It felt like an eternity passed in the coming hours. You tried reading through other nearby potion books, but the search was largely fruitless - half because the other books never mentioned human transformation, half because tears kept welling up in your eyes making the books' text blurry and seemingly dance, mocking your situation. Each time you would wipe them away with the fur on the back of your arm and get right back to reading, hoping against hope to find some other way - any other way. You read and read... some would probaly have said out of determination, but you knew it was out of desperation.
A few times, Jess opened his mouth, threatening to break the silence with an idea or a suggestion - but each time he would quickly close it again before saying a word, looking away in either sadness or disgust. He pattered around, sometimes resting a paw on yours or Aaron's shoulders, trying to comfort you both, other times exploring the cabin, or looking through books and potions as well. He seemed strangely lost, not sure how to fit in with his surroundings or companions... You found yourself silently wishing he would come over and hold you again, but it never happened.
Aaron had been leaning on a windowstill, resting her head on her wings as she looked out at the starlit sky. Sometimes when you glanced over, she looked very tense, digging her talons into the wooden floor or wall, teeth and wingtips clenched. Other times she seemed almost world weary, as if too tired to care about anything. She had taken up preening her wings again in the latter hours, a habit she had been fighting off since the night you met her. You weren't sure if she was even aware she was doing it, or if it was the magic, or even the gravity of the situation, finally winning over her will... The way the starlight reflected off her hair and freshly cleaned, raven black wings made her look so beautiful, though..
Meanwhile, Mike had gone outside to get some air... or carbon dioxide or... whatever plant girls breathe. Despite being the only one who didn't want to transform back, the potion's contents had really rattled and sickened her. She sat in the grass, idly tracing in the dirt and unfocusedly staring through everything into nothingness. ...Was she that disturbed by the potion ingredients? Or wondering what was used in her own transformation? Or maybe even she was worried that now that we had found a concrete way to change back, as questionable as it was, she was going to be alone again... You couldn't help wonder about these things even while reading.
Your feline ears and tail laid flat and limp. Mentally, emotionally, and physically worn out, you close the book you were reading with a clap. A cloud of dust billows out of it and over the table. "I think..." you start, but interrupt yourself with a sigh. "...that it's getting late and we all better get some rest for the night."
"..I'm not sleeping in this place." Aaron grumbled, without a look over.
"That's probaly for the best," you add. "We don't really know if there's any other magic or traps here that could do something to us as we sleep, anyway.." You were actually pretty certain that it would be safe enough, most magic on the house seemed to fade the moment the witch transformed. But the dust, strange potion fumes, and bad memories of this place kept you from wanting to stay inside any longer either.
You lift the snake's jar off the table and carry it outside, with Jess and Aaron slowly following behind. That night seemed colder than others. Aaron hugged her wings around her bare top, shivering a little. You were actually a little thankful for your fur for once after looking at her. You and Jess both laid down under the shade of a nearby tree after setting the witch's glass prison on a nearby grassy knoll in sight. Jess had some difficulty choosing how far he should sleep from you, not wanting to be too far away, but still feeling bad enough about before to not want to get too close either. Mike laid her back against the same tree, her rear half and arms disappearing and melding into the bark as she held her knees up tight to her chest in an almost fetal postion as finds and roots tangled around her protectively. And finally Aaron sat under a tree further away from the rest of you, burying her head in her wings, still trembling.
Some time later, as tired as everyone was, despite closed eyes you knew everyone was awake. You're not entirely sure why you did it, but you got up and tiredly walked over to Aaron, sitting snuggly beside her and wrapping your arms around her. Though normally you were sure she would have gotten flustered and forced you off, she wrapped a wing around your back and leaned against you, burying her face in your fur. You couldn't help notice that her cheeks were wet with tears, though she was no longer trembling.
Jessica and Michael came over next. The dryad laid against Aaron's back and wrapped her arms around the harpy's feather waist. Jess wrapped his arms and tail around all three of you, pulling you close and resting you against his chest and neck. Finally, with a hint of the dryad's abilities, the nearby tree creaked and groaned a bit as the roots and vines reformed and wrapped themselves around you all, forming a warm, safe, blanket of sorts holding you all together tightly...
Though the situation would have normally been much more awkward, all of you were too exhausted to care. And... after all, for the first time that night, you felt warm. Soon, you had all drifted off to sleep, too.
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The next morning was somewhat more lighthearted than the previous night, everyone was back to their normal personalities - - well, as normal as your newfound friends ever got, anyhow. Mike playfully tried to hug Aaron in the morning but was quickly kicked away by the harpy, who declared no one was to talk about last night, then stormed off to catch some fish out of the nearby stream. As the sun shone through the cabin's clearing and danced through the surrounding forest's leaves down onto you all, Jessica showed you how to set up a makeshift campfire cooking grill that would be able to skewer and rotate the fish - apparently she was quite the survivalist as a human and knew a lot about cooking outdoors. Mike bounced and pranced around from tree to tree, placing her hand on each one causing them to all grow different types of strange but wonderfuly coloured fruit before bringing them back to the campsite. After everyone was stuffed from fish and fruit kabobs, Mike clasped her hands together and prayed for the "passing" of the fire kindling and started making a little gravesite for it. Aaron called her a dork and threw a leftover fruit at her, who promptly retaliated and a food fight for the ages ensued. Even the snake jar got plastered once or twice for inappropriately tongue-flicking at whoever the loser at the moment was. At the end, all four of you were left laughing, sticky, fruity smelling, and tired. During the cleanup process, a unicorn-frog hopped past and Mike giggled and chased after it, trying to offer it some leftover food. Aaron chased after her, squawking and complaining all the way that frogs don't eat fruit, fish, or talk, but that didn't quell the dryad's enthusiasm any. Jess fell over on his back laughing at the sight of both of them, but a colourful dragonfly flew past at that moment and his cat-instincts kicked in, causing him to chase after it on all fours and repeatedly try to pounce it.
