The Omen

One, two, Cooca comes for you.

Three, four, shut the door.

Five, six, mischievous girl.

Seven, eight, who misbehave.

Nine, ten, begin again.

Now, everybody, singing along.

One, two, Cooca comes for you.

Three, four, close the window.

Five, six, naughty girl.

Seven, eight, that lies and disobeys.

Nine, ten, repeat again

One, two, Cooca comes for you.

Three, four, say goodbye.

Five, six, you who being naughty.

Seven, eight, there's no way to escape.

Nine, ten, you pray and repent.

You pray again!

You pray again!

You pray again!

Okay everybody, one more time.

One, two, Cooca comes for you.

Three, four, shut your eyes.

Five, six, sleep tightly.

Seven, eight, to escape your fate.

Nine, ten, never awake again.

Never awake again!

Never awake again!

Never awake again!

That's the end.

This children song was common around the whole Licorne Empire.

Where you could find kids jumping ropes, this song was present.

Cooca was a popular figure in nursery rhymes, described as a millenary witch, having the head of an alligator, claws like a hawk, that only sleep one night at every seven years and took naughty misbehaved children from their families.

It was common among children, and adults fear the figure of Cooca. She was the high priest of the cult of the dragon god Green Storm, leader of the wicked Cooca witches, and suspected of being a probably enemy of the empire.

The little duchess Sapphire Alepou of Auara was a child constantly praised for her good behavior, and the fear of Cooca didn't cross her heart. Often she heard that Cooca never would come for her from her tutor's and relatives.

However, Cooca comes, and contrary to what the rhymes and tales said, this didn´t happen on a cloudy dark night, without a moon in the sky.

The Propasa world exists inside the melted chocolate nebula. Because of that, the night sky is often covered by beautiful auroras, and Sapphire liked to look at her window to the inspiring view of the ring around the world similar to the ones around Saturn until fell asleep.

Sometimes one or another leaf, entered her bedroom carried by the wind, and in this special clear night without any wind, many leaves entered by her window.

More and more, leaves entered twirling forming the shape of a tall and elegant woman in the middle of the bedroom. She smells like fresh leaves and was wearing a green cape made of alligator skin, a dress with a pattern of leaves, emerald collars, bracelets and rings connected with thin chains to thimbles in the tip of her fingers, with the shape of sharp claws, that shinned with the light of the night.

The only odd and scary things were her big green eyes that resembled an alligator.

She snapped her finger doing a metallic sound and a leaf floating in the middle of the bedroom started to burn a bright white flame, that illuminated the whole place.

With a fierce stare, she glanced around at the curtains in the window, at the wooden door, at the shelf with children books, the opened truck chest covered with cheerful illustrations and some toys inside, the wardrobe and finally the girl in the bed with brown hair, cinnamon skin, and amber eyes, covering her face until the nose with the sheets.

"Little elf doesn't look like a baby." She said in a fast, loud, and authoritative tone.

Sapphire understood that wasn't a dream and awoke completely.

"Where's the baby puppy elf?" The woman asked searching for the bedroom with a piercing stare.

Most people in Propasa didn´t have the concept of elves since they are all elves with pointed ears. "What is a baby puppy elf?" The confused girl asked, trying to understand what was happening.

"Puppy elf is the puppy elf." The woman pointed letting clear that she was a puppy elf.

"Where's the baby?" The woman clapped impatiently. "Puppy elf is a baby?"

"There's no baby here," Sapphire answered,. "Just me. I'm not a baby anymore."

The woman gave an uncertain stare. "Puppy elf has a name?"

"My name is Sapphire." She hesitated for a moment "My father says that I´m his little Gem and everybody calls me Gem."

"Confuse…" She thought for a moment. "Puppy elf Gem has siblings?"

"No?" Gem answered in doubt.

They stared at each other in silence for a moment. "Call mommy, puppy elf Gem."

"Mom!" Sapphire obeyed.

"Lauder!" She lifted a finger.

"Mommy!" Her voice sounded dozens of times stronger and the woman gave a smile of satisfaction.

Didn't took too long until an enormous swan appeared at the door and transformed into a startled brunet woman in a nightgown. She ran towards the children to embrace her and talk mentally. "Are you fine Gem? She did something to you?"

"A swan-elf?" The woman said it was the funniest thing she ever saw.

The angry mother held her daughter from the stranger. "Why you came here?"

"Curiosity." She took a long tube from a small purse in her waist. "Why a flying elf is so interested in this?"

"What is an elf, and what you have there?"

"Flying elf is an elf, and this is a dharmaquation to revive a dying baby."

"The dharmaquation?" She released Gem and approached the woman, "You are one of the Cooca's witches?"

