Witchcraft

Chapter 5 The Vines

Marcus POV

I am thoroughly confused.

The witch, Esmeralda, is strange.  She seems to -dare I say- care about a lot of things.  But that's impossible, because she's a she-devil.

Then why didn't she let me kill the lycan?  This thought poked and prodded me as I sat on a stump beside the dying embers of the fire.  Every few moments I would get up to add a couple of sticks, but my mind was occupied.  On the opposite side of the fire Esmeralda laid, she had passed out the second she finished the roasted rabbit I'd caught.  Wavy locks of raven hair curled around a beautiful pale face, with long, dark lashes and full pink lips.  If she were a normal person, I might have found her attractive.

I cut that thought off immediately.  Such wonderings would get me nowhere, and only provoke my irritation.  My thoughts wandered back to the palace, where I lived with my older brother and mother.

I strode over to the sleeping girl's figure, poking it with my foot as she roused from her sleep.  It had been several hours, time for her to keep watch while I slept. Part of me was worried that she might attempt to kill me in my sleep, but I brushed it off.  If she couldn't even kill an enemy lykae, she surely wouldn't kill a sleeping human.

Her silver eyes shot open, and Esmeralda sat up quickly.  Glancing around, she relaxed, and I frowned at her.

"Hey, it's your shift to take watch."  I said simply, and she frowned slightly, stretching her arms.

"Okay, sorry I slept for so long, I'm exhausted."  She apologized, but I brushed off her words without a reply.  The silence was eerie, maddening.  No crickets chirping, no owls hooting.  The forest was freezing as well.  I wasn't too affected by it, as I was wearing adequate clothing, and I live up north, where this temperature is just slightly colder than normal.  Esmeralda, however, was wearing a thin black cloak, and was used to warmer weather.  She shivered slightly, wrapping her arms around herself, and I narrowed my eyes.

"Can't you just use your magic to keep yourself warm?"  I asked. She glared at me with silver eyes.

"I need to save my powers for something more useful, I won't freeze to death, and I've never gotten sick."  She stated, before sitting directly in front of the small fire.  She looked down at the flame, eyes becoming a bit misty, before her gaze snapped back to my face.  "Tomorrow we can start heading in that direction, south."  Esmeralda stated softly.

"How do you know that's south?"  

"My mother taught me about constellations."  She explained shortly.  From the way she said it, with a tinge of sadness, I assumed her mother had passed away.  It made her seem slightly more human, with vulnerabilities.  I mentally scolded myself.  She was a witch, a she-devil, nothing more.

I laid down on the ground, and was going to stay up a bit to watch Esmeralda to make sure she didn't try anything, but I was asleep the second my head touched the dirt.

I was jolted awake by someone shaking me frantically.  Immediately, I sprung up, reaching for my sword-only to realize it wasn't there.  In front of me was Esmeralda, her eyes wide with fear.  

"Marcus!  Marcus!"  She shouted, her hair flying messily around her face.  "We need to move!"  I was still a bit asleep, until the small witch grasped my wrist, grip surprisingly strong, and began to tug me forward.

"What's wrong?"  I asked quickly, allowing her to pull me a few feet.  She'd already picked up her satchel and cloak.  It was at that moment that I felt something slither up my leg, underneath my pants.

"Plants!"  She yelped, as I tore my foot from the leafy green vine that had burst from the ground.  All around us, thick stems were uprooting the ground, wrapping around our feet and up our legs.

Esmeralda began sprinting forward, and I followed a step behind.  Leaves from the ever growing plants whipped into my face, some of them weaving themselves up trees and off branches.  My heart thudded rapidly inside my chest, threatening to leap into my throat.  I heard a small whisper, an incantation over the sound of the ground ripping open around us. 

Then, it wasn't just the vines coming out of the ground.  Spikes of ice shot up all around us, encasing the ground and the plants.  Esmeralda turned around to face me, her eyes glowing nearly white.  Soft words were slipping from her mouth, so quiet that I couldn't hear them.  Then, as sudden as it came, the unnatural glow in her eyes switched off.  A loud cough halted her words, and everything went dead silent.

Esmeralda's shoulders slumped, and she sighed tiredly.  I was totally still.

Everything.  Everything around us was totally encased in ice.  It went on for at least twenty square feet in all directions.  Shoots of dangerous, sharp spikes made the land a jagged, white-blue scene.  It was terrifying.  Except for a thin sheet of frost, you could see the plants clearly inside the frozen water.  A second ago none of this was here.  All it had taken was a moment.

It then appealed to me that this small girl standing in front of me could have, should have, killed me.  I would've done it.  It wouldn't have taken any energy at all for her to kill my entire troop, actually.  So why didn't she?

Esmeralda glanced up at me, breaking off my train of thought.

"Why are you staring at me like that?"  She asked with narrowed eyes.

"Like what?"

"Like you're half confused, half suspicious."   I grunted as an answer, turning away.

"It doesn't matter, let's get moving. We can start heading north since we're already up."  I stated stonily, starting to move in one direction which I vaguely remembered her calling north.

"Um, Marcus?"  Esmeralda asked hesitantly.

"What?"  I snapped back.

"North is that way."  She explained, a tiny smile appearing on her face.  I glared at her and as we began to walk, avoiding all of the dangerously pointy spikes.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

I'M SO SORRY FOR THE LATE UPDATE!!!!  I know its been FOREVER since the last update.  I'll try to write the next chapter a bit quicker.  Thanks for reading!  Leave a vote or/and follow me!