A Trio of Anomalies - The Quest for Paradise

CHAPTER 4 - COOKING A SORCERER ALIVE

"Say Boils, how do you know where the Three Howling Witches live?" asked Erwin, "I know that you used to be a spy, but I'm not sure how you would be visiting this place often."

The pink chameleon jumped onto his shoulder, turning blue to match his jacket, "I have to come here once or twice to run errands for them, and now that I am an ex-spy I'm not sure if they take too kindly of a traitor."

"You can just vanish. That's such a cool power," Erwin was picking carefully through the thorny bushes and twiny roots, before he decided to traverse through the branches of trees, preferring that to be less tedious than running on the ground. Boils stopped perching on his shoulder and climbed beside him, acting as a GPS to guide his way.

They parkoured through the twisted boughs for a while, before Erwin piped up, wanting to take a break.

"Is it nightfall already? Pretty sure it should be noon at worst!"

Boils stopped beside him as he wiped the sweat off his forehead. "I believe so, but it looks dark because the sky is enchanted to be constantly night time here, just like the Kingdom of the Witches. The owls and bats love it too!"

"Bats?" thought Erwin. From the tree he was resting on he could spot many eyes reflecting the moonlight although there wasn't a moon to be seen. Those eyes belong to dozens of owls he figured, hence the name Howling Owl Woods, but there were no bats to be seen or heard. He spun around to catch a small dark shape swooping into the crevices of another tree, as if it had been following him and was caught by surprise. He squinted into the darkness, before turning around and continuing on his way, ignoring the following silhouette in favour of rescuing the dragon.

He jumped into a clearing, now spotting the bright round moon surrounded by twinkling stars. Screw turning frogs into phoenixes, this should be a milestone for witchcraft, the ability to create an illusion of constant nightfall, from the lighting to the temperature, whilst allowing the trees to still gather energy from the sun and allow their boughs and leaves to grow, reaching as tall as perhaps mountains.

"Umm, Your Knightliness?" he heard Boils jumping onto his shoulder. "Is that a crystal key on the ground there?"

"Key Ex Machina," he grinned, picking it up.

Using the notes on his phone he translated the message on a door.

"The Three Witches Secret Laboratory. Keep Out!"

He stepped back, wanting to get a clearer look on the giant tree stump used for the laborat-

"Ah!" He winced when he felt a sharp pain in his neck, worsening when he tried to stretch it. Was he petrified, again? Seriously?

Feeling that he had only a few seconds before he couldn't move he pulled out his wand and spun around, only to be met with a few trees. Or, were they the silhouette of the witches? The twigs and thorns looked like hands to him, yet even after squinting through his glasses he wasn't sure, for his vision faded into a blur as everything around him began to sway.