Three more months passed without anything being eventful. There were less soldiers patrolling the city, which was very odd. None of the people cared and still thought they were safe within their walls.
The little Witch asked Cateline's mother if her mother was going to visit her, "Is momma going to come visit today, Cateline's ma?"
"Not today. Maybe she's was so happy to see you and is trying to work harder for you!" Cateline's mother replied back to the little Witch.
"Hmm, okay." The little Witch nodded her head
Cateline's parents were always giving her an excuse of not telling why her mother was not visiting her. The little Witch will tell them what she thinks about it tonight.
When night came, the little Witch and Cateline's family were eating together.
The little Witch stopped eating and ask Cateline's mother, "Is my mother not coming anymore?"
The rest of the family stopped eating and Cateline's mother had to tell the little Witch the news, "Your mother died three months ago when we visited her. She told us to take care you when she was gone. I'm sorry for not telling you sooner."
Tears fell down the little Witch's eyes. Cateline came hugging her friend and the little Witch hugged her back.
That mood was broken when the family heard screams in the middle of the night.
Men on horses could be seen holding hammers, archers nocking their arrows, men holding swords, and other men holding torches to light the way.
Men on horses swung their hammers at people in their way. Brain matter and blood were spilled.
The archers aimed and shot their arrows at people within buildings. While some of the men holding torches came along with the men holding swords ransacking businesses of their goods and pulled people out who weren't killed.
The Cedraybar soldiers must have come attacking the city with the help of the corrupted city advisors and city guards. Only some of the uncorrupted city guards that stayed behind tried to defend the city, but they were overwhelmed by the enemy forces.
The people's screams continue to sound through the night.
"Where are the guards!"
"Help!"
"Dad, don't die!"
Cateline's parents reacted quickly and pulled the two girls outside to escape.
After carrying the two girls they ran into the 3 men who were patrolling the area to see if anyone would come by. They saw the family coming this way and grinned. Pulling out their daggers they charged towards them.
Cateline's father put down Cateline and said to his wife and the two girls, "Leave! I'll stay behind to stop them."
The three men arrived in front of Cateline's father to stab him. Cateline's father tried to parry the blows, but got hit on both his shoulders and left arm got scratched.
One of men tried stabbing him once again, but Cateline's father anticipated this and front kicked the man's stomach. It made the man groaned in pain and let go of his dagger.
Cateline's father grabbed the dagger from the ground to protect himself from his other attackers.
The other attackers ignored their ally on the ground and kept on stabbing their daggers at Cateline's father.
He got careless as one of the attackers blind him with sand from their pocket. He was then impaled by one of the daggers into his right side.
Still blinded from the sand, Cateline's father tried rubbing the sand off his eyes while putting pressure on his wound. The one attacker on the floor got up and came to kick Cateline's father to the ground saying, "You son of beach!"
Cateline's father groaned in pain.
With one last breath, he got up and stabbed forth at the defenseless attacker's chest. The stab connected and both the attacker and Cateline's father fell to the ground.
The other two attackers continued chasing after the woman and two little girls.
Huff, puff. Huff, puff.
Cateline's mother and the two girls were running for their lives.
Cateline's mother believing that they were safe and told the two girls, "We can stop to rest a --".
Someone grabbed Cateline's mother from behind. It was another small group of men patrolling the area.
The men tore off her dress and tried ti could r*** her.
The little Witch wanted to help, but Cateline grabbed hold of her hand to escape.
Cateline got as far as she can with the little Witch in tow. She tried to search for help, but it was still no use as she could hear screams everywhere around her.
With no other choice, she got the little Witch and placed her within a barrel.
"Be safe okay, @#$%&*&." Cateline closed the lid slightly and ran off in a different direction they came from.
The little Witch could hear the footsteps of those men chasing after Cateline.
--------
Until the next day, all the Cedraybar soldiers have plundered everything from the city. The women were taken as spoils of war; Men were either killed from rebelling or used as slave troops (meat shields) for the army; all the elderly were killed last night; and children were either killed from their struggles like the men did or were being sold off to buyers who had weird fetishes.
Everything was done quick and efficiently. The Cedraybar soldiers celebrated by eating and drinking to their content that they have conquered the city in Drard's leadership, their own lord was just a decoration for show.
Drard even made all of Kreonevell's captured citizens watch their lord, Rothhall, being decapitated in front of them.
Drard then ordered his men move to regroup with their main army.
Thunder and rain pour down on the city and this was a sad day for Kreonevell [8].
The skies were still pouring rain and thunder descends. The little Witch got out of the barrel when the coast was clear.
The little Witch felt empty, weak, disappointed, and the uneasiness in her heart. Multiple emotions that she couldn't describe for her age.
She started to cry out from the bottom of her heart and from that day on she hated this kind of weather.
