The Spell Called Love - Empires SMP S2 AU: Nature Wives

Chapter 4: Home (Shelby)

Today marked a week since Shelby  landed in the swamp.

She had constructed a house for herself, Tortoise and Broom - mostly herself, she had started up a potion brewing service, made an amethyst lake as well as a Soul Scythe, for her own benefit (she was still anxious that the Council of Witches would come after her) and named the swamp 'Evermore'.

Katherine had also acquainted her with the other Emperors during the week and they all seemed to be a lovely bunch.

One Emperor, who seemed particularly hostile towards her was the pirate, Joey, when he saw Shelby for the second time, this time when Katherine introduced her to him, he immediately became overly defensive of Kathrine and sour, which gave Shelby the hump and she had no clue why.

But she wasn't going to let one pirate scare her away from her now beautiful swamp. She wanted to stay in the Evermore and she wanted to feel like she actually belonged somewhere.

Shelby was at her desk writing a letter when she heard something- someone collide with the door. Shelby jumped and whipped out her wand pointing it readily at the hole in the floor where the ladder came up from.

"Shelby?!" Sausage's whine calmed Shelby's racing heart.

"Sausage? You good? That sounded painful," Shelby slid down the ladder and pulled open the front door, greeting her friend, who was rubbing his nose.

"Just about," Sausage reassured her, "When we going on this mining thing, then?"

"Hang on, lemme get my mining gear."

Shelby pelted back up the ladder and gathered a few pickaxes, Broom, a ton of torches and her witch hat. After petting Tortoise and imploring him to be good and not make a big mess, she was standing outside on her doorstep with Sausage.

"Have you been told that your door is deadly?" Sausage asked Shelby as she stepped out into the sunshine.

Shelby shook her head, "But it does get violent when you make it angry."

"Oh- SORRY MR. DOOR!" Sausage yelled at the door as they walked away from the house.

Shelby restrained from herself from laughing before getting to the point of Sausage's presence, "D'you happen to know where I can find a lush cave?"

Sausage thought hard for a moment then nodded vigorously, "Yeah, I passed over an azalea tree on the way here actually. Lemme show you."

Sausage took off into the air, Shelby quickly following him on her broom into the blue sky, ready for their caving expedition.

*

It was night when they finally emerged from under the azalea tree, bearing all sorts of loot. 

"Watch out there's monster up here!" called Sausage as Shelby emerged from the ground, they were instantly attacked by spiders and zombies, which they fought away with ease.

As the last mob dropped dead, Shelby whooped and swung her scythe in the air, "Look at me goooooooo!"

Sausage laughed and they walked away from the hole, heading back towards the Evermore by the light of the setting moon and the rising sun.

"What inspired you to get yourself such a big scythe?" Sausage asked out of the blue.

"I donno really..."

FLASHBACK

"Who's ready to take down some Whithers?" Shelby asked bouncing around the fire, where Sausage and Fwhip the goblin, stood ready.

Fwhip and Sausage cheered in agreement:

"I bet you it'll only take me one yit to sort out the Whither," boasted Fwip, wielding a nasty looking mace.

"That’s a lovely bonk stick you got there Fwhip," Sausage complimented brandishing with own longsword.

Shelby became entirely distracted from the who-had-the-best-weapon competition when Katherine came running from the gloom to join them.

"Hi guys!"

"Hey!" Sausage greeted the princess while Fwhip ran over to Katherine, eager to show off his bonk stick to the warrior princess.

Katherine was wearing a black dress - contrasting to her pink one she wore during the day - with no sleeves and was brandishing a large battle axe that flashed hungrily in the moonlight.

Shelby looked in awe at the princess and whispered under her breath:

"You look amazing."

END OF FLASHBACK

"Shelby?"

"Oh, oh yeah, Katherine's battle axe looked really cool so I decided that I could make a scythe to sort of compliment hers."

"That must mean you're really strong if you can wield something that big. I mean- have you seen the size of Katherine's muscles?"

Shelby could feel herself go red at the mention of Katherine's muscles.

"You could say I'm strong, I guess." Shelby replied in an attempt to steer Sausage's attention from her reddening cheeks, "But I'm nothing compared to Katherine, her muscles are different gravy."

Sausage stopped and studied Shelby for a second before catching up to her, "Yeah, your more like- knowledge strong- while she's like physically strong."

"I wonder is she'll let me watch her work out some day." Shelby wondered out loud as they neared her home.

"I donno-" Sausage replied - not realising it was a rhetorical question - as they walked up a small hill and into Shelby's wheat field, "But if you do get that chance, don't let Joey see you cause otherwise he'll go banana's"

"Joey?"

"Yeah, the pirate. He has eyes for Katherine too, he's been trying to get Katherine to marry him and stuff-"

"What does Katherine say about that?" Shelby butted in.

"Ehhhhh, she keeps making vomiting noise whenever he brings it up, so I don't she's keen on it,"

Phew.

"But, y'know, people change. She might just fall head over heels for him one day."

"But, she hasn't, so I still have a chance... right?" Shelby scrambled for some sort of reassurance.

"Exactly," Sausage confirmed giving her a big thumbs up, "I'll leave you to it then, my friend, see you around!"

And like that Sausage disappeared, leaving Shelby staring after him, thoughts of Katherine running in circles in her mind.

Do I-

Do I love Katherine?

Shelby looked down at the mud on her shoe then turned round and ran towards her house bubbly thoughts filling her mind.

Shelby slammed the door open, making Tortoise jump a foot in the air.

"Tortoise! We are staying here, forever!"

Tortoise looked at Shelby as if she had bashed her head on a log.

"Tortoise, this is now home, forever!" She repeated, a big smile on her face.

She picked up the confused white frog and squeezed him into a hug. Tortoise croaked and jumped from her hands and onto the table, giving her a concerned glare.

Shelby couldn't stop smiling though. The thought of finally being cared for was to pleasing for her.

Home!