 Zephyr and Lunella were on the side, with the lazy looking witch holding the boar down with a weight of stone on its back, and the slightly creepy one holding its other side with ghostly and ephemeral bandages.

 Upon seeing Juniper, the boar seemingly began struggling more and grunting in defiance, only for the bindings to tighten as the two witches turned to look at their guest

 “Oh! Shortcake came back!” The Dream Witch said happily

“Yayyyyyyyy…” Zephyr said casually

 Juniper could only stand there looking at the sight in shock. 

 “H-... huh…?” They blinked a few times in surprise to make sure they weren’t just seeing things.

After lifting their glasses and rubbing their eyes. The boar was still there.

 This was not a dream, but it sure seemed like a wide awake nightmare.

 So Juniper only stood there in stunned silence for what felt like hours.

 “Alright, Hamilton, we gotta go.” Lunella said as she blew a light purple mist into the boars nostrils, which caused it to fall limp as it immediately fell asleep

 All three released their grip on the boar, before leaving the magic which restrained it in place, they dusted themselves off.

 “Sorry about that, why are you acting surprised?” Keeper said, stretching out their back, the sound of bones crunching escaping coming from their back

 “I just… uh… thought you were going to relocate that boar and I’d… never have to see it again…” The witchling said, adjusting their glasses nervously.

 “Oh we tried, but it kept attacking us.” Lunella responded.

 “It’s too violent as it is right now for anywhere else, so we’re trying to tame him. Not havin’ much progress though'' Zephyr said with a sigh.

 “So it’s too violent to go anywhere else, so you keep it here where it could hurt you, my three only friends?” Juniper added with a sigh as they adjusted their glasses.

 … The three witches sighed and looked at their young fri-... student?

 “Rabbit, we’re experienced, we’ll be fine, we’ve had worse, we just need to figure out what he wants and he’ll be eating out of our hands no problem” The Keeper said as they gave a reassuring shoulder pat to Juniper.

 . . . 

 A light groan escaped them as their head leaned back

 “If you say so…” They shook their head, they wouldn’t let this undermine the first day they’d spend with the three Wild Witches who they met yesterday

 Looking up at the three, Juniper gave them a radiant smile

 “S-so, what should we do today!?” They asked eagerly.

 “Welllllll… we’ve kinda been exhausting ourselves keeping Hamilton restrained…” Zephyr added sheepishly.

 “It takes a lot to hold him in place, Shortcake.” Lunella said with a nod.

 “So there’s not a lot.. But there’s no reason we can’t show you a few things, huh?” Keeper said with a reassuring grin

 …

The teenager’s smile faded a bit, but nodded.

 This was still more time than they ever expected to spend with friends

 “S-... sure!” They said as they walked out into the open, the three trailing behind them.

 “You’re still early on in potions, so there’s not a lot we can teach you since you’re still learning the basics, but you know what we can do?” Keeper asked, pointing towards a small bird-like creature that was simply strutting around, minding its own business.

 “What can we do?” The student asked, watching with interest.

 “Some potions require parts of a living creature, it’s not all flora, sometimes you’ll need to wrangle some, or find shed parts of the skin, and who knows? That might just make an amazing potion!” Keeper said, reaching over towards the bird-like creature and scooping it up into their arms, it did not resist at all.

“For example, this is a flightless bird, though it looks like a Roc, it can’t really take flight” They explained, reaching behind it and gently pulling off three feathers, and using some clippers after retrieving them from their pocket,trimming its talons short.

 “But both its feathers and talons can be used as reagents in potions where you’d need parts of a bird, such as slowing your fall or giving something wings so it’ll fly away from you!” The muscular one said as it put the bird down, which waddled on away.

 Juniper watched on with awe, Keeper made it look so easy!

 The laidback witch sauntered towards Juniper and handed them the feathers and the talons

“This time I’m letting you have them, but next time when we’re less tired, you’re gonna have to do it, alright?” They said, reaching forward to pat Juniper on the head.

  They allowed it to happen as their hair got a little ruffled.

 “If you’re in Potions Track, you’ll need to learn how to get your own ingredients as well, Keeper has the right idea” Lunella said cheerfully

 “Yeah, like, you could just buy all your ingredients but that’d be… really expensive.” Zephyr added. “And sometimes potions don’t sell well…” He said, noticing how both of his compatriots were now staring at him

 “I said “Sometimes!” “ His arms were raised in defense, before shrugging and letting them fall to his side.

 “Anyway, that aside, you should keep that in mind. You should always have your own supply of ingredients ready, or be prepared to go out and get some if you need it. Later I’ll also show you how to pick out herbs. You’re probably already working with those, right?” Keeper asked.

 Juniper nodded in response and held their hand to their chin.

 “I actually didn’t think about how I’d need to gather my own… how am I supposed to find them, or defend myself…? I-I don’t think I’ve seen Potion Track members do anything but brew potions!” They said, walking around as they walked

 “Well, that’s up to you, Shortcake!” Lunella said, chuckling.

 “You’ll probably have to figure something out, but it’ll be uniquely you.” Zephyr added with a reassuring thumbs up.

 “Maybe I could make a spell that enhances my senses, or bring herbs to me…?” Juniper said, thinking to themselves, before the other three witches chuckled

 “Relax, relax, you’re not gonna figure out how to use your magic in a day.. This stuff takes time. One step at a time, alright?” Keeper said with  a grin.

 “Alright, how about we head inside and chat and maybe that’ll give you some ideas for your magic~?” Lunella asked with a singsong voice

 “Plus we do kinda need to sit down. Hamilton’s a really spirited slice of meat.” Zephyr  responded punctuating it with a yawn.

 The young witchling chuckled and nodded. “S-sure!” Opening the door, Juniper held it for the other three, who went in first, and then went inside after them

 The familiar smell of well cut wood, and the sound of animals scurrying about filled the room as some palisman scurried out of the room and into another.

 With a bit of exhaustion, the three witches walked forwards, before turning around and fell onto the couch at the same time as Juniper took their own seat in a larger armchair, leaning back into it and kicking their feet eagerly.

 “Soooo… what now!?” The Red Haired Witchling asked with a grin

 “Well, why don’t you tell us how your day of school went?” Zephyr asked. “You always seem eager to run your mouth about what happened”

“Hey…” The teenager responded by puffing out their cheeks in annoyance. They sighed.

 “Fiiine…”

  Leaning back into the chair, they smiled as they rested their arms against the chair, holding their arms out as they summarized what had happened in the day.

 How happy they were, how they actually were able to focus without aid of the potion, and how they figured out how to find the way to the Beast Sanctuary.

 “Sounds like a slow, boring day, but you’ll look back on days like this and laugh when you’re our age. Not every school day is gonna be exciting.” Zephyr said with a shrug.

The Dream Witch was leaning forward, her eyes sparkling with delight and wonder at the story that was unraveling

 “And is that all? Just a boring day at school? Are you holding out on us, Rabbit?” Keeper said with a bit of a lighthearted accusatory tone

 The student tensed up, but shook their head. “U-um, well… actually…”\

 All three of the witches leaned forward with interest

 “U-um… there were two students that were talking about a book… I wanted to say hello to them and ask them what they were talking about in case it sounded like something I might be interested in, but…” … Juniper paused, sinking into the chair, sighing.

 “I… didn’t…”

 The Wild Witches all looked at each other before shaking their heads, groaning, and returning to their seats

 “You’re not gonna make friends like that if you just stand around waiting for other people to talk to you first… well, I mean. It worked for me sometimes” Zephyr said flatly.

 “Oh, poor little Shortcake, so nervous… but you need to remember to at least try talking to them!” Lunella added.

“Rabbit, you can’t listen to your head all the time. If you just want to ask someone about something, you can. Even if you think you’re being weird, you’re not. You’re just asking a question” Keeper said with a nod.

 … Juniper looked down at the ground, rubbing the back of their head nervously

“I know, I know, but it’s hard sometimes… I’m so used to people looking at me strangely that if I ask something I worry they’ll just remember what I said and use that against me in the future…” They sighed. “Like they’ll just avoid me forever…”

 “Yeah… sometimes that’ll happen, but you gotta at least try, Juni,” Zephyr said with a reassuring tone of voice.

 “I guess…” Juniper said, kicking their feet.

 “Well, they’re in your school, you’ll see them again! And if you make a bad first impression you can try again. If you’re nervous, just pretend we’re there by your side.” Keeper said as they rested their head against the cushions of the couch.

 “... I-...” They said, sitting upright, before looking up and nodding with a smile

“I… I will try!” Juniper said, determination clear on their face.

 “Do you want to practice with us?” Zephyr asked gently.

 “... Actually I kinda do!” The student responded

 The tired looking man’s expression fell.

“I was kind of joking but, ya know what? Sure. Let’s do it.”

 With that, Juniper stood up and approached the three witches, taking a deep breath and raising their arm to signal they were speaking... before they stood there saying nothing, they couldn't think of what to say

... Awkwardly, they returned to their seat, looking disappointed with themselves

 The three witches chuckled as they prepared, this was going to take some work...

 Thus began practice.

