Chapter Text
The hat shop seemed unusually quiet after the Witch of the Waste’s departure. For a moment Lance feared that he had gone deaf. Then he could hear his ragged breathing and the wind outside. He was still curled in on himself.
With a groan he went to stand up, putting his hands on his knees. He stopped. His hands were veiny and wrinkly, with knobby knuckles. Lance started at them. Those weren’t hands he knew.
Lance took a deep breath before rushing over to the mirror. The face stared back at him was that of an old man. It was thin, gaunt, and wrinkly. His hair, normally a nice dark brown was white with age. His own blue eyes were weak and watery.
He moved so he couldn’t see his reflection any more. “There’s no way that’s me.” He said to no one in particular.
He inched back in front of the mirror. The same reflection looked back at him. “What the fuck?” he asked as he pulled at the skin on his cheeks. “What happened to me? What did she do?”
He slowly moved away to lean against the counter. He had a hand clutched against his chest as he tried to control his breathing. “You have to stay calm you have to stay calm.” He repeated again and again until he could breathe easily again.
This was too much for one day he decided. He picked up his hat from the counter. He would figure this out in the morning.
***********
Unsurprisingly, when Lance woke up the next morning, he was still an old man. He spent the morning hiding in his room. At some point Ms. Penny came up to see and later Daisy come to get him. He sent them both off saying he wasn’t feeling well.
In actuality he was curled up underneath his blankets still. He didn’t want to have to get up and look in the mirror. Besides, his joints ached and that was more than enough reason for him to want to stay in bed.
He stayed there until there was another knock at the door. “Lance? Are you in there?”
Panic filled Lance. He couldn’t let her in. “Don’t come in!”
“Are you ok? You sound ghastly.” Franny tried the door and found it locked.
“Don’t come in. I’ve got a bad cold.” He lied.
He heard Franny sigh. “Alright then. I’ll be downstairs if you need me, ok?”
“Yeah, ok.” Lance replied. The sound of her footsteps faded as she walked away.
Lance took a few deep breaths before he forced himself out of bed. He made his way over to the mirror. He stared at himself for a long moment.
“This isn’t all that bad.” He said. “I wonder if this counts as wasting my life away if I became old because of a spell.”
He wanted to laugh at how ridiculous it all was. It seemed almost like one of the games he and Allura would play when they were children.
A thought came to him then. Whenever he and Allura were little and one of them was “cursed”, they would run to their Uncle Coran. Their logic as children was that he was a wizard, so he would be able to fix them. It was their favorite way of pulling him into their games.
While Lance was no longer a child, he was cursed and his uncle was still a wizard. It might be worth it to pay him a visit. It would be a long trip though. His uncle had moved to the wastes some time ago, wanting a quieter life. While they had visited him a few times, it was more likely for Coran to come into town to visit them. Lance was sure he could find his way though. After all, how hard could it be?
His mind was made up. He was going to go find his uncle and get this curse lifted.
“I need to leave now though.” He said to himself. It was already early afternoon. Getting to his uncle’s house would take a while. He just hoped that he would be able to get there before Allura found out he was gone. It would be a fun story to tell her once he got back.
It didn’t take long for Lance to gather what he needed. He changed out of his sleeping clothes into a simple pair of black pants and blue shirt with his old, worn out boots. Then he went downstairs. He put a loaf of bread and some cheese into an old satchel he had made. The last things he grabbed were his jacket and the hat from yesterday.
He was grateful that no one was in the back. That made it easy to slip out the back of the house, though the alley, and onto the street. The only real trouble he had was getting over the train tracks. The train chose that time to roll through. His lungs filled with smoke and left him with a wicked cough for the rest of his short walk.
He did manage to convince another old man to give him a ride to the edge of the Wilds. It was a nice ride, if a bit bumpy. Lance was glad for a chance to sit. The walk to the edge of the town left his knees aching. The ride gave him a chance to sit, relax, and enjoy the scenery.
It was a nice day. He hadn’t noticed before, with his panic about suddenly becoming an old man and everything. The sun was shining brightly and there was a nice breeze blowing. A perfect day to start an adventure.
