The Haunted National Park: A Tale from the Peter Wood Multiverse

Chapter Six: Family and Alchemy

Peter and the other sleuth scouts spent the next little while standing around uneasily, only daring to edge near the Witch—who was still sitting on the couch—when absolutely necessary.

It was Peter who took the first attempt at having a conversation with her—and she did so while ignoring Mindy's disapproving scowl. The two began talking about Sleuth Scouts mostly. One of the things they were doing before they found the Witch was a bunch of scout activities. Some of them were the kind of things their scout patrol would be doing on a regular night with their patrol leader, and the patrol leader's corporal. Neither Tommy or Jamie had joined them at the park that night. They were both in trouble for a stunt they had pulled the other night with their friends, the Little Daredevils.

Eventually Oliver and Lily began talking to the Witch too and explaining what some of their patrol did to help out their community. The Witch didn't seem as cold as some of the stories they had heard about wizardkin in the past. She was distant from them as if she hadn't fully decided whether or not she had to worry about us, but as the night went on, her quiet one-word questions and answers became a solid conversation with her asking them many questions about themselves. All the while, Mindy was off sulking, leaning up against the wall across the room from them and frowning at them from afar.

"Hey, where did Lily go?" said Oliver suddenly.

"I'm here." Said Lily, coming around the corner from down the hallway. In her hands was what Peter thought was a tattered pillow of some sort. What it turned out to be was the same brown teddy bear that was sitting in the Witch's lap when they found her in the staffroom.

"I was just in the staffroom looking for some snacks and I found this—"

"Don't touch that!" Before anyone knew what was happening, the Witch's wand was pointing straight at Lily and at the dusty teddy bear she was holding. It flew out of Lily's hands and the shock of the Witch using magic on her sent Lily stumbling back onto the ground. And once the bear was safely in the Witch's arm, she turned her back to them and said, "Don't ever touch my daughter's things!"

"Sorry..." Lily said timidly, as Peter helped her back to her feet. "I...I didn't know—"

The Witch stormed past her, muttering something under her breath about the snoopiness of "the little brats", marched into the staffroom, and slammed the door shut behind her.

"What just happened?" said Mindy. She came over to examine Lily for any wounds.

"I'm alright. Well, mostly...I was just looking to see if there was any food and I saw the teddy bear on the table. I didn't know it was her daughter's though. I didn't even hear her say that she had a daughter!"

"That's because she didn't tell us that until just now." Mindy gently turned Lily's head from side to side, presumably for any bruising or scratches. When Mindy was finally satisfied with her examination of Lily, Peter then found himself being guided by Mindy alongside Lily towards the Visitor Room. "Come on, we're just getting started on working on our project for school. Peter, Oliver, why don't you guys help us?"

"Sure." Peter piped up. "Sounds good to me."

*

The subject that the girls' project was for was alchemy. A subject that Peter was admittedly not the best in the world at, but he was more than willing to help the two out with. All of the children went to Mt. Wondorica, one of the four mountain-schools of the city they live in, Flinderyork.

For the project, the triplets had to create an alchemical solution that would allow them to transmute a simple but delicious candy bar—with bits of colourful chocolate—into a bar of solid gold.