The Musing Witch and Her Army

We returned home with all the car parts we needed and Marek got right to work fixing up both the vehicles. With my help, it only took him about an hour to get everything in place and working. Not that I’m a car girl or anything, but I used to help daddy all the time fix machines and run diagnostics. Sometimes that was one of the ways I spent time with him when he was busy.

Anyways, while we were working on his car, I found this weird USB slot on part of the engine. I don't know what it was, but something was stuck in it, probably damaged from the crash.

Come to think of it, I saw that same port in the car we took the parts from. I didn't see one on the car in the garage though. What were these? Even Marek didn’t know, so we let it be for now.

"Let me do a test drive before we leave," Marek said, happy when his car started up.

Once he was on his way, it got kinda quiet around here. Yamin was upstairs taking a nap and Indena went into the kitchen to make some more food for us.

I was just laying out in the grass of the front yard, letting my skin absorb as much sunlight as possible so I could use my stardust powers again. Who knew the next time we’d be getting moderately sunny weather like this again?

“Ahhh…” I cooed out in satisfaction of the warm sun. “So nice…”

If this valley hadn’t been full of monsters and demons, it might not be so bad for a vacation.

*Chrip!*

That chirp was all too familiar. A spirit bird was sitting up in a tree, watching me.

I gave him a wave, which prompted him to fly down and land on my belly.

*Chrip chrip!*

He hopped off me and started doing this cute little dance.

Weirdly, his wing stretched out and he pointed in a specific direction. Could this have been him trying to get me to look in that direction?

As I stood up, he flew to a branch and made sure I kept track of him.

"Should I follow?" I didn't want to run off on my own, but I needed to know what was going on here.

“Sssss…” Samael hissed.

“I know, it seems pretty weird…”

I called out to the others, but nobody responded. I wanted to go look, but the bird flew in my path and blocked me from getting inside.

“You really want me to follow you, huh?”

*Chrip!*

I did owe these birds for helping fight against the demons, so I decided to go with him on my own with Samael.

~☆☆☆~

While he took me down the cobblestone path, we came upon a bird laying in the grass. My bio scanners were reading that he was a blue jay who had died. He looked exactly like a spirit blue, but not like a ghost.

“Poor little guy,” I paid my respects.

The spirit blue I followed landed next to the dead one. He got real close, then phased his beak into the body of the blue jay and pulled out the spirit of the bird.

*Chirp!*

*Chirp chirp!*

They whistled and chirped their little hearts out, making merry as this newfound companion joined the dead.

“Woah…”

So these spirit animals were the spirits of dead wildlife? That was interesting. Was this what he wanted me to see?

Suddenly, An arrow icon appeared in my field of view.

-Navpoint set-

I didn’t set that navpoint. It just appeared in my FOV a kilometer away. Based on my map, we were heading for the mana cave near where Indena and I teleported in.

“Mr. Bird, why are you taking me there?”

*Chirp!*

Better question, what just set that navpoint for me?

More of those spirit blue birds flew over us, heading straight for that destination. Other spirit animals also raced right along with. A Lizard thing jumped across the tree branches. A couple of raccoons scampered through the grass. Not to mention a bunch of cats and dogs too. And that moose from before was here.

I certainly felt like a ‘nature girl’ right now, what with all these animals running alongside me.

The moose galloped up next to me and made a motion like he wanted me to ride on his back the rest of the way. I hopped on, hugging his neck tightly to keep from falling off.

Mr. Moosy might have been a spirit, but he felt so soft and warm. It was scary at first sitting so high up on a galloping animal like this, but I got used to it quickly.

“Wee!”

We came up on a small lake. Mr. Moosy pranced right across the top of the water like it was nothing!

“Woah!” I cheered, seeing the other animals skate across the water next to us.

Not exactly a pony, but just as fun!

With his help, we cleared that kilometer pretty quick. All the animals ran into the cave before me and went deep inside. Mr. Moosy didn’t go in yet, hearing the sounds of battle deep inside. Once those cleared, he slowly entered.

