Twisted: A Rapunzel Story

Velma's Past Part 2

As Velma quickly flashed her eyes up to the face belonging to the leg, she took in the goddess-like beauty of her brother's killer, Amara of the Vixens.
Bearing white colors, she couldn't hide that she herself was a witch. I indirectly killed by big brother, Velma thought. If only I had been inside, or better at cartwheels...
She stood there, gaping at the Vixen. She couldn't hold a train of thought. When Amara lifted her hands, Velma didn't react. In fact, somewhere in her subconscious, she felt her punishment would to be to die with her brother. Of course, that wasn't really the reason she stood there, she was still shocked from the gruesome murder that she had just seen.
Velma didn't even blink as roaring heat poured from Amara's third finger and rushed towards her face. She glanced longingly at her brother's body, wishing to meet him in Heaven, if she'd even make it in for indirect murder.
Finally she closed her eyes, not wanting to see any injuries that were happening on her own body.
Velma felt heat. A lot of it. But it wasn't in flickering, snaking flames as she'd imagined. It was hard to describe... Like a boiling mist, she decided on. But that didn't make sense, it was coming right for her. To make sense of it, she opened her eyes.
Velma was immediately picked up bridal-style by none other than the leader of her witch coven: Gretel, her mother. The misty feeling was water. She was saved by her mother.
But she was too late for Augustus.
As Gretel ran away from her opponent, she held her daughter with her left arm. Velma's back was laid in the crook of her elbow and Gretel's hand was holding up the back of her knees. With her right, she pointed her fore and third finger at the ground, in a circle motion. She concentrated and made a leafy, but sturdy, staircase. She ran up the stairs and leaped into the tower.
Gretel set her near comatose daughter down on a chair. She whipped around, only to see Amara already at the window.
"So, Sister, you've come at last." Gretel growled at the purple clothed witch.
"I haven't seen you for a decade and this is the greeting you give me. Tsk, tsk, little sister." Amara scolded her sister.
As Velma drunkenly stared at them, it almost made sense. Her mother was blonde and wore white, and Amara looked like her, but with black hair and purple clothing.
And of course, they both had the solid black eyes, as every witch coven leader has. They give up their eyesight for better understanding and hearing of the elements.
Gretel snarled and launched herself at Amara. They tumbled down the green stairs, until a hand reached out of the sphere of sisters. The hand pointed two fingers down at the ground, then pointing three fingers under the leaf it was growing and curled upwards. The leaf skyrocketed towards them, picking the bundle up and lifting them sky high.
The sisters untangled themselves and stood on opposite ends of the leaf.
Amara glanced menacingly at Gretel and lifted her right arm upwards. She held up only three fingers and swirled.
Gretel saw what she was doing and tried to stop her by holding up four fingers for manipulation magic (AKA The Force). It wasn't hard to focus on her sister and throw her off the leaf.
Of course, her sister wasn't that dumb. She held up her left hand, pointed at Gretel's casting hand. Amara also held up her four fingers. She manipulated the casting hand first to stead her fall, then to slowly glide her back up onto the leaf. All the while Amara was still swirling the clouds above them.
Gretel finally broke free of the manipulation magic and stumbled backwards, almost off the leaf. She caught herself and stepped further away from the edge.
Amara used her now freed left hand to separate the dust from the earth below. As it separated, she lifted it into the clouds, mixing it into the concoction of her own design.
Still not ready to give up without a fight, Gretel took advantage of Amara's distraction and pointed her lone third finger at the leaf under her sister's feet. At least, that's what she meant to do. Gretel hadn't realized that her hands were bound in dust, the very same that had been under her sister's command.
Satisfied with the mixture she made, Amara used her left hand to shoot sparks into the atmosphere. It was quite eerie from Velma's perch on the windowsill: Amara with her hair and clothes splayed out behind her, an orange beam of friction that was sky bound, and the contrasting dark greenish-black that surrounded her and the beam like an aura.
While Amara's attention was elsewhere, Gretel was able to free herself of the earthen handcuffs she had been put in. Deciding it was already too late for herself, Gretel used three fingers to push her daughter inside the tower and close the windowpanes. She then came up with her other hand bearing two pointed fingers and used the last her her strength to completely cover the entire tower in über thick leaves and vines.
Velma didn't believe it. She had watched her brother die at the hands of her mother's SISTER, and now her mother was facing off against her in a battle to the death. Her mother, who taught her all she knew, is losing ground against this purple witch. I don't believe it, Velma told herself, Maybe if I fall asleep it will all be a dream. Yes... All a dream...
Meanwhile outside, Gretel still wasn't going to give up. While she had no hope for her own life, she still could save her daughter's by minimizing the damage. She didn't have much strength left, but she had to try. Gretel attempted separating the elements that were being wielded by her sister with four fingers on each prying hand. She successfully separated most of the dust from the clouds, but it was of no use. The dust that was still in place was enough for lightning to hook onto, and Amara sure was holding it in with an iron grip.
Gretel allowed the dust to fall to the ground in a big POOF. She then tried a different approach. If she could only hook onto the water in the cloud, then the whole plan would fail. Gretel singled out the water element in the air, tugging it slowly out of Amara's grasp.
Amara used her right hand more forcefully now, whipping everything into a bigger whirlwind, enclosing the waters from the clouds back into the vortex. Finally she saw what she had been waiting for: faint flashes from the clouds. The lightning recipe was done.
Releasing her left hand from the third-finger fire position to the four finger combo to single out the lightning was done in an instant, almost too fast for her sister to see. So as not to lose the precious weapon she had in her possession, Amara hastily whipped the lightning towards Gretel.
While Amara's attention was directed elsewhere, Gretel made a giant leaf, this time translucent, between the massive cloud and herself. This was made with both green and clear magic.
The lightning struck the leaf with such force, it was hardly even slowed down. Even so, Gretel resisted. She strengthened the leaf with others using her right arm and held back the leaf-shield with wind.
It was a power of wills: Amara desperately wanted to murder her sister, but at the same time Gretel knew she had to stick around for her daughter.
The leaf painfully inched towards Gretel. She could feel the fast-approaching heat. It hurt her face and singed her clothes. The leaf came within five feet of her. Gretel started to back up, wary of the base leaf's rounded and close edge.
As her arms pressed against the burning, rubbery leaf, her feet were slipping off the edge and her arms were being burnt through. The inferno was already to her forearm's bones. She gritted her teeth and held on with her fingers dug into the leaf, those burning down to the bone as well.
Just as Gretel was saying her prayers, they were interrupted by...

Find out in Part 3! (Again, I thought it was too long to fit into just these two parts. And this part is rather climatic. Hope you enjoyed this chappy, I'll be posting again soon!)