She was certainly a fast walker, and I was certainly burdened by a rather light cat boy. I watched as the dirt path she took towards the village began to see an abundance of growth to its surroundings. The once barren grass refilled with blooming wildflowers.
Certainly, this was an illusion, right?
Or perhaps an overly pretentious joke on her behalf? Flowers bloomed where she walked. A woman like that? It's a lot more surprising that the flowers didn't wilt further, but I digress. I followed after her, but it was clear she was going to be deep with the villagers by the time I arrived.
In fact, I can already hear one extremely loud voice coming from there, "A-A-A-A WITCH? A REAL ONE? YOU'RE NOT LIKE ONE OF THOSE HACKS, RIGHT!?" It was the loud, youthful voice of a girl that should've left this village a long time ago.
I couldn't hear what Hana said, for I was still far away, but I could definitely hear the other girl's response, "YOU CAN DO THAT!?" To put it mildly, Alisa Nir was a fanatic of anything relating to the magic in these lands.
A scholar by heart, I have never once seen her around the village without a book to carry. Though most of this was thanks to the fact that her mother was the former chief of the village, which of course, turned into something I would rather not discuss.
I've seen firsthand the magic that Alisa tried to do. It was all for the village after all. Simple land fertility spells, water summoning spells. Most of them ended in failure, but in the few times she did succeed, we found ourselves living for another week. Perhaps that's why the village is so reluctant to let go of her.
Frankly, I wish she would leave. Don't even have to take me, what would she care about me anyway, right? I didn't do much for her, and I wanted her to leave this village, I even got into a huge spat about it with her a few days ago. Just a— "BUT! BUT! WAIT! HAVE YOU SEEN A GIRL AROUND THAT FOREST? SHE'S ABOUT A HEAD TALLER THAN ME, GREEN EYES, BLACK HAIR? SHE RAN AWAY TO THERE EARLIER I DON'T WANT HER TO D-D-D-"
"I'm right here, Ali," I said, the exhaustion from my body caused me to drop the catboy on my shoulders as he fell with an unceremonious thump. I never knew she was worried for me that way.
She turned to me and immediately launched herself into an embrace. My breath escaped my body as we collided, "YOU'RE HERE! YOU'RE HERE! I WAS SO SCARED THAT YOU, YOU—" She yelled. The witch was looking at us with a small smile as she continued to address the crowd.
Meanwhile, Alisa was weeping into my shirt now. Her blonde hair was messy from weeks of neglect, things were getting worse off here after all. I suppose I never truly looked her into the eyes to see all that pain and misery towards me. I didn't understand, though, why she'd be so attached. But that was something I can ask later.
After a brief round of comfort, she eventually pulled away, "Miss Witch. She showed us a trick earlier," I turned my gaze to Hana, who was still speaking with the others. I could faintly hear them talking about the management of the village, of how we've been doing these past couple of years.
"A magic trick? Did she hurt you?"
"No, no. She was very kind to me and answered all my questions. But before you came by, she picked up a patch of dirt on the ground, and a flower sprouted from it. You know what that means, right?"
I sighed, "It's an illusion, Ali. We shouldn't be so trusting of her immediately."
"No, Soren." Was she already enamored? That could be dangerous, what if that witch took her as her apprentice and did awful things to her? "I saw the beam of light, everyone did. That's not something you can just… put an illusion on."
She was right about that, "And that's why I don't want you to trust her," I'd been in ground zero of that explosion, after all, "If she can do something like, just imagine what else she can do."
"She can bring our fields back up and running, maybe she can even force their growth," Alisa argued. I searched her brown eyes for any sign of hesitation but she was set on following this witch to whatever whim she had.
I've seen what she can do, I've seen her showing off. There was a huge chance she might just use this village for her nefarious deeds but, at the same time. She was the one hope that this village needed to get back up to shape.
I closed my eyes, and breathed deeply. When I opened it back up, the witch, Hana, stood in front of us. She was a shadow under the sun, yet I could still see her striking, yet calm smile. Her white hair was like waterfalls in how it fell and glowed in the brightness, and those deep, purple eyes. She was beautiful, and I supposed that's how she managed to charm the majority of us.
Truly, she was a vile fiend.
"I would like to apologize for how I acted towards you earlier."
What?
She's apologizing?
"I rushed you too much instead of properly explaining myself, and I don't think my words will be enough to convince you that I'm not here for any maliciousness in line with my goal of taking control of this village."
"If all you're doing is helping us, you shouldn't say it like that. To say you're taking over our village makes you sound like a conqueror." I narrowed my eyes at her, the sun was beating down on us, and I could feel all the pain of the day bearing down on me.
"I'm sorry, but that is my goal. I'm speaking with your elders about making me in charge, all I have to do is something like this…" She pointed towards the barren wheat fields with her wand.
I don't exactly know when I last saw those fields dancing with a beautiful golden glow. Frankly, I thought it was impossible at this point. Those fields have long since withered, trampled over by various entities. Man, animal, monster. Some may even say that it's cursed land, whose dark miasma prevents anything from growing.
Still, when she fired magic from her wand, I was beset by a faint glimmer of hope.
It was a small orb, the size of my palm. It was blue, and from it leaked viscous liquid that fell into nothingness before it could reach the ground. It floated steadily, lazily, and reflected the sunlight into a beautiful rainbow that everyone could see. Amidst that hot weather, amidst everything.
That orb fell to the field, and immediately, a huge chunk of that barren wheat field cleared itself up, moistened, and from it, the fallen wheat seeds that we have presumed to have withered a long time ago began to rise up. Little by little, as it slowly absorbed the essence that the orb had given it, until finally.
Beautiful golden stalks of wheat danced lazily in the wind, surrounded by massive rows and columns of empty withered fields. They were an island of hope amidst entropy, and the witch that stood in front of me, so beautiful and determined, had chosen to give that hope to us.
I let out a breath that I didn't realize I was holding, and finally collapsed from exhaustion.