☄ Hedge Magick [ w. Rumpleteaser ]

[brinary]

Hedge Magick

alternatively titled;; When Sparks Fly (but that's so corny)

 

 

 

 

 

Name: Daichi.

Age: 25

Dark, thick, wavy hair / green eyes / brown skin / light freckling >

Appearance:

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Crouching on all fours, his nose twitched before he launched into a sprint across the garden chasing after the lovable and annoyingly speedy ferret. Its body flashing between blades of grass and jumping off the occasional petty rock, the ferret gave a formidable chase. He yelled after it with great frustration and continued to go in circles trying to catch the insufferable creature. Finally he ended up giving in and collapsed on his stomach with a groan and pant. It turned into a smile as a familiar figure's shadow cast across his spent form.

 

"You tried your best, Pinch. C'mon, let's get you inside."

 

Terra had to do more rousing before convincing him to walk along. They climb the gently slopping hill and skip across weak dirt patches to get home. Once past a pair of fences and a seemingly poorly constructed arch, Pinch gleefully rushed inside the small house and went to his favorite cooling spot in the shade of a large bookcase, spent but pleased.

 

Daichi clucked at him before slinging a bag across his small kitchen table. The wood, while noisy, was sturdy against his rough treatment. Like most things in the small cottage it was made by him. It had been fine pickings today, venturing out to get copper marigolds and thick cuts of thyme and rosemary. He'd dry them starting today and begin to weave his new hybrids, carefully working at dissecting to splice his rosemary plants with some orchids in one of his garden patches. It didn't take long already so practiced with the methods.

 

Another thing off the list.

 

"You've been sleeping this whole time, get up," he said with a prod to the ferret curled up on his head. It gave an indignant noise before clambering down, Terra stretching his arm out so it could run inside. Pinch was still too tired to make any moves and watched the ferret from mostly closed eyes. They closed once Daichi came and scratched behind his ear, crouching to read a list that'd fallen off one of his bookshelves.

 

All that was left to do was get some dinner, which meant hunting. Daichi got his bag together, daggers tucked safe along his side and traps delicately organized along a strip of strong burlap that he draped around his body like a sash. His bow needed new tuning and had gotten warped after a particularly stormy day and a tumble too many through the woods. People said it was a waste anyway; who shoots at those fickle creatures, so small in the underbrush? But Daichi happened to be an amazing sharp, as good a rogue as any in the village. It was unfortunate to many that he'd selected an alternative path.

 

"Mittens, c'mere. Pinch, we'll be out hunting. When Taya comes by, tell her I said hello." The dog's ears raised in acknowledgement before resting again and the man grinned at the acknowledgement before setting out for the day.

 

His pack was full for the day. He had snacks of salted, dried meat and even a bunch of fresh strawberries. Mittens always liked to try and get into his fruits but he withheld them with now practised ease. Currently the creature was back on his head, head twitching at new details and tiny claws raking delicately through Daichi's mass of haphazardly brushed curls. They were venturing further out, away from the neatly packed village. Hunters hardly ever passed the monolithic stones and trees that served as nature's border. On just the other side, the outskirts. The wasteland, the poisoned pit that hosted the so-called witch.

 

Well. Daichi sniffed as he finished scaling the high boulders and parted dense thickets, thinking of such a tale. The only magic he'd ever known had been his path. He wasn't scared of a so-called witch. If the stories held true, that was only ever more interesting! But magic thrums if you can let it contact you. It goes out like some sort of heavensong. He would have felt such a thing, theoretically. But he hadn't! So he didn't care.

 

Logic flawless, Daichi proceeded to the trap setting. The bounty was ample in these parts with areas more sparser than others, but definitely fuller than the village's hunting grounds. Further and further in, making note of the droppings that'd been kicked around and left in little trails, knotting snapped vegetation. He finally came upon the legendary knoll. Bent to camoflauge a crafty trap, the man straightened himself and raised a brow. "… 'spected a bit more than just your average grounds, gotta say," he mumbled to himself, wiping his brow as he counted off the traps. Five in total, four woven suspensions and one a wicker basket (he'd read it in a book once!), all ready for the right trigger.

