Aislinn and Morrigan wait in a clearing in the woods, far enough away from the village that no one would be able to hear what they were saying. The girl came right before midnight. In her hand she held a knife, though it didn't seem like she expected to use it on them. The girl's apron pockets were full of trinkets that Aislinn couldn't make out with the cloth covering them. When the girl reached the clearing and saw them and there brooms and cloaks her eyes widened and she said, a bit to loudly than Aislinn would have liked,
"So you really ARE witches." Aislinn just nodded, making a motion to be quiet and to come a bit closer. The girl obliged, walking over to their side of the clearing.
"Yes we are, and you came here because you want to become a witch, do you not?"
"Yes, yes I do!"
"Good, then come with us, we are to meet with the rest of our coven tomorrow, we can explain more then."
The girl followed them to a clearing where they had stashed the brooms, and where they had planned to meet up with Liesel and Tanith. But midnight came and they were nowhere to be found. So she told Morrigan to watch the girl while she took her broom and went to see if everything was alright. It was not alright.
From where she flew about a hundred feet or so off the ground, circling, she saw what looked like a group of drunk men, looking for something to do. Shit. Hadn't she told Liesel to wait til everyone was asleep? Tanith was out of the stocks now and standing back to back with Liesel, the group of men surrounding them. Someone had likely taken all of Tanith's blades, or at least most of them, even if they hadn't, it would attract a lot of attention if five men were found dead in the square the next day with stab wounds. At least the witchlings could be written off as a rumor, but this? The entire town would notice this many bodies, or this many missing people. Clouds must have shifted behind her because now her shadow was cast on the square, thankfully none of the men seemed to notice, but Liesel did, she looked up just for a moment and in her irritated gaze Aislinn saw what must have happened. Who must have happened, and sure enough Tanith sported a black eye, as did a few of the men. She had a feeling she knew who had provoked, or at least drawn the attention of who. But she would deal with that later, right now she needed a club.
She went back to the woods, informing Morrigan of the situation. Morrigan merely gave a hint of a smile and scoffed,
"What did she expect?" Aislinn just snorted at the comment before saying,
"Have you spotted any big branches we might be able to use to knock them unconscious?" Morrigan didn't even blink at the odd question.
"Of course, a few trees over there have a few downed limbs that look big enough."
"How did you answer that so quickly?" Olive asked, a curious tilt to her head. Morrigan just gave her the blank stare,
"Three hundred years teaches you a few things girl, and knowing how to use your surroundings is one of them." The girl just cocked her head, thinking it over, before turning and looking around the clearing for herself. Aislinn walked over to where Morrigan had indicated and picked up the biggest limbs before striding back to Morrigan and handing her one.
"Get on your broom, we'll have to be quick," she paused looking at the girl, "I guess You're gonna get your first lesson in combat today Olive." Olive looked up, eyes bright, from where she had been studying a pile of stones.
"I'm a quick study."
The girl rode on the back of Aislinn's broom and gripped her so tight she thought she might be suffocated. In all fairness they were going pretty fast for a first ride. When they were above Tanith and Liesel in the square they found one of the men already knocked unconscious, one in the fetal position and the last three glaring at Tanith so hard she thought fire might start burning. Tanith, goddess have mercy, was standing on the stocks like they were a stage. Liesel was standing in front of her in a defensive stance, wielding what looked like a long stick. Just in time then.
"Morrigan drop down to get the first, and incapacitate the second," she paused considering the new witchling riding behind her, "I'm going to try to get down slower for Olive's sake." Aislinn commanded. Morrigan just nodded before zipping down and slipping off her broom, rolling on impact, crouching as she swept a leg out, knockin the first man's legs out from under him. Liesel gave Aislinn a look that said, it's about time what took you so long? To which Aislinn merely turned so Liesel could see the girl holding on to her like her life depended on it. She lowered the broom down slowly and gradually Olive seemed to loosen her grip. Morrigan was now using the tree limb as a fighting staff, blocking the second man's blows before finding an opening and-
"That had to hurt." she heard Olive wince from behind her. She just smirked and watched as Liesel swiftly incopacitated the last one. It looked like the technique she had seen Cybil use recently, pressure points or something, Aislinn hadn't really been paying attention when Cybil had explained it. When She reached the ground and helped Olive get off the broom Tanith had jumped off the stocks, landing with grace only witches could manage when that drunk, and had gone over and started kicking one of the now unconscious men, spluttering obscenities at the sleeping man. Morrigan quickly pulled Tanith away from the man, holding her tight until she didn't look like she was about to start kicking him again. She wondered for a moment if Tanith would slip off her broom if they let her ride alone on it. Liesel gave her a look that told her they were thinking the exact same thing.
