Hopeless Liberation Chapter 10
Chapter 10
Tess
My eyes fluttered open and were met with blackness that hovered over me like a mist.
After yawning and stretching my arms, I stood up and strode over to my desk. Across its top, my desk was covered with almost every book in my collection. They were all open, their pages wrinkled and bare, and I began to close each one of them. Immediately after making my discovery the day before, just after Dante had left, I spent the rest of the day and half of the night trying to see if my plan was even possible. But, no matter what book I opened or what page I read by the dying light of a candle, there seemed to be no evidence that supported or disproved my idea. Not a single text made any reference to the concept I found in Pergan's book, meaning I had no choice but to blindly pursue it. Not like there's a whole list of options. Gwen, if she was still alive, had very little time. But Dante hadn't returned the day before, so I took that as a good sign and felt somewhat relieved. Although, as I started tossing the books into my chest, I realized that Dante not returning could also have meant that he was dead.
Shaking the bleak thought out of my head, I walked over to my desk and stared at Pergan's Elixirs and Potions, which still lay open. I leaned forward, sliding the old tome closer to me, and looked over the potion's ingredients for probably the thousandth time.
Four leaves of holly. One stem of agrimony. Two osha roots. Three poppy leaves. The ashes of one burnt rowan leaf. Four pumpkin seeds. Ten drops of blood from a witch or warlock.
_ _ Most of the ingredients seemed easy enough to find. I already knew where I could get most of them and what they looked like. Even the blood wasn't an issue. I would probably just have had to cut the tip of my finger. But the one thing that was going to give me trouble was finding the pumpkin seeds. Not many pumpkins were grown in the North. Traveling to the South seemed like the only way I could get some. But that was out of the question. What if Dante came back and needed my help, only to find that I was gone? I then began wondering if the Sleeping Sun market was selling some. If so, Dante could have bought a pumpkin for me. How the hell would I get a message to him? I don't know where he is. And walking into the City would be the quickest way of getting myself locked in a cell or beheaded.
_ _ I sighed, hoping that by chance I would have found a pumpkin somewhere in the woods. I'd have better luck growing a cock.
_ _ Leaving my cave with unease tightening my chest, I wandered over to a bush, which I noticed had green stems that sprouted upwards and were decorated with faded white colors.
I crouched down in front of the bush, reaching my hands into the soil at its base. While digging through the dirt, I found some osha roots, which looked more like dead tree branches than they did roots. My fingers wrapped around the roots and I tugged, leaning backwards as my fingers burned with pain. I didn't stop pulling, though. A little pain wasn't going to prevent me from keeping my promise to Dante.
Soon enough, the roots came up, spitting dirt in every direction. I bit off what little parts of them remained connected to the ground, keeping my tongue near the back of my mouth and far away from the dry dirt.
When the roots were completely free, I trotted back to my cave and set the roots on my desk, next to Pergan's book.
I left my cave again and travelled deeper into the forest, keeping an eye out for the other ingredients that I required.
Luck seemed to be with me because I found a full bush of holly that was adjacent to a bushel with yellow stems of agrimony, which seemed to wave and greet me as I approached.
I began to pluck the four leaves of holly and, on the second leaf, my hand slipped. My thumb and index finger grazed the sharp side of the leaf, cutting through my fur and leaving behind streaks of red.
"Damn," I swore to myself as I lifted my fingers to suck on the cuts.
_ _ After blood stopped leaking through the two scratches, I wiped my spit-covered finger and thumb against my thigh. Then, I picked the remaining holly leaves that I needed very carefully, making sure to keep my fingers on the flat sides of the leaves and far away from the edges.
When I cautiously held a stack of four holly leaves between my index finger and thumb, I walked over to the bush that had the agrimony. As I held the holly leaves between the index finger and thumb of my left hand, I used my right hand to rip the agrimony straight out of the bush, causing a few of the tiny yellow leaves to come fluttering off as the branch came loose. At least it was easier to get than the osha roots.