[Rumpleteaser]

 

Name: Emmanuel

Age: 1635

Occupation: Male witch

Likes: Animals, setting traps, rewards, trophies, treasure, screams, rain, night-time, hunting, young men

Dislikes: Whimpering, laziness, people touching his treasure, snooping, nosy questions, cuss words

 

 

It was a beautiful autumn day. The sun was rising in the morning sky and there was a brisk wind that whistled through the trees, causing them to rustle and their leaves to drift through the air. There were clouds in the sky, looming of to the west, but there would not be any rain until nightfall by the looks of it. All in all, it was a wonderful day for hunting. The sparse, rocky fields beyond the forest were teeming with fat bunnies that had never known a hunter in their lives. They skittered away from the human but there was no real terror there. They thought they were safe in their warrens and amongst the long patches of grass that grew around the field.

 

The rabbits seemed to be centered around a knoll in the middle of the field, which was topped by an outcrop of boulders. That's where most of the openings to the warrens were. It had lots of larger rocks and small boulders around it to hide behind too. It really was the perfect spot for rabbiting. Really, it was the villagers' superstitions and fear of the witch that kept them away from the knoll.

 

Down the holes around this knoll, however, there were more than rabbits. If a person were to reach down one of these holes, they would be sucked down them into a pocket world - the realm of the witch. Few people had been down there, even fewer returned. The rabbits moved between the realms freely as if it were the most natural thing in the world but a human trapped down there would not be able to come out the way they had entered.

 

Inside the pocket realm looked much like the outside world. The knoll was there, the fields were there as was the forest Daichi had come through. There was a sun in the sky just as before and the sky was cloudy just as before. The only difference was that there was an orchard in the field that was large enough to feed an entire village. There were trees of all sorts, from apples to custard apples to cherries to quinces to peaches to bergamots. Hanging from many of the branches were beehives and bird houses with sparrows flitting in and out.

 

The strangest thing about the trees, however, was that each of them were in a different season. Some of them were bare and covered in snow. Some were covered in blossoms and buzzing with bees. Some were red and gold in a state of autumn. Some were heavily laden with fruit and bowing under the strain. The orchard was in a state of perpetual seasonal abundance. There was always something to pick and something to eat. The fruit looked so plump, so fresh and so sweet too! Just one bite and a person could get hooked! It was dangerous. A person could spend all day eating the fruit and making themselves sick.

[brinary]

"Well." Daichi had eeked closer and closer to the holes, peering in for fun and observing the tiny growths around them. His hands were clammy from a recent discovery which set Mittens bounding over to him curiously. The ferret sniffed at the arch of his feet before clambering up his leg to peek out on top of his shoulder. Sniffing the air curiously, the furry fiend made a noise that would sound like really nothing to anyone else, but to the currently concerned man, was a question.

 

He made a mindless noise back and continued to stare.

 

It was not often that people came across such blatant examples of the unreal. Unreal as a definition was the opposite of real, a figment, an imagination. But he'd learned it as a casual way of describing things that just didn't sit right and well. That just didn't make any kind of sense. And that hole, with its duplicate trees and duplicate ferns and hopping rabbits, with its massive and plump fruit, was Unreal. As Daichi continued to stare, he realized this was his first time ever coming across such a sight. The realization made him remarkably uneasy. Although he rallied against the leading opinion that magic was inherently dangerous, it was never great to see such a telling sign of it.

 

What a sign it was though and so interesting! Nestled all the way out here. A portal hovering plain as day for any random explorer to tumble into.

 

His interest was sparked but the man relented from springing into action. He still had reservations. Mittens, however, did not. Seeing a chance at finally latching onto the sweet nectar of delicious fruits, the ferret bounded forward and it was a short, sweet re-enactment of that morning. Stunned but determined, Daichi sprang after him with a holler. He fumbled over his steps and slid to buck his chin against the dirt before tumbling into the knoll after his feisty friend. "Oi! OI!" This wasn't good- he knew it wasn't! The sweetness of the sap of the trees and all the plump fruit?

