Private - The Lost Druid

Majolica sat in a bar drinking her usual drink of Choco-Cocoa Extra Candy. Deep in thought, she swirled the sugary concoction with a lollipop.

"Hehehe, a tutor..."

The Witch Ops needed power to protect the world. This was one truth Majolica had known to be true since she first came up with idea to start the battalion. Enemies of immeasurable power levels would always arise in the world, therefore, it would take a team of immense power to combat these foes. Although Majolica knew that power would always be required, she always believed that power could always be gained. It was for this reason she had set out recruiting new players to her ranks. New players would be hungry for power, but would also benefit from companionship and grow together into a team that could shake the foundations of the world. As their commander, it was Majolica's job help her allies reach the pinnacles of what could be achieved in the game.

At 'Stinky Ivan's', Majolica had said she would try and find someone to better train Janet and Haru. Though she herself was a master of black magic, nature magic had never much interested her, and therefore, knew little of its ways. Now, with the darkness in Naryu Canyon rising, she had decided it was a good time to make good on her offer to find an instructor.

Though in her earlier days she had met precious few people she could actually call "friend" she did have a lot of knowledge on the other players in the game. Having run into a countless players through various events, groups, and bars, Majolica had gone through her entire mental catalog trying to remember anyone that would make a good tutor for her Witch Ops allies. No one had really stood out in recent memory, until one person popped into her head.

Some time ago, Majolica had accompanied a powerful user of nature and beast magics into, what they thought, was a temple that had long since been picked dry. Deep in the woods, they had traveled to find the temple and eventually discovered a secret, untouched basement. Back then, Majolica had been conducting an experiment using her illusion magic. She had wanted to see if she vanished, how many people would actually notice she was gone. Regretfully, it seemed that no one really cared which was depressing. She had been in disguise when she first set out. Masquerading as the buxom, ill-tempered "Oblivion Witch Agatha". She had been quite disconcerted when she began to find that people were, for some reason, naturally attracted to her Agatha form. Maybe it was the figure... either way, due to some clumsiness on her part, Majolica's magical illusion had been broken while traveling with the druid. Thankfully, the lady druid, for the most part, ignored the shattered illusion spell as she was more focused on exploring the hidden basement.

In the basement, they had found an ancient treasure room filled with scrolls of unknown origin describing what seemed to be advanced magical principles. Unfortunately, they had also found a beast that had made the area it's home. The two had defeated the beast soundly, and after collecting there rewards, had parted ways.

"Hehehe... but what was her name? Ahh... Ach... Ashey... Asheyo? Ash... hehehe, oh! Ashiore (@Ashiore Evretto ) Hehehe, silly me! That's what it was! Now just to send her a message..."

But Majolica's message would not go through.

"Hehehe, is the dumb thing broken? Hehe, maybe she's not in the world anymore? Hehehe, but then how am I going to find her to get her to tutor Haru and Janet?"

Just then a thought came to The Grand Witch.

"Hehehe, I know! I'll just use a spell! Silly me, hehehe, then I can track her location that way! If she is in the world still anyway, hehehe..."

Pounding her drink as usual, Majolica ran out side leaping onto her broom and began her journey to the same old temple she and the druid had explored what felt like so long ago.

Hidden: 2: Revisiting the Past

The area was more or less how she remembered it as she floated up to the sight. From the outside, the temple looked dingy as ever, possibly even more so as it seemed it had been rediscovered by various people's since she had been there. Luckily, the entrance Majolica had sealed when they left had remained sealed. She snickered to herself, it had been a good idea after all.

Hopping off her broom, she poured magic into it. The broom sprang to life and began to remove the stones covering the entrance she and the druid had made. Birds chirped above the Grand Witch. Looking up, she watched as the sunlight filtered itself through the trees. This world really was beautiful. Something worth protecting. All the more reason to find the druid.

When her broomstick had finished, Majolica carefully walked into the temple. Shards of pottery still littered the ground. The musty smell of the place hadn't changed either.

"Hehehe, what a dump..." sighed Majolica as she held her nose shut.

