...a final exam?!

Sierra hadn't been ready for a surprise final exam, but...at least it was Potions. She didn't have to study much for it. Not like she did Arithmancy or Ancient Runes. She imagined she'd be up hours with it. That was then and this was now, though...

...and she had a potion to brew.



Sierra tapped her foot against the floor as she looked down at the ingredients. This was a FINAL, and if she thought too much about it, she'd make herself nervous. Nobody else had the misfortune of their mother looking along as they took a final exam. MERLIN. For that reason, Sierra decided to take her mind off the fact that this was a final by making a little story about things as she moved along.

"The Selfless Servant's Royal Payback"

They say the story dates back to the time of Herpo the Foul. Whether that's right or wrong has no real relevance to the story, though. It happened many moons ago, and that's where it all began. The kingdom, nevermind what it was called, was ruled by a selfish woman, a woman who couldn't seem to be pleased no matter what her servants did for her. One day, an old, crippled servant of hers, Matilda they called her, had had enough, and she set out to pay the queen back for all the wrongdoings she'd done over the years.

Late that night, she snuck into the queen's garden, where Hugo, the gardener was watering something he'd planted earlier in the day...

Sierra peered into her cauldron and double checked that she'd added enough water. It wasn't too much and wasn't too little, so she peered back at her instructions and moved on to the next step.

Matilda waited and waited, until the hour came when Hugo left for bed. She snuck into the garden, bag in hand, and began to plant a small row of alihotsy leaves. She planted five altogether, cast a spell on them, and then retreated to her quarters.

Sierra dropped the first of the alihotsy leaves into the cauldron and watched it begin to react with the water. That wasn't saying much, though, since it was just a leaf and water right now. So the second, third, fourth, and fifth leaf was added.

The next morning, the ruler went for her royal breakfast, only to find that the cooks had served her orange juice instead of apple juice. "Bring me apple juice, and bring it NOW!" she barked, her loud voice heard all across the fourth floor of the palace. The cooks rushed about to prepare the new drink, but by the time they'd reached the table again, the ruler had began laughing...and laughing...and laughing. The laughing was so uncontrollable that the selfish ruler was never able to enjoy the drink she'd so selfishly wanted.

Somewhere in the castle, Matilda laughed an evil laugh. Five alihotsy leaves, all known to cause uncontrollable laughter. Late that night, when Hugo had left for bed again, Matilda snuck into the gardens, another bag in hand. She planted a row of lovage this time, one, two, three, four, five altogether, the same number as the alihotsy leaves. She cast a spell on them then left for bed.

By this time, Sierra already had the lovage in her hand. She added them all into the cauldron, one at a time. Soon, all five were added, making her brew a mixture of water, alihotsy leaves, and lovage.

The next day, the ruler had a meeting with her personal team of seamstresses. They were the best in the land and come quite far to make a royal dress fit for a royal ruler. Nothing they could make seemed to please the ruler, though. "Make this red! ...and this part blue! The arms aren't poofy enough, and the length isn't long enough!" she yelled. The team rushed about, trying to make all the changes the ruler had ordered, but just as they'd finished the perfect dress, the ruler began wailing loudly and holding onto her head. "My head! OH, MY HEAD!" she wailed.

Somewhere in the castle, Matilda grinned. Five pieces of lovage, each known to cause inflammation of the brain. That night, again once Hugo had gone to bed, Matilda snuck into the garden with two new bags. She opened the first of them and planted a row of, you guessed it, five bursting mushrooms. She sprinkled each with a single drop of re'em's blood, making that one, two, three, four, five drops altogether.

Re'em's blood was next, and so Sierra got a sample of it in her dropper and then held the dropper over the cauldron. One, two, three, four, five drops. She looked into the cauldron and watched as they swirled into the brew, adding their own magic to what would be the final result. Next, she began slicing the pieces of bursting mushrooms, since she knew that slicing it was the only way to be able to use them as a potions ingredient. She didn't even want to think what would happen if she dropped them in whole.

The next morning, the selfish ruler began getting all gussied up for a meeting with the ruler of the next kingdom over. She was a single ruler, and this other ruler, a man of her age, was the most desired man in their area of the world. Of course she wished for a date with him. All the women did, and if he was that desirable, this ruler wanted him as her own. She'd just called in her team of servants to do the final touch-ups, when one of them happened to use a shade lighter lipstick than she was used to. "Get it right or pay the price!" she yelled. "I can find many more where you came from!"

Finally, the ruler was all dressed up, and she'd just walked out to meet this other ruler when her skin began breaking out in huge red boils, the dark color of blood. The boils began bursting, making a mess of her pretty skin. She wailed in horror and ran for her bedroom, never once getting to set eyes on this man she so desired. Somewhere in the castle, Matilda laughed. Five drops of re'em blood and a row of bursting mushrooms...

That night, she headed back to the garden, another two bags in her hand. She would keep this routine until the horrible ruler learned her lesson once and for all. When Hugo was out of sight, Matilda planted a single row, five inches long, of asphodel root. When she was done, she snuck up to the ruler's quarters and placed the voice box of a fwooper near the woman's pillow. As she slept that night, the magic of the voice box would invade her dreams and cause a most restless night's sleep.

