Last night, Amanda dreamed of her parents. She saw them perfectly giving her description to the police, informing her that her daughter had disappeared without a trace.
Then the figure of herself came back from somewhere, dressed in clothes that reminded her of a movie about Cleopatra from the 1950s. Her makeup eyes filled with tears as she opened her arms, telling her parents that they no longer needed to look for her. : she returned home.
She ran to hug her parents, closing her eyes, smudged with makeup from her tears, in the crook of her mother's shoulder.
When she opened them again, however, she saw the figure of a woman she didn't know.
The woman Amanda identified as a savior looked to be in her thirties. She was young, with the aspects of a successful woman, slender and full-busted, with a beautiful body. On the other hand, she walked quietly around Amanda, always humming to demonstrate that she was harmless.
She was a human. Ever since she fell into that world, Amanda thought she was on Mars, since she saw one or two normal people. She was relieved.
She took care of her wounds that morning and the others that followed, she also offered comfort even though they didn't have much conversation.
Amanda couldn't get out of bed. Both for the pain of the wounds and traumas acquired in that forest, as for the heart blackened by the idea that she would never be able to return home. Either she slept, or she burned with fever. She was always having dreams of her past, of the place she could never go back.
Before deciding to abandon her past life in order not to fall into a bottomless pit, Amanda shifted on her bed remembering the dream she had. She remembered the figure of Rafael, the man she would never meet again. They would meet for the first time the day she ended up in that hell.
She dreamed of a wedding anniversary; and also with the honeymoon: the two made love after some conversations she didn't remember, wine, cheese, fruit and lots of love. Rafael was affectionate, loving and very romantic.
But as soon as she opened her eyes, she thought that a caring, loving, and tender man was everything any healthy and traditional woman wanted. She didn't know him, but wouldn't stop dreaming of what her life could have been like with that man.
Also, because of this frustrated expectation, she would not give up trying to find a way back home. One day, even if he had moved on with life, she would tell Rafael that he was the force that kept her moving. One day...
She smiled, taking the breath to sit on the edge of the bed. Amanda ran her hand over the back of her neck, feeling the horrible texture of her hair. She bathed from the streams she found, but didn't remember taking a real bath. Her stomach also complained that she ate nothing but the baby food that the woman who saved her offered.
Struggling, she realized that her foot wounds didn't hurt as much as they used to. She was able to get up, though, having been bedridden for many days, she felt her back lock a little. She propped herself up on a nearby chair, struggling to her feet and ready to flee—if necessary.
Amanda rolled her gaze around the cabin, realizing it was a small place. It reminded her of a fairy tale, albeit a little dark. There were many shelves of jars, herbs, books, and trinkets that she didn't know what they worked for. Plants hung from fixtures attached to the ceiling, perhaps for decoration, or they were herbs drying in the cabin's interior heat.
The floor was clean and polished wood, decorated with beautiful rugs with Egyptian artwork that reminded the girl. Following an archway, Amanda saw a large fireplace burning with a very old stove. She smelled a different smell coming from there mixed with the scent of baking biscuits. Beside that chimney, she glimpsed two full-length windows, unglazed, just a strange, semi-transparent bluish glowing.
Unintentionally, she saw the figure of the owner of the cabin through the windows. It was daytime, maybe morning, the woman would get up and be bent over a vegetable patch. She hummed, Amanda could hear her through the open door.
The girl decided to go there. She also needed some fresh air. Though, walking to the door was a bit tortuous. She had both legs injured, although it didn't hurt as much, some sudden movements bothered her.
She knocked on the doorframe, bracing herself to keep from falling. The movement caught the attention of the woman, who looked dazedly at the girl.
"Oh girl!" She exclaimed in a sweet voice despite her obvious fear. "You're standing!"
She reached up from where she was, to help Amanda into a chair that was in her backyard.
"Come, you're not recovered yet," she said softly.
Amanda nodded, looking around. The backyard, if she could call it that, was like an enchanted wood from a fairy tale. A beautiful garden with emerald green grass, flowers bursting with color on all sides... orbs of light she refused to believe were... fairies.
