The Witching Hour

Appleridge farm was one of the oldest farms in the region. It was built 180 years ago by a couple of Fauns named Allen and Faye, and their family was still running the place to this day. To be more exact, their grandson, Alder, and his wife, Gwen, were the one running it these days. I was a regular customer of theirs, as they consistently produced the best fruits and other farm products in the region. Granted, it was because I put a spell on their land that made it supernaturally fertile while also keeping pests at bay.

The town used to benefit from a similar spell, but… Bah, didn’t want to dwell on that debacle, not now. As I landed in their front yard, I gave Gwen a friendly wave. “Hi there, Gwen, how goes it?” She looked up from some knitting she was doing. “Hello Morgana, how delightful to see you. Everything’s fine here, though Alder’s being a bit of a worrywart.” She patted her bulging belly as she spoke.

“Must be any day now, eh?” She gave a happy nod. “Indeed, which means we can’t take part in the festival this year, unfortunately.” Midnight hopped off my broom and ran over to Gwen and hopped into her lap. Gwen smiled down at her. “Well now, hello to you too Midnight.” She began scratching her behind the ears, earning a delighted purr in response.

I put the broom into my storage bag. “I take it the rest of the family’s tending the orchard?” Gwen looked up from her patting. “Almost everyone. Faye’s inside, since she’s baking an apple pie. Though I am guessing you’re here for Alder or Allen.” As she spoke, she flinched for a moment, which interrupted her patting of Midnight.

“The baby, I take it?” Gwen gave a silent smile in reply. “Well, I’ll find Alder. Enjoy yourselves.” I gave Gwen a friendly wave and left towards the orchard with a relaxed trot. As I arrived, there were signs of frantic activity among the various fruit trees. Because of the enchantment I cast on the grove, there were multiple harvest seasons between spring and autumn, and this latest one was in full swing.

If I weren’t mistaken, they were busy harvesting a peach and apple harvest. Hmm, Peach mead? No, NOPE. Horrible idea. Peaches tasted horrible when mixed with honey. “Hmm? Oy, Morgana. Fancy seeing you here.” I looked towards the source of the voice.

“Alder, doing well, I hope?” He shrugged as he put down the crate of fruit he was holding. “Oh, I can’t complain. Although, I won’t lie, with Gwen expecting any moment now, I’m all out of sorts. I need to work, so I won’t dissolve into a nervous wreck.” I walked over to the crate of apples. “Then I guess you won’t complain about some haggling?”

That caused Alder to break into a big grin. “Now we’re talking. What’s on your shopping list today?” Soot hopped off my shoulder. “Since this will undoubtedly take a while, I’ll take a long flight around the farm, stretch my wings.” As he took off, we got down to business.

Three hours later, we finally settled on a price for the wares. “I’ll say it again, Morgana. You drive a hard bargain when you want to. Any lower, and I’d be making no bank at all from that.” That caused me to chuckle, as three crates of apples disappeared into my pouch.

“Perhaps, but it took your mind off things, didn’t it?” Alder blinked, then burst into laughter. “True enough. Let’s fetch those eggs and other produce, shall we?” As he said so, I could hear some clicking from Winter’s beak. “Ah, you’re awake. I hope your nap was pleasant.”

Winter replied with a soft hoot. “I must admit, Mother, I didn’t expect to fall asleep. The sun was just so nice and warm and the soft rolling from you walking lulled me to sleep before I knew it. Oh, Hello Mr. Thorne, I hope you’re doing well.” Alder glanced up at Winter and shot her a friendly smile. “As well as I can be, given the wife’s expecting any day now. So obviously, I’m a nervous wreck.”

Winter tilted her head. “I see. Well, I wish the both of you best of luck with the upcoming birth.” Alder took a deep breath. “Thanks for the well-wishes. I appreciate it.” I reached up and gave Winter some pats. “Well, I hope you are ready to get an earful from Soot and Midnight, since I postponed story time so you wouldn’t miss out.” Winter gave a few worried chirps. “I suppose that’s fair. Oh, and thanks for waiting, Mother.”