_ _ I wrapped the stem of the yellow agrimony around the holly leaves and used it to protect myself from the sharp sides. Then, I marched back home again.
"Okay," I whispered to myself after placing the herbs on my desk and stepping outside once more, "I only need poppy leaves, some rowan leaves and those stupid fucking pumpkin seeds,"
For the next half hour, my luck had seemed to have completely evaporated. Nowhere, in any bush or behind any tree, did I find a single pumpkin, rowan leaf or poppy seed. Eventually, I realized that, after staying close to my cave during my search, I needed to travel further into the woods.
So I began walking east, leaving behind the area around my cave that was familiar to me. Plenty of prey lived around my cave and there was a river only a few minutes to the west, which was why I hadn't really needed to travel far away from home very often.
That was when I made my mistake.
As I walked, I reached the main road and stepped across it, not checking to see if anyone was nearby. I don't know why I didn't look both ways before venturing out into the open. Maybe it was because I was thinking about Gwen, or recalling how I had dragged a bleeding Dante off the same road two days ago, or realizing that it was almost noon. But I guess it doesn't matter now. Dwelling on past mistakes has very little use.
"Do you need help, ma'am?" a calm voice said to my right.
My neck fur prickled and I snapped my head to the right, noticing a young skunk riding a slowly approaching wagon, which was pulled by a tamed horse with light brown fur.
At my sides, my fingers twitched. Would I have had to kill this boy? If he guessed that I was a witch, he probably would have reported to the knights in Seeping Sun. Needless to say, that was something I desperately wanted to avoid. Yet, would I have been able to live with myself if I killed this boy, who seemed to be no older than sixteen years old? His parents would never know what happened to him.
_ _ But, as he pulled his wagon to a halt, I realized that the boy was dressed in ragged wool clothing and his wagon stank of carrots, turnips and onions. He's just a farm boy. I doubt he even knows how to read. If I can come up with a good lie, he'll probably just forget about me and won't tell anybody about this.
_ _ I opened my mouth to respond, but noticed that the boy was staring at my breasts.
Upon remembering how any normal woman who lived in the City wouldn't be comfortable being naked in front of someone else, I covered my breasts and vagina with both of my wings. I then cleared my throat and feigned annoyance.
"Oh," the boy said, blinking when he realized what he had done. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to stare. Do you want my tunic?"
I wanted to say no. Buying new clothes probably was something that he couldn't afford to do very often, based on his raggedy outfit. But, before I could answer, the skunk removed his tunic, revealing his scrawny chest, and hopped down from his wagon. He then trotted up to me and held the tunic out, as if it were a present.
"Thank you," I said, flattered by how kind he was, and took the tunic.
I put the tunic over myself, the fabric making my fur itch from how old and cheaply made it was. On the bright side, it did fit me very well, since we were both members of smaller species. It didn't cover everything, though, and stopped just short of touching my lower belly, but it wasn't as if I was actually bothered by being seen naked, so I just pretended not to feel the cool breath of the air between my legs.
"What happened to your clothes?" the boy asked, looking at me with worry like I was some wounded wild deer he found bleeding in the woods.
"Oh," I said, rolling my eyes as though it wasn't important. "My friends and I were drinking some wine out here last night, and I fell asleep. They must have taken my clothes as a joke,"
"It doesn't sound like you have nice friends," the boy noted, fearfully, as though I were going to slap him for speaking his mind.
I shrugged. "We do stuff like this all the time. I'm sure I'll get them back,"
I then smiled and laughed, continuing to tell the rest of my fake story. "My friend Elizabeth is afraid of snakes, so I put a garden snake in her chamber pot one time. When she saw it, she kicked the chamber pot over and shit went everywhere,"
"That must have smelled really bad," the boy said, slightly grinning.
"It did," I said, laughing again. "For four days!"
"So you live in the City?"
"Yes," I answered, hoping that he wouldn't ask me for a specific location. "Did you just visit?"
