For him to live, a witch must die.
Driven out of his village for the curse he possesses, Tavor is alone. With nowhere else to go, he must venture into the Eylderfell to hunt down the witch who cursed him.
But the forest is dangerous, wild with magic...
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"No!" The cat wailed, leaping to the spot where Nestani had been. But there was no trace of the witch.
Even the crow seemed stunned. "Master?"
The Elder lumbered forward, back hunched against the tower's pointed roof. It reached for the curse Nestani had created. It sat like a dark pearl at the centre of its palm.
"I must thank you for bringing the knife with you," the Elder said, flashing Tavor a jagged smile. "Although I had hoped you'd have taken care of business long before this point. Perhaps the dream I sent you wasn't potent enough?" It shrugged. "Well, it matters not. So long as the end result is the same."
Its palm clenched around the orb. "Now, I shall take my revenge."
Quiet moments passed. The Elder's expression shifted from triumph to irritation, then cold fury.
"That insolent witch," it snarled. It rounded on the familiars, spines tearing jagged lines through the roof. "So, that was her game all along. Where has that wretched creature put my soul?"
He grabbed the cat by the neck and lifted her into the air.
"She didn't tell us!" She struggled in its grasp, clawing at its fingers. "Let me go!"
The Elder flung her back against the stone floor. It paced the ground, eyes blazing with fury. "She wouldn't have brought it with her. It'll be outside the Eylderfell, of course, where I can't get to it."
The crow moved back, ushering the others with his good wing. "We need to get away."
The Elder stopped pacing and turned suddenly. The look in its eyes had sharpened to sharp malice. "Unless..."
It lunged and grabbed a hold of the crow, squeezing his small body between its claws. "Only a living creature can hold a soul," the Elder said. "And the only creatures Nestani would trust enough to keep mine would be you two." It extended a claw, digging it into the crow's chest. "So, which one is it? Or shall I just rip you both apart until I find it—"
The crow let out a harsh screech of pain, and that snapped Tavor out of his shock. He desperately summoned the energy within him. If ever there was a time to use magic, surely this was it.
Come on, come on, come on...
Something flickered inside him. Tavor seized onto the sensation, until it blossomed like a small fire. He felt power buzzing at his hands and pushed it downwards, into the floor.
Cracks snaked across the floorboards.The ground beneath the Elder gave way and collapsed. The Elder let out a roar, letting go of the bird as It scrabbled for purchase. Tavor broke into a run, grabbing the crow before it fell through the hole.
The cat scampered alongside him. "We've got to go!"
She was right. The whole tower was giving way. Debris rained from the ceiling, crashing into the Elder and sending it tumbling to the floors below. Tavor clambered up one of the branches leading through a hole to the outside of the tower and jumped into the trees surrounding the Tower.
Branches crackled as he fell, but the foliage broke his fall. He landed in a sprawled heap at the base of the trees, scratched and bruised but alive.
Behind them, the Tower groaned. The structure collapsed in on itself, crumbling into a pile of broken branches and wood. Tavor couldn't see the Elder, if it had managed to make it out alive. He didn't stop to look. He grabbed the familiars and ran, the Elder's howl of fury echoing through the forest behind him.
⭑.ᐟ
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