Chapter 56: Cottage
"Your scepter…. Changed?" April mentioned to her as she took the long and wooden object out of the cauldron. It was still dripping from mana milk tea by the time she was holding it in both of her hands. The tea in the cauldron was still boiling and bubbling.
"You could call it a renaissance," the Autumn witch said.
"Why is there a jack-o-lantern at the tip of it now?" April asked, looking up in amazement at the recent change that her magical item had just been through. Meanwhile, the Minotaur was seen crashing down on the wooden floor of the cabin and resting on his butt. Junk had drank a bit too much of the delicious tea September brewed for everyone. Junk swallowed as many liters of it as he could while April was still sipping on it, quite silently and tranquilly.
"What kind of renaissance? What are you talking about?" Junk asked September as he lay there on the floor and sighed.
"My scepter used to have this jack-o-lantern at the tip of it back when I first got it, years ago. It faded away with time and blood. Now that I am back home here, it was time for it to grow back. My scepter was originally forged here in this cauldron with the help of a carving spell. Exactly the kind of magic I want to teach you, Minotaur. Now, reforged, my scepter should be back at full power. Which is categorically going to help us against our enemies," September explained to Junk and April. The witch said all of these things to tell them as she was staring at the grinning jack-o-lantern at the tip of her weapon, staring at it, face-to-face.
"You know what we need to destroy our enemies?"
"What?" April stepped in and interrupted the dark mistress.
"These," Junk slapped his own right arm. Slapping the armor piece that was covering his arm. Junk was starting to tell everyone here that the only thing they truly needed was brute force. Which couldn't be avoided when a Minotaur was in the equation.
"Magic can do a lot more than basic strength," the witch soon replied to him as she stood there next to the cauldron, her chest bare. Steam coming out from the interior of the cauldron, partially hiding her face as she continued to be having her discussion with the beast. Meanwhile, April was just sitting over there, with her legs crossed together, still calmly sipping on the delicious mana milk tea.
"Maybe. I simply prefer easy-to-understand brute strength. But speaking of magic, I think I'd take more of this succulent magic tea," he said right before getting back up on his feet and making his way up to the cauldron one more time. He placed his fingers on the outer rim of the cauldron and leaned over. Inserted his big head into the heart of the cauldron, which barely fit because of his large horns, and drank on more of this special brew. As soon as his horns accidentally hit the edges of the cauldron, the crack that had been made earlier. The one that no one noticed grew bigger and longer. A cracking noise was heard this time. The one that got wind of it the first was April, who was sitting on the ground, sipping on her cup of tea. She heard the cracking noise. She saw the crack. She saw it.
"You didn't have enough of it earlier, Junk?" the witch asked.
"I thought I did. But knowing that this is your milk, but made better with magical ingredients, I can't stop myself," he said.
"Guys…" April tried to keep her calm and called the others.
"But we have to keep some for later. You have to keep some for later, otherwise, you are going to be asking me over and over again for more milk, but we won't have time to milk me because we will be training in the marsh," the Autumn witch desperately tried telling him, but the Minotaur wouldn't listen to her. As always.
"There is always time to milk you more. Don't worry."
"Guys… There is something more important here," she said.
"What is more important than drinking mana milk tea?"
"What is it, April?" the witch finally turned to her and asked.
"There is a crack in your master's cauldron," April revealed.
"A crack? Where?" the Minotaur still had his head into the ancient cauldron. As he finally stopped drinking the hot tea, he tried searching for a crack on the interior of the cauldron, but he couldn't see anything because the cauldron was still much too full of the mixture. The only way to see the crack was on the outside.
"I see it. It's right here," the witch announced as she finally looked at the same spot April was looking at and observed how much the crack continued getting larger. "How is this possible? This cauldron endured countless wars, and now it's broken? It doesn't make any sense. I will try to fix this crack before we get to a point of no return," September was actually worried about this one.
"Where's the crack? I want to see it, too!" The Minotaur suddenly pulled his head out of the interior of the cauldron. Much too fast for that, he should have done it. The horns, unfortunately, ended up stuck in the interior of the cauldron and by pulling his head this fast, he accidentally pulled and dragged the entire thing with him. On top of it, his horns smashed the edges of the cauldron, making a loud banging noise and sadly caused the crack to grow even bigger. Ultimately, the cauldron was brought with the Minotaur, which went over his head and stayed there for a long period of time, making it look as if he was wearing an odd hat or something like that. Junk couldn't see like this. His head was submerged with the rest of the witch's brew. The Minotaur was drowning in the mana milk tea he adored drinking so much. Then, as he was not able to see or move right in the wooden cabin, the beast accidentally slipped on more mana milk tea that was a little everyone on the ground and fell down. Hurt himself real bad. The cauldron was the first thing to hit the ground, resulting in completely shattering it in millions and millions of tiny pieces. The ancient magical cauldron had been destroyed.