She turned her face to the side, realized that the cabin itself was not normal. It was... a huge tree. Full of round lamps that glowed yellow, like fruits that twinkled like stars. She was on top of a waterfall, which ran the water around the yard, irrigating plants and what she identified as medicinal herbs. They went to a gray stone walkway that led to a wall of dark, shadowy trees.
"Where am I now?" Amanda questioned, frowning.
"Oh, this is my house." The woman smiled, running a hand through her tousled hair. "It's a beautiful place, don't you think?"
Tilting her head, Amanda just watched.
"Not enchanted, if that's what you're thinking," laughed the woman. "This is all technology. A bit biological, a little bit computational. Before being abducted, I worked as a botanist on my home planet. I understand a lot about biohacking, so I could make a plant glow like a flashlight.
She put her hand on her hip.
"It took me a few years to make that charming look," she laughed. "And that gives me the title of 'witch.' "
"Witch...?"
"The technology on this planet is a curious thing: they know robotics and mechanics" the woman put her hand up with a mischievous smile, "but they still don't know about genetic technology. In fact, with the rise of our current ruler, ignorance has become a common evil.".
Amanda looked around again. She ran a hand over her arm, wondering how she managed to make a fruit glow.
"It must be confusing your dawn on another planet, and hearing that you're dead," the woman said, bending down again to work on her patch of plants. "Don't believe in the Divine Fathers, you haven't died. You must be an intelligent person, so you certainly know that. Religious people in this country and others use the belief that when people are abducted, saying they died on their home planet , and came to this world to live a second life and then reach Paradise. As a reincarnation or something like that. That's a lie."
"That's what they explained to me..." Amanda replied.
"They say that to all the new inhabitants of Tammera," snorted the woman. "Certainly, it's just a justification for the fact that they abduct people from other planets without their consent, thus making them accept life in that country without much questioning. They take away their memories of other lives, and say they have been blessed to live a new life."
Overcome with emotion and fatigue, Amanda was no longer pondering. She accepted any explanation that was a little plausible. But she still had her own theories.
"I thought it was a dream, or a delusion," she muttered, sighing wearily. "Maybe a defense mechanism, as if I was projecting delusions so as not to face a worse truth."
The dark green-colored almond eyes curved as a warm, pleasant smile covered the woman's mouth.
"A logical person would look for a scientific answer, no doubt," she said, cutting a plant stem with a pair of pruning shears. "But I'm afraid to say, my dear, that this world is full of mysteries that science has not yet unraveled.".
She separated a purple, oval-shaped vegetable, tossing it into a basket.
"Heka, for example, as much as I try to understand, I never did. And no scientist could." She sighed. "Therefore, it is an energy considered and used by the religionists of this world as a sensitive entity, endowed with intelligent thought. Even I believe that it is some organism present in the atmosphere, an intelligent energy that governs this planet with rules that maintain the balance of what is dark or light. The good and the bad, who walk on a short leash in their hands".
"Like God?" Amanda frowned.
"Not like God." The woman shook her head. "Something less than God, but more powerful than us. Heka can control our destiny. It imposes on us a transgression quotient, which consists of a list of do's and don'ts. Heka is complex, and it would be a relief if the Divine Fathers weren't controlling the people through it."
"Oh, I see," the girl sighed. "I guess..."
He glanced at the woman, noting how calm her voice was. She felt safe like she hadn't felt in days. She had been treated as an aberration by alien priests as well as an object for reptilian creatures. She loved studying a human face that didn't haunt her, just soothed her.
She glanced at the woman, noting how calm her voice was. She felt safe like she hadn't felt in days. She had been treated as an aberration by alien priests as well as an object for reptilian creatures. She loved studying a human face that didn't haunt her, just soothed her.
"Excuse me." She tried to be polite. "Thank you for your hospitality and for saving me."
The woman closed one eye as she looked at the girl and sunlight hit her face. Then she shook her head.
"Have it, girl," she replied, even more calmly. "Hmm, I must say it's taboo, and no one will ever ask your name. But I'd like to hear it."
Amanda remembered the lizard man warning about not telling anyone his name. However, she didn't have that feeling that the woman was dangerous. She felt comfortable.
"Amanda," she said.
