Fantasy Witchwood

[VoidPigeon]

Witches in a wood

 

[eightscreamingcats]

hello

 

[VoidPigeon]

Maggie jolted upright, awaking from a dream she couldn't remember but was sure was not very nice. She rubbed her eyes and surveyed her surroundings. She wasn't at home. There weren't this many trees at home. She turned her head to survey the world and noticed someone else lying next to her.

 

[eightscreamingcats]

Noah came to. The world in front of his eyes was foggy. Instinctively his hand went out to feel for his glasses. He plucked them from the ground, and, giving the lenses a hasty rub with the edge of his shirt, slotted them onto his face as he sat up.
His surroundings swam into focus. He wasn't at home - he didn't know where he was. Disorientation made his thoughts impossible to separate as they all came in a confused flurry. There were trees. Lots of trees. All around him. And grass. He stroked it under his left hand.
He came to the realisation that he had been lying down on this grass. Slowly, Noah ran a check over his entire body. Nothing hurt. All fingers, toes and appendages otherwise seemed to be there and intact.
Beside him there was a girl. A girl, probably a year or two younger than him, with a cascade of black hair and sharp green eyes.
Noah was so baffled by this discovery, there was only one word he could think to say. So he said it. "Hello."

 

[VoidPigeon]

The boy spoke, saying only "Hello", and startling Maggie so much that she stood straight up and withdrew a small knife from her cape. "I warn you, she said. D-Don't try any-any funny b-business." She was trying her best to remain calm, but she was shaken so violently that she was worried she would drop the knife. "Where have you taken me?" She asked the boy, holding her knife closer to him. "I warn you, you better not lie to me. I have spells to deal with liars!"

 

[eightscreamingcats]

Noah scrabbled backwards, eyes focused directly on the knife. Of all outcomes to his saying "Hello," this was the least expected. He straightened himself up to his full awkward height, as slowly and cautiously as if he were facing a bear rather than a girl. Swallowing, his frazzled brain managed to formulate an actual sentence. "Don't stab or magically hurt me, please. I have no idea where we are. I haven't done anything, I swear it." He managed to drag his eyes away from the knife, which was glinting menacingly. Wide-eyed, he looked at the girl, giving her what he hoped was a pleading look. He clicked his fingers, creating a flame small as a match's. Just for self-defence, if needs be.

 

[VoidPigeon]

The boy had magic. Maggie was so suprised that she nearly dropped the knife. Then she did drop the knife, or rather, she put it away, back in her cape. "Who are you?" she asked. The boy was obviously scared, and rightfully so as a short 15 year old girl had just pulled a knife on him. As a gesture of goodwill Maggie opened her left hand, letting a small, iridescent butterfly fly out. "MY name's Maggie, what's yours?"

 

[eightscreamingcats]

Noah breathed a sigh of relief and felt his brain unravel its confusion like a woolly jumper. So he wasn't about to be stuck with a knife by a short girl. His eyes studied the butterfly curiously.
He brought the flame up to meet Maggie's hand and allowed it to blossom out into a bigger, dancing ball. "Noah."
She seemed a lot less scary now she had made a butterfly appear. He allowed himself a small smile.

 

[VoidPigeon]

"I'm Maggie." said Maggie, trying to return the smile but it probably ended up as more of a grimace than anything else. When they had shared their smiles Maggie turned and did a few laps of the nearby area, scanning for anything that could be used to determine their area. She craned her neck up, but the tree's were too dense for her too see even whether it was day or night. The little bit of light trickling through could have been sun or moonlight. She made a couple of grabs for a nearby branch but was, sadly too short to reach it. Maggie turned to Noah. " I need your help. Give me a leg up and I'll climb the tree. The top of the tree is the best vantage point we'll get."

 

[eightscreamingcats]

Noah watched Maggie investigate curiously. There was something about the way she moved which struck Noah as unusual, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. He wondered if he ought to follow her. When she turned and asked - well, demanded - for the leg up, he considered doing the 'chivalrous' thing by offering to go up himself, but it made more sense for Maggie to. Plus, she still had the knife, and Noah was wary of it. He mumbled in agreement and bent to give her a leg up.

 

[VoidPigeon]

Maggie scrambled, less than gracefully, onto Noah's hands and onto the branch. She breathed deeply and climbed onto the next one, and the next, and the next. Once she had climbed a fair way up she took a moment to look around. Nothing but trees for as far as the eye could see. She sighed and kept climbing. The tree was much taller than she had previously expected it to be. In fact, it was much taller than it probably could be. It felt like she had been climbing for hours when Maggie finally felt leaves on her head. She pushed through and squeezed her eyes shut as the sun flared in her eyes. Once her eyes adjusted she took a look around, looking for some sign of life, a smoke stack or a tower. Nothing but trees for miles in any direction. Maggie took a deep breath in frustration and shouted as loudly as she could. Some nearby birds flew away, but no other sign of life. Maggie prepared for the descent when something furry latched onto her face and she felt the branch below her give way.

 

[eightscreamingcats]

Noah stood below, watching Maggie advance on her seemingly tremendous climb. As he craned his neck to watch, his glasses tipped, and he barely caught them. He sniffed and put them back on, swearing under his breath as he did so.
After a while of looking up and still no sign of Maggie, Noah's neck was beginning to hurt. It was one big tree. He strained to hear anything: a scream, a report back, just a sign that Maggie was still up there and unharmed. Another magical person was useful in unfamiliar territory.
Suddenly, he heard the branch snap, and his heart leaped. Pushing at the air with his palms, the air in front of them rippled and formed a neat cushion of air just right to catch Maggie. He held it steady and caught her with it.

