The "witch" wears no clothes

[Tennisaurus]

Fantasy, set in a world where magical ability is very rare, but not completely unheard of. In an isolated, but fairly large town, maybe the capitol city of some backwater territory. There are tales of an "evil old witch" who lives in a large impenetrable swamp not far from town. People avoid the area and everyone always seems to know somebody who knows somebody that disappeared there.
One ridiculously hot, steamy midsummer day the big strong musclebound blacksmith's apprentice (18 years old of course) is taking a rare and well deserved break, sitting in the shade outside the forge since it's just unbearably hot in there. As he's watching people pass by going about their business, he's shocked to see a voluptuous, curvy, middle aged woman walking down the street wearing nothing but her underwear, and absolutely nobody else seems to notice her!! She's fairly attractive for a woman of her age, but her hair is kind of a mess, and she's not wearing any makeup, almost as if her appearance doesn't matter to her. So he stares at her big bouncy curves as she walks up the road, splashes water on his face thinking he's suffering from heat stroke, yup still there. Finally the woman sees his goggle eyed stare, and her eyes go wide, she scowls at him, holds her shopping basket up in front of her chest trying to hide her breasts. Turns out she's the local witch, who's come to town for one of her very infrequent shopping trips. She hides her appearance with a spell and it was just too hot to wear clothing today. The unusually intelligent, but uneducated blacksmith's apprentice has the ability to learn magic and saw right though her illusion.

 

[CopperSkink]

Okay, but apprenticeships usually start at nine or ten and last for about seven years; eighteen would be a little old.
Also, blacksmiths live by three hundred-degree furnaces; hot days shouldn't exactly bother them.
Why would having the ability to learn magic automatically mean you have the power to see through spells of "don't look at me"? Witches typically operate in hiding because they're either hideous or outcast; if anything, such a witch would manage some sort of potion/spell to give her a more permanent solution like being young or looking like someone else from the village. If they can just walk around naked in town, they would hardly need to hide.

 

[Tennisaurus]

Well yes of course I know apprenticeships start that young DUH!
He's nearing the end of his own as a blacksmith...and about the heat...what--ever, you gotta take a break sometime and he just happened to be taking one now. She's NORMALLY much prettier because she's OUT of a certain ingredient for her magical FUCKING pretty potion, HENCE THE SHOPPING TRIP! She's old and has gotten careless and disrespectful of mundane people, so the minor illusion spell she's using failed to fool even an untrained magician. The guy is a big musclebound blacksmith so SHE WILL WANT TO FUCK HIM, and go against her better judgement and try to train him, SO SHE CAN FUCK HIM MORE OFTEN...I obviously can't make him 7 fucking years old and post the story here can I???

 

[Darkniciad]

You can solve any questions about the apprenticeship by having him in line to take over for an old master who is soon to retire. He's finished his technical apprenticeship, but he's hanging on, slowly taking over more and more responsibility as the old Smith spends more time fishing. Apprentice+ The old man is childless, and he's looking to pass on both his knowledge and his Smithy.

That's a damn good reason to hang around at an age when most men would have found another town that needed a Smith immediately. The tools of his trade ain't cheap.

Even if magic is known in your world, that doesn't mean it's tolerated. She could be a goddess incarnate, but if the local people think magic comes from "the devil" they'll be as quick to toss stones and start lighting fires for a goddess as a crone. A local clergy that fear magic is weakening the mystery necessary to keep the sheep in line and reducing the offerings in their collection plates is more than enough to get a witch hunt going.

There's no need to make her ugly, hateful, or anything else. She's probably going to be a bit bitter or depressed at least, but you don't have to give her any trait you don't want to, so long as you give a reason for her to be outcast such as the above, which is also a good reason not to want to be around these people. Even witches need supplies, so there's a reason for her to come into town in disguise.

Naked is pushing it a little, but hey, it's erotic fantasy. Maybe take it back a notch or two, and just have her with her blouse/dress wide open, since nobody can see her as she is anyway, and it is hot as hell.

Just because he's a smith and extremely tolerant of heat doesn't mean he's immune to heat-related problems. A wise smith would know when a hot day combined with the heat of the forge demanded getting out of the building to cool down for a bit between things he's working on.

In the mythos of my fantasy world, those with the potential to use magic are born with what I call the "second sight". Even people who have never been trained, and have no idea of their magical potential may experience flashes of magical energy in their peripheral vision, or be able to see through illusions and the like. Those who are trained can use this to a far greater degree at will.

Relax a little. What Copper offered was some constructive criticism of the idea -- the very kind of things a reader might also be wondering while reading the story. Take those sort of things and find ways to tweak your story to alleviate the questions.

It's almost certain that you'll have far less gracious commentary on stories if you write enough here. There are some nasty characters out there in comment land.

 

[Tennisaurus]

I was annoyed, mainly because these were all bases that I had covered, but just didn't bother to try and cram into a short paragraph outlining the idea...It's just a synopsis, I'm not writing the whole story in here after all.
I prefer that she be attractive, but not a "love goddess", she's just a humble old "hedge wizard" in her own mind, not a narcissist and doesn't really see the point since she rarely comes in contact with anyone. A bit soft, from the laziness of using magic as a shortcut all the time, I prefer female characters that aren't perfect, I'm bored with the run-of-the-mill supermodel fuckdolls you find in the average spank story.
I'm thinking, she hauls him into an alley under some compulsion spell, interrogates him, tries to frighten him with a few flashy tricks, but he's more fascinated than scared, and she up having to make him "forget" everything.
She scurries off, but over the next few days can't get her mind off him, his sweaty musky scent, big rippling arms, his big blue eyes wide in wonder at the sight of her tricks. Meanwhile the effects of her "forget spell" have fizzled, and he's starting to realize that she must be the "evil old witch" out in the swamp...why didn't she kill him? Why was he able to see her when nobody else could? What other things can he do that nobody else can?

I had initially thought she would be naked, but that is just too ridiculous, so I'd said she's wearing underwear, but I think I like the idea of her heading to town in a robe and ending up with it wide flung wide open. She's hot, irritated with herself for running out of ingredients, irritated with the ignorant stinking masses who've made her an outcast. She starts to realize she enjoys the naughtiness of wandering through the crowd half naked, yet totally unnoticed. Maybe she's even "flashing her tits" at passing noblemen when she sees the blacksmith's goggle eyed stare, and hastily covers herself up while blushing and cursing furiously.

I see her struggling with the idea to train him, rationalizing that his blacksmithing skill could eventually make him the world's greatest artificer, but deep down she knows that she is just not up to the task and is just horny and lonely.

 

[Etaski]

This is a story I can see myself writing. Nice working out of the kinks on the premise there, you three; it has a great deal of depth now than it did starting out.

Tennisaurus...you've got all the tools there for the story, are you going to write it?

 

[Tennisaurus]

This is a story I can see myself writing. Nice working out of the kinks on the premise there, you three; it has a great deal of depth now than it did starting out.

Tennisaurus...you've got all the tools there for the story, are you going to write it?

I probably will write this one, I've had another story kicking around in my head, and had intended to write it first, but I think this will work very well as a prequel to the other I'm working on.