Miyani sighed in frustration as she used up yet another bottle of powdered chalk to draw a circle on her desk. She had been attempting to cast this damn spell for most of the day already and she was now down to her last bottle. The results had been… mixed to say the least. Most attempts just resulted in nothing happening, there had been at least two minor explosions, various items in her room had turned green, including her normally black cat, and one attempt actually transformed her left arm into a tree branch. It took her another hour to turn her arm back to normal again.
   Miyani was young for a witch, only 23 years of age. Growing up, she had always been a bit of an outcast. Her disheveled appearance, gothic tendencies, and tattoos scared off most people. During that time, there had been a fair amount of unexplained occurrences. For instance, a particularly nasty bully of hers had turned up to school with a pig’s nose. Something that Miyani had actually fantasized about the night before. It hadn’t been until last year when she discovered that she actually had magical powers. Since she didn’t know anyone else with powers like hers, she had slowly started educating herself in the arts of witchcraft… with various degrees of success. In all honesty, she could count the number of spells she had successfully cast on one hand.
   Currently, the young witch was trying to cast a spell that would help her flowers grow. Since she lived on the top floor of an eight-story building, she did not exactly have a nice garden, but she did own a few potted plants. Plants that mostly served as ingredients for potions, but they were also just nice to look at. When her circle was finished, she placed a pot with dirt and a planted seed in the middle, intending on making the seed grow into a beautiful rose. Then she began her incantation.

Fair rose that I sow
I command thee to grow.

Miyani held out her hands as she chanted. When she finished, the circle started illuminating. This at least meant that something was going to happen. However, the her excitement soon turned into disappointment when the light dimmed down again and the pot was still very much rose-free.
   “Grrr, why won’t you grow!” the young witch huffed, slumping her head over forwards. As she did so though, she noticed that there was something not quite right. Not only had her black hair turned red, they had also transformed into petals it seemed.
   “Great… and now I’m out of chalk…” Miyani sighed. She had tried so many variations of the spell by now that she started wondering if she was even on the right track at all. Being a self-taught witch was hard…
   Standing up, the young witch threw on a hoodie to hide her petals to the best of her abilities before heading towards the door. “Don’t go licking anything you shouldn’t lick, Whiskers,” she called out to her cat, named after her peculiarly shaped whiskers. Her cat who was still green at that. Something she also still had to fix before letting her out of the house again.
   Miyani just closed the door and entered the lift. On the fifth floor though, she was joined by Gary Olsen, one of her neighbours. This immediately caused Miyani to tense up a bit though. After all, she couldn’t exactly let him see her peculiar hairstyle. Not to mention the fact that Gary had a habit of making nasty comments about her looks. He wasn’t the worst bully that Miyani had had, he was just the latest iteration.
   “Good afternoon,” Gary said, looking quite annoyed at the prospect of having to share the lift with Miyani. He wore a set of spectacles and pretty much always wore a white shirt.
   “Good afternoon,” Miyani replied awkwardly.
The ride down was just filled with awkward silence. Miyani could see that Gary wanted to make some nasty comment again, but he stayed silent for a moment. Perhaps he was running out of original things to say. However, that’s when the man started sniffing. “Hmm… I smell roses,” he said.
   Miyani didn’t know if she could get any paler than she already was at that moment. She hadn’t even noticed that her petals were actually giving off a pretty nice aroma. “It’s… it’s a new perfume!” she blurted out.
   “Perfume? You?” Gary asked in surprise. Somehow he had been able to find new words that stung. Thankfully, just before the conversation became any more awkward though, the lift arrived on the ground floor, where Miyani hurriedly left.
   “I’d love to stay and chat but… I gotta hurry before the store closes!” she shouted behind her. It wasn’t exactly a lie, but it sure was a good excuse to get away from him.
Happy to finally be rid of her neighbour, she started running, hoping against all odds to not attract any bugs towards her. The store she was actually going to was one she had discovered somewhere during the previous year, and what an amazing find it was. It was a store that sold lots of different, alternative stuff. Leaves from certain rare trees, special soaps made out of peculiar ingredients, clothing that perfectly matched Miyani’s tastes, but above all they sold powdered chalk that seemed to work exceedingly well with her incantations. The young witch wasn’t entirely certain about the store’s purpose. Whether it was for people who believed in alternative medicines, goths who just liked having exotic stuff in their home, or perhaps even actual witches such as herself. Miyani never really bothered to ask them though. After all, she couldn’t exactly just tell anyone that she was a witch!
   As the young witch ran, she really had to hold on tight to her hoodie, lest it accidentally blow off to reveal her petalled hair. When she finally entered the store, she almost bumped into a woman whom she recognized as Ramona, the owner of the store. She looked to be about 30 years old, though Miyani suspected she was probably a lot older than that. It made her wonder what the owner’s secret was to appearing so youthful all the time.
   “Oh… my apologies, ma’am. I was about to close up for the day,” Ramona said.
   “Ah… please, I won’t be long,” Miyani said, putting her hands together as if begging.
   “Well… alright then, but five minutes tops,” the woman said, eyeing her watch.
   “Thank you so much,” Miyani smiled, rushing off towards the chalk. She then just grabbed as many as she could carry before rushing towards the counter again.
Ramona had an amused smile on her face then. “You really like that chalk, huh? After all, you’ve been buying that stuff for months now,” she chuckled.
   “I… yes… that’s not a problem, is it?” Miyani asked nervously.
   “No, no, not at all,” Ramona smiled. “That’ll be 20 dollars, then.”
   Miyani just wordlessly paid for the chalk and then loaded the bottles into her bag. In order to do so, she obviously had to use both hands. Unfortunately for her, this accidentally caused one of the petals on her head to slip out from under her hoodie, causing both women to stay silent for a moment.
The young witch turned beet red and her eyes went wide, uncertain on what to really say or do. “I-I can explain!” she blurted out.
   Then, much to Miyani’s surprise, Ramona… just grinned. “There’s no need for that, but remember to take off your cosplay before leaving your home next time,” she said, winking.
   “Ah!... right… yes! I… I’ll remember that,” Miyani blurted out.
   “I’ll be seeing you next time then?” the store-owner asked.
   “Y-yes… of course,” Miyani stammered, backing off again towards the door. “S-sorry for the troubles… I’ll be out of your petal- HAIR! Out of your hair again! ahahaha...” And with that, she quickly charged out the door and just started walking home again as fast as possible, very happy to be out of the woods again. That was far too close! She just cursed at herself constantly, making sure to keep her hoodie down tightly this time.

