The Witch from The Human Realm

22 Mother Daughter Duo

Reina held her staff, using its plain end to move the fallen sweet debris from the gingerbread floor.

"I knew this castle was bad news from the moment I saw it," Raven spoke from the other side of the room.

It was the very same room where Raven and Maddie had a short tea party with Ms. Sugarplum.

'I would never forgive myself if she ends up getting hurt in my hands,' Reina thought, thinking of her daughter and Maddie every now and then, as she pushed aside a few semi-molten chocolate lumps.

"There's got to be something in here," Raven spoke up once more.

Her statement was then followed by the cracking sound of the huge candy cane.

Reina then looked up from the pile of bread and chocolate in front of her and turned her gaze to when the sound came from. Only to see an actual cracking candy cane that supposedly framed the ceiling on Raven's side of the room.

Or, directly above Raven.

She glanced at her daughter, who was busy digging through the ant-covered scraps of sweets. Raven looked utterly clueless.

"Raven!" Reina called, still looking at the cracking candy cane. That made her rethink her decision of shouting.

"You found someth--" Raven began.

The candy cane snapped, getting Raven's attention. Raven froze in her place.

Reina immediately spun and swung her staff, sending a ray of dark purple magic towards her daughter's direction. The magic wrapped around Raven's torso and pulled her towards Reina.

The candy cane fell on the spot where Raven left, breaking the gingerbread floor and smashing to pieces upon impact.

Raven, who ended up on the floor after Reina pulled her, weakly stood up and shakily brushed off crumbs and dead ants from her clothes.

"T-thank you," Raven mumbled, hesitantly glancing at her mother. She then looked back to where she was standing before.

That part of the floor collapsed and the rest of the wall it fell from caved in, leaving a gaping hole on the wall. Well, leaving an empty space and a huge hole on the floor.

Ants swarmed towards the fallen debris.

Reina winced at the sight. Her daughter would've been crushed and eaten if it wasn't for her.

"Look," Raven's voice caught her attention.

Reina looked at Raven, expecting another statement. But she then saw that she was pointing at something. She then set her gaze towards that direction and spotted a hand-sized hole on the floor that wasn't there before.

The two headed towards it and kneeled down. But before they could look into it, Crow came flying inside the room.

"Your Majesties," the raven spoke, out of breath. His beak was covered with some dark substance.

Reina looked up at him. "What is it?" she asked. She then saw the raven's beak. "Did you eat chocolate?"

"I found a hidden room downstairs," Crow said, struggling to catch his breath. "And the mess on my beak is not something one should put interest upon."

Reina rolled her eyes. "We'll go there once we--" Reina began to say.

"What the…" Raven interrupted, digging through the hole and making it bigger.

And from the hole, a number of copies of the map Ms. Sugarplum gave Maddie was found.

"This is… bad," Raven said, pulling out one of the copies.