"No one's chasing us anymore, Marvela!" the panting black kitten heard Curious shout from her back. "You can stop running now!"
The kitten stopped short in the street, skidding to an abrupt stop and crashing into a bush covered in sticky fake spiderwebs.
"Ow..." she mewled as she and Curious untangled themselves inside the bush. She brushed leaves and webs from her fur. The kitten hissed as she slapped fake spiderwebs away from her in disgust. "More of this horrifying stuff!"
"Horrifying?" Curious said, watching the shredded traces of webbing float away in the wind. "This isn't horrifying! It's for Halloween! It's fun!"
Marvela shook her head at the white rat and ran her tongue over her now filthy coat, taking care around the slightly singed parts. "I don't understand what's supposed to be fun about all this," she muttered once her coat was clean of webs. "Vigilance is very different from the forest I'm from."
Curious peeked out through the leafy limbs of the bush they hid in, excitedly taking in all the festive sights of Vigilance. "Halloween is more than decorations. Supposedly, people like to dress up as things they're not. Oh! And there's lots of candy involved! More candy than you can ever dream of! Or so I've been told by the older rats." Curious clapped his paws together, lost in a dreamy reverie. "I can't wait! I'm going to get so much candy, and I'm not going to be forced to share any of it with the Rat King! I'm going to get so fat!"
Marvela rolled her eyes at her new friend with a chuckle. She crouched beside him in the dirt and stared out through the leaves, trying to see Vigilance through Curious' eyes.
Outside, people were bundled up under scarves and coats against the chilly weather, but they grinned and waved at each other all the same. Children laughed and chased each other around the block, pointing out all the lavish decorations of black, orange, and purple. Freshly carved pumpkins were placed on porches, their toothy smiles mirroring the delight of any passersby.
There was an air of excited anticipation all around the town. And Marvela had to admit; it was infectious.
She found herself smiling, whiskers perked, as a little girl pranced by their hiding spot. Both the girl's hands were clasped with those of her parents on either side of her as she skipped merrily down the sidewalk. The pointed witch's hat upon her head seemed comically too large for her, and the plush black cat perched on her shoulder was missing one of its button eyes, but the child never stopped giggling as she spoke of her excitement for the upcoming festivities.
Marvela watched the little family carry on their way down the block. She vaguely recalled Asra's hatred for those without magic. She remembered what had done to the fiery-haired sorceress all those centuries ago. The kitten swallowed. "Do people here in Vigilance like witches?" she whispered to Curious.
"Uh, well... Kinda?" Curious squeaked, scratching at his ear with a hind leg. "Most people and animals don't believe in scary monsters or magic anymore. I didn't either until you came along. But they sure do seem to celebrate them on Halloween."
Whatever witches remained in Vigilance, they must be hiding their magic very well if none of the magic-less humans and animals knew about them.
But Marvela knew that they couldn't hide from Asra.
The kitten sighed. Her coat prickled as she did so, and she ran her tongue over it once more in frustration. She needed to make that healing potion. She surveyed the strange, alien town in which she found herself. If she had been in her forest, she could find everything she needed for the potion with ease. But here she was, lost in an unfamiliar world. And she certainly couldn't leave her spellbook behind again. Not after what happened the last time...
The magic that had strangely grown more powerful instead of fading away swirled within her, a comforting presence. Marvela's whiskers twitched at a sudden thought.
Finding potion ingredients... That was a task for a witch's familiar. But evidently, she was more than a familiar now. She had certainly proved that when she faced the Rat King.
Again, the realization sank in her chest like a pebble in water, the ripples making her newfound magic stir slightly.
A tiny paw poked the star on her chest, snapping Marvela to attention. She looked down to see Curious gazing up at her with wide eyes and a goofy grin. "So, are you going to do more sparkly—uh, magic-y stuff now?" he squeaked.
Marvela stared down at her small friend for a few heartbeats. An idea brewed in her mind.
"No," she answered. "I'm not."
Marvela watched Curious' face fall. She placed a paw on his back, a grin spreading across her face. "We are," she meowed.
Curious' whiskers quivered. He gaped up at her like a fish out of water. "I beg your pardon?"
Marvela stood tall over him. She cleared her throat. "Curious, how would you like to be my familiar?"
"Your familiar what?"
"No, no... See, a familiar is a witch's assistant. Would you like to help me make spells and potions?"
Curious narrowed his black eyes. Marvela could see the consternation swimming around in them as he considered her offer.
The kitten swished her tail across the ground, a smirk plastered across her muzzle. "If I make you my familiar, you get a small amount of my magic too."
"I get magic!"
"Well, a little bit—"
"I can make sparkles!"
"Sure, yes—"
Curious leaped into the air in celebration, his pink tail wiggling behind him, "Then I'm in!"