Maybe.... maybe staying like this... this... 'family'... really wouldn't be so bad.
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Later in the afternoon, you and Aaron sat inside the cabin reading through books more. You had to share the same book at any given time, since Aaron couldn't flip pages on her own. Mike and Jess were outside building a shelter for the night, one that would be tree and wood-friendly at Mike's insistance.
Aaron looked up at the witch-snake's jar. It was peering out with somewhat of a sly, fangy grin at you both. "You know," Aaron said, "the thing that bothers me most is that even though we've caught her and beat her at her own game, that damn witch still looks at us like she has us cornered.."
You twitch your whiskers as you flip to the next page of the book, without looking up. "Well... she probaly does. She's been watching us, she knows us and knows we aren't the type of people who would ever harm others just to change ourselves back. In her mind, she's won, we're still stuck as what she changed us into."
Aaron hmphed and crossed her wings. "Then she should know that if I'm stuck like this much longer, barbecued snake is going to be the our next dinner..."
You stop for a moment and look up at the witch, then to the harpy. "Since we still can speak and kept our intelligence after transforming, I'm betting she can and did too. She's transformed people simply by speaking before as well as using potions.... So I think the witch could change back, or at least change into something larger and more threatening any time she wants to. That's why I've been keeping her in sight at all times," you add. "just incase she does feel like transforming back... But for now.. she just enjoys watching us suffer and change slowly, that's why she changes our species, gender, and location, that's why she still keeps the cabin here when she could move it wherever she wants. She wants to watch us, and see us break down over time..."
The snake coils its lower half and leans back, chuckling softly. You both quickly look at her. "Cleeever little girl, aren't you? Tssssk, a maid was far too mundane a tasssk for a mind like yourss, you would have made a much better familiar..."
"You can understand us still?!" Aaron got up and shouted. "Then change us back or else I'm gonna--!!" You get up quickly and hold her back and hush her.
"Hohoh, and then where would you be, little raven? You'd ssstill be ssstuck here with not a sssingle hope of changing back.... well, there isss that one hope~.... But you're ssscared that you will get desssperate enough to try to get thossse ingredientss, aren't you?" She smiled a fangy grin at you both, and neither of you can find words. "Ssstill, you were only half right. I have been watching you all, you're all exccccellent resssearch ssssubjects. But even I am ssstuck in thisss form becaussse I underesstimated you. I can transsssform sssimply by incantaton, but a body isss mossst vulnerable during the procccesss of transssformation. If I were to attempt to transsssform into ssssomething larger, the glasss ssshattering would enter my body while changing, cutting me internally and ssssurely killing me."
"So.... why let us in on this weakness?" you inquire.
She smiled wickedly again. "Becausssse I'd like to sssee what you do with that knowledge, humansss put up ssssuch a fight and ssstruggle to the end, it makessss them that much more interesssting to watch in desssssperation. Bessssidess, now you have to conssssider letting me out ssssince I could change you back by ssspeaking a ssssimple sssspell."
"Or change us into something even worse!" Aaron shouts.
She cackled a little. "Or thaaaat~. Of courssse, it'sss your choiccce."
You and Aaron look at one another quietly for a moment, then back to the witch. "Do you have any of..." Aaron swallows hard, trying to stomache her question, "those kinds of ashes left?"
"Well, I do have a little...." She waves her head towards a drawer, you pull out two tiny ziplock bags with a small amount, barely a spoonful each, of grey powder. The bags are labelled 'Hansel' and 'Gretel.' "Only enough for a ssssingle perssson's potion. Thosssse're different opposssite gendered though, if you usssed them I'm not cccertain what would happen. Perhapsss you'd come back asss both sssexesss at onccce - and we all know how awkward it'sss been for you asss jussst one wrong gender~"
Both you and Aaron turn a flush red.
"You'd end up German too.... or waasss it French? You humansss all look the sssaame to me anyhow.... either way, you wouldn't be ssspeaking englisssh, ssso you ssstill wouldn't be able to go home. Ssssigh.... live sssacfricial asssshes usssed to be sssoo much easssier to get... But thanksss to WETH, (Witchessss for the Ethical Treatment of Humansss), gone are the dayssss when you could hex entire townsss, sssummon the undead human hordesss, or incccinerate entire villagesss..." She looks off to the side with a dreamy smile and look of nostolgia. "Thossse were happier dayss..."
"Is there any way to change back to human without needing that ingredient?" you ask.
"There'sss ssspell incantationsss.... but they take hundredsss of yearsss to learn well enough to work, which you don't have. Sssoo you'd have to let me out sssoo I could cassst it for you... Or you could travel to the city of witches, Villa Ssssilenti.... ssseee if you can find sssomeone to help you there........."
Aaron looked to you. "I think I've had enough witches for this lifetime..."
You nod to her in agreement then look back to the witch. "Is there anything we could substitute in place of the ashes while making a potion?"
"Oh nooo, nothing like that. Alchemy is very ssspecific, there'sss no sssshortcutss for ingredientsss. ......Well...... there's alwaysss.... no, no.... you wouldn't want that...." She flicks her forked tongue in distaste.
"What?" you both exclaim.
The snake witch recoils herself and looks away from you. "Ohhhhh, nothing.... jussst...." The witch looks back at you both with one eye and that crooked grin again, being careful not to turn her head towards you. "The Red Tincture, the ssssubstance that can sssubssstitute all othersss, the esssssencce of dreamsss, Lapissss Philossssophorum, the Philosssopher'sss Ssstone."