Belladonna's good eye twitched a bit at Kino's remark. "How dare you talk back to me. I wouldn't even let another cat treat me that way." "One of these days, us cats will overthrow you two legged freaks. You'll be sorry."
Tail lashing angrily, she stood up and scampered to the messy, reagent covered desk in the back of the room. A crumpled witches hat was lying on the floor underneath. Pushing aside moldy fungi and decayed rabbit feet, she found the candle she was looking for. While she wasn't too happy with the human she'd gotten as her new partner, Belladonna was glad to finally have her cantrips back. Touching her nose to the candle's wick, she caused it to spring to life. Reacting to this, the other candles in the room lit up immediately. Turning back to see that Eckhart had finally made his way into the room, she jumped off the desk and back onto the chalk circle.
"Alright, now if you're done interrupting me," she began, giving the masked woman a dirty look. "I'll tell you why you're here."
"How long has it been?"
"Her name was Vanya. She was only eighteen when she found me and took me in." Looking sadly at the dusty old hat, she continued. "When she first bound me to her, we were so exited. So... stupid. We were going to cure the world together, she told me." Looking back at the humans, Belladonna let out a quiet chuckle. "For a few years, all we did was experiment with reagents, trying to find new cures for illnesses. We... never had much luck. When he showed up, offered to give us the remedies we wanted..." Belladonna's voice trailed off before she continued, fur bristling with anger. "Well, how were we supposed to say no?"
"Why didn't I say something?"
"This... being. It never gave us a name, but he told us that he sympathized with us. Wanted to see us succeed. Vanya and I were young and foolish, so we believed him." Belladonna took a look at the hat once more. "We ended up calling him "The Giftgiver". My girl signed a paper in blood, and she suddenly knew a whole bunch of cures that we never would've thought of. They'll apparently only work if the person mixing the ingredients knows what it will create, so we were making remedies that literally nobody else could. We never stopped to think about what happened until Vanya had that accursed dream..."
"I failed."
"Some witches, before they pass on, will receive a dream the day before. Call it fate throwing them a bone. In Vanya's dream, saw the Giftgiver taking her away, and leaving me behind. When she realized what she had done, who she had made a bargain with, she became obsessed with atonement. She knew the Giftgiver was probably watching her, so she had me write down all of the most useful remedies we discovered and leave them in the library for somebody to find, in hopes that somebody else would make good use of them." Belladonna stopped talking for a few seconds, before quietly continuing. "When I got back from the library, she was already gone."
"Why couldn't it have taken me too?"
Looking at Eckhart and Ewan, Belladonna's tone of voice became very harsh. "Imagine my surprise when, after four years, you two idiots pick up the book and start misusing it. Now, because you two are stupid, I'm going to have to follow you to make sure you don't fuck up again." Now looking solely at the fishy smelling boy, Belladonna's eyes narrowed. "You'd better not think that because we're bound together it means you can treat me like a pet either. You're not Vanya, and you never will be."
Looking at Kino, Belladonna meowed snidely. "I can tell you've wanted to say something for a while. Spit it out, Beaky."