Lance closed his eyes and enjoyed the ride. The rocking motion of the cart was enough to almost lull him to sleep, despite the itchiness of the hay. He was almost upset when the cart ride was over. But he had a job to do.
Rejuvenated by his cart ride he started into the wastes.
“Are you sure you’ll be ok out there mister?” The cart driver called after him.
“I’m quite sure! My Uncle’s place is only a little bit farther. Thank you for the ride!” Lance yelled back.
The Wastes weren’t actually a waste land. Lance wasn’t sure how they got their name now that he thought about it. They were a range of hills covered in soft grasses and wildflowers.
By the time Lance stopped to eat the sun was starting to set. His legs were starting to hurt by now so the break was welcome.
“I’m still so close to the town. How could I have made so little progress?” He asked aloud. He felt like he had been traveling for forever. Although he supposed that no quest was finished in a day, even small ones like his.
A strong wind blew as Lance was packing up from his late meal. He shivered. “How is it I got older and the wind still goes right through me.” He asked no one in particular, which was good considering no one was there.
He groaned as he stood. His knees were aching from walking.
Lance wondered if it was possible for him to find a walking stick. Looking around, he spied a long branch in one of the bushes a little bit farther up.
“What luck.” Lance observed. He grabbed his stuff and walked up towards the tree. The wood was made of a dark wood that Lance didn’t know the name of. It was longer than expected, so maybe it wouldn’t be as good a walking stick as he thought.
Lance pulled at the stick. It didn’t budge.
Lance frowned. “Come on you stupid stick.” He pulled at it again. “Come out!”
Lance gave the stick a harsh pull, and it came loose. Not expecting it, Lance fell on his butt.
“Stupid stick. What the hell – oh.” Lance looked up at the scarecrow attached to the stick. It was dressed in a black suit jacket and a top hat. Lance stood, groaning when his joints cracked. God being old sucked.
“Well this sucks. There’s a scarecrow attached to this branch.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Oh well. I guess I’ll have to find something else.”
The scarecrow, predictably, said nothing.
“Don’t look at me like that, you have a turnip for a head.” Lance said with a huff. He looked at it for a moment longer. “A scratched turnip it seems.” He noted. There was a long scratch on the surface of the turnip where the nose would be.
“Did I do that? Sorry turnip head.” Lance picked up his bag. “Anyway, I’m off. Sorry about your face again.” Lance continued on his way.
About 30 long, windy minutes later, Lance heard a soft thump, thump, thump from behind him. Lance stopped, furrowed his brow, and turned.
The scarecrow was bouncing up the hill behind him.
Lance’s mouth dropped. Of course, his life included a magic scarecrow following him. “No no no! No need to thank me! You can go away.”
The scarecrow didn’t listen, and continued until he was in front of Lance. It dropped a fancy looking cane. It was painted gold, with a lion’s head for the handle.
“Oh! A cane!” Lance took a hold of it. It seemed sturdy. “This is perfect. Thank you!” Lance smiled up at the scarecrow. He could have sworn that the scarecrow smiled back down at him.
“Hey, could you do me another favor? I need a place to stay for the night. Do you think you could find place for me to stay for the night? Maybe somewhere with a fireplace?” Lance asked.
The scarecrow seemed to nod and bounced off. Lance chuckled to himself.
“I seem to have become quite cunning in my old age.” Lance smiled and continued on his way.
The sun was getting lower and lower in the sky. It would be night soon. Lance wondered if the scarecrow would actually find him a place to stay. It would be better than sleeping on the ground.
Just when Lance was getting ready to call it a night, he heard the soft thump, thump, thump, of the scarecrow. He turned to see the scarecrow bouncing up the hill. And behind the scarecrow was The Wizard Kogane’s castle.
The castle didn’t look like a castle. It was more of an amalgamation of parts. Different battlements and chimneys and house parts were all grafted together. The front end of it seemed to have a mouth, but Lance wasn’t sure if it really did or he was imagining that part. It moved on thin, spidery legs, and Lance would have thought it would tip over at any point.
“You stupid turnip head! When I said find me a place to stay this isn’t what I meant!” Lance yelled at the scarecrow over the din of the castle. The scarecrow, predictably, said nothing.
