The Sprite Witch

CHAPTER 4: The protagonist adopts the Randolph

The dragon reared back, a kind of raged surprise etched on his face.

"You-"

Laila grinned, stepping into the brightening light in front of the throne. At the edge of the world, the sun thrust itself above the horizon, red light spilling into the void. The dragon glanced over at the edge of the outcrop in irritation as it lit up, the flecks of gold and bronze embedded in the rock mixing with the mist to give the scene an amber aura.

The edge of a lonely outcrop, with a dullen gold-hued dragon crouched protectively, ready to lash out, and a shimmering teenager with a worn green shirt, emblazoned with a leaf insignia.

Sometimes, even grass can defeat fire.

The beast straightened up, head hung, a bitter laugh in his throat.

"Impressive, the-one-who-hides. You are the first to even come close to besting me. How you did it, I suppose I'll never know. Head back to your precious stronghold; for five years, may they live in peace. Next time, it shall not be I who takes a victim."

With that, he soared backwards off the cliff, spiralling over the forests, a single burst of flame slicing into the open sky.

---

"Laila," Voir huffed, "What is that?"

A strange blue smoke drifted over the witch's head, through the small crack in the dark doorway. Her glittering green eyes peered suspiciously at the shivering leathery bundle in Laila's arms.

"It's a friend for Taffy! I found him on a cliff. He's slightly traumatised due to a giant evil dragon. Can you look after him? I'm late for my meeting with Braille. And I missed the last one due to the fact that I may or may not have been planning pancake fireworks with John. Oooh, do you have a spell for that?"

"For goodness sakes... You haven't even worked out a basic illluminems potion yet. Come back later. Yes, yes, I'll take the bat, calm down! And remember that tomorrow-"

The werepire rushed off down the path, leaving a very annoyed mentor with no explanation and a second bat to look after.

She was beginning to doubt her choice in apprentice.

---

THE NEXT DAY

(because nothing interesting happened when Laila went to see her werewolf mentor and also the plot hasn't properly started yet and we're about 4 chapters and 2500 words into the story)

Laila swum happily through Gya-whatever Town, a mermaid village just North-East of the Trans-Atlantic Line; a giant underwater high-speed tunnel leading straight to Atlantis. But let's keep away from that before we lose our protagonist to strawberry doughnuts.

Anyway, Gya-whatever Town was looking much better; it was totally rebuilt from the time a large shark called ShipWraith swam through and destroyed everything. Laila, personally, looked back on ShipWraith with fond memories. By defeating it, you see, she finally managed to work out a merged form; half bat and half mermaid, resulting in a bat covered in shiny, reflective scales.

Wait a second. My bad. Turns out the only reason she had fond memories about that was due to the fact that she got strawberry doughnuts afterwards.

Laila, could you please not have 'I like strawberry doughnuts' as your sole character trait? That would be great.

'I LOVE strawberry doughnuts' isn't acceptable either Laila so don't you dare even THINK about that.

*ahem* Anyway, Gya-whatever Town was alive with general hubbub, with brightly coloured mermaids and mermen darting to and through between the tall coral-like buildings that lined the roads. In the main street, some sort of vaguely wooden stage was being constructed, with banners and colourful-triangles-on-fishing-wire criss-crossing the wide area. High above it, a carriage pulled by large turtles was unloading all kinds of colourful merchandise at one of the numerous floating stalls.