Pained (Part-2)

The smoke around her slowly proceeds to me, encircling me. I cannot see her anymore, I can only hear her loud laughs. The smoke comes to the top of my head, clearing the view. My eyes adjust to see mother grinning her awful smile.

The smoke suddenly goes inside my head and makes me go through a spasm of pain. It feels as if my brain would explode from inside my head.

After the unbearable pain, I touch my head to find two sticks on my head. I rush to mother’s room, which is the nearest to the balcony and look at myself in her long oval mirror. 

Two nasty horns have grown on my head. They are as black as my mother’s hair and as revolting as her magic. 

I scream loudly out of shock and mother comes into the room.

“Well? Do you like them?”, she asks.

I look at her in horror. Was she expecting me to be happy?!

“Why have you planted horns on my head?”, I question her.

“My my, Cassia! Don’t disrespect them like that. They aren’t horns, they’re antlers.”, she says casually.

“What have you done?”, my voice barely comes out as a whisper for I am too shocked and angry to speak anything.

“Cassia”, mother says sternly. “There is no need to remind you that you have buried your gift deep within. You are my daughter; start acting like it.” 

She comes towards me and keeps her hands on my shoulders.

“The magic that you have buried down within will now rise. Magic will claim you and you will be my daughter. You will be just like me”

—————————————————————

"Just like me"

"Just like me"

"Just like me"

"The only way we can punish her right now is by killing you."

"Fine then, go ahead."

"Let the princess of the witches be executed."

"You are my daughter."

Voices overlap all around me. I hear some muffed voices. Then, I hear a cackle, loud and confident.

“How is this even possible?”, a familiar voice speaks, full of dismay.

“I told you not to do it”, says another voice, probably the same person who laughed a second ago.

“Cassia”, I hear the familiar voice growl above me.

I try to open my eyes and look at the one with the familiar voice, however I am too tired to do so.

I try to open my mouth, to tell the person that I’m exhausted, but I’m too weary to say anything. So, I internally sigh and stay in the position I’m in.

I realize that I am sprawled on the ground. I can smell the mud. I can also smell a tangy smell, a mix of sweat and fresh blood. Humans. 

There are many humans around me.

I feel someone lift me up in their arms and say “Your highness, where should I take her?”

“Take her to the dungeons. We can still use her as a bait for her mother.”

Mother. That word suddenly drives all my exhaustion away.

My eyes snap open, as I take in the view. I see Lucas. A few feet away from him, I see the witch. The one who didn’t save me. And yet I was here.

I jerk away from the guard holding me and fall to the ground such that I am sitting. I quickly get up and give him a back kick. 

Other guards come towards me. I tackle them skillfully. I see Lucas proceed to me with a sword. At the same time, I see the witch motion me to follow her. She starts running towards the woods. 

As much as I want to fight Lucas and teach him a lesson, I know that it isn’t a wise decision at the moment. 

With no one else to trust, I avoid Lucas tactfully and run behind the witch. 

Lucas’s men follow us, however due to our incredible speed, they aren’t able to catch us. 

Speed was one of the few things I liked about being a witch.

After silently running for a long time, we come upon a stream.

The witch takes off her brown cloak and it reveals her slender body and her rich dark complexion. She was old, probably my grandmother’s age, however she looked like she was in her early thirties. She must have used some potions or spells.

“Who are you?", I finally ask her, breaking the silence.

“I’m Merida”, she says.

As soon as she says that, I remember the incident. Before I had fallen unconscious, a hideous lady had given me food to eat. Her voice was the same as Merida’s. However, I had refused her. Then, she had thrown some fire behind me. I had thought that she was attacking me, so I had ducked. After that, I fell unconscious.

“Bu–But you were so hideous”, I stutter.

“I’m an ormagon” I gape at her. Only about 1% of the witch population had the ability of shapeshifting.

“Is this your real self?”, I question her.

“Yes, but don’t you think you have more important questions to ask?”

“Why had you offered me food back then? And why had I fallen unconscious? Why did you give me over to the Human Army? And why on earth would you not save me back then?”

Merida laughs. Then, she takes out a grey ribbon from her bag and tries her curly black hair. She offers me another grey ribbon. I hesitantly take it and do the same for myself.

“Your hair have a beautiful brown colour.”, she comments.

“That was not an answer for either of my questions”, I scoff.

 

“Patience princess. Alright, listen carefully.”, she starts walking and I walk by her side.

“You know that this world consists of two – humans and witches, none other. Now, some years ago, I was on my way to meet my father on the farther side of the earth. The routes had changed, so naturally, I lost my way. I wandered through the forests and the villages for three days. Slowly, my food finished. I came upon a house with food on the porch. I crept in and ate it. You know how we witches are allergic to aluminium. Well, the food had a piece of aluminium foil in it.

 

“When I realized that I had eaten the aluminium, I panicked. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do magic or even walk for days. Surprisingly, nothing happened. So, I set out on a journey to find out the cause. I came know that some witches, about 0.02% of the population have a different gene. It eliminates the shortcomings of a witch. In other words, they are immortal. After these ‘greys’, as they are called, turn 31 years old, they stop growing physically and they stay the same way.”

 

“What does this have to do with me?”, I ask her, confused.

 

“Since the day I saw you, the day your mother’s reign began, I knew there was something special about you. The way you walked, the way you talked, so gracefully. You are completely different from your mother. Some part of me knew that very day that you were not just a witch.

 

“You think I’m a grey?”

 

“I don’t think that, I am sure of it. Tell me, why would have King Lucas given you food when he planned to kill you?”

Wow. I hadn’t thought about it.

“You enchanted that guard. You were the one who gave me the food.”, I analyze out loud.

 

Merida nods. “The food had a piece of aluminium in it. When you came out of the cell, you most definitely were not affected. So, I knew you would survive the assassination.”  

“But why did you give me to the human army in the first place?”

“I didn’t give you over to them. I fought them but I lost. It is particularly difficult to run with an unconscious seventeen-year-old on your back”, she scoffs.

We come upon a hole in the ground. I see that it is enchanted by blood magic. Merida removes the ribbon in her hair.

“Take off your ribbon”, she commands.

I take it off. I was not forced to listen to her, or even follow her instructions. If I wanted, I could leave right now. But I had nowhere to go. Moreover, I wanted to know more about this.

I was immortal. I could do anything now. I did not need to stay in hiding as I had for about one-and-a-half year. I could even reduce my mother’s magic. The future seemed bright and the possibility of new beginnings surrounded me.

Solely for this reason, I followed the lady into the hole.

 ✑ ✑ ✑

Hi everyone! 

I hope you all are great😊

I got amazing comments on my previous blog, Pained and so, I have decided to continue the story.

I opened a Wattpad account, because I felt that the story will be more systematic over there. Here is the link: Diti's Wattpad Stories

Of course, I will be releasing all the chapters here too (my posts will be more regular now😁) In case you want to see the chapters altogether, visit this page!

Pained (ditisfascinatingworld.blogspot.com)

Anyways, thank you for being such supportive readers. You encourage me more than I can express in words💗

I'll see you all very soon :) 

Toodles✨