Umoa didn't so much as acknowledge my presence when I entered his ho, shaking whatever concoction he had put together in a glass bottle. The kid was there (Bo-sothing?), and seed perfectly unsurprised to see .
I raised a brow at the glare he gave, which got a huff.
Piece of work. Hopefully saving his life ant he was going to stop trying to end mine. Jury was still out on that. For all I knew he was a spiteful ass and that new scar on his arm fonted a new grudge alongside it.
It was pretty ugly, covering most of his forearm as a purple and bumpy ss.
I was sure it would've looked better if Ken only stopped the bleeding and left it to heal naturally. I shrugged and shuffled over to the singular table in this small ass house to take a seat.
Resting my legs after the walk here felt like a blessing. Enough that I let out a contented sigh.
Neither of the other two witches seed keen on starting conversation, and neither was I honestly. I would've humd, but the tunes I could manage with my damaged vocals were grating at the best of tis, so instead I waited to be addressed.
It didn't take too long. Umoa put the bottle over an open fla until it was brought to a boil. With bare skin he picked it up and set it down, grabbing a bowl of what looked like porridge and pouring half the bottle in before mixing.
He turned and walked over, setting the the bowl in front of .
"Eat."
I tilted my head. "Didn't take you for an alchemist. Or a chef."
"I am neither." He nodded. "Long lives simply allow for plenty of learning, sothing you might be lucky enough to experience. Now eat."
"Fuck no, tell what's in it first."
I heard a strangled cough from where the boy was sitting in the corner and had to suppress a smile. Umoa didn't seem to take offence. Or maybe he did, my ability to read the witch was worth a whole lot of nothing.
"Ren sap. A light pain reliever, it's rather grotesque to take without sothing to dilute the taste."
"Appreciate it, but most of my tongue is dead. The parts that are responsible for taste anyway. Besides, I kinda like the pain."
"You do not." He said with the sa tone he always carried. "If you wish to play the actor, you should first practice on the blind before approaching ."
I rolled my eyes. "Yes, I'm sure you're oh so very wise and observant."
"Why are you here?"
I twisted to get a good look at the boy as Umoa shifted his gaze to do the sa. He was glaring at the ground like it had stolen his favorite toy. Kinda funny how committed he was to being a grouch, but the humour shriveled when I rembered this child almost killed .
"What? Nothing else to say to the person who saved your life?" I said with more than a little venom. "Or are you plotting attempt number three? I wouldn't recomnd it. A fun side effect of my spell is that it lets move normally no matter what's wrong with my body."
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
He was entirely unfazed by the casual threat. Either because I wasn't that intimidating or he was an idiot. I leaned towards the latter, considering the absolute ss he made for so unknown vendetta.
Instead his glare at the floorboards was going strong. Not a word to escape his lips.
"She is here because she has to be."
The boy blinked and finally looked up to give Umoa a confused look. The emaciated witch leaned back into his chair and didn't provide any details. I rolled my eyes. These two were the epito of shitty communication.
"It's to make our story more believable," I huffed. "No one sane would go visit their would-be killer in the state I'm in, but if I avoided you then the guards would get suspicious. This way I complicate their theory that you were the one who poisoned ."
The boy scrunched his brow. "Why do you care?"
"Oh good fucking gods, am I the one who's going to have to teach this kid about morality and ethics?"
Umoa let a breath out of his nose. "Good luck."
The kid shot his ntor a betrayed look, the first thing to cut through his constant lancholy! Fucking finally. Whatever upbringing he'd had so far seed to make him a committed geezer, despite looking younger than .
"But yeah. I'll drop by every now and then to say hello under the guise of checking up on you. You should consider letting bygones be bygones. Umi is practically apoplectic at the attention you've directed towards the coven. I doubt she'd care if I broke a bone or several to stop you from doing more stupid shit."
He went back to glaring at the floor, and mumbled sothing I didn't catch.
I shrugged and turned back to the big bad witch sitting next to . "Is he any good at prism? Sitting here with two brooding witches isn't my idea of a good ti."
There was this story my ma told when I finally started to understand language. Didn't know all that was said at first, but it stuck with long enough that I asked her to retell it when I could.
It was centered around a boy, a girl, and a pack of wolves.
How did it start again?
In a rainforest far from here, on the continent of dragons, there was a girl who'd start her days with a walk on the beach. She enjoyed the feeling of coarse sand between her toes, more than the company of the strange species that called that corner of the world their ho.
The girl was an elf, but she wasn't old enough to be considered an adult.
Cared for and raised by the wilds.
She hunted with the wolves, played with bear cubs, and helped the beavers with their dams. The World loved her, so much that even the monsters left her alone.
Never had she seen another like her.
Until, one day, she found the wreckage of what she'd later learn was a ship, and her precious beach was littered with plenty of bodies. She wasn't disgusted by the sight, death was natural, and she was a friend to nature, but she was curious.
So she walked by each body, until she found one that was breathing.
Shallow, weak.
Alive.
She dragged his unconscious form through the rainforest and found a cave where she'd nurse him back to health. He woke up not long after she brought him to shelter.
Panic was an apt description for the whispers that radiated from his form.
So she talked, in a way that was lost to our kind many a millennia ago.
It didn't help at first, he wasn't used to the words that were not words, but over ti he'd grow comfortable. In return, he taught her about the world beyond. Of immortal dynasties and great heroes.
The girl was enthralled, so much so that she preferred his stories over her morning walks, spending more and more ti in the cave. The forest...started to miss her.
On one of the occasions she t with the wolves, a cub had asked where she'd gone for most of the day. She smiled and ended up telling the whole pack about the boy living in the cave. She shared the stories. Shared so of the words she learned.
When she was done, the wolves wanted to et this curiosity.
So with a large smile she led her family to et her friend, barely holding back from sprinting over from excitent. Until they reached the cave.
The boy stepped out to greet her, and saw the wolves.
The wolves saw him.
It wasn't the first ti she'd seen the wolves tear an animal apart, but sothing felt different with this one. Maybe it was because the animal looked so much like her? Or was it the way he scread and begged? She didn't know, there was just blood and tearing flesh.
When they were done, the greatest of the wolves stalked over to the girl, and for the first ti in her life, she felt fear.
Through the World he spoke.
"You Are One Of Us. Not One Of Them."
Reviews
All reviews (0)