"Now, which way was it? Hehehe."

Looking around for something to jog her memory, Majolica thought she recognized the way and delved further in. As she traveled she stopped. In the darkness, she saw a faint glow a few feet forward.

"Hehehe, is that what I think it is?! Hehehe!"

Rushing forward, Majolica realized it was exactly what she thought it was. Some of the glowing mushrooms Ashiore had used to light the way had actually formed a colony. Resisting the temptation to eat them, Majolica picked the mushrooms greedily and ran outside. Exiting the temple, she pulled one of the mushrooms out and examined it.

"Hehehe, now... let's see where you are!"

Holding the bioluminescent fungi in front of her, Majolica focused on the mushroom then closed her eyes, and began chanting.

"Mage equals Halloween Invocate over Halloween Optometrist equals negative Donut Invocate over Donut Optometrist!"

Eye of Eclipsa

Suddenly, Majolica saw a light quickly approaching. It grew brighter and brighter until suddenly she was in front of the druid. Ashiore looked different now, sallow, unwell, but the gentleness of her face hadn't changed. Moving to the nearest window, Majolica looked at the surrounding area taking in the landscape. Recognizing the area from her travels, she canceled her spell. Opening her eyes, Majolica grinned and thrust the mushroom into her mouth. Still chewing, she jumped on top of her broom and was off.

Hidden: 3: An Unannounced Visit

Having finally found the place she had spied with her spell. Majolica floated up to the front door and loudly knocked.

"Hehehe, Ashiore! It's Majolica, The Grand Witch! Hehehe, remember me! I've come with a proposition! Hehehe, if you're in there, open up! Actually, hehehe, I know you're in there so open up! Hehe!"

@Ashiore Evretto

 

The knock on the door startled Ashiore. She wasn't- wasn't expecting anyone, that was the entire point of coming back to her home. She didn't want to go out, be seen by anyone in her current state. It had taken a lot of careful waiting and sneaking in order to get through the city without being stared at too much, but even then she was paranoid enough to put her hood up and wait until night.

The knocking grew louder and more insistent. A muffled voice called out her name- how did anyone find out that she lived here?

Well, no avoiding it now. Someone obviously knew she was here. The questions was, who? She couldn't quite recognize the voice from all the way in here.

She gave her little badger a quick, gently pat. Obviously, it didn't do anything to soothe her, and the growl that Ashiore got demonstrated as such. "I'll be right back," she said to the half-crystal badger. "Just got to go see who's there."

Approaching the door, Ashiore took a deep breath. It's... been a few days since she interacted with anyone. The good thing about nature magic was that she was able to grow her own food, and she was thankful for the cooking practice she had been getting throughout her time in the game. Sure, she was getting a little tired of an all vegetarian diet, but... well, whatever. Small price to pay for not seeing anyone.

Opening the door, she was surprised to see a familiar young face. "Ah... Majolica? How did you... I, um, what are you doing here?"

@Grand Witch Majolica

 

"Ah, hehehe! There you--"

Majolica stopped as she got a good look at Ashiore (@Ashiore Evretto ) but continued. After all, not only was it simply rude to stare, but Majolica felt sad that something bad had befallen Ashiore. Unlike a lot of people Majolica had met in the past, Ashiore had been very nice. She had acknowledged Majolica's skills and had even helped her find some neat magical relic-scrolls. Also, she hadn't even gotten angry when Majolica's "Agatha" disguise broke apart. In fact, she hadn't even really mentioned it, so Majolica didn't feel as embarrassed when it happened. Majolica quickly decided not to comment on Ashiore's condition unless she brought it up. After all, she didn't want to hurt her feelings.

"You're a tough person to find! Hehehe, I tried contacting you but I couldn't get through. I wonder if the communication line is broken or something? Hehehe, well it's fine because now I found you! It was tough though."

In preparation for telling the story of how she had found Ashiore, Majolica hopped off her broom and began pacing. Her face deep in though, as though she wanted to make sure she missed no detail, Majolica began.