Lowering down, Moosy let me step off him. I gave him a good petting just to show my appreciation.

“Never thought I’d get to ride on a moose,” I said.

He stayed quiet, but gave a slight head nod to gesture for me to head deeper inside.

The mana crystals all over the walls lit up the inside of the cave bright enough to see. A young woman was laying up against one of the crystals, coveting the violet glow radiating off of it. Her soft face made it look like she was enjoying herself. Her head turned to me and her tired purple eyes slowly lifted open in surprise.

Her words breathed out slowly. “At last, the Little One of Hyem.”

She sounded so monotone and spooky.

As she lifted her body up straight, the spirit blue I’d been following landed on her shoulder and illuminated her more.

She wore a purple dress with a white sleeveless coat over it. A big and pointy purple hat sat on her head, just like a witch. A variety of charms and little items dangled from the ends of its rim.

“Are you a witch?” I asked.

“Does that scare you?”

If she was going to boil me in a stew, then the answer was yes. But for some reason, she gave me an oddly comforting feeling, like there was goodness in her. Was there really such a thing as a good witch?

“I guess I'm not scared,” I answered her question, but wondered how truthful I was being.

There was an awkward silence from her before she responded.

“What do you smell?” she asked.

What did I smell? That’s an odd question, but there was a pleasant scent in the air…

“I smell…pine tree?” I took another sniff to confirm. “Yep, that’s it.”

There were pine trees outside, but this was a bit different in a way. I couldn’t place why.

She put down her hat to cover her face up. It was big enough that even tilting it down slightly would block down to her chin.

“You have found favour with the spirits, Little One of Hyem.”

Hyem? Who the heck was that?

Hold on, that voice… That name she called me… I remembered hearing it before I passed out after using the mana cannon.

“Wait a minute. Did you…” I tried to ask her about it, but she interpreted me.

“Little One, I require your aid.” She lifted up her hat slightly to reveal a sliver of her glowing purple eyes. “A great evil has come to this valley. It must be destroyed.”

She must have been talking about the Reaper.

I shook my head. “No, the Reaper’s gone.”

“The Reaper, as you call it, is not my target. And you are wrong on both accounts.”

She started walking right past me while whispering as silent as a breath.

“You mean, the Reaper is still around?” I asked, worrying my original fears were justified.

“For whom can kill death?” She continued heading toward the cave exit. “This evil is far worse than that. Follow me. We must hurry before it manifests.”

I didn’t have much choice, did I? She hadn’t even given her name yet.

“Wait! What’s your name?” I asked, catching up to her.

“Melpomene,” she answered. “I know your name… No need for introductions.”

I had a hunch she’d been watching us for a while. Probably since we got here. It wouldn’t surprise me if she had something to do with us being here at all.

“So, what’s this evil you’re looking for?” I asked as I caught up to her. “If something really bad is around, I want to help.”

“She is the root of all darkness. The mother of sin.”

So it was a woman? She sounded awful. Indena isn’t that bad.

Wait, why did I think about Indena just then? It definitely couldn’t have been her.

Yamin was out of the running too, since she was super nice. And Marek was a guy, so it couldn’t have been him either. It must have been someone else we didn’t know about yet.

“Who is this evil woman we’re looking for?”

“She will likely be swarmed with snakes, sharp teeth… Blood dripping from her eyes. Where she walks, life will wither.”

“Yeah, I have no idea who that is.” I shook my head.

She reassured me that I was fortunate to not know this person. “A blessing from the spirits,” as she claimed.

We spent a lot of time looking, but Melpomene was having a really hard time tracking down where this evil person was, and she was literally looking under rocks and in bushes. Based on what my map was showing, we’d just gone in a big circle with the center point being the house we were staying at.

“That house?” Melpomene lowered her hat, looking like she was considering what to do. “Perhaps she is there.”

“There’s only two other girls there, and both don’t look anything like the person you described.”

“She may be disguised. We must hurry!”

Oh… I had a bad feeling about this…