Foreboding, p.28
Foreboding, page 28
part #2 of The Black Eyed Witch Series
He did so. Feeling her thumbs digging gently into him, hearing the birds sing. The soothing stream of the water and the leaves rattling against each other at the mild breeze.
It was indeed nice to clear his mind filled with burden.
“Thank you Jennifer. I really needed that.”
“I knew you didn’t like back there. Me neither. When I found this place, I knew it’s perfect for us.”
Carl turned his head over his shoulder and looked at her. “It is nice here.”
“Why do I have the feeling you want to tell me something.”
Carl scoffed but knew that she was right. “It is. I have been thinking about you a lot. Even at training. Also what Gordon has told me today.”
“And what was that?” he could feel her breath in his ear as she said it softly.
“That I should make every moment count if I care about you. And I do.”
He felt ashamed. He stiffened his shoulders again and sunk his head, getting ready to get yelled at. He doesn’t know why he kept thinking why she would get angry at him, but all he heard was a surprising gasp. She moved in front of him and looked deep into his eyes. “One thing you humans are good at, is expressing yourself when you care about someone. Not one of the witches I have dated, were this considerate or expressed themselves to me as you do.”
Carl opened his mouth to thank her but her lips locked on to his. The warmth of her soft lips was sensational. His heart hammered against his chest. His stomach curled together and his mind was about to burst into flames.
He took deep breaths when she slowly pulled her lips away from his. They glanced at each other. Not exchanging a single word. He moved his hands behind her back and she interlocked her lips with his again. He fell back as they continued kissing.
Chapter 62
Ashley and Sarah were followed by over a hundred witches. From the coastline alone they managed to gather more than seventy. Some witches knew where to find more and did not hesitate to assemble them.
Humans ran away in terror when they set their eyes upon the army of black-eyed witches. A force not to be trifled with to anyone who stood in their way.
They faced the forest where the old man from the town where they found Helga, pointed out to Ashley where the Ingens have come from.
“Any motivational speech?” asked Sarah to Ashley.
Ashley looked back at the army they led. All the witches she saw looked ready. Ready to fight off the plaguing Naguals. The destruction they had left behind. The despair they created against their kind. They will not rest until every single Nagual they faced was dead. Every single Walnor smattered so that no one can use them ever again. It will be a battle that will be remembered among every witch who fought in it.
“No. They know what is at stake.”
With a steady gallop, they headed into the forest.
They remained silent as they traversed deeper into the woods. Ashley remained vigilant as she tried to spot anything that could lead them directly to the Naguals. The trees were far apart, which she found, unusual for any of the forests she has been into. However, this led her to believe she was on the right track as huge creatures such as Ingens, could move around with hardly any resistance between the trees.
What seemed out of place and unnatural to her were how some bushes were aligned. Too close to each other. She raised her hand for everyone to stop.
“What is it?” whispered Sarah.
“Don’t you think this looks strange?” Ashley pointed towards the bushes.
“No, not really. Why?”
“I have been in many forests and never saw something like this.”
“I sense nothing.”
Ashley drew her sword. Soon, she heard swords drawn behind her, including Sarah. She was about to advance when suddenly a human emerged from behind the bush and fired an arrow in their direction. It hit a witch directly in the face and toggled over to the ground.
Quickly, many more humans emerged and fired their arrows at them. Ashley dodged two but heard how other arrows hit their mark, followed by thumping noises of witches hitting the ground. Ashely dashed forward and sliced several humans. The witches stormed and quickly decimated the humans.
Ashley looked back and saw more than ten witches laying on the ground. Few moved, grunting as they tried to fight the pain. Others were dead.
Rattling leaves and heavy footsteps could be heard from the distance. Closing in quickly. An army of true-formed Naguals ran towards them. Growling loudly. It sounded intimidating as they came closer. She has never seen so many attacking at once. She was glad none of the huge ones were among them but was also worried at the same time. The Naguals knew how hard they were to defeat. There was no time to think about the Nagual’s tactics.
No command was needed to indicate what needed to be done. The witches stormed and their black blades met Nagual flesh. Ashley sliced arms and legs off. Stabbed them, punched them in their faces leaving behind a deep imprint of her fist. When she was not being attacked, a quick look around her showed the horrors the battle had. Many witches cut the Naguals in half. Heads and bodies being cut in half. Few witches have been downed by several Naguals who tore huge chunks out of them. Few Naguals ripped the witches’ faces off with their sharp teeth.
The battle was over soon. The forest ground was covered with Naguals and witches’ blood. The surviving witches healed themselves or were being healed by the others. Few surviving Naguals quickly got a blade stuck in them.
A witch walked up to Ashley. “Where are the huge Naguals you have mentioned?” She sounded upset.
“Don’t know but we are certainly on the right track if a small army attacked us,” replied Ashley coldly.
“Stand down.” commanded Sarah. “We already lost enough of our kind. Who knows what other monsters they have up there.”
The witch growled in anger and walked away.
“I knew they were expecting us. They must have scouts we missed. However, I didn’t expect them to have humans ambushing us,” said Sarah.
