Lily sped up and was soon into the thick woods down the Southern part of the town. She felt the dense air in the atmosphere, it sure did not feel anything like the other side of the forest where she was familiar with.
"What if you are walking right into the trap of whoever is after you?" Titus sounded from behind Lily. Lily suddenly stopping and looking around, turned towards Titus, "do not come out unless I call for you. We cannot risk my power being sensed by whatever things are in these woods."
Lily paused and turned towards the direction she was headed earlier and continued, " we are not suppose to be here, they wouldn't approve of it back home." After Lily's words, Titus immediately vanished out of sight, he knew Lily was right.
Lily kept walking for a few more minutes. Of course there was the option of her using teleportation to the place she was going but this she couldn't do since she wasn't suppose to use any form of her power here, of which if she did she would lose the tracks the shell was supposed to reveal to her.
Just when Lily was inching deeper into the woods, she felt movements. She froze in position and keenly listened. She however could not hear anything. She went ahead and continued walking, dismissing the sounds as just any random sound in the forest. It could be a wild animal all she cared.
Lily figured that she could somehow sense the right way to follow everytime she held the shell in her hand. She thought it was incredible what such an item could do. She wondered how it was forged or even where it might have been retrieved from, what she was sure of was that it proved itself very useful.
Kilometers into the woods, Lily could still not see any bridge, leave alone a wooden one, she could not see any sort of bridge at all. Additionally, the terrain did not seem like it was getting too steep for there to be a necessity of a bridge. As she continued walking, she hoped that she would be able to see that bridge soon enough because darkness was almost descending.
One sure thing was the manner in which the shell kept captivating Lily, she kept looking at it and rubbing it's surface constantly and holding it up as if it was a compass. She almost looked like a kid whenever she held up the shell pointing it at different directions.
Her little fun was suddenly stopped when she accidentally stumbled upon a piece of wood and fell with both her hands touching the ground. Her falling down pissed her and she stayed there for a second before she finally decided to get up and go fetch the shell that had fallen on the ground a few steps from her.
Just as Lily bent and was about to pick the shell, she saw a foot step on it covering it completely. She hesitated and slowly rose up to see who that was. The foot stepping on the shell was that of a lady who was wearing black boots and brown pants.
When Lily rose and met her eyes staring at her with an evil grin, she decided to stop and study the lady. This young lady had short blonde hair and was wearing a dark green sleeveless shirt with her brown pants.
"Uhm lady, lift your foot I need that," Lily spoke looking down at the lady's foot that was covering her shell. The blonde lady did not move an inch and kept her foot rooted on the same spot. Lily decided to move a few steps back because at this moment she was beginning to get pissed and she knew herself pretty well, so she decided to move back and calm down.
The blonde lady giggled at the sight of Lily stepping back, " already scared, little Miss?" She asked with amusement in her voice. "The fun is just about to begin," the blonde lady continued, looking at Lily with a dead smile.
"Sisters," The blonde lady called out. Then suddenly two other ladies appeared next to her. They were all identical. They seemed to be triplets and the only thing that differentiated them were their hair colors.
The two other ladies that joined them had black and dark green hair, but of the same length as the one with the blonde hair.
They started pacing around Lily studying her. The one with the dark green hair lifted her hand af if she wanted to touch Lily but she didn't, " what a pleasant surprise, we never have visitors over here lately," she spoke giggling at Lily and looking at her sisters.
"And a human at that," the other one with black hair added also pacing around Lily, carefully studying her. The green haired one blew on Lily's hair with her mouth and giggled again, "and she is very pretty!" Then the other one with black hair smiled and replied with excitement, " mother would like!"
They all studied and spoke about Lily as if she was not present and as if she could not hear them at all. Then the blonde one amongst the sisters bent down and picked up the shell, "look at what our little visitor carries with her," she smiled and tossed the shell to her green haired sister.