 

Unlike certain lazybone dogs, the young hunter's body was taunt and ready to deal with a sly, slippery runaway. He pounced and his body slammed down, arms locked at his side and head buried in the dirt to make a sudden cage around the obviously irked Mittens. The ferret squeaked its irritation as it was unceremoniously scooped up and shoved into the moleskin pouch at Daichi's side. "Hush your mouth, you absolute arse. You can obviously tell this doesn't smell the best but you're so greedy you came in anyways! All that extra weight, you should be thanking me for supporting your sprinting habits."

 

With that settled, it left the uncomfortable knowledge that this would be a predicament. Sighing, Daichi looked around, wary of the familiar and yet new surroundings.

[Rumpleteaser]

One of the trees gave a loud moan, followed by a shudder. It was one of the summer trees with its branches sagging under the weight of the delicious fruit. The bark and sinews of the tree twisted like skin on muscles before parting to reveal a wooden face. The tree blinked slowly then stared at Daichi.

 

'Boooy! Booooy!' the apple tree moaned. 'Help me! Help meee!'

 

Another apple tree joined in.

 

'Help us! Help us!' came what could be taken as the feminine sound of a female peach tree.

 

'Shake our fruit! Beat our branches!' called the first tree.

 

'We are so overburdened! We are bent and aching!' cried another.

 

'Please, boy! Pick our fruit before the fruit flies set in!' begged a female plum tree.

 

The trees in summer all continued to moan and beg. Their fruit ailed them and there seemed to be nobody around to alleviate them of their burdens. All their faces were looking at him where before they had not had faces at all. Their limbs arched towards him against the direction of the wind. The trees kept calling to him, moaning about the burdens they carried.

 

Meanwhile, the trees in winter shivered with cold, dumping snow into great piles around them. Some of them even snored loud enough to annoy the crotchety autumn trees. With the appearance of Daichi, they all seemed to come alive with their own faces and personalities. Other than the heavily burdened summer trees though, most of them tended to keep to themselves. They had rain for their water, bees for their pollination and bird droppings for their fertiliser. Other than the fact the fruit needed plucking, they seemed to be taken very well cared of. There were no broken branches or infestations. Some of them, mostly the spring trees, sang in quiet voices about birds, bees and blossoms.

[brinary]

Well if this wasn't a predicament. Daichi was transported back to a time where he had to simultaneously run errands a plenty on sick townfolk from a caravan's somewhat intentional plague and also fight off pests from his tiny garden. There was just as much moaning and groaning. The result was a plummet in his otherwise good mood. He felt exasperated and pained by it all. Mittens was just as pained and scurried to settle into the pack at his hip. Daichi didn't blame the ferret at all, in fact wished to join him in hiding from the general disarray of it all. How they were going to get out of this one, he didn't quite know.

 

"Oh, hush now, you all sound older than you'd ought to let on," the young man sighed. If magic hadn't been confirmed before, it was now-- either that or he'd taken a whiff of some very powerful and hidden stuff. If it had been the latter, he would certainly need to use whenever he woke up from whatever dream he was buried in. For now, well. He might as well take action.

 

The young man made his way over to grove of moaning trees and sat down heavily in front of one. He buried his fingers in the dirt and let Mittens out to hop around the area with a quick, fidgety gait and sniff at the fruits. "Get off of them, you already heard their noise about weight. Mits! Stop jumping around on them." The two shared an intense gaze before the ferret began to snap at flies that buzzed close before hopping down by Daichi again. Said man was currently knicking his thumb and wiping it up with a bustle of bound cotton, rolling it to let the fluffed material catch the bright blood. He then leaned back and began to carefully collect and roll the cotton between the fingers like a regular clothesmith. Rocking in the patch by the trees, he let his blood and the dirt mingle with careful and dainty pulls of the cotton, twisting them carefully between the pad of his thumb and forefinger.

 

" 's quite a curse of good health, mm?" he hummed as the trees ailed on. "You hardly hear the sick complaining of dying. It's mostly just moans. But you're overburded with good fortune. How ironic-- downright poetic."

 

The darkened cotton began to resemble something more of twine as he continued. The soft material had been slowly altered and changed, with more and more length of thin string beginning to spool to the man's lap. He kept his eyes closed and kept rocking as he sat cross-legged. The ferret took the end of the string in its mouth and ran across the grove, scuttling and scraping along, up, and down the length of the trees with the string following steadily. By the time the ferret returned, the string lay twisted along the bases and thick middles, over burdened branches.

