The Witch in the Woods (Bill Cipher x reader)

Chapter 1

    The sun pierced through the velvet colored curtains, making the fabric semi-transparent and a brighter shade. Light flooded the entire room, making even the darker corners reveal their secrets. A dresser on the other side of the room lit up with dust covering its frame and mirror, showing it's disuse over the years save for the drawers which were regularly opened. The bedside table was opposite to the dresser, scratches and scuff marks showing how old it truly was. A lamp was on top of it, the light off for the moment, and accompanied by a small clock which read 7:00 a.m. in red numbers. The walls themselves were a plain white, the paint so old that it was starting to chip away, and the floor covered in a beige carpet.
    You scrunch your eyes and roll over on the bed, your blankets halfway on the floor and the other half covering only a portion of your body. You snap open one eye and look at your door on the opposite side of the room. It’s open, as you keep it every night, and lets you see into the room opposite of yours which is filled with tubes and beakers with odd liquids and materials. Some smoke comes out of one beaker, the liquid inside of it purple and glowing slightly. A tube connects it to another beaker with green liquid that has floating particles of yellow. This causes you to sigh and force yourself up on the bed.
    You rub the tired out of your eyes and shuffle over to your dresser, opening the three drawers for a (A/C) shirt, undergarments, and jeans. You leave your room and head to your bathroom directly next to your room on the right. You take a shower, brush your hair and teeth, and change into your clothes while throwing your pj’s in the hamper. With another sigh, you grab some brown garden gloves from the cupboard under the sink and put them on. You hum happily and head outside to your backyard.
    Your backyard is surrounded by thorn covered rose bushes, warding away any humans or anthropomorphic creatures. Past them are Andromorphia; Magical plants that smell and taste vile to any magical pests that try to come and destroy your garden. Your actual garden has two sections to it, regular plants and magical plants. The normal side has food like tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, and other basics that you can eat or make something with. Your magical plants are ingredients to your alchemy and medical herbs. Though, they all look like normal plants like sunflowers or ferns, if someone doesn’t understand how to handle them, they will probably regret it.
    You, however, know how to handle them perfectly well so you get down on your hands and knees and start tending to your garden. You water all of them and harvest everything that is ripe which is a few normal plants and two magical ones; magical plants usually take much longer to mature. Lastly, you make sure no pests have snuck into your garden. You find one caterpillar that didn’t appear to have eaten away at any plants yet so you pick it up and bring it to a safer place outside, a little away from your garden.
    Once you finish with your chores in the garden, you head back inside and make yourself some breakfast which consists of toast and eggs. It’s a peaceful morning and you eat your breakfast in silence, only being able to hear the random noises of nature outside. You stand up from the table and glance around the empty room. “Hm...That’s weird, usually Jack would have been here at least a little earlier…”
    You shrug off his absence and grab a bag full of charcoal, filling up a bowl on the ground near the sink. Right after you finish putting the bag away, you hear some yipping along with scampering paws against the floor. You turn just as Jack skips into the kitchen, panting with his tail wagging happily. Smoke radiated from his body as embers flickered off of him into the air, making the room warmer and be cascaded in an amber glow. Jack is a firefox which means you can’t really touch him but you love him either way.
    Jack starts to eat his breakfast while you gently cooed at him to show your affection. You met him after he had hurt his leg from stepping into a puddle of water. You were still a novice when you found him but you tried to help him any way. It took a lot of experimenting but you figured out that letting him soak his leg in a fire essentially healed the injury. Afterwards, he stuck around you a lot so you started treating him like a pet and then later more of an assistant when he started helping you with your healing remedies.
    You leave him to eat and head to the living room. On the opposite wall from the kitchen is a table with a mortar and pestle, a book, and several jars filled with ingredients. You walk over to it and pull open your book which is filled with recipes for different herbal remedies like healing cream and pain relief. The mortar and pestle are in the middle of a recipe as some ingredients were already thrown into the bowl so you turn to the proper page. You mostly remember what step you stopped on so you scan the page and grab the proper ingredient.
    You grab some Syorilite from its jar and pull out about a tablespoon then whistle. Jack immediately bounds into the room and stops beside you. You feel the heat from him partially searing your leg but you ignore it and bend down. “Hey boy, mind heating this for me?” You show him the spoon and he barks which causes flames to fly out of his mouth and onto the spoon. The Syorilite gets heated immediately and goes from a purple powder to a red crystal-like substance. You smile and nod to Jack then stand back up.
    You pour the substance into the bowl then crush it up and mix it in with the pestle, making sure it's the right consistency for what you are making. It is a lot like baking when you think about it but you need to be much more careful and delicate in the task as mistakes are rarely tolerated in mixtures. Some even become violent when made incorrectly which has given you a few burns and scars throughout the years.