"Cooca is no Cooca's witch." She released a loud laugh. "Cooca is Cooca, the only one and the best."

The moment Cooca revealed her identity turned things a bit awkward; a strange woman invading her daughter´s bedroom was scary, but Cooca was a figure so mythic that the poor mother doesn´t know how to react.

"You are Cooca?" Gem's mother lifts an eyebrow. "I expected that you looked like an alligator."

"Cooca is Cooca. The only one and the best." Cooca pulled her hood made with an alligator head, combined with her purse and clothes made with alligator skin and her inhumane eyes. She fit the description of the witch alligator. The queen of the wicked witches. The Cooca.

Terrified the poor mother squeezed Gem hard and started to shuddered; her hearth seemed that would explode.

"Swan elf is Jolly Acacia? The one looking for this"

"Yes."

Cooca took out the hood. "What is your relationship with the Whitehawk wizards?"

"None!" Jolly Acacia stammered. "A woman who worked for my husband became their slave and told me how the baroness Rock daughter was revived with a dharmaquation."

"If swan elf Jolly Acacia doesn't have a dying baby, why is looking for this?" She shook the tube.

"It's not for me. My Niece. My brother's daughter is dying. She has around the age of my daughter; she's living through strong spells and doesn't awake for months. Barely breathe."

"Very irregular…" Cooca breathes between her teeth releasing a thick stem cloud. "Cooca can make a deal with the mother. Call the mother of the dying puppy."

"That will be a problem. She lives in Marigold County."

"Where's that?"

"You know the Yellowbelly Mountain on the other side of the archipelago?"

"Of course. Green Storm had a couple of babies with Yellowbelly some centuries ago."

"She lives, nearby that mountain, more than twenty thousand miles from here." Jolly Acacia gave a deep breath. "Now that you understand. You can make a deal with me and I take the dharmaquation to her."

"No! That's not the Amaru way."

Gem pulled Jolly Acacia nightgown. "Mom, what's a barmaquadron?"

"A dharmaquation is a complex formula to perform a magic ritual to do a ginormous spell," Jolly answered. "The Count of Rock and the Whitehawk wizards made one to save his granddaughter."

"They got their dharmaquation with Cooca," Cooca said shaking the tube.

"My niece is dying. Are you sure that there wasn't another way?"

"No other way. Those things have procedures. Cooca will just make a pact with who will use it. Now take Cooca there."

"What?"

"What swan elf is going to do with the dharmaquation?"

"I´m going to take it immediately to my sister-in-law Bonina You gave it to me and I go to Marigold Manor right now."

"Them what swan elf is waiting for?"

"Okay!" Jolly Acacia turns to her daughter. "Dearie put on your clothes we were going to travel."

"Today?" Gem asked.

"Now!" Cooca ordered.

Surprised, confused, scared, and curious, Gem dressed her clothes and went after her mother holding her stuffed dragon.

Jolly Acacia put some clothes in a bag, and Cooca ordered. "Use the big one with the toys." She obeyed and started to put clothes and other belongings in the big luggage truck that Gem used to put her toys without questioning.

"Put your stuff too," Cooca ordered Gem and put her eyes on the picture books. "What is this? Looks like Cooca"

Gem stopped what was doing to see and her Mother glanced worriedly. "That's Cinderella´s sorceress dragon godmother."

"Sorceress dragon godmother?" Surprised she flipped the pages. "Why Cooca will do that?"

Gem showed a picture. "The sorceress dragon loses a game of dice to Cinderella's father and became her godmother to avoid pay the gold she bet."

"That's something Cooca would do," Cooca said astonishingly flattered. "What´s happen later?"

"He dies and Cinderella is bullied by her ugly stepsisters and evil stepmother until the king makes a great ball party inviting all the single girls in the kingdom to choose a bride to the prince."

"Why Cinderella was in jail here?"

"The evil stepsister locked Cinderella in a dungeon."

"A dungeon full of monster?"

"Nope, just a dungeon. Then her sorceress dragon godmother goes to rescue her." Gem showed the picture. "Here she creates a beautiful magic dress, and turn a pumpkin into an enchanted carriage to take her to the ball and make the prince fall in love."

"What's the catch? Cooca will not just give magic to elves without a catch."

"The spell ends at midnight, the dress became scraps and the carriage a pumpkin again, except for her magic ruby slippers. She loses one in the stairs of the castle when she runs away before the spell vanishes."

"The shoes don´t disappear? They have a hex to the prince?"

"I think so. The prince became obsessed with Cinderella and makes all the girls of the kingdom try the ruby slippers, until finding Cinderella."

"That's because need time for a good obsession jinx fix for good." Cooca though. "The hexed prince finds Cinderella?"

