Bambi and the Duke

Hearing a snap of twig not too far from where she stood, Isabelle didn’t turn her head but stood where she had stopped. Bending down, she placed the lantern that she had turned off, allowing the darkness to engulf her surroundings.

She didn’t move for a very long time until she heard someone running towards her. The black witch had turned herself to her natural appearance from the human skin she had adorned to the scaly hard skin which would scare a human. It bared its mouth at her but Isabelle moved her hands and legs with agile to kick the black witch’s stomach and then throw the person across a tree next to her. With a bump, the black witch fell down but things like this were measly things that didn’t hurt the black witch.

The scaly woman got on her feet, standing up and throwing something in the air which was directed to Isabelle. Murmuring a few curse words, the person came to attack again with full force and Isabelle had to push the person away to start her incantation but something happened that the white witch started to cough.

With a sudden pain in her chest, she coughed first to clear her throat but as it continued she covered her mouth to feel the wetness on her hand as well as the iron taste in her mouth. Even though it was dark, she could see the blood that she had coughed out. It seemed that she had lesser time than she had thought, thought Isabelle in her mind. She heard the black witch snicker in front of her.

”So weak for a white witch. Has the church rusted your powers and your nature,” the black witch tsked as her tongue slithered in and out of her mouth. The black witch assumed that it was her spells that had caused the white witch to spout blood out not knowing the real reason while not knowing who she truly was.

By her words, Isabelle wondered how many other black witches resided here who knew about a white witch guarding the Church. For the holy water to take into effect, it would take time and the reaction varied from one witch to another. The holy water had been created to the point where even the white witch could be effected from it.

There was no point wasting the time here as she could hear other russels that were approaching the forest which meant more black witches were going to come here. When the black witch came at her, Isabelle quickly pulled the knife from her dress to run right through the black witch who had come to show itself after the holy water she had asked to sprinkle around the village. She ran her knife through the black witch’s neck already experienced with the hunting of their kind, she twisted and pushed the knife at the right area before slitting it in an open wound where black blood sprouted out of her neck.

Not soon, another two black witches appeared and Isabelle took them away from the village as she was chased by them. Black witches enjoyed the chase as much as any rabid animal did until they were caught in her trap. She killed one of them easily while the other took her time by playing with her who was chatty.

”Why is a white witch disrupting the lives in the town? Does the council know about your little deed?” asked the black witch circling her with a coy smile. The black witch was too adamant to lose it’s skin that it kept its human form as it spoke to her.

”Does the council know that there are black witches who have decided to take the towns and villages as home?” the white witch questioned back with a serene and kept face.

”There are some who do,” replied back the black witch and as shocking as the news reached her ears, Isabelle continued to keep her face the same way as it was before without a hint of surprise crossing her features.

It looked like nothing had changed since her time in Valeria. She had tried hard to fight back the internal hidden monarchy but while doing that she had lost some of her close people. There were times when she wondered if the people whom she had tried to oppose had something to do with her death.

”Might you tell me before dying who they are?” Isabelle gave a sweet smile which in a different scenario would have appeared to be sweet and harmless. Her hand gripped on the knife she was holding.

”You’re much more confident than the other white witches but what makes you think you can kill me?” the black witch asked smiling back at her, her steps coquettish as she walked while keeping a good distance between them, ”What is your name? I will be sure to spread a good word about your bravery against a black witch. It might even run down history,” the black witch’s eyes fell on her fellow sister who laid there sprawled and dead on the ground.

”I don’t think it’s worth your time knowing about me. How many others have taken home here? I wasn’t expecting to have more two but it looks like I have more as time goes by,” both the witches ran at each other their knives clashing against each other before jumping back and away at the way the sparks flew, ”Rather than praise for my bravery I would like to have the honor of knowing who is your older sister, sister,” her legs felt weak and her chest still hurting as she kept up with the black witch’s continuous assaults on wanting to kill her.

”My elder sister? Why do you ask? We don’t speak of her name,” the black witch looked at Isabelle who tried to move away as if she wanted to escape from her, ”She’s very special, more special than us or your kind.”

”What makes you say that?”

”Ah! For a white witch, you are sure talkative. She is the daughter of the darkness that we all come from. The head of the origin of the black witches, a low white witch with no power who is weak has no right to learn the name but then you should know. I can smell from the blood that you have coughed that you are going to die soon. The stench of your death is so strong that I can smell it from here,” snickered the black witch, crouching a little and then pulling back up t stand straight, ”Her name was Sabbi.”

Sabbi? Isabelle had never come across this name before. Who was the person?