"Yeah. I just sold all my family's crops. Got paid a lot of gold cause, you know, the war and all,"
War? "Well," I said with a smile, "it's nice to know somebody is benefiting from it,"
"Me too," the farm boy said. "I just hope our luck stays this good for a while,"
"Everyone's going to need all the luck they can get," I said, still trying to keep my charade going.
He nodded, his ears flattening. "I'd... I'd give you a ride into the City, but I need to get home,"
"Oh, of course," I said, gathering as much sympathy in my voice as I could. "I'd hate to keep you waiting,"
"Thank you," he said and turned to walk towards his wagon.
"You aren't gonna fuck her, boy?" a voice called out from behind me.
My ears twitched and my hands curled into fists. You have to be fucking kidding me.
_ _ The boy stopped and turned to stare at something behind me, his eyes widening with fear as he became frozen in the road.
With dread bubbling in my stomach, I turned around and saw four Talth, who emerged from the woods and stood a few steps up the road from me with their backs facing the north. Among them, there was a panther, a rabbit, a mongoose and a fennec fox, all of whom had swords sheathed at their sides and yellow armbands wrapped around the sleeves of their tunics.
I wasn't sure which of them had spoken first, but I didn't care enough to ask. "Leave now," I warned the men, "and I'll let you keep your balls intact,"
All of the Talth laughed and the fennec stepped forward. "I see the little lady's got a strong tongue," he said, just before smiling. "Good. I'll enjoy it when you use it to lick my cock,"
I didn't want to kill all four Talth in front of the farm boy. If I did, I would have revealed myself and put Gwen in danger, as well as Peter. So I tried to warn the Talth one more time. "Last chance. Go and leave us, or you'll be in the ground soon,"
The fennec drew his sword, which was stained with blotches of dry blood. "How do you expect to do that? You don't even have a knife,"
I released a sigh, allowing my shoulders to sink. Let's hope Dante is having better luck than I am.
_ _ Gently, I eased the tunic that the farm boy had given me off of my body and turned to toss it back to him. "Here,"
The boy seemed startled, his eyes flinching when the tunic hit his chest as he caught it.
I then turned back and faced the four Talth. If the boy runs while I finish these guys off, I'll have to chase him. And kill him, too.
_ _ "Look at that, boys," the fennec said, sheathing his sword. "We finally found a girl that won't scream,"
I raised my right hand and my fingers curled around a tether I found that was connected to the fennec's head. "Trust me. I won't be the one screaming,"
After tugging on the tether and pulling it back over my shoulder, the fennec's head snapped completely around and faced his startled comrades.
The Talth's body had barely begun to crumble onto the road before my hand found a second tether, which was attached to the panther's stomach. I pulled on the tether and the panther's tunic filled with red, as purple and blue intestines rained down onto his boots.
The rabbit and mongoose drew both of their swords, ignoring the panther's screams as he kneeled on the ground and helplessly tried to shove his organs back into his open belly. Both of the last two Talth then charged and I barely had enough time to hop out of the way of their attacks.
Upon sidestepping the rabbit and mongoose's swords, I twisted a tether that my left hand located, causing the rabbit's arm and sword to all fly off, leaving behind a fountain of blood that spewed down the rabbit's side. He screamed, of course, and fell onto the ground, sobbing as even more blood began to splash against the road and form a puddle beneath him.
The mongoose, startled by his friend's screams, turned to see what had happened, which gave me enough time to grab a tether that was connected to his skull. I pulled on it and ripped the mongoose's entire head from his shoulders, sending it rolling off to the right as his headless corpse collapsed onto the ground, painting the gravel of the road in a sheet of blood.
After a quick glance at the panther, who now lay on his side with lifeless eyes and hands that loosely gripped his entrails, I assumed that I had killed all of the Talth.
However, the rabbit continued to cry and shake on the road, swinging his bleeding stump and spraying blood everywhere as he lay on his back.
