From the hills

The day had started in a completely unremarkable fashion. I woke up early from the sunlight shining through my bedroom window. I got up, much to my chagrin, and got dressed. Breakfast was unremarkable as well, just a loaf of bread with some cheese and salami. Then it was time to head out.

I said my goodbyes to my mother, yawned loudly one last time, and left the house. My father wasn't home. He'd moved to the capital a few years earlier to open his own woodworking shop, from which he only came home on rare occassions. Since he was skilled at the craft, his labour was in high demand.

On today’s agenda was more of the usual: I would work in the wheat fields that surrounded our town on three sides in the morning, then sword training in the afternoon, and a meeting with the village council in the evening. We would, as usual, discuss matters that did not interest me at all.

I took a deep breath and looked around the village. Was it because I was young? Maybe, but I had always had this longing for adventure like in the stories of old. This itch deep inside. This village had nothing, no excitement or events. Even now, you could see how bored the inhabitants were; even if they tried to hide it, it was clear on their faces — the frowns, the dead eyes... everything. Everyone was just going through the motions. Could you even consider this to be living?

I watched them work and move around with pity. When would it be my turn? When would I finally get to shine? I wanted to live up to the potential coursing through my veins, but this dull village did not give any opportunities to do that. All I needed was a way to get out, a single opening or excuse. A single thing that would get the ball rolling.

Before I headed over to the fields, I decided to go the long way around, past the palisade that faced the rolling hills to the west of our settlement. There were gaps in the wooden stakes that made up the palisade, and thus you could look through them into the endless expanse of green beyond.

It soothed me to sit there and watch the breeze roll over the hills, as if they were waves. I liked to imagine it being a green ocean. Today I noticed something different however, something I didn’t expect. There was a person standing on one of the distant hills.

This was surprising to me. As far as I knew there was nothing beyond those hills. It just went on for many miles until it reached dense woodlands. I’d never traversed them myself, but I’d heard stories from the more adventurously minded among us. Why was that person out there?

I pondered if I should tell anyone, but decided against it. I’d just make the people of the village needlessly paranoid if they learned that a stranger was walking around in the nearby hills. Instead I got up and left for another day of hard work.

When I got back from the fields, the whole village was in an uproar. I could hear the busy chattering and discussions as soon as I crossed the palisade. I made my way to the square, where the commotion was coming from, and found a large crowd gathered there. They stood around a makeshift wooden cage, about six feet tall, in which an angry girl sat. At the moment she was in a heated discussion with Samuel, one of the townsfolk.

“…she saw everything, there’s no doubt about it! Stay in that cage where you belong!” yelled Samuel. There was a palpable fear in his voice.

“Huh!? You’re telling me it’s my own fault? Don’t kid me, idiot! Let me out of here!” she snapped back.

“What’s going on, who’s this?” I asked.

Samuel turned to me, I could now see his fearful demeanor more clearly, and explained:

“A guard on patrol caught her in the hills. She told him she was lost, so the guard offered to take her into the village. The wife of the guardsman decided to take her to their house and give her a bath, but then…”

“Then what? don’t leave me hanging like that. I’ve told you before you don’t have to be so dramatic all the time.”

Samuel pretended to not hear me and kept building tension.

“The wife discovered something terrible about this young lady! A truly horrifying fact that she was way too careless in revealing. She is, in fact…carrying the Devil’s brand on her shoulder!”

Immediately I took a step back.

“That means…she’s a witch?”

Samuel dramatically pointed at me. “It’s just as you say! This witch of the hills thought she could sneak into our peaceful lives and wreak havoc, kill us all! However, we we’ve outsmarted her!”

Somehow I doubted that a shoddy wooden cage could hold a witch like the ones I’d heard of in legends. But if she really carried the Devil’s brand, there was no other explanation.

Everyone knew that there was one visible trait that identified a witch. After they had made their contract with the Devil, they received a brand of sorts on their body. But the Devil had been defeated and driven out of this world over 80 years ago, so how could it be that there was now such a young witch here?

The girl in the cage spoke up again. “Witches only exist in fairy tales, are you guys little children or what?”

Samuel began bickering with the witch again and so it went back and forth for a while with no real end to it in sight. I was getting tired of Samuel’s antics and had started to feel sorry for the witch, so I left for my sword training class.

The appearance of this strange girl had been one of the most exciting things to happen in a long time, and within an hour the news spread around the village. I couldn't help but be interested in her too.

 I liked her combative tone and she was a beautiful girl, I couldn’t deny it. Somewhere deep inside it felt like her coming might herald a great change in my life. I fantasized about saving her from captivity and going on a great adventure, but that was just nonsense. After all, I was just an ordinary village kid and she was a witch. I shouldn’t poke my nose where it doesn’t belong, right? Despite me trying to justify not getting involved, a seed was firmly planted in my mind as I headed to the training grounds.

Sword training was one of the few times in a week where I could have some fun, and I’d quickly become a rather skilled swordsman. The villagers would even joke and say I would soon surpass the skills of my great-grandmother when she was my age, but nobody truly believed this. As it turned out, these lessons would come in handy sooner than I’d ever expected, for I was now facing half the village with only a dull blade in hand.

“Surrender the girl, you have no business with this witch!” one of them said. I recognized him, it was the village baker. In the early morning I would often buy bread from him, freshly made from our very own wheat fields. This man who I thought I knew so well was now standing in front of me with a pitchfork. One stab of that thing and I’d be in for a nasty infection, that much was for sure. Despite not really knowing what I was doing, I had no intention to back down now that I’d come this far, so I made that clear.

“She’s under my protection, if you want to get to her, you have to strike me down.”

He didn’t really know what to do next. We stood there for a while, just staring each other down, until the baker finally made his move. He screamed while he charged right at me with his pitchfork lifted up towards me. I swiftly dodged, swirled around him, and hit him in the back of the head with the broad side of my sword. 

He fell to the ground, and the other villagers hesitated to take his place. They were shocked that I would attack one of our own, a good acquaintance, and murmured amongst each other. Having known only peace, they were cowardly and meek. I may be a decent swordsman, but I couldn’t win if all the people surrounding me decided to charge me at once.

It was at this point that the witch, who was standing behind me, firmly grasped my shoulder.

“It’s time to go.” She simply said.

Before I could blink I was standing in a broad, open field. There was no trace of the village or any of our assailants. Then it dawned on me.

“Teleportation magic?” I wondered out loud. Only powerful witches could supposedly use such advanced magic. I turned to the girl standing next to me.

“What the hell are you?”

She seemed to be as equally confused as me.

“Huh? Me? I did this? How? HUH!?”

Despite her earlier calm demeanor when telling me it was time to go, she seemed to be in a state of complete shock at the moment, unable to come to terms with her powers.

While she once again stood frozen in place, I walked up the hill we were standing on to get a good look of our surroundings. When I reached the top, I saw the village in the distance, a mile or two away. 

Come to think of it, wasn’t this the place where great-grandma killed a witch, 82 years ago?