(The Witch's History: Part 4)
The little Witch didn't know what to do without any support and struggled to live everyday up to a month after the fall of Kreonevell. She would collect water that were inside barrels and leftover food thrown away by the Cedraybar soldiers at the center of the city.
She also didn't forget to say her prayers to the dead people of Kreonevell when she passed by their corpses.
When there's no more food and water, the little Witch had to look for an alternative by going outside of the city's walls and into the forest.
When she got near the city's walls she found a useable and not broken bucket and headed straight to the forest.
Walking a for awhile, she reached the forest's entrance.
She headed inside the forest and remembers the different types of plants and nuts that she can eat from her deceased mother's teachings.
While she at the forest she found the river and collected water using her bucket. She did forget to bathe in the river [9].
Still this wasn't enough food for her to survive on. She tries catching small game such as rabbits or birds, but they were too fast for her to catch. Eventually, she decided to catch bugs to eat.
The bugs she found were some tree crickets in a shrub and mealworms on dead fallen trees.
They didn't taste too good and she felt sick eating. No matter what, she had to survive and continued eating them.
She had to learn how build a fire to cook the bugs to make it bit better. She searched the ground to find flint as she remembers what she has seen the men during her journey to Kreonevell use flint and another rock to make sparks to hit the tinder.
Good thing that flint can be found near the riverbanks. The flint she found was black in color and a slightly wet, so she let it dry in sun. She continued her bug hunting and foraging for the day. She came back to the flint and notices that it wasn't dry enough and couldn't make a fire yet.
Night came and the little Witch went back to the city's walls for safety and slept in one of the buildings until the next day.
The next day arrived and the little Witch went back to her area she left her flint it was still a bit wet and wasn't useable yet again. She continued hunting and foraging for her breakfast.
The little Witch felt bored waiting for the flint to dry. She went to riverbank to gather small pebbles to practice throwing them to defending herself from bad people or animals.
She finished throwing her pebbles and looked around what can do.
She found large sticks that could be used as a sword. She tried swinging a stick, but it was too heavy and she didn't have proper technique. She went to the riverbank again to jump on large rocks or looked at the fishes swimming.
Once the little Witch was hungry she went to find lunch and check on her flint and saw it dry enough to be used to make a fire. She made tinder from dry grasses and formed it in a bird's nest. She also collected a lot of dry leaves, sticks, and rocks to make the fire.
After placing the rocks in a circular formation, made a tepee with sticks, and placing some leaves into the tepee. The little Witch grabs her flint and rock and started striking both together.
A small spark formed but it did not hit the tinder. She tried again, again, and again until the tinder finally caught on fire. The little Witch could finally cook her bugs to it tastier.
Eight months passed without the little Witch realizing it. The little Witch doesn't remember when it was her birthday and believed that she is roughly 9 years old now.
It was during fifth or sixth month that she almost died to a pack of wolves without a stranger helping her.
--- the time when the stranger helped her---
The little Witch already explored all the city's buildings and the edge of the forest. She wanted to see if anyone would come by the city every day, but no one came.
'Maybe it's because of the city's fall that no wanted to come', she thought to herself
Extremely bored, she decided that she could go deeper inside the forest to find some thing new to do.
The little Witch going inside the forest and found all sorts of new beetles, spiders, nuts, fruits, old looking trees with moss on them, rock formations, and beautiful flowers that she had never seen before.
She didn't realize that she actually came to a cave that belonged to a wolf pack.
The wolves noticed a trespasser in their territory and growled at the little Witch.
The little Witch threw pebbles, from her bucket, at the wolves, but the wolves dodge the pebbles which made the wolves more angry at the trespasser.
The little Witch saw this and threw her bucket before running the way she came from, but she couldn't out run wolves at her age and was surrounded easily.
The wolves came closer and closer. The little Witch believed that she was going to die, she closed her eyes to meet her fate. After awhile, she noticed nothing happened to her.
She opened her eyes to see a old looking man with a long beard wearing a grey robe in front of her using fire to scare off the wolves.
The old man replies to the little Witch, "What are you doing here child?"
The little Witch was in awe at how an old man can use fire, but snapped out of it and became wary of the old man. Even though the old man saved her, she didn't really know what is the old man's intentions.
The old man notices this and didn't say anything else before leaving the little Witch alone.
The little Witch surprised that the old man was leaving and chased after him.
The old man continued walking until he reached the entrance of the forest.
The little Witch still wary of the old man begins to ask questions, "How can you use fire without a flint?"
The old man smiled and said, "Magic."
The little Witch pondered and asked the old man, "Really? Can anyone use magic?"
"Not just everyone can use magic and must reach certain criteria. Do you know is important. Talent or hard work?" The old man replies to the little Witch with his own question.
The little Witch answered, "Hard work?"
