The Salem Witch

Chapter 6

"Aspen!" I cried, looking over to him, and seeing that he had spotted the same thing I had. I need to stop her in case she's going to warn any others. I ran into the trees, my broom in hand, searching furiously for the other witch. I turned towards running footsteps, and i pushed my way through in the direction of the noise, half trying not to kill myself from the trees and half wanting to just rip myself apart in pursuit. I could see the figure of the other witch within the trees, and I watched her soar away as she kicked off her broom. Mounting my broom, I flew after her, hair whisking in the air. The other witch glanced back at me, raising their left hand and shooting a spell at me, a spiraling blast of purple magic, and I barely managed to swerve out of the way.

I searched for her mind, looking for any advantage I could get. I could faintly sense her presence, like the way you could feel when someone was near you, but I couldn't get into her thoughts, she had some sort of mental shield against me.

I tugged my wand from a pocket in my dress, pulling it out and pointing it at the witch, firing about as accurate as the local militia had been with their guns. I tried to steady the broom as I fired another shot at the witch, this time slightly more accurate, but as the spell rocketed towards her, it hit an invisible shield behind her, lighting the transparent barrier, and revealing its shape and position in a flash of light.

Oh crap, this witch is strong. I could gradually pierce through the force field, depending on how powerful the witch was, but I could barely aim at a moving target in midair, so it wasn't likely. I dove downwards as another spell shot at me, this time the beam of magic blossomed into a monstrous claw, which surged into the trees below, breaking through them and colliding with the floor. Uh oh. I used a waving motion to summon a whip from the tip of my want, the purple rope lengthening out as I continued the weaving motion, then I flicked the whip at the witch's broom, which thankfully didn't have a force field around it. I jerked her broom towards me, and she shook violently, crying out. I used this distraction and blew a blast of magic into the witch, and her body bent around the charge as it spiraled into her, driving her into a tree branch, which she then tumbled off of.

I tracked her from above as she ran, waiting for a slightly easier cypress to land in. She seemed to be going back the way we had come from, slipping through the forest, and I could barely make out her silhouette beneath crisscrossing branches. I shot down bolts of writhing purple fire at her, but trees seemed to bend over her like a shield, catching fire, but not harming her. The magical fires leapt from branches to branches, but they shot past me as I continued to fly after the witch.

Soon we had circled back around to where Aspen was camping, and I understood the witch's plan. She had drawn me away so she had a better chance at killing Aspen. I cried out, skyrocketing down into the clearing where we were camping. Aspen was being cornered by the witch, who had a wand pointed at him. He dove away as a stream of purple blasts flew at him like magical bullets.

I landed and ran to help him, but an explosion at my feet sent me flying backwards. The witch seemed to be limping, but didn't show any pain as she made a cutting motion with her wand, summoning purple slashes in the air that flew at me. I rolled to my feet, blowing the magical creations apart with a movement of my wand that was similar to drawing an infinity in the air, making them dissipate.

A loud reverberating explosion sent Aspen flying through the air, blasted away by a spell. Panic rushed through me, and I noticed the rapid beating in my chest, like I was a hollow drum which my heart was banging on. But Aspen rose, pushing against a tree for support, he didn't seem to be injured from the spell, and his clothes didn't even smoke or show other signs of damage, he only seemed winded from landing hard against the ground. As the witch stepped towards him, I threw bands of magic at her, but she blew it away with a flick of her wand in my direction.