The Ninja Witch

I Was a Teenage Abomination, He Was a Teenage Dirtbag

A/N Another chapter out the door and into your hands! Whew it took way to long to make the promo art for this chapter since I was trying to keep it close to Dana's style but I just couldn't get it to look right so I was trying to make look nice and yeah. It's not bad, but I don't think I like it the most. On the bright side, we got a new book cover!! It was a lot of fun to redraw it on my computer instead of my phone and I think it came out a lot better than the old one (and both of them are drawn better lmao). Well, without further ado~ enjoy the chapter!

Eda had dragged Luz, King, and Ashton down to the beach as soon as the sun had come up. "Well kids, did you ever in your life think you'd see something as breathtaking as this?" They all stared at the large, imposing corpse of a slug surrounded by trash.

Luz, shaking her head as she resisted the urge to vomit, barely murmured," I don't like this," before plugging her nose.

Ashton was silently thanking any deity he knew of that he regularly visited his sewer dwelling friends. Any repulsiveness to the smell was long burned away by the rancid New York City sewers. "Why are we here, Boss?"

Eda, either ignoring him or not hearing him, walking over to the slug. "Yes, it doesn't get much more inspiring than the trash slug. It makes a home, a life from what others have thrown by the way side. Until, blam, it gets blasted by a wave one day and croaks from all the salt. And then we get to sell the stuff it ate." She pulled a pick-axe out from under the slug and began to swing it at the carcass.

"Please don't make me," Luz all but begged, staring in horror at the amount of trash around the corpse. Ashton, rather reluctantly, looked through a pile of trash and used a nearby stick to poke through it.

"Aw, come on Luz," King rolled out a towel onto the sand and stretched out in the sun. "It's not everyday you get to go to the dump and pick apart a garbage carcass."

"Ah, nuts to you both. At least Ashton's with me," she turned to grin at her employee, who had continued his cautious poking in a new pile.

Luz reluctantly moved closer to Eda, smiling politely at the witch. "So Eda, what if we tried some new lessons for my apprentice ship?" The witch swung her pick-axe and shattered something. "Read ancient scrolls or mix together potions, or-"

"Ugh," Eda groaned as she threw an arm full of trash out of the slug's mouth. "That sounds like a bunch of magic school stuff."

"Wait, is there a magic school here?" Luz asked eagerly. "Like, winding towers, cute uniforms, dark plots that threaten your life kind of magic school?"

Ashton snorted," Luz, I don't think most schools have life threatening plots. That seems like something they would get sued for."

"Actually, she's right," Eda commented, much to older teen's horror. "What's worse, they force you to learn magic the 'proper' way. But magic isn't proper. It's wild and unpredictable. And that's why it's so beautiful. I didn't finish school and look at me!" Eda spread her arms out proudly, completely disregarding the fact the she was standing next to a slug carcass surrounded by trash and flies. "Who wouldn't envy where I am right now?"

"Most people, Boss," Ashton deadpans. Luz's face falls as she looks at the trash surrounding them.

Eda, seeing the crestfallen face of her apprentice, dropped her pick-axe and loosely grabbed Luz's wrist. "Uh- hey, here's a lesson. A great witch is resourceful, like this." She pushed Luz's hand into a puddle of mystery filth and moved it around a bit before pulling her own hand out. Luz, rather hesitantly, dug around until she finally pulled something out.

"Oh, hey. Greasy slime ball," She uttered, looking at it with disgust.

"Use your slime ball wisely, young witch," Eda stated calmly, closing Luz's hands around the slime ball. She grabbed her pick-axe from the ground and turned back to the carcass. "Back at it! We'll hit the stink nodes first."