"First, I had to try and contact you and that didn't work. So then, being the genius Grand Witch, hehe, I came up with a plan! I went allll the way back to where we first adventured together, hehehe, that old temple thing! Remember?! Hehehe, well I went back, and guess what?! Some of your mushrooms were still growing! Hehehe, it was hard to not eat them, but then I used the magic you used to grow them to track you back to here! Hehehe, once I found out where you were, I flew over here as fast as I could!"

Majolica gave Ashiore a moment to take in the story, that way the druid would have time to let how resourceful and wonderfully smart Majolica was. After a moment, Majolica spoke up again.

"Hehehe, but now I'm tired and want a cool drink. Hehehe, I also have a proposition! So let's go in and discuss it! Hehehe, don't worry, it's an easy proposition that will be helping people! Hehe, so there's no reason to be worried! Hehehe!"

@Ashiore Evretto

 

Still caught off-balance by @Grand Witch Majolica's sudden appearance, Ashiore didn't catch much of the explanation of how Majolica tracked her. She gathered it had something to do with the temple that the two of them had visited a while back.

Well, it didn't really matter now. Majolica was here, right on her doorstep after all.

"R-right!" Time for her host instincts to kick in. "Sure, come in. We can talk in the dining room, I guess."

Ashiore let Majolica in and began leading the way through the house. It was a decently sized house, probably big enough for a family of four to live in comfortably. Bigger than she was used to, definitely, seeing as how she actually lived in a New York apartment. Still, it was rather sparse. She hadn't really bothered with buying or commissioning furniture for it, seeing as how she usually logged out to sleep.

Well, that'd have to change soon, too. For as long as she was stuck like this, anyway.

But anyway, it was a quick walk to get to the dining room, where a small table with a chair shoved next to it. Her two minipets, a half-crystal badger and a sleeping tiny bat, were lounging on the tabletop next to a bowl of assorted fruit.

Ashiore gestured at the chair. "You can go ahead and sit down, I'll get some water. And, uh, help yourself to the fruit, if you want." Wait, uh... thinking back to the expedition to the temple, she remembered Majolica happily plucking bioluminescent mushrooms off the wall to eat them. She quickly grew a few mushrooms--perfectly edible, of course--and put them in with the fruit. "The mushrooms too, if you want. Be careful around Ruby," she added, when the badger appeared to snarl at Majolica. "She's not very friendly."

She returned from the adjoining kitchen with a glass of water for Majolica. Setting it down on the table, she then asked, "So, um, what were you saying before?"

 

Walking in, Majolica kept her head on a swivel. She had never been to anyone else's house and was curious to see how people decorated. The frogs took care of most of the decorating in her cottage, so things looked... well, like a frog person decorated it, which ended up being something like 'Fairy Tale Witch Chic.'

"Hehe, I like your decorations! Hehe, your house is very.. practical? Hehehe."

Being ushered into the dining room, Majolica sat down in a chair slowly kicking her feet while looking around. Ashiore left to go get some water, Majolica snarled back at the crystal badger then snatched at the mushrooms and stuffed them in her mouth. When Ashiore returned, Majolica, cheeks stuffed like a squirrel, was mean-mugging the snarling badger. Looking up, she swallowed hard and gulped down the water Ashiore set in front of her.

"Hehehe, much better! Hehe, thanks! Well, I guess we should get to business. So, hehe, a lot has been going on since the last time we adventured together! It looks like we've both gotten stronger and learned a lot about the world! Hehe, well due to my, hehehe, heroics during the fight with The Bandit King, people decided they wanted to join my Witch Ops team!"

Getting to the exciting part, Majolica popped up and began to enthusiastically tell Ashoire all about her team.

"Hehehe, I knew it would happen sooner or later, so I decied to formally begin recruit! Hehehe, then after they passed the initation, I formed them into my own team! Hehehe, a team of dark heroes out to save the world from any and all threats! Hehehe! They all have code names that we use when we're out on operations!"

Counting each member on her finger, The Grand Witch continued.