 Over the course of a few hours, Juniper tried to improve their conversational skills for this made-up meeting that may not even happen;  trying to keep eye contact, and often failing.

And a few times they ended up running out of the house in nervousness to eject from the conversation, and at least once began talking about something completely unrelated to the books at hand.

 Every time, one of the three would look at Juniper and tell them to keep calm, and every time, that helped just a little bit, each practiced speech going better than the last. At the very least, Juniper’s heart was no longer pounding when they said “hello!”

 By the end though, the three witches looked even more tired than they already were, and the sun was beginning to set.

 “Alright.. One more time…” Zephyr said tiredly as he turned to face Lunella.

“Oh, this book series is so amazingly charming.” He said with a flat tone. “I just want to write fanfiction about it sooooo bad.” Lunella giggled.

“And I will draw fanart for this wonderful fic of yours”

 With a deep breath, Juniper walked forwards and raised their hand in greeting

“Oh, um,. Hello! I heard you talking about a book… I was… curious about it… b-b-because it sounds like it’s…. Fun…?” They asked nervously, their expression falling

 “Oh yes, it’s like, so totally awesome sauce. There’s a dragon in it” Zeph added, their face looking dead inside.

“It’s so great! Have you read about it?” Lunella added

 “O-oh, no, I was just curious about it!” Juniper said, chuckling.

 “If you want, do you want to sit with us to talk about it?” The Dream witch said with a gentle tone.

 “I-... I… uh… yeah! S-sure. I would love to sit with you and talk about it.” Juniper said as they took a seat on Zephyr’s lap, kicking their feet, while the wild witch looked dead inside

… The Teenage Student sat here, as their expression began to fall and look quite awkward as they began to sweat and looked up at the lazy looking man, staring off into the distance blankly

 “... Was I not supposed to sit on your lap?”  They asked sheepishly.

 “No, no you were not.” Zephyr said, lifting Juniper by their scarf like a small cat and placing them down on the ground

 “Did I do good aside from that?”

 They all nodded in response.

 “P-perfect! I’ll try tomorrow…” They said, turning their head to the window and letting out a gasp

“Ack! The sun’s going down, I should get home” Turning on their heels, they ran to the door

 “Thank you so much,guys!” Turning around, they bowed their head in gratitude to the three wild witches.

 “Any time! Now knock ‘em dead and tell us about it tomorrow!” Keeper said with a  grin

 “It was fun talking to you, even if we were simply roleplaying~” Lunella chirped

 “Yeah, yeah. Next time we don’t need to practice as much… but I had fun” Zephyr said, waving his hand

 With a smile, Juniper raised his hand and waved goodbye to the witches

“I’ll see you tomorrow, good luck with Hamilton~!” They said as they ran out the door, closing it behind them

 “... Crap I forgot we gotta tame Hamilton tomorrow” Zephyr said as he groaned, falling onto one arm of the couch.

 “We’ll get him calm, don’t worry~” Lunella said, reaching out to pat Zephyr

 “I think we should rest right now to be ready…” Keeper said as they closed their eyes, the other two followed suit as they began to wrap up for an early bedtime.

. .  .

 The stars twinkled in the looming night sky as Juniper took the long walk home, doing the opposite and following the other directions of the symbols, it was disorientating at first, but soon, the young witchling returned home, they smiled as they entered the house by the backdoor after locking it, and eagerly headed upstairs to sit on the bed, kicking their feet back and forth.

 They looked over to their nearby alarm clock and noticed that there was still roughly four or so hours to go before bedtime. That was four hours to do stuff… but, what could they do?

 They held their hand to their head in thought.

“I could just… keep practicing… but if I practice too much I might mess up.. Um… I guess I could study for school tomorrow… oh, OH! Or read a  book!” They said eagerly, hopping off the bed and retiring to the study to bury their nose in books.

 In particular, they decided to try and find some books about potions, in case there were any tips about how to make potions out of bird parts, since they still had quite a few from Keeper.

While they looked and looked, there were quite a few, but  all of the potion recipes that they could find required ingredients such as Firebee Honey… and, Juniper was in absolutely no mod to go out into the woods at this time of night and grab some honey from literally flaming bees.

 They sighed and instead turned their attention to dated books of daring-do and adventure.

 It was an uneventful four hours, but soon, Juniper’s eyes grew heavy as they returned to their bedroom, changed into their pajamas, and held their beloved Kemmy tight as they fell asleep…

 …

 With a yawn and a stretch, the young witchling stretched and greeted the ongoing morning, hopping out of their bed and getting prepared for the day ahead of them, doing all the usuals, getting dressed, making sure they got a breakfast snack before happily opening the door and heading to school!

 It was once more, an uneventful walk to school, same trip down that stone road, it was starting to become “Normal” for Juniper, not strange or scary, something that just… happened! Their heart fluttered,, because just two days ago, they were so certain this would never be normal… they were so certain they’d be gone!

 Hexside came into view, and with a smirk, Juniper nodded.

Today was going to be the day, they were going to talk to those two.. Or anyone, really, and make some more friends!

A chuckle escaped them as they went up the stairs and smiled as they walked towards potions class, taking a seat in the back as they did usually, smiling to themselves as they thought about visiting the Beast Sanctuary at the end of the day, or on the weekend, which was rapidly approaching. Other students began shuffling in, taking their own seats and looking forward.

 And not much longer afterwards, the bespectacled and beaked teacher walked in with a smile.

 “Good morning class! Today we’ll be trying something a little different!” They said, point towards the cauldrons on each student’s desk. Each of which was already filled with a mixture.

 “I’ve taken the liberty of preparing a potion mix for each of you, there’s a twist and a lesson to be had though!” They explained, holding up a finger.

 “Some potions require care and attention, others simply require the bare minimum of work…” They explained, before stirring the mixture on the desk, and there was a small pop as a black poof of smoke rose from it.

“... And a few require a fair amount of luck!” They said with a hearty chuckle.

 “So, it’s quite simple, all I ask you to do is stir the mixture three times, if you’re lucky, it will become a potion that emulates moonlight and all it entails!” Placing the stirring spoon by the side, they picked up their cauldron.

 “But if you’re unlucky like me, you’ll get what is known as a Botched Potion.” Walking towards the back of the classroom and out of sight, they gestured towards what looked like a rusted black sink.

 “Botched Potions are mixtures of items that don’t amount to anything, and are often dangerous… or simply do nothing. Because they have that potential, it is standard procedure to dump out any botched or failed potions in designated dump sights!” The teacher said as the silvery black mixture was poured down the sink. Once it went down the drain, there was a distant cough sound, like something far below drank it.

 “Do well to remember that if you’re studying potions in your home! Be absolutely certain to dump potions in designated drop-off zones. Whatever you do, do not dump failed potions out into the wild! Effects can vary wildly, but you’re best off just dumping it and letting the experts handle it!” With a smile, the teacher returned to their design

 Juniper sat there with unblinking eyes. Luck was sometimes a factor  as well…? Potions could be fickle, they assumed, but didn’t think that was actually a thing they’d have to worry about when brewing!

 With a deep breath, they reached for their stirring spoon and anxiously stirred as much as their tiny arms could, once, twice, three.

The mixture of many colors soon settled into a beautiful shade of silver and…

With a burst of light, what looked like dim, silver light shined from the inside of the cauldron, as if the moon itself was held within.

Looking down,  Juniper saw there was a softly glowing mixture in the cauldron

 There was a small clap from the Potions Teacher

 “And it appears luck is on Juniper’s side again! A beautiful Moonlight Potion has been made, well done!”’ With a bashful smile, the young student rubbed the back of their head sheepishly.

 Once more, they heard angry muttering behind them as they sunk into their seat. They honestly didn’t mean to accidentally fall upwards twice. Now did Juniper have to keep doing well? Would they disappoint the teacher and the students more if they messed up in earnest? … They shook their head and leaned back, looking around the classroom.

 Other students began to stir and mix, some lucky few got shining moonlight within a cauldron, just like Juniper, while many more were greeted with ugly black explosions and a lingering foul odor in the air.

 For those students who were simply unlucky, they anxiously  picked up their cauldrons, walked towards the station, and dumped away the befouled mixture before it could cause any trouble.

Explosion after light, light after explosion, soon, the classroom settled as the teacher chuckled.

“And that concludes that exercise, I hope this sticks with you, future mixologists!  Thankfully, only a few potions truly require luck, so this will likely not happen often. But now that you know what to do with a Botched Potion, it should help you know what to do if something goes wrong in the potion making process when you try to make your own potions! Simply dump it and all will be well!” They explained sternly before nodding and opening up a book on their desk

 “Now, we still have some time before the next class, so, let’s move onto the next topic then, something short yes? Next we’ll be covering ingredients that almost always cause a failure now-...” The teacher turned their back to the students and began drawing on the chalkboard.

 “Dang it…” One demonic student said to themselves on the other side of the room,  they had two sets of eyes, with an extra eye behind their head with a somewhat pale complexion, illuminated by the glowing silver-black mixture before them in the cauldron. “How did even the new kid get it right over me!? “ They murmured, staring at the mixture. Why didn’t they dump it? Were they perhaps nervous? Or maybe just no one told them to. 

