Marvela Mystic | ✔️

Chapter 7 ✨ A Gift

Curious whistled. "Wow! Lookin' good!"

"Ha!" the kitten said. "We did it!"

Curious marveled at the still swirling potion at their feet. "All that time I lived in the dark," he whispered. "I've heard many wonderful things. But I had no idea that magic existed..."

His eyes reflected the glowing light of the potion as they widened.

Marvela scratched at an ear with a hind-paw. "Magic hasn't always existed in this world," she explained absent-mindedly.

Her rat's whiskers quivered at that. "It hasn't? Then where did it come from?"

The kitten's heart skipped as another wave of nostalgia swept over her. In her first days as a familiar, her witch had taken her in her arms and read to her from one of the many hefty books that lined the shelves in their cottage, teaching her all about the origin of magic. Marvela remembered a toothy grin spreading across her muzzle as she took in the beautifully illustrated drawings of the mysterious inhabitants of the spirit world.

The kitten searched her familiar's eager face. She must have looked just like that when she first learned about how witchcraft first came to be. Just as Sable had told her this story, so would she tell her own familiar—something she had never imagined she would do one day.

She currently lacked the illustrated encyclopedic tome Sable had possessed, so she needed another visual method to begin her tale. Remembering her witch's words from so long ago, Marvela outstretched her paws. Golden sparkles crackled at her claw-tips. Curious rolled back on his haunches; his paws pressed to his cheeks in excitement.

"Long ago, the world was changed by a single human. A young girl," began Marvela. The spectral glitter that fell from her outstretched paws formed a shape. Concentrating on recalling the illustrations of Sable's old book, Marvela molded her magic into the shape of a tiny young human at Curious' feet.

"This young girl was like a candle in a dark room. Despite the darkness and cruelty of the world back then, she was full of life and joy. She had an adventurous streak and loved to explore her village and the woods that surrounded it. She was always looking for something new—something else to bring light to the world."

The cat and the rat watched, enamored, as the glowing young girl playfully searched a sparkling rendering of a forest the cat had conjured. The girl skipped merrily between the trees, greeting every woodland creature she passed.

"Until one day... She fell."

A void of pure light opened beneath the girl. She vanished from sight within it.

"Fell?" squeaked Curious, as he clutched his tail. "Fell where?"

Marvela smiled. "There are two realms that we know of, Curious," she purred. "Ours. And the Realm of the Spirits. Until then, no creature had ever crossed the threshold from either realm. The girl had fallen into a strange, wonderful place. A place of magic."

Ghostly orange moths fluttered into existence as the girl reappeared. Entranced, she chased after the cloud of moths in a foreign land, until Marvela summoned sparkling shadowy figures to surround her. The girl cowered before the creatures. Each one varied in size and shape. But all of them possessed an eerie animal skull for a head.

Marvela frowned at her renderings of the spirits, unsure if she had given their appearances justice.

"Spirits are shy creatures. Despite the... unique forms they take, most of them are peaceful. But," the kitten explained to her familiar. "They do not like unexpected guests. The girl was frightened at first. But then she grew curious, for it seemed that the spirits were just as intrigued by her as she was by them. To calm her fears, the spirits showed her their magic and then... Um. Curious? Why is there a caterpillar in my presentation?"