Intro(Part 2): The Witch and The Oracle

Arielle was saved by the girl from the beach. She then meets the Oracle of Misc. City, Alicia, who helps her "get rid of" her curse... but can that really be done?

    Arielle opened her eyes, hoping all that had happened was and had been a dream. However, she looked around to see a room filled to the brim with books; books were on shelves, on the floor, and even on the bed.
   
    Arielle herself was on the bed. She sat up and realized she had only her bikini on. Not that she cared for she was a mermaid.
   
    There was a sudden boom from downstairs; it scared the mermaid so much that it sent Arielle tumbling off the bed and into a pile of books across the room.
   
    Footsteps entered the room from below. The girl from the beach had came in from downstairs.
   
    “Who are you?” Arielle asked, her throat a little sore from when she was trying to get away from the Shark girl.
   
    “M-me?” the girl asked nervously, “I’m Sabrina. Sabrina Silverwand.”
   
    “Alright, Sabrina. Tell me, where am I?” Arielle tried to stand, but failed miserably.
   
    Sabrina helped her up, “You are in my room, but the house belongs to my mentor, Alicia Oracle…”
   
    Arielle stood up, without Sabrina to hold onto, and walked a bit around the room. Walking was harder than she originally though, but Arielle couldn’t be deterred.
   
    “Good! You can walk!” Sabrina exclaimed happily, “Now you can meet Alicia!”
   
    Arielle stared at the girl, “Who exactly is she?”
   
    “She’s the oracle of Miscellaneous City!” Sabrina began, “She is pretty much a fortune teller, but she also is a powerful witch. That’s one of the reasons why I’m under her care. My father was a famous Evil Unicorn Bounty Hunter, Armaldo Silverwand. He disappeared over three years ago when he went after the Mafia Unicorns that were just sighted over the hills in Werewolf Country. Ever since then, I’ve been here. The only thing I have to remember him by is this silver unicorn horn be gave me from the unicorn that took my mother away… Oh my! I’m ranting again! Come this way!”
   
    Arielle gave a small nervous laugh at the girl’s antics. She hesitantly followed her down the stairs and into a living room. The living room had shelves upon shelves of containers; containers with incenses, colored stones, and powders.
   
    There was a large white mat on the ground with different rocks placed various places. Another strange girl was chanting in a foreign tongue while dancing around.
   
    “That’s her?” Arielle whispered to Sabrina.
   
    “Yup!” Sabrina whispered back.
   
    Arielle took in the sight of the oracle. She was very tall with sun-kissed skin, brown hair tight in a bun, and bright eyes. She wore a short sleeved white tunic, a small cape with a hood on her back, a black belt around the waist, purple leggings, no shoes, and thick goggles on her eyes..
   
    “Miss Alicia?” Sabrina called to her mentor.
   
    Alicia stopped and put her goggles back onto her head, “Ah, the princess has finally awaken. Took your sweet time, eh?”
   
    Arielle was taken aback by the ‘princess’ comment, “For your information, I am a queen.”
   
    Alicia laughed and in a flash she was in front of Arielle, grabbing her chin with her hand, “Don’t get snooty with me. I’ve seen what happened and decided to help you. Or maybe I should of let you starve to death on the black sand, hm, Ex-queen of the Mermaids, Arielle McFinn?”
   
    Arielle gasped and looked away, “I’m no longer a McFinn…”
   
    “That’s right.” Alicia let her face go, “Now, an apology.”
   
    Arielle reluctantly let out a ‘sorry’ before turning red with embarrassment.
   
    “Good girl.” Alicia looked at Arielle’s state of undress, “Let’s get you some clothes before I start to vomit at your nakedness.”
   
    Alicia picked up the stones on the mat and put them in a pouch on her belt. She motioned the girls to follow her as she walked out of the room. Sabrina giggled and followed the oracle while Arielle growled under her breath. Alicia unlocked a door that led to the outside. There was a bridge that led to nothing. Arielle and Sabrina looked at each other and then back to Alicia. Alicia smiled as she walked to the edge of the bridge and put a key forward. The key stuck into something and Alicia turned it; a lock was heard unlocking itself. Alicia opened the door and walked into a house. The two girls walked across the bridge and entered inside the house. The house was invisible from the outside, but the inside seemed to be made of pure glass, except for the wall opposite from the door. That particular wall was one huge mirror.
   
