Bambi and the Duke

”Black witch?”

Mr. Fleek gave the Duke a confused look, ”We don’t have any black witches here. This village has been clean out of it as if we hang the mistletoe leaves in the four directions,” the man explained seeing the Duke stand up who seemed hardly interested in what he was telling.

”Dutan. Heuren,” Leonard called two of his men who came to attention at their name, ”Go check everyone who resides in this village for a black witch’s presence,” he ordered them. Both the men quickly moved out already on their given task. He then called her, ”Vivian, go check the house,” his words held the same velocity as it had done with his other two fellow councilmen.

Leaving the dried dead body behind with Leo and the magistrate, Vivian stepped back inside the house. Looking through the items and things to see that they hadn’t been deranged and rather they looked neat. Too neat. Removing her black gloves, she wondered where to place her hand on. She started with the walls, gliding it across the uneven surface while concentrating on her mind to see if there could be any flicker.

During her spare time, she had come to use it to test and learn a random object’s depth which wasn’t always successful. Like how sister Isabelle had said, she would need to concentrate and work on her abilities to be able to look into a person or an object by her mere touch.

Female councilwoman weren’t often taken to the surveying sight of the crime scene as they weren’t as well versed in terms of agility and strength compared to the councilmen. Even because not all the teams gave actual work to a woman. Lionel who supervised the team had seen Vivian during the time of the dead man’s land when she had gone to visit with Sullivan and maybe that was one of the reasons along with Leo being there that she was allowed to take part in the fieldwork.

She traced her fingers over the objects, one after another in a slow-motion but wasn’t able to pick anything that was useful.

By the time she had run her hands along the door, she saw Leonard walk back inside the house along with Mr. Fleek. When Leo glanced at her, Vivian shook her head to tell she found nothing in here. The objects had no memory, not even one of them. Her brows furrowing together, she looked from the window to see the village outside, a house opposite to it where she felt someone looking at them like the rest and as her gaze moved it fell on a man who stared at her without any expression. A woman came to his side and took him inside his house.

”Mr. Fleek,” addressed Vivian to the magistrate looked taken aback that a woman had come to accompany the work which he wasn’t used to and was interrogating him, ”Why are the village folks scared?” scared wasn’t the right word, thought Vivian rather their expressions looked dead and their face paler than the normal people.

Mr. Fleek who was unsure of whether the girl was capable of handling matters looked towards the Duke to hear him speak, ”You can answer her questions, Mr. Fleek,” Leonard didn’t turn to see the man’s reaction who looked apprehensive yet turned to answer Vivian’s question,

”You see Ms...” the man trailed searching for her name.

”Councilwoman Vivian,” she filled his curiosity with nothing to give. When she told that, a sense of pride filled within her to think that she had earned the title by herself and thankful for Leonard not stepping in to help her apart from the studies she had to go through. Giving a quick look towards Leonard who had his back facing her she looked back at the man who started to speak,

”Councilwoman Vivian. A few months ago, a woman and a man came in here in a carriage claiming to be wanderers from the land of Mythweald. They spent days here. In the beginning, everything seemed fine and after their stay came to an end, they left but some of the men and women started to go missing as if they had cursed the village with the plague itself,” the man explained, his hands twisting around each other with a deep frown on his face, ”But some men found them in a ditch.”

”The people who went missing?” she asked him.

”No. The couple who had come into the village, they were found dead but their body, I don’t know how to describe it-”

”Slimy?” Leonard asked who had picked up a book that had been lying on the little table.

”Yes! Yes! It looked like melted wax and for an instance when I was called I thought they were wax models because we have houses that manufacture wax and on requests, dolls are created,” wax dolls? thought Vivian, it was the first time she had come to hear of it. But slimy bodies meant only one thing. The couple were switchers. She gave Leonard a silent look of adoration at how fast he had thought about it. Not only that but he had asked Dutan and Heuren to quickly look and inspect the village folks to see if there was a black witch hiding in this village, ”I reported it to the council at that time and they came to see it then.”

But that didn’t explain why the villagers were scared. As if feeling the girls eyes in the room, Mr. Fleek started to talk again, ”Unfortunately, the council didn’t provide me with enough information. They even left the carriage behind with a body in it and might I say it was in a really bad condition. The council asked the body to be buried as leaving it out in the open would not be nice,” he sighed loudly.

Not finding the answer to her question, Vivian took another approach to ask him, ”Is it often quiet here, Mr. Fleek. The villagers have been doing nothing but stare at us as if we might attack them.”

”There are scared, milady,” the man spoke in a low volume which made the house that much quieter which had been standing in silence, ”When the men found the bodies it was just theirs but also the lost ones. Nobody believes anyone and they prefer to keep their work to themselves at the fear of what a stranger might bring along. We don’t entertain any guests here,” she nodded her head.

