Chapter 53: 53: Competent Enchanter

Danika whispered to Shrubbery, "How is it that you can understand animals anyway? Does it apply to all animals?"

Shrubbery murmured, "All full blooded animals, it's a gift from my tree."

Danika thought that dryads must be a pretty interesting race, but told Shrubbery, "When he asks what I want, tell him I want to learn the Shape cantrip."

The enchanter obligingly asked, "What does the cat want then?"

Shrubbery asked, "Are you sure Dawnstar, um, I mean ZipZing? Sorry. But didn't you want him to look at the curse or enchantment you're under?"

Danika's cat eyes gleamed as she replied, "I want that too, but I might as well ask for the cantrip as the bribe for dealing with the mice. The evaluation should be available as an ordinary business request from an enchanter, no?"

Shrubbery reported to the enchanter, "She says she wants to learn 'the Shape cantrip' to deal with your mice, and that examining the curse or enchantment is ordinary business?"

"Oh? She knows about those horrible mice already?" Inchy Antyr asked. He eyed ZipZing suspiciously, as though she'd been the one who brought them down upon him.

Danika said complacently, "The traveling merchant told me."

Shrubbery repeated the information for the enchanter, who gazed at ZipZing and asked, "How did you trigger the spell?"

Shrubbery explained as soon as Danika opened her mouth, "She ate an apple she got from a wizard."

"Hmm, hmm," Inchy Antyr muttered, "did you at least save one of the seeds?"

Danika tapped her paw against her storage ring and removed the rest of the yellow apple from her pouch. Shrubbery bent and picked it up, and then handed it to the enchanter, who said, "If you two work on getting rid of those awful white mice while I examine this, then I can give you a ring that will let you cast the shape cantrip a hundred times, but I can't teach it to you as you're not on a magical path. It will be 300 coin for the evaluation."

"Fair enough," Danika agreed.

Shrubbery held up her thumb and said, "agreed."

The two girls looked at each other doubtfully when the enchanter opened a trapdoor in the floor behind his work bench, and indicated that they should use the small ladder to descend into the darkness.

After a moment Danika cast her featherweight spell on herself and jumped down first without touching the ladder, landing lightly on her feet with appropriately cat-like grace. It wasn't as dark and scary looking from the floor of the large crowded basement. She looked up and called out to Shrubbery, "It's ok! It's just a normal storage area."

Shrubbery climbed down the ladder, and as soon as she reached the bottom the enchanter shut the trap door. Her hair seemed to wilt a little and she said nervously, "I can't see anything, it's too dark."

Danika gazed around the dim, but not dark room with a puzzled frown, and then remembered her night vision. She checked her skills and saw that it was active. She told Shrubbery, "My light cantrip only lasts for six seconds, but let me try my dazzle."

Danika activated her dazzle and Shrubbery said, "Oh, it's like you just became very shiny, I still can't see anything else, but I can see light reflecting off of you."

"Um," Danika looked around to see if there were any candles or lanterns. She spotted a small lamp hanging next to the ladder, far too high for her to reach. She could see the wick, but it was behind glass. She tried casting her light and seeing if it could pass through the glass. The light could, but when she attached her spark to it, it couldn't.

Shrubbery asked, "Do you want me to get it down for you? I can see it fine while your spell lasts."

Danika felt like an idiot. "Yes please, and open its door?" she asked. She cast her cantrip again and Shrubbery gently lifted the lamp down and flicked open its cover. "Thanks," Danika mumbled as she used her spark to light the lamp.

"Haha," Shrubbery laughed, "I'm the one who needs it, thanks for finding it and lighting it." She held up the lamp and both girls surveyed the jumble of crates, casks and shelves stuffed with materials of all kinds.

"I don't suppose the mice are just going to walk out and agree to cooperate," Danika said with a sigh.

Shrubbery giggled. "What would we do if they did come out and offer to cooperate? I can understand animals, but I can't speak to them."

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"Oh," Danika replied.

"Cooperate with what?" someone else asked suspiciously. "Hopping into your cat's belly?"

"Ew! I am not going to eat a mouse!" Danika declared.

Shrubbery laughed.

"Well?" demanded the voice.

Shrubbery repeated, "She refuses to eat any mice. She's not really a cat, she's under a spell."

Several hundred small eyes reflected the little lamp's light as little white mice crept out from every dark nook and corner. Danika shuddered. No wonder the enchanter thought that they were horrible. Shrubbery's toes bumped against ZipZing's haunches as she crowded closer.

Danika straightened her spine, and asked Shrubbery, "Please ask them what they want and why they're suddenly bothering the enchanter."

Shrubbery squeaked, and coughed, and then asked a bit shrilly, "Why are you suddenly bothering the enchanter? What do you want?"

A fatter mouse stepped forward and revealed itself as the previous speaker. "We want to make an enchanted stone that will produce endless cheese."

Danika blinked and said, "Ooh, that would be awesome. Did the enchanter refuse to make them one?"

Shrubbery relayed the question nervously, and the mouse declared, "Hmph, who needs the help of a second rate enchanter like that? We just needed enough supplies for our own team of enchanters to work with!"

"Oh, so you're just thieves," Danika replied sourly.

"I'd rather not repeat that," Shrubbery replied nervously.

A moment later the trap door opened and Inchy Antyr called down, "I can't find anything except the usual healthy Apple enchantment on this apple." He held it out toward them. "Are you sure it was what turned you into a…" his voice trailed off as he actually looked into the basement and saw the hundreds of white mice surrounding the cat and the dryad. The enchanter squeaked, dropped the apple, and slammed the trap door shut. Heavy scraping noises followed shortly.

Shrubbery emitted a nervous tittering laugh.

Danika grumbled, "Yes I am sure." She patted Shrubbery's toes with her paw and said comfortingly, "It's ok. There are obviously other entrances to this place."

"Oh, what makes you so sure of that?" asked a smaller white mouse curiously.

Danika narrowed her eyes at the mouse. "You're here," she replied dryly. "I suppose for a mouse learning to understand cats would be very useful."

The fatter mouse who'd been speaking before said sharply, "Thomas, you idiot."

The voices of a hundred mice erupted as they argued the pros and cons of Thomas revealing that he could understand the cat, explained the situation to each other and offered opinions on the next course of action.

Another mouse was ignoring the tumult and examining the apple the enchanter had dropped. He adjusted his tiny spectacles and pulled various items out of the nearly invisible white pouch he wore. Danika watched the mouse with interest.

Shrubbery complained quietly, "But we won't fit into a mouse hole."

Many of the mice paused their discussions and laughed and pointed at the dryad. Danika didn't reply to Shrubbery, she stood and walked over to the mouse who seemed to have finished examining the apple. A number of the mice shouted warnings, but the tiny enchanter looked up at her calmly.

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