The Witch's Story

To be a Witch

A short story

by Twisted

Lilura's birth was not totally abnormal in nature, in fact it was rather simple, but before her birth was where her story began. Her mother and father were inhabitants of a small village on the edge of a great forest, their village was small and simple, nothing very special about it, but what was special about the forest was within it dwelt of coven of witches. But one day the villagers decided such neighbors would be dangerous and decided to attack the coven. All the men in the village were led by the unborn Lilura's father Ahti. Ahti and his men were successful in destroying the witches, but not without consequence. For just as Ahti was about to strike the final witch, an Augury witch who could see the future she laughed and said. "You fool! Your love will cause the bane that you so hate!" Before Ahti struck her down to her demise. Thinking nothing of the warning Ahti returned home to his wife Liana. Of course them being a married couple they knew each other and Ahti begat Lilura. Pleased to know his wife carried within her a child he would often tell his friends that it would be a strong boy to be an heir to him and his fortune. But when the day of Lilura's birth came Ahti was severely disappointed. Not only was the child a girl, but she was born on the thirteenth day of the calendar of Endor, a holiday for witches that was said to bring bad luck upon the head of whomever was born that day.

Sorely disappointed Lilura's father begrudging accepted the babe as his own. But as she grew older it became obvious that she was no normal child. She had a strange love for animals, for nature itself. One might say she was naturally in tune with it. But before long it became obvious it was more than a natural tuning, at four years old she might be seen riding on the back of a great grizzly bear. At first her parents simply tried to ignore it in hopes she would grow out of it and be a normal girl. She only increased as she grew older, causing more worry for them, they didn't know what to do to help the child be a normal child. So they took her to an Archbishop to ask for his blessing on her to let her be as they thought she should be. But when the seven year old girl was brought before the Archbishop he put a few sprinkles of holy water on her head, then anointed her with blessed the oil, but her reaction was violent and wholly unexpected. She had gripped her head where he had done it, crying out in pain and ripping out the hair that the oil had touched. As she gripped her head she didn't know she was releasing magic in front of her horrified parents as her magic simply went berserk, unable to stop as the glass in the room broke and her body glowed with the mark of a witch on her back. Horror shot across the Archbishop's face as he screamed at her "Demoness! Curse! Bane! Abomination! You would do well to have this witch burned at stake!" to her parents. The child didn't understand the sudden rage of the Archbishop, nor why he shooed her out with a cane, hitting the frightened girl to get her out of his church. That was when Lilura first began to understand what she was.

After that traumatizing event her parents began to discuss her fate, her mother loved her but didn't want to be the mother of something forbidden by God. So she suggested giving her to a coven of witches to let her live but not have her around. But her father had remembered the words of the witch he had killed and felt guilty, as if he had been the reason his daughter was condemned to the fate of being a witch. As for Lilura she felt afraid, she didn't understand her situation nor why she was suddenly an outcast. She was no longer allowed to attend mass so she was to stay home and wait for her parents to return until it was over. And she was being taught schooling at home instead of the school with all the rest of the children. She was treated with disgust from her mother and pity from her father so she naturally began to grow closer to her father. As Lilura grew older she began to realize she was not only an outcast but also an object of disdain from church officials. Lilura had begun to fear whenever the priests came to visit to make sure she was behaving. They always performed a painful cleansing ceremony that burnt her skin and made her feel agonized for hours. After the priest would leave, every time her father would bring a string of apologies for cursing her to this fate. Despite loving him with all she had Lilura began to grow bitter, hating the way she was treated, as an outsider, a curse. She couldn't help as her bitterness began to rise and she began to buck the system placed before her.

Lilura was never rebellious toward her father, she loved him dearly and couldn't bear to hurt his feelings by disobeying him. But everyone else as a different story. The children who had taunted her before were no more than something to detest to the poor ostracized little witch. There seemed to be no solace for her. No one ever cared for the miserable little witch. Children would pretend to burn her at stake and the adults would scorn her, not even the vagrants of the town wanted anything to do with her or her existence in the least. It finally reached the point where Lilura snapped back in anger when the children decided it would be fun to stone the little witch. After the first few stinging missiles they began to do damage to the cowering little girl. Bruised and battered she endured it, doing her best not to lose herself in rage for her father's sake. She held it and held it, till they finally had the extent of their fun and left her shivering and spasming in pain. Her parents were shocked when she returned home. Her father could take no more of watching his child take this. He told her to stay calm and get better, that everything would no longer hurt so badly when she woke up. So, believing her father's words she went to sleep. Unaware of her parents arguing over her fate. It ended in disagreement as always. No decision was made as to Lilura's fate, she would have to remain an outcast. For how long, no one knew. As things were going she would be free when she came of age, but when that happened the Vatican would come for her as well to have her destroyed. No witch should survive the indignation of the Catholic Church ever, that was always a given.