"Hehehe, there's Guide, a mage specializing in spirit and nature magic. Hehe, beast taming too! Then there's Rated R, hehe, another nature mage that also uses white magic and heroic might! Next is Titan who uses illusion magic, shield and has acrobat and Berserk. There's Bound Prince who uses illusion magic, tinkering bludeon and summoning magic. Guillotine Priest with his white magic, sword slashes, acrobat, parry, and some martial arts. And also some others! Hehehe."

Majolica plopped back down into her seat.

"Hehe, but the ones I wanted to talk to you about were Rated R and Guide. Hehe, I know something about illusion magic, and Guillotine Priest is already a powerful white magic user, but I don't have any skills in nature magic. Hehe, it's a shame because I want to help them get stronger, but there's not much I can do, hehe. Buuuut...."

Winking at Ashiore, Majolica continued.

"I do know someone that's really good at nature magic! Hehehe, you! So, I was hoping that maybe you could help two witch ops members, hehe, that are still a little new to the game, learn to better use their powers! Hehehe! You could be like a tutor or teacher! Hehe, they're very nice people. Haru can be a bit unsure of himself and quiet sometimes, hehehe, and Janet needs to build more confidence! But, hehe, I think if they learned from you, they could feel much more secure in their abilities! Hehehe! Also, maybe you could teach them to grow those glowing mushrooms... hehe."

A sliver of drool ran down the side of Grand Witch's mouth as she thought of having more of those glowing mushrooms than she could ever eat.

"So, hehe, what do you think?!"

@Ashiore Evretto

 

After making sure that everything was fine for her guest, Ashiore settled down to listen to @Grand Witch Majolica explain the situation.

"Witch Ops? So, uh, you go on quests as a group a lot, then?" She couldn't say she was familiar with that. But, in general, that was what keeping to yourself got you. She wasn't entirely certain about the name either, but hey, it was Majolica's group, not hers.

She listened to the explanation about the different members. She cracked a small smile when Majolica explained the purpose of the Witch Ops. Sounded like a superhero group. Ashiore had kind of forgotten Majolica's self-proclaimed desire to create giant world-ending spells, during her brief stint as Agatha.

...Huh. Her, a teacher?

Ashiore's first instinct was to deny, decline, refuse outright. Her? That was a laughable concept. What had she done? Gotten captured, gotten her dearest Naixi killed for lack of ability, watched and stood to the side as others died, as people grieved for friends and for family, failed to find a cure for the wretched rot coursing through her entire body. And now Majolica was asking her to help teach?

But when she thought about it, wasn't Terrasphere dangerous? She was an unsuspecting player dropped into the game, happily oblivious to the dangers that were lurking around every corner. She cheerfully went about her business, trying out little spells if they suited her fancy, not getting too involved in fully exploring what her magic could do.

And then, when she was dropped into the Falderen prison, she could do nothing. If she could keep someone else from ever wandering into that situation, where they were helpless because they were limited by a lack of knowledge, then she'd have to take that opportunity.

So after a long, silent moment--in which most of her inner conflict was likely played out in her expression, plain for Majolica to see--Ashiore nodded. "All right," she said, grimly, making this out to be a far more severe issue than it likely was. "I'll help."

 

When Ashiore asked about the groups activities, Majolica opened her mouth, then stopped. Actually, they hadn't really done anything as a complete group yet.

"Hehehe, well not yet. We're sort of still just getting started! Hehehe, first they had to go through initiation! There were three parts I made up. The first part was an interview, where they interviewed me! Hehehe, that way they could get to know me better and we could talk about what Witch Ops was all about! Then there was a demonstration, where everyone showed each other where they could do. Hehe, some of the initiates were stronger than others which made a few feel bad, so I had to reassure them that the only way to was up! Hehehe, that's because I'm a very good leader!"

Majolica petted her own head and blushed a bit. She liked the compliment... even though it was coming from herself.

"The last part was quite adventurous too! Hehe, I had meant for the initiates to go through a nice stroll through the forest to meet the Cawing Owl of Brisshal, hehe a legendary beast that I made a contract with! Well, hehe, the owl had other idea and made them go into a dark, scary, and dangerous part of the woods where they had to fight the Slime King! Hehe, it was a very tough battle for them, but they all made it out together! Hehehe, I was very proud, and I had to scold the owl for going overboard, but it worked out okay. Hehe."

