052 A Twig Stuck Between Them

"Hey! What a nice surprise!"

Kitty gave Winnie a huge smile for her warm welcoming. Without any "pup", as Winnie put it, following Kitty, she found that grotesque little store pretty easily.

"I came with news of good and bad. Also, a question." Kitty didn't waste any time, even though she liked this motherly witch a lot and would love to spend time with her, she has a sister to save.

"Ohh, good news! Always good news. In this life, you need positive thinking to go on, you know, sweet heart?" Winner chattered as she poured a cup of tea for Kitty from the pot on the fire bouncing in the air.

"Okay! So the good news is, we have found the trace of Perses's men, hence, Emma. He is the one who wiped out the village." Kitty took over the tea cup, "Thanks."

"Oh my God! That's really great news! How can I be at service?" Winnie dropped the pot at that news, and a broom came swooping and caught it in the midair before it break into pieces.

"Wow!" Kitty gasped at the scene in front of her eyes. The urge of being a part of this fascinating world came through her overwhelmingly again, "Well, that's the bad news actually. We think there's a witch helping him, because they had the spell exactly like the one you used to save me covering their track so we cannot really pin point their location."

"Ohh, I see... ohh, dear..." Winnie frowned at the news, "That is surely not good news. But that explained why I couldn't locate her either."

"Yeah, so that's where we were hoping if you could help." Kitty said hesitantly, "But I don't know what it would means to you to help werewolves against a witch..."

"That won't be too huge a problem because as far as I know, I'm actually helping out a witch friend and saving her daughter from werewolves. I don't think the Coven would be too against that." Winnie waved her hand, "The problem is, I can't do anything before I can have confirmed evidence of that..."

"You are right..." Kitty sighed, "Well, on the other topic, we need your help on this."

She handed over the parchment roll.

"Anything you know would help us a lot. We have no idea what it is." Kitty said.

"Where did you get this?!" Winnie exclaimed, even more shocked than when she got the news about Emma.

"Hmm, from the King of the werewolf, actually. It's a very important matter." Kitty decided to out with the truth. This was not the time to hide stuff from friends.

"The royalty? Why would he do this...?" Winnie again fell into a low voice mumble. "Peculiar..."

"You know something about it, right?" Kitty asked after giving Winnie some time to think.

"As a matter of fact, yes." Winnie nodded slightly, "But it's too important, I cannot tell you just yet. And to be frankly, sweet heart, this course is too dangerous for you now. I cannot tell you even just for your own safety."

"But I'm already involved, and Perses is now determined to see me dead. I'd rather die fighting for my freedom, than die in ignorance of all this." Kitty plead, "Besides, Emma is my family, and I have to help if I can."

"You really do resemble Lilith a lot, if I may say. But I'm afraid it's out of your power, sweetie." Winnie sighed, and added, "Although I would tell you if you found Emma, it's her mother's course after all."

It was Lilith again. Kitty felt her heart ached a bit now every time when someone mentioned Lilith's name. It was like she somehow stole Emma's mom.

Now she really DID feel like she was an orphan...

"What do you mean 'her course'?" Kitty asked.

"She kept most of it from me, too, for my safety's concern. That girl, she surely was an ambitious one. And she had the heart, big just like the sea. I always knew there was greatness in her, I just didn't think..." Winnie started chattering which soon turned into a teary reminiscence of her passed friend.

"I'm sorry for your loss..." Kitty mumbled, feeling that weird ache in her heart again. It was HER mom, at least she thought so, for whole 17 years, and now she was saying sorry for other people loss when she was the one missing Lilith the most...

"It's okay... Sometimes I do wish you were actually the daughter, because if not then--" Winnie suddenly stopped her sentence.

"Then what?" Kitty asked.

"Nothing... let's deal with the matter at hand for now." Winnie suddenly avoided Kitty's eyes and turned and dived into her shelves, "Let me see... Ahh! I found it!"

Winnie came out of the old chest that she was digging in with a dozen paper dolls held up high in her hands.

"This is the creation of a very talent friend, yes." Winnie said, handing Kitty the paper doll, "They are in pairs. Put one on the people you want to follow, and you held onto the other on you. When you tear up the one in your hand, you will appear in the place of the paper doll you put on him, as in, around the people you are following."

"That is so cool!" Kitty exclaimed.

"I think this will get you inside the spell." Winnie grinned with a proud smile and handed over a small twig, "When you do and found Emma, break this, and I'll come find you."

"Wow that would be great!" Kitty exclaimed, "We might not have to use it. If we could get Emma out of there, I'd rather not cause trouble for you though."

"No trouble at all, sweetie. That's my contribution to the cause, not as a favor to you, don't worry about it." Winnie waved her hand.

"Okay! Thanks, Winnie." Kitty walked up and hugger her.

"Awww, you are such a sweet heart..." Winnie mumbled, "I wish I had never involved you in this..."

"I was involved before that. It's my fight over my freedom, don't worry about it." Kitty mimicked Winnie's wave and they both burst into laughter.

"Let me know when you are ready to go in, will ya?" Winnie asked Kitty when she was leaving.

"Of course. Would you like to come to our place when we make the move though? So you can be more involved in the plan." Kitty invited, "I'd understand if you--"

"Yes, of course I would." Winnie smiled and held Kitty's hand tight for a sec.

"That's great! We'll get on it ASAP." Kitty returned a big smile.

"About the twig though, would you mind not mentioning that to the pups? I'm not sure if they want my help, and I just want to be there to make sure you have enough help." Winnie added with genuine in her eyes.

Kitty was taken by surprise with that requirement, but she agreed to it with hesitation:

"Yeah... sure."