By Julie

Muttering came from the dining room. Then- “Luna!” Basil called, “Come out for breakfast! Aren’t you still hungry?” Luna scuttled out. “How do you know my…” Luna started to say, but when she caught glance of the witches and warlock, her voice trailed off. There was Basil, the shortest of them and of only about eight or nine years of age. Peg circled around her feet. Eve was probably the next-youngest, at about thirty-five. Gem, who was somewhat plump, was nestled on the ground next to her. The next witch was older, with curly red-brown hair, a rather short figure, and a skinny little shadow cat. Her robe was trimmed with tinges of yellow, and she looked around forty-five or fifty. Then the warlock, Midnight, with darker hair but almost the same face and age as the last witch. Luna assumed they were siblings. His robe was trimmed with dark blue, and his shadow cat had a rather squashed face, like it had run into a brick wall. The last two witches scared Luna- she assumed they were Misty and Mallory. The first was tall, very tall, with eagle eyes, grey hair tied back in a bun, and a grey-trimmed robe. Her shadow cat was thin and long, like its owner. The second witch was short and a bit plump, with grumpy features and a hawk nose. Luna assumed both witches to be around sixty, seventy, or maybe eighty. If Eve’s shadow cat was plump, Mallory’s was definitely fat, because it was many, many times plumper than Gem and looked like a big tomato.
“Luna, this is Eve and Gem. You already know them. This is Midnight and Dip, or Dipper. This is Dawn,” Basil pointed to the curly-haired witch, “And Little Dip, or Little Dipper. This next one is Misty (and Orion), and this is Mallory and Cass, or Cassiopeia. All right, what’s for breakfast?”
“Omelets,” Misty said stonily, “With spices.”
“O Great Spirits, let me tell
“And cast a yummy breakfast spell,
“Fix us up some yummy food,
“Omelets and spices, don’t be crude!”
The plates fixed themselves and all the witches set down to dine. Eve conjured up some milk for the shadow cats. In a few minutes, plates refilled themselves and eating utensils clinked. “Um… what’re we doing today?” Basil asked, helping herself to another omelet. Luna ate too, even though she had suspected to be too suspicious of the witches to eat. “I’ve learned there might be a flood in one of the Americas today, we could go help out.” Misty said. “Coven Paris will get there first,” Dawn assured the rest of the witches, “Anything smaller?” Midnight cleared his throat. “Leaky faucets and such,” he announced, “In London.” Dawn nodded. “Ah, yes. Mulberry will go fix the leaky faucets. We might even be able to fix them from here.” Mallory yawned and grunted, “I’ll do it right now.” Basil looked hurt. “No! Don’t do it from here, let’s fly down to London and-”
“O Earth’s great spirits, let me tell
“And cast a very helpful spell:
“Not enough for a bath, not even a sip,
“Hurry to London and stop this drip!”
Luna and Eve sat, defeated. “The magic of being a witch is gone from it again,” Basil said under her breath. “Anything else we could do today? And maybe actually get there to do? And maybe some of us could help?” MIsty threw Basil an icy glance. “Well, there’s a bit of a famine down in-” Dawn started. “Famine? Coven Austin will get there first.” Basil said, as if reading off lines from a play. “There’s a few wounded polar bears somewhere in the Arctic… we could help with that.” Eve said, in a bit of a monotone. Luna had expected being a witch to be more exciting. “Oh, can we fly? Please?” Basil begged, but Misty silenced her and recited,
“O Earth’s great spirits, let me tell
“And cast a nature-friendly spell:
“If you can, then please repair
“Each sick or wounded polar bear.”
“All right,” Misty said, gathering herself up. “Anything else? No? Now let’s get down to business. Basil, what do you think you were going to do with that girl when you brought her here?” Basil’s eyes finally lit up. “I have a plan for her! It’s a very brilliant plan!” Misty nodded her on. “You see,” she said, standing up, “Just because we aren’t a proper coven, since Ewe vanished, all of the other covens leave us all the boring jobs like fixing faucets! You don’t need much power for that, not even enough power to be on the scene. So we never have anything exciting to do, and the covens treat us with no respect!” The witches nodded politely to confirm this fact. “So,” Basil continued, “What if we miraculously gained another member and became a coven? Then we might actually get some real jobs and some respect! So I nominate this new witchy addition to our coven to be… Luna!”