Majolica bounced up and began pacing.

"So after that, we've met up a couple of times, but we haven't done much as a team, hehe, yet! I'm planning a big training camp and fun beach trip! Hehehe, everyone can come and eat food, and train, and play at the beach together! Hehehe, to be a Witch Ops member, you have to remember to work hard annnd play hard! Hehehe, after all, everyone needs to relax and have some fun sometimes! Hehe."

After telling Ashiore her plan to "hire" her as a magic instructor, Majolica watched on pins and needles as she debated the offer. Majolica knew she was the right person for the job. Regardless of what she looked like right now, the Grand Witch could see that she was still a gentle person. Majolica had also always thought that Ashiore was a person that could be strict if she needed to be, so basically a teacher-type. Majolica wasn't sure what had happened to Ashiore, but as she watched the lady druid debate taking the position in her head, Majolica thought that maybe having some students could help her feel like her old self.

When Ashiore finally agreed, Majolica hopped and clapped happy that everything seemed like it would work out.

"Hehehe, excellent! So, would you like to have the two come here and visit you, or do you want to come to my cottage in Brisshal? Hehehe, either way works and we can do what's most convenient for you! Hehehe, there's lots of nature in Brisshal, since it's a forest, hehe, and I don't know if that would help any. Anyway, I'm sure your new students will be very happy and excited to meet you! Hehehe!"

@Ashiore Evretto

 

"That's impressive," Ashiore said as @Grand Witch Majolica recounted all those adventures. Quite the adventures that they had gone on. Ashiore had missed the Bandit King event, though she had gotten word that it was a success. And now there were all these players banding together in a group to have fun and go on adventures together, as a result of that? It was interesting. Heartwarming, in a way, especially when Majolica began talking about a beach trip or camping trip. She remembered going on those in the past, in the real world, with her classmates.

Ashiore had always been a more solitary player. First she had spent her time wandering about without a care in the world, seeing where the game would take her. She often crossed paths with acquaintances and friends from sheer luck, though she never really sought them out. And then after things had gone downhill, her isolation was mostly self-imposed.

It... did get lonely, yeah. So Majolica's company, though unexpected, was quite nice.

The prospect of going to face more people was at once both frightening and not. She hadn't realized until now how desperate she was for other people's company until Majolica had tracked her down.

Ashiore glanced around the room. She'd spent nearly all her time recently holed up in her house and the surrounding lands. It'd be nice to get a bit of outside time. And she hadn't been back to Brisshal in a while.

"I guess to your cottage? It'll be nice to go back to Brisshal for a bit. Can you give me directions? If you can send the coord- Oh. Right." She didn't have access to the coordinates or the map system anymore. "If you could give me directions, that'd be great. I can ride to Brisshal pretty easily. What time would be best for them?"

 

Majolica hopped happily as Ashiore accepted the offer. This would be a good thing for everyone. Ashiore could make new friends and be a teacher, and Haru and Janet could learn from a master of nature magic and beast taming.

"Hehehe, perfect!"

Majolica dug into her bag and pulled out paper and something to write with.

"So, hehehe, you're going to want to start off going straight. Once you reach here, then you turn, and turn again. Hehehe, if you see the big tree then you went to far, so go back to where there's a rock that looks like a hamster. Hehe, that's where you turn. Then, once the area starts looking more 'forresty' you know you're getting close. You go through here, then around this thingy, hehe, I don't know what it is but it looks like a hill or something, hehe, then you'll reach the outskirts! It will look like a big forrest clearing and be eerily quiet, hehehe, but just keep going forward and eventually you go through the illusion field and be at my house! Hehehe, there will be Witch Frogs doing their chores, but don't let them bother you. They're very nice and they'll no you'll be coming! Hehehe."

Finishing her instructions, she handed the paper to Ashiore.

"How about after lunch a week from today? Hehehe, that way everyone will be good and ready? Hehehe."

@Ashiore Evretto