Marvela clapped her paws together in delight while her tiny friend danced a jig around her. This town was new to Marvela, and even though Curious had spent more time below ground than above, he still knew Vigilance and its workings far better than she. If anyone could find ingredients in this strange place, it would be the little dancing rat.
"Okay, hold still," the black kitten said, giggling. She gently placed a paw on the rat's tail to cease his dancing. "I think I remember how to do this..."
The memories came to Marvela all at once, and she paused, blinking away the sudden stinging sensation in her eyes as she was enrapt in nostalgia. In her mind's eye, she saw Sable's face smiling down at her, that same old sparkle in her eyes, as she gifted the kitten with a small bit of her magic. Marvela had been overjoyed at the sudden bubbling warmth that grew in her heart at the thought of being gifted with magic.
At the thought of spending forever with her witch...
Marvela coughed to clear away the thoughts. Curious stared up at her, arms crossed and tiny foot tapping the pavement. She could do this. She remembered the spell well.
First, the witch grants her prospective familiar a piece of herself...
"First of all... take this." She pulled a few strands of dark fur from her coat with her teeth. She dropped the stands at Curious' feet. The rat scooped up her fur and looked at her with ears askew and nose twitching.
"Um. Okay..." he huffed.
"And now I need some fur from you. Or a whisker or something."
Curious shrugged and tugged some white hairs free from his pelt and handed them up to Marvela.
"Perfect. Now for the final part."
The promise.
Marvela shut her eyes and let the words come to her. "Curious, from this day on, I bestow upon you my magic as I promise to teach you the ways of magic. From this day, you are now my familiar, and I am now your witch, your protector, and your friend."
She swallowed a lump in her throat. Those were the same words Sable had spoken to her. She felt her magic grow. A small portion of it traveled up to her paw that held Curious' tuft of fur. She opened her eyes in time to see the tuft dissolve into glowing embers that were swept away in the wind. She heard Curious gasp as the black fur he held in his hands did the same.
"Whoa..." Curious breathed, holding up his paws to his face. "I feel tingly."
Marvela let out a shaky laugh. The spell had worked. So that was it. She was a witch. An actual witch.
Curious hopped in place. "So, how do I do magic?" he blurted.
"Here," Marvela mewed, lying down on her belly so that she was eye level with him. "Try this. Close your eyes. You have to feel it. Do you feel that stirring deep within you? That warmth?"
Marvela watched the rat shut his black eyes. His pointed face bunched up as he concentrated. His whiskers vibrated unceasingly. "Hm. Not sure. Is it supposed to feel like I ate a bunch of moths?" he asked, patting his stomach.
"That's one way of putting it, I guess. Now just... Call to it. Set it free."
A few shimmering sparks materialized on a nearby branch, gradually shaping themselves into the form of a chubby glowing caterpillar. Marvela and Curious watched the caterpillar inch up the branch a bit before it lost its footing and fell to the dirt floor, disappearing in a splash of orange sparkles.
Curious pouted. His drooping whiskers almost touched the ground. "That was supposed to be a butterfly."
Marvela rested her tail across the sulking rat's shoulders. "It'll take a while to get the hang of it," she purred. "Like Sable always said, there's no shame in making mistakes. That's how we learn."
"Who's Sable?" Curious squeaked.
Marvela froze and looked away from him. "Sable... was my witch. Before yesterday, I was a familiar just like you. Until my witch... disappeared."
Before an evil witch destroyed her, Marvela finished in her head.
An evil witch that had vowed to do the same to every other witch in town soon.
Curious patted her side. "I'm sorry to hear that, Marvela," he said. "Maybe we'll find your witch again!"
Marvela felt a pang in her heart, then a stinging in her side as her burn marks complained. She shook her head hard enough to make her ears flop about. "Alright then! Time for your first mission as a familiar. We are going to make a healing potion!"
She hastily pried her old tome open in front of them. The weathered spine creaked in protest as she rifled through the pages to find the ingredients for the healing potion once more.
Curious sneezed and waved away a cloud of dust that rose from the book. "Sheesh, this book is old!"
"It sure is. There's a problem, though," the kitten mewed to her friend as she presented him with the list of ingredients. She jabbed a claw at the black blot smeared across the page. "I can't tell what this one ingredient is."
Curious held a paw to his whiskered chin in thought as he surveyed the list. "Hm... A vessel, clear water, a young blossoming vine? Yeah, I've seen other rats bring stuff like that down from the Aboveground! I can find them for you, no problem. But how do we find out what the missing ingredient is?"
"No idea." Marvela sighed, feeling like a useless witch. "Not unless you happen to have another book of spells and potions somewhere..."
The rat rubbed his chin in thought. "Another book, huh?" He snapped his fingers with a smirk. "I have an idea! Follow me!"
