Potions - could be useful or troublesome. Say your once luscious locks of golden hair were starting to thin out so much that the skin on the top of your head is more visible each day. Drink a special tonic, and your luscious locks have returned with maybe a lot of back hair peeking from the neck collar of your shirt. Perhaps you exhausted all your money on plastic surgery, desperately attempting to remain thin, young, and beautiful. A special elixir could do the trick, as long as they drank each last disgusting drop weekly. Forget to drink the whole thing, and their true self would appear, reversing everything the potion did. Potions help solve problems quickly, though not always permanently. The troublesome part was two things: the first being to accept the big or small consequences, and the second was to make the potion itself by following the recipe correctly.
Thus, in the middle of the night, a witch and her familiar walk quietly toward the local zoo. Unfortunately, Amazon and any other legal shop did not store animal parts needed as ingredients for various potions. Plus, the black market had many shady people, and neither had the time or patience to haggle for illegitimate ingredients. Did you know animal parts listed in potions sometimes meant you need a plant? Yep! Need an eye from a newt? Then get a muster seed, as an eye of something was a seed. A toe from a frog means you get a bulbous buttercup. If the potion calls for the wool of a bat, find some moss or holly leaves. Clever, right? However, there were some cases where a potion required actual animal parts. Animal parts from were-creatures didn't make the potion work, because it came from half an animal. Which is a shame, but that would be too easy for any witch to procure.
Helping Serafina search for plants in the dark forest was fun. It was a moment for them to enjoy each other's company and catch up without anyone else or any distractions. However, when the witch admitted her stores for animal parts were waning down, far too close for comfort, both were unsure how to resolve the problem. It wasn't like many exotic animals were freely running around unless the zoo counted. As they neared the zoo's wrought iron gate, the curly-haired woman looked to her friend and stretched her arm out with a small grin on her scarred face.
Whether with a verbal or non-verbal sign of approval, Raven flicked her hand slightly and focused on lifting the witch and herself, making sure their feet gently touched the ground on the other side of the fence. Lowering her arm, she turned her head to the side, narrowing her eyes as she searched for security and assistance. Not seeing anyone around, she made a beeline for the map sign. Grabbing two pamphlets, she opened the map, exposing the artwork displaying the location and symbols of the critters within their respective habitat.