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Shubble looked back down at the potion book.
It is instant health, right? A little bit of that, along with a healthy dose of strength. ...Or is it just regular healing? It may be a regular healing potion.
Her potion book didn’t really clear this issue up for her...
Though her potion book may not be reliable, she was the Great Witch Shelby! She could do this!
…even if she wasn’t exactly supposed to do magic anymore.
“Nobody has to know that. And when I do make this right, I can share it to help others too! And when it works , the entire server will know that I’m a good witch and I mean no harm.
…I’m good, I am. I can do this.”
All evidence to her “being good at magic” seemed to proven otherwise, as again her house semi-exploded while she stirred the potions. Liquid splashed all over the room, ruining her hair (she’d decided to take off the hat today, understanding the risks of working with potions that liked to bubble over on her… she’d predicted correctly, apparently.)
And to add to the cherry on top of this whole situation, another wave of cramps came over her, resulting in Shubble doubling over the counter, having to grip the siding tightly until the pain subsided just a bit.
Wincing as she did so, Shubble straightened back up, took a deep breath, and started to stir the potion despite her pain. “I’ve just got to finish this and then I’ll feel fine.”
To be fair, it might’ve not been the best idea to brew a potion she hadn’t looked at in years. Her mother used to fix her a remedy for period cramps which was pure magic based—Shubble could practically taste the warm tea with healing spices, as well as the rich chocolate muffins with pain relieving potion in them.
Problem was, she knew what she was going for, but she didn’t know how to make it, because her edition of the potion book said very little.
“Maybe I need some glowberries?” She looked at the mixture’s muted orangy-pink color. If she remembered right, it should be a brighter orange with only a hint of pink. Glowberries were a bright yellow-orange, so maybe they were the ingredients in this potion? Maybe?
What was the harm in adding cooked berries into a mixture? Glowberries were harmless, and even if they were poisonous, she would’ve cooked out the danger in them by the time they were in the mixture.
Shubble poured in a quarter cup of berries, followed by two teaspoons of chocolate powder (the trader she got it from swore up and down that it was magic, and Shubble truly did believe all chocolate was magic). Again, she stirred at it for plenty more seconds until she felt everything had dissolved just fine.
…she brushed off the fact that the potion didn’t smell familiar, instead kind of strange (never a scent in the kitchen when her mother made them). But maybe she’d just forgotten the properties of the potion. After all, it’d been plenty of years since she’d done her school from home, and she lived under the protection and care of her mother. She could just be… remembering things wrong, yeah.
This would be fine though. Shubble was a great witch! The greatest witch!
And after she figured out the recipe for the muffins and had the dish baked, she’d feel perfect again. She’d be a great witch. She’d be able to help the other girls on this server.
She’d be helpful. And they’d love her. And they’d want her. And the Academy wouldn’t need her to come back because she succeeded at something, no longer failing in life.
Shubble poured the mixture of potions into a glass bowl, moving it to the fridge to chill. Most potions needed about half an hour, so in the meantime, Shubble began work fixing the muffins.
The muffins were more difficult, given she didn’t have a mixture to work with, and she had no clue where to start.
So as one does, Shubble searched the magical—yet not magic powered—internet for answers to her question.
“How does one make chocolate potion-infused muffins?”
Her search result answers were… interesting, to say the least.
It seemed not too many humans specialized in baking and potion brewing—which made sense, of course, because this was a witch thing! No human in their right mind would dabble with breweries.
…still. Shubble was mildly disappointed to not get a straight up answer. So she changed her question.
“How do I make good chocolate muffins?”
The search results were definitely clearer, now including blog posts which ranked different recipes. This didn’t make Shubble’s life easy, now with decisions to make, but she stopped at one that seemed to have similar ingredients as her mother’s, and needed plenty of milk, which she could replace with potion.
Easy. Simple. It’d be great.
It took a bit of work before she got her treats in the oven, and in that time, the potions were well-chilled.
Now for the second part of her work. The tea.
Shubble knew less about the purpose of the tea, if she were quite honest. She didn’t have a good way to contact her mother quickly either (especially since she could easily be traced by the Academy if she wrote to people across worlds frequently). Guess-work would have to do.
After searching through cabinets and cupboards, she ran across the strainer for tea leaves, and after contacting Gem, she found out she had a garden of leaves that Shubble could take from.
Usually Shubble would never impose in the slightest, but maybe she had a worthy trade for Gem.
Shubble got together some simple potions most people found useful, as well as some diamonds—everyone loved diamonds—and then she went on her way. Shubble hadn’t finished the blaze farm yet, so she couldn’t really trade supplies (she didn’t really want to trade potion supplies either, as she should be the sole provider of people’s potion-needs), so this would have to do.
“Shubble?” The princess called over as she spotted her walking in. “You said you needed some tea leaves?”
Shubble nodded as she neared. Despite being a tad nervous to meet other empires, Gem seemed rather friendly and one that wouldn’t judge Shubble for her witchness—or rather, lack of it.