"Wha—? Hey, wait!" Marvela called, as Curious skittered out of the bush. Clasping her spellbook, she chased after the rat, finally coming to a halt in front of an impressively large marble building a few blocks down the street. "What is this place?" she huffed as she caught up to the beaming rat.
"A library! A place that's lousy with books! But we aren't here for those at the moment. This way!" He beckoned the cat to follow him as he scurried alongside the building and clambered up and through a window that had been left open. Marvela could do nothing but pick up her book and follow him inside.
Inside, the expansive room was cluttered with shelves lined with more books than Marvela had ever seen before. Dustmotes swirled around empty tables and chairs, and books that lay waiting on carts. The air was thick with the scent of ink and heavy with stark silence. Marvela felt a twinge of homesickness.
The kitten tiptoed through the room, finding Curious perched atop a desk, typing furiously at a keyboard in front of a lit monitor.
"Why is this place so empty?" Marvela mewed, her voice echoing in vacant room. She sniffed at the keyboard. "And what is this, Curious?"
"The library is closed right now. Not that it would make a difference, anyway. Sadly, the people of Vigilance aren't as interested in books as they used to be." Curious explained. "Because of this." He pressed the 'enter' key with both paws. "This is something I've heard legends of down in the Belowground. This... is the internet!"
The screen in front of them refreshed, displaying an image of a book of spells. "And there we go! Another spellbook! Looks like it's somewhere upstairs." He turned to the cat, that goofy grin of his never leaving his face. "I'm the familiar, right? I'll go find it!"
Before Marvela could utter a word, the rat launched himself from the desk and hurried into the maze of shelves. "Look out, Vigilance!" she heard him shout amongst the shelves. "There's a new familiar in town... And he's extra sparkly!"
Marvela rolled her eyes as a cloud of glittery orange mist arose from the shelves in the distance. Then she turned back to the screen.
So, this was the technology that Asra seemed to rue. It was almost like the magic-less had created a new form of magic.
What else can this thing possibly find? she mused.
With two claws, the kitten gingerly typed 'WITCH' into the search bar and hit enter.
Images and articles filled her vision. She saw old woodcut illustrations depicting the persecution of pointy-hatted witches. She read about how people used to fear those who possessed magic.
How they used to set them aflame.
The kitten's heart beat against her chest. She remembered the words of Asra and how she had described the mistrust she had endured. How she'd had to resort to making deals with spirits just to survive...
This was the world witches used to live in. This was the world her own witch had grown up in. Though witches could potentially live for a very long time, however not nearly as long as the almost immortal spirits, it was the careful witches that lived the longest. That explained why most witches nowadays preferred to keep to themselves and keep their magic a secret from those who lacked it.
"Find something interesting?" someone squeaked in her ear.
Marvela jolted into the air at Curious' sudden appearance. "Oh! Curious! You're back!"
She watched him turn to the screen and peruse her morbid findings. She sighed. "You said people celebrate witches nowadays but... But it looks like they used to hate them."
Curious closed the windows on the screen, revealing a festive desktop background welcoming people to the Vigilance Library. "Times change. People change," he said softly.
People change.
Marvela narrowed her eyes. She remembered Asra's words from the previous night.
'Why should I change when I have the power to make everyone else change?'
Her mood grew more sour by the second. Curious, however, only seemed to lighten up even more. "Well, let's get started on this potion of yours! Tada!" He flourished his paws dramatically at the new spellbook beside him on the desk.
"Curious, you found it!" Marvela yowled, clapping her paws together.
Curious shoved the cover open and turned a few pages. "And look! Here's a healing potion! Says here it's good for burns! And it's the same as the potion in your old book!"
Marvela hungrily searched the recipe. "Yes, this is it. Vessel, water, vine, and... a bone? That's the missing ingredient?"
"A bone?" Curious repeated. "A bone! I know exactly where to find one!"
Without hesitation, Marvela's excitable familiar leaped clear of the table and scurried off toward the window they had snuck through.
Marvela tucked her original spellbook out of sight between a shelf and the wall and took off after him. Suddenly, the rat froze mid-step a few paces from the open window. "Oh, wait..." he wheezed, tail waggling.
The kitten watched, bemused, as the rat doubled back to the desk, shoved the new spellbook onto the floor, and pushed it across the room toward the far corner where the unoccupied circulation desk lay. He hoisted the book up over his head with great effort and tossed it into the slot marked 'RETURNS.'
He skittered back to Marvela's side. "Gotta return the book first. Don't want any fines, do we?" He shrugged. "Okay! Now we're off!"
And with that, the rat darted through the window into the streets of Vigilance with the cat close behind him.
Marvela couldn't help wondering where in this strange town Asra was lurking.