The Everlady

02

Eight years passed by, and the boy has now become a teenager. He studied a lot about magical creatures, dark forest, and magic itself. All these years studying about Jabberwock, He has yet to find a breakthrough on how to seal the forest again.

“Studying wasn’t enough, I need to start observing that damn forest,” He murmured. “But how? Royal soldiers guard the forest strictly during the daytime. Yet he can’t go there after dusk because it was the beast's lair after all. He could be killed at any time.

DING DONG

The bell rang, it meant the day had started to get dark. Everyone was busy packing their things and hurriedly went back home. The city was indeed being protected by a magical barrier. But sometimes, some beasts could penetrate through the barrier. This is why people must have stayed in their home at night.The village’s guard was going to eradicate the monsters that had broken through.

The boy was still silent and continued to read the book he read before. Opened the next page quietly. It’s no different in the library or home, both have a risk of being attacked. Thus, the boy decided to spend this night in the library.

He focused on his reading when someone suddenly poke his back. He jumped in surprise. The boy turned his head to see who it was. It was a beautiful adult woman with long blonde hair and green eyes. She used an all black simple dress but she looked very fancy in it.

“Um, may I know who you are?” The boy asked.

The woman’s sight wasn't on him but on the book he read. “You like studying history?”

“Uh, yeah, kind of.”

The book was about the Witches' history in this empire. The woman sat on the chair next to the boy’s. Still looking at the book with a faint smile.

“Do you think The Everlady was the one who released The Jabberwock?”

His eyes widened, this was the question he’s always been searching the answer for. “I don't know, what do you think?”

“Hmm, I don't know either. Maybe she did, or maybe she didn't.”

The woman turned her gaze at the boy. She stared at him for a quiet while. “Heh, he does look like her,” She murmured to herself.

“Pardon?” The boy asked with a confused expression.

“It's nothing, I was talking to myself. Oh, right. What's your name again? We haven't tell each other names yet”

He sighed, “Madam, I already asked you but you ignored my question. My name is Merlin”

“What a good name, it’s like the great wizard in King Arthur's story. Anyway, you can call me Ellie. Do you by any chance want to be a wizard, Merlin?”

Merlin then tells Ellie about his ambition to seal back the Jabberwock to the dark forest and his struggle to find any light in his case. And about his plan to observe the forest by himself.

“Well, maybe i can help you with that.”

“Huh?” Merlin was confused about what this woman just said.

Ellie got up from the chair and walked to the door. Left Merlin with many questions.

“Don’t tell me-”

“Follow me if you want to see the truth. There might be no other chance.”

Merlin hurriedly packed all of his things and went to catch up with Ellie. He has so many questions to be asked, but Ellie told him to stay silent. They didn’t want to end up being caught by the guard. Ellie led them to the barrier’s border. Merlin was super panicked because on the other side of the border there are so many monsters and beasts. Instead, Ellie was so calm and walked through the border.

“H-how?”

Merlin was surprised because none of those beasts attacked her. Not even an inch. Ellie smiled at Merlin. She told him to hurry. Not wanting to be left out, Merlin ran after Ellie. Even though he wasn’t sure about it. Both of them ran into the dark forest.

Plants there were a bit unusual. Merlin had seen some of them in the book he read but seeing it directly with his own eyes was surely different. He was amazed by the sight of the dark forest while he ran. Beside plants, there were also strange creatures that they believed were monsters and beasts.

Ellie stopped running after a while. There was a huge lake in front of them. With black lotus growing around. There were also the black swans, strange fish, frogs, and many more. The sight of the lake was gloomy yet enchanting at the same time. Merlin was truly amazed. He never expected that inside the dark forest there was such a thing like this.

Merlin took out a book from his bag. A notebook about animals that lived in the dark forest. He read through the book, he matched it to what he observed with serious expression. Ellie, who had been watching him, chucked softly.

“You're so enthusiastic, I wish I had a child like you.” She murmured.

Ellie whistled into the sky, as if she was summoning something. Merlin shifted his focus to Ellie. “What did you just do?”

She didn’t answer. Still looking at the cloudy sky. Merlin turned his gaze to the sky just like what Ellie did. From that sky, something was flying towards them. When it got closer, Merlin realized what it was. The thing dashed in front of them, snuffled.

“Hippogriff!” Merlin jumped in excitement. Merlin stroked the Hippogriff’s feather. Admiring this mythical creature he didn’t know still existed. He looked at Ellie with the bright expression “I thought their kind was extinct.”

Ellie smiled at him. Merlin looked like a happy dog in her eyes. “Do you want to try riding it?”

“Really? May i–” Merlin stopped talking. His expression changed as if he realized something was off. The excited face turned into a vigilant and alert expression. “Ma’am, this might sound disrespectful, but may I ask why did you know all of these things about the dark forest? It’s a bit strange for ordinary folks to freely enter and exit the dark forest like this. Moreover, considering your extremely calm behavior. You are certainly no ordinary person.”

Ellie was astonished by Merlin’s words. But she was expecting him to ask this. Her expression came back to calm again in a second. She smiled at Merlin, a smile distinct from the usual, this one appears menacing.

“Well, who do you think I am?”

Merlin looked at Ellie with a terrified expression. Her look now seemed hostile. “I don’t know”

Ellie, who was watching from a distance, now walked towards Merlin and the Hippogriff. “Don’t look at me like that. You make this old woman sad. I know you’ve guessed who I am, honey. What’s your answer?”

Each step Ellie took closer, Merlin slowly stepped backward. The atmosphere around them suddenly changed. He stopped his step as he felt his shoe had touched the water. He can’t escape from this. Merlin closed his eyes

One, two, three. He can hear Ellie’s steps getting closer to him. Merlin’s eyes were still closed. A few moments passed, nothing happened. The steps were no longer heard too. Merlin opened one of his eyes, tried to seek and check if Ellie was still there.

“Woah!” Merlin almost fell to the lake. Fortunately, Ellie catched him before it happened. Merlin was surprised because the first thing he saw was Ellie's face right in front of him. Staring at him like she stared at his soul.

“There you go.” Ellie helped Merlin to get away from the lake.

“Why did you help me?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

He got more confused. Ellie has turned back to normal. No menacing smile and no menacing aura. She looked like she would behead him at any chance just one second ago,  “Weren’t you trying to do something bad to me? Because–”

“Because I'm Everlady?”