Soon after Lilura recovered from the severe beating by stones she began to realize what her father was trying to do. He'd bring her with him to visit church officials while she would sit outside, not even allowed to sit on the steps of the church. This happened nearly every week except for the holidays. For the cleansing holidays and such like Lint, she was not allowed within her parent's home, dwelling in a small hut her father had made for her specifically. She was allowed to read but not allowed to touch a Bible, that would have been sacrilege by the church's standpoint. She learned what her father was doing was requesting for permission to let Lilura become an acolyte of the nuns and monks so that she could be of the church and maybe they could cleanse her of this. But his every request was denied, no matter how many times he went and begged for her sake. She had done nothing wrong and deserved better treatment he would say, but they would simply say that abominations before God should not exist and she was lucky just to be alive. So it finally drove her father to do something drastic, only Lilura had not even the faintest idea of what he was planning for her and her wellbeing.

Until the night it happened. Her father had woken her up gently and pulled her from her bed, telling her to dress quickly. She had obeyed without questioning where they might be going with it being in the dead of night outside. But then he was leading her outside without her mama, she didn't know what that was about and questioned him about it quietly but he only told her to a better place, except she realized that her father had tears in his eyes when he said it. She did not understand this but Lilura decided to ask him about it later. He loaded her into the back of a cart and they drove off from the village she had lived in her entire life, not knowing what would happen. Little did she know she would never see that familiar place ever again. Never again would she have to see those despicable children who took pleasure in tormenting her and those adults who's hearts were as cold as ice. As she was taken out she realized they were not going on a road either. Her father was bringing her somewhere else? He brought her to some forest long after the rays of dawn had come. Waking the now sleeping Lilura he carried her small frame out of the cart and toward the deeper part of the forest. She did not understand why, he seemed to be intending to leave her and she clung to him tighter, knowing she could trust her father but still fearful of what they might be doing out here. But as they went further in and they were aware of the people following them, apparently people from the village had followed them here, in the distance they could hear the howls of the blood hounds and the barks of the hunter's dogs, they were on a witch hunt. But her father kept going regardless, pushing into the dark wood for the sake of his daughter he so loved. But as they burst into a clearing there was a man there, a man with a dark beard and piercing blue eyes as well as a slumped figure. He was a witch from the way he was attired. But Lilura didn't know what witches were so she had no idea yet.

But then her father spoke. "Alberich, please, I know I've killed your kind and hunted them, but my daughter has nothing to do with that, she is no longer safe in our home. If I keep her there the witch hunters will kill her and even the children will try... please take her with you." He had begged for her, but once she heard he was trying to leave she protested to him, only to be interrupted by the kind yet stern voice of the witch. "I know what you have done Ahti, you have killed my daughter as well as other's children, and yet you ask me to take your own offspring and give her my affection? I also know what they would do to her, and how you have protected her. Jeia's tarots do not lie. I will take the child as if she were my own as thanks for how you have raised her." The man called Ahti was relieved to hear the aged man's response to his most dire request. He kissed his daughter, giving her one last embrace as he brought her hand to her new guardian's own old hand. "Goodbye my dear Lilura, may your future be far brighter than the one I could have given you. Farewell my child." He said before kissing her forehead and left despite her protests and cries, the old man holding her arm so that she could not go after her father no matter how much she struggled and fought for him. Her heart wrenching cries going out to the agonized father who knew she would be far safer where she was going rather than with him back to the village who despised her like she was some kind of horrible monster that didn't deserve to live no matter what choices she made in life it was all disregarded to the point it had come to this. Her father would have to leave her.

She had kicked and screamed at the old man as he covered her mouth and carried her away to safety. She did not know until far later her father had died that night from the pursuing witch hunters that bloodlust had not been sated. But at the time all Lilura had wanted was to escape this man and return home. He brought her to a house deep in the woods where none could follow her. There Alberich informed her of her true nature in the Old Religion. He began to instruct her in the ways of magic so that she could defend herself should he ever pass. She was gifted though it was hard, she had to work at every single thing she did and persevere through them to be able to master each technique. However long she spent in the Garden of Shadows she did not know. It could have been eternities over, but then Alberich came back one day from the visit he had gone to retrieve some more runes for the Garden to remain hidden. He had been wounded and harmed, bleeding there as he told his beloved Lilura to stay in the garden as he instructed her to so many many times. Tearfully she tried to tend him, using every possible circle or herb she knew but it was to no avail Alberich passed on the day following.

Lilura buried him at the old willow tree next to the cottage that she lived in. She was heartbroken. She didn't know what to do anymore without someone to guide her. But as she thought of her mentor she felt her anger rising at the thought of those who had killed Alberich. For some time she dwelt in the Garden and did nothing. But then her innocently cruel mind thought of a way to gain her vengeance upon those who had harmed her surrogate father. She went into the village that had killed Alberich to instill the plan she had devised. One dark night she stole into the village and drew a magic circle in the square with paint so it would show up on the white stone, she drew the unicursal sign on the stone, not the complete one, but just enough to terrify the villagers thoroughly. She then began to bring about small curses and such, like a plague of flies and snakes. But then she decided it was time for the ultimate revenge. She took her flute and played a song, a song that called every child from the village and into the forest, into the Garden of Shadows. If they would take both her fathers away, then she would take their children! Once in the forest of shadows she turned each child into an animal to be her playmate. Of course none of them were sad or realized that they had ever been children before they were her friends. But Lilura had become somewhat malevolent to humans after that... she would only spare the children as her playmates because she believed that they were not yet tainted as most adults were.