Calamitous Intervention

A Lying Witch and a Warden

Anne, now inside a strange tent cluttered with random junk and trinkets, heard a female voice and flinched before eventually approaching its source. This was not the alleyway she was just in. "Hello?" she called out.

She peeked through the entrance and saw a random owl placing a bag of trash on a table in front of an older woman with strangely pale skin. "Now let's see what we've got here..." the woman said as she screwed the owl onto the staff, shocking Anne. Was she seeing right?

The lady rummaged through the random junk. She took out a phone and tossed it aside. "Garbage, garbage..." She muttered as she kept tossing valuable goodies like a ring and a golden chalice, making Anne wonder why this random woman would discard such items.

The woman gasped, picking up a pair of silly glasses and putting them on. "Now, this... This will make me rich!" she said excitedly. "And this..." She then took out a book labeled "The Good Witch Azura".

Looks like something Marcy would enjoy, Anne thought. I think I saw her reading that a while back.

As the woman raised the book to a candle next to her. "Oh, this will make good kindling." The book caught on fire, and Eda dropped it to the ground, letting it burn. Anne watched it burn for a moment, not having any connection to the book, but felt in her gut that it was a bit more significant than it seemed.

After seeing this person's weird display, Anne finally decided to speak up, figuring this lady would be her key to understanding where she was. "Uh, hey?" This surprised the woman. Anne leaned down and picked up the phone she had tossed, which was cracked now. "What did you do that for? This was a perfectly good phone!"

The older woman spoke. "And just who the heck are you, rummaging through my stuff?" She stormed up to Anne threateningly, towering over her. From the young girl's perspective, she looked absolutely frightening, those amber eyes feeling as if they were piercing her very soul.

Instinctively, Anne stepped back, prepared to fight if she had to. "Uh, stay back! I don't know who you are, but I remember not being here!" She then froze and slowly turned her head to see that wherever she had ended up was definitely not Earth. The absolute chaos going on with all those... creatures really didn't help her rising anxiety.

Anne took another step back from the strange woman, turning her attention back to her. "I... Did I end up in H.E. double hockey sticks?!"

"You wish," the woman grumbled. She twirled her finger, and Anne felt an invisible force yank her forward, making her sit on a stool right in front of the lady. Either she was about to get the lecture of her life, or she was about to lose it altogether.

Anne sweated nervously, freaking out about this strange lady's magical powers. She was definitely dreaming... right? Maybe that unicorn milkshake she and Sasha had earlier was spiked. Maybe something was wrong with the corn syrup? "Well, if I wasn't dead before, I sure am now! Eaten by a crazy old lady!"

"Eat you?" The woman's demeanor shifted, now looking genuinely confused. "Why would I eat... a potential customer?" she asked with a grin, spreading her arms and gesturing to the stand behind her.

Anne's mind completely halted, barely able to process what she had heard as she watched the lady pick up a green croc. "Can I offer you a human foot filled with holes?" The lady continued, then set it down and grabbed a stick of deodorant. "A bar of green human candy?" Anne watched her show the items, or at least, the lady's weird interpretation of them. Despite the human's fright, the way the woman described these items couldn't get anything out of her other than a laugh.

The lady's eyes lit up. "Oh, oh! How about this black shadow—" Anne's laugh cut her off, and her smile quickly faded. She started to think this kid was making fun of her. "Alright, what's so funny, kiddo?"