The Triplet Twins

Ch. 11: The Knee

Eda landed on the Knee, with Willow and Skara close by.

"Here we are, Luz. The coldest place on the Boiling Isles, the Knee." Eda said, gesturing to the winter wonderland around them.

"Woah!"

"Yeah, it's a sight to see your first time." Skara said with a smile.

"Now, the ingredient we need for this is a special mushroom that only comes out a handful of times a day." Eda said, "So we have a limited time to do this."

"So where do we start looking?" Luz asked.

"Follow me. There should be a spot close by." Eda said, leading the trio of young witches towards the forest close by, "And remember, the animals will leave you alone, if you leave them alone."

"Got it." Luz said but she still wanted to see a Slitherbeast herself, just to see how beastly it was. "So, does anything else live up here besides Slitherbeasts?"

"Just small bats. My ex told me this whole mountain is practically Slitherbeast territory but I don't believe that." Skara said.

"I don't know, Kid, this is where hunters go to die." Eda said, "The amount of Slitherbeast on this mountain is more than the rest of the knee."

"Really? Exactly how many are there?" Luz asked her.

"About 100 but full grown slitherbeasts have the strength of 20 witches." Eda said to her, "They all gather here, and no one knows why. Some say breeding, but they do breed in other parts of the Knee, so I don't know."

"Like that one over there." Willow said, pointing towards a Slitherbeast chewing on a tree.

"HOLY SHIT!" Luz shouted at the sight of it, grabbing Eda. "THAT'S A SLITHERBEAST!?"

"Hey! You cursed! I am so proud!" Eda said, tussling Luz's hair. "But relax, like I said, just leave it alone and it will leave you alone."

"Now, come on, we need to go through a Slitherbeast den in order to get the mushrooms." Eda said.

They carefully walked passed the Slitherbeast and into a den, while a person with a golden mask watched them.

"The owl lady with three witches here? That's something you don't see everyday." The person said, confused and intrigued. "What are you up to?"

In the den of a cave, the three young witches got very nervous, as there were at least a dozen slitherbeast sleeping. All of them babies, snoozing without scare in the world with the boney remains of their past meals around them!

'Why did the mushrooms have to be in here?!' Luz, Skara, and Willow thought as they were tiptoeing through the cave.

Skara felt her knees shaking, while Willow was keeping a firm hand on Skara's hand. Eda raised her fist.

"We're near the entrance to where the mushroom is." Eda said quietly, "There's a gap that we should be able to get in and the slitherbeast can't."

"And how do we get past them without waking them?" Luz whispered.

"Levitation magic could work but the glow would be too risky. It could wake them." Willow said.

"Well, we have an Illusionist with us." Eda said, pointing at Luz, "Think you can make us invisible for a bit?"

"I-I-I've never made a spell that large before." Luz whispered.

"Relax, you can do it." Eda told her, "You're a pretty strong witch."

"Only self taught. I don't think-" Luz was cut off as Eda put a hand in her head.

"Don't think. Just do. Believe in yourself and you can do it, trust me." Eda said, giving her a kind smile.