"We issued seeds on different coasts. None of them was to grow that fast! Now, you are asking us for more? Chief, this is unbelievable!" A man from the crew complained and threw his hands in the air while shaking his head horizontally for multiple times.
Many retorted back with the same complaint. The cottage was filled with a virile rumpus. Having the problem standing still and yesterday's doing has never even helped even for a slight change.
"Will you all shut your blabber and let the chief speak here? The manners people! The manners. Panicking and being close-minded also won't be of help." Lucy exclaimed with her brows met and emphasis on her voice.
He silently thanked her when she saw how the men silent and some coughed up with all their mouthful of arguments.
"I know, the seed won't be growing anytime soon. As for how we could fix this matter. We must cooperate or none of us will settle this through alive." Ambroz slumped his palms on the table in front.
"Yeah, cooperation!"
"Yeah!"
Everyone started to agree and he felt relieved.
"I'm tellin' ya, me wife and children are howling at me! Helpin' ya' out and me busting me bumpers? Would ya' think?" Someone spoke with a northern accent and everyone including him scrunched their noses and raised their brow.
"Uh, so, yeah. Let's all cover up our heads and I will head to our house and grab something relevant. You could stay here and review this map. Any suggestions, I must listen to it all when I return and grant it if it can be of any help." Ambroz was about to leave the cottage when someone tapped his shoulder. He glance to see who it was.
"Chief, how can we plan without your father? He's the one who holds a lot of information about the forest. How can he leave us here empty-handed?" It was Zergee, who raised a question, it made him silent but his face remained in composure. "I have been with your father for the past years now, ever since we have set foot on this land, aye? He and your mother know that goddess better than we do. This day was to he expected and I have just been silent." He continued.
He was standing up to his head. It seems that he is not the only one who thinks that his father is the one who can help them the most."Zergee, can you tell me what happened in the past? Father seems to be telling me just half of it."
He saw how Zergee was hesitant. His eyes were everywhere and he heaved a sigh. "This is not my story to tell, however, back then the only thing I knew was we escape right when we have just met Maurelle, your mother, she helped retrieve our boat somehow which was almost caught by the nobles."
"Why did you escape? Father told me that land was ruthless and cruel. But what truly happened to turn it out like that?" He implored again. If it continues to go out this way, he knows he'll get the information he wants out of Zergee's perspectives.
Zergee sat and all of the rest was just listening to them talking. His sigh was heavier now. "I don't know what this information could possibly help this matter out. But, back then, that land was filled with witches, sorcerers, corrupt nobles, and even the people was lured in with their filthy traps. I can't say how much destruction that land brought for you father's will and we escaped." Zergee explained. The men who heard them started whispering and spouting things on their own.
He finally understands now why his father kept it a secret for them to not never know. It was for their sake. Ambroz was about t leave the cottage the second time when he recall something. He halts his steps and turns around to Zergee. Lucy furrowed her brows.
"Hold on. Did you say, witches and sorcerers?"
Zergee stared at him straight in the eyes. "Uh-huh, I said that. I believe back then I even accused your mother of one, I was wrong. However, please address that matter with Fredeline."
Then, realization struck him. Now it all makes sense to him, something about witches probably has to deal with this. He, himself can not conclude for it is still vague but whatever the forest is suffering about, the witches are involved.
"I see what I can do, well, I need to go back now. I'll return and in the meantime, you must all discuss what you can suggest for our strategy. It all comes in handy." Just like that, he left the cottage completely and was followed by Lucy.
Amidst walking towards both of their houses. Lucy cleared her throat. "Now that you have heard the side story of their past and all that. How exactly do you plan to execute a solution? We're all meat if this goes astray, chief."
Every step now has taken him only to pressure his head. "How? I must first talk with my father. We can't just recklessly decide on what to do."
Lucy was the one to sigh now. "Father, huh... And about Fredeline, she made quite the scene right there, everybody believed that. I remember she's not one to lie and create stories, chief." She mentioned earlier's commotion at the centre of their dwelling.
"Don't say it as if my mother was the one to cause this all. We haven't confirmed it yet." He suddenly was pissed off. How could the people assume almost instantly at just a say of a citizen? They should hear both claims, right?
He heard Lucy letting out air from her lungs. "I'm just... I'm saying, chief. Anyways, now that we're here, ask your father to come out and help us with this matter. I'll head to the barn." She bid farewell.
Lucy marched her way out and lost her sight from him. With pressure, he went inside the house. Feeling irritated and pissed off as to why his father won't even dare to open the door.
He is their son! Whatever her mother is going through, he has every right to know. For one thing, they reigned him as the chief.
