Night Witch

Chapter 31

Baba Yaga brought Karina outside, into the chilly air. "You watch the sky and tell me what comes across it. Tell me when you have seen two things of importance." Baba Yaga grabbed Karina's arm with a shriveled hand as the girl moved forward. "But still notice everything else."

Karina nodded. It would be uncomfortable in the cold, but she could manage. She always did, from her mother's death to her servitude under Olga and all the rest.

Karina found a tree stump to sit on as Baba Yaga went back inside with a slam of the door.

The wood was cold against her backside, but it was nothing compared to the air that prickled cold against her skin. Wrapping her arms around herself, she tilted her head upwards and began to stare at the velvet sky.

The stars were mostly blocked by the thick canopy of jagged branches, but she could still make out the gleaming silver spots in the sky.

And she watched.

The stars seemed to move underneath her eyeballs, constellations spinning in her mind. Every so often she would close her eyes for a minute or two to let her brain return to her body from where it would dance in the stars up above.

It was hard to watch nothing, to feel nothing in who you were and where you were.

In a normal forest, the leaves would shift at every slight breeze, and even when they were on the ground, a person could hear the rustling that came with them. Insects would chirp, and bird's wings would flap with a brown body moving against the sky. Even if she couldn't see it, the presence of life would be everywhere.

But this was the Forest of the Dead, and the sound of silence plugged her ears like corks on a wine bottle.

She chanted and hummed safesongs under her breath as she watched the dizzying sky, trying to keep herself from the nothingness. She braided and unbraided her hair more times than she could, and most of all, tried to find something in the stars.

Snap.

She turned around, to where the source of the sound was. Nothing, then...

Two blue eyes gleaming in the dark.

A jolt ripped through her body. Hans.

The killer.

She bent down to grab a rock or a stone or something from the ground. There was nothing but dirt, cold soil that was packed together in a way that made it too hard to pick up. She shuffled around a little more, trying to find something, but to no avail.

And then the eyes were gone.

Shuddering, she sat back down. Was Hans really out there? Watching her? Readying himself to murder her, sharpening his fangs to prepare them for tearing her throat away from her neck?

She rubbed the back of her neck and continued to watch the sky.

After a while, lavender started to kiss the midnight blue away. Karina watched the sky. She could hear something, something a little more than silence, like the slow, steady sound of a breeze. But it was almost rhythmic, almost like--

wingbeats. Like the thrum of a distant drum, it echoed in her ears, getting louder and louder, until at least she could see its source.

"A bird," she whispered, noticing the feathery texture the sky took as it changed colors, from blue to purple to pink. The sunrise was painted beautifully by wingbeats and a bird that she'd never quite seen before.

She stood up, walked to the door, and knocked on it with that gruesome knocker. The door was flung open immediately, 

"What did you see, girl?"

"A bird in the sky, and--she's beautiful." Karina's hands fluttered up, then fell back down to her sides. "What is she--he--what are they?"

The skin around Baba Yaga's sunken eyes crinkled. "The Day Bird. I don't associate, and neither should you. But what else did you see?"

"The...killer. Blue eyes. Hans."

"You weren't supposed to. But I'll investigate." Baba Yaga stared at the trees outside her house. "Go inside. Eat. Then we get down to work."

"Doing--doing what?" Karina rubbed her fingers together, hating the idea of more chores. 

"Now you learn." Baba Yaga shoved Karina inside, stepping outside herself and slamming the door.

And Karina smiled. 

I know, I know, it's been forever since I've updated. But hey, I'm back (with a super short chapter--sorry!)! With some news.

I'm going to finish this draft of Night Witch this year. That's inevitable, as long as I work hard towards it, which I plan to do. But: 1. I'll only leave this book up for a couple months after I finish it. 2. Why? Well. first of all, Night Witch severely needs a rewrite. I feel like the worldbuilding is badly done, as is the character development, and there are times I lose touch on plot. I need to fix that.

So...yeah. There's an update on that. Hope you enjoyed this, and have a nice day and happy new year!