    It takes only half an hour to finish the recipe, with Jack’s help, and you are left with a healing balm, something that lets minor injuries heal faster. You tuck it away in a jar of its own and put it under the table with the rest, double checking everything is still in place. You shift a few jars to make it neater and orderly, mentally reminding yourself of what everything is and where, before you allow yourself to stand up again.
    Jack runs circles around you, clearly excited. You chuckle lightly and follow him with your eyes, watching the trail of smoke that follows behind him from his flaming fur. At moments like this, you are really tempted to pet him though you know it would result in a burn on your hand. You have tried to make some sort of fireproof gloves to pet him but it doesn’t tend to work out because you don’t have the proper materials.
    A knock on your door causes Jack to skid to a stop, his fox ears perking up as he faces it. The knock is actually less of a knock and more of something lightly slamming against the roof of your patio. You hum in interest and glance at Jack before heading over to the door and opening it. You peek outside and don’t immediately see anyone, or anything for that matter, but you quickly notice a tree that has never been there before. “Stay inside Jack.” You smile gently at the pup who nods and sits down while you take a step outside and close the door.
    You walk up to the new tree and your eyes trail up from its roots to the leaves and branches. The wood creaks and cracks as it comes to life, a face making itself apparent in the bark. It gives a small sigh and the leaves rustle, a few of them falling off and onto the forest floor. You smile gently, craning your neck to meet its eyes since it is about 45 feet tall.
    “Did something happen?” You question the Ent politely, scanning his bark for infestations or injury. He frowns, causing the wood to shift around its face, then turns around to show you his other side. Low-hanging branches were broken and bent in some way while others were completely torn off. You wince and gently run your fingers around the injuries. “These kids...running through the forest. Hit me then just kept running…” He seems rather upset about it which causes you to frown.
    You analyze his injuries more thoroughly, scanning the broken bark. Some branches were completely torn off and, unfortunately, the only treatment you can do for those is to make sure they don’t cause too much pain for him. The more minor injuries included the partially bent branches and ones that hadn’t completely torn off. They were only hanging to his body by a few pieces of bark that looked ready to tear.
    “Alright, I think I got something for this. You just wait here.” You give him a reassuring smile then head back inside, rushing over to your remedies. Trees can’t bleed, they have sap but that isn’t considered blood for them, so you aren’t worried about a time constraint but you do want to lessen his pain as soon as possible. You grab a pain relieving cream along with a pain number and some magic glue then quickly head back outside. “Come on Jack, I need you for this.”
    The Ent is still there, waiting for you, so you put your supplies down and grab the pain relief cream. He sees what you have and digs himself into the ground slightly so you have an easier time reaching though you are tall enough to reach all of them. Jack waits patiently beside you, the grass smoldering under him from his burning paws. You start to rub the cream into his broken branches which makes him wince at first then slowly relax. Once you finish with the broken branches, you start on the bent ones.
    Fixing bent branches is very similar to fixing a dislocated shoulder or bone, you just have to pop it back into place. Doing so is very painful though and you hate doing it, but it is something you have to do. “Ok, brace yourself. You have three bent branches.” You go to the first branch and run your hand along it to its base, letting the Ent prepare before you suddenly pull up and the branch unbends to a straighter state. He grunts slightly but makes no other sound while you hold the branch in place for a solid minute then let go. It stays put and you do the same for the next two branches.
    Lastly, you have the fix the branch that is almost broken, which is a bit more difficult. You take the pain numbing agent you grabbed earlier and smear it on the bark around the branch as well as the branch itself and the exposed internals. You wait a few minutes to let it take effect before you grab the glue and start piecing the branch together and reattaching it to him. It takes a long, meticulous 45 minutes to get everything back in place, and to make sure you don't miss anything or do it wrong.
    “Jack, tail.” You call out to the firefox who stands up and struts over to you. A black and dead spot of grass was left where he had been sitting. He turns so that his tail faces you and the Ent while you take a step back. Then, with careful precision, Jack runs his tail around the edge of the branch to brand it closed. This is the most painful and dangerous part so you keep a complete watch on the work. You trust Jack but everyone makes mistakes and you don’t want the Ent to go up in flames. 
    Jack finishes and turns back around, looking rather proud of himself. You smile at him and check his work, finding it to be perfect like always. You gently pat his trunk and face him. “Well, you’re as fixed up as I can make you. Sorry about the kids, I should really put signs out.” You can’t help but feel sorry for the Ent. He shakes his leaves which causes a few to fall down and land in your (H/C) hair. You laugh lightly and brush them out.
    The Ent takes his leave and you go back inside with Jack, sighing contently with a decently large grin on your face. You check the time and see that it’s about time for lunch. You go to head to the kitchen but immediately are stopped because of another knock on the door. Jack tilts his head and looks at you, trilling lightly with big, ruby red eyes. You apologetically shrug and head back towards the door, ready to help whoever needs it next.