“Finally, back home,” Miyana sighed when she finally reached the safety of her room again before slumping down to the ground. Since it was late spring, it was actually just a little bit too hot for a hoodie, so she felt quite warm. On top of that, the adrenaline rush from everything that had happened up until then was starting to really take its toll on her energy levels.
   Whiskers came on over, purring softly and brushing up against her leg. The witch’s feline friend had been by her side for a very long time already, since she was just a kitten. Since then, the two had been inseparable. To the point where she simply followed Miyani when she went to live on her own.
   Miyani stroked the cat’s head and gave her a good backscratch. “You’re right… I’d better start getting to work on fixing things again…” she said. Since she was alone most of the time, she’d gotten used to talking to Whiskers instead. Of course, the cat never really talked back, but Miyani did always somehow feel as if she could read her pet’s thoughts just by looking at her. Perhaps it was a witch thing that she simply hadn’t really been able to explore just yet.
   When she got up, she moved on over to her desk and got out one of her new bottles of chalk to draw yet another circle.

Let all effects from spells past
reverse so that they do not last.

As she finished her chant, her hair finally returned back to normal, as did all of the green colours in her house. At least she had gotten very good at that counter spell. The only reason she was having such difficulties with it that afternoon was because of her inability to move her left arm, since it was a tree branch after all.
   As if to thank her, Whiskers jumped up on Miyani’s lap and mewled softly before lying down and starting to purr.
   “Sorry about turning you green earlier…” Miyani sighed as she stroked her pet some more. “Maybe I should just give up… I’m still having the stupidest side effects, even a year later. I can pretend to live a normal life… right Whisk?” she mused, looking down. While having various different body parts turn into plant-parts wasn’t quite the worst thing in the world, it sure was disheartening to just be unable to do anything right.
   Whiskers, however, looked up as if she had just been deeply insulted. Something that Miyani wasn’t really expecting. “I guess you don’t agree, huh…” she pondered. Well, she had to admit that giving up now was probably not a good idea. After all, she had spent so much time, money and effort into honing her magical abilities already. Besides, she did have some successes in the past, even if they were not always the intended effects she was going for. On top of that, giving up on magic altogether would be ignoring a huge part of who she was.
   “You know what? You’re right, Whiskers. I can do this! Even if it takes weeks to perfect this spell! I will become the greatest witch out there! And I’m going to ace this spell!!” Miyani shouted resolutely, causing her cat to lie back down, content. That’s when there was a rather loud rumble originating from her stomach. “... right after I’ve eaten something.” she added.

