-Scene opens in the kitchen of a small stone cottage. There is a squat woman dressed in a patchwork dress woman pacing around a crammed, but very organized room. Grabbing small bottles with mysterious shimmering fluids and and bunches of strange- smelling herbs as she goes, she combines, strains and flings them into the bubbling, iron cauldron squatting on the pale floor stones, seeming to bubble and roil of its own account.
Woman 1: “Let’s see, let’s see. What else can I add to my brew… Ahhh! Dragon’s scale!”
-Now looking over the caldron.
1: “A pinch of this and dash of that!” She flings open a cabinet and pushes a few glass jars around.
-The caldron begins to boil over
1: “Oh my! This is turning out perfect!”
-She goes back to the cabinets. She begins to slam cabinets and draws as she searches for something.
1: “Ughhh, you can never find the skunks breathe when you need it.”
-As woman 1 continues to look through the cabinets we see a second woman slink into the room. She's dressed in a gray dress that looks more like a burlap sacks and her matted hair sticks up in patches like twigs in a crows nest. She looks into the caldron, examining the mix that is brewing. She reaches into her pocket and pulls something out. She notices the other woman isn’t looking and tosses it in. A small shriek comes from the caldron. Woman 1 quickly turns her head around to look.
1: “Oh would you knock it off!”
She shoos the other woman away from the caldron.
Woman 2 shuffles across the floor and scrapes a chair away from the small table and plops herself down with a smug grin.
1: “Just because you don’t agree with this doesn’t mean you have to foil my plan. What was it that you threw in there anyway?!”
Woman 2: “Oi notin much, Jussa a couple toads!” she responds in a croaky voice ravaged by time.
1: “You wretch! You know that’s going to ruin my potion!! By the elves and the spirits and the woods themselves if I have to drag my weary bones through that blasted mountain craig you think again you wretched old crone! The blasted gods themselves cursed me to spend this eternity of years dealing with your impish antics”
-Woman one quickly runs to a cabinet and grabs a small bottle.
1: “The last drop of black rose oil!”
-She throws it in the pot. The caldron lets off a small bubble of smoke and a soft “ahhh” noise. She raps on it smartly with her wooden stirring spoon and gives off a satisfied “tut”.
1: “That should do it” she grumbles.
2: “Woi you ‘elpin that crotchety ole man any woo? Is a blight on this land he is alright!”
1: “So I can get the hell out of this dump and move to the village. You know, I bet if this works the king would refer all his noblemen to me. I can see it now! I could open up my own shop, have all my potions and ointments on display for the customers to browse! Wouldn’t it be lovely?”
Woman 1 rearranges her bottles lovingly and takes down a few dried bunches of herbs to store in one of the bottom cabinets.
2: “Why would ye wanna to move ti the village? The idea of living amongst the muggles gives me the heebie-jeebies.”
1: “The idea of living with any one gives you the heebie-jeebies, (insert name).”
2: “And this place! Is not a dump! It’s….”
1: “A dump.”
2: “Quaint!”
1: “Well, that’s one way to describe it, I guess.”
2: “And wot is it that ye find so repulsive aboot it? Its a solid roof ova our heads and protection frem the wolves outside! The river is around the bend and you culd hav’ any pickin’s of yer precious ‘erbs in half a days ride!”
1: “The walls are thin and the roof leaks! I can hear those blasted wolves howling all through the damned night for my skinny old bones! And so they should have me! After they’re done gnawing what’s left of me I won’t have to hear your nagging all day!”
2: “Ye don't mean that!”
A silence
1 sighs, “Neh I didn't. I just want to see what else is out there! Blasted how old am i i've seent his half of the empire rise and fall. I call myself a witch and watve I to show of it?1 Some prickled old plants and a half masted shadow crow! He will never lift from the ground! But the king, he has equipment, powerful lenses! It could take my projects further, for once before I die, I can see if I was made of anything worth a lick of Gengunamerah’s gift!
Another silence. Longer this time.
2: “I heard one of his own guards poisoned him and that’s why he’s sick to begin with. You know the villagers will hate you if he survives this illness.”
1: “I see it as a win/win for me. If this potion saves him I’ll have so much money I won’t care what the villagers have to say! Besides, the walls are sick and there's plenty more guard. The watch will be doubled. And soon enough everyone will forget the old crow working in the crows nest with her glasses and trinkets! And if it doesn’t work the villagers might just make me a saint!”
2: “Oh, how I miss the days when us witches were once so feared. When we made the demands! Not these damn kings!”
1: “Yes, as do I but seeing as you are the only other witch still around, we don’t have the same force we once did. It’s just easier to appease those in power.”
2: “Oh you were always the people pleaser! Throw a little bull’s horn in there. Kill the damn man. Then you’ll really be a people pleaser.”
1: “And risk losing my head.”
2: “A sacrifice I’m willing to make!”
1: “Eeep! My potion is complete! Get me an amber bottle!”
-Witch 2 opens a cabinet. She shuffles around some bottles. We hear the bottles clinking together. She closes the cabinet. She walks across the floor and slams a glass bottle on the table by the caldron.
1: “A bit aggressive, don’t ya think?”
2: “Well this is all bit much. Don’t ya think?”
1”No I don't! As much as you like to think otherwise I am doing this for the both of us! With the funds I can make from this we can turn this “quaint” cottage into something actually livable! Finally patch the roof up on the shed so the goats don't get soaked everytime it rains! Get a smith in here to fix that blasted door so the wind doesn't howl every winter!”
2: “Its not that bad!” she grumbles
1: ”Well then when you backside is frozen to a chair i'll send YOU out to tend the animals!”
2: “And I'll do it ye old witch! I just don't want ye leavin me who knows if yell come back for this bag of bones? Whot if you like it there so much you never come back for poor old me and this place you hate so much. I don't wanna lose ye. I don't know nothin else.”
1: “You old fool i'll be gone for half the spring and when it's over either way I've got to come back here anyhoo haven't I? Who's going to help you stock the cellar you batty bird! Your always worrying!”
-Witch 1 grabs a ladle and begins to pour a thick, mucus like liquid into the bottle. She stumbles a little bit and some liquid drops onto the table with a small tsss and smoke rises in the shape of a strange flower.
1: “A nice concoction if I don’t say so myself!”
2: “You did always know your way around the caldron.”
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