A Witch and her Familiars

Chapter Two - Daphne Skips her Lunch

Daphne closed the book and stretched, yawning widely. The tabby on her legs raised his head to look at her reproachfully for disturbing his nap. "Sorry, kitty," she said, reaching over to rub him between the ears. "I need to get up."

Her mother's magic book was fascinating, but there was only so much Latin, Hebrew, and Sanskrit Daphne could handle in one sitting; the book jumped like a rabbit between languages, and while she was almost fluent in almost all of them, it was giving her a bit of a temple headache. Besides, as interesting as the book was, she was more interested in lunch, not having eaten anything that morning in the commotion of her mother's sudden departure.

Being the lazy bum she was, Daphne opted not to stand up for food. She pulled her wand, which had been tucked into the front pages of the book, and wiggled it, focusing on the fruit snacks she had stashed away earlier that week. Nothing happened. "Mom!" she grumbled. Like her, the elder Elder had a weakness for sugary treats.

If there weren't snacks to be summoned, she supposed she would have to go get them the old fashioned way: shopping.

She stood up off the couch and stretched again, then pulled up her knee-high socks so they weren't falling down to her ankles. She never really consciously noticed, but she really liked the school uniforms she would sometimes see, even though she didn't go to school herself (her mother had homeschooled her on the important subjects: poetry, geography, ancient languages, astronomy, divination, spells, channeling, botany, and baking). She idly wondered what traditional school would be like as she tugged at her short shirt and long gray sweater.

As she opened the door, she grabbed her purse, which was styled to look like a bunny and just long enough to hold her wand, and called out, "Okay, cats! I'm leaving now! I'll bring you back more food." The three cats that had found their way in along with the tabby blinked lazily at her before resuming their snooze. She tucked her wand in her bag and walked into the hall, down the stairs, and out into the afternoon sunlight.

She tugged down her sweater over her belly and huffed, out of breath—what kind of person gets winded going down the stairs? But she started walking down the broad, slightly dirty street anyway. A car rumbled past, lurching every time it hit one of the potholes that were so numerous drivers couldn't swerve to avoid them. She didn't live in a bad part of Detroit by any means (her neighborhood was relatively quiet and crime-free), but the roads here were bad as everywhere else. Even though the roads were cracked and some buildings empty, however, Daphne felt as protective of her city as she did one of her cats. It could be a bit grumpy, a bit beat-up, and a bit intimidating, but it could also be familiar and loving if you got to know it.

She skipped over the cracked sidewalks down the street towards her go-to place for lunch: Folton's Fruits and Florals, a corner shop that sold fresh fruits and veggies alongside flowers and succulents. She loved it there, and it was the main reason every windowsill in their already-cluttered apartment was covered with a line of tiny potted cacti.

She she smiled as an idea leapt into her mind. The endless levitation spell her mother's book had mentioned would be perfect to test on some new plants, and a floating garden would free up the windowsills for even more inkwells, crystals, candles, and books.

The red striped awning of the store greeted her like a letter from a pen pal, but just as she was about to walk in, someone came hurtling around the corner and down the path directly towards her.

"Yikes!" Daphne exclaimed, dodging the girl. "Are you late or something?"

The blonde stopped and looked at her with large, frightened eyes. "You can see me?" she whispered hoarsely.

"See you?" Daphne asked, confused. The girl's short, curly hair, tall, knobby frame, and preppy clothes were all perfectly visible. Aside from the fear in her eyes and voice, the girl looked perfectly normal, and since she couldn't sense any magical energy coming from her, she assumed she wasn't a witch. "Yeah, of course I can see you."

The girl heaved out a breath. Her pale skin was blotchy red and covered in slick sweat, as if she had been running fast for a long time. "If you can see me, can you see that, too?" she panted, pointing behind her.

Daphne saw what was scuttling out from around the corner and only had one word for the strange girl: "Run."