When Luna woke, her dress was dry. She was still hungry, though. She opened her eyes to the unpleasant surprise of an unfamiliar room. In fact, she was lying on an unfamiliar couch, her head resting on an unfamiliar pillow, and an unfamiliar young face was peering at her. The face had a rather pointy (but of regular length) nose, curious blue eyes, a slim figure, and blonde hair that curled at the ends. It was the small witch’s face.
Luna yelped in surprise, finding her voice box had been unfrozen, and jumped off of the couch. “Witches!” she shrieked. “Sh! Keep it down! If you’re too loud then Misty will do away with you!” the young witch whispered. “Misty!” Luna whispered, frightened. “Who is Misty?”
“The sternest one of us. The one who tried to cast the memory spell on you. I’m Basil,” the girl offered. “There’s also Mallory and Eve and Midnight and Dawn.” Luna scoffed and yelled, “I don’t care about the members of your frightful witch coven!” The girl’s eyes widened. “Well, I can do spells too, you know. I know a very effective silencing spell. And we’re not at all frightful, nor all of us witches, or a coven. You see, we’re rather quiet and would never hurt anybody. Midnight happens to be a warlock. And you need seven members to be a coven, while we only have six since Ewe vanished. That was years ago. So we aren’t Coven Mulberry anymore.”
“Coven Mulberry? As in, the city Mulberry?” Luna asked in a loud, frightened voice. “Well, yes. We’re on the outskirts of the city.” Mulberry was only a few miles from the orphanage. She might be able to escape and run back home. “Don’t think about running,” Basil warned her. “Misty and Mallory will come after you with a memory charm, and trust me, those don’t feel good. Witches fly four times faster than you can run, you know. You must be hungry…”
“O Earth’s great spirits, let me tell
“And cast a finger-licking spell:
“Give this hungry girl some food,
“For whatever she is in the mood.”
It only took seconds for a lacy napkin to fly off the mantle, unfold itself in the lap of Luna, and suddenly hold a lapful of the most wonderful foods Luna could ever imagine: fried chicken, buttered string beans, a can of peaches, and a generous slice of blueberry pie. In minutes, it was gone. It seemed as soon as Luna took her last bite, footsteps sounded down the stairs. “Sounds like Mallory,” Basil whispered with a frightened look on her face. “If she finds you in her favorite spot… up in the kitchen, take your napkin and scrub the counters!” On her way out of the living room, Luna stumbled over… air? She glanced back and patted the air to find a solid nothing. It hissed at her. “Ah! It’s an monster, and it’s an invisible one too!” Luna whispered as the footsteps grew louder. “No, silly, that’s Peg, my shadow cat. Look closer. Now, scoot! She’s almost down!” Luna scrambled up and over to the kitchen. It smelled strongly of onions and garlic and different herbs, because they were in strings hanging from the ceiling. It was just like an ordinary kitchen in an ordinary house, Luna observed as she wiped down the counters. Into the living room came a thirty or forty year old witch with bright red hair and black eyes, wearing a black robe trimmed with dusky purple. Luna glanced at Basil to find hers was trimmed with green. She looked back at the older witch. Was this Mallory? She actually looked pretty okay… for a witch, anyway. With a startled glance, Luna spotted the outline of a shady gray cat, almost as if made from smoke, trotting along after the witch. A shadow cat? Luna peeked closer at the carpet in the living room to find another smoky cat shape. So that was Peg, Basil’s cat. Did all witches own these creatures?
“You can come out now! It’s not Mallory, just Eve!” Luna tiptoed back into the living room. “This is Eve, my mother, and her shadow cat Gem. I’m sorry I forgot to introduce before, but this is my own shadow cat Peg. Gem is short for Gemini, by the way, and Peg is short for Pegasus. You know, I think it’s time for breakfast.” At that, three other witches and a warlock seemed to float down the stairs. Luna let out a yelp and ran back into the kitchen. Being in a house with five witches, a warlock, and six shadow cats was too much for one day.

Luna was exhausted, hungry, and wet. Water dripped from the ends of her brownish-blonde hair, her nose, her glasses and the hem of her dress. Her feet slid on the slippery cobblestone street. The grocery bag full of empty bottles felt heavier than ever as the rain pounded upon her. Luna wanted to duck into a building- any store, any home, any shelter she could find- and stay there. But she had drawn the shortest straw at the orphanage, so her job was to take the empty bottles down to the recycling center. Normally this was all right, even pleasant, but not in the rain.
The streets were mostly quiet, everyone was inside accept for just a few people under black umbrellas who eventually scuttled away. Am I the only one alive at this hour? Has everyone vanished except me? Luna was so absorbed in this exciting thought that she at first didn’t notice the six dark, shadowy shapes flying above her. Birds, Luna thought. How queer. She did not at first notice the brewing, stirring, whirlpool of clouds above these creatures as they flew through the rain. Nor did she notice the flapping of robes or the strange circular formation they flew in. She did not notice either of these attributes until the cloud of creatures was almost gone, and then she let out a gasp and dropped her sack of bottles. She could hear one shatter, but she did not care because who would care about a broken bottle when a coven of witches were soaring above you?
At this very thought, the witches suddenly halted, turned their brooms around, and zoomed back toward the street. Luna wanted to run like mad into the restaurant beside her, but her joints had frozen to ice and she couldn’t move as the coven grew closer and closer to the small girl. Their faces were always in shadow, but their unmistakeable cloaks and pointed hats grew closer and closer on their brooms until Luna was practically face to face with them. She wanted to scream, but her voice box had frozen along with her joints, so all she could do was stare and gape at the mythical beings. Luna opened and closed her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. Unfortunately, sound came out of the mouth of one of the biggest witches:
“O Earth’s great spirits, let me tell
“And cast upon this girl a spell:
“You won’t remember, you will find
“This moment cleared from your wee-”
“Sh! No, Misty, don’t you-”
Luna opened her eyes. She had been bracing herself for whatever wicked spell this deep-voiced creature was about to cast on her, but one of the witches, the smallest one, had cut off the curse. Luna watched silently in disbelief as the small witch heaved Luna onto her broom, and then fell promptly into a faint.