“I shoulda just dumped this while I had the chance… I’ll get rid of it later.” They said to themselves, using every single one of their eyes darting to make sure the cast was clear.

 When they felt sufficiently safe, they quickly dumped the cauldron’s contents into a flask provided to each student, the silver-black mixture becoming a pure black pitch, which was then bottled and safely stored.

“No one needs to know about this.” They said to themselves quietly

 Juniper was too wrapped up in the lecture to notice this, they were taking mental notes on which potion ingredients to avoid using, it was so fascinating that some of these almost never worked! Who knew that the seeds of a particular type of fruit were so useless?

 Soon enough, the telltale screaming of the bell signaled the end of class, and the various students got up, dusting themselves off, and beginning to leave.

“Alright Students, I’ll see you tomorrow! For those who were lucky to get a mixture, don’t forget to bottle it up! It makes for a good way to read if all the candles are out!” The Teacher said with a smirk.

 Juniper sat up straight and made sure to store their glowing silver mixture into a bottle and pocketing it with a smile, they walked out of the classroom, pausing to stretch as a few students shuffled past them, one of which who, seemed to have purposely bumped hard into Juniper’s shoulder, knocking them off-balance and nearly knocking them over.

 The red headed student caught themselves on a nearby wall to glare at who went past them.

All Juniper could see was what looked like a literal eye in the back of their head, and the potions track uniform.

 “Wonder what their problem was…” They said to themselves as they dusted themselves off, adjusting their collar as they walked forward to their next class, humming.

They kept moving forward, sometimes bumping into people or things, and always apologizing and bowing their head in apologies

They couldn’t focus on what was in front of them, their head was  brimming with ideas of what they could do with the moonlight potion they had! Maybe they could do a Midnight Conjuring with the potion? No, probably not. Oh! Perhaps they could illuminate their room with it…?

 They kept thinking to themselves, walking past many students, and jumping over some fallen books, before looking up and noticing something odd as they shuffled towards their next class.

 Someone awkwardly stumbling from the Plant Class, holding what looked like an oversized clump of dirt, before they quickly hid it under their shirt in an attempt to hide it.

 Huh.

 Juniper blinked in confusion. What were they doing over in Plant Class with dirt outside?

They’d be the first to admit they knew nothing about what Plant Magic did, maybe they were keeping that clump of dirt for some personal use…?

 With a shrug, they entered their next classroom and took a seat, watching closely as their teacher walked in, and the lesson unfolded before them.

The Young Witch, as usual, had some trouble focusing in class, but this time, the subject matter at least interested them enough that they were enraptured and retained most of what was taught!

 Today’s lesson, rather than history, was focused more on early research into the magic of the coven systems, one part in particular that made Juniper lean forward with interest was how early on in the Potion Covens history, it wasn’t uncommon for many, many, many Botched Potions to be created by accident when trying to invent a new mixture. And even when a new potion was made, the only way to know if it worked was to test it, either on a test animal, by simply pouring it out, or having a brave person drink it, at the risk of their life!

 It happened so many times that some witches gave up, but those who stayed the course ended up making miraculous potions that are still used to this day, and would be remembered for eternity!

 It, of course, also covered other covens' early research, including how early plant covens had trouble controlling their flora friends, but Juniper was most interested in the potions history… well, that and Oracles, of course!

 They were a little disappointed as class ended and they went towards their next scheduled project, Lunch-....

 Wait, Lunch?!

Their eyes sparkled as they looked forward, eagerly getting up and walking as fast as they possibly could to the cafeteria!

 This was perfect! Juniper could try and find those two from yesterday and try talking to them, like he had planned to all day! Shaking their head, Juniper stared down the hallway as they walked towards the Cafeteria with clear, defined purpose in mind…

 To get a bite to eat and at least try to talk to those two about their interesting book!

At the very least, he could learn what it was about…!!! 

 And, if they didn’t want to talk, they could always try talking to someone else, of course!

  Back at the Beast Sanctuary, the three witches entered the stable, staring down their patient, the green boar whom Zephyr had affectionately named “Hamilton”, after a good’s night rest, they were ready to attempt taming, or at the very least befriending the beast once again!

 “Alright, we tried offering it treats, we tried giving it illusions of a lady boar to spend time with… that didn’t work, suggestions?” Keeper said as they sat down,  staring at the boar.

 “Have we tried other foods? Maybe it’s picky.” Zephyr said flatly.

 “Hmmm… perhaps, but no, I think maybe we’re missing something, but what? What do boars like?” Lunella asked as she looked at the boar.

 “Boars like plant bulbs and herbs. If he’s having trouble finding those in the forest, he must be a picky eater. So that doesn't help us. Do you think maybe it’s the tusks? Maybe he’s upset because his tusks are dirty.” Keeper said, shrugging.

 “Do you want to give that thing a bath, Keeper? Is that what you’re suggesting?” Zephyr said, staring at the muscly witch flatly.

 “I mean, we’ve tried a lot, have we tried that?” Keeper said with a smirk “I’ll get the suds.” Lunella giggled as she walked out of the stable

 “Can’t believe we’re about to do this.” Zephyr said, rubbing his temples tiredly

 The scruffy looking witch sighed as he went to get a brush, and soon, Lunella returned with a suds-y bucket of soap, which was splashed upon both Keeper and the Boar. Both of them groaned and spat out some of the soapy water.

 “You’re so eager to bathe a boar, so why not do some cleaning on you as well?” The brown and purple haired girl said with a wicked chuckle.

 Keeper glared at them before reaching for a brush and furiously brushing it down, every angle, every hair, it was getting cleaned as muck and dirt slid free to the ground.

 And yet, despite that, when it was all done, and Hamilton was sparkling clean despite his restraints, he was still writhing and attempting to free himself.

 “... You know, now that I think about it, he wasn’t even that dirty. Guess he got a river dirty somewhere” The Keeper said, tossing away the brush.

 “Well that didn’t work. Any bright ideas, Zephyr?” They said, shaking their hair to dry themselves off like a hound.

 “Maybe it needs some enrichment? Let’s see if this does anything” Zephyr said, spinning his finger in the air as the cat on his shoulder meowed. With a large blue circle drawn in the air, soon, a large ball was conjured in front of the boar, which stared at the ball curiously.

 Hamilton swatted at the ball while grunting. It seemed to be quite interested in it.

Then it tried to eat the ball, before it poofed into dust.

 It didn’t seem to mind , but went back to trying to free itself from the bindings that held it tight

 Once more, Zephyr created an illusionary toy, this time, a rubber fish of sorts. 

 This time, the cat on his shoulder hopped off and grabbed the illusory fish, before it mewled in discontent as it vanished

“Zack that wasn’t fo-... ok, one more”

The Process was repeated yet again, this time creating a realistic looking log which was rolled towards the boar.

 Almost immediately, it grunted and stepped into it, causing the toy to dissolve into light blue  smoke.

 “Alright, it’s not wanting enrichment. Lunella, any ideas?” The tired looking man asked

 The Dream Witch hummed loudly as she came closer to the boar, placing her head upon it.

“I think we’re not going to make any progress befriending it inside. Perhaps if we-”

 “No.” The other two said in unison with a firm tone of voice, causing Lunella to frown in return.

 “Come on, it’s worth a shot, maybe it’ll feel better with sunlight!” There was a bit of groan from Zephyr, and Keeper pinched at their forehead, before Lunella tightened the bonds on the right side, with the muscular witch doing the same as they walked towards the boar and lifted it easily with their right hand.

 “If this goes wrong, you’re on palisman duty for a week” They said

“Fair enough~” Lunella hummed in response, following the three witches outside, now with a boar in tow.

  The Cafeteria was hustling and/or bustling as Juniper walked in, looking around as various students took seats at various tables. Various groups were sitting close together, a three eyed, red haired girl sitting with a green haired one… a girl in an abomination track uniform sitting across from a young looking boy wearing illusion track colors…

 But none who were in the Abomination Track sitting with a Healing Track…

 They sighed as they walked around, trying to get a good look at everyone in the cafeteria, but also trying to look as if they weren’t scouting out for someone in particular.

 No matter how much Juniper whipped their head around in search of their quarry, they simply could not find them. Perhaps they were eating somewhere else? Or perhaps they were hiding in such a way that they did not need to be found.

 Letting out a sigh, they sighed and turned around, ready to throw in the towel and just get their lunch and sit alone. Just as they were about to give up, they walked forwards and bumped lightly into someone, they immediately stumbled back, bowing their head in apology

 “O-oh, I’m sorry! I was-...”

 Looking up, they were greeted with the sight of a girl with pink hair and side-swept hair,she had  purple eyes which were peering back at Juniper, with fair if somewhat pale skin and star shaped earrings visible, she wore the normal Hexside uniform, with a purple tunic signaling her as Abomination Track. 

 Next to her was a girl with a hood tight around her head, the only thing that could be seen was her face which was shadowed by her hood, but her two golden eyes could be seen very clearly, and from the top of her head, pastel green hair was hanging from above.

Nestled beneath her shoulder was a book

 A gasp of surprise escaped them.

