Marvela the kitten used to be a humble witch's familiar. However, one night a terrible fate befalls her beloved witch and Marvela finds herself bestowed with remarkable powers.
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After inexplicably becoming a full-fledged witch, former witch's fa...
The full moon rested high in the sky over the town of Vigilance like a watchful eye. The night's end approached, but the quaint little town was still very much awake. Up and down every block, families and groups of friends, all dressed as fanciful creatures and characters, laughed and carried on celebrating. The bags they carried overflowed with candy. Everyone out in the streets was too preoccupied with their Halloween merry-making and their hauls of candy to pay any mind to the black cat and white rat that roamed the town with them.
Curious was having difficulty keeping up with Marvela's longer paw-strides with his arms full of candy. He paused his waddling with an excited squeal to pick up another piece of forgotten candy on the sidewalk and carefully added it to his horde. "So, what will you do now, Marvela?" he asked his witch as the pair of them strolled past a line of jolly jack-o'-lanterns. "Are you planning on returning to your forest now that this mystical misadventure of ours is over?"
Marvela didn't answer him immediately. Instead, with the moonlight making her star-spot almost appear to shine, she took a moment to enjoy the sights and sounds that enveloped her like a warm blanket after a long, cold day. She found herself wondering what she thought was so terrifying about this city in the first place.
All around her, the citizens of Vigilance celebrated the night and all its creatures. Now that the missing people had been safely returned and the air of uncertainty that had weighed upon the town had cleared, Vigilance was once again full of laughter that rang from every building.
A little girl laughed the loudest of all as she proudly held up a hefty pillowcase full of candy to her parents. Her witch's hat almost looked like it was about to fall off her head from the force of her laughter. On her shoulder beside her grinning face, her stuffed cat had had its missing eye replaced. And it, too, had its own little pointed hat atop its plush head.
Marvela watched as the little girl took her parents' hands and skipped all the way home. The wind picked up as she left, rustling all the spooky decorations hanging above Marvela and Curious. The plastic skeleton looked like it was about to swing free from its hook again, but this time it held fast. The paper bats and the plastic spiders flapped and danced as if they were alive. The tails of the little toy rats seated beside the nearby doorstep wiggled in the breeze, threatening to become tangled together. A replica of a crow watched over the town from the waving branch it roosted on.
A few paw-strides away, a statue of a green-faced witch in a pointed hat beamed at Marvela, her smiling plastic face forever frozen in time. At the witch's feet, her plastic cat lost its little cloth hat to the breeze.
As if that was its intention, the wind rolled the hat down the sidewalk and delivered it right at Marvela's feet.
The black kitten gently lifted it from the ground and held in her paws, feeling the black satin fabric between her paw-pads. The purple ribbon tied around it caught the moonlight, making it shimmer. "Hm, actually..." she purred. Marvela placed the hat upon her head. She caught sight of her reflection in a shop window.
The tiny witch's hat fit her just right.
Marvela smiled at her reflection, and she took notice of Curious grinning up at her too. "I think I'd like to stay here," she told him. "There's plenty of magic to be found in Vigilance if you know where to look!"
She traced the brim of the hat with a claw. It was a bit old-fashioned, sure. The times had certainly changed, and witches no longer wore silly wide-brimmed and pointed hats, but she liked this little historic nod to the craft's past.
The world might be changing, but magic would never disappear. It just took on a new form.
The magic the kitten carried in her heart swirled inside her, pleased at her resolve.
The rat bounced beside the kitten, unaware of the pieces of candy he dropped in doing so. "That's what I like to hear!" he cheered. "Haha! Wow, I still can't believe we took down an evil sorceress and freed a spirit. I can't wait to post about it on my blog! I wonder what all the other familiars in town will think? Heh. Not bad for just a cat and a rat, huh, Marvela?"
Marvela reached out and pulled her friend close to her. She held him against her chest in a tight embrace, thankful to have the best familiar in the world. "Oh, Curious. You are never 'just' anything. You decide what you can be. Not anyone else. And I think there's something quite magical about that."
Giggling squeakily, the rat managed to pry himself from the cat's grasp. He gave her white star-spot a little pat and then set about scooping up all the sweet morsels he had dropped. His whiskers quivered as he eyed the street ahead of them, hungry for more sweet treasures. Townhouses on either side were thronged with crowds of children running from door to door. Porch lights were still lit. The candles in the jack-o'-lanterns hadn't yet been blown out. The night was still young. Rich for the picking.
"So," said the rat, casting a meaningful glance in Marvela's direction. "Do you think there's some kind of spell to locate more candy for us ? Preferably one that makes lots of sparkles?"
Marvela adjusted the hat on her head. "Hm. I'm not sure," she said. "But we can find out! Let's go, Curious!"
The laughing pair, witch and familiar, took off running into the brisk night together, kicking up fallen leaves and stray pieces of candy in their wake.
Despite all the spooky decorations, there was nothing ghoulish to be found in the moonlit town of Vigilance.
Only magic.
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