She remembered seeing it in the window. Her small, chubby hands pressed against the glass, breath fogging up her reflection. There the little horse sat, dressed in magical garments and staring back at her with gold buttoned eyes. Her mother would only let her stand there for so long before gently guiding her away, hands firm but affectionate on her shoulders. "One day, my dear," she would say. "When we have the coin."
She'd always loved horses, yes, but it was the clothing that really captivated her. The kind that wealthy witches and wizards wore. Her mother only had a secondhand cloak and a slightly battered hat. It could be hard sometimes, working in the magical arts. Money was often inconsistent. Sometimes folk looked down their nose at you for dabbling in things they didn't understand. But Mellie loved her mother.
Her mother, the witch, who taught her how to be a witch, too.
Her mother who taught her spells and incantations. How to write sigils onto objects and onto herself. Where to find ingredients and how to brew them into potions. Together they wrote down everything they needed to know into a tattered old book, and treasured it almost as much as they treasured each other.
It was their bond that saw them travel together, grow older together, work together. Ride around on horseback together. She was there when Mellie was gifted her familiar, a cat not so unlike her mother's. She was there when Mellie went back to that store and bought the toy with the coin she'd earned.
The horse plush is kept safely in her saddlebag, by the book, and often used as a pillow by the cat. It's a little everyday reminder of where a lot of hard work and love can get you.
Last edited by SilhouetteStation on Tue Sep 22, 2020 11:35 am, edited 2 times in total.