Sous

Once upon a time, there lived a witch, wizard, and their ten year old daughter named Julia. Julia was a chubby little thing and often got herself into trouble. She was curious, she was courageous, she was conceited. She was known by all three c's.

Julia loved all things that made her special. She loved her blonde hair because no one else in town at such hair. She loved her snow white eyes because no one else had such eyes. She loved her voice because no one else had such a voice. Yet she still wanted more.

She saw the leaves on the trees were green so she went to her mother who was at home, cooking, "Mother, I want to be green," said Julia.

"Why is that?" Asked the mother.

"Because I want to be special."

"Oh baby, but you are special."

Julia went on about her day but one day when she was coming home from school, she saw a vampire with red eyes. The complete opposite of her blue ones. Red eyes would absolutely make her special. So she went back to her mother who was tiding up the house.

"Mother, you're the greatest witch of all the land. Surely you can make my eyes red."

"Why do you want your eyes red?" The mother asked.

"I want to be special."

"Oh baby, but you are special."

One day as Julia was walking with her father to the store to pick up some items, she saw a man doing street magic. With a flick of his wand, he awed the children before him. They applauded and they clapped. With their acceptance, the man pointed his wand at a ball and turned the ball into stone.

Julia tugged on her father's Wizard robe.

"Father, I want to turn things into stone."

"But why?"

"Because I want to be special."

"But you already are special," her father said.

One day at school, there was a new girl who had entered into Julia's classroom. The girl introduced herself as Basil. Once school was over, the girl ran to her father's job.

"Father, Father," she cried out. "I want my name to be Basil."

"But why?" Asked the father.

"Because I want to be special."

"But you already are special."

At dinner that same night, Julia talked about all that she wanted to become even more special. She wanted to be sly. She wanted to be tall. And she would find a way to make it happen, so down in the woods by the hills that were made from the cliffs, Julia found a house. A small house that belonged to a witch. A witch with a big nose, skinny hands, and sharp teeth.

"Ms. Witch, Ms. Witch!"

"Yes, my dear child," said the witch as she opened her door just a crack.

"I want to be special."

"And how so, my dear child?"

"I want red eyes, I want to be able to turn people into stone. I want my name to be Basil. I want to be big and tall and I want to be sly!"

"I can make you all that and more but you'll need to drink a potion. For that potion, I need three ingredients: the feather of a phoenix, the horn of a unicorn, and one of the many heads of a behemoth.

But Julia was too lazy to go trekking on her own. She was too small to take a horn, a feather, or a head. What she had though was money. She would pay bandits to find these creatures and bring the requested items and so she did.

By the end of the week, Julia had the phoenix feather, the unicorn horn, one of many heads from a behemoth. With all three items, she presented them to the witch in her small house where she created her craft.

"I have all the items you requested, now make me that potion," demanded the girl.

And with a smile, the witch took the three items and placed them in her cauldron. Julia watched as she stirred until smoke lifted from the pot. From the large spoon, the witfh beckoned for Julia to drink.

After she drunk the juice, she hadn't noticed any change within her. But when she tried to speak, the witch couldn't hear her but what the witch did do was hold up a mirror.

The laughter rung out from the witch, dropping the mirror as Julia was shocked to see her skin was green, her eyes were red, she was large, and laid upon her belly where her body coiled within itself because of how small the witch's house was.

Julia broke the door, slithering through it. Making her way down the hill, over the cliffs, through the woods back into her village.

She tried to speak to the towns people but when they looked at her, they turned to stone. When she went to her house, her parents were startled and knowing what has happened, Julia looked herself in the mirror seeing her parents reflection as they touched her, cried over their child. And as the night fell, Julia would make her way back to the cliffs where she would lay upon her belly for more than one hundred years until she managed to find another one like her. They exchanged stories with this one having a similar story to hers. And with that more began to arrive, known as basilisk, they grew in number. Even forming relationships with one another and reproducing their own children. Then came a time when no more basilisk who were once humans came to the cliffs. They spoke to one another in their own tongue, theorizing the witch who had done this to them had died with time. Because although life had an expiration date, greed, you see, did not.

Sous ate her yogurt while Shadow finished reading the tale from the new book. They had just gone shopping and Sous had purchased three new books; of course, with Shadow's money. When he had first met Sous, he didn't take her for one who enjoyed reading but she went to bed most nights reading, and when they hadn't anything to do, she read.

She walked up and threw the yogurt away, walking back to the bench they sat on in the park in another village they stopped in.

"Why did you choose to read that story," Sous asked, she sat with one foot under her buttocks.

"Because I know you have that serpent egg under your bed and I wanted you to know how they came to be."

She drunk some water from her water bottle.

"They came from a selfish girl?"

Shadow closed the book and handed it to Sous. He looked at the other books in her bag. She had wanted a book about curses and hexes but he forbade her from buying it. It was worrisome she was becoming attracted to the dark arts, what some called black magic. He didn't really know how to approached the topic and thought of inquiring to Monica about it.

"Sous, I got a mission going back up the river. Imma have you stay with the three sisters, k?"

"The three G's? PERFECT! They can help me speak to my dad. I gotta go get his bones from the boat then."

Shadow shook his head. "Witches aren't the best for speaking to spirits. That's why they often need something belonging to the deceased like your father's bones," he exclaimed. "Listen here, theres a village further more up the river. They have a good size population of mediums. Witches tend to open portals for spirits, having more harmful spirits come through. Mediums know how to communicate with them from the other side without having them cross over."

Sous never heard of a medium but if meant finally cremating her father then she was okay with this option.

"It was also a witch who turned that girl into a basilisk," she said referencing the story.

"It was what the girl wanted."

She glared at Shadow and stuck her bottom lip out. "No, it wasn't. She wanted those qualities."

"Yeah...qualities of a snake. A big snake."

There was a beat of silence until Shadow stood up stretching his back. Sous thought to how much longer the basilisk had until it hatches. She looked at Shadow. "You knew I had the basilisk and didn't put it back in the barrel?"

He smirked suggesting she gets up so they could get back to the boat.

"If you want a pet basilisk then you want a pet basilisk. It has the option to turn you into stone if it wants."

"The girl in the book didn't know how to choose."

"She was a novice in the book." He knelt down to Sous. "She may even be still alive since they live rather long lives, you know." He waited to see if she would take the bait, but she only stared at him. He could sometimes be a jerk but so could Sous. They were an odd pair. He chuckled. "Alright, let's go."