“Yes. I’m trying to make some healing tea.”
Gem smiled and gave a quick nod. “Ok. Come right this way.”
Up ahead there was a small, cute greenhouse, which housed bountiful amounts of plants. Shubble could imagine her being the queen of tea with how many different leaves she grew.
“Is there a sort of healing in particular you’re looking for?” Gem asked. “Certain teas work better than others.”
“Well, I’ll be using my magic somewhat, so it shouldn’t matter too much what kind it is, right?”
Gem gave Shubble an almost confused look. “Are you sure that’s how magic works? There’s got to be a little logic to it, right?”
Shubble shrugged. “Just trying to fix tea my mom used to make me to help with cramps. But I don’t have any tea leaves, sadly.”
Gem walked her over to her “tea section” of the indoor garden. “Well, there are a few that might help in their natural form, unaided by magic. Of course, if you’re convinced magic will work on them… green tea’s usually a safe bet, and there’s been rumors that mint and ginger are fairly helpful, though I personally can’t attest to it. I don’t think I have any ginger root though…”
They paused at one of the plants. “You can actually try sucking on a mint leaf. It’s pretty good.” Gem plucked one off herself, proving it to be fully safe.
Shubble tried one herself, and Gem was right. The leaf did have a faint taste associated with minty treats. “Mint tea actually sounds good, if you’re okay with me taking some.”
Gem smiled, answering her quickly, “Oh sure! You take as much as you need, and when you figure out your recipe, I’d love to have some for myself.” She gave Shubble a small leather bag to carry the leaves in. “Good luck!”
Of course, the Great Witch Shelby didn’t need luck, but she took it anyway.
It was getting to be evening as Shubble made it home. Now she was exhausted, and though not in incredible pain, was ready to take a break.
But, she had tea to make.
Shubble first rinsed off the leaves and put them in the strainer. Once the leaves were in place, and surely wouldn’t leave the strainer, she placed them in a mug and poured boiling water into it.
She didn’t know if this was the proper way to do it, but she stuck with her gut instinct, even if it resulted in a tea mug that was extremely hot to the touch.
Then, as her tea cooled, Shubble fixed a quick dinner to go along with her muffin. (Note, she now realized one should take muffins out of the tin while its warm, because it was incredibly difficult now that they cooled and wanted to stick). Despite the difficulty taking the muffin out, it still tasted… decently good, she supposed. The glowberries were a strange contrasting flavor and next time she’d leave them out. And the potions left an odd aftertaste in her mouth, but it wasn’t bad enough for her to spit out her food.
Okay, so maybe it wasn’t “good”, but it was Shubble’s first time making it! And there’d be some fails—well, it wasn’t a failure, because Shubble didn’t have room for failures—but there’d be some lest than best results when creatively cooking, and further on down the line Shubble would do better.
When Shubble felt the tea had plenty of time to steep, she took the leaves out, dumped a random amount of sugar into it, and added her magic essence to it. Surely the essence would make the tea’s health benefits stronger.
What Shubble realized about half an hour after consuming dinner and tea, was the fact that magic essence did not just help health benefits, but also included boosting unwanted side effects.
Like the fact that she now had a headache and was mildly jittery from the caffeine. Or that she had a mild stomachache from the odd mix of potions—which she now realized were not what was fixed for her when she was a child. Or the fact that she just felt really sick…
The sickness was probably from improperly brewed potions (not the magic itself), knowing Shubble.
Needless to say, she regretted ever trying a home-magical remedy for cramps, but there was no way she was going to tell Gem she botched up absolutely everything she started on. She would just have to fight the fact that she didn’t feel well in the slightest.
…of course, there wasn’t the piercing, tight squeezing pain of cramps anymore, but that was traded with a filled, twisted up stomach. She wasn’t sure what she preferred.
“I’ll just… sleep it off, or something.”
She went back to her small cottage where Tortoise waited on her. He sat there, just watching, never wavering in his patience to stay here. (Shubble really did need to make him a more proper home, but that was for another day when she felt up to working.)
It was honestly a bit difficult to rest, when she knew there was a toad looking at her from the windowsill.
Watching… staring… judging.
(She knew he was judging. She could see it in his eyes.)
“Look, what the Academy doesn’t know won’t hurt them. I’m not even putting others at risk! Just myself! And if I die, it’s not like they’ll care!” she exploded at Tortoise. He just blinked. And bounced.
“They don’t care. They really don’t. And I’m not doing this to stir up trouble. I’m just trying to feel better, but that obviously doesn’t work out for me.”
She slipped into a nightgown, and hardly seconds later flopped into bed.
He stared at her the entire time, judging her every move, especially the flop onto the bed.
“What do you want?” She looked over at him and gave a small groan. “I’m tired, okay? I’m tired and I feel horrible and everybody hates me.” She curled up on her side, pulling the blanket up over her arms. “Yes, I know that’s over dramatic Tortoise, but you know what I mean.”
He blinked at her.
“Stop looking at me like that.”
