My Enchanting System

When the next morning came, Cain was feeling a bit sore. For some reason, Gracie and Alice together were enough to drain more than he could handle. He guess the reason was that they can switch and rest while he had to be active all the time.

Zaleria had said they are going to her hut today, he remembers that place well. It’s called Hut since all witches call their home/base like that. But that place was more than that, it was the lair of a red dragon after all.

Now that Cain know that Zaleria was a red dragon, he could guess what was hidden in the locked cave and the steel basement. The outside is just a shell while the real lair should be underground.

As everyone woke up and got ready, they hopped back onto Zaleria’s back. After about an hour of flight, she landed and started running. She then suddenly stooped in the middle of nowhere.

“We need it, it’s designed so no large creature can enter,” Zaleria said as she urged them to get down from her back.

After transforming to her human form, Zaleria walked toward a tree and smelled it. “We walk east.” She said, immediately walking in that direction. Selena tried to sniff the tree but she smelled nothing, it must be something so faint that only a dragon can smell it.

The more they walked, the more humid the air got to the point it was hard to breathe. After similar direction changes and an hour of walking, Zaleria finally stopped.

“We reached it, can you guess where it is?” Zaleria glared at them, especially Cain she gave him a smug look. As if it was a change._.

“We’ve been moving in circles since you landed, the hut was always close to us but we had to trace the magic strands to tie it to this place. Otherwise, it will teleport away the moment we try entering.” Cain flicked his fingers and the entire terrain around them changed.

Trees disappeared and the ground flattened, a massive grove was revealed. A house was built inside the massive tree with what looked like a mine entrance to the side. A large garden of medical and poisonous herbs, a fish pool that has frogs instead.

“Wait how you could open it!” Zaleria gasped as she was taken aback. She never taught the key to anyone let alone allowed them to open it. Even if he managed to learn the magic formula and crack the key, the grove should recognize him as not being her and reject him.

“It’s simple, I used you as the key,” Cain replied as he walked in like he own the place. In truth, since Morena managed to invade the place it meant there is a way around the lock.

The mechanism was similar to a physical key opening a door. But that door only opens if the key was made of gold as well as being the right one. Simply the hut (Grove) scans the key to see if it was made from Zaleria’s magic or not.

What Cain did is cut some of Zaleria’s magic and cover the key he created with it, that way the hut recognized him as her. It was like gold washing a copper key so the door can accept it. A fake key, made with the same concept of fake currency.

As Zaleria and Cain kept arguing, everyone went to explore the hut. When they walked past the herb garden, Chad could notice that all the herbs were mixed up. Distinguishing between them required a great alchemical experience. Chad could only tell five or six herbs from the whole garden.

As Sofia walked close to the tree house, she could feel a whiff of Zaleria’s magic in it, “Grandma, won’t we die if we walked in?” She called them.

“Ah! Don’t get in yet!” She rushed toward them. Cain just stared at her, he never knew the trap existed, probably since she already made him an exception when taking him in so he knew saw it in action. Now that he thought about it, when Morena attacked, the whole place was on fire, which probably was the trap.

Zaleria opened the door and clapped her hands, they all could feel a weak magic pulse. “I deactivated all the traps, feel free to wander around.” Zaleria smiled as she turned around to head to the kitchen. “Want to drink some special tea?”

“That will be our pleasure,” Alice replied to her.

“I will help you make it,” Cain walked with her to the kitchen.

Zaleria grabbed a small pot, washed it, and then filled it with water. A single flick from her fingers and the water started boiling.

“Here is the tea and the cups, we lack two so I used the extra stored in the locker,” Cain said with a smile.

Zaleria immediately stopped and stared at him, “How in the nine hells did you know where to find the tea? And you even got the right one! On top of that the locker was locked, how did you open it?”

Cain froze in place, he messed up. Acting on instinct was the wrong move. He knew all of that since he lived here before. He was stuck without a valid explanation.

As much as he racked his brains for an excuse, nothing will get through Zaleria’s thick skull.

“I found the tea by chance and the magic lock isn’t something that can stop me,” Cain replied hoping this will convince her.

She glared at him for a moment, “It’s fine if you don’t want to say, I doubt I will like the answer if I heard it.” Zaleria replied as she resumed her work. Cain knew he was caught, she now knows that he has prior knowledge about the place.

After resting a bit and drinking tea, they all went to explore the place while Zaleria went to take a short shower. By a short shower, it meant a different thing.

She went into the locked basement where Cain had never been, as he tried to follow her she glared back at him. “I’m going to take a shower.”

“And I’m coming with you, is that a problem?” Cain replied with a straight face, he was just interested to see what was inside.

“You will die, this place isn’t made for people other than me.” Zaleria gave him a serious stare and Cain just smiled.

“What could be? A volcano?” He said as a joke.

Zaleria glared to the side with worried eyes, “So you knew this as well, I might a failure of a witch.”

Cain choked on air, there was a real volcano down there?

“The hell, is that true? I was just joking!” He gasped.

Zaleria giggled with dead eyes, “No need to try and comfort me, I better bow down and ask you to teach me how to hide my things.”

“I was just joking!” Cain yelled as he saw her almost turning into a walking corpse.

“What is happening?” Sofia walked toward them with a curious gaze.

“Sofia, what do I say? He is a better witch than me.” Zaleria said. She had already given up.

“I’m telling you I’m not, let’s see how this shower of yours looks!” Cain started dragging Zaleria toward the steel basement door.

“Shower?” Sofia asked with a puzzled face.

“She wanted to take a shower and I want to see how it looks, she says there is a volcano down there,” Cain replied and Sofia quickly rushed toward them, she also wants to see what does it look from the inside.

The moment they opened the door, they saw a short staircase with a second faint blue door.

“Close the door and protect yourselves, it’s going to be hot enough to melt steel,” Zaleria warned them with a serious face.