Well, Winter would manage, and the two wouldn’t go too far. The three of us went to fetch the eggs, milk and also some oranges. I didn’t know where they got the seeds to plant oranges, let alone how they stopped the trees from dying during winter, but I wasn’t about to refuse a nice source of vitamin C. Besides, orange juice was nice for breakfast.

With everything stored away, and payment given, it was time to head back. I waved goodbye to Alder and went back to fetch Midnight. “Alright, we got what we needed. Let’s head home. See you later, Gwen, and best of luck!” Midnight got off Gwen’s lap reluctantly, then padded over to me. “Where’s Soot?” I shrugged as I got ready for takeoff. “Out flying. He should spot us once we get off the ground.”

Midnight hopped back into my lap and I slowly ascended above the farmhouse. A few moments later, Soot landed on my shoulder. “It figures it would take you forever to finish haggling, was considering flying home by myself.” I couldn’t contain a scoff at that. “We both know you wouldn’t since you’d miss the next part of the story, speaking of which, where was I?”

Soot ruffled his wings and tilted his head for a moment. “If memory serves, you were at the point we were waiting for winter to end so we could get a rock slab big enough for a ritual altar. The rest of that winter was slow as molasses, because of repeated late-winter storms. It might be better if we just skip to late spring when the altar was done. I mean, not much of interest happened between winter and getting our hands on a stone slab big enough. Especially if you consider, we just found an enormous boulder and chipped away at it with magic to make the altar, rater than quarrying for a slab big enough.”

Well, Soot wasn’t wrong, per se, but… “I’ll agree to most of that. I think I will explain how we got the altar done, though. It was…”

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An unforeseen complication I didn’t consider. But as luck would have it, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Soot and I were in front of a massive boulder. Ivy was flitting back and forth in front of us. “See? I told ya that I knew where to find a rock big enough for what you’d need.” She stopped flying and hovered in front of me with a hopeful expression. “Fair enough, Ivy. You pulled through for us, so I invite you to join us for a pancake dinner tonight as a reward.”

Ivy began doing loops from sheer happiness. “Yay, pancakes! Oh, how I’ve missed the taste of those culinary marvels!” Her obsession with pancakes was… worrisome. However, there was still that unforeseen problem. “Now for the hard part, getting this thing back home.” Ivy looked at the giant boulder, then at me. “Ya know, I might help ya out with that if, it’ll get me my pancakes faster!” Her eager expression spoke volumes.

I glanced at Soot. “Well I certainly don’t possess enough magic reserves to levitate this thing all the way back home, even after spending most of the winter improving my abilities, so if you know a way, I won’t complain.” Ivy flew up to the boulder and opened her own little bag. A few seconds later and the boulder was just… gone. “That’s a nifty item. I should see if I can make my own.”

Ivy seemed quite pleased as she grinned at me. “Hmm, I might see if I can get you something tasty for dessert, too.” Ivy’s expression changed to one of confusion. “What’s a dessert?” So that wasn’t a common thing here, eh? I gave Ivy a friendly smile. “Let’s leave that as a surprise, one that I know you will enjoy.”

It took us about an hour to get back to the hut from the valley where the boulder was, and most of that trip was Ivy attempting to learn what a dessert was. Once back at the hut, I looked around for a suitable spot to make the altar. I decided on a small island surrounded by a pond of water, with a shallow land bridge leading to said island. Just a short walk from my house itself.

Ivy landed and inverted her pouch, causing the still shrunken boulder to land at the center of the island. Then she was pushed away as the thing expanded at a rapid pace. So fast, she was sent careening into the water. I offered the broom handle to her, and she climbed on as I fished her out. “This dessert of yours better be worth it. I’m soaked now.” I put Ivy on my shoulder.

“Don’t you worry about that, Ivy. I promise you, it’s worth every second of waiting and even getting soaked. Now, then, let’s deal with this altar.” I looked at the boulder. “Chip, chop, chisel, and jab, until the boulder’s an altar slab.” I pointed at it and felt the magic surge through me. Mere moments later, small pieces of rock fell off the boulder, as if a dozen masons were at it with chisels and hammers. “I’m really getting the hang of this now.” Soot landed on the shoulder opposite of Ivy. “Well, you spent almost every moment you weren’t gathering food on meditating and practicing spell casting, so I’d be more surprised if you didn’t improve. How are you feeling?”

