Witch Zanthia's Little Shop Of Horrors

Zanthia watched the felines depart with a smile. Moments later, the witch found herself completely alone among that crowd of strangers.

She joined the ranks leading to the main stage. Very soon she found herself before one of the chefs who handed her a ceramic cup with fruit wine and a small plate with the food prepared by him. It consisted of two portions of bread wrappings containing meat and vegetable dices covered with sweet sauce.

The witch tasted a couple of bites. Delicious. The flavor and aroma almost transported her to another world. The skill of this chef managed to unleash her emotions and made her recall her memories. She continued eating the magical food. At the same time her mind started to wander and she reminisced with teary eyes.

Zanthia imagined herself back at school, right after finishing the cooking class. She and a classmate named Maddalena often stayed to clean up after everyone left. Maddie was nice, cute and knew how to cook really well but more importantly, she was a good person.

Zanthia considered this classmate the best friend she had at school. But that night, she had discovered that Maddalena considered her more than a friend.

That was the first time she discovered love in another woman's arms. It did not last long, since a few months later with the advent of the New Year her friend was transferred to another school by her family.

Nevertheless, the fond memory of that passionate night, where they lay together wrapped in flour and rich sauces, it became an indelible part of Zanthia's heart.

Now, Maddie was residing in Thalia, in the far north of the continent, and was married to a prestigious archmage there. They had two beautiful children.

However, Maddalena and she were still friends and messages were sent to each other quite often, usually by telegram owl and rat mail. But since Zanthia moved with the shop of horrors to Evergreen, she had lost contact with her friend. The young owner did not want to give her family any chance to find her.

Suddenly, the eyes of a languid witch, who was lost in her reveries and enjoying a beautiful fantasy, changed abruptly. Zanthia focused her sky-blue pupils deep in the distance, while looking with a solemn expression on her face.

Five figures in different places of the square emitted a powerful but hidden aura. A sense of invisible pressure for normal people but extremely notorious for other experts.

A message of unknown origin came to his mind. A challenge.

"In this Square. In three days. Midnight. Do not be late. Or we'll go find you. "

Zanthia closed her eyes.

[SYSTEM: Sudden Mission. Accept the challenge of the mysterious strangers. Find out who they are and what they want. Defend the honor of the Association of Horrors and prove that the owner of a shop of horrors is not an easy prey. Level of difficulty: Unknown. Reward: appropriate at the mission level.]

Zanthia opened her eyes again. The figures were gone. Their aura had completely disappeared. It seems that they had come only to give her that message and then took advantage of the crowd in the square to get lost among the public.

But who could be interested in her?

The witch was hundreds of thousands of miles from home. No one in her family knew that Zanthia was now residing in Evergreen, not even her mother or her younger sister. The young witch had not told any friend what she had planned to do, nor had the shop owner once sent a message since she moved the store to the Scarlet Empire Capital.

Suddenly, Zanthia felt a sudden headache, as if a spider were probing her brain. Deep pain. Sadness. A sense of loss so immense that her eyes filled with tears. Worst of all, she could not remember what she had lost.

The witch tried to focus her thoughts but the pain was too great. It felt as if someone held a voodoo doll of her and was entertaining himself by stacking mounds of pins in her head.

What was it that she had forgotten?

The sight of the witch went out of focus. Zanthia felt the world move. She lost her balance and collapsed almost losing consciousness. Strong male arms held her just in time to keep her from falling to the floor.

The witch blinked dazed, trying to recover. She spent a few moments before catching her breath and being able to focus their eyes again. In front of her was a gentle face, with gold-blond hair that looked at her with green eyes as bright as emeralds.

"H-Henry…"

"Owner Zanthia, are you well?" asked the worried young nobleman.

Their faces were close. Very close. Too much close. Only a few centimeters separated his lips from her own. The heart of the witch, who had almost stopped before, now began to beat hastily, like the gallop of a runaway horse. Her circulation was restored immediately and the remains of the headache disappeared completely.

"Yes, thanks! It was only a momentary dizziness. Nothing to worry about, " said hastily Zanthia, her cheeks red and her breathing agitated.

Henry took a moment to withdraw his arms. For some reason he did not know, he felt an intense d.e.s.i.r.e to keep in touch with the body of the young woman. But his exquisite education soon prevailed.

