Part 5 In which Lilly knows something Marlot doesn’t

Players:

Marlot
A lonely witch who is learning that making friends doesn’t mean from scratch

Jinx
A lazy cat with nothing better to lay around and keep Marlot company

Lilly
A young woman who needs to learn to think before she speaks


Marlot sat at the kitchen table watching the bright green smoke dance across the surface of her potion. The tendrils spun and twirled in a merry dance and she had to keep an eye on Jinx to make sure he didn’t try to play with it.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

“Now who in the world.” She stood up and walked over to the door and pulled it open an inch. “What are you doing here?”

“Lunch,” Lilly said simply, holding out a picnic basket with the smells of fresh baked bread and herbs wafting out of it.

“Smells good, I guess you can come in.”

Lilly half skipped past Marlot and sat the basket on the table. She then pulled out a very large loaf of bread, a small cooked chicken, and an apple pie. “I used the apples you gave me the other day to make the pie,” she said, holding it out to Marlot so she could smell the cinnamon and baked apples.

“Why?”

“I like you, or at least you are nicer to me than most of the people back at the village.”

Marlot dug around in her drawers until she found the bread knife and some jam that she had been saving, but she wasn’t sure for what. “They must be really mean if you think I’m nice.”

“Well, actually they are sneakier about it, talking behind my back, smiling to my face. You are straight forward, and like I said before, interesting. I can tell that you are the kind of person that everyone knows where they stand with you because you will tell it as it is.”

“So you want to torture yourself by spending time with me. This chicken is really good by the way.”

“Thank you.” Lilly smiled at Marlot in a way that made the witch suspicious, but she wasn’t sure why.

“I’m still not making you a love potion.”

“I know, I don’t want it anymore. I think you were right about the man not being worth my love…I saw him with the baker’s daughter this morning and he seemed very happy. Word is that they are going to get married in the fall.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, I’ll find someone eventually right? So please, what is a golem? I realize that you are making something male but I don’t quite understand what it is.”

Marlot cut off another piece of the soft squishy bread and spread strawberry jam on it. “A golem is a creature that can move and think on its own but it is made out of clay and whatever else the creator chose to use.”

“Fascinating. How much longer?”

“Almost two weeks, yesterday was the halfway point, which is why I needed snails.”

“Will he be handsome?”

“I’m not even sure it is going to work. Do you want some tea?”

Lilly smiled at her again, that same knowing smile that Marlot couldn’t quite figure out what it meant. “Yes please. So why are you making a golem?”

“Because Jinx isn’t much of a conversationalist and I was bored. I really should have thought it through more, but it is too late now.”

“You made a golem so you would just have someone to talk to, that’s kind of selfish isn’t it?”

Marlot picked the tea pot up off the wood stove and glared at the young woman. “Didn’t I tell you it wasn’t a good idea to insult a witch?”

Lilly put her head in her hands, “I’m sorry Marlot, and I did it again. It’s just that you actually seem like a decent person and you could probably have all the friends you want, but instead you make your own instead of trying to go out and meet people who might need you as much as you need them.”

The witch sat down across from her house guest and watched her closely. Lilly did seam sorry, but Marlot wasn’t sure how many insults she could take before she kicked the woman out for good. “You know the stories right? How witches are bad, they cast evil spells and poison maidens with apples, the same apples that you made that pie out of. How do you know they aren’t poisonous? Witches are dangerous Lilly, unpredictable and wicked. You still want to be my friend.”

“Yes, because I don’t believe you are any of those things or you would have cursed me the moment I walked up to your garden wall. Your good Marlot, when will you accept that, I promise you will be much happier after you do? I’ll leave if you want.”

Marlot nodded, “please, I have work to do.”

Lilly picked up her basket and left. Marlot stared at the tea pot still in her hands rather than look at the only person she had had any kind of conversation with in years. The witch looked over at the table to see all of the food still spread out and she felt guilty.