The Sprite Witch

CHAPTER 6: The protagonist's parents actually exist! (sort of)

A young girl was lifted out of the waves by shadows, blonde hair bleeding ink back into the waves below. Scratches lined her arms and legs, but the shadows brought poultices to cover them as they flew.

Onwards, the Sprites swished over the endless landscape, but trees finally gave way to dirt, dirt to dust, dust to light.

A small house stood lonely, within view of the cliff's edge, the giant cliff that gutted out from the waves of the Shipwreck Seas, well at the edge of the town. A single light flickered in the window.

Down the Sprites came, strength sapped from the short flight needed to bring the girl so close. But they couldn't risk getting any closer.

One of the shadows raised a tentative fist and rapped on the door. Then, like leaves on the wind, they disappeared.

---

Laila stared out at the edge of the cliff. How'd she get back home?

Her parents were indoors, having fallen asleep as soon as they were sure that Laila would be able to get the ink out of her shirt by herself. They weren't too worried about the crude, natural bandages that snaked up her arms.

They weren't too bothered with anything that didn't include sparkly vampires, sadly, and Laila definitely was not sparkly. She didn't see the point of rolling any vampires in glitter.

...thought it was a tempting prospect, and she was pretty sure that the art teacher wouldn't mind if she raided some supplies from the cupboard. There were a few full-sized bins of glitter there, 'just in case'.

Laila dashed back indoors, wishing she could just be flapping around the Manjirippun Reserve instead of heading to school. She also wasn't certain what had happened to Nexie and the Randolph. Hadn't they all gone into some Basinet thingy made of seaweed?

Whatever happened, she definitely didn't have the fluro orange rock that would right the very fabric of the universe of all wrongs.

Laila nearly made it out the door before she remembered the maths homework, unfinished (and also possibly unstarted), that lay on the kitchen counter. She rushed back to get it.

She needed something to hold her breakfast waffle with, because it was covered with maple syrup and was very, very sticky.

---

"MISS LAILA! YOU ARE LATE! AGAIN!"

Laila dodged a rather large paper aeroplane and slid into her seat, finishing off her waffle. The aeroplane buzzed by a few more times, due to the fact that it was actually a rather small drone in disguise. Mrs. Daniels had banished all drones from her class after a small incident including a drone army, miniature projectiles, and a broken monocle, but paper aeroplanes were still allowed.

However, with the frazzled demeanour that she was giving off, they would probably be banned soon. Also breakfast waffles. And lateness. And breathing.

"Well? Do you have an explanation?"

"Yes," said Laila, "I forgot my waffle."

"THAT IS NOT AN EXPLANATION- wait. What is that?"

Laila looked at the crumpled waffle-holder in her hand. "Waffle crumbs?"

Mrs. Daniels marched up to Laila's seat and tore the paper out of her hand.

"THIS IS LAST TERM'S HOMEWORK!"

"Good to know."

"AND IT'S STILL UNFINISHED!"

"Can I have it back? I want to eat the crumbs."

Mrs. Daniels' eye twitched. She screwed up the paper, turned on her heel, and marched out the door without a sound.

The class stared after her.

"Drone battle?" suggested someone at the front of the class.

On cue, ten drones buzzed into action.

---

Laila felt sprightlier once she entered the Manjirippun Reserve. She was more alert, awake, and could finally remember the previous night's events. She hoped Nexie had been able to escape from the Octopus of Doom without too much hassle. The Randolph would've gone after her, right after he dropped off Laila... wherever. She still had no clue about how she got home, but decided not to question it. Maybe the Randolph was magical. Maybe the Randolph could fly, and she just didn't realise it.

However, one thing she definitely remembered was the fact that while she was busy getting attacked by a random octopus, she was also busy being late to her meeting with Voir. Kinda bad time management there.

She got to the little hut easily, and bounded inside.

"So, would you like to explain where you were yesterday?" Voir huffed, wearing a fluffy pink apron while attempting to force-feed a fruit bat, which was still slightly traumatised.

"Well, I was with Nexie, and I adopted the Randolph; the Randolph is great, Voir, you really should meet-"

Voir sighed frustratedly, and Laila faltered off.

"If you really want to be a witch's apprentice Laila, you have to prove it. You have to show up on market day, not go off gallivanting on one of your little adventures."

Voir glared at the protagonist, which would've been more effective had she not been wearing a fluffy pink apron.

"Quick question," said Laila, "why are you wearing a fluffy pink apron?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe you left me with a traumatised bat to feed. Just leave, Laila. Come back when you think you can actually devote some time to being an apprentice. Or maybe that's impossible for a werepire."

Something in the way she said that final word stopped Laila from answering. She turned softly, and walked back out the door.

---

Twisting up in the wind was where Laila felt truly alive.

Leaves spiralled up into the near-invisible river in the sky, and the Sprite cohort moved on. The protagonist flapped over to Gladys, the head organiser, to see what the big rush was.

"A new dragon lord is being elected. If you can call it that. COHORT 18, YOU'RE MEANT TO BE HEADING OUT ALONG THE 38-47 ROUTES! HOP TO IT! He and his crew aren't all too friendly to the whole system we've got going on. They're new from Kurkmenistan, see. They're burning leaves left, right and center, which means the sky-river is being depleted. That makes it harder for them to stay airborne. We've already had to deal with two bushfires since they arrived yesterday, too. SCOUT JUNIPE, GET COHORT 9 READY FOR A PASS OVER THE HUMAN TOWN! I'm guessing from the Cohort 3 reports, you're the vampire who defeated the old dragon lord?"

"Yep!" chirped Laila the bat, waiting patiently for Gladys to finish shouting at another cohort.

"Be careful, Laily. Nothing good is going to come of this change-over. Not that we Sprites can do anything." Gladys looked quietly at the horizon. "We Sprites are bound to help the Mother. We do not meddle in the affairs of anything but the sky-river. Most of the Below Ones don't even know we exist anymore."

Gladys was quiet for a few more seconds before waving goodbye to Laila, rushing off to aid another Cohort.

Laila, however, wasn't content to just let whatever was happening happen.