 It was them…

 Juniper’s green eyes were wide with surprise … and just a bit of joy and happiness, a smile beginning to form

 He was looking at them. Perhaps for a bit. Too long

The other two proceeded to stare back, before they looked down and rubbed their arms awkwardly. Were they supposed to say something?

 “Um… “ The pink haired girl said.

Juniper shook their head, looking down in response

 ‘S-sorry… um…” They closed their eyes and tried to clear their head, remembering the lessons from yesterday as best as they could, when they opened once more, their smile became a regular small smile as they tried to look… not cool, but just natural, with their arms at their side as they looked at the others, but they were no longer staring, at the very least.

 “Oh, hello, sorry to have bumped into you… what’s that book you have there? I don’t think I’ve seen it!” They said, like they practiced. That sounded natural

 “Oh, this? It’s a book me and Marin love. It’s called "The Weeping Pelicans Cry Out"! It’s really cool!” The girl with pink hair said

 The Weeping Pelicans Cry out… Juniper’s green eyes blinked and stared in amazement

 “Wh-... what’s it about?”  They asked

 The girl in the hood blinked and looked very surprised

 “Do you really wanna hear about it?” She asked

 Juniper nodded. “I really do… u-um, if that’s fine, of course!” 

 The two other students looked at each other, then back at Juniper.

 “I suppose we do need to let more people know about The Weeping Pelicans Cry Out...” the hooded girl said, leaning closer.

 Juniper froze in fear, taking a step backwards nervously.

“Can you be trusted…?” The pink haired girl asked with a playful tone of voice

 “H-huh!? Of course, why wouldn’t I?” Juniper asked.

 “Oh, no reason, just. Worried. You know how it is. You overshare stuff about a cool book, then suddenly you get targeted insults. Happens all the time.” The hooded girl said before sighing.

A pause, Juniper stopped being frozen in place and looked at the two, nodding. “... I know,” they said with a soft tone. “I know exactly what you mean, but… you can trust me. I’d never make fun of someone for liking a book!” 

 … Once more, the two looked at Juniper, staring in deep thought, and whispering to one another, which was inaudible…  before the two turned chuckling, pointing towards an open table.

 “Alright… come on, let’s sit and we can tell you more about the mystery!” Marin said, taking Juniper’s hand and dragging them to a nearby table

“O-oh, ok!” They said with a nod

 Juniper first retrieved  a snack,  but then took a seat across from the two witch girls, before they began talking, they nibbled upon their treat on as the two introduced themselves

 “My name is Tryllis Wave, and this is-...” Before Tryllis could finish, Marin spoke up eagerly

 ‘Marin Cove!” They chimed.

 “And I’m Juniper! Juniper Sail.  “ they said, raising their hand in greeting.

 “Hello…” Tryllis said “Hello!”  Marin responded “U-um, Greetings!”  Juniper said once again They all said in short order, before chuckling a bit, before Marin cleared her throat and spoke up

 “Anyway, The Weeping Pelicans Cry out isn’t for everyone… It's a deep mystery about a powerful Human Druid who invites a family of witches and demons to their home on an island with a challenge and a riddle. To solve how Druidic Magic works before they kill everyone on the island. Time loops and the nature of meta narratives in stories” The hooded girl said quite clearly, making it evident that she cared quite a lot about this book

 “I like it too because of the Druid Characters in it.” Tryllis said with a chuckle

 “That’s still a valid reason to enjoy it, you know!” Marin said with a light tap of Tryllis’ shoulders

 “That sounds cool… I’ll see if my aunt and uncle have it in their study!” Juniper said with a nod.

 The two other students looked at Juniper quizzically

 “Your aunt and uncle? You’re not living with your parents?” Marin asked with a sly grin

 “Yeah, I moved here recently so I could further my education at Hexside…” The redheaded witchling said as they reached down to have another bite of their snack, turning their head away and once more trying to not look suspicious… and failing.

 The two others began to look down and held their hands to their chins in thought

“Hmmmm….!” It then dawned on Juniper how foolish it was to give half-answers to two mystery enthusiasts

 “Then that must mean you transferred from another school, or that other schools closer to your house were never your intent…” Tryllis added

 “And it also means that you alone moved here if your parents are elsewhere. Which means…”  Marin said as the two looked at each other and pointed at Juniper in a dramatic, yet lighthearted manner

 “You must be the transfer student we heard about!” They said, but quietly enough to not draw attention towards Juniper. Anyone who did notice shrugged and went back to their lunch or other conversations 

 “Ok, ok, yeah! I am just… quiet down…” Juniper murmured as the two lowered their hands before giggling a bit.

 The red haired child sighed as they looked down at their snack, they nodded quietly, poking at what was left nervously.

“Yes… it’s true. I recently transferred here from Glandus. It’s not because I was failing or anything. I did… alright, I guess. But Glandus is… different from here. It’s… so so so much rougher.” They said, shaking their head. Glaring at the floor, and grumbling.

“It was just rough for me because it was full of jerks, and there was a giant jerk at the top of everything who had it out for me.” Juniper said as they leaned back.

 “Is that what you wanted to hear? It doesn’t matter now, I’m here now and I wanna learn… I mean… I’ve already learned more things than I expected. I didn’t want to be in Potions Track, but.. I’m kinda having fun!”  The red haired youngster said with a chuckle. 

 The two other students across from him nodded.

 “It’s fine, I mean, Hexside has a rivalry with Glandus, I think if you stick around people will warm up to you!” Marin said.

 “Yeah, at first they’re probably distrusting you, but… you look harmless. You look like-” Tryllis was saying before Juniper interjected

“L-like a rabbit, or a Shortcake?” They asked a bit quickly

 “...I was gonna say like a rose with your red hair but that also works” The Abomination Track student said with a chuckle

 Junipers face grew red again as they looked downward, kicking their feet back and forth nervously

 “Well, what classes did you want to go to at first, Juniper?” Marin asked, leaning closer

 “Oracle” They said immediately, looking back up with interest

 “And how come you weren’t put in there?” The hooded girl asked

 “Well, Leify and Miner thought-... my Aunt and Uncle thought I’d be better off and have more fun in Potions since I couldn’t decide. You know, good money to be had selling potions. ” They explained, before leaning back.

“Well, if you’re having fun with it, that’s what matters, right?” Marin asked

“I guess so!” Juniper responded with a small smile. The two girls couldn’t help but smile in return.

 “Have you figured out how you’re gonna use your potions yet?” Tryllis asked

 “... What do you mean?”  Adjusting their glasses, the witchling sat up straight with interest

“Well, there’s lots of different ways to use magic, you don’t have to stick with everything they say you need to do.. If anything, figuring out how you’ll use magic is important. I had this idea for how I’m gonna use mine!” Tryllis said, reaching into her pockets, both of them. “Oh come on, don’t show him your doodles-” Marin said, trying in vain to stop her friend “No, it’s coo-... ah, here it is!” The girl in purple said as she put a rough artistic drawing onto the table, it showed Tryllis surrounded by…purple weapons? Axes, swords, spears, they were floating all around her.

 “... What am I looking at?” Juniper asked, narrowing their eyes and adjusting their glasses.

 “She wants to turn Abomination goo into weapons which she fires at people.” The Hooded girl said flatly.

 “Marin!” Tryllis said with a flash of red on her face. 

“But, yes, that’s what I’m going to try and learn to do once I learn the basics. Gonna. Take a while. Making abominations stay together is hard.” She grumbled, reaching into her other pocket and pulling out a small vial

Inside it was purple goo, abomination goo to be precise. Tryllis began shaking it up and down very gently, and sometimes twirling her finger to make it move.

With a blink, Juniper looked at the vial. Oh, what was she doing? It was like…

Some kind of thing to keep her hands busy, while also giving her an outlet to practice with? That was… pretty smart actually!

 They looked back down at the drawing provided, looking it over once more

Creating weapons out of abomination goo… that was actually pretty smart? It could be used to make just monsters, but if it was as malleable as slime.  . .

 After a small chuckle, the red headed youngster gave a thumbs up.

“That’s cool! I bet it’ll look awesome once you’ve practiced!” They said, with Tryllis giving a smile in return

“I’m sure you’ll make it work… what about you, Marin? I don’t know a lot about Healing, so what’s your plan-...” as they were asking, Juniper noticed that Marin’s eyes had begun to glow and soon took on a bright white hue, as if they were suddenly spotlights going up and down Juniper’s body.

 “... Your heart is beating awfully fast, are you nervous?” Marin asked

“H-huh?!” Juniper stammered, covering his chest, before hearing a laugh from the hooded girl

 “Marin’s been talking about using a type of magic to study a person’s body to see if there’s any damage before using more intensive healing” Tryllis explained

 With a smirk, the girl returned to her seat. 

Dusting herself off, Marin shook her head. 

 “That’s the plan, at least, it takes some focus, a lot of the time I can only see the insides of people for a bit, other times I see like… I dunno… lines all across. I think those are supposed to be veins but they move in a weird way” She shrugged.

 “That’s also pretty cool…” Juniper said, releasing their hands from their chest.

“I guess I should think about how I’m gonna use my potions… or magic with the potions, huh?” They asked nervously.

 “I’m sure it’ll come to you!” The girl in the hood responded.

