“So” said Babette “your little protegee has run away with her familiar to the Crab’s Sea. She sure is an adventurous little one! What would you have us do then, Clarissa? Run after her?” Apparently… yes. “The crabs are friendly enough, but their King doesn’t like witches overmuch, and the little girl could find herself in danger if she talks about us.”

Babette immediately understood, and set up a battle plan. First, go there with as many potions, herbs and the likes as we could carry. Prepare a gift for the King, just in case. Then… improvise.

What kind of a gift can you offer to the King of Crabs? Not mittens, that’s for sure. A scarf would be insulting. A hat? That question kept us thinking for a couple of hours, for it was a really tricky one. Then finally, it dawned on us. The King wasn’t very wise, but he liked to be listened to. He loved talking. And that led us to the perfect gift, one simple yet clever enough to please him. The witches cackled, proud of themselves, while Zazzles and I prepared the necessary items and ingredients. This clever idea could very well keep us awake half the night in preparations.

The next morning, after a very short rest and too much coffee for their own good, the witches had everything ready and were fixing their flying devices for the long trip that awaited us. The beach was a few hours of flight away, which really did not enchant me. Clarissa made her feather grow to the proper size and handed me a light blanket in which I could snuggle to keep my nose out of the wind. Less sneezing for me, more control for her. I agreed with that solution and wondered why we didn’t think of it sooner, then realized it must have been an idea of Babette’s.

Once everyone was ready, we took to the air and started our journey to the limits of our territory. Zazzles and I mentally conversed while the witches tried to fly as fast as possible without bumping into birds. I told him more about Hyacinthe and her pup, and he agreed with us that she was probably going to become a witch when she’s old enough. The conversation turned naturally to our own witches and their differences, and we had a good laugh at their expense. I really liked talking to Zazzles.

Eventually, we landed on the first rocks of the gravel beach, and started advancing towards our yet unknown destination. The little one had been here a long time now, and could have ended up anywhere in the Crab Realm. We had decided that the easiest way to find her would be to allow the crabs to take us to their King, win his favour with our gift, and then simply ask about the girl and her wolf. It would’ve been the perfect plan if we had encountered any crab. But there were none to be seen.

“Babette, do you have any idea what could’ve happened? You’re the one that knows the sea-life best.” She had been in contact with a number of sea-creatures throughout the years, and befriended many of them. But she had no idea. “I’ll ask, wait here a moment.” Babette left Zazzles with us as she made her way to the water, going in knee-deep before she started to speak a weird, completely foreign language. None of us were really surprised when we saw a merperson’s head emerge from afar.

Their conversation lasted a while, and as time passed involved more and more sea creatures. So many, in fact, that after 15 minutes we had to cover our ears because of the cacophony of sounds that Babette still somehow seemed to understand. We could only hope it wouldn’t last too long, but knowing her…

An hour and a half later we could finally uncover our ears as the witch made her way back to where we had been waiting. She had news. Too many news, in fact. She told us all about sea politics, and pollution that was getting worse, and how two mertribes had finally made their peace since one’s princess had married into the other tribe, and that the seahorses had returned to these waters after decades of shunning it because of a misunderstanding involving shrimps, and oh yes, the crabs are organising a giant party so there are none to be found on the beach but we should be able to find them at the Castle.