Swiftly, I found a tether connected to the rabbit's chest and pulled it back, thus ripping his blood-coated rib cage straight through his tunic and now-open chest, revealing a fortune of red innards that came spilling out like gold coins from a treasure chest.
Once the gore was finished and the rabbit's screams became silent, I realized that I was heaving for air. As I tried to breathe and calm myself, my heart was pounding in my chest as loudly as thunder.
I must have appeared even worse than I felt because, as my head became fuzzy from exhaustion, the farm boy walked in front of me and held my shoulders.
"Miss?" he said, somehow managing to talk over my booming heartbeat and the haziness inside my skull. "Are you okay?"
"Yes," I said, between breaths. "Do you...have a drink?"
His eyes lit up. "I do!"
The skunk hurried past me, practically sprinting away. He came back a moment later and stood before me, only to hand over a wineskin. "It's not water," he warned me.
"Doesn't matter," I gasped, taking another wheezy breath.
I reached out for the wineskin, gently taking it from the skunk's hand, and popped the cork off. I then lifted it to my mouth, allowing the cool liquid, which I discovered was wine, to race over my tongue and burn like ice as I tilted my head back to gulp every drop.
Soon, as I gulped the refreshing wine down, my lungs began to burn for more air, so I forced myself to pull the wineskin away, gasping for more breath while doing so. "Is my... Is my fur...shedding?"
The skunk looked at me like I was insane, but took a quick glance at my body. "No,"
"Good," I said, taking a deep breath as I corked the wineskin and handed it back to the skunk. "Thanks,"
"It was the least I could do," the farm boy replied, gently sliding the wineskin from my fingers. "You saved my life,"
"They would have...killed us both," I pointed out, air not seeming to enter me quickly enough.
"Still," the skunk persisted, "thank you,"
"You're welcome,"
"I've never..." the boy said, but stopped himself and began to stare at me with worry.
"What?" I asked, the fur on my back burning with unease. Don't make me do something we'll both regret, boy.
_ _ "Met a witch," he said, like a child who knows that he is going to be punished.
"Not many have,"
"Are you...?" he asked, frightfully. "Are you going to turn me into a frog?"
"What?" I said, almost laughing at the question, but couldn't because I was panting so hard.
"That's what witches do!" the boy persisted. "My mom told me so when I was little,"
"Boy," I said, shaking my head with a smile, "I bet your mom's never even met a witch,"
"But the stories! The ones my mom told me were all about witches who turned people into frogs and ate them!"
"Who the hell eats frogs?" I asked with small grin, finally realizing that my burning lungs were starting to somewhat cool. "If I could turn someone into food...I'd turn them into some bacon or wine... Not some slimy frog... Wouldn't you?"
The boy blinked and thought for a moment, his eyes losing their fear. "I guess so,"
"A frog," I said under my breath as my smile slowly faded. "The shit some people believe,"
"So you can't turn people into things?" he asked. "Frogs or anything else?"
"Yes," I answered. "I can, but not into other living things. I can only turn them into sand, water and mud. Things like that,"
"Oh,"
"Yeah," I said, rolling my eyes. "Not as exciting as all the stories your mom probably told you,"
"No," the boy agreed. "And why are you running around naked? Did some of your friends really take your clothes, or did you make that up?"
I sighed, hating that I had to explain how magic works for the second time in two days. "When I use magic, it ruins my clothes, so I don't wear any. If I did, I'd have to always keep getting more. It's just easier this way,"
For a moment, silence slithered around us like a snake that constricts the dying breath out of a mouse.
_ _ "Well," the boy said, finally breaking the painful quietness, "I have to be going now. I'm supposed to get home before dark and getting out of the City took longer than I thought it would,"
I forgot he's been to the City. Maybe...
_ _ "Could I ask you for a small favor?" I said, just as the boy turned to walk towards his wagon and slide his tunic on.
The skunk's ears twitched and he turned to give me a smile. "Sure!"