 “Yeah, just think about it… and maybe draw art” The girl with pink hair said with a smirk

 “A-alright, I will!” Juniper said with a smile

 Soon, the bell screamed, signaling the end of lunch

“Aw dang, there’s the bell… u-um, will I ever see you guys again?” They asked, looking at both Marin and Tryllis with worried eyes

 They both chuckled.

“Hmmm… maybe, we didn’t get to talk a whole lot about the book, and we gotta remedy that!” Marin said with a chuckle.

 “Plus, I didn’t get to pry any secrets about Glandus from you!” Tryllis added.

 Juniper’s heart began to beat faster.

 They… didn’t think they were weird…?

 A wide smile came across their face, they couldn’t stop it, but they reached over their mouth with their free hand

 “S-... sorry, I just didn’t expect that… ok! Maybe we can talk again… after school? N-not for too long though, I have to visit the library” They said, quickly thinking up an excuse

 “... Alright, that sounds good, we’ll be outside of … how about bard class, and then we can go from there maybe?” Marin suggested

 “That works for me” Tryllis responded

 “Alright then.. I’ll remember that, I’ll remember that…!” They said cheerfully.

“I’ll see you then!” With their hand raised, they waved to the two they successfully talked to, and began walking down the hall, a spring in their step,

 “Kind of strange, aren’t they?” Marin said gently.

 “Yeah, but, it’s kinda charming. They didn’t really do anything… odd odd. And they’re certainly not another Glandus jerk” Tryllis said with a chuckle.

“Guess we’ll see after school!” Marin responded

 So, it was a plan then!  They couldn’t believe that it worked… they talked normally, they didn’t worry about what they would think, they just… talked and they liked what Juniper was saying! It was almost unfathomable. And now, if they did the follow-up correctly, they might gain two more new friends…! It felt like they were dreaming, holding their hand up to their cheek and pinching it. They were still here.

 “Amazing…”

Humming to themselves, they happily walked down the hallway towards their next class, hearing numerous footsteps throughout the halls, but heard muttering above it. Curiously, Juniper looked down another hallway to the east. Something caught their eye. Quickly, they ducked behind a nearby locker and poked their head from around the corner, hoping to not be spotted.

 They focused their eyes and adjusted their glasses as someone came into view. A student with green sleeves and leggings-... Oh, it was that plant coven student from before!

The one with a clump of dirt. They seemed to be muttering something, but Juniper could not hear it, and it looked as if they tearfully threw the dirt pile into a nearby trash can before running off sobbing.

 The red head let out a sigh. Looks like they had to get rid of a plant they were growing, how sad… Shaking their head, Juniper stood up right, and was about to turn around, when they saw something else, a shadow cast across the wall down the hall. Someone else was coming.

Once more, they looked around the corner to be greeted with another sight.

 It was… a four eyed student with another eye behind their head, clad in the yellow of Potions Track

 A scowl came across Juniper’s face, he remembered that guy!

 That was the person who bumped into him! Making sure their glasses were on straight. Juniper had half a mind to confront him, but for now, they watched carefully.

 The student reached into their tunic and pulled out a pitch black flask of liquid, and slammed it into the same  trash can with such force that a shatter could be heard, before he quickly fled the scene

 … Juniper’s scowl only deepened as he stared at what just happened.

 What was in that vial? It was pitch black… 

 That student was in potions track, and today they were making luck based potions, and half of the students made Botched Potions which they were supposed to dump-...

 …

 Letting out a noise of annoyance, Juniper turned around and returned to the route they were on before. It looked like a classmate had dumped a botched potion into a trash can when it was supposed to go into a designated spot, which was probably pretty bad. They wanted to go immediately to the Potions Track teacher and let them know… but, chances are they had a class about to start. They didn’t want to impose or mess up any plans the teacher might’ve had…

 And Juniper still had two classes left in the day, neither of which were Potions, so they would have to wait until the school day was over to report this to them either way.

 They hoped that nothing bad would happen to the trash and that it was just going to cause problems for the school custodian if it was found.

 Unbeknownst to them, in the trash can down the hallway, as the pitch black goo mixed with a discarded lump of soil, something began to grow, as very small roots began to burst from the trashcan where discarded items lay

   “This is a stupid plan, I’m just telling you that right now” Keeper said flatly as they gently placed Hamilton the Boar onto the ground, still bound, glaring at the Dream Witch.

“Hush hush, sunlight helps cheer up the downtrodden, even someone like me knows that~” Lunella hummed.

 “Yeah, what are we gonna do if it breaks free? Just catch it again? Juni’s at school and presumably doesn’t have a paralysis potion for this time.”  Zephyr said in boredom.

 “We’ll try and tame him out here with the beautiful sun to keep him company! Now, let us try this again.” Leaning closer to the boar, the Dream Witch reached out and patted it onto the head, it don't thrash violently, it only winced at her touch

 “See~? He’s less violent when he has the sun to cheer him up!” She said cheerfully

 “I swear to Titan if this works-” Zephyr said with a groan, rubbing his hand upon his face

 “Now, do you mind if I inspect your tusks, Mr. Hamilton?” Lunella asked gently

 It grunted in response.

 Looking closer, Lunella looked over the tusks, seeing no cracks or damage.

“Well that’s go-” When she was close enough, the boar inched forward a bit, attempting to drive its tusks into the Dream Witch’s stomach and coming just short

 ‘Hmph! Why I never…” She said, standing up and reuniting with the other two.

“Alright, I”m out of ideas.”  The girl said, quickly adjusting the silver tiara on her head.

 “Are you sure we can’t just move it to the Knee or something?” Zephyr asked.

 “It’d freeze to death there or get eaten by the Snagglebeast. We have to either get it to stop attacking us, find what it wants to eat, or we’ll just have to send it somewhere else knowing it could die.” Keeper said, leaning onto a nearby building for support.

 “Maybe it wants an education?” Zephyr said jokingly.

“Oh sure, let’s send it to Hexside so he can be classmates with Juniper. You saw how they reacted to him yesterday. They’re scared of it.” Keeper responded, their gaze turning towards the boar with an angry look. 

“It charged right at them, and it scowled. I don’t think our little Rabbit is safe when it’s around” they continued.

 “You’re getting awfully attached to that kid already,” Zephyr teased.

 “Oh, but how can they not? With the red glasses and  matching hair, they’re almost like a little rose that decided to visit our little sanctuary!” Lunella chimed

 “Look, we're getting off-track. We need to do something about Hamilton before it escapes and causes trouble.” Keeper said. “I think maybe we should inspect the body for any type of disease, it could have something that’s making it violent “ They said, holding their hand to their head in thought

 “Though, it did almost get me off guard, so the little bugger is smart!” Lunella added.

 “How smart? Smart enough to break free while we’re talking? Yeah right” Zephyr said with a chuckle.

… Before anxiously turning around and seeing that the boar was now gone

 “Oh son of a-.” He murmured.

 “Dang it!” Lunella said in disbelief

 “Did it-... oh my Titan, really? I told you this was stupid! Now how are we gonna get it!?” Zephyr said, throwing up his hands.

 “You underestimate me too much, did you really think I wouldn’t tag our guest now that we actually caught him?” Keeper said with a smirk, drawing a circle into the air and then placing their hand upon the ground, which laid out a general map of the area.

 “Alright, it’s headed … there.“ .. They said, pointing towards the North.

“We follow it, then we bag it again. With or without our Rabbit” Keeper said with a snap, as her palisman staff flew towards her hand.

 Lunella and Zephyr followed suit, a small round ghost-like staff landing into the Dream Witch’s hand, and the scruffy cat leaping off of the lazy man’s shoulder and transforming into a staff, they all sat upon their respective staffs, and flew off in pursuit of their rogue boar.

  Time passed, and Juniper was once more deep in focus during class, writing down as many notes as they were instructed to, it sounded like a bunch of nonsense, but when put together, it surprisingly all came together and the student actually kind of understood it!

 It was just a matter of catching all parts of the lesson, if they missed even one part… Well, sometimes they could fill in the gaps, but other times…? Not so much.

 They looked around their classroom while the teacher was pausing to draw onto the blackboard, as with every non-coven class, students from all tracks were here, but unfortunately for Juniper, it seemed neither Marin nor Tryllis were here, they groaned quietly, then returned to watching the board closely and writing everything down, trying to keep their focus as concentrated as they could.

 Just a bit more. After this class, Juniper could say hello to their new… well, not friends, compatriots?

Schoolmates?

… What were they exactly?

 Dang it, they were losing focus again! They shook their head and looked forward. They couldn’t lose focus now and lose the understanding that they had going for this lesson…!

 It took a bit for them to focus, but eventually, time passed, the bell rang. It was over.

 Yet, there was one more class left, and it was about practical application of magic to your day to day life!

With that they went to their final lecture for the day, and once more struggled to pay attention but managed somehow, and then, finally, as the clock struck the final minute of class for the day, the bell screamed once more, signaling the end of school.

 “Alright, that’s enough, we’re done!” The Demon Teacher said, closing the textbook and laying it down.

 “No homework tonight, and none for the weekend either, consider that my gift to you” He said with a joking chuckle as students began to shuffle out of the classroom.

