Retrieving the Golden Wand Part 19

“What’s that?” Chris said suddenly waking up from out of her deep crystal ball gazing.

“Yaga has agreed to help us.” I said cheerfully she’s going to take us to The Curds of Wrath so that we can destroy that cheese once and for all.

“Oh!” Chris said. “That’s great! I guess I missed out on more than I thought.”

“What did you see in the crystal ball?” I asked curiously.

“I can’t remember,” Chris said sadly gazing off into space. “You just made me forget with that exciting news…”

I rolled my eyes. “Alright then,” I said turning back to Yaga. “How do we start, and when do we get out of this forest.”

“We can begin as soon as I have my most powerful golden wand,” Yaga said grimly.

“Let me guess,” I said. “Mr. Thumb has your most powerful wand?”

“Yes,” she replied blatantly.

Of course, I thought. It just so happens that the one time when Mr. Thumb can actually be useful to us we ‘vanish’ him to some unknown location on the globe.

“We don’t know where he is.” I said sadly.

“Well then we best get looking for him then.” Yaga said. She walked over to a small closet and pulled out a small leather backpack. “This has everything that we are likely to need on our journey,” she said. “And I suppose that I can finish your training on the way. I might be a magic user but I do know a thing or two about talents. More than that idiot Mr. thumb at least.”

“How did you learn so many things?” I asked her.

“Well, over the millennia you pick up on some things,” She said. “Talents are a particular fascination for me, because they are so rare and most of them are new originating somewhere around the 1990’s. I have an obsession, you see, for things that I don’t know nearly enough about.”

The sun had already risen, we hadn’t slept at all that night but for some reason we didn’t feel at all tired. It must have been that strange blue rose petal tea, I thought. I also felt more optimistic about life in general. I didn’t know what was going to happen to us on our journey but it just felt as if we were now on the right track.

We stepped out of the doorway and into the sunlight and began to walk toward the trees. But as we did, I noticed a figure leaning against a tree stub filing his already perfect gleaming nails.

“It’s about time you egressed from your shanty,” Sir Champagne said in his lilting voice.

To Be Continued…