For about an hour after dinner, Miyani was looking through her notes that she’d assembled throughout the day, documenting her various different attempts at her spell. She had tried so many variations of hand movements, chalk placements and incantations that she was really running out of options. Perhaps she wasn’t using the right materials? Perhaps this sort of spell wasn’t even really possible? Or perhaps she just had to take a completely different approach? She just couldn’t figure it out at all.
   Sighing, Miyani just placed her notes to the side and moved on over to the kitchen to make herself some homebrewed tea. Since witches in fairy tales are known for brewing potions, she had gotten used to making her own specialized tea flavours. It was at least something that she seemed to be relatively good at. She just put on the kettle and moved on over to her balcony to pick a petal or two off her tulip. When she stood there though, she took a moment to just look around the town. It wasn’t a big city necessarily, and there was plenty of nature around. Why was it so easy for all of that nature to grow, while her rose was still just a small seed?
   Whiskers brushed up against her leg before sitting in front of her and staring off in the distance. Miyani knew her cat to have a superiority complex and she liked to imagine that her cat just enjoyed watching over her subjects. Upon closer inspection though, Miyani was able to see that Whiskers was actually looking towards the park. A park that was particularly beautiful around this time of the year due to its many flowers being in full bloom.
   “What… you want me to gather inspiration from the park?” she spoke up then, eyeing her cat.
   Whiskers just mewled back, cute as ever, before returning back inside and jumping towards her favourite spot on the windowsill.
   Visiting the park actually wasn’t all that bad an idea. Even just thinking about the sights and the smells was usually enough to bring a smile upon Miyani’s face. Something that no human interaction had ever really achieved with her. Nodding to herself, she made up her mind to go out after her tea.

The park was as lovely as Miyani had anticipated. The trees were fully green, the chirping of birds could be heard all around, and there was only one other woman around for a stroll. The sun wasn’t quite setting just yet and it was still fairly warm. Miyani had just put on a black top as well as a pair of jeans. She never much cared about looking all fancy and she just went with what felt comfortable. She had also taken some chalk with her as well as her notebook, just in case the inspiration hit her then and there.
   Since she was a woman on a mission, she headed straight for the nearest patch of flowers. They may not have been roses, but a flower is a flower. She then took a moment to look around, mostly to determine where the other woman was. It seemed that she was just standing by the nearby pond on the other side of the large flower patch to look at the swans. Satisfied with that, Miyani just sat down on the ground and observed the flowers, taking in all of the sensations around her. Their scent was quite lovely in the evening breeze alright. Their brightly coloured petals were a treat to the eyes. It made Miyani think to her own hair earlier that day. Perhaps she should have admired it for a bit longer on herself…
   Getting out her notebook, Miyani just started looking over her notes again to brainstorm. “Since flowers are usually quite elegant, perhaps I should have made more elegant movements with my hands? Or perhaps flower-based spells require a material other than chalk? Then again, I WAS able to transform parts of my own body into plants using chalk. Is there a different way to casting spells that I have yet to discover? And if so… is it okay for me to just explore that when I haven’t even really mastered the chalk circles?” She wrote down all of her thoughts. Normally she’d have these monologues with Whiskers, but her notebook would suffice for now.
   Perhaps… perhaps she could give it a try here? She hadn’t taken taken her own potted seed with her of course, but there were plenty of flowers around that she could maybe grow out to be larger than they were. Looking across the patch, she saw that the woman was still just looking out over the pond. So long as she stayed there, that should give her plenty of time to perform a spell.
   Thus the witch got to work. Since she was still sitting on the path, the ground was relatively flat, so making a circle of chalk wasn’t all that difficult. The breeze was thankfully not hard enough to blow the chalk away either so things were actually really going in her favour here. All she had to do now was focus and begin experimenting again.