“I didn’t expect humans either but resistance for sure. Why they used their own kind to attack us bothers me, though,” said Ashley.
“No point to worry about it. More are on the way. I say we better head up and face them.”
Ashley nodded her head and motioned to the others to follow. They dashed up the hill.
They ended up on a huge open, flat clearing with a big entrance to the mountain. Ashley could sense more Naguals and Walnors inside. Without warning, a massive number of the fully grown Naguals stormed out of the cave. The ground shook from their heavy steps. She heard loud gasps around her. Some staggered at the sight of these massive monstrosities.
There was no time for Ashley to remind everyone how fast they must be. All she could hope for was that they remembered what Sarah and her had told them.
Ashley jumped high up while Sarah attacked one from the ground. The Nagual looked uncertain who to attack first. Ashley landed successfully on his head but Sarah got kicked away. He tried to reach for Ashley but she stabbed him in the eye and jumped off. The Nagual growled loudly in pain as he held with one hand his wound and with the other he tried to swap at Ashley. Two more witches attacked the Nagual but he grabbed one and squashed her with ease in his giant hand. The other witch stabbed her sword in his armpit. Ashley did not hesitate and went for the throat. Her sword dug all the way through. The smell of the yellow blood made her gag and the other witch as well as she tried to pull out her sword.
Before he could grab his throat, Ashley twisted the blade and with all her might, forcing it upwards, cutting the head in half. She jumped off behind him as he fell to the ground. The other witch finally could retrieve her sword, nodded her head to Ashley and attacked the next Nagual.
Ashley scanned around her and saw how Sarah stabbed her sword into the stomach and three more blades followed. The creature roared and hammered his fist at them. Sarah and another evaded it, leaving their swords behind but the third got smashed as she tried to pull out her sword. A gunky mess was all that remained of the witch. Sarah dashed forward and twisted the blade and finally retrieved it. The other witch grabbed hers and widely cut left and right until the guts spilled out.
Ashley quickly aided them but he swung his sharp claws at Sarah. Sarah got her arms severed as she tried to deflect it and sustained heavy cuts on her body. Ashley and the other witch jumped at his head and stabbed wildly at it. The Nagual roared as the blades penetrated his skull and eventually fell.
Without hesitation, Ashley grabbed Sarah and carried her into the woods. In horror, she saw many of her kind laying on the ground. Severely wounded with limbs missing or massive cuts on their bodies. Some were alive, trying to heal themselves, others were dead. Two more witches were carried in, were laid to the ground and dashed back to the fight.
Sarah gasped heavily, eyes wide open in shock.
“Stay alive. Don’t die on me now,” said Ashely. She gurgled up her slime and spread it over Sarah’s body. Her breathing slowed down and saw her arms slowly growing back. Once Ashley got her strength back, she returned to the fight.
The ground was saturated in blood from witches and Naguals. Mostly smashed bodies, torn skin and flesh from witches lay around. A witch’s head lay in front of her. The entire face was torn off. Only guts and other chunks from Naguals were spread all over the battlefield. There were more bodies of witches than Naguals.
Helga dashed from Nagual to Nagual, inflicted heavy cuts on their legs, leaving them vulnerable for a short period for any witch to use the opportunity to strike. Any severely wounded witches, the Naguals did not hesitate to either step- or pick them up and repeatedly smash them onto the ground.
She could not believe that they were about to lose the fight as more and more of her kind fell to these creatures. She was not about to give up and attacked the nearest one. Her sword got stuck as she attempted to cut off a hand and the Nagual grinned at her failed attempt and swung his arm, sending her flying through the air. She hit the wall of the cave entrance and her vision was a blur. The Nagual moved slowly towards her and could make out a grin when he was closer. Still paralised by the impact, she could hardly move.
The Nagual picked her up between his thumb and index finger. Ashley tried to free herself but the grip was too strong. He slowly squeezed his fingers together and she screamed. Then he released his grip and squeezed again. He did it over and over again, flipping her occasionally upside down.
She couldn’t believe she was being toyed with. Alice wandered through her mind, in hope it would give her strength again but her energy was drained and waited for her inevitable death as he began squeezing his fingers together. Vision darkened and the sound faded into oblivion.
Her legs hit the floor hard and felt the air entering her body. Vision became clearer and the sound returned. The Nagual stumbled away from her and saw several arrows embedded in him. Astonished, she glared around who fired them. More arrows flew and hit the Nagual again and the others. All of them screeched as they tried to pull out the arrows as they waved their hands over them, breaking most of the arrows.
Out of nowhere, an army of witches emerged and attacked the staggered creatures. Her jaw dropped as her eyes laid onto Ronan and Lithia. Ronan sliced a leg clean off as if it was made of paper. Lithia stabbed her sword through his mouth, kicked the jaw open and ripped her blade through the skull. Ronan kept severing limbs of any Nagual in his path, followed by his wife and many witches.
More witches emerged. Nearly a dozen jumped on a Nagual, stabbing and slicing until the Nagual fell as a blood soaked corpse. One after another, they fell. Laying in a puddle of their own blood and gore.