    Arielle looked at the amazing room; she glanced at Sabrina who had her wand in a tight grip as she looked around the room in amazement.
   
    “What is this place?” she asked Sabrina.
   
    “Alicia’s room…” Sabrina trailed off a bit, “This is the first time I’ve actually seen it… She never let me come in… until now.”
   
    Alicia stopped in front of the mirror, “Sabrina. Give Arielle a new outfit.”
   
    Sabrina nodded, “Is there anything you would like specifically? Such as colors?”
   
    “I like black and purple.” Arielle stared into the mirror.
   
    “Alright!” Sabrina aimed her wand at Arielle. A light shot out of the tip and enveloped the ex-queen.
   
    The light from her faded and Arielle was left with her usual bikini and purple bow in her hair, an unzipped black leather jacket, short and rippled black skirt, a purple belt with the letter ‘A’ in diamonds as the buckle, black knee-high Converse shoes with purple laces, and black hoop earrings.
   
    “Whoa.” Arielle twirled around, “I look freaking awesome!”
   
    “Glad you like it.” Sabrina smiled.
   
    Alicia smirked, “Well now that you aren’t threatening my stomach with your nudity, let’s move this party back to the living room.”
   
    Sabrina giggled and followed Alicia out and into the living room while Arielle seethed quietly behind.
   
    Alicia’s eye suddenly caught the cat mark on Arielle’s stomach, “What a particularly nasty curse you have there, Finn.”
   
    “Huh?” Arielle looked at her stomach, “Oh… Yeah, it is…”
   
    “I see. Don’t wanna talk about it?” Alicia understood, “Would you like me to get rid of it?”
   
    Arielle’s eyes widened, “Y-you… you can do that?!”
   
    “Of course I can!” Alicia said proudly, “Now, lay down on the mat please.”
   
    Arielle did as she was instructed, while Alicia put various rocks and herbs around her.
   
    “Sabrina.” Alicia called to the witch, “You do it.”
   
    “M-me?!” Sabrina was generally surprised, but she nodded and took a place next to the mat. “This might hurt… quite a bit.” Sabrina murmured the last part.
   
    Before Arielle could say anything, Alicia began to dance and chant with her goggles over her eyes.
   
    Sabrina took aim at the cat and a blue bolt came from the wand and connected with Arielle.
   
    Arielle screamed out in pain as the mark began to pull off slowly. Around her, the house began to shake and darkened to pitch black; the only light was the blue bolts from Sabrina’s wand. Suddenly, the mark peeled all the way off and formed into a black mass that flew out the window. The room went back to normal and Arielle’s pain stopped. The mark had vanished.
   
    “It’s gone?” Arielle jumped up in cheer, “It’s gone!! Yay!”
   
    Alicia stared at Arielle before laughing, “I wouldn’t be so happy if I were you.”
   
    “Why?” Arielle asked.
   
    “The mark may be gone, but the curse remains.” Alicia smirked.
   
    “WHAT?!” Arielle seethed, “But you said-”
   
    “When I said ‘Get rid of it’, I meant just the mark.” Alicia laughed again, “How stupid are you? You can’t rid of a curse so easily, and not one of this caliber.”
   
    Arielle sobbed quietly in the corner, “Just fill me with false hopes…”
   
    “Don’t worry, Arielle!” Sabrina crouched down and rubbed the Ex-queen’s back soothingly, “The best thing to do is to live through the curse.”
   
    “She’s right.” Alicia entered in, “A curse like yours can only be lifted if you just live through it.”
   
    Alicia walked over to her many shelves and searched through each of them. She finally selected a nice, thick volume. She blew the dust off of it and then quickly leafed through the pages. Walking over towards Arielle and Sabrina, she set the book down and pointed to a page. The front of the page had the mark of the black cat that looked identical to Arielle’s previous mark. The title was “The Luck Curse”.
   
    “Read it.” Alicia instructed as she walked off to clean the mat.
   