”What do you mean was?” asked Isabelle.

”She goes by another face and name now. We don’t know, we are not to know,” the black witch cackled like it was a secret that was kept to be hidden, ”Now that I have given you the opportunity to know who our big sister is, I think it is time for you to leave. You will leave anyways so why not right?”

The black witch attacked her with curses and spells that were spurted out of her mouth which Isabelle had to shield herself from. Some were physical where the black witch’s nail scrapped her skin on her arm.

”For an old woman, you aren’t bad,” commented the hideous witch who had slowly started to transform but to come back to its human form. The features kept fluctuating back and forth until there was an unevenness in the way the black witch looked with patches. The creature crawled up the tree and to stand on a thick branch to look down at her.

”Thank you,” Isabelle took the compliment before giving one of her own, ”For a young low-grade black witch, you aren’t back yourself,” the black witch sent a small glare towards her.

”What is your name? It has been extremely difficult to get hands-on your white witches. I will have a pleasure knowing whom I killed and will be making use of in my potions. There was once this white witch sister of yours who had tried to be brave,” said the black witch walking on the branch which led to another tree branch. She walked straight before turning around to go back in the way she had come, ”Do you know what happened to her?”

”Please enlighten me,” smiled Isabelle, she looked down at her arm to see the red line of blood that had trickled down to her fingers. She looked at the child of black witch taking her time as if she were elongating her time span by sparing and providing her with an extra few seconds before she would kill Isabella off.

”I am surprised you haven’t heard about it.”

”Maybe because the white witches don’t talk often. Not like the way the back witch’s gossip,” stated the white witch for the black witch to laugh again.

”You are very entertaining. Unfortunately, it won’t be very entertaining when I pull out your tongue and cut it for my use. The white witch was told to be very meddlesome. She tried to get into the council’s business wanting to do good. It is funny that she even lasted that long. But then I heard that she had this list of names. The names of the older black witches who have taken residence across the four lands,” the black witch stopped with her walking back and forth on the branch to face Isabelle, ”She was the second Lord’s wife. Valeria’s lord but after her death, no one could find where that list went. One even went close to looking at the mansion but they couldn’t get anything.”

Isabelle’s eyes turned away from the black witch to think about it before she saw the person jump down on the ground, ”You are a meddlesome person like many other white witches my sister and I have killed but maybe not that meddlesome,” she said putting one step forward and getting closer to her, ”So pray tell me your name,” she shook her head sweetly as her appearance turned back to one who looked like a human without a hint of her showcasing that she was a black witch.

”Why don’t you try finding it out before one of us dies,” challenged the older woman out of the two, her smiled coming back up on her lips.

”Sure,” the black witch smiled and then pounced on her, to push her own knife into the white witch’s body which both of them struggled. After fightining off each other, the black witch stole and threw Isabelle’s knife away in the dark with a small clank on the ground. Happy to see that there was no way she could protect herself, the black witch spoke ”I think it is time for you to die now,” with this she came near but to her surprise, the older woman was fast. Maybe the fastest she had met until now among all the other witches she had come across.

Isablle pulled the black witch by her arm and then threw her right on the ground with the head falling first on the surface which impacted the witch’s vision for to seconds. The white witch spelt out a few curses of her own in time where the black witch couldn’t move more than an inch.

Isabelle pulled out another knife from her dress, ”Such an illiterate child,” the white witch tuted, ”Do you think I would have only one knife without having another spare?” she smiled down at the person whose facial along with the body had come to turn to its natural scaly form. ”You wanted to know my name,” Isabelle came to hover and sit on the black witch.

”My name is Isabelle Genevive. Wife of the the second Lord of Valeria,” this earned her a very satisfing expression from the black witch who looked as if she had seen a monster like never before.

”Y-you are, y-you are supposed to be d-d-”

”Dead?” chuckled Isabelle, ”Guess who came back to even the score,” with that she stabbed the black witch’s throat and then moved her hand in the opposite direction for the blood to spurt out like a bubbling mud in a swamp.

Getting up and away from the body, she looked down at the dead witch her gaze moving around the forest to find the other two bodies who weren’t far. She coughed again, her chest feeling tight as if the air that was previously there had started to reduce. She coughed blood again on her hand, wiping it away on her kerchief she decided to burn the bodies before one would come to question what happened here.

Once she had taken the three dead bodies away from the forest and from the village where no one could suspect, she lit them up to see their bodies burn brightly in front of her. Leaving the scene after they had turned to ashes, she went back to the church to create more of the holy water which would be needed for the other villages.