WITCH - The Queen

Chapter 88

Julia

In the evening, Julia had again created a house of tendrils, roots, and leaves, in which they spent the night. Charlie and Joris' house was far too small to accommodate guests. That night, Julia had bad dreams again. Her mother's soldiers chased her through the fairy forest...

Julia rubbed her eyes sluggishly. The chirping of birds had awakened her. The others, except for Josefine, were still asleep. The dragon girl purred curled up as a little cat next to Julia's head. Smiling, she stroked Josef's fur.

"Good morning", she whispered softly, carefully freeing herself from Leopold's arms, which he had wrapped tightly around her. Leopold protested in his sleep. Smiling, she yawned and brushed a curl from his face.

"Oh my goodness!" Someone was standing in front of her magical hut. "Is this a house?" Julia recognized the voice.

"Nanno is here", she said to the little cat, picked him up, and left the house tired.

"Oh! Julia!" The siren grinned broadly. In his hand, he held a wriggling eel. "And you're not transparent! How beautiful!" Except for jewelry made of pearls, woven reeds, and shells, the young man wore nothing. Surprised, Josef meowed. Julia scratched him amusedly behind the soft cat ears.

"Good morning. The others are still asleep."

"Are they? What a pity. I brought breakfast!" He held out the unfortunate eel to Julia. The animal wriggled all the more. "I quickly wake up Joris and Charlie so Joris can roast the eel over a fire! I'd rather stay away from flames, but you humans don't eat anything raw. A mistake! Believe me! Fidgeting, my food tastes the best!" Nanno hurried to the other house. She watched him enter the house. Through the thin wooden walls, Julia could hear him euphorically waking the two brothers.

"Take the eel out of my face Nanno", Joris shouted indignantly. Julia had to laugh. She felt sorry for Joris. Josef jumped from her arms and took on human form. "Shall I wake up the others?", she winked at Julia.

"Only if you promise to put an eel in Peter's face as well", Julia joked.

"Hmm... Sorry. I don't have one!", the dragon girl grumbled. Then she disappeared into the makeshift house to wake the others anyway. And with quite the fright. Julia laughed loudly when she heard Josefine shouting "Wake up!". Peter screamed like a little girl, frightened. Meanwhile, Joris came out of the house with the eel in his hands. He didn't look cheerful.

"Good morning, Joris! Did you sleep well?", she called out to him, giggling. Joris just snorted.

It took some time, but after another hour they were able to have breakfast. There was fried eel, freshly collected fruit, which everyone had helped with, and herbal tea. Josefine and Fiete were out in the woods to hunt for something bigger. (But not a unicorn.)

Julia didn't eat any of the eel. She felt sorry for the animal. But the fruits tasted wonderful. Peter was chatting with Charlie. Finn leaned lazily against Marko, who was now wearing simple clothes. Something he could quickly take off if he wanted to turn back into a wolf. Which he enjoyed very much. He had also spent a lot of time as a wolf in the steppe, running freely and carefree across the green meadows.

"Julia? Will you accompany me to the underground city?", Nanno asked her suddenly. "Can you dive? Swimming?"

"Diving? Somewhat, yes. I learned to swim. How deep down is the city?" Julia replied, reaching for a few more berries.

"Very deep down. In a cave." Charlie poured himself some tea. "The city is beautiful. But it's cold down there. And a little warning, sirens don't think much of clothes. It's impractical for their purposes."