"Could you...?" I began, fighting the anxiety that ate away at my insides as a result of my vulnerability. "Could you buy me some things?"
The skunk's smile faded a little. "What kinds of things?"
"I need a few herbs," I explained. "Some that I can't find around here,"
"Like what?"
I sighed and recalled the three items I still needed for the elixir. "A rowan leaf, three poppy leaves and four pumpkin seeds,"
The boy thought for a moment and spoke. "I saw a few pumpkins and poppy leaves back in the City. I might have seen some Rowan leaves, but I don't know what those look like,"
"They're thin and green," I told the boy. "There's a lot on a single branch. And they have very small points around the edges,"
"So they look like every other leaf in the forest," he said, grinning. "I can see why you're having trouble,"
"Please, help me," I begged him, despite the feeling of self-loathing that came over me from being so desperate. "I really need them,"
The boy's smile vanished and he looked at me with caution, like someone who tries to discern whether or not a snake is poisonous. Then, he grinned once again. "Sure. I'll buy them for you,"
My entire body became lighter than air and I truly began to feel like there was hope for my plan. "Thank you so much!"
"No problem. You saved me from those Talth. And I made twice as much gold as I thought I would, so my dad won't know I spent a little of it,"
The farm boy turned around and got onto his wagon, where he sat down on the seat and took the tamed horse's reigns into his hands. "How will I know where to find you? Should we meet here? It'll be dark by the time I get back and I don't think I can recognize this place at night,"
I looked around and saw a tree to my left. Then, after picking up the sword that was still in the dead mongoose's hand, I walked over to the tree and carved a large "X" into the bark.
I turned back to face the boy. "I'll stay here and wait for you, but, just in case I fall asleep or something, you'll know if you're in the right place or not,"
That seemed to be enough to satisfy him. "All right," he said, giving the reigns of his tamed horse a flick.
The horse began slowly trotting and the boy turned it around so that the wagon began to move south. "See you in a little while,"
"I'll be waiting," I said, tossing the sword over to the mongoose's bloody corpse.
"What will you do with the bodies?" the boy called out, the distance between us growing further and further.
I smiled and called out to him, "I'll turn them into frogs!"
The boy laughed at that and faced forward, slowly moving further down the road and towards Sleeping Sun.
You'll turn them into frogs? Your sister's life is in danger and you make a joke? What's the matter with you?
_ _ "Idiot," I cursed myself with a sharp whisper.
I sighed, turning my attention to the four bodies in front of me. My breath had now calmed and my heart was no longer racing inside my chest, so it seemed that I was ready to use magic again.
I reached out, finding a tether connected to the rabbit's body, and morphed the corpse into a pile of sand with a flick of my wrist. I then walked towards it and began spreading the sand over the blood that the rabbit sprayed along the road. I did the same thing with his dethatched arm and the bodies of the other Talth.
_ _ By the time I was done, I was panting for breath again like a wild dog in heat, my heartbeat a little louder than usual, and I sat down off to the side of the road, just behind some bushes.
I lay down on the ground, my spine pressing against the hard dirt, and felt the tension that I had been carrying ease away. Above me, the treetops were barely lit by the dim light that actually managed to get through the ocean of grey clouds in the sky. This is really weird weather. Some people might say it's an omen. A smile leapt upon my face and I thought about jokingly telling Gwen that we were in for some tragedy after Dante saved her. If Dante saves her...
That dreary thought stuck with me. Where was Dante? Did he make it to the City, or did some Talth attack him on the road? I should have made him take his gun. But, even if he made it to the City, did the wolf join the City knights like we had planned? And, if he managed to do that, did Dante know where Gwen was? Or was she...?
I tried to stop my mind, attempting to push away all of the "ifs" and "buts" out into that void where memories and ideas die, where they are forgotten and buried beneath our consciousness in unmarked graves. Yet, no matter how hard I tried, I still could not rid myself of that single thought that made me feel like an empty shell of a person, without hope or any other emotion. I curled my fists and closed my eyes, trying my best to silence the dreadful and nagging question. But it still remained, lingering around like a guest who overstays their welcome and refuses to leave.