Soon, the battle was over and the Naguals defeated.
Chapter 63
“How are you here? How did you find us?” asked Ashley when Ronan and Lithia came up to her. She immediately hugged both, still in disbelief seeing them.
“Gordon sent a witch to tell us about what happened. Finding us was easy for obvious reasons,” explained Lithia with a half smile.
“And finding you was easy too. The message spread quickly that an army of witches marched towards the mountains. Looks like we came just in time,” said Ronan.
“But where did you…?” said Ashley as she pointed out the army of witches.
“We picked some up on our way from Asran. Gordon sent out several witches to find as many as they could, while you were assembling your army. We hoped to stumble into you but you were already ahead of us,” said Ronan.
“I’m so glad you came back.” Ashley hugged them together.
Sarah emerged between the witches and wandered directly at them. Her arms were not fully grown but her wounds on her body were gone. Ashley could not hide her smile to see her but Sarah looked as if she was still in pain.
“I’m glad you made it. I wish many of us would have made it too,” said Ashley.
“Me too.” Said Sarah. “Helga is dead. She got torn in half.”
“Shit. She was dashing between them before I lost sight of her.”
“She was true to her word after all.”
They remained silent. Grieving over the loss of their fallen friends.
Huge flames and thick black smoke exited the cave, darkening the sky above them. The heat singed the trees and Lithia hoped they wouldn’t catch fire and burn the forest down.
She was glad that the Naguals were defeated and the Walnors exterminated. Levra can be rebuilt and any remaining Naguals would be terminated.
Chapter 64
Gordon and Chris were relieved when the witches returned to the hidden castle. A massive weight must have been taken off their shoulders after Lithia and Ronan stated that the Naguals were defeated and the Walnors were burned to crisps.
“Finally we can rebuild our city. Thank you again for returning Ronan and Lithia. I’m sorry I had to burst your holiday,” stated Gordon.
“Don’t be,” said Lithia with a smile.
“It would be selfish of us not to help out. We all thought it was over but clearly they had a bigger plan in motion. The cave was filled with Walnors. They used the massive lake inside it to breed them. Explains why no ships were spotted at the waters. With many of the witches absent from Levra, they used the opportunity to storm the city,” said Ronan.
“What I fail to understand is, why no Ingens or other monsters weren’t present when we arrived. You said yourself that an army of witches did not go unnoticed,” said Ashley confused.
“They must have lost enough when they attacked the city.” Answered Lithia. “Finding new ones when time was short was impossible so they used humans instead. Knowing we can’t sense them when being controlled. Aslo, who knows for how long they could control these monsters. I guess when they saw how we struggled to fight the huge ones, it must have given them enough confidence they could defeat us.”
“And they almost did if you haven’t shown up.” Responded Ashley. “They enjoyed torturing us when they noticed they were winning. I’m glad you came before they did. However, sooner would have been better. We lost so many good witches.”
Ashley sunk her head.
“Don’t feel sorry, Ashley,” said Sarah as she laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. “No one knew how many were present up there. We killed as many as we could.”
“Thanks. But I should have been better prepared. I already lost someone close to me. I don’t want any more.”
“I’m sure Alice would have been proud of you,” said Sarah with a soothing tone and a half smile. Ashley cracked a smile too.
“You said you burned the fish. How?” asked Chris as he pointed to the black smoke that still rose from the mountain.
“They had a huge supply of oil stashed there.” Answered Ronan. “We poured everything into the water and ignited it. Not proud of it but it was the only option to guarantee that they can never be used again.”
“Looks like Levra can’t thank you enough for saving not only the city but the land of Ausran as well,” said Chris.
“You will have a home in the castle,” said Gordon.
“Yes, about that. We need to talk. But first, let me consult with my wife first.”
“Are you sure about this?” asked Ronan to Lithia.
“Yes. I can’ think of a suitable place but Panlong.”
Ronan gave her a surprised look. Eyes wide open, as if he tried to read her mind.
Lithia knew she had found a place to remain. In Panlong. Witches were welcomed. Ronan had the closest to a family he could call father and mother who still loved him after all these years. The same people who don’t mind witches and even guide them around without any hesitation. Also, she hasn’t sensed any Naguals within the vicinity. Which she found strange. But she recalled the same when she saw Ronan with the Catamir all these years back. Even after she killed the creature, she didn’t sense any Naguals.
“Well? What do you think?” she asked Ronan.
“Surprised but it is a nice place and has a beautiful landscape. It’s quiet and looks like my previous parents-in-law like you. Which I think would be one of the reasons why you like it here.”
Ronan gave her a half smile in amusement.
“Let’s hang up our swords. Let’s be together now that we are finally married. I can help them with their guides and you can teach your skills and language as you did before.”
“I do admit. It will be a welcoming change. No more orders. No more traveling around to places people hate us. I think I can walk around here without ever using my armour. With you, it looks the same. The people do not care either so why not?”
Lithia smiled and felt joy for having found a place they can relax and call a home. A home that will remain for as long as they live. However, the thought crept up on her that she should feel guilty in pressuring him. It was the place he got married and buried his wife. A woman she killed.
