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Valka Levou
Essos, Vaes Yeraan
57 AC
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Everything had changed, nothing was the same, and for the first time in all my years of existence, I was comfortable with it. Because I had never felt so free. The power to be under the sun, to feel its rays touch my skin, my true skin—not the one I wore as armor—was a joy in itself.
I wasn't a witch all my life; before that, I was just a girl, a girl who struggled to survive each day, until that changed.
~~~RETROSPECTIVE SCENE~~~
"Strum!"
The sound of a tree being felled echoed in the middle of the forest. The enormous trunk hit the ground with a loud thud, creating a resonant noise that scared away the birds perched on the branches of nearby trees, while a small cloud of dust and dirt rose up as the massive cut tree fell to the earth.
Near the spot where the tree fell, there was a small campfire. A group of seven people—four men, one woman, and two children; one boy and one girl—were sitting on wooden logs.
"It was about time! Almost a whole day cutting down a single tree!" the girl of the group scoffed, joined by the laughter of the others sitting by the campfire. "And why didn't you help me then, Jennifer? We would have finished this long ago and would already be home." The man replied with an apparently angry tone, but his smile indicated he wasn't.
"Well, look, brother, you said it yourself, and I quote: 'I can manage on my own, I even sharpened my axe for the job'," Jennifer replied, laughing and imitating her brother's voice when saying the last part. That made the brother laugh, and he approached his sister, all sweaty, and began rubbing his arms against Jennifer's. "Nooo, gross, stop!"
"Enough games," a somewhat grumpy voice made them stop, causing them to look at the owner of the voice; a tall, strong man, somewhat advanced in age, with already gray hair. "We have four hours of daylight left, we still have to cut the planks and take them to the village, so hurry up."
"Yes, father," they all replied in unison. Everyone gathered around the campfire were the children of the gray-haired man, the leader of the village they belonged to. Today they were felling trees to make new fences for the livestock, as the village's current fence was already being destroyed by water and the passage of time.
"We don't want to run into a zombie or a ghost, hahaha," Jennifer's joke did not cheer up the group, who simply looked at her with a serious face. "What humorless people!"
Fortunately, the bad mood was forgotten as soon as they started cutting the large tree into small pieces to store in the chests and take them back to the village. The familiarity and the old routine made finishing the work quick and simple, allowing them to complete everything in less than an hour.
"Good, everything is ready, gather your things and let's go," commented Thomas, their father, looking up and observing the position of the sun, reading how many hours of daylight they had left. That was their method of keeping track of time, as they could not afford a clock, gadgets that cost a fortune. "Good," Jennifer replied as well, taking a bucket of water and pouring it onto the campfire, proceeding to extinguish it.
"Sister, do you have any cookies left?" The boy of the group, about ten years old and Jennifer's twin, hopefully asked for something to snack on before heading back to the village. "I don't think I do, but I have an apple, do you want one?"
The boy nodded. "It's not what I wanted, but it's okay," he told Jennifer, as a loud roar resonated in the distance, breaking the silence and making the older members of the group frown.
"HOWL!"
Several wolf howls were heard in the distance, alarming the group, who, silent moments before, hastily gathered their weapons. "Calm down, grab the chests and let's get out of here, we can't face the wolves in the forest," Thomas said, calming the group in the midst of the crisis.
His children didn't need to hear it twice to obey, and they quickly packed and stored everything in their chests, then headed for the village. In the presence of fierce wolves in the forest, no one could face such beasts, except the players—those people who appeared occasionally from the forest and whom the forest beasts did not harm, or if they did, they had weapons or armor to protect them.
These people were much loved in the villages, as they offered unique items or even weapons in exchange for a night's sleep, and sometimes even fought side by side with the villagers in case of an invasion by the Raiders.
But they were simple villagers; their weapons were iron, and without potions or medicine, they would have no chance against a wolf pack, because the wolves were never alone.
But luck did not accompany them that day, as the howls were heard closer and closer, and at the rate they were going, they would not reach the village in time. "Pick up the pace, kids, we'll rest in the village, run!" Thomas gave them strength and motivation every time he saw his children getting tired. But in his mind, guilt and responsibility crushed him.
There were not supposed to be wolves in that part of the forest, which was why they had gone there to fell trees. But things had to get worse, and tired from their daily work, they were easy prey for a wolf pack, especially having two children with them, Jennifer and Valerio.
"Ah!" one of the men in the group fell to the ground due to some vines, hitting himself hard as he fell. Seeing this, one of his brothers stopped and went back to help him up, but at that precise instant, black jaws closed over his shoulder.
"Stuart!" Thomas shouted, alarmed to see his eldest son attacked by one of the wolves, who managed to catch up with them.
Thomas reached them and, using his axe, swung it against the back of the wolf, which was almost two meters tall, sinking it into the animal's flesh and causing the wolf to release Stuart. But Thomas was too old for that and couldn't react in time when another wolf tackled him from behind, making him fall to the ground, with the wolf on top. "Run!" Thomas managed to say just before the wolf bit his neck and killed him.
