Call of the Waylanders

V. Witch, Please.

I landed on the green, perfectly trimmed lawn of the Wizarding Guild. One would think that, what with the Guild housing some of the most important people in the Five Lands, they wouldn't bother to do something as simple as trimming their lawn, but it was the Wizarding Guild. In the Wizarding Guild, everyone bothered to do everything. They were magicians, after all; they could do anything with a little magic and a stick of butter. 

I opened the grand doors and stepped into the inside. Most of the inside, though the outside was made of dreary black bricks, was made of red silk and gold leaf. Pillars rose from the floor to the ceiling stories above my head, and on the ground floor, there were two halls leading to two different places: the wizards and wizardesses, and the witches and warlocks. The wizards and wizardesses were the ones that people saw using magic, with wands, staffs, and sparkly lights. The witches and warlocks were more of chemists, using potions, curses, blessings and spells. They differed very much, but some people would think that it would go beyond abilities and skill sets(it did). Then there were the magi, but they were a completely different story altogether.

One of my witch friends, the one named Maddie, saw me while she was sitting on a couch to my left and ran to see me. "Lion! Hi!" she called out as she drew close to me. I shook her hand and asked her where Minnie was. 

"Oh, she's waiting for us," she answered. "follow me, and I'll show you." She grabbed my hand and began to lead me down the hallway of witches and warlocks. 

Maddie was a different girl. Not only was she a mage, deeper classified as a Cryomancer, but she was from what we of the Five Lands call the Null World. The Null World is a world without magic or cores or dragons or anything like that; they rely on little machines the size of a piece of paper to do all their work instead of doing it themselves or with magic. Maddie assured me it was actually pretty great, but both I and Minnie doubted her deeply.

Eventually, we reached a dark door with a sign that said very plainly on it: DOOR IS CLOSED FOR A REASON. OPEN AND PROBABLY DIE. I pointed to the sign as if Maddie didn't see it, but she brushed off my pointing it out and opened the door. I deducted from my experience that she would probably die. Fortunately for the both of us, she in fact didn't die. No, she simply opened the door for me, and I followed her in.

The room was made of black brick, covered in cast-aside glass objects. In the center of the room, there was a person leaning over a large brewing cauldron. The person wore a pointed hat and a black robe, and fiery red hair hung down past their shoulders. I whispered to Maddie if we were interrupting the person, who I concluded was female, but she shook her head as the person cackled evilly. She threw a dash of some mysterious powder that came from a flask on her belt into the cauldron, and the liquid inside of it flashed and continued to burn brightly. 

"HAHAHAHAHA!" The woman--or witch, rather--cackled again, throwing a stone into the cauldron. The room became darker and the witch seemed to grow taller over the cauldron as smoke poured out, filling the room with a dark green color. Maddie cleared her throat, and everything went back to normal. The room returned to regular lighting, and the witch shrank back to a normal person's height as she turned to look at where the sound had come from. When the witch saw Maddie and I, she smiled.

"Lion! Maddie! Good to see you," Minnie, also known as Minerva when it was time to get serious, greeted us. She signaled us to wait one minute as she went back to her cauldron, finishing up whatever she was making. As she filled her last potion, she turned back to us.

"So, Lion, what's up this month?" she asked. I explained the situation of the traveler as the two girls listened.

"Seems interesting, and almost vexing, too, I want to say. Is there anything we can do to help?" Minnie asked when I was done. 

"I don't know. Maybe, but we'd need the grand council's permission for you to join us," I reminded her.

"Well, we could get Isabel to put in a good word for us," Maddie offered. She was right; but Isabel was quite a bit different than the foolish little wizardess I had met years ago. She was more reasonable, more cold and calculating, more intelligent, and, as a young man such as my late teammate Ko would point out, much more beautiful. 

"Do you think she would?" I asked. At that, Minnie and Maddie shook their heads. "No idea," Minnie answered. "She wants to keep us two safe, but she also wants to make sure the Five Lands stay intact. However, she can't guarantee that we'll be necessary to the mission, so sending us would just be endangering us..."

"We could let Toxiclaw help you!" Maddie piped up. "Since he's not a human(or rather, humanoid), he doesn't need permission to go with you! In fact, he counts as a 'mount,' so he would be necessary, now wouldn't he?" 

"You've got a good point," I admitted. As I thought about it, I knew it would be great if Toxiclaw came along. He spat acid, for heavens! Not to mention, he was a fighting dragon, so he was huge at this time, nearly indestructible by a normal person's regards. I wondered if his acid weapon could melt through matador armor? 

"Why don't we ask him if he wants to help?" I suggested. Maddie and Minnie both nodded, clearly thinking that was a good idea. We left the room, and I followed the witches down many more hallways and turns, up one or two or seven staircases, and down one more hallway that led to a balcony. 

The three of us stood on the balcony. Minnie cupped her hands over her mouth and cried out with much vigor, "TOXICLAW!" 

At first, nothing happened. But soon, the earth shook, and I heard the winds cry out. I heard the sound of flapping wings, and down from the heavens came a black dragon, easily forty feet long and twenty-four feet tall. He descended to us, and I felt the urge to get down on the ground and stay still, but as soon as I saw the green spikes and claws, I knew it was the dragon we had found on that magic farm a year or two ago.

"It is I, Toxiclaw," the dragon rumbled, hovering in the air in front of us with a periodic flap of the wings. "What is it that you need?"