Currently, they were the intruders.

Hearing some sort of commotion that was heard outside, the three of them got out of the house to see what was causing it.

”NO! My son! Give him back!” Vivian heard a woman’s voice.

A middle-aged woman flailed her hands as the two guards of the village held her back while Dutan carried an unconscious man on his back.

”What happened to him?” questioned Leonard. The man appeared to be convulsing like spasms. Walking closer he saw the man to have gone unconscious who was still convulsing.

Dutan answered, ”I found him at the back of one of the house, he was tied to the chair when I found him like this. Should I call in the doctor?” The question felt as if it were asked for formality as the crowd had come out to see what was going on.

Leonard gave a look at the man and then said, ”Take him to the council. It doesn’t look like he’s sick due to the plague. We will need to see him, Mr. Flee. Maybe we might get to know as to what is wrong with him,” he informed the magistrate who had been staring at the man. Mr. Fleek gave him a doubtful nod, ”Dutan and Heuren will stay here tonight to guard the village and make sure nothing ill happens.”

”What about this man?” asked the magistrate.

”I believe the plague you are speaking of hasn’t gone away and we will need to send him to the council doctors to see what is going on so that the plague can be prevented before it spreads to the other villagers. Once we get him better he will be sent back home,” Leonard’s words were spoken sincerely.

”And the one behind?” the man looked over his shoulder at the house they came out from.

”Keep him there,” this made everyone look at the Duke in unasked question.

”T-there?” laughed the magistrate but receiving a blank expression from Leonard he shut his mouth. Clearing his throat the scrawny man then said a little worried, ”Duke Leonard leaving the man like that might scare the others and they are already scared enough. Wouldn’t it be better”

”That’s good. It would be better for everyone to stick to the houses until we solve what caused the man to be the way he is now,” responded back Leonard, ”Did you search for the witch?” he asked his fellow councilman who shook their head.

”Found nothing,” Dutan answered still carrying the man, taking his leave to walk to the carriage so that he could put the person in there.

Leonard spoke to the magistrate who was a human, ”Make sure no one goes near the body, Mr. Fleek and keeps it as it is. There are chances that if you touch it, the body might break and crumble into dust. Best is to leave it as it is as we do the other surveys on finding what caused his death. There are chances that the man here who Dutan took might have a similar result to what the man dead has gone through.”

”I understand,” the magistrate answered, going to the villagers who had turned to form a crowd. He went to talk to them, warning them to stay inside their houses and not to go too far while also asking them to not go to that particular house where the body laid dead.

Vivian could see the confused and fearful look from some of the villagers while some had a very pale feature with no actual life in the way they looked at their village magistrate. Seeing Dutan who had gone to put the body in the carriage, she asked Leonard, ”Is it safe?”

Thinking Vivian was speaking about the body, he gave her a nod, ”The council doctors are specialized and we will need some help too. What is it?” he asked her when she shook her head.

”Not that. For Dutan and Heuren to stay here when there’s a plague. It looks worse than a plague,” she was worried for their lives as the night the councilman Oliver had stayed in the snow mansion to have a watch hadn’t gone well, she apprehended that they might receive the same ill fate which she didn’t want to.

”The village needs more than guards right now. Dutan and Hueren are excellent at their jobs, and I think Heuren has a pinch of good luck than the rest of us when it comes to dodging death. They will be fine,” he assured her before giving an overlook around the village. They walked around to see if there was anything out of the norm and once they were done with it, they got back to wish the magistrate that they would be back tomorrow while leaving the two councilmen behind.

Vivian and Leonard rode in the carriage along with the man who was unconscious sitting next to Leonard while Vivian sat in the opposite seat looking at him.

”He looks sick,” she commented staring at the man whose lips had turned dark in colour, his face pale enough to state the obvious comment she had passed, ”Why did you say there way a black witch in there? They didn’t find anyone there,” she was curious since he had stated it back in the village, ”And why did you tie his hands and legs?” she looked down at the ropes that were turned around the man’s hand.

When they had left the village, the man had only been sleeping unconscious with light convulsions of spasms taking place. But after five minutes of the ride, Leonard had asked the coachman to stop and had taken the rope from the back of the carriage to tie his hands and legs tightly.

Leonard who was looking at the man next to him spoke, ”Look at his hands.”

Hands?

Scooting closer to the man in the moving carriage while also maintaining a distance as he wobbled back and forth with the bumpy rode, she looked down at his hands searching for any wounds or cut marks but there was nothing there. She was going to ask him a question when her eye caught the man’s nails.

There were dark and almost looked as if decayed.

Looking up at, she asked, ”Why are his nails decayed?” but as she asked, she answered her own question with, ”Isn’t it always the black witches nails that are decayed?”