Meeting the Witch

‘Hmm, this Tolkien had some fairly entertaining ideas about the makings of magic. Entirely wrong ideas, perhaps, but certainly entertaining.‘

These thoughts ran through Jessica’s mind as she walked, reaching the end of the building’s hallway before reaching the door out of the building and towards the courtyard. So engrossed in the novel she had come across three days ago, she had opened the door with one hand still keeping the book up towards her face, not wanting to miss a detail of this funny man’s writings. She continued reading as she made her way to the courtyard.

‘Being able to ascribe such power to an item as small as a finger? HaHAHA. I do wonder what he would have written had he met an actual magical practitioner. Surely then he’d properly demonstrate true power in writing.’ Jessica thought this with a grin as she read more about this tiny man, this ‘Hobbit,’ attempting to escape from the dragon. This made her come close to bursting into a fit of laughter, now having to physically put her other hand up to her mouth.

‘I’m sorry Bilbo, but I do not care how clever or invisible this ring makes you, it won’t protect you from dragon fire.’ Sufficiently intrigued to see how this character will attempt to escape, she dropped her hand from her mouth and used it to turn to the next page as she continued to walk. Surely there must be some other **** at work that is keeping this poor fool alive, his allies and his ring be damned. Perhaps he had some latent ability that had yet to be discovered, or more likely, the author truly had no understanding about the nature of power.

Either option made for an entertaining story in her book, but both for completely different reasons.

‘Time for the Hobbit to meet his better.

…why am I looking at the clouds?’

Such was Jessica’s thought process as the woman had gone from sadistically anticipating the Hobbits demise to sharply confounded in how she had been pushed back and **** off her feet. In the span of five seconds, her attention had gone from her book, to the sky, to the body that had made her face the sky, and finally to the wet feeling now going across her body. After those five seconds had passed, it took her another ten seconds to realize what exactly she had landed in.

‘…The fountain.’

This thing had apparently been the bane of many young students across this campus. She had spent many a day silently snickering at the poor fools that ran afoul with this water structure. Jessica even remembered quite vividly seeing one poor sap falling head first into this fountain, making a pure spectacle of himself and having her laugh for days.

Now she was the second person she had ever known to have fallen into it. But at least whoever gone in it with her could share the laughs they’d receive for this.

Such thoughts went out the window when she turned her head to the right to see that very same person who had fallen in with her was that same fool that fell before. She had begun to groan to herself, now aware of the student body surrounding the fountain and who were apparently curious about who had taken the plunge this time. Regaining her bearings, Jessica began to push herself up using her hands, making her go from laying down to simply sitting in this seemingly cursed structure.

“Ugh, this is going to be a fun clean up. Hopefully this guy will offer to pay my dry cleaning.” While Jessica had managed to land on her back facing the sky, the young man's own landing, Eugene she soon remembered, had left him face down in the fountain. Not seeing any sign of movement, she began to fear for the worst as she moved to help him. She was met with a hand slapping away her advances, his body still not moving from its current resigned position.

“So…are you alright?”

Her blasé question finally got the young man to turn his face to the side sharply, his left eye now facing up at her in an intimidating fashion. He then sharply rose from the fountain, now standing at full height, glaring down at her. She suddenly began to regret asking the question.

“Am I alright? AM I ALRIGHT? DO I LOOK ALRIGHT TO YOU!?” His bellowing only served to draw more of a crowd then they were before. Slowly but surely more students and faculty began to gather towards the courted, enticed by the screaming. Jessica had made note of the crowd’s growing size for only a moment as she turned her attention to the angry young man in front of her. His rage aside, to her estimation, he seemed to be in full health with no visible sign of injury. So, in keeping with what she had said earlier to him, she made her reply.

“Yes, you seem to be perfectly okay.”

This clinical and detached response caused Eugene to convulse. His hands were now touching his head, his hair, and his neck in short order as his head began to shake back and forth. This is what happened for about seven seconds before he suddenly stopped and dropped his hands to his sides.

‘Hmm, he must have some surprisingly good emotional awareness. They’re obviously very intense emotions, but he’s aware of them. Suppose that’s something.’ Such control was important for her to build her craft over the years, but Jessica had yet to see an individual stop what would be an emotional breakdown as quickly as he did.

Her musings had distracted her long enough to not notice that Eugene had now disappeared from sight, the young man now having run off in another direction from where she was walking from and that he had bypassed the crowd that had formed about a minute or so ago.

In that whirlwind of observations and rage, the young woman began to pick herself up, ignoring the handful of helpful freshmen that attempted to offer her support. Their attempts to gain her attention were annoying but she found one of their offers to **** Eugene surprisingly refreshing.

‘Well, that was something that happened. Can’t believe that guy ran off without so much as an apology for what he did. Any real man would’ve stood his ground and at least checked to see if he hurt me.’ Just as Jessica that, she began to check if she had actually been hurt by the poor fool. While she was more physically fit than most of her family, that didn’t mean she was immune to pain. As she finished padding herself down for injuries, her eye glanced once more at the fountain and then she noticed it.

The book.

Eyes wide and now panicking, she quickly picked it up from the water and attempted to flipped through its pages. They were now falling out of its spine and the words written were completely smeared. The book was officially ruined.

And now, as far as Jessica was concerned, so was Eugene.

‘I don’t care who you are or where you go, Mr. Kremki. You are an inferior. For ruining my property, I, Jessica Cromwell of the Cromwell Witch Communion will exact retribution.’

This mental declaration coincided with her tracking spell pinpointing Eugene's location.

‘Prepare to meet your better.’