To the Rose that I see,
hear the words I say to thee.
Let your petals grow
and your thorns show.
Take firm root into the earth,
and show the world what you are worth.

Miyani chanted quiet enough for the other woman to not hear her. As she did so, she moved her hands as elegant as a flower in the calm breeze, almost imagining herself as a flower just for the sake of the spell. Sure enough, as she finished her incantation, the chalk lit up green and red! However… none of the flowers here seemed to be growing at all. Quickly checking out her own body revealed that she too was not affected by anything. “Huh… then… what DID I do?” she pondered.
   That’s when her eye fell on the other woman again who was… frantically looking around herself? Tilting her head, Miyani stood up to take a closer look at what was going on. To her horror, she saw what the girl was panicking about. Her feet had merged together into a single stem while her shoes lay uselessly to the side.
   “Oh no… Oh no oh no oh no!” Miyani gasped as she just stood there, mortified. For the first time that day, she found herself hoping that the changes would only affect her feet, but that hope was quickly dashed when she saw that the woman’s blonde hairs were turning red. Frantically, Miyani searched through her bag, but of course she had only brought enough chalk with her for one single spell attempt. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me…” she cursed to herself. Why was she such a damn klutz?! There was simply no way to stop this now. The woman was going to completely transform into a rose.
   “Help!” the woman called out as more and more of her hair was turning red and forming into petals not unlike the ones Miyani had had herself earlier. One of her hands was turning green meanwhile and flattening out slightly, obviously forming a leaf.
   Why, of all times, did Miyani have to cast a successful spell now?! There was no way to go around this anymore. She had to come clean. Quickly, she picked up her things and started running over to the transforming woman, who by now had actually started shrinking down slightly.
   “Oh thank goodness! Please help me!” the woman shouted, noticing Miyani approaching.
   “I’m so… so sorry about this!” Miyani replied. She wasn’t really sure whether the soon-to-be-rose or she herself were panicking more.
   “W-what?” the woman asked while her other hand was now forming a bright green leaf as well. Her dress was also starting to hang quite loosely from her body.
   “I… I did this on accident… but I will make this right! Just… I’m so sorry!” Miyani said frantically.
   The woman just looked flabbergasted for a moment. “... how… what… huh?” she stammered. Her voice was actually starting to become a little bit weaker and higher in pitch as she just shrunk down more and more.
   “I’m… I’m a witch… I was practicing a spell and I guess you accidentally stood in the crossfire… I was trying to make a rose grow!” Miyani blurted out.
   “Well… currently I’m not growing at all!” the woman shouted as she now only reached up to Miyani’s chest. That’s when her dress finally just fell uselessly to the ground, revealing that her whole body had by now become green. While it was certainly thinning out to become a stem, her naked female form was still quite visible for now. “EEEK!” she screamed, but since both of her arms and hands had by now fully transformed into leaves, there was no way for her to pick up her dress anymore, let alone cover herself. Meanwhile, nothing remained of her blonde hair, having been completely transformed into petals, and the same thing was starting to affect her face as well. And all the while she was just shrinking more and more as her bra and panties also just fell to the ground. “how are you going to fix this?!” she shouted, her voice just incredibly weak now as her size reached Miyani’s waist.
   “I… I know a counterspell! But… I need more materials… I’ll take you home!” Miyani replied.
   “How?! I’m… rooted…” the woman said. Those would be the last words she’d utter as just a few moments later, her facial features simply vanished into the petals. The feminine form of her body had also by now completely thinned out. Instead, there were a few thorns here and there that had grown out, interspersed with a few more leaves here and there. Finally, the shrinking stopped when the woman just barely reached Miyani’s knees… and that was that. Where once there was a normal human woman, there was now a completely ordinary rose with no traces of her humanity left. It just… stood there, basking in the setting sun’s rays and gently swaying in the evening breeze, much like all the other flowers in the park.
   For a moment, Miyani just stood there, dumbfounded. She couldn’t believe what she’d done. Her spell… had actually transformed someone! She had transformed an animate human into an inanimate flower! If she was able to do this, then surely she could achieve more! The witch could hardly believe it, but throughout her panic, she actually started feeling quite a bit excited about all of this! However, this was no time to be celebrating. The rose was right of course… it was rooted! As such, she had two options. She could quickly run back home to get some more chalk, but that would mean leaving the rose behind on its own. While the park was still mostly empty now, there was no telling that it would stay that way while she left of course. Therefore, she had to carefully dig out the rose and bring it home somehow. She halted her thoughts for a moment then. Was she really just going to refer to the transformed woman as an ‘it’ now? Well… she WAS a rose now, after all...
   Thus, Miyani started digging. She actually had no idea how far the roots of a rose could reach, but she was going to find out. She could only really use her hands to dig, since she didn’t really have any tools nearby. Luckily, the earth here was quite soft and so it was relatively easy to dig down. After a good fifteen minutes of digging though, she had to give her fingers some rest.
   Miyani sighed. “You probably hate me… even if you’re a flower now. I’m just such a screw-up… but then again, I don’t really have a teacher to teach me this stuff,” she said. Of course, she knew that the rose couldn’t actually answer. Heck, she wasn’t even sure whether the rose could hear or see her at all!
   Just then, Miyani noticed something coming towards her. It was a butterfly, no doubt attracted to the scent that the rose was giving off. Sure enough, Miyani looked on as it perched itself onto one of the rose’s petals and started drinking some of its nectar before happy fluttering off again elsewhere. The woman really WAS just a flower now. Just another part of nature, indistinguishable from the rest. It… actually made Miyani smile a bit, seeing this.
   “Huh… I wonder what that must have felt like for you…” she pondered aloud. “Anyway, I should keep on digging again.” With that, Miyani got back to work again.

