My Creative Writing Projects

Short Story #1

A long time ago, in ancient times, there lived a witch whose name was Umbra. She was very skilled in sorcery and could cast all sorts of spells known to humankind. One day, feeling lonely and wanting a friend, she decided to take on an apprentice. Searching through several towns, Umbra finally found the right young man for the job, Mordecai Eisenberg. Deciding to keep him in the dark of knowledge of her magic, for fear she would lose him, she posed as a healer. They traveled from place to place, all the while he didn't learn any spells, magical callings, or anything related. Overtime, Umbra began to grow very fond of her apprentice and cared deeply for him.
On their way to a village to heal a sick woman, they stopped to make camp for the night in the woods. As Mordecai settled down for the night to sleep, he heard something that sounded something like chanting. Intrigued, he got up and went to investigate. What he unmasked
shocked him; it was Umbra. Upon seeing Umbra casting spells and commanding a big swirling
cauldron, he fled in terror and stole one of her spellbooks and ran through the night. Reaching his cottage that Umbra wasn't aware of, he ran inside. Being multilingual, Mordecai was able to read the text in the spellbook and started concocting a potion that would keep witches at bay if one were to ever come to his home, the said witch being Umbra. He got the potion ready and bordered his land with the liquid, waiting anxiously for Umbra to arrive. Making another potion that would erase the effects of the other potion in case of sheer emergency, he hid it away in his bedroom, under the floor matts.
Walking back into the clearing, upon finding her apprentices sleeping bag unoccupied, Umbra traced him to his home and called for him, walking onto his land. With the potion having been put down, it served as a barrier and Umbra was thrown off of her feet. Flabbergasted, she stood up and called for him again. At last, he appeared out of his doorway and told her that he knew what she was. Feeling betrayed and heartbroken, she apologized for lying and willed him to believe her. Relentless, he threatened to have her brought in front of the High Council of his town and tried for witchcraft. Now, being driven by anger and sadness, Umbra cast a spell that
sent his home into ruins. The house coming down, her apprentice retreated into his home to retrieve the potion but was crushed under a collapsed crossbeam and perished, and his body was never found. Overwhelmed by so many emotions, Umbra heard her apprentice's cry in pain and
tried again to cross into his house. Unsuccessful, she didn't hear any more sounds and accepted the inevitable. Using her magic, she created a bigger, more rapid river and swept the home's debris and decay into it. Not being able to remove the watermill, she let her emotions channel into a fully-fledged curse. Black mass, like a living nightmare, swept across her side of the border, swamping everything in it's path. What it left behind was not the same as it once was. The forest began to change; trees' bark darkened and withered, the leaves turned a charcoal black and animals became living shadows.
Umbra returned to her camp and built a small cottage resembling her apprentice's and started living there. She cried and sobbed for days on end. Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, years went by until eventually, Umbra had cried all her possible tears. Reverting to
anger, she decided to seek out the potion she knew he had made, thanks to her magic, and sent the animals of her forest after it, because they, and only they, could cross the barrier. The forest was now a threat to everyone in it. Not only did the trees reach out at you when you passed, but they also moaned and howled in the wind on their freewill. But the trees and plants are nothing compared to the Silhouettes. Silhouettes were terrible beasts of living shadows that preyed on anything they saw fit, sucking all the light from within their bodily forms. And so Umbra continued to search for the potion using her Silhouettes, and hoped that one day, she could finally escape her forest prison known as the Twilight Woods and take revenge whatever way she thought possible.

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Okay, the reason why I didn't post this before is because I'm already going to be posting it when I start the book its made for so I thought 'why put it on here when I'll just do it later?' But then I thought it could serve as a sneak peak for my book I plan on making. So here you go, my first short story that's also a sneak peak for my upcoming book. Hope you enjoy it! :D
Edit: So this book is out and about now, so if you would like to learn more about this universe, then consider checking out my story 'From Dusk to Dawn' in my stories section!