Checking her list of ingredients, Sierra took the root of asphodel and measured it to precisely five inches. She cut off the unnecessary parts then dropped the root into the brew. Then she picked up the voice box and studied it carefully before adding it, too, into the brew. It was a first for her, adding a voice box to a brew. She looked into the cauldron and watched everything interact together, hopefully creating the perfect brew.

The ruler never had to worry about awakening, because she never once went to sleep. She had the most restless night and was plaqued with the idea of going insane. This was terrible news for her, because she had a most important meeting today. She was to discuss her finances with her advisors, as if she was to make one single error, her entire kingdom could fall. She felt disoriented as she prepared for the meeting, and by the time it arrived, she felt as if she had no idea what was going on in her very own kingdom. She was a most selfish ruler, though, and she wished for no one to know of her troubles. She arrived at the meeting, laughing foolishly and asking the most obnoxious of questions. "Who are you, dear lad, and what do you recommend I do with my riches?" she asked. By the end of the meeting, the poor lad had convinced the ruler to will all her money to himself and his poor family of nine. The selfish ruler walked away, laughing foolishly with no remembrance of what she'd just done.

...and all the while, Matilda, whose husband just so happened to be a financial advisor and a father of seven, (therefore a family of nine), laughed and laughed. Oh, how fun it was becoming to drive the selfish ruler insane and put her in her rightly place! That night, she snuck into the garden with several different bags, one for each remaining part of her grand plan. She began by planting a small row of five brugmansia, followed by a row of five wormwood plants. Matilda sprinkled the buried with five snake fangs and five sneezewort petals. It was the perfect combination for the end of her grand plan. Now all she needed to do was sit back and watch the magic happen.

UGH.

How had time flown by THAT FAST?! Sierra began to mildly panic, worried that her potion wouldn't come to by the time the end of the final was called. Taking note of the time, she reached for the brugsmania and hastily added five of it to the potion. Then she regretted her haste and checked to make sure she hadn't made a mistake.

WHEW. All was good.

She breathed a little then began preparing the five snake fangs for the brew. Once she had them ready, she sprinkled them into the cauldron. Then she crushed the wormwood, as it was measured in ounces, and made sure she only had five before dumping them into the cauldron, as well. Then finally, she found herself at the end of the brewing process. She counted out five sneezewort petals then sprinkled them in, completing her potion.

The next day found the palace in complete chaos. Their ruler had been pronounced mad, gone off the deep end with constant cries of sleepless nights and bursting boils. She even claimed to see millions of tiny snakes plaguing her bedroom floor, although each time a servant came to rescue her, he came out noting the room was free of any creatures. When the woman developed a sneezing fit and never could manage to stop, she was strapped to a bed and confined to a padded room for the remainder of her life. She soon died of insanity, and her estate and all that went with it fell into the hands of her financial advisor, his wife Matilda, and their five children. Yes, FIVE, as it seems to be a magical number in our story. the other two in the family of nine were the family's friendly cruppies.

...and so the family, and therefore the kingdom which had been plagued by such a nasty ruler for so long a time, was free to live the rest of their lives in peace. In time, Matilda turned the garden into a beautiful rose garden, and she and her family quickly forgot about the rotten ruler that once owned its beauty.

Silently, Selina thanked Kurumi for not drawing a lot of attention to her brief moment under the table after the mushroom almost exploded. It was not that she was afraid okay maybe a little, it was more that she did not want to die by explosion, which was a natural reaction of sorts. So THAT was why she ducked and covered and perhaps she cried a little bit, but who was watching? Honestly, she hoped no one.

Moving on from her brief moment of panic, she helped Kurumi get the flowers all sorted out. Her friend then proceeded to drop them into the cauldron and waited for everything to dissolve the way it was supposed to in the directions. Once Kurumi seemed pleased by the results, because honestly Selina had no clue if things were progressing correctly, she nodded.

Then she went on to the next thing Kurumi threw at her... which she actually threw. The redhead fumbled to get her goggles on as fast as possible, but to no avail. The mushrooms were already exploding in her face when she threw the new one in. To the best of her ability she put on her goggles but they were lopsided and she no doubt looked daft. She felt just silly.

Kurumi was then throwing something ELSE at Selina. It was snake fangs and Selina nearly jumped back twenty feet. Kurumi should have NOT THROWN those at her. Merlin, if they touched her skin she was dead and Selina was rather a fan of life... just saying.

But she did as she was told and crushed them so they were all nice and dandy to be put in the cauldron. Selina started to add all of the powder of fangs into the cauldron when she noticed that Kurumi was laughing like a loon. Had she missed something?

Eyeing her friend oddly, she kept a bright face... sort of and moved on to add the petals soaked in blood to the mixture. Kurumi seemed to have everything else under control. Once it was all ready, Selina then proceeded to stir the brew in the figure eight position for fifteen seconds.

IT WAS DONE.

With a sigh, Selina said, "Kurumi, what is WRONG with you?"

"Alright. Stirrers down. Now all of you, get out." She said and let everyone leave.

Once everyone was gone, she left, then closed and locked the door.

ooc: We have reached the deadline. Thank you all that participated.