Was Gwen dead?
Those three fucking words made the color of the trees seems as dull as the clouds above me, as if even they lost all feeling at the idea, too. What would I do without my sister? We had been through so much together, ever since we were born. I remembered our mother telling me, when I was very young, that one of us would cry in our crib if the other was taken out. I didn't remember that, so I never knew if my mother was telling the truth, but I did remember how our father, a small-time merchant, taught us to read. Because of that, we grew up on the same books. Hell, we even liked the same kind of stories, the ones that were full of dragons, gryphons and other mythical creatures. I still remembered how a six or seven year old Gwen once told me decades ago that she would ride a dragon someday. I told her they didn't exist and she said that maybe nobody had ever looked in the right places for them.
After the nostalgic memories of our childhood had worn off, I remembered all of the things we went through after we ran away from home. I recalled how, after we set out on the night of our departure, it started to rain and we couldn't find any shelter other than the tree branches that shook in every direction from the wind. Both of us, with every inch of our fourteen-year-old bodies, shivered from the cold drops.
I had started to regret leaving, thinking that maybe we could have turned back. Gwen hated the idea and assured me that we were dong the right thing. "We accidently burned down some of the houses, remember?" she had asked me. "And it's not like we can hide who we are forever. Sooner or later, someone will find out that we're witches. When that happens, they'll drive us out or kill us. It's better to live alone than hide among people who despise us, Tess,"
The memory turned bitter as I recalled those words and how I still hid my sexuality from her. Would she have hated me for being gay? Or would she have hated me more for not trusting her? I had kept it a secret for so long that either possibility seemed likely. But maybe she had suspicions. We were always very close and she may have noticed me sneak a look at another girl when we were still living in our town. I knew that she wasn't gay. That was made very clear years ago when Gwen had told me all about how she had slept with Willard, an overly muscular snow leopard who was a smith's apprentice back in our town. I wasn't very enthusiastic, obviously, but I still tried to pretend that I knew what she was feeling when describing Willard's brawny chest, which, according to Gwen, was as hard as iron. I found it hard to figure out what to say. I didn't care what Willard looked like without clothes, so I didn't want to know about his chest, or any other part of him. But it was obvious that Gwen was excited to talk about him, so I played along, not wanting to spoil her giddiness. I nodded a lot and asked "Really?" from time to time. It was her first time sleeping with a guy, after all.
Then again, I still wasn't sure that I was gay. I was almost positive that I was, but, since I had never even kissed another woman before, my sexuality was still somewhat of a mystery. I had admired some of the girls in our town, especially this one tigress, Ulma, who was twenty and had enormous boobs. Often, I would have caught myself fantasizing about what they looked like beneath her tunic when I was younger. Were her nipples perky? Did Ulma like having them licked? Did she enjoy rubbing them when she masturbated? These questions always made my imagination run wild and, almost as often, resulted in me locking myself in the privy for an unusually long time.
Still, why hadn't I ever been brave enough to tell Gwen? Now it seemed that I might never have gotten the chance. She could have been dead and I may have had to live with my secret for the rest of my life, forever regretting that I had never been honest with her. I just never knew how to say it. Not that many opportunities come up when you can mention to your sister in a casual conversation that you're a dyke. I also never knew what I could have said if she had reacted badly to me confessing my sexuality to her. Would she have been accepting, though? Maybe. We both knew what discrimination felt like, what with being witches and everything. But everyone can discriminate, even those who face the most prejudice. Gwen could have, as I always feared, become anxious around me, since she was the only woman I could see naked in person. But I had never thought of her like that. She was my sister. I wasn't some kind of pervert. Would she have known that, though? She could have believed that all lesbians want to sleep with every piece of ass we see. I didn't know for sure. We had never discussed the topic of gay people and I sure as hell wasn't going to bring it up. And it wasn't like I could have just left my secret sketch of a naked gazelle -which I hid behind my desk- out in the open for Gwen to find. Then she really would have thought that I was a pervert, even if she wouldn't have before.