 

[VoidPigeon]

Maggie sat on the air, heart pumping trying to catch her breath. She thanked Noah and slid off of the air cushion. She sat down and gestured for Noah to take a look at the furry thing. More specifically, a cat. A scrawny, blue eyed cat. "Where the hell did this come from?" Maggie asked no one in particular.

 

[AetherPuffin]

Gina stared back in disbelief at the girl she had recently fallen on. The poor thing had scratches all over her arms, face and neck. "sorry about your face," Gina said with a shy smile. she looked over at the boy standing above her with his mouth hanging open. They where both staring at her. This made her very uncomfortable.

 

[eightscreamingcats]

Noah wasn't quite sure what he was seeing was real. It was the scruffiest, most scrawny grey cat he had ever seen in his life. He realised his jaw was hanging open, so he closed it. He stood back.
"A talking cat," he said slowly, trying the words out in his mouth. "An actual talking cat." He looked at Maggie to gauge her reaction.

 

[VoidPigeon]

Maggie was fully aware that Noah was looking at her, but she was far too preoccupied with keeping her eyes on the talking cat. her brain was going into overdrive, listing out every spell and magical creature she could think of and she still had no answer as to why this cat could talk.
But, she reasoned that if it could talk to them, surely she could talk to it.
"What are you?" she asked the cat

 

[AetherPuffin]

"Ah yes," Gina Thought this might come up. she sat down and elongated her back. "I am a cat now and I probably will be one until the day I die, and that's all you need to know." she said with a matter of fact tone "now the question is what are you? I just fell from the sky, why am I not dead!?" she questioned.

 

[VoidPigeon]

That wasn't enough of an answer for Maggie, but she thought that she'd deal with that later. "We're witches. I'm Maggie and this is Noah. He cushioned our fall, that's why we didn't die." She shifted a bit, putting the cat down. "Do you have a name? And what were you doing up there anyway?"

 

[VoidPigeon]

The cat seemed to have talked enough for now so Maggie handed the cat to Noah and stood up. She dusted her hands off. " I'm going for a walk to see what I can see. Don't follow me. It's better that I get lost than we all do. " Before Noah or the cat could answer Maggie turned and ran into the woods and out of their lines of sight. Once she was sure they hadn't followed her she set off in search of food.

 

[eightscreamingcats]

Noah opened his mouth to say something and abruptly snapped it shut as Maggie dumped the cat into his arms. He grunted in annoyance. This girl was feisty, no doubt about that. He sighed. There was no way he was going to stand around being useless and let Maggie go off on her own.
"I don't know about you, but I think it would be better if we all stuck together," he told the cat, and started off in pursuit of Maggie.

 

[AetherPuffin]

Noah took off through the trees with Gina in his arms. she could see Maggie's black hair darting through the trees. Gina's paws hadn't touched the floor of the wood since she fell from the sky, she had been passed between person, which she thought was a little weird. still, these people seemed nice. "well my name's Gina" she said looking up at Noah.

 

[VoidPigeon]

Maggie didn't know Noah and Gina were following her, nor did she know something far more sinister was following them, but she kept running through the forest at breakneck speed. The forest comforted Maggie, she knew forests well, she knew how they worked, she knew what name to give what tree to make it do your bidding, she knew the language of birds and she even knew which birds were goddamn liars, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't remember where she learned any of this. Any street she thought of faded from her mind, and friendly face was blotted out in her memory. But still, she kept running until she came to a clearing, a clearing that contained a camp, a campfire, and the man of Maggie's dreams.

 

[VoidPigeon]

"Hi." said the boy, smiling at Maggie. "My name's Brad, do you wanna sit down?" he was sitting on a log next to a roaring campfire. Behind him was a small campsite consisting of two tents with a pile of supplies next to one of them. Maggie was dumbstruck and just nodded in response to his question. She sat down next to Brad and warmed herself on the fire, she hadn't-realised how cold she was. "How old are you?" asked Brad, breaking the silence. "U-uh 15," said Maggie, not nearly as eloquently as she had wanted. Brad laughed. "I'm 16." He smiled. "I never got your name, what is it?" "M-Maggie." she managed to stammer out. He laughed again. "Well, Maggie who's 15 years old, are you here on your own? You seem very young to be on your own." brad just made a mistake. If there was one thing Maggie hated, it was people pointing out her age, or her height. "Well, Brad who's 16, are you looking to fight?" she drew herself up to her very unimpressive full height and drew her hands into a 'fisticuffs' position. By the time Noah and Gina stumbled upon the scene, Bra'ds unhinged jaw was practically around Maggie's head.

 

[AetherPuffin]

When Noah eventually caught up with Maggie, her head was inside another kids mouth. Two tents behind them. A fire beside them. A big beautiful fire with flames reaching up to wards the heavens. It cracked and hissed. it's smoke rose up through Gina's nostrils. She wanted to feel it heat on her skin. No she wanted to feel it burn her. cleanse her. consume her. God she was so cold. "oh dear it looks like Noah's doing something" Gina thought to herself. He ran towards the boy looking thing devouring Maggie, still holding Gina. "what are doing?" she asked calm as ever "away from the murder demon, there's a really nice fire over there look, we can die there in comfort".

 

[VoidPigeon]

"Oh sorry!" said Maggie, her voice muffled as she struggled against Brad's monster mouth."Am I inconveniencing you by heaving my head bitten off!" She was not in the mood for this snarky cats snarkiness. She closed her eyes and called on the names of the trees around them. As soon as she asked, the trees rared up, ripping their roots from the ground, impaling Brad and dragging him deep underground. She dusted her hands off as the root slithered back underground. "You have a point cat. That fire does look pretty inviting." She sat down next to Noah and stroked the cat on its head, enjoying the rush of just having killed someone.