The Witches' War : The Five Warriors

Chapter 20

Adalinne's POV

"Adalinne... Adalinne... " I heard faint voices of someone calling me.

A rather familiar sweet voice.

I slowly opened my eyes and to my surprise, I am currently laying down on the soft and tall grass.

I am no longer falling. I don't know how I got here. I don't even know where is here.

I sat up and looked around me. I don't know how to actually describe my surroundings, but it is very breathtaking. Magical to be precise.

The sky is constantly changing colours, flower petals flew down from the sky and the grass field expands as far as my eyes can see.

A very peculiar yet rather calming scenery.

Maybe I'm already dead for all that I know. There's nothing that I could do here. I'm totally lost in the middle of nowhere.

I stood up and tried to search for somewhere that I could go to. Somewhere where I can at least know where I am.

I gave up in searching after hours of walking through the field. I figured that I should try to only rely on my senses. I closed my eyes and once again, I could hear the faint voice calling my name.

I walked and walked closer to where I could hear the voice. I opened my eyes, and saw a cottage... Again...

Why can't I escape from this maze that keeps leading me to this cottage!

However, this cottage is nothing close to what I've seen before. It's small, beautiful and looks quite new. There's a river flowing at its right side with a wooden bridge that leads to a small hut.

I closed my eyes again, and I could hear laughter. Children's laughter as they ran across the field. However, it abruptly stops with a dreadful scream. I heard slashing, screaming and something inhuman roaring.

Terrified of the sound, I opened my eyes. Suddenly, the cottage I've seen before twists and turns until it disappeared from my vision. My surroundings became blurry and the ground I'm standing on collapsed down.

As before, I fell down into the darkness again. Desperate to grab hold of something, I swayed my hands back and forth while I'm spinning around.

To my surprise, I managed to hold something. It feels like a branch of a tree. The darkness slowly disappeared and I could see my surroundings again. I'm currently hanging on a tree with a long way down to the ground. Several metres away from me is a lady sitting on a bench.

I squinted my eyes to get a better look of the lady's figure. I might've seen wrongly, or is it really who I think she is?

Just when my brain is about to process what I'm seeing, the branch snaps and I fell onto the hard ground.

The lady seemed to hear me screamed and came running towards me. I was busy picking myself up that I've forgotten about the lady.

"Adalinne? What are you doing here!?"

I looked up to face her and my tears start to fell uncontrollably. I jumped towards her to hug her. However, I went straight through her body and fell to the ground again.

"Ouch... Aunt Ana? Is that really you?" I asked.

"Oh, Adalinne... Did Serafine sent you here?" Aunt Ana sat down in front of me.

When I looked closer at her, I noticed that her body is fading.

"Aunt Ana!? What happened to you? Did Serafine do this to you?" I asked.

"No, Adal... There's something that I should tell you..." she stuttered.

"What is it Aunt Ana? Please hurry! You're fading!!"

"Adalinne... I was never real... I'm just an illusion, created by Queen Celestine Laricienne... The good witch. I was created using the last bits of her magic to save and raise the five of you... When the time came for you girls to fulfil your destiny, my duty in this world is done. I died several years before I met the five of you. It's about time for me to leave for good." Aunt Ana stated.

I was speechless. It just didn't make sense! We were raised by a living corpse?

"No.. No... That can't be true! You're real!! You were always there for us! Please don't leave now.. You promised that you'll always be there for us!" I cried.

"I'm sorry, Adalinne... There's nothing that I could do... If I don't leave now, the witch couldn't appear. My entire body is dragging the magic out of her. You need to save the kingdom! You can't do it without her! Please, Adalinne... I love all five of you! I shall always cherish the memories we've made together... Tell the others that I said goodbye and I love them so much... Don't forget me okay?" Aunt Ana smiled as she turned into glittering dusts, that flew towards the sky.

"No!! Aunt Ana!!" I screamed my lungs out as I tried to catch her.

Suddenly, I felt a light touch on my shoulder. I looked behind me and saw a lady.

She looks really pretty. I start to recognise her features. Turquoise eyes, silky black hair, long green dress and emerald stones. The two witches look very identical. It's hard to differentiate them. However, her face seems to look more pure and white than the evil witch.

"Queen Celestine Laricienne?" I asked.

She nodded and gave me a heartwarming smile.

To be honest, I wanted to punch her in the face and asked her why she did all of this, why she disappeared when the kingdom needs her help. But her innocent look restrained me from hurting her. I might be under some sort of spell or something.

"Adalinne, I'm sure that you have thousands of questions crossing through your head right now. You may ask me anything. Don't worry, the time here is unlike the normal world. It goes much more faster. Which means, we'll have one whole day for you to prepare yourself." she smiled.

With a snap of her fingers, I'm currently sitting on a soft leather sofa in a small room. She sat next to me and handed me a cup of coffee.

Well, this is quite a convenient way to prepare for war.

"Now, let me tell you a bit about this place. You are currently in my hometown. People call it with many names. But its better to just call this place 'Magical Land'. This land was once filled with wizards and witches like Serafine and I. Its the most beautiful land." Celestine smiled.

"What happened to it?" I asked.

"One day, an evil monster invaded our land and killed everyone except for the two of us. We managed to escape to Earth. The monster followed us but it disappeared after reaching Earth." Celestine stated.

"I locked Serafine here because her dark magic is the weakest in this land. After I chose King Lais to replace me, I went back here. And to my surprise, Serafine learned to adapt with her surroundings. She became stronger and managed to stop me from going back. She forced me to watch my people suffer. That's when I saw you... Trying to save your mother. I had to do something... So, I created Anabel's illusion. It's the only magic I could use without Serafine noticing it." Celestine continued.

"But why? Why an illusion? Why only save the five of us?" I cried.

"Adalinne, I would save all of my people if I could! But I could only create Anabel's illusion to save the five of you. I'm truly sorry that you had such little time with her. But I couldn't hold her here much longer." she stated.

I was still unable to comprehend all the things she had just said. It all seemed... impossible.

"So, what now? If Serafine had become stronger, how can we stop her?" I asked.