The castle walked over Lance and stopped, settling down for a moment. Lance turned to see a door in front of him. Lance stared at it, before looking up at the scarecrow.
“Do you expect me to get in that?” Lance asked. The scarecrow bounced to in front of the door.
The castle yawned and stood, walking away.
“Hey!” Lance shouted, running forward to grab the railing in front of the door. “What was the point of stopping if you weren’t going to let me on?”
IT took some effort, but Lance managed to pull himself onto the step in front of the door. When he turned the knob he found the door unlocked. Lance pushed the door open and a blast of warm air hit him.
“Oh, its nice and warm in here!” He said happily. He turned back to the scarecrow.
“You did good turnip head! Thank you.” He gave the scarecrow a smile. “It was good to meet you turnip head! Take care of yourself now. Don’t get caught upside down again!” The scarecrow did a little spin jump. Lance laughed, gave it a wave, and went inside. The door closed behind him with a soft twump.
Lance looked up the stairs into the darkness and took a deep breath to calm himself. “Get it together Lance.” He told himself quietly. Kogane wasn’t going to eat the heart of an old man. Probably.
With one hand on the banister, Lance slowly made his way up the stairs. His knees were hurting again. He hoped there was a chair up there somewhere.
When he got to the second to top step he paused and looked around. Now that he could actually see the room, he found it to be devoid of people. But there was a fireplace with a chair right in front of it. Lance finished getting up the stairs and hurried over to sit in said chair.
Lance sighed happily, closing his eyes and settling into it. Yes, it was just a wooden chair and pretty uncomfortable, but he was just so glad to be sitting.
Lance opened his eyes to inspect the fire before him. It was warm, but starting to run low. Lance threw another log on it so it didn’t run out. He put picked his cane up to rest it against the fireplace and sat back in his chair. Once he was comfortable he looked around the room.
Even though the room was empty, it was obvious people lived here. Stuff was thrown everywhere. The table was a clutter of books and paper. Dirty dishes were piled up in the sink. Every cabinet and shelf was packed filled with bottles and bowls. Lance could also see dust in the corner of the room as well as spider webs on the ceiling.
“This castle is as messy inside as it is outside.” Lance sighed again. “Oh well. One nice thing about getting old is that nothing surprises you anymore I suppose.” Lance hummed and closed his eyes again. It had been a long day and he was ready to sleep.
He was dozing off when he heard a voice say “I don’t envy you mister. That’s some curse.”
Lance jumped and nearly fell out of his chair. He looked around trying to find the source of the voice. Then he saw it. The fire had a face. Lance’s mouth dropped in surprise.
“Curses are tough.” It continued. “You’re going to have one hell of a time getting rid of it.”
“You can talk!”
“Of course I can talk.” It said with a huff before continuing on. “Let me guess. Curse won’t let you talk about what happened to you?”
“Are you Kogane? Can you break my curse?”
“No, on both accounts. The name’s Pidge. I’m a fire demon, not a wizard.” They explained. “And I’m stuck with Keith, so I can’t get that curse off you.”
“Keith?”
“Yeah, Keith Kogane.” Pidge explained with a shrug, before their eyes literally lit up. “I’ve got an idea. If you help me get out of this thing with Keith, I’ll help break your curse.”
Lance eyes the demon suspiciously. He remembered his uncle telling him about demons long ago. “How do I know you’ll keep your word? After all, demons are known to break promises.”
“You can’t.” Pidge said with a devilish grin.
Lance huffed. “Alright then. Find someone else to help you.”
“What!?” Pidge nearly shrieked. “You can’t be serious. Do you know how much work I do around here? Its torture.” Lance felt his eyes start to close again. “Got to keep the rooms warm, make hot water, move the castle. Have you ever moved a castle before? Its hard work!”
“Alright.” Lance said with a small yawn. “I’ll help you.”
“Really?” Pidge asked happily. The only response they got were some soft snores. “Hey mister. Mister!” Lance continued to sleep on.
Pidge huffed and sunk back down below the logs. “Some help you’re going to be.”