Willow rang the silver bell again and the two maids from earlier came in to take away the empty dishes, the moment they left the room she waved her hand the there was a faint clicking at the door, she'd locked them in.
"Give me your hands, Katrin." she said placing her hands on the table with opened palms. Katrin hesitated a little but calmly placed her hands in Willow's.
"What I'm about to show you Katrin Clunch, you must not tell a soul, not until the right time comes. Do you understand?" Katrin didn't, but she nodded her head obediently. "When that time comes, you will know who o tell these things, and those you must keep them a secret from. Now, close your eyes".
Katrin did as she was told surrounding herself in total darkness. She didn't fully trust the situation she was in but she kept her mind prepared for anything. Her ears picked up low whispers leaving Willow mouth followed by a small gust of wind brushing her checks, then everything went calm.
"Open your eyes Katrin." Willow's voice came to her ears and she subconsciously obeyed, fluttering her lids open.
To her surprise she was no longer sitting in Willow's small room, she was sure she wasn't even at the salve's house. Her surroundings had changed and the girl was now standing in a dark and gloomy empty cave. Looking around she noticed that there was no sign of the witch, "Where am I? Where are you?"
You're inside my mind Katrin, do not worry I am still with you. Right now, you are about to witness a moment in my memory. I'll do my best to make this short". At that moment laughter sounded from outside the cave followed by two girls, that looked to be a lot younger than her, rushing in after each other.
Neither of the girls seemed notice she was there having the human girl confused, "Th-they can't see me. why?"
"Because to them, you do not exist. You are in a memory, a moment in my mind, your presence there is non-existing you are basically a floating spirt." For some reason that didn't sit right with Katrin, she watched the girls play around finding them both to look familiar, "I-is that you?".
"Yes."
She turned to the other girl who had a cute and innocent laughter as she moved around trying to avoid her friend "And the other girl; that's Lucy, isn't it?"
"It is. This is a memory of our days as outlaws, the time when we were traveling to the Dead Lands".
Katrin followed as the girls ran out of the cave into the brightness of the outside world. It was a beautiful forest and had people camped around in tents.
The girls ran round everyone while the adults yelled for them to slow down. She moves after them trying to keep up, her body being walked through by the people she passed.
"Lucy! Willy!" A loud deep voice startled both Katrin and the girls, they turned around and there was a young man about Katrin's age, he was staring right through her at the girls, his eyes were filled with disappointment while his foot taped the ground repeatedly.
"Azrael!" Young Lucy gasped, her checks turning red.
"Brother!", young Willow called out in shock.
Azrael shook his head at them then turned around heading into one of the tents, the two girls hurrying after him, with Katrin right behind.
"Azrael, we're sorry, we...", Lucy began but she was cut short by Azrael fist slamming loudly one a table, causing some the potion bottles on it to fall over and spill.
"No, no." He sighed rushing to stand the fallen bottles back up, "No more apologies, you two do this every time, i set rules and you go ahead and break them. When will you every listen? Is staying in the tent till I get back so hard for you to do?" His voice was so stern that Katrin could feel it her chest.
The boy seamed so annoyed and frustrated. He weaved his hand through his hair reliving a star shaped scar above his right eyebrow.
Willow eyes were already tearing up but she tried to defend their action "Brother, we are terribly sorry, but we just wanted to be outside, just for a little while. We weren't going to cause any trouble".
"Not going to cause any trouble," Azrael scoffed. "I highly doubt that. if anyone out there had found you that looked familiar it wouldn't take them time to follow you two here and find me, who knows what would happen then? You could put ourselves and everyone in this group in danger!".
Fear filled both their eyes that already had streams of tears flowing down their faces. "We're sorry, w-we won't leave the tent again, we promise".
Azrael softened seeing his sister and Lucy crying, "Come here." he said opening his arms wide enough to take in the two girls. They both moved into the space, each one burring their face into either side of his chest. He rubbed his hand through their hair placing soft kisses on their foreheads.
They were still in the magic of their hug when frightening loud sounds of explosion accompanied by fear filled screams came from outside the tent.
Katrin turned to the entrance of the tent and took a peek outside. Upon seeing the situation outside her eyes widen and a small gasp left her lips. Large big animal like creature where being held back by huge stony beings in amour, the animals' bodies seemed to surrounded by thick black and fogy smoke.
"A-are those Beasts?" Katrin asked, more to herself than to Willow. Those things fit Lucy's descriptions perfectly, huge, black horned with glowing red eyes. Each one had to be held back with three thick, large chains which the stony men were holding.
"Trolls!" Someone gasped.
"What are they doing here?"
Katrin could here low whispers from all around. The people outside who were all cowering in fear and some children were already crying at the sight of danger.
Trolls? She'd never seen any before, only heard stories from the town's people. Stories of how brutal they could be, especially when hunting or when they came faced with an enemy.
"All you outcasts need not to worry." One of the trolls said, trying to reassure the group. He smiled widely, revealing brown mucky teeth. "We are only here for a Special, a very powerful wizard is hiding amongst you, and he is on the run for treason. He gotten an anonymous tip that he was seen in your group two towns back."
"Now we will not hurt you; but if you all want to leave this forest alive, I'd advise you to surrender the wizard over to us and we will leave in peace."
"A wizard! Here?"
"That's not possible!" the group of mixies began to whisper again, while scanning through their travel mates.
"SILENCE!" One of the other trolls yelled and everyone quickly stopped talking, "You have five seconds to bring out the traitor, or you all die. 5... 4... 3..."
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