This was a horrible image for his children, seeing their father die before their eyes, especially for the two youngest, who screamed in fear and pain. "Take Jennifer and Valerio and go, we'll hold them off!" Guant, who was the one who had fallen moments before, ordered his younger sister, who had been holding the two minors so they wouldn't go where the wolves were, to leave with their younger siblings, while the brothers stayed long enough for them to escape.
Without time to argue, Fabiola grabbed the hands of each of her younger siblings and started running, followed by her two siblings who did not stop looking back to where the others were fighting the wolf pack.
They quickly left the forest, reaching the clearing and seeing the village from the top of the mountain they were on, which made them hurry their pace, trusting they would arrive, and carrying the almost palpable certainty that, as for their brothers, by now they should be dead.
They had no chance of confronting a wolf pack in the forest, but at least they hoped their sacrifices would be enough for them to reach the village safely. Where the others could fight the wolves.
But the beasts did not want to lose their prey, and against all odds, the wolves managed to catch up with them. The attack on the others was relentless. If even their brothers couldn't defend themselves, neither could they. Seeing the wolf pack approaching, Fabiola spotted a quarry nearby, and without thinking, pushed her two younger siblings towards it, hoping to keep them safe from the attack.
As she was about to jump in herself, one of the wolves leaped and knocked her to the ground, sinking its teeth into her neck, ending her life.
...
Jennifer woke up with a strong cough, wounds on her back, and dry blood on her elbows and knees. Memories tormented her, making her cry. Remembering her brother, she tried to find him in the dark, but without moonlight or a lantern, the task was almost impossible, or at least until she tripped over something on the ground.
After groping around, she realized it was her brother, but he wouldn't move, no matter how hard she tried to wake him up. In the middle of the night, knowing that there could be zombies or some dark creature, she understood that they could not spend the night in the quarry; they had to leave and run to the village, where they would be safe.
And so it was, against all odds, not caring if she scraped her hands or if her knees and feet hurt, she carried her brother on her back and began to climb, using the protruding rocks for help. She managed to get out just in time before the first streaks of a storm fell and a torrential rain began. Which would have made it impossible to get out of the quarry due to the humidity.
Once outside, she could better observe her brother's appearance, and the sight left her perplexed: "Nooooo!"
A scream erupted as she saw her brother... Her little brother. While she had emerged virtually unscathed from the fall, her brother had not.
Valerio had a large wound on his forehead, with that part of his head crushed and brain matter protruding from his nostrils and right eye... Her brother had died the moment he fell. Jennifer fell to her knees in despair, holding the body of her twin brother against her chest, with immense pain in her chest and a knot in her throat.
The rain intensified, lightning illuminated the sky, and suddenly, a bolt struck her. The electric shock, which should have killed her, transformed her, turning her into something more. Her torn clothes transformed into a purple robe, a large dark hat appeared on her head, and her face... Her face was no longer that of a child.
With dark, fragile scars on her face, bright green eyes, and pale skin, Jennifer went from being a girl to a witch, unable to do anything to stop it, falling unconscious.
She didn't know how long she was unconscious, but upon waking up, she saw herself being dragged towards the center of the forest on a sled, with the treetops passing before her eyes, preventing the sun's rays from entering. Observing, she could see how a woman... No, a witch, was pulling the sled.
"I see you woke up, it was about time," the witch greeted Jennifer with a cruel smile due to her terrifying appearance, but her eyes held a look charged with affection and nobility. "Where are we?" Jennifer asked, confused. "In the jungle biome; in a few hours, we'll be in the swamp biome, your new home."
"What? No, I already have a home, I have to go back," Jennifer went into crisis, rising from the sled in a hurry, but in her act, she fell face down into a small stream.
And it was there that she froze, not understanding her new physique. "You can't go back; you are a witch now. If you return, those you called family will murder you, or worse, you'll end up killing them in self-defense. Now your home is this, the swamp biome, a secluded place where you can grow and learn."
"But... I," Jennifer lamented, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't cry, "there is no time for regrets anymore. This is a cruel world; you must become strong, leave your past behind, and we will start with your name, so forget it, create a new one."
Jennifer looked at the witch. Even with the deformed and terrifying face, she seemed normal to her, which made her bite her lip. Nothing would ever be normal for her again, not anymore. "My mother, my mother's name was Valka. I want to use her name," Jennifer, now Valka, told the witch, which made her smile: "Well, it's a pleasure, Valka. My name is Micaela, and I will teach you to survive in this world."
~~~END RETROSPECTIVE SCENE~~~
For years, I learned from Micaela; she made me strong, she made me who I am now, I owe everything to her, and now, I owe everything to Caspian, because although I was already strong, I was not free. Now I am, and I will do whatever it takes to protect his interests, whether from men who believe themselves powerful.
From women who think they are clever like the witch of Qohor, or like the girl who smells of death next to me.