"Let's go on foot back to the forest, than we can grab your brooms and get outta here before this village wakes up-" She said but before she could think of a way to finish the sentence Olive supplied,
"And finds a girl and a drunken idiot have gone missing and five men in the square who look to have put up a fight."
"Don't call me an idiot, girl!" Tanith says with a bit more coherence than expected.
"Why, it's true isn't it?" Liesel mutters, Morrigan huffing a cold laugh under her breath. Aislinn saw the stupid anger boiling in Tanith's eyes and decided she really didn't want to break up another brawl today, or wake up the entire town.
"Don't start Liesel." she said angling between them, she gave Liesel a pleading look and to her relief Liesel just huffed a sigh and relented.
They made it all the way back to the woods before someone in the town found the bodies, saw the empty stocks and proceeded to alert the rest of the town. Within moments the town was in an uproar and the witches were in the skies. Aislinn hoped for Olive's sake that she didn't look back to see the torches and pitchforks and smoke now flooding her old home.
They got to the clearing and after Liesel and Morrigan cleared the perimeter Aislinn touched down, a few minutes later the other two groups got back as well. They met up with the rest of the coven and met the two other new witchlings Tamasi and Alita. Tamsi, had been found by Gwyndolyn after her mother had beaten her and thrown her into the street and told her to go and die. Sedona and the shadows had found Alita in a clearing, sharpening a dagger and so unsurprised by the witches she saw descending from the sky that it seemed she'd been waiting for them. Tamsi looked about Olive's age, maybe a bit younger, and had thin straight wine red hair that covered one of her dark brown eyes. The girl had a scar running across her face, right over the hidden eye and down to the opposite cheek. Her skin wasn't pale, but it was greyish with malnourishment, red freckles dotting her face. The girl was quiet, and at first look Aislinn had thought it was because she was shy, but no, she was observing Olive and Alita, sizing them up, sizing all of them up. A young girl assessing a threat. Alita on the other hand was talking with Olive, still sharpening her dagger, which from the look on Olive's face was making the girl a tad uncomfortable. Nerissa had told Aislinn that the girl hadn't told them anything when they asked why she was there, and where she had gotten the idea to come into the forest at night. Unsurprisingly the girl didn't say anything else about her past while talking with Olive, she did however reveal that she loved to read. At which Cybil looked up eyes locked on the girl, like she had suddenly been alerted to the presence of another scholar, that was until Alita had explained how she much preferred fantasy books to books about real life, at which point Cybil looked back to her book which she had been silently reading while sitting in a tree across the clearing. Olive on the other hand was overjoyed to find another person who loved stories as much as she did, expressing her hope that Alita might read her one of the books she likes so much. When Alita had asked why Olive wanted her to read it to her Olive had simply replied,
"Because, I can't read it myself."
"So you're illiterate?" Alita said, an eyebrow raised in question.
"I can't read." Alita gave the girl a slightly pitying look but didn't ask any more questions. She just started to tell a story she had read about a prince looking to rescue his bride with the aid of a magical bird made of fire. Tamsi walked over to sit with them and listen, though she still looked like she didn't trust them, any of them.
After Lor, Cybil and the shadows lined the perimeter with traps Aislinn started the first shift of watch with Sedona. The next three hours were a lot of polishing daggers and listening to the sounds of Tanith puking behind a bush in the opposite end of the clearing, a site most of her coven was pointedly ignoring though Tamsi and Alita both watched with confusion. After Tanith had evidently gotten everything out of her system the rest of the coven, along with the witchlings, laid down their bedrolls in the clearing and got a few hours of rest despite the sun that was slowly inching over the horizon line. She leaned against a tree while across the clearing Sedona made another pot of the herbal tea she had given Tanith after she had finished vomiting her guts up. The kettle hung over the small fire that Liesel, after some protest, had begrudgingly agreed was worth the risk of being found, Sedona feeding another stick into the flame. She watched as the sliver of the crescent moon became less and less visible as the sky lightened and the next day began