About an hour after Miyani had left her home, she was finally back in her room. The sun had already set by then and there was a sky full of stars overhead. There had been a few people on the street that gave her odd looks for carrying around a rose, complete with a clod of dirt, but she just ignored them mostly.
   Whiskers, ever curious, instantly came on over to inspect this curious new flower.
   “No! No licking or biting!” Miyani yelled, holding up the rose over her head. “I… accidentally transformed someone into this flower. So this is a person! Again, no biting.”
   Whiskers just eyed the rose for a few moments, mewled and then walked off again. Miyani could swear that there was a sense of pride in the cat’s eyes…
   Regardless, Miyani moved on over to her desk and placed the rose into an empty pot. She then made her familiar circle of chalk and was about to begin her counterspell, but she stopped herself for a moment. The transformed woman was now aware of Miyani’s secret. If she turned her back, then she would most likely tell others about it. Everyone would know that she was a witch. The government would probably lock her up right away or worse! Everything would be different…
   ‘Roses tell no tales,’ she thought to herself. She could just leave it as is and place her on the balcony alongside her other plants. Perhaps it would attract more butterflies and bees, which would be a very welcome sight. Miyani did always like bugs after all. No-one would have to know that this particular rose was once a person…
Just then, Whiskers brushed up against her leg. When Miyani looked, she saw that her cat looked up with a… rather calming look. As if she tried saying ‘everything will be alright’.
   ‘What am I thinking… of course things will be alright,’ Miyani thought then. Leaving the rose as is would just be needlessly cruel! She would have robbed the poor woman of movement and humanity forever if she left her a rose. She just had to turn her back. That way, even if the woman would tell everyone about her secret, then at least her conscience would be cleared.
   With that, she began her counterspell.

Let all effects from spells past
reverse so that they do not last.