"That's correct, child." The old man nodded and answers back, "You have to look at talent and hard work in different ways. Both have their own positive and negative strengths."
The old man continued to give his answer, "Hard work is slow process and talent is fast and gives people an advantageover their peers."
"Without hard work, you cannot be disciplined nor be determined to reach your goals."
"And not using your talent to it's fullest potential is just a waste that even hard working person can surpass a talented person."
"Both are limited separately, but when combined together, talent and hard work will push one's limit and self farther in life."
"Do you understand child?"
The little Witch thought about what the old man said to her. She had no clue of what the old man said to her about talent as she has never heard of it before, except the hard working part.
The old man nodded his head knowing that the little Witch won't understand much. He continued and asked the little Witch, "Do you want to learn magic from me, child?"
The little Witch asked the old man to teach her the fire magic the old man showed to her first before she can decide to learn from the old man or not.
The old man agreed and he showed her that she had to first learn how to meditate and feel the energy around her. She couldn't use magic without a chant, energy and regular body. As the little Witch's body is malnourished it was dangerous for to use magic.
The old man taught her the steps to meditate and waited to see the little Witch's progress.
The little Witch did what the old man has taught her. She felt the energy around her, but she didn't get on the first try. The little Witch didn't give up and tried and tried again.
This continued for about 6 hours when the little Witch feels two, light blue and light green energy nodes (mana) being sucked inside her body.
The little Witch opened her eyes and excitedly told the old man what she had done.
The old man nodded and knew the outcome. The little Witch is talented as she had ice and wind elements and fast absorption speed for the elements. It would have been faster if her body was nourished back to health.
Most people of varies talent would either take days, weeks, or even months to feel the energy nodes.
"Do you believe me now, child?" The old man replied and looked straight into the little Witch's eyes.
The little Witch nodded and agreed right away believing that it would change her fate of being weak and she wouldn't have to see other people suffer the same way she did.
Grumble, grumble.
The little Witch's stomach growled and she knew she was hungry.
The old man laughed out loud before giving the little Witch a small meal to the malnourished girl.
--- present 8th month, almost 9th month---
Deep within the forest at the old man's hut made up of wood and stone.
The little Witch wasn't as malnourished as before and on the path of recovery. The little Witch opened her heart a little bit to the old man and both learned each other's names. The old man's name is Achard while the little Witch's name is Ethedred.
During the two to three month time period, Achard was surprised that Ethedred was shown to be a fast learner and has advanced far in her studies of magic. She soaked up information like a sponge and is on par with an apprentice who has studied magic fundamentals [10] for a year's worth of time.
Achard decided that they would go on a long journey to expand Ethedred's horizons.
--- huge time skip, 3 years ---
Ethedred is already 12 years old.
During her journey with Achard, she viewed Achard as her grandpa she never had before.
Achard told Ethedred where he learned magic from and how strong he is.
He learned magic from an academy that was hidden people's eyes [11]. Though Achard only had the potential of a tier 3 Wizard, but he regretted that he didn't work hard enough to reach his full potential and remained as a T2 Wizard.
As magic was somewhat tabooed from the Church's rules. If anyone was seen using magic or was reported as a suspicious person, the Church can send an army to deal with the Wizard/Witch and pay the person who reported the news, handsomely.
The duo traveled to many different kingdoms, cities, villages, forests, mountains, and oceans.
Ethedred saw all sorts of new creatures, plants, and people; especially her favorite past time on the journey was sketching the plants and creatures' characteristic(s) she learned from Achard.
Everything felt so calm and so peaceful for everyone she saw that even Ethedred didn't want anything to change.
Nonetheless, everything can be changed in an instant. She saw the cruel and ugly nature that people can show. The unnecessary bloodshed, betrayals, greed, and fights over different beliefs
Even Ethedred had to kill somebody to protect herself. The man that she killed with ice magic had his eyes opened while looking at her when he died. She felt scared and shocked that she did such a thing
Ethedred thought to herself, 'Is there even any need to do all this?'
Achard knew what she was thinking about and tells her, "That is human nature and it's cycle. It can't be changed no matter where we are."
"Don't forget that you and that man had different reasons for your actions."
"You were trying to protect yourself from being killed. While the man wanted to rob you of your belongings and r*** you in the process of doing so or some other reason he had in mind."
Hearing what Achard said, Ethedred continued thinking to herself, 'Can't be changed, huh?'
Still Ethedred didn't slack off of her studies in her 3 year long journey and learned all the necessary knowledge for an apprentice to became a tier 1 Witch or Wizard. Ethedred even had enough time and knowledge to almost reach the standard of a tier 2's strength. She is just a hair's length away.
The duo already started to head back home when Achard deemed that Ethedred has seen and learned enough from their journey.
Much like their journey from the beginning, Ethedred killed another person. She still wasn't use to killing, but she will get use to it in the future.