 

"Right then," Daichi finally mumbled, eyes somewhat glassy as he opened his eyes. "Good, thank you, Mits." Delicately squeaking, he had the ferret clamber up his arm as he finally stood and focused his energy.

 

Revitalization. Strength. Infused with marigolds, crushed alongside snapdragons. He picked up the twine and lifted it higher, stood a distance from one of those groaning trees and pulled it taunt. A few plucks did nothing but with one final tight pull and snap of the string, the air seemed to shudder and power flooded through his blood, through the dirt. It sharpened everything in Daichi's vision for a moment before the creaking and twisting of the Earth sounded. The spell was meant to help the trees feel stronger and even look more physically capable, lifting the crushing weight of their heavy fruits. Daichi let it thrum a moment longer before slowly having the magic shrink back into him and then ended contact with a sigh.

 

Mittens chirped his congratulations.

[Rumpleteaser]

Somewhere in the background the clouds rumbled and darkened. The wind picked up and the clouds started to get closer. There was a presence, something that would cause the hairs on the back of one's back to tingle as if they were being watched. There was nobody around to see but there was definitely someone or something watching what was happening. It seemed unhappy too. There was a darkening mood to the air that matched the slowly darkening sky.

 

Though the trees were strong and healthy, the weight they bore was extreme. One would think they ought to be pleased with themselves for being so fertile but instead they continued to groan, even after Daichi had cast his spell on them.

 

'Young man, please pick our fruits!' called one of the more feminine trees.

 

'The fruit flies will come and lay eggs in our bounty!'

 

'The fruit will rot on the branches and foul up the air!'

 

The clouds rumbled again and the wind whooshed past Daichi, whipping up his clothes. On the air there was another cry - a painful wailing that split the wind. In the plains beyond there was a wood oven made of baked clay. It was smoking high and the wailing seemed to come from inside it. Inside there were three loaves of bread that were beyond baked. Their edges were starting to turn black. Next to them was a pile of tools, including a large, flat trowel for taking the bread out of the oven. It seemed strange that there was an oven in the middle of the field but Daichi would soon learn that there were many strange occurrences in the witch's realm.

 

'HEEEEEELP!' shrieked the bread in the oven. 'PLEASE! SAVE US!'

 

OOC: Sorry it's so small. I can't think of anything else to bulk it up other than fluff.

[brinary]

Mittens's congratulatory chirp was soon changed to a foreboding hiss as he scampered around Daichi for a moment. The young man himself glanced up at the sky with a frown and the rolled his eyes. Goddammit. So he fell into a magical realm that was being overlooked by some holier force. He hoped it wasn't a stint in any hell the Mothers had spoken about in the village. He would hate to admit they were right about not attending weekly mass. He muttered grimly to himself before kicking his foot up as Mittens ran up it, launching the ferret into the air and leaning back so it could dig its little claws into his head.

 

As the trees continued to groan, Daichi grimaced and opened his mouth to launch into some sort of complaint but was cut off by another burst of wailing. "Are you fucking kidding me." Although said to no one in particular, it sounded incredibly annoyed. "If you're going to do all of these things as some sort of survival test to see how long someone can take being aggravated until they die, I'd like to have known beforehand!" Daichi snapped at the air as he went towards the burning bread.

 

"Mits, meet me halfway when you feel the signal, alright?" Said ferret nodded once and obediently clambered down the other's body.

 

Once Daichi reached the plain, he was intent on disregarding the trowel entirely. Instead, he wrapped his hand with fabric notched in a tight spool from his waist. Then he got one of his blades and simply lifted them like that, one quick slide and careful to set them down near the tools.

 

He repeated the process swiftly and closed the oven door, peeling off his outer coat to bundle the bread up with a frown and walk back. Mittens was in the process of kicking fruits off the trees. "Hello, whomever, if we cut this wheat up and take a pestel to your fruits, will you be mad at our sweet bread!? Throw something else inane into the ring!?"

 

Mittens looked at his friend as if saying 'are you really trying to make the situation worse' to which Daichi stared back, saying, "I have a right to feel a little agitated, don't you think."