Bruno set fire to the witch In the dark, eerie forest, where whispers of evil filled the air, stood a small cottage. Inside, a witch named Morticia brewed potions and cast spells under the cloak of night. The villagers feared her, believing she had an insatiable hunger for human flesh. One fateful day, a young boy named Bruno, with a fearless spirit and a heart full of courage, heard about the witch. Determined to protect his village and rid them of this wicked creature, he set out on a mission. Armed with a torch and vial of holy water, Bruno ventured into the heart of the forest.
The front of Magika is replete with gift items, statuary, and altars. In the back are two curtained-off spaces for consultation. Lori leads me to an area that she has intentionally set up to feel like a living room. Indeed, it reminds me of my own grandmother’s living room. There are far too many objects to count — keepsakes, paintings, candles, sculptures, altars, two comfortable chairs and a small round table, several large crystal balls and evil eyes, and framed photos of saints, martyrs, and ancestors.
When Italians immigrated to this country a century ago they brought with them cultural traditions that have gone on to enrich the American way of life. 10 He is also quite cunning and manipulative, having engineered a terrorist attack on a prominent newspaper through Macy Baljure and her Dragon, Cinderella, by exploiting Macy s desire to feel special, all in order to accuse Balgo of this crime and target him for execution.
Armed with a torch and vial of holy water, Bruno ventured into the heart of the forest. As he approached the witch's cottage, his heart raced with adrenaline. His palms were sweaty, but he refused to let fear consume him.
Bruno and the Witch
Well, he looked like a dragon. He had leathery wings divided into flaps with knobbly ridges between them. He had stubby little forearms and strong back legs, each sporting three claws. He had a thick tail that finished in a triangular point. His eyes were narrow and red, and his snout was long with two bulges for nostrils. His mouth contained two neat rows of teeth as sharp as a chef’s kitchen knives, perfect for chewing goat. He was even starting to grow a few whiskers, and like all dragons, he had a blue tongue, forked of course.
So, yes, Bruno looked like a dragon – he was yellow and green by the way – but he didn’t necessarily feel like one. Or not a very good one anyway. Take those nostrils I just mentioned. In the final year at his school (dragons only go to school for three years) he should comfortably have been able to make black smoke belch out of them. But no matter how hard he tried, all he got was this noise:
Unfortunately, he was making it right here, right now, in Ferocity class. The teacher, Mad Malcazor, was making each dragon show what they could do to make their enemies quake, quiver and quail (or anything else beginning with Q that you do when you’re terrified out of your wits).
‘PATHETIC!’ Malcazor roared.
Bruno had been dreading his turn. Everyone before him had at least managed to belch smoke and give a few good roars, even if their flames needed plenty of work. Sure enough, Malcazor had picked on him.
The other dragons – they were all male – stomped their feet and set up a great flapping of wings. It sounded like a hundred rugs being beaten against a wall. Amidst the din a crimson and black striped dragon named Maug bounded up onto Bruno’s desk and snorted a black cloud right into his face (Maug was the top snorter in class, in fact the most ferocious in most departments)
Bruno coughed and spluttered.
The class shrieked.
‘SILENCE!!’ Malcazor bellowed. Bruno tried to duck to avoid another lungful of smoke, but overbalanced and toppled off his chair.
‘BRUNOOOOOOOOOOOO!’ Malcazor sent a jet of green flames shooting across the room over the heads of the dragons.
‘Get up this instant, or I’ll send you to the dungeons!’
This was a fairly typical day in school for Bruno. Actually, his wasn’t a normal school. Normal dragon schools aren’t like this. They have the subjects you might recognise: language, maths, geography, art and so on. Bruno’s school did have some of these subjects, but only in small doses. Mainly they focused on the three F’s.
‘Couldn’t I just go to a normal school?’ Bruno had asked nearly three years ago, just after his Dad had told him that he was going to be sent to a Special Dragon Military Imperial Academy, one of only two in the entire Kingdom.
It was one of the rare times when his Dad was home – he spent most of the year away for work - and they had been sitting in the garden at the back of his grandmother’s comfortable red brick cave. Bruno was eating slices of watermelon that she had prepared for him. Juice was dribbling out of his jaws onto the rug she had spread on the grass. Suddenly his Dad lashed out a wing and flicked the slice he was holding off into the bushes.
