Witch Doctors Inc: SEASON ONE (Completed!)

Part 3.2

Our cart rattles down the road.

"I can't wait to have mikau berries again," Addy sighs. "There's nothing juicier than a mikau berry."

I wave my fan around a bit more. I swear I saw a mosquito.

My cat Onyx stretches out beside me. Aren't you excited, Lily? he says.

"As excited as I can be about going to a place called the Forest of Sorrows," I grumble.

Addy scrunches up her nose. "I wish people wouldn't call it that. Our people call it Mamauri - Forest of Hearts."

Hearts or sorrows, I'm going to have a terrible time. It gets hotter and hotter the further north we go. And we are going very far north. Zilitron, the Mirror City, isn't even a dot on the horizon anymore.

Onyx's small black face settles into something like a smirk. You're just afraid of Addy's mother.

"Afraid of her? Why would I be afraid of her?"

Because she hates you.

"She doesn't hate me," I snap. "She just thinks I'm holding Addy back."

You are holding her back. All this witch business has taken a toll on her career.

He rolls over onto his back and looks at me pointedly.

"If you think you're getting belly rubs, think again."

I can't help being a witch.

I could, in hindsight, help taking a holiday in a tropical rainforest full of snakes, mosquitoes, poisonous fruits, and hot rain. But Addy takes this trip every year, and she's been a good friend to me. Besides, I can't let her face her mother on her own.

The cart buckles again.

"I don't see why we couldn't hire a proper quartz-powered cart," I complain. I'm being pulled by horses, for the Dark Witch's sake.

Addy closes her eyes against the heat fog. "We don't rely on fire quartz here. Everything we need is given to us by the forest."

My own little bag of fire quartz tinks in response. The Mamauri may not need fire quartz, but like heck I'm going anywhere without it. I have enough in there for several simple potions. Snake venom antidotes, coolness charms and mosquito repellent spells are going to be in high demand, I feel.

"You do have cauldrons?" I ask Addy. I'm kind of afraid of the answer.

"Of course we have cauldrons," Addy laughs. "But not everything needs magic."

You won't hear many people talking like that in Zilitron. You definitely won't hear them at Witch Doctors Inc, the company me and Addy work for. Without magic we'd be out of business.

How much fire quartz did you bring? Onyx asks me.

"Several carats."

A carat of fire quartz can hold a surprising amount of magical energy. I didn't want to ask for too much from the Witch Doctors Inc supply. I'm not exactly popular there.

The road is starting to thin. Large, dark green palm fronds wave at us from the rainforest edge.

"Paradise awaits," I mutter.

Our cart stops. I hear the mumble of voices outside.

The door opens on Addy's side. A dark-haired man dressed in snakeskin robes appears in the doorway. His face is tanned and his black eyes are perfectly almond-shaped.

He gives a deep bow.

"Princess Adamantine," he says.