Entwined: A Tale of Two Souls

Chapter 2: Legends are Histories in Hiding

Long, long ago...

Before the creation of the 3 kindoms...

Before witches used grimoires...

Before animal and man shared one soul...

     There was a young girl with blood red hair who lived with her family in Mal the lost city of witches. It was the eve of her 13th birthday a time when all witches and warlocks shed their temperamental powers in return for control over one element - earth, water, fire, air, or space.

     No one knows the girls true name, because for witches names hold tremendous power over them, but she went by the name of Selene after the moon. She loved stargazing and would spend every night in her favorite field of wild flowers, under the stars, basking in the moon's glow.

This night was no different.

Yet it was.

     Instead of the pale yellow glow she adored she found herself staring at a harsh red, the same hue as her hair.

     She was awestruck by it's beauty, yet she couldn't shake the feeling of dread that overcame her. Her family was there with her in the field, as they were most nights, and had a look of horror on their faces.

Her mother began crying.

Her father suddenly embraced her.

And her older brother seemed to be frozen in shock - his eyes glued to hers.

"What's wrong?" the girl asked.

But they never got to answer.

     As soon as the clock struck midnight her powers revealed themselves in a viscous whirlwind of lightning and space. Fire engulfed the field, rain started falling, and the ground began to shake.

When the girl came to, she was covered in blood.

     She looked down at her hands, then at her mother's body, then her brother's, then finally her father's limp body in her arms.

"W-what have I done?!" she sobbed.

"selene..." her father rasped.

"Daddy you're alive! I don't know what to do h-how do I fix this, I'm so sorry..." she cried, "I can't control it!"

"You must leave...hurry...you have already attracted unwanted attention" he warned as he coughed up blood.

"NO I'm not leaving all of you I-I have to go get a healer you can't leave me...please..." she bawled, but deep down she knew the damage that had been done was irreversible.

"...there's no point you know that...now go...don't let that coven get you...we love you tiger, don't forget that..." and with one final breath, he was gone.

Selene cried and cried hating herself and her powers for what had just occurred, but fate was cruel and this was necessary.

The gods watched her with pity but did not interfere.

This was necessary.

Once her tears were dry, and her family was properly buried, she stood up and ran home. She packed as many things as she could into a satchel and set off into the forest.

---

By the 3rd week she had run out of food.

Selene didn't know where she was headed, but knew she was being followed - no she was being hunted.
Her tracks were expertly covered, she had made sure of it, yet she couldn't get rid of the feeling of being watched. It made her skin crawl.