_ _ More memories of my childhood and feelings of regret visited me, seeming almost unavoidable at that point. And, even when I got up from the dirt and shuffled away from the road to take a piss, a sense of gloom draped over me like a cloak.
I then returned to my spot behind the bush on the side of the road and stayed there until nightfall, when I could barely see any of the tree branches above me and began to worry that more Talth somewhere on the road had attacked the farm boy.
Warily, I crawled around the side of the bush, listening for the sounds of pawsteps or horse hooves. I heard nothing and peeked out, gazing down the southern direction of the road. I could see something in the distance, but it was so well hidden by the black drapes of night that I wasn't sure what it was and whether or not it was moving towards me. Was it the skunk? Had more Talth arrived? Or was I just staring at some shifting tree branches?
Deciding to remain vigilant, I crept behind the bush again and lay down, pressing my belly against the dirt while I balanced my head on my folded arms. Tentatively, I raised my ears and waited to see if something or someone came walking by.
Soon, I began to hear a peculiar noise further down the southern direction of the road that slowly edged closer to me. The sound reminded me of someone loudly clicking their tongue, but, as it drew closer, I realized that it was the sound of hooves. But is it the boy or somebody else with wagon? Maybe it's another farmer.
_ _ Abruptly, the clopping of hooves ceased a few steps down the road and silence fell over the area like a murky fog.
"Miss Witch?" a timid voice called out, sounding almost lost. "Are you here? I got the stuff you wanted,"
The farm boy. Is he alone?
_ _ Cautiously, I crouched and crept over to the right, just before peeking out from behind a tree. From where I stood, I could see the boy sitting on top of his wagon and uneasily glancing around, as if he had never been there before. Besides his horse, he appeared to be alone. Knights could be hiding in the back of the wagon.
_ _ I sighed, shaking my head. Don't be so paranoid. Yet, even as I trotted onto the road, I felt a knot of agitation tighten in my chest, which constricted with every step.
"You got them all?" I asked, walking towards the boy, who turned his head and stared at me.
He smiled and turned around, reaching for something in the back of his wagon.
My fingers twitched at my side and found a tether tied to the boy's throat, yet I did not pull or twist it. Is he going to give me the herbs I want or an arrow from a crossbow?
_ _ The boy turned back to face me, still smiling brightly, and pulled up a pumpkin, which had a whole bushel of poppy and rowan leaves mixed together on top of it. "I got all of them from the same farmer! He gave me a weird look when I asked if he had them, but, when I gave him the gold, he didn't care anymore,"
My fingers slowly released the tether and pressed against the fur of my thigh as I smiled. The knot in my belly also unwound and it felt like I could finally breath easily. "I can't thank you enough,"
"It's the least I can do,"
I approached where the boy sat. He in turn then lowered the pumpkin and leaned down to me, extending his arms as far as they possibly could go without him having to fall off his wagon.
I stopped beside the boy and carefully took the items from him, the weight of the pumpkin nearly making me topple over. "Thank you so much. You don't know how much this means to me,"
"You're welcome," he said. Then, a look of curiosity crawled over the skunk's face, his eyes narrowing and his forehead furrowing. "What do you need them for?"
I paused for a moment, trying to come up with a good lie. Then, I decided to speak as vaguely as possible. "A friend needs them,"
"Oh," the boy said, his forehead flattening out and his eyes widening. "Are they sick?"
"Yes," I lied, realizing that it was the best story to use. "I needed these last ingredients to make his medicine,"
The skunk's ears folded back with pity. "I hope he feels better,"
"He will," I said, "now that I have the last herbs,"
"I'm glad I could help,"
"So am I," I replied. "I'll tell him how you gave me them. And how... Sorry. I didn't catch your name,"
"Eric," he said. The boy then patted the rump of his tamed horse. "And this is Mary,"
"Well, I promise to tell my friend about how you and Mary both saved him,"
Eric laughed and said, "Have a good night, miss,"
"You too. Goodbye, Eric,"
Eric gave a small flick of Mary's reigns and the two headed down the road, disappearing into the dark.