The woman had bright eyes. For a second, Amanda thought she had said something low like "so that's what they gave to you...". Her gaze was so sweet, for a second she thought she was in the safety of their common home.
"I've protected the place so it's safe to say my name," she finally said. "I'm..."
She paused, as if expecting thunder to fall from the sky, but remained silent, not saying what she was saying.
"Well, I guess I'm more used to my nickname." She smiled at her after a while. "Everyone calls me Mother Witch.
Amanda raised her eyebrows.
"I couldn't call anyone 'Witch'," she laughed lightly.
"Then call me Mom."
She ran her eyes up and down the woman's appearance. She certainly looked six or seven years older than Amanda. It was weird. But it was like her name suited her very well.
"However," the mother ran over the girl's almost denial, "I must warn you that if anyone asks her name, never give it to anyone. The name is an important part of the soul, it is the gateway to your interior, your psyche and mind. An individual begins to know himself by name, and sometimes the meaning coincides with who he is. People in this place generally use your real name to access inner energy with the curse of the name. That way, they can control you as if you were a voodoo doll."
She bent down again, cutting another stalk of vegetables from her garden.
"And," she added in a haunting tone, "the archons... I mean, demons, they are parasitic energies that roam the planet and use the curse concept of the name to steal bodies."
Mother cast a brief glance at Amanda.
"Don't tell to anyone you don't trust your name." She warned. "And say it only when you're in a place protected by the blood of an innocent animal."
Amanda knew about that, of course, but it didn't seem all that terrible coming from the Witch's mouth.
"Now." Mom rose with an effort of her voice, holding up a basket full of the vegetables she was picking. "I must hear your story. I understood something, but I still don't fully understand. I found you wounded and warmed by the figure of an old sphynx-cat about to turn into a beast."
It was obvious that she wanted to ask questions, any would do given the state in which Amanda had been found. However, instead of pressing for answers, the mother smiled a beautiful, gentle and patient smile.
"Well, tell me while we eat breakfast," she suggested. "You're too thin. You must have had a terrible time in the Abyss Forest. This place is terrible, many people can't survive more than three days. The demons roam the forest, disguise themselves as ghosts and pretend they want to help, but only want to steal your body, or see your agony. In the Abyss, you shouldn't talk to ghosts."
"That explains Egbe," Amanda muttered.
Not understanding, mother shook her head.
"There are also the beasts," she added, looking at the girl curiously. "I've found countless corpses, attacked by sphinx-beasts that metamorphosed.
Amanda looked around, remembering the cat she saw sitting in a chair beside mother.
"Oh, and that kitten, where is it?" she asked, struggling to get up and follow the woman.
"It's a sphinx, girl, a wild pussy, that's gone back to the woods," she replied, making a face. "These creatures are abandoned in the forest when their tails weren't cut as babies. People cut sphinx syrup when they're babies, because when they get old they can become a big monster."
The girl frowned. That creature reminded her of her pet cat, Lion. She would like to see him one more time, he warmed her when he felt the cold of a delirious fever. Besides, it would be a good reminder of the world that would never come back.
"Well," she whispered, trailing after mother. "I'll tell my story, but I also have a plethora of questions to ask.
"I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to question ourselves," the woman nodded, with a crooked smile. "I know you just met me, but I'm no danger, darling. And I would be glad to be able to help you in whatever time it takes. If you want to leave after recovering, I won't stop you. I can even take you to Zarco, you can settle in town. It's not far from here."
"Uh." Amanda snorted a giggle. "Looks like I can't go anywhere." Besides, she didn't know anyone and she had nowhere to go.
"Perfect," Mom squealed in exultant excitement. "I'll be happy if I can stay. It's a bit lonely living in this wood alone for so many years. I would also love to help you understand what you are and what you can do. I would teaches you heka with all honor and love."
The wrinkles at the corners of her mouth deepened, her brows were furrowed and her face was intrigued.
"I really need a helper." Mom nodded. "As for you, you'll need a place to live and work. That's your new dawning in the stars, dear."
Amanda gulped, treating that fact as an ominous reminder of an illogical and confusing situation for her, but she was too tired to care.
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Footnote
Biohacking ---> it could mean something like trying to tinker with the biology of biological organisms, to make it better or to change it.