She covered her head with the blanket, waiting for the discomfort to settle out into something manageable. Despite her tries, it did not get any easier, and she only managed to feel more overwhelmed.
“I can’t do it,” she mumbled out shakily. “I can’t do it no matter how much I try.”
Tortoise bounced up over to her bed and crawled under the covers. He was a bit slimy, but everything in the swamp was like that, so Shubble didn’t have much mind to care.
“I can be more than what they think I can be, really. I can. I just—” Her voice was quickly breaking and she couldn’t help it as she started tearing up. “They’re all gonna hate me when– when they find out…” She sniffed, nose not running badly enough for her to get up and grab a tissue.
The headache got worse with the crying, and she felt just plain sick now.
“I should’ve never used magic in the first place.”
Shubble buried her face into the pillow, trying her hardest to take deep breaths, to work more on not caring.
“I need a hug, Tortoise,” she told him weakly. And despite her plea for one, he did not come through. He was literally two steps away from her, but he wouldn’t turn his butt around to so much as look at her.
“No hug? Fine.”
She looked over at her comm.
No, she shouldn’t bother anyone.
She shouldn’t give reason for others to hate her.
She shouldn’t give them chance to see her failures and mock.
And she shouldn’t give them whatever sickness she had—and if it were just an upset stomach, she shouldn’t need someone to baby her.
What would Gem say?
Would she think it dumb? Would she be disappointed that Shubble failed?
She was the only one, aside from Katherine (Katherine, who so lovingly made her hat—but she shouldn’t impose upon her beyond the hat), who Shubble trusted.
“I can’t do this, Tortoise.”
Shubble typed up a message as best as she could to her two friends.
After she sent it, she turned in for the night (leaving whatever responses they had for her unread). Surprisingly, Shubble managed to crash quickly.
Shubble woke up to a knock on her door at two in the morning.
Outside were Katherine and Gem.
They’d came.
“Sorry we’re so late,” Katherine said first. “It’s a long walk, and we weren’t super sure how to get through this swamp you’ve got going on. It wasn’t too hard to find your place though.”
And before Shubble could respond, Gem came in to give her a tight hug. “Tea backfired?” She said it so softly, with great sympathy that only Gem had.
“Yeah. I–I— It didn’t—I couldn’t fix it right and it—I–”
Kathrine shushed her quickly, and Gem gave a few reminders to breathe.
“I’m a terrible witch and I can’t do anything right and I was trying my best but I can’t—”
Again, there was a reminder to breathe. And the Gem looked her in the eyes and said, still with as much patience as before, “It’s okay. You’re not going to be a perfect witch on the first day. We all mess up.”
But it wasn’t okay, because everyone would hate her, and the Academy was already on her tail, and it would only go down from here—
“Shubble, you’re hyperventilating,” Kathrine said pretty plainly. “Gem’s right. It’s all going to be okay.”
Gem hummed in agreement. “Do you still feel sick like before?”
Shubble took a deep breath before answering in an incredibly small voice, “Not as much. Just– just a little bit weird.” She wasn’t able to rid the shake in her voice, but this time she didn’t stumble over her words or nearly faint for a lack of breath.
“You got some sleep?” Kathrine asked, taking Shubble by the hand to encourage her to lie back down again.
“Yeah. A little bit.”
Gem gave all the encouragement in the world through her smile. “That’s a good start.” Then, she moved her train of thought for a small second. “Kathrine, you brought your wool supply, right?”
Kathrine nodded, handing it over.
“We’ve got to make this a proper sleepover, right?” She made sleeping mats with the materials she now had on hand. “Kathrine, can you light up and kill off the mobs? It’s not too muddy out, so we should be able to sleep under the stars.”
Kathrine got out her slaying gear and went to work on the world outside.
When she headed out of the place, Gem took to lying down next to Shubble for the meantime. “Hey, you do know we love you, right? Doesn’t matter if you’re good at magic or not.”
Shubble didn’t answer right away, though when she did, she still stayed honest. “I– I have trouble believing that fully, Gem.”
In return, Gem gave her another tight hug, after a few seconds loosening up so Shubble could cuddle up to her. (There was a part of Shubble that was surprise that Gem wasn’t angry, wasn’t disappointed for her disbelief in their love and care.) “That’s okay. It… it takes a while to believe that. But we do, whether or not you know it. And me and Kathrine are here for you.”
Shubble gave a happy sigh at that, the words lifting off a good portion of the weight, just leaving her with the physical pain that still had yet to subside.
A few minutes later Kathrine came back in. “I killed all the monsters and fenced off the area a bit. We should be safe for the night.”
Shubble looked up at her and gave a smile, finally feeling incredibly light. “Thank you.”
Katherine smiled back and said with nothing but honesty, “Anytime, Shubble.”
The Great Witch Shelby, though a failure in a sense of the word, was still loved despite her struggles, and for a beautiful moment, she knew what it was like to be happy, free, and loved. From here, the Academy couldn't touch her.