"Yes. They Marry, Cinderella becomes the queen, the sorceress dragon godmother moves to the tallest tower to the castle and they all live happily ever after."

"Smart move." Cooca was enchanted. "Makes the goddaughter the queen. Why Cooca didn't burn the evil stepmother and stepsisters to crisps?"

"She did." Gem shows the picture. "She forced them to wear red hot iron shoes and curse them to dance until their bones turned into coal."

"Cooca enjoyed this book." Cooca laughed. "Who wrote this book has a fine understanding of Amarus."

"Right here." Gem pointed. "Terry Blackhawk, the wizard."

"Terry? Must be a wise lady."

A woman appeared worried at the door.

"Miss Greenwood," Jolly Acacia hold her hand. "Take care of the house in my absence. I'm going to Marigold."

"Marigold?" She looked at the woman in green who looked and Gem's picture books. "That has something to do with your niece? Zenon's daughter?"

"Yes. We are going out for a couple of months. Take care."

"You want me to wake up Catclaw to prepare a carriage?"

"Nope." Cooca took two dolls among Gem toys. "Bring a pumpkin now."

"Sorry, but we don't have none pumpkins." The old maid answered. "But we have some Chayote squash."

"Chayote? That's so irregular." Angrily she huffs a cloud of steam. "Get the bigger one and wait outside."

"Yes." The old maid obeyed scared.

"What are those colorful things?" Cooca got two colorful ceramic figures similar to cartoonish bulls with wings.

"Boi-boombás." Gem answered, putting clothes in the truck chest. "Cooca don't know the boi-boombás?"

"Cooca heard about boi-boombás." She squeezed her eyes. "What a boi-boombá do?"

"They hunt nightmares. So I can sleep with sweet dreams."

"That works." Cooca held the figures close to Gem's face. "Blow."

Gem blows the boi-boombás figures, and they started to move as if they were alive.

"Get up in the truck." Cooca closed the luggage truck.

Gem obeyed and Jolly Acacia was pushed. "It's too big and heavy, we need to call someone to carry."

Cooca made a tired expression and pick up the truck chest using two fingers with the two sat upon. "The flying elf needs something else?"

"No. No." They went down the stairs to the first floor where they meet three maids waiting for them in the front of the house.

"I'm sorry for waking you, Miss Spoon." Jolie Acacia said to the elderly one.

"It's not any problem my love," The old woman kissed her head. "But I have a bad omen about this."

"Cooca is a bad omen," Cooca said harshly.

"Goodby Catclaw." Gem said to the younger maid.

"Bye, my dearie. Be a good girl or the Cooca will come for you."

"Too late. Cooca came for her." Cooca got the squash. "Blow!" she ordered to Gem. The girl obeyed and the witch throws the figures and the vegetal in the grass over the road.

"That's Cooca?" The three women started to shuddered with bugged eyes. "What are you doing my dear?"

"It's okay. Everything is fine, Miss Spoon." She kissed the old lady.

"Go with the grace of the gods, my poor child."

As Cooca walked, the figures and the vegetable twirled under the ground, growing like a bizarre plant, and become a weird green carriage, pulled by two colorful and impotent shining living boi-boombás, when she reached them. The branches twisted and hold the luggage truck upon the cart and entangled it while the door opened and they entered.

To Gem amazement, the interior of the carriage had the same decoration of the carriage from her picture book. Cooca settled down and the tube becomes a colorful fan

The majestic creatures flapped their large wings and flew through the sky, pulling the carriage.

The scared maids exchanged worried stares and observed the flying carriage disappearing in the night sky. They felt in their bones that something ominous had started, and will affect the whole empire.

The Chayote squash carriage crossed the night sky pulled by the majestic colored boi-boombas.

Inside the carriage, Jolly Acacia frighten hold whatever she could while avoid looking outside.

"What´s the problem mom?" Gem was worried.

"Sorry, dearie. Mom doesn´t like to fly."

Cooca stared with a frown face. "Jolly Acacia turns into a swan!"

The world of Propasa is full of all sorts of magical creatures like fairies, elves, and dragons, and the Licorne archipelago had a great number of naguals, a type of therianthrope beast-folk with the ability to change their form.

The duchess Jolly Acacia was the kind known as abarangas that had the ability to transform into creatures with beaks, feathers, and wings, in her case a one hundred and thirty pounds swan. They had three states known as "abaeté form", where they are basically human, or elves like Cooca calls them, the intermediary "venna form" where they look like mythological creatures like satyrs, minotaur's, mermaids, angels and, in their "primus form" creatures similar to earth animals like wolves, hawks, snakes, and bats.

Each form had its own advantages and hindrances, like the lack of opposing thumbs. Some people had natural magic and could move objects with their minds and choose to remain in their primus form, living like talking animals.

