Soon enough a rather shocked Mibbet found herself dragged into a workshop by an overexcited Hestia, who wanted nothing more in this world that to talk about brooms, and teach her.

Apart from being freaked out by the sudden close contact with a human being whose body she was not inhabiting Mibbet was finding this project quite entertaining. Sometimes in life, and for most people it is a really rare thing, you will find yourself meeting a person willing to share what they truly love with you.

You will know it when it happens, if you can meet their eyes they’ll really sparkle, that goofy grin will never leave their face, and no matter what else is around they will not stop talking about the thing they love.

Now if you are a particularly mean person it is possible to shut that down then and there with a single word, or a simple tone. But doing so is like going out to watch the stars, only to throw a piece of thick cloth over your own head. What’s going on may be beautiful, but you don’t get to see it any more. That sparkle will forever be denied to you.

Mibbet had no intention of doing such a thing, despite the stupid human body doing stupid human things and suggesting she do stupid human things Mibbet was a frog, and no way in hell was she screwing this up like that. Learning was fun, having a friend to discuss things, and debate with was amazing. As a frog you can imagine such opportunities were extremely rare. Frogs tend not to gather together except at spawning time, because in a world full of things with beaks, and teeth, and talons, and claws (sometimes all packed into a single package,) doing so was the biological equivalent to ringing the dinner bell.) So this was really the first time Mibbet had had a friend like this, even if at the moment she wanted to smack Rosalind with a rolled up newspaper to make her stop suggesting stuff which was immensely confusing to her.

She knew how humans interacted when they got closer, and would stick to talking broomsticks thank you very much. But she couldn’t help but like Hestia’s enthusiasm, which when uncovered burned brighter than the forge in the corner, even when it had a hellcat napping in it.

Soon enough they were hard at work on the broom, making it look cool, adding a careful metal trim into a section of the tail area to prevent the thing catching on fire. (being on board a burning besom ends badly for all involved. So adding a layer of protection was vital.)

They even cobbled together what Hestia called a “gyroscopic stabilisation core” to make sure that balance was possible. (There’s a reason Witches favour cats, between their unflappable demeanour, superb balance, and ability to always know when to abandon stick. Oh and a feather-fall charm (properly tested of course no witch would knowingly endanger a kitty,) they were an ideal combination of counterweight, gyroscope, ballast, and crash warning system. Cats were basically the ideal flying companion, and many a witch came back to their broom after a spill to find their kitty co-pilot calmly grooming themselves atop the broom bits having ridden the crash out from start to finish completely unharmed.

In Mibbet’s case it was decided Rascal was both too large for the job, and a tad burny to perch atop a stack of airborne kindling, and so a gyroscope was realistically the only solution.

As they worked Mibbet realised something, broomstick geekery was infectious, and she didn’t mind that one little bit. As time went on the other Cacklers slipped in one by one, offering little contributions of their own. Wormwood added a special plant based oil to wax the broom with that she swore was a better anointing agent than animal based equivalents (The others of course jokingly groaned at that, but eventually admitted they agreed that she was indeed correct, if for nothing else than it meant that your broom didn’t end up smelling like bacon, which is as you can imagine somewhat detrimental if you ever fly while hungry. At least partially because if you are flying with the constant smell of bacon while hungry you will be very quickly flying while ravenous. That and because animal based anointing agents leave the rider with greasy fingers, and that way lies lawn darting.)

Song rather enthusiastically gave Mibbet a detailed rundown of PP (Pegasus power), MPMS (Mileage Per Magic Stone). BKP. (Boot Kicking Power, hey if you are flying around in a world where airborne monsters are a thing you want a pair of boots that can kick like hell, It may not stop the potential predator, but it may, hard for something to chomp you when you’ve provided it with involuntary orthodontic intervention courtesy of a pair of steel toe capped boots. Plus even if it did grab you kick hard enough it won’t do it twice. Mibbet was quite a fan of the idea of spiting things that planned to eat her, and as a bonus it meant she could happily boot any passing owls, win win really.) TO (Thaumatological output, a feature usually overlooked by witches as more of a mages thing, but Song was not one to let an advantage slip by out of outdated notions of what was proper, and was quite happy to rant on the subject for as long as it took to get the message across.)

Hagatha meanwhile was very much the glue that held the group together, when Song got into a verbal rabbit hole she was there to gently pull her out. When Hestia allowed her perfectionism to slow down the process she was ready with a well placed compliment to get things flowing smoothly, and a reassuring hug if needed. When Wormwood got all anxious and retreated into herself she was there to make sure she wasn’t alone, and as the time went on Mibbet found herself cackling along with the nerdy jokes. Understanding the difference between PP and TO. She knew she couldn’t stay forever but for now at least she was happy here.