Sure enough, the chalk lit up and the rose began to stir. At first it was barely noticeable, but soon, Miyani could see that its stem was starting to thicken again. It also grew slightly and some of its thorns were getting smaller.
   “Ah… I should probably put you on the ground before you crush my desk,” Miyani chuckled nervously, carefully placing the pot on the floor. It was then that she was able to make out some facial features again. The rose soon opened its eyes once more as all of her thorns completely retracted into her growing body. For a few moments, she just wordlessly looked ahead of herself before looking up at Miyani. On her face was a look of… confusion. She didn’t appear scared or angry at all. It looked more like she had just woken up from a very deep slumber. Her feminine curves were starting to become more apparent again as most of her leaves retracted into her body again as well.
   “I’m… turning back?” she asked with a rather timid voice as she looked down at her body.
   “Oh, thank goodness, you can still talk… I was starting to get a little worried there,” Miyani replied awkwardly.
   “... You really are a witch…?” the transforming woman said, looking back up at the witch that had transformed her. She grew bigger again and her face was becoming more and more pronounced.
   “Yeah… a very bad one at that. I don’t really have anyone to teach me about any of this… Again, I’m so sorry about all of this! I was trying to make a flower grow, but it accidentally affected you instead…” Miyani explained.
   Movement was starting to return to the former rose and she was able to take a better look at her growing body now. While her arms were still very much leaves, she was now at least able to move them up and down slightly. “Whoah… I was an actual flower then…” she said, still appearing quite flabbergasted.
   “Y-yeah… you were…” Miyani admitted. “If it’s any consolation… you were a very pretty… and you smelled quite nice,” Miyani stammered, blushing slightly there.
   “O-oh… I did?” the woman chuckled nervously. Miyani wasn’t really certain whether she was blushing too though, since her head was still mostly red like the petals on her head. She looked down then, only to gasp again. “M-my clothes!” she said as she placed her leaves over her intimate parts.
   “Oh, right! Don’t worry, I picked them up,” Miyani said, quickly reaching over for her bag and revealing the girl’s clothes.
   “Phew… thank you,” she said.
   “Eh… I could hardly just leave them there, right?” Miyani chuckled nervously.
   “I… guess not,” the girl replied, chuckling slightly.
   “Uhm… I’m Miyani. What about you?” the witch asked.
   “I’m…Rose,” the growing woman said, beginning to giggle. Her leaves were slowly transforming back into arms and her petals were starting to turn blonde once more.
   “Huh? I mean… what’s your name?” Miyani asked, raising an eyebrow.
   “No, for real. My name is actually Rose,” the woman laughed.
   “Whoah… that’s…” Miyani replied, starting to chuckle herself now. “Funny how that works. It’s almost as if…” She stopped herself from continuing that sentence then as she realised something. She gasped. “I’m such an idiot!”
   “What? Why?” Rose asked.
   “In my spell, I specifically said the word ‘rose’, but the flowers in that patch weren’t roses at all. THAT’s why the spell transformed you instead!” Miyani exclaimed.
   “You…” Rose began but then she just burst out into full on laughter. Her leaves were clearly arms again now, with only her hands still looking quite leafy. While this was of course a good thing, it did make it quite difficult to cover herself up now. She was by now roughly the same height as Miyani’s midriff again. “That’s just too funny!” she cried out.
   Miyani didn’t really expect Rose to burst out into laughter like she did. It actually helped to make her start laughing as well. “I guess it IS a funny coincidence, huh,” she laughed.
   “Yeah!” Rose replied. She then stopped laughing though and looked at her feet. Her legs were clearly separated again and here feet were obviously about to get far too big for the small flowerpot she was currently still standing in. “Ah… I guess I should get out of this thing, huh,” she chuckled as she did her best to lift her right foot up from out of the dirt. When she managed it, her foot was revealed to still have quite a few roots attached to it, but they were slowly retreating back. She just barely lifted her other foot out of the pot  for she had by now grown to almost be up to Miyani’s height again as her skin slowly started turning back into human skin once more. Satisfied, she reached for her clothes and slowly began dressing herself.
   “Uhm… so uh… Rose? Uh…” Miyani started before placing her hands together. “Can you PLEASE not tell anyone about this?” she begged.
Rose halted her dressing to take a look at Miyani then. “Well… you got me into this mess… but then you DID help turn me back and all… Alright. I promise not to share your secret with anyone.”
