Prologue

A child was happily picking flowers for her mother in the forest. She chose blue and pink ones, her favourite colours. Her mother really loved flowers, but couldn't afford to plant any in her small garden. The entire area had to be occupied with eatable vegetables and herbs so that they wouldn't have to starve. But the forest was full of flowers. The girl hadn't listened to why she was not allowed to go too far into the forest. She had heard the stories for too long to care.

Everybody said the same thing; "If you go too far into the forest, the witch will take you. No one knows what terrible things she could do to you."

So what? She had lived in that village all of her twelve years of living, and she had never seen anything in this forest that could be named as dangerous. But all the grownups continued to tell the scary stories about the witch living in the forest, surrounded by demons. According to the elder, the only one who seemed to have ever seen the witch, she had violet eyes and golden hair, looking like a devil sprung from the worst of nightmares.

Suddenly, she heard someone singing. Curious, the girl walked closer to the sound. As she looked between the trees she spotted a broad river with a high cliff leading straight down into the water on the other side. But on this side of the river there sat someone with their legs in the water. She stopped to listen.

No matter who I am

I'm struggling to live

I sail the endless sea that promise me my death

I wish that I was far away

Out of reach for you

A bird glided down and sat on the person's shoulder, soon before the person turned towards her.

The girl gasped as she stared into magnificent purple eyes. The long face was framed with a hair of gold. The person looked bored as the deep eyes scanned her, the gaze so intense she couldn't even more. The stories about the witch of the forest came crashing down on her with full force. All the stories of strong men who had walked into the witch's territory, but never returned, only a few of their belongings, probably dropped, was found after them.

A fish jumped right in front of the witch. A spear shoot out, hitting the poor fish dead on, and it joined a bunch of other, unlucky fishes on the spear.

The girl didn't watch any more. As soon as the witch turned her gaze away and started to move, she regained her ability to move and rushed straight back to the village.

The person on the riverbank stood, brushing off their cloths with one hand, firmly gripping the fish-filled spear with the other, before they started to walk along the shoreline towards a small hut that stood in safety in the shadows of a weeping willow. But stopped at the sight of another person standing there.

"Piss off. I have no business with you."

The yokai turned around at the sound of a voice. "Hey, lookit this bombshell. Ye live here Blondie?"

"Go to hell. Are you eager to die? I can help you with that."

The yokai hissed between his teeth. "Don't you fuck talk like that to me!"

Those were the yokai's last words. The witch's spear sliced his throat open, and a kick to his jaw from below finished breaking his neck. The witch looked at the fishes.

"Humph. You just ruined my dinner."