After watching Eric and his wagon disappear as I stood in the middle of the road, my fingers began to grow numb from the cold and the weight of the pumpkin. Better go make the elixir.
I turned and walked home.
When I entered my cave, I sat down at my desk and spread out all of the ingredients for the elixir before me. I then picked up Pergan's Elixirs and Potions, setting it on my lap with the pages facing up at me. I pressed my finger against the top of the page, near the title that read "Ingredients". I soon dragged my finger down, brushing against the material of the page and found a new section heading that read "Preparation". Here we go.
_ Grind the holly, agrimony, osha roots, poppy leaves and pumpkin seeds in a bowl. Upon completely mixing them, sprinkle in the ashes of the burned rowan leaf. Once that is completed, drip the ten drops of witch or warlock blood into the bowl. When that is completed, stir all of the ingredients together until no color but red remains and you are left with a paste. Once that occurs, the elixir is ready for consumption._
_ _ I read the passage three or four times to make sure I knew what I was supposed to do. Then, I pulled a bowl and Dante's hunting knife out of my trunk, just before sitting back down at my desk.
I placed the bowl off to the side and proceeded to carve off the top of the pumpkin. When the stem and a good deal of the top were finally removed, I reached inside of the pumpkin. The gooey insides almost felt like I was dipping my hand into a cold swamp, nearly making me pull my hand back out in disgust. But, before I retracted my hand, I felt lumps within the pumpkin's entrails and pulled them out of their mushy prison. I turned my hand over and opened it, revealing a pile of pale orange-stained seeds that were still covered with gooey strings. I flicked the orange pumpkin insides back into the pumpkin and put the extra seeds in my hand back as well. Then, I ground the ten seeds up, using my fingers and the face of my desk to crumble them into piles of specks.
I preformed this process with most of the other ingredients, crushing them on my desk and reducing them to little more than tiny mounds of powder, except for the Rowan leaf, of course, which I burned and sprinkled its ashes into the bowl instead.
After pouring the powders into the bowl, I picked up Dante's knife and gently pricked the tip of my right index finger. I then set the knife down and held my finger over the bowl, slowly flicking it down, a drop of blood splattering against the powder of ingredients every time I did so.
When ten drops of my blood where inside the bowl, I slid my finger into my mouth and began to suck on my cut, which stung at the touch of my tongue and filled my mouth with a sour taste. I then used the handle of the knife to stir the elixir until it mutated completely red paste.
As I continued to lick my wound, I set the knife to the side and read what little text remained on the page about the elixir.
Be warned. The newfound magical abilities of the drinker will be twice as powerful as the typical magic user, as well as their endurance, but the effects of receiving their magical abilities will also be twice as worse, putting everyone around them in grave danger. This elixir should not be taken lightly. The drinker will, as all magic users, become infertile, cursed with a longer lifespan than non-magic users and face discrimination for who he/she becomes.
_ _ I turned the page, but, since the next passage began with the ingredients for a potion that raised libido, I flipped back to the page that I had previously been on and stared at it for a while.
Would Dante have been able to save Peter, even with magic? Then again, would the elixir work? Would Dante drink it? If he did, Dante would be giving up a great deal and taking upon a troubled life. He doesn't have much of a choice. It's either this or let his friend die.
_ _ I closed the book and set it, as well as Dante's knife, back into my trunk. Then, I walked outside of my cave and dropped the pumpkin into some bushes, causing it to smash against the forest floor and spill orange slop everywhere.
Curling up in the blankets of my bed moments later, I began to worry again about whether or not my sister was safe, or if Dante had even found her. Luckily, sleep soon found me and cleansed my mind of all worries with a dreamless slumber.