Dragon Witch ✔️

1 - Witch's Kit

August 4, Tuesday

Sorry I haven't been keeping up with this diary. I've been too busy learning everything I can about magic. But then Grandma gave me these special crystals that you attach to a pen, and they record your actual memories as you write about them, so I had to try them out now that I have some special news...

My witch's kit came in! I wish I could open it right now, but Mom's on high alert. I've been running around the house waiting for my kit the last three days, and she's been suspicious. She actually asked Leo, Dad's familiar animal, to follow me around--even though she says he's a "dangerous magical leopard" and "should be put down before he eats someone."

Honestly, does she really think Leo's some wild animal or something? He's as smart as any human, and he's literally bonded to Dad's mind. Even if he wanted to eat people, he would see in Dad's thoughts that eating people would get him in serious trouble, and then he would forget about the whole eating-people thing.

Either way, Mom must be really desperate to ask for his help. What does she think I'm going to do, join a cult or something? Tons of perfectly decent people practice magic. Grandma and Grandpa make a living doing it. Even Dad practiced magic before he got married.

Is it so bad if I want to do the same thing?

***

Between the pristine yard and sprawling forest, a faint shimmer hovered in the air--the estate barrier. It was one of the few magics Mom didn't mind. She said it kept out the dangerous magical creatures living in the woods, but Grandma assured me it was only for the monsters that hunted at night. Nothing dangerous should be out during the day. But what if she was wrong, just this once? Learning magic wasn't worth dying.

Adjusting the briefcase-sized witch's kit under my arm, I stopped at the edge of the yard. If Mom caught me leaving the estate, I was screwed. The barrier was nearly invisible, but she knew I could smell magic. Pretending I'd accidentally wandered through it would only get me into more trouble.

I glanced over my shoulder, up the hill at my grandparents' Victorian mansion. Faint yoga music drifted through an open window. Mom had just started her routine, which gave me about half an hour before she checked up on me. If I was going to do this, I didn't have time to hesitate.

But what if there was a monster out there, hungering for human flesh?

Ugh, I wished I could check out my kit in my bedroom, but half the things in it were oozing magic. Leo would smell them in an instant and report me to my parents. If I unpacked my kit in Grandma's lab, all her potion ingredients might mask the scent, but I would come out reeking of magic. My best bet at staying out of trouble would be to go into the woods, check out the stuff in my kit, and hurry back before Mom could realize I was missing.

"Let's hope Grandma's right about the monsters," I muttered, stepping through the barrier. Magic buzzed over my skin, and its metallic scent was so overwhelming that I coughed.

On the other side of the barrier, everything felt different. A million new scents swarmed around me, from floral magic to earthy trees to something musty that could've been an animal or some kind of fungus. I shivered as a bird called nearby. It could've been a normal sparrow, or it could've been an honest-to-goodness phoenix. There was no way to tell.

Water burbled in a stream nearby. That particular stream ran through the yard and into the forest, so if I stayed near it, I would have no trouble finding my way back home.

Moving into the trees, I drew closer to the stream. Thorns scraped my legs and caught on my shorts. I would've worn jeans, but it was sweltering. Mossy stones lined the stream. As slippery as they were, I appreciated the relief from thorns when I walked on them.