The rest of the hot mana milk tea was covering the wooden floor of the room. It was a miracle that Junk wasn't hurt more than he was, following the fact that the cauldron had broken while being around his head. But yet again, the bull had his helmet, so he was spared outside of a few cuts on her face as the visor of the helmet was up when it happened. The heels of the two girls in the cottage were surrounded by the mana milk tea which was all over the place at this point. The room of this cottage wasn't perfect. It was old. Ancient. Which meant that the flooring desperately needed to be reworked, and needed to be completely re-done. The mana milk tea accidentally fell between the cracks of the old flooring. The magical tea slid through the fingers of the witch and fell underneath the cottage in the marsh.
"Junk? What have you just done?" April questioned him.
"I'm not sure, honestly," the Minotaur replied to her.
"He destroyed the only witch's cauldron that my master ever used in her entire life. The memories…" the Autumn witch explained. Doing so relatively calmly. It was pretty impressive that she wasn't screaming or beating Junk or something like that. She remained calm. As she stood in the middle of the room, she looked around and tried finding a solution to this major problem. She breathed.
"Well, hopefully, your master isn't among us anymore to see that because otherwise I would be in big, big trouble," he said.
"You are already in big trouble, Junk. Look at what you've done! If you hadn't put your head into the cauldron to drink out of it directly, this wouldn't have happened! Do you understand? April shouted at him. She was a lot more nervous than September was.
"None of us is in any trouble. It was just an old and stupid bowl where we made tea out of it. Big deal?" the Minotaur argued.
"April is right. We are in major trouble. The three of us."
"What are you talking about, witch?" Junk questioned her.
"The ghost of your former mentor is going to haunt us?" April, her childhood best friend. Half-joking about and half-serious.
"I wish. This magical tea I made was heavily concentrated. There are many, many disturbing creatures in this marsh. The chances of…" but then, a strange noise suddenly interrupted her. It came from down below. It was the sound of wood cracking. The foundation of the marsh cottage was being tempered with. Then, all of a sudden, the house shook, almost as if there was an earthquake, but it was nothing like this. April fell back on her butt after attempting to stand up. Junk did too. April accidentally fell on top of the Minotaur. Her big tits smashing in his face. He didn't mind that part. Meanwhile, September was about to fall down as well, but during her fall, she just had enough time to snap her fingers and commanded her newly revamped magical scepter to shapeshift into a witch's broom. Her broom was physically about the same as the old one, except that there was the same jack-o-lantern at the front of it that could be found at the tip of the scepter. The broom flew in her direction and caught her at the last moment before it was all too late. The broom positioned itself beneath her big and soft butt and carried her. September was now in control. She flew away in the narrow room and ended up hovering above April and Junk. Which were both still lying down on the ground in the unfortunately, wasted mana milk tea.
"We have to get out of here!" September shouted at the both of them as the cottage was still shaking. The foundation had taken a hit, somehow. And it wasn't because of them spilling the tea. Not directly anyway. There was something else going beneath their feet.
"I would agree with that," April nodded and tried getting up.
"Following you, witch," Junk nodded as well. He savagely picked the adorable April who couldn't stand still on her feet without falling again because of the cottage shaking so much and pulled her out of there. The Minotaur followed September out of the old house with the busty elvish young woman in his arms. When they finally made it out of there, the house suddenly stopped shaking. There was no vibration anymore. Almost as if it had never happened in the first place. The strangest thing ever. No one understood this. No one understood this, save for September. She knew. She didn't say anything, but she knew that something was up, and she knew why.
"What the fuck?" Junk shouted to himself, deeply confused.
"Sep? Is it just me, or did the old house of your former mentor vibrate one moment and stop doing so the other?"
"You are correct," the witch bluntly said to her.
"Okay. I'm reassured now at least," April mentioned, keeping calm as much as possible. As much as she could.
"Care to tell us what happened to us?" Junk asked her.
"You mean aside from the accident you caused?" she replied.
"My accident caused an earthquake in the marsh?" he said.
"No. Not exactly an earthquake, Junk," she answered him.
"What was it exactly, then?" the Minotaur wanted to know.
"It's getting dark," September said. It was. "We should get some rest, and then we'll move on with your training at first light tomorrow morning," the Autumn witch flat out avoided his question and turned his back on him as she stated that it was time to go to sleep. After what had recently happened, it was time for some rest.
"So, it's time to rest? I wouldn't say no. I got a few things I want to do for her," Junk said as he turned his gaze at the elvish girl he was still carrying in his strong arms.
She adorably giggled.
Meanwhile, as no one looked, as no soul noticed, the witch's cottage suddenly vibrated again.
Much more quietly than before.