Like Cooca observed, Jolly Acacia could fly in her "angel" and "swan" form.

"I don´t like to fly inside things." She was almost crying. "It´s not natural."

Gem looked outside and Jolly Acacia pulled her from the window. "Where we are going?"

"There was a quoza lake nearby, that can lead to Toyland."

"Toyland?" Gem clapped, "Sounds wonderful. Toys!"

"It's a stinking butt hole. There are no toys in Toyland. There's only a stinking paper factory."

Gem was a bit disappointed.

"You really are the Cooca from the children's tales?"

"No! Cooca is from none tale. Cooca is Cooca."

"You are the high priestesses of the dragon goddess Green Storm?"

"Yes! Cooca is the high priest of the wise and powerful Green Storm. The only and the best."

"And you are the queen of all witches?"

"No. Cooca is the boss of the wonderful Cooca witches, and the wonderful Cooca witches only. No relations with puny witches."

"It's true that you eat children?"

"Yes! Cooca eats veal. Veal's are tapira children. Cooca loves veal, principally roasted with baby carrots at the side."

"I like to eat roasted veal too, is very tasty."

"That means the little puppy elf eats children too."

"It´s true that you come to get naughty children?"

"Yes! Cooca turns naughty little girls in Cooca witches, naughtier the little girl, better the witch she will become." She became exalted "In addition, Cooca has the better, naughtiest, powerful, and wonderful witches of them all. Those are the Cooca witches."."

Gem gulped saliva with a bit of fear. "I would be a witch?"

"Not a Cooca witch. The little elf is too puny and soft to be a Cooca witch."

"Are you sure? How you know?"

"Cooca sees everything. Cooca knows that puppy little puppy elf-like blue, crisp fish and coconut. Don't like baths, cut fingernails, vegetables and pretend to brush the teeth, when did not."

"You did what?" Jolly Acacia scolded her angrily. "You know how important hygiene is."

Gem remained in silence looking at Cooca´s bored face looking at the picture book. Her breath released steam like a vaporizer.

"We are in the quoza lake," Cooca said fanning with a smile.

"We are quoza lake?" Jolly Acacia looked at the window. "How fast are we going?"

The quoza lake was surrounded by the Jatoba town. Gem looked at the window, dazzled by the view of the builds at night from the top. "This is the infinite magic ocean that connects all the magic quoza lakes in the world? Where we can go even to the five moons?"

"That one." Jolly Acacia hugged Gem not letting her get too close to the window. "Through the lake, the carriage will go to Toyland lake, twenty-five thousand miles from here."

The quoza Lake had a port, with a couple of ferry boats. The carriage dive in the middle of the lake, but didn't hit the water. Instead, keep going under the water inside a bobble of air.

Gem's looked at the window disappointed. "I can't see anything. I heard that the quoza cities under the water were beautiful."

"It's night puppy elf," Cooca said. "Everybody is sleeping."

Gem smiled amazed. "Incredible, how you do that?"

"Magic."

"I want to do magic too, I want to be a wizard. Like, my mom."

"Just don't be a rotten one, little puppy elf. There are too many rotten elf wizards."

"Gem is a good girl. I´m going to be the goddess of all wizards and I´m going to make everybody happy."

"If Gem wants to do good become a Queen. Them Gem can do everybody happy."

"Queen?" She giggled. "How Gem can be a queen?"

"Marry the prince. Like in the book." Cooca showed the picture book.

"If Gem becomes the Queen will build the most biggest castle in the world with the tallest tower ever made to Cooca live there."

"The tallest tower?"

"So tall that will reach the clouds." Gem raised her hands.

Cooca looked at her. "Cooca does not choose Gem as a witch, but choose to be a good Queen for the elves."

"But, Licorne doesn't have a Queen." Gem giggled. "We have an empress. Paraffin the merciless."

Cooca gave shrugged. "Be an empress them. Whatever."

Gem was excited about that adventure and comfortable with the witch after that. "Your ears are funny. They were small and round."

"Because Cooca is not an elf."

"I never saw someone without pointed ears."

"Because little puppy elf never saw someone that is not an elf."

"It's cute. It seems like a monkey ear."

Cooca didn't like to hear that and gave a sinister stare. Quickly Gem tried to change the subject.

"It's true that you can turn into a dragon?"

"Yes! Cooca can turn into an Amaru. Every Amaru high priestesses can turn into Amarus."

"What is an Amaru?"

Jolly Acacia hugged her daughter protectively. "Amaru is a kind of dragon, my dearie. Now stop doing questions."

"Yes!" Cooca put the palm of her hand close to Gem's face. "No more questions. Now go to sleep little puppy elf Gem."