 Heading into the hallway, Juniper stretched as they turned around. Most students were headed off outside to go home, but the bespectacled witchling turned around and started walking the other way! They were headed towards  the outside of Bard Class, the meeting place they had agreed on. And once they met up with their companions, they would head over to Potions Class to let their teacher know about the unethical dumping they had witnessed.

 With a hum, the young student walked past many students who were off, there were even a few teachers who were leaving for the day, but eventually, the bard classroom came into view, its door shut tight. Seems like the teacher was still in, but had other business to finish first.

Leaning against a nearby locker, Juniper tried to adjust their body posture to look as welcoming as possible, would one leg held against the locker look cool?

 … No, they weren’t cool, they should focus on looking cute, maybe sitting cross legged would do that trick? They thought to themselves as they tried out various poses before looking up, seeing no one was around. They sighed, staying still, watching as the few remaining students in school began to take off for the day. 

 Minutes passed… no one had yet arrived, it was just Juniper and the dulcet tones of music from the other side of the Bard Classroom

 “Huh, wonder what’s taking so long?” They said to themselves quietly, raising up to stand and looking inside the Bard Class, and seeing the teacher seemed to be intently focused on tuning the various instruments in there, well, they were busy. The fact they also had special headphones on to attune to the inner workings of the music meant they at least couldn’t hear anything either

 With a grunt, Juniper turned around and looked up and down the hallway.

“Where are they? Maybe they got wrapped up in class or are doing overtime…” They murmured to themselves and closed their eyes. Listening to the school

 It was so quiet, with only a few students left in the school, there were barely any audible footsteps but-... they heard something else

 Plop, plop, plop…drag. … It sounded like something heavy being dragged along the floor of the ground

 Huh?

 Juniper’s eyes opened as they looked around nervously

 What was that sound?

 They closed their eyes again, trying to pinpoint the sound

 It was like… something thick scraping, shambling, shuffling…

 And it was coming from a nearby hallway…

 … Juniper’s heartbeat began to quicken, but they took a deep breath. They’d just take a peek. Maybe it was just something heavy being dragged along through the hallway? That made sense, right?

 Taking very slow methodical steps, Juniper approached the sound of the noise, and peeked around the corner to see. .  .

 What looked like a horrifically overgrown tulip growing out of a trash can. It had roots underneath the can, just below the can was what looked like another part of the plant, with flowers for “arms” poking out of the top, and a stem of a tulip serving as the “head”, and it was shuffling around the hallway, sniffling around and leaving behind a trail of disgusting green and black slime..

 It was some kind of awful plant monster.

 Juniper began to scream, before catching their hand over their mouth to muffle the screen

 The plant monster turned its head towards where Juniper was, but resumed it’s dragging and plodding pace, before it proceeded to rip a piece of the wall out and chewed on it, and to Juniper, it looked as if the creature grew a little bigger.

 They gulped, taking a deep breath, trying to calm themselves

 OK, maybe they should move up to telling a teacher about this and not worry about their friends meeting. They could be in very real danger if nothing was done…! 

 “Hey, Juniper, what are you looking at?” Someone asked as they reached over to touch Juniper on the shoulder

 Juniper yelped in surprise, flailing about, before catching themselves to turn around to see some familiar faces, and exhaling in relief.

 It was Marin and Tryllis, each holding one of those books. 

“We came just as promised!” Marin chimed happily

 “We’re a bit late because I had to get my copy from my locker-. And another one of my little vials. Had a feeling I might need it.” Tryllis said, holding out another one of those small vials with abomination goo within.

 “What’s over there that’s more interesting than a murder mystery?” Marrin asked gently.

 Holding their fingers to shush them, they briefly looked a bit offended, before Juniper waved them over to point towards the hallway across form them.

 Both gasped as they saw the plant monster, which was now digging out of another trash can at the far end of the hall, its roots and petals growing bigger with each piece of garbage eaten.

 “What the heck happened?!” Marrin asked, ducking behind the wall with Juniper and Tryllis

 “I’m pretty sure I saw two different students do some unsanctioned dumping in the trash so now there’s just. That thi-.” Before Juniper could finish explaining, there was a shrill shriek not far from them, directly across from them, even. Another student who seemingly forgot their bags had come to pick them up and saw the monster just a short walk away.

 The amalgamation of trash, plants, and potion goo turned it’s head towards the source and noticed not just the student, but Juniper, Tryllis, and Marrin peeking around as well.

 With the sound of a loud, shrill scream, followed by a sharp, the plant launched a putrid green ball of slime towards the student, who dived to the side and took off running. With all the force of a splattering ball of paint, there was now a disgusting pile of garbage-like slime splattered against the wall.

 The three students let out a gag of disgust at the smell, but didn’t have long to linger on it, because now the plant monster was charging towards the other student, the two turned on their heels and fled the opposite direction, and much to their dismay, it instead decided to go after the three of them rather than the one who gave away their position.

 Juniper froze in fear, but shook their head.

“C-come on, we gotta get… I dunno, the Plant Coven Teacher!”  They said, Grabbing Marin and Tryllis’ hands

 “Right!” The pink haired one said.

 “O-of course!” Marin responded as the three of them turned around and began running with the plant monster in hot pursuit, it gagged and spat more of the horrifically disgusting garbage towards them, but seemed to have a bad aim, because it missed nearly every shot

 But every ball of slime that was shot  whizzed past them and left behind a sticky puzzle of slime made up of various tossed away pieces of garbage

 “Least it couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn…” Marin said

“Only because we’re moving so much!” Tryllis replied

 “Seriously… and why is this the second time I’ve had to run for my life this week!?” Juniper exclaimed as they ducked and weaved through the various hallways, before Marin pointed towards a door

“There it is! “ She said, immediately, the other two bolted towards the door, diving in to the left and sliding as they closed the door behind them.

 Letting out deep breaths, they looked up to be greeted with a concerned looking older student clad in green, with bright orange hair, hazel eyes, and a bracelet visible on their right hand

“And what seems to be the problem?” They asked gently

 “H-huh? Where’s the plant teacher?!” Juniper asked.

 “They’re out to the teacher lounge, I’m holding down the fort, what’s the problem!?” The Plant Student asked  with concern

  The red headed witchling took a deep breath, before pointing towards the door. “There’s a monster made from a tulip chasing us!” Juniper said between heavy breathes

 ‘Someone threw away sensitive chemicals without proper care!” Tryllis added

 “It’s well and truly awful…” Marin lamented.

 The Plant Student narrowed their eyes, before peeking out the window of the classroom and being greeted with the sight of the tulip monster, which was now trying to batter its way into a locker, which wasn’t budging.

 They let out a gasp and held their hands out

“Stay here, I’ll handle this, or my name isn’t Locke Trunk!” The Student said, throwing the door open and confronting the beast, drawing a green circle in the air.

 A light green aura surrounded the beast, and it tried to swing its leaves at Locke, but found itself struggling, it was held in place, but it could still move.

 “Something’s wrong… it’s like there’s something else here, I can’t… tell it to go back into its trash!” The Student said, only able to hold the plant in place

 The other three students watched with worry, all three looking at each other

 “It’s because of the potion in there… it’s making it more than just a plant!” Marin said with worry

 “They’re gonna get hurt…” Juniper said, looking down

 “We have to do something!” Tryllis said with determination

 “What can we do? Neither of us are skilled…” Marin responded.

 Narrowing their eyes, Juniper held their chin in thought

 “Even if we’re not skilled, we can still do something if we work together…!” They said, looking at the two to motivate them.

 For a moment, they hesitated, looking down, about to say something in response, before they both shook their head, trying to think as they became deep in thought, soon enough, Tryllis looked at the red headed witchling

 “Juniper, you said a failed potion caused this, is there any way to like… unfail the potion?” Tryllis asked

 “No… the Potions Teacher didn’t say anything about undoing it! All they said to do was to dump it into a special drain if you got one” They responded, clenching their fists in  annoyance

 “Great, what can we do, we don’t know its weaknesses…” Marin said, pouting, looking out the window of the classroom as the plant monster extremely slowly was trying to swat at Locke

 “And none of us know any real offensive spells yet…” Tryllis responded

 Juniper sighed and placed their back against the wall, sliding down against it.

“There has to be something we can do, do we really not know any offensive spells? Maybe if worst comes to worst we could use some weapons to help, there are a few inhere” They mused, looking at the various garden tools in the classroom, as their eyes locked upon a trowel.

 “That looks like a sharp weapon, at least”

 But, how were they going to know what to strike? It’s not as if they could just look at the beast and immediately know where to strike-.

 A blank look came upon their face as they stared forward. A thought hit them

 They paused, before excitedly sitting up, startling the other two.

