Christabel's guide to necromancy and world domination

Why do the trees hate me?

The first thing I noticed was that I was not dead. That was good. That was so good I was going to start crying.

The second thing I noticed was that I was floating in the air. That was... less good, but still better than the alternative. The alternative was of course being splattered on the ground because a bunch of magical creatures were not able to figure out a test to detect dark magic that was not "throw them off a tree and check if our wonderful protective magic catches them or not". Speaking of which, I was almost sure that it should not have worked on me, because of the whole "accidentally biting undead elves, accidentally getting their magic inside me (it still sounded disgusting) and then accidentally raising undead dwarves" thing. Yeah, my life was just full of weird accidents lately.

The third thing I noticed, when I finally found the strength to open my eyes, was that I was not in the same forest anymore. No green leaves, sweet smell of flowers, swarms of rainbow fairies chirping merrily in the sky, or fluffy talking animals. Which was good, because I had half an idea to kill them all for throwing me off a tree to my death. Which did not happen, but still.

I was still surrounded by trees, but they were blackened and wizened, and the only thing I could hear was my breath. There was a faint smell of ashes, and something else I could not recognize. I tried to twist, but I could not move, I was suspended in the air like I was floating in a swimming pool.

A nice, warm swimming pool, mind you. A swimming pool filled with bubble juice, popping and frizzing on my skin, while somebody was blasting great music in the background.

Wait a moment...

I realized that was exactly how I had felt when I was trapped on a stone slab and going to be sacrificed by undead elves, a few days earlier. Which was probably... no, scratch that, it was obviously not a good sign. At least this time I was not blathering mysterious words in an unknown language. I thought about biting my tongue very hard just to be sure, but before I could decide if it was a dumb idea or not, a figure appeared in front of me. Well, more like walked out from behind a tree. The figure was wearing a long dark mantle, with a hood covering their head, and holding a simple wooden staff. Something about that looked very familiar.

The figure lowered the hood, revealing long red hair and a very pale face. She was beautiful, like a supermodel or an actress. Or she would be, if she were not quite obviously dead. She was also, quite obviously, an elf.

I gulped, or at least tried to. Beings suspended in the air, my body in a weird diagonal position, made it difficult. If it were not for the warm fuzzy feeling washing all over me, I would probably be panicking already. I tried to smile, though it may have looked more like a grimace:

" Hi, I'm stuck. Could you help me down, please?"

I know, not the best introduction ever, but what did I have to lose? The elf did not answer, but she took a few steps towards me, her dark green eyes staring at me, her lips tightened in a worried expression. I was not even sure if she could understand me... everybody had been talking my language so far, thank you lazy standard mono-linguistic setting, but the elves that had tried to sacrifice me a few days earlier had not.

The woman held a hand up, and I tensed. She just kept it in front of my face for a second. I could see a mark on it, some kind of scar. It looked like a bite mark.

Whooops.

" Listen, I'm sorry for the whole biting you and making you crumble to dust thing, okay? I did not know it would happen. But you look fine now, so please don't kill me, I am not going to come back to life... or whatever if you do, okay?", I explained frantically. On the bright side, the jolt of fear had almost dispelled the weird feeling in my head. On the not so bright side, I was sure I was going to die, this time for sure.

And then the elf's fingers touched my cheek, and a shock-wave of energy sent both me and her crashing down against the trees behind us.

Yes. I know. At least one of you is going to say you guessed it. Congratulations. You sadist.

My head was ringing with pain and dizziness, and my back was aching. I crumbled down on the ground, surrounded by dead leaves and pieces of wood, and I tried to get back on my feet. Tried being the keyword, I just managed to get on my elbows and knees before I had to fight down nausea. Really, there is only so many times a girl can crash on the ground in a day before throwing up. Which I most definitely wanted to avoid, just in case I had still dark magic inside me and my vomit would accidentally unleash some other undead creatures. I had got lucky with the dwarves, but I did not think everything was going to be that friendly.

" Ouch. That hurt.", complained a voice, next to me. I lifted my gaze from the ground to see the elf from before standing up. The mantle had moved, revealing brown trousers and a green shirt under it, though they looked quite torn and full of scratches. She managed to make the standing up look a gracious, effortless movement. She reminded me of an old classmate who did artistic gymnastics: nobody ever wanted to pair up with her in gym classes.

" How did you do that?", she asked, staring at me. That was a very good question, indeed.

" It's complicated.", I groaned, trying and failing again at standing up myself. I settled for sitting down, my back to the tree. I took a few deep breaths and added: " Magic, basically."

It wanted to be humor, really. Something to make the atmosphere less tense, and to keep me from panicking. Of course, it looked like she took it seriously, since she immediately grabbed her staff from where it had fallen, and slid in a defensive crouch. Always with effortless grace, of course. I did not want to have gym classes with this girl, either.

" Are you a sorceress? Why did you come to this forest?"

I tried answering, but there was no time for that. The woman kept talking:

" Of course you are, that's how you stopped the ritual in the first place, isn't it? You must be incredibly powerful to know how to do that. And to be able to restore my mind, after all this time... of course, of course, I spent days thinking about how it was possible, but it's all so clear now."

I was glad she thought things were clear, because she would have to explain them to me later. In easy, little sentences.

" I was still there, you know, my body had been destroyed but I could still see it. You knew our ritual, though that magic should have been unknown to anyone else, you knew every single word the High Wizard was going to say."

More like randomly parroted it to be annoying, but I had to admit, I was curious to hear her conclusions.

" You wanted that creature to come. And when it arrived, you bonded it to yourself with your powers, that is why it did not kill you and instead it took you away. And you destroyed us all so we could not interfere with your plans, of course!"

Too many of course. Also, too much consideration. If she kept on like that, I would start thinking I really had awesome magical powers and a plan more complex than surviving.

" Are you...", she stopped for a second, her expression torn between different emotions, and then she asked again, in a little voice:" Are you here to destroy the darkness, or to use it?"

Wasn't there a third option? Something like "I have no idea what you are talking about?"

Before I could ask that, there was a movement behind me. I yelped and threw myself on a side, rolling on the ground, just in time to avoid the branch that was swinging where I had just been.

" The trees! They are awake!", shouted the elf, jumping back. Her staff made impact on another branch, sending it back, but more and more of them were moving, and roots were emerging from the ground.

A jolt of adrenaline helped me jump on my feet, narrowly avoiding a root that was going to grip my ankle. I crouched to avoid a branch coming for my head, and then jumped back again, roots erupting from the ground where I was standing.

**

Oooops... another chapter, another cliffhanger. Christabel would probably kill me if she could. I would really like to know what you think about the story so far, so please comment or vote ^_^ Also, English is not my first language, so if you notice any mistake please tell me, I will be more than happy to fix them ^_^