First he withdrawn only one of his arms around her body and then, when he was sure that the witch could stand without risk of falling, he pulled away the other arm and released her completely.

For her part Zanthia made the greatest effort to maintain balance and stop holding on to the masculine arms of the noble blond. She was completely embarrassed. Have you ever seen a witch fade like that in front of a man?

Ridiculous!

"What is the young master of the Percy family doing in this place on a festive date like this?" asked the witch quickly, to hide her embarrassment, before continuing to aggressively questioning him, "Should not you be in the center circle with the rest of the nobility, feasting with the Emperor? "

"I'm not attracted to these pompous celebrations. I prefer to be here, next to the town. Also, my sister went there as the designated representative of the family. I did not really want to be with her. By the way, the Nightmares of Penance were extremely effective. Now my sister is much more careful with me. Thank you!"

"You are welcome. I'm glad you find them useful. Look, I did not imagine that you would like so much to be with the plebs, you know, because of those fancy clothes you like to wear and the delicate air that you have, Henry, "she teased him with a sly smile.

"Uh? Delicate air? What do you mean? "Henry asked, frowning, very confused but suspecting the meaning of the women's words.

The witch laughed. Men. They take everything as an attack on their masculinity. It was not bad to be delicate. Nor did she have anything against him being well dressed. She even liked it.

She was going to answer him playfully when, just at that moment, the witch felt someone pulling insistently at her dress. She turned to see what was happening. It was a kid. He seemed vaguely familiar.

"Go away boy, I'm busy"

She turned to talk to Henry again. But before she could say even a word she felt another pull. These time a more insistent one. Exasperated, she turned to scold the little one.

"What do you want, boy?" she said with an angry face, not friendly at all.

"Owner Zanthia, I want you to help my friend," the stubborn boy replied without flinching.

"Do I know you?"

"Yes, of course you know me. I'm Pedro. I was with my little brother and my mom in your shop the other day. Don´t you remember me?"

"Oh, yes, Pedro, of course. Tsk, tsk, I did not recognize you without your face smeared with candy."

The boy blushed and, gathering the tips of his index fingers repeatedly, gave a nervous giggle, before insisting with his request. Zanthia apologized to a still confused Henry and retreated along with the newcomer several feet away to speak quietly and privately.

"Alright, alright! Who is that friend of yours? And why does this kid need help? "

"Some bad men took her away. She is called Opal, "explained Pedro.

"Oh, that little girl. The murderer. "Zanthia said.

"She is not a murderer!" replied the boy, with his small fists clenched in anger.

"Seriously? Your mom told me that that girl killed a noble from the Clan Montes . They say she sold poisoned food to that guy. Everyone is talking about that today. "

"Then everyone is wrong. Opal is not a murderer! " exclaimed Pedro.

"And how do you know? Let's see, why are you so sure that she's not a murderer? Because you fancy the girl? Just cause you like her does not make her an innocent, you know? " The witch poked the boy´s c.h.e.s.t with her fingers to remark her words.

"No. Yes. No. Well, yes I like her. " recognized the boy, face completely flushed red, "But it has nothing to do with that. I know it for something else. "

"What other thing?"

"So that's what happened."

"And besides, there's no way that food was poisoned," Pedro insisted.

"Really? Why do you say so?

"Because what that noble took from her was not food that she had to sell. It was a gift of mine for her to eat and be happy. Do you realize now why I say those candies cannot have been poisoned?"

"Candy?" Zanthia widened her eyes, incredulous. Child, where did you get those candies? "

"From your shop, of course, Owner Zanthia, from where else can they be? I saved a few, that day that we went shopping with mom and my brother, to give them to her. You already know that the best and most delicious candies are the ones you made! " said the boy with a smile on his face, full of naive confidence.

The witch paled. Damn candy! What the hell had she done them for? If she knew they were going to put her in so much trouble, she would have made vegetables instead. Chard, maybe spinach. No child would eat that even if they were paid for doing it!

Either way, the witch promised herself that this was the last time the shop gave food as complimentary gifts. After all, dynamite was much safer. Nobody ever died of eating poisoned dynamite.

Zanthia, took the child by the hand and with the firm and determined voice that suited the owner of a shop of horrors told him:

"Let's go! We're going to rescue your friend!"