"Aah ohh," she gasped playfully as she tossed the shell to her black haired sister. "Well well well, this little bird must be very ambitious!" The black haired sister spoke ecstatically. She held the shell in her open palm and studied the surrounding.
"Seems like our little bird attempts to cross over to our little imaginary kingdom," the black haired sister continued with a hint of displeasure. Lily was very keen as they spoke. Lily was sure that the sisters were witches because that was the only way they would possibly know about what the shell was used for.
"So sad we had to cut your little trip short because we sensed something that we don't like at all. In that case we had to come out and look, only to find...you," the blonde haired sister spoke with displeasure.
Lily looked at the three ladies and realized that they could stall her all night until it got too dangerous, it was a tactic of theirs. Lily decided that she was not having this especially now and decided to be a little firm.
"As much as I'd like to stay here and hear you yap all night, I really need to be on my way. Now ladies, hand over that shell to me," Lily spoke, as composed as she could be. The sisters threw glances at each other and burst in laughter.
"Very bold, the little bird threatens us," the blonde sister uttered walking towards Lily. At this point Lily had already decided that if at all those witches provoked further, she would have no other choice but to deal with them.
"Sister, give her the shell," the blonde one spoke smiling at her sister who had the shell in her hand. "After all, she will not be able to find the bridge without our help," she grinned and continued.
At that moment, Lily understood what Christopher's mother meant when she said that this side of the forest had it's own way of aiding anyone, she just had to be careful. She knew she couldn't just ask them openly how she would find the bridge because once she did that, they would learn that she was vulnerable and trick her.
Lily caught the shell that was tossed to her by the one of the sisters. She knew they wouldn't let it go just like that. "Run along now little bird," the green haired sister spoke to Lily as she twirled playfully.
Lily looked at them and decided to start walking ahead without looking back. "Ooh not so fast our little bird, mother loves visitors," the black haired sister appeared in front of her clapping her hands playfully.
Lily had had enough of the witches games and prepared herself to strike using the pendant if at all the witches bugged her any further. Lily immediately froze on the spot and found herself unable to move at all.
She tried severally to even lift her hand but she felt as if they were tied down yet there was nothing tying her at all. "Would you look at that!" The blonde sister exclaimed with excitement. They had stopped her with a spell that paralyzed her from her neck down and held her in a fixed position.
Lily suddenly thought of stopping this nonsense but was immediately stopped by Titus, "patience," she heard him echo. Lily had no time to listen and suddenly she focused her energy on the pendant.
In no time at all the ruby stone started glowing deamly as the light slowly intensified. The witches noticed that and looked at it carefully. "Would you look at that, our little bird has a little charm on her, how cute," the blonde sister uttered in a curious voice.
She stepped forward and slowly advanced her steps towards Lily. She carefully looked at and the pendant around her neck, "not as simple as we thought I can see," she continued stretching her hand towards Lily, intending to touch the pendant.
"Be careful sister, do not touch it," the black haired sister spoke intensifying their hold on Lily. Lily sensed the intensity of their attack building up on her. "I want her charm sister," the green haired sister directed to the blonde one who seemed to be the eldest amongst the triplets.
"I think we should take it to mother, she might tell us what it is..." Before they could continue, they were all blasted backwards by a pale red wave of light they sent them flying as they hit tree trunks and landed on the ground heavily.
They all struggled but eventually got up and Lily noticed that her attack did not deal much damage on them since she also had to break the hold they had on her. Lily was very sure that she would kill them the next time she attacked.
The witches got up and finally revealed their true form. Thet had wrinkled old faces with skinny limbs and protruding chins, with pale skin almost white in color. "Give us the charm!" Two of them should at Lily sending branches to wrap around her.
The branches however did not get to Lily as they immediately scattered, falling on the ground. What followed were other branches flying towards the witches. "Look sisters, her boyfriend comes to her rescue?" the blonde witch asked with amusement.The witches cackled looking at the man approaching from a close distance.