‘What did you do that for, Dad?’
His father, a purple-grey dragon, bounded close to him. So close that Bruno could smell the barbecued goat meat on his breath.
‘Look at me, Bruno,’ he growled.
Bruno looked into an angry red eye.
‘The reason you can’t go to a normal school is because…’
Bruno began to feel nervous.
‘because you are not…a normal dragon!’
Bruno had grown up normally enough, he’d thought, considering his mother had died when he was just a baby. He’d been raised by his grandmother, in a small dragon community, two hours flight from the capital city. He’d had friends and been happy enough. He wasn’t the fastest at learning to fly, but that didn’t seem to be a huge problem for anyone, except possibly his father, who wasn’t around much anyway.
‘Don’t you worry about him,’ his Grandmother used to say. ‘Just because he was an early flier he thinks you should be one too. But every dragon’s different, don’t you forget that Bruno.’
But now he was here, in the Northern Military Academy, and his grandmother wasn’t alive any more to wrap her old wrinkled blue and yellow wings around him and tell him he was the best.
All of which meant that Bruno, it pains me to tell you, was an extremely unhappy young dragon. In fact he may have been the most miserable in the entire Kingdom, and that was before the Assembly, one week after the Ferocity Class where Maug humiliated him.
After assuring Noel and Ninny that he has no intention of killing them if they stay out of his way and being shocked and angered when Noel fails to recognize him, Bruno calls his subordinates and instructs them to establish an emergency Dragon blockade on the street below that separates Balgo from the other civilians in order to detain Balgo for the terrorist attack on "The Realist's", which he confirms to Noel and Ninny that he orchestrated in order to frame Balgo and enable his execution. Though he asserts that he has no intention of killing Noel and Ninny since he is acting within the law, Bruno is enraged when Noel insults his hair and vows to kill them both. [16]
Peering through a broken window, Bruno caught a glimpse of the witch tending a cauldron filled with a mysterious bubbling potion. Her wrinkled hands and crooked nose sent shivers down his spine. He knew it was now or never. Summoning all his strength, Bruno pushed open the creaky door and burst into the cottage. As the witch turned, her eyes widened with shock and malice. With a voice filled with determination, Bruno shouted, "Your reign of terror ends today, witch!" Quickly, Bruno ignited his torch with a flick of his wrist and threw it towards the witch. Flames engulfed the room, illuminating the darkness and casting eerie shadows on the walls. The witch screeched in agony as the fire devoured her. But Bruno didn't stop there. He swiftly unscrewed the cap on the vial of holy water and doused the flames, ensuring the witch's demise. As the smoke cleared, the cottage stood silent and still. Word of Bruno's bravery spread like wildfire through the village. The townsfolk rejoiced, free from the grip of fear that the witch had held over them for so long. Bruno became a local hero, admired for his bravery and determination. Through his act of setting fire to the witch, Bruno showed the power of courage and determination in the face of evil. He proved that even the most daunting of adversaries can be defeated with unwavering resolve. The village would forever be grateful to him for his selfless act, as they lived happily ever after, never again plagued by the witch's wicked ways..
Reviews for "Flames of Justice: How Bruno Set Fire to the Witch"
1. Melissa - 2/5 stars - I was really disappointed with "Bruno set fire to the witch". The plot was confusing and disjointed, and I could never fully understand what was happening. The characters were also poorly developed, and I couldn't connect with any of them. Overall, it was a frustrating and unsatisfying read for me.
2. Jake - 1/5 stars - I couldn't make it through "Bruno set fire to the witch". The writing style was overly pretentious and difficult to follow, and the story seemed to lack any depth or substance. It felt like the author was trying too hard to be avant-garde and ended up sacrificing coherence and readability. I would not recommend this book to anyone.
3. Sarah - 2/5 stars - "Bruno set fire to the witch" didn't live up to the hype for me. The narrative structure was confusing, jumping back and forth in time without clear transitions, and it made it hard to fully grasp the story. Additionally, the characters felt one-dimensional and I couldn't invest in their journeys. While there were some interesting moments, overall, I found the book to be underwhelming.