I reached up and began scratching Soot on the back of his head. “I’m feeling fine. In fact, I could probably cast that all day and not feel any downsides.” By now, the amount of stone debris was piling up. “Hmm, that won’t do. That won’t do at all.” I looked at all the stone pieces, getting rid of it seemed prudent, but how to, wait that would work. “Seeing all this stone debris does my anger rouse, so turn it into a path to my house.”

The debris falling off the rock moved at speed, so fast I had to evacuate the island to avoid getting clobbered, as every piece of stone that fell joined in on growing into slabs or other stone implements needed to create a dry path across the land bridge and then through the swamp all the way back to my house. “OK, I’m feeling that one. Not enough to be debilitating, but I’m not repeating it without consequences. Now all that remains is to wait for a blood moon. So, what say you two to some dinner?” The response was expected, as Ivy took off. “PANCAKES!”

I flew back home and could already see the path approaching through the reeds, bushes, and shrubbery as it crossed the many small pools of water. Dinner preparations were done quite fast, since ensorcelling the ingredients and tools needed to make it was trivial. As for dessert, I began that at the same time. “The ingredients are stirred, mixed and poured in to shapes, so we can eat the world's best cupcakes.”

I was alone in the kitchen as I was making food and dessert, mostly because I knew it would drive Ivy up the wall with curiosity. Soon, however, the kitchen and living room were filled with the delectable scent of pancakes and baking cupcakes. Dinner itself was as expected, with Ivy scarfing down several times her own weight in food, despite my suggestion to save some for dessert.

As the dinner wound down, I went out and carried in a tray with cupcakes on it. "One for each to begin with. That goes for you too, Ivy. No eating them whole and emptying the tray." She looked up at me with a curious expression. “Sure thing!” then looked at the cupcake I placed in front of her with renewed interest. “It smells delicious, it looks delicious, so how do you eat it?” Oh, right. I unwrapped it for her, leaving the wrapper there so she could take any crumbs from it if she wanted.

Soot didn’t need help as he pecked on it from the top. “This is nice, not my usual food, that’s for sure, but not bad.” Well, it’s great that he enjoyed it. “Yeah? Well, enjoy them while it lasts because for now, the ingredients needed to bake these are limited. I don’t have access to flour, milk or sugar on the regular, so this will be a rare occurrence.”

Just then, I heard a noise I didn’t expect. Sniffling. I looked towards Ivy, who was the source. “Is everything alright, Ivy?” She looked up at me with her big eyes all wet. “This… this is so delicious, I can’t help it. The tears are just coming on their own.” She ripped another piece of cupcake off and stuffed it into her mouth.

After she chewed it thoroughly and swallowed, she seemed to reach a decision. “Ms. Morgana, could I take some of these back to the village? I want to share them with the others.” I glanced over at Soot, asking his advice, but he just shrugged. Guess it was fine then. “I suppose I could. Should I send with you some pancakes too?” Ivy dropped the piece of cupcake she was eating, apparently having a hard time processing the concept of MORE pancake. “Only a fool would say no to an offer of more pancakes, so sure! Now I can share all the goodness with the rest of the village!”

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Soot Shuddered on my shoulder. “I still remember the aftermath of that. The cupcakes were insanely popular and disappeared instantly. But the pancakes… I don’t know what it’s about those and pixies, but… considering Ivy’s condition when she returned, it must have been bad.” I couldn’t disagree there. “I think it was the number that caused it. They began fighting over the few that remained, no doubt. Although Ivy wouldn’t ever admit it.”

Soot ruffled his wings, but didn’t disagree with my assessment. “The first and only pancake riot in Nettledale, if I recall, right, Mistress?” I landed on the porch and opened the door for the three of us. “Indeed, the incident also caused pancakes to become banned within the village itself. And brought the entire village to us a few days later.”

Winter flew off my hat and landed on her eating roost. “As interesting as the tale is, Mother, could we wait for that part until after we have eaten? It’s past dinnertime now, and I’m starving.” This earned reluctant, but agreeing sentiments from both midnight and Soot. “Alright, alright, dinner it is. Just sit tight and I’ll get it done.” I said as I moved towards the kitchen to unload the wares into the pantry and fridge.