I Will Always Love You - Empires SMP S2 AU: Nature Wives

Chapter 8: Little Miss Storm (Shelby)

The flight back to the Evermoore was silent and awkward and without the comforting prescence of Katherine.

Shelby gripped the broomwith all her might, knuckles whitening under her strength as she focused on steering the broom through the wispy clouds.

How long would Katherine be gone for? How far was this Enchanted Grove? Was it even real?

Shelby punded her fist against the broom as all these unanswerable questions overwhelmed her causing it to dip and swerve.

“Woah,” Shelby soothed, steadying the broom, “I’m sorry. It’s just-,”

She paused looking around her and then back down at the broom, “I’m not gonna start talking to a broom,”

The broom rolled unexpectedly onto it’s back causing Shelby to dangle haphazardly high above the ground, her startled scream sounding through the air.

“Ok, ok, ok,” Shelby whimpered hurriedly, kicking her legs out abve nothing tightening her already vice-like grip on the mischevious broom, “I’ll talk to you, just please-,”

The broom rolled over, sitting Shelby back down on its back with a plop. Shelby recovered, panting heavily and practically hugging the broom.

“Oh look, we’re home,” Shelby announced breathlessly as her crooked witching tower came into view.

The broom dipped into a vertical dive, sending Shelby screaming again.

The witch shut her eyes tight as the mud streaked ground hurtled closer and closer, bracing for the impact...

Which never came.

She peeled open one eye lid to find the rascal of a broom hovering a foot above the ground. Shelby let out a sickly groan as she slid from the broom in one ungraceful fall and landed with a splot in the mud.

She got to her feet, brushing mud from her overalls as she staggered towards her hut, giving the broom, who was currently poking at her side, the silent treatment.

She stumbled up to the door of her beloved witch hut, throwing open the door hurriedly and bent over the conviniently empty plant pot by the door, allowing the broom to sneak past her into the hut.

Shelby's grandma blinked, watching her granddaughter lazily from jer comfy chair by the fire, Tortoise purring on her lap.

"The Storm Witch is back," Guinevere rose gently from her chair, taking Tortoise carefully from her lap and setting him down where she had sat to walk over to Shelby.

Shelby straightened herself, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, glaring thunderous daggers at the broom who had propped itself up against the warm cauldron in a teasing manner.

"Since you're back," Guinevere came to stand by the open door that the broom and Shelby had just burst through, "We might as well teach you how to wield your prime magic,"

"Now?" Shelby muttered, shaking her head.

Guinevere narrowed her eyes at the cheek of her granddaughter, "Yes, 'now', young lady, before you galavant off to see your girlfriend again,"

Shelby stared at her grandma in disbelief, "But she's-,"

"Your whole world right now? Yes I get it." Guinevere shook her head, "Do you want to become a powerful witch?"

"Yes, but-," Shelby attemoted to protest.

"You won't become a powerful wotch by sitting on her lap all day, so get it together Shelby," Guinevere motioned to the open door, "Magic is waiting for you,"

Shelby huffed, seeing no way out of her tight situation, she stepped outside, allowing herself to be dragged back to the centre of the Evermoore where the crystal shards still lay on the ground, discarded from the evening before.

"Right," Shelby's grandma withdrew her wand, waving it once in the air to rearrange the shards of magical crystal.

Shelby made to step inside the crystals but her grandma stopped her as she toed the outer rim.

"I'm going in there this time," Guinevere stepped bravely into the circle, watching Shelby.

"Huh?" Shelby asked, puzzled, "How does that help me?"

"You are going to show me what you can do," Guinevere nodded at Shelby, still studying her granddaughter intensely.

"But, I don't know-,"

"Yet," interrupted Guinevere, "You don't know, yet, which is why I'm here to teach you!"

"Ok..." Shelby faced her grandma nervously, swallowing but instantly regretting it as she tasted the remenants of sick in her mouth.

She looked down at her hands, waiting for lightning to burst out of them by magic.

Her grandma gripped her own wand tight, waiting for Shelby to get on with her show.

"Errr... how do I do it?" Shelby looked to her grandma for help.

"Oh right! The magic words! Get your wand out." Guided Guinevere, slapping a hand to her forehead.

Shelby withdrew her wand a instructed, the soft mangrove roots feeling comfortable to hold in her sweaty palm.

"And repeat after me," Guinevere told her, "Ignium Potestatem,"

"What?"

"Ignium Potestatem," she repeated calmly.

"Oh ok," Shelby swallowed, flexing her arms as she got ready to say the words.

She took a breath and braced herself as she said, "Ignium Potestatem,"

Sparks flew from her core as she said those words, which seemed to echo in her ears as the sparks flew up her arm and into her arm, a soft crackling filling the air.

Shelby, overcome by the surge of magic, waved her wand over to the nearest tree and watched, eyes open wide, as lightning forked from the clear sky, striking one of the trees before her.

She heard her grandma intake sharply at the powerful display of power she had just witnessed

Millions of sparks were now flying through her viens as clouds began to gather above them, like millions of bees swarming their nest.

Rain started to chuck down from the clouds and Shelby watched in wonder as beautiful strikes of lightning forked the sky, dancing in time with the beating thunder.

The power ebbed from Shelby's core quickly and the lightning stopped dancing in the sky and the thunderous rain clouds cleared as quick as they had come.

Guinevere peered cautiously up at the sky before hurrying over to Shelby, clutching her granddaughter by the arms.

"I forgot how beautiful young magic was," she breathed, eyes dancing with a sudden youth.

"Young magic?" Shelby asked, wishing that she could partake in her grandma's glee.

"Yes, yours in only just starting to wake up," Guinevere clapped her hands together, "So powerful already! You are going to be one hell of a Storm Witch!"

Shelby grinned a lop-sided smile, "If I don't sit on Katherine’s lap all the time,"

Grandma waved her hand dismissively, "Sit on your girlfriend's lap all you want,"

"I can...?" Shelby asked hopefully.

"With magic like that you could wipe out an entire army."

Shelby smiled at the thought.

"Just try not to do it while your sitting on Katherine’s lap because you might end up blowing her head off," Guinevere peered at Shelby, eyes deadly serious.

Shelby swallowed.

Guinevere burst in heaps of giggles at Shelby's petrified face, "I'm only kidding, deary,"

Shelby glared at her grandma.

"But seriously," Guinevere wiped tears of laughter from her eyes, "You've got to be careful with that magic. It's dangerous."