   Miyani let out a huge sigh of relief then. She was safe. “Thank you so much,” she said.
   “No problem,” Rose smiled as she put on her dress again. She was by now mostly human again. She was back to her old size and only the tips of her hair was still red. “Besides… being a flower wasn’t all that bad,” she admitted then.
   “R-really? Can… can you tell me more?” Miyani asked curiously.
   “Yeah. It… was actually quite nice,” Rose said, blushing.
Miyani couldn’t really believe what she was hearing. That’s when tons of questions started filling her. “Were you able to see or hear at all?” she asked curiously.
   “Well no. I didn’t have eyes to see with, or ears to hear with. I DID feel everything though. I felt the wind blowing against me. I felt my feet… my roots I mean, soaking up the nutritions in the earth. Also, I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated sunlight as much as I did while transformed,” Rose explained.
   “Whoah… that’s kinda amazing,” Miyani said. She had to admit that Rose made it all sound quite pleasant. “What about your inability to move?”
   “Scary at first, honestly, but… very relaxing when I got used to it, just standing there and bathing in the sun,” Rose explained, blushing again slightly.
   “I see, I see.” Miyani took all of this information in. The way Rose described the and the way that Miyani herself imagined it to be based off of that, it all sounded like it would actually be nice to just… be a flower for a bit.
   “But… I am happy to be able to move again,” Rose laughed. By now, she was fully human again with no trace of her floral past.
   “I can imagine,” Miyani chuckled awkwardly.
   That’s when Whiskers appeared again from wherever she had been earlier, mewling to demand attention. Miyani didn’t always know where her cat hung out when she wasn’t looking.
   “Oh! How adorable!” Rose cheered, reaching over to stroke the cat’s back.
   “Her name is Whiskers,” Miyani said as she too gave her pet a few back scratches.
   “Is she your familiar?” Rose asked.
   “Fami-...” Miyani mentally facepalmed herself then. Why had she never thought about this? Of course Whiskers was her familiar! Her cat DID always have a knack for making her think of things she wouldn’t have really considered on her own. Not to mention the fact that Whiskers had pretty much always been by her side. “Yes… yes she is,” Miyani blurted out then, trying to appear as if she knew it all along.
   “Ah, amazing. I wouldn’t mind having a familiar like Whiskers here,” Rose chuckled. Thankfully for Miyani, the former flower didn’t seem to have noticed her hesitation. “So where am I exactly?”
   “Warwick lane… number 132,” Miyani answered.
   “Wait, seriously? Hang on,” Rose said. She then stood up and moved on over to the balcony where she pointed to a different balcony several floors lower to the right. “That’s where I live!” she exclaimed.
   “Whoah… what a coincidence!” Miyani laughed.
   “Indeed! I guess I’d better return there. It’s starting to get late,” Rose smiled.
   “Right. Again, I’m so sorry about all of this,” Miyani said, looking down.
   “Hey, it’s okay. Just… tell me you’re going to practice a spell next time. I’ll be prepared then,” Rose laughed.
   Miyani couldn’t help but laugh at that one. “I’ll keep that in mind,” she said.
   “Friends?” Rose asked, extending her hand.
   Miyani eyed the outstretched hand for a moment. Friends. It was a word that had been completely alien to her. People always either avoided, ignored or bullied her. Yet here was a woman she’d only just met, wanting to be friends. Slowly, she reached out with her own hand and carefully placed it into Rose’s hand, almost treating it as if it was a treasure. “... Friends,” she said quietly.
   Rose did seem quite surprised by this but seemed to just shrug it off for now. “Well, Miyani. I’ll see you around then,” she said as she picked up her things and headed for the door.
   “Yeah… I’ll see you around,” Miyani smiled awkwardly. With that, Rose moved off to the lift and Miyani closed her front door, still dumbfounded at everything that had happened that evening. How did any of this happen? More importantly, how did she get a friend out of turning someone into a flower?!
   “I’m a terrible witch…” she said to herself, looking around her room. That’s when she saw the pot containing the seed she’d tried to grow all day long. She decided to give it one last try. She placed the pot on her desk and drew one last circle of chalk.

Seed of a rose here in the earth,
let the world see your worth.
Let your petals grow
and your thorns show.

She chanted while performing similar elegant movements as the ones she had done in the park. The chalk lit up green and red again… and for the first time, a spell of hers actually had the intended effect. Sure enough, from out of the earth grew a plant that quickly grew out into a beautiful rose. Miyani smiled at it.
   “I have a lot to learn still… but I’ll get there,” she said then as she placed the rose on her balcony.