His complexion and patience were slowly tearing apart. He went through their room and he saw his father outside, almost entering his mother's compartment. But he stopped him.
"Father," he called out when he almost reached out to him.
Logan slightly flinched as he closed the door back. His mother's sight was yet to be seen. His father faced him with a stern-looking face. As though he is warning him for his future actions.
"I need your presence out there, the people are all in panic. You refuse me to enter mom's room and you refuse to settle Fredeline's issue. Father, they are accusing us of all this ruckus now. This matter is as odd as you act." He exclaimed with a high tone and it made his father angry.
His father raised his hand and almost hit him but paused when he realized what he was trying to do. "How dare you speak as if I am not your father? That Fredeline is sick in the head!" He screamed at his son and it made Ambroz jolt a little bit.
He scoffed. "Now you are blaming this on our people? Father, I don't understand you anymore. You reign me chief and you hide important matters from me? You don't suppose that I could fail this, do you?" He asked his father almost bit believing how he was behaving.
"Your mother's fine, she's just sick." He blurted out.
"What about what Fredeline said? I have talked to Zergee and he mentioned to me about witches and sorcerers. Tell me, father. What has this got to do with us? The people are suspecting us and even Lucy." He made a strong call, just upon seeing his father snap in front of him, he has lost it.
"How dare they accused her even for all she has done? They are now living in harmony because of my wife!"
"You can't blame them, father. When you don't even have the strength to announce that what they are thinking a mere false. What Fredeline said was just a speck of mother's nightmare. They're unaware." He said as he calmed himself down from all the shouting they'd done.
"So now you're taking their side?" His father asked in agitation, his face turned even redder.
"No, I stand for the truth. I stand for what is right." He responded.
His father sighed heavily in front of him. He was about to walk out of his sight when he talked once more. "How do you suppose we settle this? You're escaping from it father. If we just let it be, the goddess will all slaughter just as how you introduced me to her. I heard her the first time and she's not the one to let this slide. We don't even need to use any of the fighting skills that you taught, we don't know who's behind all of this, she'll suspect us as the culprit. You know about this, father. You once told me that as chief I am, you and mother will always guide me. So what are you doing? What are you doing to have left me all alone here?" He panted after all that he has blurted out.
His heart was aching and slowly as if some bomb was planted inside his organs waiting for it to explode. He has gone frail. Even more when he heard his father's last words for him before he could have head somewhere.
"I don't care. Do whatever you pleased. Leave the forest or leave the land, do it. I don't care."
There. The bomb exploded. The bomb he was eager to hold the pressure, the tension, and the sorrow. He failed to protect it. As his father slumped the door to his face, the moment it happened, that's when he knew that his father loves his mother more than anything else. He kept silent, but the truth is, he already knows what his mother is.
Why she kept her identity closed. Why she constantly avoids talking about where she was from. Why she has always been feeling happy and seemed contented. There was no need to think deep before he realized that her mother was a witch. Born from someone's soul, taken care of an evil being, and escaped from her grasp. She was a good witch. His father probably fell for her because of that reason.
He was just waiting for the moment to finally conclude it. When he saw her mother inside the room, hard luck but he was able to see her mother's eyes. Just after that, his father blocked his sight out. But what his father did not know was he saw images. Images of the past it seemed. Her mother was young and his father too. They escaped a land he has never seen and saw every bit of detail from what they did way back. Then, he saw how they built-in villages to progress. Up until the day he was born.
They were droplets of memory from the dark ol' times to the good ol' times.
"But, how could they hide it all from me? If mother's a witch, did they think that I could have spread it like wide fire? I don't understand." He was inside his room now, slumping a sit on his bed and stroking his forehead to the top of his head. He sighed out loud.
"The trial, it was all a phase. Father was never pleased with it but Zergee knew a time with wars and battles was to come. How would they react if they knew their hunch was right all along?" He asked himself. "That mother was a witch."
He gripped his chest and proceeded to lay his head down. "What should I do? Father wouldn't dare to make me see mother. Talk to her at least," he sighed multiple times now.
He crumpled on his bed. He was the chief, a great man of his village, the one who should be standing wise. However, he was weak and fragile now.
"This feeling is as obnoxious as the plague."
—
"Mother, we're here. We're finally here!" Glinda squealed and cackled up with such a terrifying tone.
"It would not take long for this land to settle a tomb of our wrath. I can see it already, the keen darkness of those trees. Has it always been this way? No better than yesterday?" Ravyn scoffed in sarcasm as her brows carved upon her truly statement.
