To hear the narration and learn how I put the episode together, check out this video:
*****
There was a tension in the air, as if the calm wasn't occurring, as if the activity of days hadn't ceased. Tomorrow would bring... but I'm getting ahead of myself.
What mattered, at least in this moment, was a final good-bye, of sorts, from one friend to another. Which is why Mistress Sweetwater was sitting in front of her writing desk, thinking, composing, but never really starting. Until at last she shrugged and just started:
Dear Pip,
It's been a crazy few days here in my version of the Here Yet Not Here. I know that sometimes what happens in my world can echo into yours, or maybe it's the other way round, or maybe something happens somewhere else and we experience echoes of that. And in this moment I realize that if I wanted to get all philosophical, I should've let MouseEye write this! Anyway - I just hope your experience has been less chaotic than mine has been!
I should add that some of the crazy is from the mayor of High Rannoc! It turns out that he and his wife are malicious and magic-wielders - they actually got the Head Mistress of the Herbology School to "collect" people - she'd gotten to the point of abducting people and putting them into a long-term sleep! My friends and I managed to set things back to a more normal way, but in the process it broke me of my desire to be the village witch anymore.
The timing is awkward, what with the Flower Festival approaching and Bess (more about her in a minute) having promised to play in the local tavern. But between the trauma she experienced (she wasn't hurt, but it was all emotionally draining) and the overwhelming gratitude of the people we rescued (there were so many people!), we've received gifts aplenty. Which, when added to my small sack of coins, will keep us in money for a good long while. And even given that, we can both make money wherever we choose to go - she as a bard and me as a witch.
We've packed the things I've collected into Bess's wagon and into Vapour Trail's copious storage space. I did make a suggestion that we pack Bess' wagon into Vapour Trail but Bess blanched at that! So... it's the slow but steady method of rolling along roads instead of flying over them that will get us from place to place. I'm looking forward to slow travel, curing sniffly noses, and maybe even a wart or two! (I still can't believe that I thought all I'd ever face was warts on various-odd body parts!)
It went remarkably well. Everyone - the bees, Fen, Pop, ...everyone! wants to be a part of whatever Bess and I either discover for ourselves or create. I'm so honoured they want to be a part of this new adventure.
I got your last note, and the teenage Pillar Mushrooms. They are also safely ready to travel!
Also in your last note you said that the chocolates you sent were the last ever made by the master chocolatier Wonky Willy. We all really enjoyed them - with some of us gorging and others savouring. I'll let you guess which naughty characters ate like there will never be any more. Because, as we now know, there won't be any more!
I'm rambling. Sorry!
The goodbyes have been hard. I'm going to miss Bob and Roger and Fussy and... well - everyone! Human and not. I feel like I was making a difference in their lives just as they've made a huge difference in mine.
Someone I'm not saying goodbye to is Bess. She's... words just can't express how I feel about her. We've only known each other for a couple of weeks, and usually we were experiencing something extraordinary at the time (like meeting Nut, the Star Dragon). But I know her heart. It's pure and supportive and courageous (but I don't think she'd admit to that last one!). We both know that we don't really know many details that make up our own individual experiences and histories, but it's the discovery of those details that I think will be a source of intimacy, of partnership, of living life together.
I don't suppose anyone ever said directly that witches aren't supposed to be sappy, but I am!
Ooh! Speaking of... I found out my parentage and... I'm half-human. My mom's a dryad. It... things make more sense now, mostly in small respects, but when you add them all up (don't forget to carry the seven!), it's a lot.
I know there's a lot more I could say, but I also need to close this up, send it off, and hope you receive it with the same goodwill that I've embedded within each word. (I should add that Bess has this idea to breed Pop O'Locks and to have music infused inside of them so you could have a song or tale at the ready. It's nothing more than a wild idea, but if there's one thing I've learned from my experience is that even wild ideas aren't necessarily nearly as wild as might be perceived at first. So... keep you eyes and ears peeled!)
Thank you, Best Bestie, for your gifts, your kindnesses, your wisdom. (MouseEye says I should specifically mention cookies. And something about not using dragon fire to bake them. I don't know what that's about but I do hope you are ok!)
Hopefully, between my knowledge of the Here Yet Not Here and my newfound ability to travel along plant root systems, I'll be able to send more notes or even perhaps visit one day!
For now though, we're going to travel to my childhood home so that Bess can meet my parents and I can learn more about what it means to have Dryad blood. And maybe, just maybe, I can learn to pronounce my given name using my human mouth! (It's a tongue twister in tree form, so I don't hold out much hope, but it'll be fun to try!)
Love you, Best Bestie!
Sweet
Folding the letter with care, she set it where the Here Yet Not Here portal exists, knowing it'll be delivered to Pip's cottage.
With the second-to-last self-imposed obligation completed, she knelt before the cold hearth, hands in her lap, and thought of me. The sensation of so many feelings flowing to me: thanks, appreciation, respect, sorrow, and a host more, moved me deeply. I gave her my blessing, my love, and my understanding. It was hard, watching my best student leave, but I also knew she was ready to make her mark upon the wider world.
Once our communion was complete, she found Bess, her lover, compatriot, soulmate, kissed her, then said the words she'd been fighting against but which I knew were coming: "I'd like to go now. Even a kilometre or two along the road. It's too painful to stay."
I too had some final things to do. I was able to watch as the town of High Rannoc prepared to celebrate the coming festival, perhaps more fully than it had in a very long time; having been saved by a set of unlikely heroes from a fate... perhaps not worse than death, but being put into a prolonged slumber would, in many ways, be the same as a fate equal to death.
Speaking of - I shifted focus to the fate of the mayor and his wife. While I disliked the actions they had taken and would certainly have disliked even more the growing elaborate and confident maledictions, curses, and other evil works, still I felt pity for their current state. And, I suppose to make that make sense, I have to add that they are currently both in a chamber Sweet never visited, watched by the self-titled Count, as the two fight each other. One is to be a sacrifice to the demon Askew for services rendered (a demon who works on credit. Who ever would have thought!) while the 'survivor' will be turned into a vampire and made the primary subject for the Count's experiments to reverse his magically-imposed vampirism.
And then it was time for me to make my last calls, to say goodbye to one and all I've met and known for the countless years I've been here.
I can feel the promise of the presence of my next student, my next apprentice, far off in a distant land. It's a journey I look forward to, an adventure I can't wait to commence, an excitement I haven't experienced for a very long time.
Never let it be said that it's only Baba Yaga's Hut that can stand on its own two legs and make its way to a new home.
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