“Wait… hang on! Marin! Your Eyes!” Juniper said looking at her

 “My eyes?” She responded

 “You said you’ve been working on a way to use your eyes to see the insides of someone before surgery, right?” Juniper asked gently

 “Yeah… but why’s that-...” Before Marin could finish, Juniper interjected

 “Could you maybe use it to see if there’s a weak spot on the plant? Or maybe where the failed potion is being stored? If we could strike that or pierce it, maybe it’ll leak out so the monster will stop moving around so much!” They explained

 … The other two students looked at each other, before briefly thinking

 “... that’s… unorthodox… but I don’t think we have many other options. If we leave that plant alone it’s just gonna get bigger and bigger and then we’ll be in trouble since we didn’t do anything to minimize damages…” Marin said

 “But what about weapons? What am I doing?” Tryllis asked

 There was a smirk on Juniper’s face

“We’re going to do what you’ve dreamed of, you can use some abomination goo and transform that into a weapon to pierce the weak point! You could use some of the goo you have with you right now” They said, adjusting their glasses

 ‘... w-wait, really!?” Tryllis said, their eyes sparkling, pulling out one of the vials and looking it over.

“... I think that might work actually!”

 “Only do it once Marin points out the weak spot!” Juniper explained “Or you might miss your chance…”

The three heard a yelp and looked outside

 The Plant Monster was now very close to striking Locke, whose face was stuck in a grimace

 “O-ok, we don’t have much choice, but what about you, Juniper?! What can you do!?”” Marin asked

 “I uh… my Moonlight Potion is only really good for light, so I can’t use that, maybe I could-... oh!”  That’s right, they saw something not too long ago! With a grin, Juniper walked over to a corner of the Plant Room, rummaged around and then walked back, brandishing a trowel as if it was a dagger.

 The two stared at them.

 “Maybe I could use this to… I dunno, slice its head off when it's stunned?” Juniper said with a small chuckle

 They sighed.

 ‘We’re gonna die if this doesn’t work.” Marin said flatly.

Tryllis looked down “Well, at least I’ll get to go out trying my technique, alright.” Reaching into her pockets, Tryllis retrieved a small vial of bright purple goo

 “If the goo gets messed up I’ll help you get more.” Juniper said, patting Tryllis after inching up to reach her

“Yeah, you gotta” She responded.

 “Alright… no time like the present!” Marin said, they threw open the door and saw that the Plant was getting dangerously close to dripping slime onto the heroic plant student, Locke.

 “G-guys? I’m gonna be real I think I may have bitten off more than I can chew-” They said with a nervous laugh

“Go get the teacher and I’ll let this thing bite me-”  Locke responded

“No need, we’re gonna help, keep holding it in place!” Juniper said “Wh-... can’t really say no I guess!” The Plant Student said nervously

 “Marin, now!” The boy in yellow said, gesturing to the hooded girl

 “Alright.. Show me… the problem…!” She said as her eyes began to glow pure white, focusing on the plant

 The veil parted beneath the plant to show what looked like endless lines going throughout its body, like muscly sinew, but with plant fiber. Marin looked up and down to try and find any kind of source, but as they went up, she saw nothing, a look of worry coming across her face, until she looked down to just below the trash can, where much of the plant was growing. 

 There, almost imperceivable, was a black pitch swirling about in the plant.

 “There, THERE!” She said, pointing towards a small boil roughly around the “legs” of the creature, it was almost imperceptible, but with Marin’s finger pointed directly at it, it could be made out, just barely

 “Alright… my turn!” Tryllis said as she uncorked the vial of purple goo, the slime plopping out onto the ground with a groan

 “Dang it, come on, listen to me,  attack that boil!” She said, tracing a purple circle in the air, and soon, the goo floated up to her side, before thinning out into an extremely dull looking cylinder. “Just a little sharper…” She murmured, spinning her finger about quickly as the cylinder soon became a pointed end, it almost looked like a sharpened pipe now

 “Yes, and now… FIRE!” She said, as the rough cylinder was shot with all the force of an arrow, piercing through the boil that Marin had pointed out, and causing the plant to stumble back as black goo bled from the  now open wound.

 Tryllis continued to twirl her finger, and with a spin, the abomination “arrow” soon drilled through the plant’s boil, coming out through the other side and resting into a wall behind the plant.

 The plant shrieked as it stumbled backwards, the pitch black mixture beginning to pour and bleed from it’s open wound, it began to shrink in size, becoming more manageable as  it returned to… well, still a large plant, but it no longer was super big!

 The Plant Student let out a sigh of relief as it released the magic over the plant, dusting their hands off

 “Thank Goodnes-...’ Locke said, before looking up

 The plant, in its dying throes, as it was falling backwards, took one more lurch forward as it tried to swing its leaves one more time at the students!

 Juniper yelped

“L-look out! “ Before gripping the trowel they were holding tight and threw it as hard as they could towards the plant with all their might!

 The Trowel landed squarely in the “neck” of the tulip, which caused green goop to spray onto the ceiling as it stumbled forwards, now with two wounds, it stopped moving, as it fell to it’s “knees”, its neck raised out in an attempt to fall onto the students with one last attack

 Locke grabbed the trowel, still firmly planted in monsters neck, and twisted it as hard as they could, causing the “head” instead to fall to the left of them, and sparing all four students from any damage.

 The Plant Track student stood there in surprise, blinking, before chuckling and pulling the trowel out.

 ‘Haha… not bad, not bad, all of you.” They said, looking at the trowel which was now covered in green goo. Dropping it in disgust, they dropped it unceremoniously and had a serious face.

 “I’m going to get the plant teacher to help clean this up. You should go get the potions teacher” They said, patting Juniper with their non filthy hand.

 “S-sure, alright!” With that, Juniper nodded as they ran to the other end of the hallway to retrieve the Potions teacher, they turned to Tryllis and Marin.

“I’ll be back as soon as possible, alright?” They said, before the two nodded and watched the glasses wearing student run off to get some help

 In the deep woods, a chase was afoot.

With a green boar which had escaped its confines…

 And three witches who were in pursuit, hoping to recapture it.

Theytried to keep up with the rampaging boar, which was running into nearby trees to cause branches to fall down in the way of its pursuers, whilst also kicking up dirt to try and cover its trail.

 Zephyr was tracing in the air, causing rocks to pop up in the way of the boar, attempting to cut off its escape route, which was doing a great job slowing it down as it kept stopping to reorient itself.

Lunella was consistently summoning round spirits in the air which latched onto the boar, which slowed it down to a crawl, but it kept shaking them off and foiling their attempts to dogpile it.

All the while Keeper was trying to get close enough to leap onto the boar to wrangle it by force, and perhaps ride it all the way back to the Beast Sanctuary, but every time they almost captured it, it seemed as if the boar got another burst of speed.

More worrying, the forest was reaching its end, the trees growing more and more far apart as the light of the sun became far easier to see, and soon, it ended as the forest parted ways.

 And soon, all three witches plus Hamilton were greeted with…

 …

The sight of Hexside standing tall, students already seemed to have left for the day. It looked like noone was there!

Keeper smirked, that was good, Juniper must’ve already headed home, so they must’ve been in no danger.

 The Boar stopped, looking around in confusion, where had the trees gone? Where were the rocks?

 It didn’t have time to come up with another plan, because by the time it did, the Keeper had leapt onto it’s back and held its neck firm, it tried it’s very best to buck them off, but soon was weighed down by bandages and rocks.

 “Nice try, Hamilton” Keeper said as they relinquished their grip and hopped off of it.

 “But we’re not about to let you cause trouble for Rabbit’s education. I think this is the last straw. We’re gonna have to send you somewhere else.’ They said with a sigh “What a shame’ Zephyr said boredly as he landed, climbing off of his Palisman Staff and clambering onto the ground, before grabbing his staff and holding it tight.

 “We’ll be sad to see you go~” Lunella hummed, still on her staff, not bothering to get off.

 “Alright let’s… huh? What is… that?” Keeper asked, reaching towards the boar to fully restrain it before they rescinded their hand, being greeted by the sight of a twisted abomination of a plant in a garbage can being carted away in a wheelbarrow on the road leading out of Hexside. 

 “... What on Earth have they been teaching since I left? t” Keeper said as she grabbed the boar by the scruff off its neck, beginning to drag it along for a closer look, the other two followed along closely

 “... Titan, what a mess…” A man in a suit with rubber gloves said, wiping sweat from their brow  as they went down the street, before stopping after seeing three witches with a boar in tow in the middle of the road

“What’s that you got there?” Keeper asked

 “Looks like a salad….” Zephyr added.

 “It’s quite creepy, I like it…” Lunella hummed

 The Custodian sighed, rubbing his temples.

 “Hello Wild Witches, I legally should be reporting you to the Emperor’s Co-... hang on, Zephyr?” the man asked

 Zephyr paused, taking a step backwards

 “Hey, I remember you! I was in Plant coven! You were in Illusion” He said with a grin

 “Yeah, yeah. Dropped out and to be honest I’m happy with how that turned out” Zephyr responded, flipping his hand

“No, no, don’t blame you, you looked stressed all the time, now you just look… chill” the Man said.

 “Ahem. What is this?” Keeper asked, gesturing to the non-moving plant.

 “Oh this? It’s a problem. Some stupid student poured a Botched Potion into the trash right after another student dumped an inert dirt clump with a plant into it, so, it turned into this.” He said, gesturing towards the remains of the plant.

