Magical Mishaps

With this image and story comes the introduction of Lady Regina and Saffron, a pair of witches who do their best to make a living for themselves in today's modern medieval fantasy world. Regina's a powerful and once respected witch whose seemingly aloof nature and eccentric behavior eventually made her something of an outcast amongst most magic using circles. Her apprentice is Saffron, a clumsy and bumbling young witch in training who sought out Regina as her mentor because she wouldn't settle for anyone less than there best, and in hopes she could learn the truth behind Regina's past. Really it's all just an excuse to have all kinds of magic influenced madness and inflation goodness, so I hope you all enjoy!

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Saffron couldn't help but feel a bit nervous as the High Witch Regina paced around her, slowly poking and pinching her bloated sides in silence save for the occasional "hmmm". With every lap around Saffron the taller woman would stop to write something in one of the books on the table behind them and start mixing liquids into a small beaker. Saffron wasn't sure whether it was the strange liquid that Regina was mixing, the faces she'd make every time she poked at her apprentice, or the fact that she had vastly swollen to the size of a giant pumpkin and still appeared to be growing that made her more nervous. Whatever it was, she was a total bundle of anxious nerves and the silence was going to drive her mad if she didn't say something soon!

"Do yo-"

"Shhhhhhhhh," Regina shushed, quieting Saffron by placing an index finger to the young witch's lips. She said nothing else, but lifted up Saffron's arm by the wrist and shook her head in disapproval when the normally loose fabric of her sleeve failed to slide down her considerably more plump arm.

Saffron thought about asking what that meant, but thought better of it when she realized this would only result in Regina shushing her again. She simply eyed the green liquid Regina held nervously again. In time, Regina released Saffron's wrist and went back to writing in one of her books again. This time however, she slammed the book shut with a heavy thud, an indication that she had finished whatever note taking she'd been up to. She set about the various beakers and bags of potion ingredients on her desk, and withdrew two small, round objects from a small bag which she then proceeded to drop into the beaker she'd been holding. The green liquid proceeded to bubble and fizz, white steam and foam beginning to escape from the bottles neck. Saffron couldn't help but feel a lump form in her throat at the thought of drinking whatever noxious concoction Regina had whipped up. The taller witch, satisfied that whatever she'd mixed together was finally complete, simply tossed her head back and chugged down the entire beaker's contents in one go. Setting the now empty beaker back down on the table, Regina turned to Saffron and, after emitting a slight hiccup, finally began to speak.

"Well dear Saffron, I have good news and I have bad news."

Saffron's pulse quickened. The one thing you never wanted to hear from a witch, even if she was your mentor, especially if she was your mentor, were the words "I have bad news". "Wh... what is it?" She asked meekly.

"Well, I suppose what I should have said was that I have good news, bad news, and then more good news, because the bad news isn't all bad news I suppose. Although it's all kind of interrelated and interconnected and overall it's kind of bad? But it's not anything too awful so maybe I should say it's not so good news..."

"Miss Regina, please!" Saffron interrupted. The anticipation was going to kill her if whatever was causing her to expand didn't. "Just tell me, am I going to be okay?"

"Of course," Regina replied, though she gave Saffron a disapproving look for interrupting her. "If you'd allow me to finish, the not so bad part of the bad news is that all this," she gave Saffron's expansive midsection a firm slap for emphasis, "will be easily fixable once the magic has finally run its course."

"What do you mean when the magic has run its course?" Saffron was relieved to hear that she'd be all right and be able to return to normal, but that last part still caused her some concern.

"I'm getting to that," Regina snapped. "I don't know what spell exactly you were shooting for when you were casting this magic, though based on the effect it had on my pumpkins outside in addition your physique, I'm going to assume it was a growth spell of some kind. If that were all we were dealing with I could have you back to normal in a snap. HOWEVER my dear Saffron, either through your own intentions or by sheer mistake it would appear you have altered the spell in some fashion I don't understand entirely right now. The effects on the pumpkins are practically indistinguishable from the normal growth spell but the effects on you are unmistakably different even to a novice witch! Add to that the rather gradual affect it's having on you and that means I cannot simply use a counter spell to cancel it out, and any normal spell I'd use to shrink you back down would be pointless since you will just start swelling up again until the spell runs out."

"So you mean I'm just going to keep getting bigger and bigger?" Saffron's heart sank as she gave her expansive body a slight squeeze.

"Only for the next few hours, you'll stop growing after that I'm certain," Regina replied. "Though we'll need to move you outside before you grow so large you start destroying the house from the inside!"

Saffron grimaced at the thought of being so huge. "So then," she asked at length, "what's the good news."

Regina wrapped an arm around her apprentice and drew her close. "The good news, my dear girl, is that those pumpkins you enchanted are going to sell for a fortune once the next festival rolls around!"

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Monday Madness!Hello boys and girls! First of all, shout outs and huge thanks to everyone who purchased the Summer Catalogue or got a commission this past weekend. Combined, they've earned just under $1000 in a single weekend, meaning that another illustrated story has almost been funded! You guys are seriously great, and as promised I'll be creating three one-shot images + stories to release this week to pitch as ideas for the first illustrated story. The first has already gone live and can be seen by clicking on the link below:

There will be two more images uploaded later this week, plus a vote on Friday for the favorite!
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