Their ship was pacing through the land, they still have no apparent sight of this land. However, they can see how deplorable and dreadful it was. It seems that their expectation of a greenery territory has been shattered. Far from that, the dark trees and the sand shed ashes from the death.
Gwydion smiled evilly under the hood of her cloak. She snickered and removed her hood. "That's all my doing, she should thank me for designing her land with the mark of my colour. I have never treated her less than loved. She knows I'm coming. I gave her core a warning." Her voice was hoarse and rusty enough but enough souls she save and her complexion was as if she was still in her youth. "Don't you agree girls? Or do you prefer the shade of pink?"
Glinda and Ravyn awkwardly stared at each other before laughing in a pretentious manner. They even covered their mouths.
"Of course not, mother. Black is death, sadness, and mourning. Perfect for the likes of us. Right, sister Ravyn?" Glinda widened her eyes on Ravyn, persuading her to agree on her own statement.
"I could never agree more. By any chance mother, are we all going to slaughter and ruin even this massive land?" She asked her mother and slowly walked towards her.
"Why else are we here, Ravyn? However, I sense something about this land. Something odd is the guarding which is never a problem. Not that I worry of as I am the greatest witch of all." She cackled up a loud burst of waves of laughter as she even led to cough herself. Ravyn tapped her back and she reacted immediately with a hard glare. "Don't touch me!" She exclaimed.
Ravyn retrieved her hand. "My apologies, you look like you were dying. Heh."
The men laughed secretly.
"Don't 'heh' me! And you men think I couldn't hear you? Ready off the canyons, were close!" She yelled and marched to the ship's top edge.
The sky was starting to flow beneath her madness as she waved he wand and hand to the sky. The sun was slowly engulfed by the grimaced clouds and the blue sea started to taint in dark complexion.
As they both hit almost the land, the canyons were settled off. Without any warning, Gwydion instructed for the destruction to begin.
"Fire down the hole!" One man yelled and the canyons were pumped. One after the other.
The witches enjoyed the play. They all plastered wickedness in their smiles whenever one landed after the other, soaring a loud cacophony of disturbance through the eased air. A flock of birds scampered in the sky.
"Mother," Ravyn called out to Gwydion, she was busy laughing off her amusement just by seeing the landfall into insanity. "Mother!"
"Oh, what is it, you brat?" Gwydion was pestered uttering those words with a hiss.
"How shall we execute the said plan?" She asked in a calm demeanour and even managed to smirk.
"Execute it now, I don't want any of my precious time wasted. I have a lot more recreation to do right after this." She brushed her fingertips and let the men continue on the evil deed.
The bullets landed and exploded on the darkened trees. It let out smokes and people who were nearby felt the shaking of the ground and their brows furrowed. It was no earthquake rather they assumed immediately it was a bomb. They went up the trees to take a good look and their eyes widened when they saw smoke, the sky was darkening, and they saw the sea taunting with death. There were huge ships. The palpitations of their hearts began to fasten up.
"What is it, kid?" His father asked him who was down below.
"F-father, it's enemies and..." He halted when he saw two women flying off of their broom from the sky and even his father saw it. "Witches!"
He fell from the tree but his father caught him. They looked at each other's eyes with horror. "We have to head home, lad. And inform this to them."
"Hah, I shouldn't be resting here." Ambroz sat and scratched the back of his neck. He realized his been staying inside his room for a long now. The men's probably waiting.
He was about to stand up when he heard someone yelling from outside.
"Witches and shipments are coming to attack us! Cover your deck!" It was Lucy, he presumed.
And followed by another shout. "Witches! They have all landed bombs and the beach is starting to fall into the gates of hell! I repeat, we all have to escape them!" An old man shouted and he peek at his window to see that they were staring at something and each one of them was starting to run off their lives.
He widened his eyes and his heart thumped. "It can't be!"
As he was about to head to the door, a woman stopped him. In front of the door appeared black smoke and slowly it revealed a woman with a dark
cloak. She removed her hood and revealed her face.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here? A boy who wants to save his little poor country? I bet not, seems like your parents took care of a weakling man, how disappointing is that?" She spouts with a sense of chasm in her voice.
"Who are you and what is your scheme with my land?" Ambroz asked with full of emphasis and vigour.
"Don't pretend, young man. Your hands are trembling from the mere sight of me. Well you see," she said strolling towards him, Ambroz backed out. "I am your mother's sister. A loving sister who brought her nothing but happiness. Still, with her very existence, she has brought me an ill fate."
"What are you talking about? My mother is kind and was never an evil witch like you!"
She paused and stared at him. "So you do know me." Ravyn chortled. "Shall I, introduce myself more?"
To be continued...
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ABYSSCESS