“Four students helped put it to sleep, so I’m supposed to dump it into a furnace nearby, you don’t really want this.” He said seriously, his eyes narrowing

 “You’re right I probably do-.” Keeper was saying, before they turned around

 There was a sharp grunting from the boar, which was wiggling excitedly. It was trying to struggle closer to the plant. It sounded… delighted? Happy?

“Huh?”  Keeper said, narrowing their eyes as they held the boar tightly, but moved it closer towards the plant. Hamilton squealed as it came closer and closer to the remains of the plant, and then, reached out its snout and… took a bite out of it. It swallowed the piece and then…

It made a noise that sounded… well, glad! 

 The man was so shocked he didn’t do anything, standing there dumbfounded.

But soon, he let out a laugh.

 “See, your porcine friend here likes the taste of the plant, want me to let him have it?” He asked.

 The three witches stood there in stunned silence. Keeper even let go of Hamilton, who hit the ground with a thud as the restraints vanished and he walked towards the wheelbarrow, taking more bites out of the twisted compost that was a plant.

 “He was hungry… by Titan he was just hungry! He eats tulips which come from bulbs… that makes sense!” Keeper said with a laugh

 “Can’t believe I didn't think of that…’ Zephyr said with a facepalm

 “Oh but look how happy our friend Hamilton is now!” Lunella said with a chime.

 The man let go of the wheelbarrow and simply let the boar eat away at the remains of the plant, the boar was now grunting like a pig at a trough

 “You know what? Yeah, Zephyr? Consider this a favor. Keep the plant. I think our boar friend will appreciate it out more than the furnace’ He said with a chuckle, before suddenly-

 There was a loud whistle, the three witches turned around to see a caped man with a white mask covering his face.

 It was an Emperor’s Coven  Scout, he pointed at the three dramatically

 “Keeper of the Beasts, Wild Winds Zephyr, and Lunella the Dream Witch, I have a warrant for your arrest, come quietly and-...” Before he could finish, there was a sharp squeal,, the boar turned around and grunted angrily, its hooves going back and forth before it charged at the Emperor’s Coven Guard.

It caught him between its tusks non lethally, before lifting him up and throwing him high up into the sky, with him screaming until it became distant. As if he became a star in the sky

 Hamilton grunted before it returned to the wheelbarrow and chewed at what was left of the plant monster

 “Well, I guess he’s our friend now~” Lunella hummed.

 “Hahaha… that was cool” Zephyr said.

“Alright, come along Hamilton. We’ll get you back to the Sanctuary “ Keeper said,  grabbing the wheelbarrow and pushing it out towards the forest, the two other witches, and their now sated boar friend followed close behind

 The man with gloves sighed as he released his breathe

 “Good Titan… that was scary. Guess I’ll just tell them I delivered it to the incinerator…” He said as he walked off towards Bonesborough.

 …

Not long after everyone has made their exit…

 The doors to the school opened up as Juniper, Tryllis, and Marin walked out onto the steps alongside the Potions and Plant teacher.

 “... and then I saw them both, not at the same time, dumping things into the trash.” Juniper said, looking up at the two.

 The Potion Teacher let out a sigh.

“I’m sorry you had to deal with that, Sail. Perhaps I should be more clear on the dumping stations in the future…” They said to themselves, before reaching out to pat Juniper’s shoulder “I’ll be having a stern word with them tomorrow. Thank you for letting me know!” They said, before heading down the stairs and waving goodbye to the three students.

 The Plants teacher coughed. “And I’ll have a chat with mine about the importance of sending dead plants to the compost. “ They said, before reaching out to pat Marin and Tryllis, they too went on their way.

 The three students let out a deep sigh and took a seat on the stairs.

 ‘That was nuts…” Juniper said to themselves.

 “That garbage smell is gonna be there for at least a week.” Tryllis said, looking up at the sky

 “Explaining this to Mom & Dad is gonna be hard…” Marrin said

 …

But soon, all three of them let out a hearty laugh

“But we did it!” They said all together, before leaning backward to look up at the beautiful sky

“We might’ve been plant chow if it weren’t for Marin!” Juniper said

 “What? No, it was Tryllis who did the hard work hitting the weak spot!” Marin sputtered

“But Juniper helped stab that thing’s neck!” Tryllis said in defense

“But Locke finished it off for our safety, they should get some credit!”  The red headed boy said

“Yeah… kinda wish he coulda stuck around, maybe we should try talking to him later…” Tryllis said, placing her arms upon the side of the steps

 Juniper looked up, then paused, looking between the two.

“Wi-wait, hang on, are we like… friends now?””

Tryllis and Marrin looked at each other before chuckling

 ‘I mean, maybe-... I guess!” Tryllis said

“You don’t really put down a plant monster together and not walk out as at least acquaintances, I’d say”  Marin added.

 A flash of red came across the witchling’s face

“R-...really?” They asked

 “Really really.” Tryllis responded

“Of course! Plus, I want to see how your magic develops since you’re encouraging us…” Marin said with a grin.

 “I-... I’...” Juniper covered their face bashfully.

“I’ll try my best!” They said cheerfully, before shaking their head and noticing the position of the sun, it must’ve been an hour or two after classes for the day finished

 “We should probably head home, huh? Should we tell our guardians about this?” Juniper asked.

“Probably not. I don’t think anyone needs to know about this” Marin said as they got up and stretched.

 “Yeah… I don’t think my parents would be thrilled to know I helped kill a plant monster” With a smirk, Tryllis got up and began walking down the stairs

“Juniper! You wanna come with?” She asked, looking at the red haired child who looked like they were lost in thought

 Snapping back to reality, Juniper shook their head

 “N-no, sorry, I got another place to be… maybe I can show you guys it soon!” They said with a smile

“... Alright, maybe see you tomorrow then!” Tryllis said as Marin followed close by

 “Byyyyye… don’t forget to read The Weeping Pelicans Cry Out, if your Aunt and Uncle have it!” The Hooded girl said.

 Juniper waved happily to the two as they walked down the street. Before suddenly, Juniper found their feet moving on their own, running to meet the two.

 “Oh, changed your mind?” Marin said playfully

“I thought  you had someplace to be!” Tryllis said

 “I do, but my house is on the way there!” They laughed as they began to walk home with their two new friends.

 It was a very eventful walk home, mostly filled by talking, but once Juniper reached their house, once more, they waved goodbye to Tryllis and Marin, before quickly heading inside, getting dressed into their casual clothes, and retreated out the back door, following the path once again, and being greeted to the sight of The Beast Sanctuary.

 And, this time, all three of their wild witch friends were there outside! They were busy practicing magic beneath them, with their hands placed against the ground.

 Happily, Juniper raised their hand in greeting to the three , who turned their heads to their visitor with a grin, standing up and dusting themselves off.

 “Hey, Rabbit! Good to see you again.” Keeper said with a smirk

“Oh man it’s good to see you after a day like this…” Zephyr added, yawning but tiredly giving a thumbs up

“Sweet Shortcake is here to make things lovely!” Lunella sang as she rocked back and forth

 “It’s good to see you too! I’m sure you’re wondering how my day went…” Juniper said “And I’ll be happy to.. Tell… you…” They were saying as they began to trail off as their head turned to the right, their expression softening as their eyes narrowed at whatever had caught their attention.

“Well, don’t leave us in suspense, tell us!” The Dream Witch said with a smirk

 “But, hey, I have a question…’ They said, pinching the bridge of their nose, their tone growing annoyed

“And what is that?” Keeper asked

 Pointing towards the right, Juniper drew their attention to the sickly green boar eating away at the twisted remnants of a very familiar looking plant

 “Why is Hamilton eating the plant I just killed with my new friends not an hour ago!?” They said, raising their voice in disbelief

 …

The three couldn’t help but laugh

 “What do you mean “plant I just killed?!” “ Zephyr said with a laugh

“Ohhhh this is gonna be a good one, don’t leave us hanging, Rabbit!” Keeper smirked

“How impressive, our little Shortcake is already making waves~” Lunella hummed

 With a sigh, Juniper walked towards the three, and gestured to the inside of the sanctuary.

“Let’s just talk about it here, away from Hamitlon…” They said as the three followed them inside as the door slammed shut.

 There was a small grunt from Hamilton as it looked towards the house, before shrugging the best it could before resuming its ravaging of a plant corpse.

 “Rabbit, there’s a piece of plant in your hair” Zephyr said from inside.

There was a small yelp, audible even from outside

 “Lemme just-” The window to the Sanctuary opened, and a small petal soon landed onto the wheelbarrow, which the boar was happy to snack away at, as the sound of chatting witches filled the air from the open window

[turquoisespace35]

Banshees' captain 40

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Cover

[enchantedchocolatebars]

Sir Caleb and Lady Clara! 🩷 🩵 🌼 💕 💟

During their lively conversation, the couple was clueless about the bearded hobo man and his sparrow spying on them from the bushes.

(Commission drawn by @mochapao)

Sketch

Original cover

A Winsome Witch And A Happy Human Chapters

The witch in the art is my wittewife oc.

[jess-the-vampire]

So we know Dusk didn't know about Belos but did Archie have to explain what grimwalkers were?

[lovemoroporo]

some comms from this summer! ☀️

⭐ kofi | comms | inprnt ⭐