꧁༺ 𝓑𝓵𝓪𝓬𝓴 𝓫𝓵𝓾𝓮 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓰𝓸𝓵𝓭 ༻꧂

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 25

The witch bluntly told the pirates she was not interested in helping them return to the kingdom of Rohan. She would not be involved in any activity including griffins. Ada hated griffins. Griffins hated Ada. It was a simple concept that these puny pirates somehow did not understand. 

She had a secret soft spot for the blonde man, sure, but this was where the line was drawn. Doesn't matter how pretty Leon was, she wouldn't give in to his consistent pleading.

"I don't know how many times I have to remind you," Ada growled, "I do not have a good past with those lion things. I will not interact with them and that is final!"

"We're not saying you interact with them," Leon shot back, "we just need you to call them over!"

"Please, Ada, we need you to call them. Only you know how to call them over." Chris  pleaded with the witch, but still, she wouldn't budge.

"Oh, did they not tell you themselves?"

"They actually told us to ask you to contact them." Winchester piped up from behind the crowd. All eyes landed on him, and he got nervous. He'd never been one to like being put on the spot, and now was no exception. "U-Uhm," he stuttered over his words, "Fire claw told me so."

"Fire claw?" Ada inquired. "Never heard of a griffin named Fire claw before. At least, I don't remember one ever called Fire claw."

"Well, there were eleven griffins in his tribe. He must be a new griffin, as he also said he needs to learn the way of his tribe." Chester explained, shyly fiddling with his thumbs, staring at the ground.

Flabbergasted, the witch let out a nervous chuckle. Being a witch, she had an ego, and she had a lot of knowledge from her many years being a witch. There were things she didn't know, she knew that, but the amount of griffins she knew for sure. Griffins didn't breed past ten members, so what he was implying was impossible.

When she told him so, the young boy denied her claims and told her that it was true, and the rest of the pirates backed the kid up, saying that they too had met this griffin and had even helped heal it's jarred talon.

She scoffed. "Well, still. I'm not summoning them just so you can get back to your siren friend. You have legs, you can walk." She retorted.

"I don't know if it's just me," Leon said, "but you are such a bitch. I get it. You've been stuck here on the edge of two disgusting horrific forests for most of your life, so you've forgotten some of the social niceties. But we are not in the great war anymore. We're here, now, in the present. You can get over your pathetic grudge for one day and help a few people out who helped you. You're a witch, so you can suck it up. You aren't special, and you have no excuse."

The witch was silent, looking the man up and down. She had an unreadable expression on her face, but she was obviously affected by his little speech. She contemplated his words, reading the other's expressions. They all seemed to share the same opinion as him. They all were on the same page about this, which made her more annoyed than she already was.

Ada crossed her arms, leaning on one leg. She gave the group an unimpressed look, like a mother looking at their child after they stole the last cookie from the cookie jar. She had to resist the urge to roll her eyes at them. Great gods above, these pirates were such children. Though, as she thought on it, Leon had a point. They did help her, and her past went on a long time. She hadn't spoken to a griffin in thousands of years, how did she know they were still the same?

"Oh fine!" She shouted. "Just stop giving me that pouty look! You all act like children, I swear!"

"Thank you, Ada." Chris gave her a soft smile, which she ignored.

She walked back into the mage's hut, leaving everybody outside to wait. All the witch had to do was find the one thing that would help call the griffins. She just had to find it in her many piles of potions.

All you needed was your voice, but your voice had to be powerful enough to cross the lands. Except no voice was powerful enough to cross the lands, especially not humans. Their voice's were too weak for that.

There was a potion that fixed that problem, and she'd made it long ago in case of this occasion. Because of the conflict, she'd never even looked it's way ever again. Now that she needed it, it would be a big task to find. She had piles and piles of potions waiting for her to use. What was the bet that that specific potion was at the very bottom of one?

The thought made her dread. The witch did not have the time to search through the many glass vials with potions. To make things a lot simpler for everyone, she cast a finding spell on her house to help her find the potion, and like magic, the small vial appeared in front of her. 

Gently taking the vial into her hand and slipping it into on of the many pockets she had in her tattered old dress, she exited the hut to the rest of the group. The witch told the pirates to follow her, as she knew the way out like the back of her palm.

They ventured back out of the dead, rotting forestation back out into the open where the pirates had first landed in the centre of Qaæya. The witch took out the potion from her pocket and took out the cork that was wedged into the top of the glass vial. For the crew's sake, the witch advised for them to cover their ears, as the calling would be very loud.

She drank the potion, letting the droplets roll down her throat as she swallowed the very nasty tasting liquid. It made her shiver and gave her an awful aftertaste in her mouth. She gulped in as much air as she could, rapidly rehearsing the call of the tribe in her head before screeching at the top of her lungs a noise that was very familiar to when Fire claw called for his tribe.

Everyone covered their ears immediately, their faces scrunching up in pain as the loud ringing of her voice boomed against their eardrums. It made their heads hurt more than they could've possibly imagined, a humongous headache coming for all of them. Even when the screaming stopped, the ringing still remained in their ears, loud and penetrating.

The witch had to force herself to burp just to make the potion wear off so when she talked she wouldn't burst their eardrums more than they had been. She excused herself, adjusting her posture.

"Stop covering your ears," she yelled, "otherwise you'll just make it worse!"

Painfully, they all removed their hands from their ears, groaning. Chester found it hard to keep his balance with how excruciatingly agonising the scream was. His head was going more than one hundred miles per hour, and it wasn't stopping. Everything was blurry. He almost fainted.

Luckily, as he fell, his sister managed to catch him in time before the young man hit the floor. Ada couldn't resist rolling her eyes. Gosh, these pirates were such babies. It was only the native call of Librus's tribe - and she thought pirates were supposed to be tough.

"Now I must go." The witch declared. "I've done what you asked, and that's all I'll be doing. Hope you humans have lovely lives while they last."

As the witch began to walk away, she was suddenly stopped by somebody grabbing her wrist. She turned her head round to see who it was. It was Leon.

"Hey, look," he muttered softly, "I'm sorry about earlier. I didn't mean to sound rude. I know you're a witch and all, but please, do come visit us if you ever miss us." Then he made that cocky smirk she'd seen him do before. For the first time in a long time, she felt her heart flutter.

She felt herself smiling, chuckling softly. "You wish." She remarked, and his hand fell back down his side, letting her go. The pirates watched as the witch gave her last farewells as she strutted back into the forestation's dark inner. Out of sight, out of mind.

The pirates waited in silence, growing a little more anxious every second until they heard the familiar sound of wings flapping. And there, in the sky above, flying through the clouds, were the griffins they called friends.