    Arielle began reading:
       
        “The Luck Curse was created by a woman who was cheated by her lover. She had cursed his other woman with the curse in hopes of her Luck being terrible and her dying off. However, the curse backfired as the other woman’s Luck was stupendous. The woman had tried to cast a different curse on the other to cancel out her good Luck, but the woman’s curse ricocheted off the other and hit the user instead. The woman had cast the same spell on herself. Instead of living through the curse, the woman tried everything she could to get rid of it. The curse had eventually killed her because of her bad Luck attempts to rid herself of it.
       
        The Luck Curse is very powerful as it can drastically change the Fate of the victim. The curse itself takes half the life force of the user for it puts a part of the soul into the curse, making the curse often have a mind of its user or of its own in some circumstances--”
   
    “I should add something.” Alicia interrupted, “The curse is usually only cast by those who are controlled by anger because most do not want to lose half their lives for just one curse.”
   
    “But why would Shelby…” Arielle trailed off.
   
    “She must have been rather angry at you, yes?” Alicia pointed back at the book, “Continue.”
   
    Arielle continued where she left off:
       
        “In order to get rid of The Luck Curse you must simply live through it. There are numerous accounts of people dying from the curse because of how they tried to rid themselves of it. The only way you(might) survive is to go about your life with the curse. Eventually, the curse will leave your system, much like a bad sickness.”
   
    “Alright, enough reading.” Alicia snatched the book away, “That is pretty much all you need to know anyway.”
   
    Arielle got up, “Who wrote that book anyway?”
   
    “I did.” Alicia laughed.
  
    Arielle puffed her cheeks out in frustration. She began to think, ‘This curse will never go away… I’m going to be stuck in Misc. Country forever! What if I can’t ever go back to Atlantis?’
   
    “Arielle.” Alicia took the mermaid out of her trance, “May I suggest something?”
   
    Arielle raised a brow, “Um, I guess…”
   
    “Go to Misc. City.” Alicia began, “Meet with Mayor Caroline Cadaver and get yourself in a position to help her whenever and wherever. This Shelby girl probably cast the curse on you to show you what it felt like to be a commoner. So some hard work might make the curse go away sooner.”
   
    “That’s…” Arielle gaped, “That’s actually a great idea! But how will I get to the city?”
   
    Alicia opened the door and motioned her outside. Arielle followed the order, however, she was surprised when the door slammed close behind her.
   
    “H-hey!” Arielle frantically knocked on the door, “What are you--”
   
    “Get to the city yourself, Ex-queen.” Alicia said, “This will be good for you and your curse. Now get off my porch.”
   
    Arielle huffed and went to walk off the porch, but she stopped short when she realized that the house was perched in a tree; it had been a tree house the whole time. Arielle looked down and saw a rope ladder hanging off the porch. Using that, Arielle got down and onto the floor of the woods.
   
    “How the hell am I going to get there?” Arielle sighed.
   
    “Arielle.” a harsh whisper was heard from above.
   
    Arielle looked up and out of the attic window was Sabrina. She was the harsh whisper that Arielle heard.
   
    “Here.” Sabrina threw a rolled up paper down to Arielle, who caught it with ease, “It’s a map. You can get to Misc. City if you go North from here.”
   
    “Thanks, Sabrina!” Arielle whispered back before walking North, the map open.
   
    Sabrina smiled as she retreated back into her attic room.
   
    Arielle looked at the easy-to-read map and smiled, “Alicia is pretty mean and condescending, but Sabrina seems like a nice girl. It was sure nice of her to give me a map. Now let’s see where Misc. City is…”
   
    Arielle was so engrossed in the map that she failed to see the dark mass that was following her in the trees.

   
(End Of Part 2)

Author's Note

I never meant for Alicia to be such a mean person, but since most of these characters aren't made up, I gave them their actual personalities. So Alicia is pretty much like that in real life. Tell me what you think. ^^

Reviews

[Emunah June.]

This could so easily be made into an anime. Like for real.

I love how the people's name correspond with their occupations and what not. Sabrina Silverwand...Arielle McFinn...its just so cool!

GRR! Alicia is mean D:< Getting her hopes up like that...it's so cruel! D: