"Out of my way!"
One hand pressed the top of her witch hat in place as it flapped against the wind while the other glued itself to the wooden shaft of her broom. Her uniform shifted and ruffled from the air resistance as she whizzed past unsuspecting kids and pedestrians, blowing up paper, small items, and a number of unlucky girl's skirts and dresses as she flew by them at breakneck speed.
She felt like a pervert and a vandal causing so much trouble and mayhem but she didn't have the time to reflect on her actions. Not when it was practically a necessity to fly past them right now. Besides, it's not her fault they decided to wear dresses in the street where she had tofly through.
'You should have worn something else then!' She yelled in her mind as yet another girl somewhere behind her screamed in embarrassment from having her skirt blown against the wind caused by her speeding. Let it be known that Hannah England was not a pervert, or a lesbian. She was not into that and didn't enjoy such fiendish acts, she was just in a hurry.
She had to fly like a lunatic, because anything less than flying like a madwoman would not cut it. Those poor girls were just caught in the crossfire, collateral damage so to speak.
"Move it!" She warned the upcoming pedestrians of the speeding missile that she was. Panicked yelps and shouts followed after her as well as some not so kind insults, but she didn't care. She had bigger problems swarming her head.
'I hope I'm not too late. Barbara is probably still waiting for me, but she won't wait forever. Damn, of all the days I could have overslept why did it have to be today!' Bad enough that she doesn't normally sleep past her alarm, but she just so happened to do it on the day of her enrollment in Luna Nova? That was a load of horse dung!
A big, stupid, gigantic, steaming pile of manure. She ground her teeth so hard she thought they might crack. Words could not describe...
Hannah scowled darkly as she gripped extra hard on her broom, taking out all her frustrations on the wooden cleaning tool as if to choke the nonexistent life out of it. So. Freaking. Stupid!
It was just so freaking convenient how the one day she oversleeps in what seemed like a decade was the day where it actually mattered. Not yesterday where she didn't have matriculation, not tomorrow where she would already be matriculated in Luna Nova. No, it had to be today. The day where being late could actually get her permanently expelled. How mysteriously convenient. Like, what are the odds!
A demonic growl crept up her throat as she thought how astronomically unlikely the chances had to be. Literally one in a freaking million, but against all odds it happened.
'Thank you, universe, for screwing me over. You've been added to the list.'
She wanted to smack her broom over and over until it broke and splintered just for the catharsis she would feel from just...hitting something. She had half a mind to pull out her wand and start blasting 'Murowa' everywhere around her, unleashing her fury as a torrent of spells and destruction.
That will teach the universe for messing with her.
The red head witch broke out of the streets into the fields and outskirts, flying up in the air to check out her destination. The leyline was just up ahead, she just might barely make it.
There was no sign of Barbara anywhere. Not on the leyline, not on the leyline terminal, not on Glastonbury Tor, not on the leyline terminal building, nor by the broom stop sign they agreed to meet up by.
'She must have left already, which can only speak volumes about how late I am. We did agree to meet up here, but we also agreed that one of us would go ahead if the other was running late. I was just unfortunate enough for it to be me.' Hannah knew for a fact that Barbara must have waited to the absolute last second, but Hannah was just too late. Barbara's loyalty wasn't in question, they were best friends after all, she wouldn't fault her friend for leaving her behind.
After all, they had agreed that 'If one of us is going to be late then that shouldn't mean the other should be as well. If a student can't show up on time then they don't deserve to be witches.'
That was their exact words.
Hannah picked her head up, fire burned in her eyes as she flew even faster. She wasn't going to be late, she wasn't going to let Barbara down. She was Hannah England, and she's good enough to be a witch! It would take more than that to stop her from becoming one, especially not something stupid like a time limit.
'I'm coming, Barbara. I'll make it there, and we'll laugh and have a good time and tease you for even worrying about me not making it.'
Her body sunk closer to her broom, trying to become a straight line to lessen air resistance as she zipped through.
Hannah flew into Glastonbury Tor, pulled her broom upwards and dashed straight up as the access portal for the Leyline opened up.
The red haired witch zoomed straight in. She closed her eyes and smiled as the light from the portal slowly converged around her. 'I'll be there, Barbara.'
The light engulfed her entire body as she went straight through.
'Wait for me.'
/ - /
"No no no no no!" Her body clung tightly to her broom as the leyline rumbled and shook violently. Another tremor had her swaying dangerously from her broom, her arms and legs straddled and wrapped themselves around the wooden shaft, hanging on for dear life.
"Wha—What's happening? Why is the leyline acting weird—Ah!" Another tremble, another attempt to become one with her broom.
She was at the leyline's mercy. All she could do was hang on and hope she literally rides this out and not fall off course before arriving at her destination.
The tremors progressively escalated, becoming worse by the second. She clutched her broom like a baby, too frightened to even open her eyes. She didn't want to get lost in the leylines, she didn't know what happens to witches that lost control while still under transit. Did they get thrown somewhere? Did they die? Did they fall to their deaths? Or worse, did they just keep falling in this endless abyss of white and green?
She shuddered just thinking about it. The fact that her fate might very well tie into the unknown answer shook her worse than the tremors around her.
It was becoming worse. The leyline was not calming down and now felt like there was an earthquake happening in it. Her broom was being thrown back and forth wildly with her still on it. It was being thrashed around until one wild thrashing flung her too strongly for a chance to stabilize.
A sound between a terrified scream and a whimper escaped her as she felt herself being hurled violently. It felt like one of those dangerous looking carnival rides she would never have the stomach to try out. It was all she could do to hold on to her broom like a lifeline and bracing herself for whatever comes next.
A strong blast of wind suddenly sailed past her ears, she felt the temperature drop ten degrees as the wind chilled her body. Two signs that her environment changed. She must have been expelled from the leyline.
And was now hundreds of meters in the sky apparently. Her eyes peeked open to see her surroundings.
She was falling from the sky over some kind of large forest. Most of the trees were gray and dead looking, as if they were stuck in a perpetual winter. Not the most ideal place to be violently thrust into, but it's definitely not the worst.
It's leagues better than being thrown in the middle of a vast expansive ocean at least.
Hannah spread her arms and legs out, still holding her broom in one hand. She felt herself slow down due to spreading her body out and increasing air resistance. The red head placed her broom under as her legs wrapped themselves around.
It would not do for her to be afraid or panic in this situation. She was not scared of heights, more specifically, she had to learn not to be scared of heights. Since witches practically had to fly high up in the air basically sitting on wooden sticks.
Yeah. Not the most secure method to fly. You had to get used to the dizzying vertigo at some point.
"Tia Freyre!" The broom whistled to life, her confidence shooting up as she regained control.
And then quickly lost it again as her broom died.
The red haired witch cast the spell again and again as she plummeted. Every time she cast the spell the broom would come to life for a brief moment before dying again.
The ground was getting closer and closer and she still hadn't slowed her descent enough for a safe landing.
"Tia Freyre!" She cast the spell once more, this time twisting her broom diagonally to make it so she fell in an angle. That was the best thing she could do right now to slow her fall. If her broom couldn't stay alive long enough to float her down, then using the brief flashes of life to make her fall more horizontal instead of vertical was her best bet.
Hannah shouted the spell one last time as she raced above the canopy of the forest. She was gliding past the trees now instead of falling straight down, but she was still moving way too fast. She was low enough to start hitting branches and trees at any moment. This was going to be a really rough landing.
'This is going to suck!'
Hannah ducked her head and covered it with one arm as she braced for impact.
Thin branches and leaves scratched her skin as her body crashed through the dense trees. The unlucky witch kept her head down, her eyes shut, and held an arm over her head and face as a shield. She was not going to let some random sharp branch to poke one of her eyes out!
She felt sharp tugs on her tunic and uniform jacket as some twigs and branches got caught in her clothes. Her momentum was still too fast and too strong to get tangled however and just ripped off any twigs that got stuck on her uniform.
A particularly large branch got caught on her elbow, flipping her forward as another thick branch caught her by the stomach.
A visceral sound escaped her lips as she felt whatever air in her lungs be forcefully expelled out her mouth. Her body tumbled among the litany of branches and trunks until she slammed against a large tree, hitting the back of her head and ricocheting off the bark like a speeding bullet.
The last thing she saw was her flying towards the ground like a meteor before everything went black.
/ - /
"Mmmhh uugh." Her eyes cracked open, seeing a bunch of trees and broken tree branches.
Where was she? What happened-? The memory from before came back all at once. 'Oh yeah. I crash landed in this weirdo forest.'
She wiggled her fingers and toes experimentally. If even one of the four appendages wouldn't move then something was broken.
Luckily for her, every single finger and toe moved as commanded. Hannah breathed a sigh of relief. Good. She didn't have to deal with any pain or serious injuries and wouldn't have to go around administering to herself what little first aid she knew.
The redhead slowly pushed herself up, groaning as every cell in her body protested the movement. Her muscles ached and her head throbbed. It felt like she got beat by a wooden bat over and over again like some kind of Hannah shaped pinata.
Her hand hovered the tender spot on the back of her head. Was she having a concussion? She didn't know. It just hurt really bad and her head throbbed and pulsated as if it grew a second heart.
She massaged her temple. The rolling headache wasn't helping either. What she wouldn't do for some pain killers right now. She wished she was advanced enough in her healing magic to fix this mess. She was only good enough to heal mediocre injuries like cuts and burns. Not blunt force trauma.
Especially not blunt force trauma to the head.
Hannah shakily pushed herself off her knees, feeling every single scrape and scratch on her knees and elbows and wherever else. Her body must have skidded across the rough ground when she landed, evidenced by the impact crater streak she just rose out off.
Just looking at the damage done to the ground made her wince, good grief. How had she not died?
Hannah dusted herself off, picking up a discarded branch and snapping it in half to use as a walking stick. She actually had to lean on it like an old man.
"Oh man if Barbara could see me now. I'd never hear the end of it. Guess that's one good thing about being stranded in some dead forest, no one to witness how stupid I must look."
A few squirrels raced up one of the trees and stared at her. Their big eyes and their little cheeks twitching and moving around like all rodents do. Was this the universe's way of mocking her? Telling her that something was currently seeing her predicament?
"What are you looking at?" She barked at the rodents. A few chipmunks came out of their little holes just for the expressed reason to stare and gawk at her some more, a few going over and investigating the smoking crater she left behind.
A vein throbbed in her already throbbing head at being treated like a display item by a bunch of animals. She waved her cane at them. "Young punks! Get off my lawn!"
She shooed and ushered them away with her stick. Menacingly.
An extremely sharp pain shot out the back of her head as she turned her neck. It hurt so bad that the shock of such blinding pain actually silenced her. She fell on her hands and knees and just stayed there until the pain went away.
She must have pinched a nerve on the back of her head or suffered severe whiplash from turning her head too suddenly. She hated when that happened.
A sigh escaped her. "What am I doing?" She needed to get out of here pronto. Not play around with forest critters. She had no basic survival skills and she's stuck in some kind of wilderness. If only she knew where she was, she would be able to tell which direction that would at least lead her to civilization.
Her eyes tracked the sky.
Judging from the position of the sun she was able to deduce which direction led where. It was morning time when she was thrown out of the leyline to make it to her school, and since it's not dark yet, it's safe to assume she hasn't been unconscious for very long because the sun was nowhere near setting.
Unless you were willing to tell her that she has been asleep for an entire day, being unconscious from eight in the morning to eight in the evening and then waking up at eight in the morning of the next day. She must have hit her head really hard if that were the case. Being out cold for an entire day. That would make it a coma.
"So the direction where the sun is closest would be the sunrise. Which means that way," She pointed to her left. "Would be East."
The Redhead then pointed to the exact opposite direction, to her right. "That means the sun would set over there, making that way West."
'And then that would be North and South yada yada yada.'
Now that she knew which way she stood on the compass, knowing her cardinal directions was still inherently useless if she doesn't even have a location to base it upon.
Okay, she knows where North South East and West were...so now what? If she doesn't even know which part of the globe she was standing on, it was futile. She was thrown out by the leyline, there are leylines all over the planet. So where exactly it threw her was anyone's guess.
She could have been thrown all the way to the other side of the country for all she knows. Was she still in Glastonbury Tor? That would be a gigantic stroke of luck. Was she still in England?
Was she even in the British Isles anymore?
What if she landed in a weird country? One that didn't speak English? How would she deal with that?
Hannah cleared her throat and stood up straight. Whatever. She'll deal with that once she actually finds people to talk to.
She leered at her surroundings some more, trying to identify land forms that could at least give her a clue.
There was nothing but mountain ranges on the horizon. She was going to have to actually go to those mountains to see the other side. It was going to be such a long walk but it beats hanging around here all day.
'It would be so much better if I still had my broom. I could just fly out of here.' Wouldn't that be super convenient? Unfortunately she lost her broom when she was tumbling and hitting and being thrown around the trees like a pinball. Besides, it most likely would have snapped from the rough fall anyways.
The sound of crows squawking from a distance reached her ears. She looked and saw some crows or vultures or whatever flying in circles.
There must be something down there, it was on the way so might as well check it out.
About thirty minutes of walking and twice the number of rest breaks later, and she finally arrived to the spot where she saw the birds flying in circles. The sight was a strange one.
'What in the world happened here?'
Hannah looked down at some dark spot on the ground as well as some ragged clothes laying around.
A familiar sound came from above. The sound of a leyline portal opening. Hope instantly welled inside her as she looked towards the sky. Could it be?
A leyline portal opened in the clouds and a figure on a broom came out. Some witch with blue hair and glasses, maybe, it was difficult to tell from such a distance.
Hannah laughed joyfully as she pulled out her wand and fired off a signal flare straight upwards. She was going to be saved! Oh the relief was invigorating and a welcome feeling to experience.
The red haired witch looked back at the discarded clothing. "Well, I don't know who these belong to, but I hope you travel safely and make it out of here." It never hurt to spread some good will to others, she was in a good mood.
Hannah brought her eyes back towards the leyline, waving excitedly at her savior as the witch flew to retrieve her.
"Ahaha well thanks. That's nice of you to say, but that's going to be hard what with me being dead and all." A Girl's voice said from somewhere behind her.
Eh?
A small figure emerged from the undergrowth. It was a girl with her hair tied in a small pony tail, but that wasn't what caught her attention.
It was her clothes. She looked and dressed like a tourist, a complete foreigner. The jacket she was wearing was exactly the same as the one she saw on the ground. The one still lying on the ground. It had all the rips and tears and everything.
Her body was a little transparent and was kind of blue. Hannah could only watch wide eyed as the see through girl floated from the bushes towards her.
Did that girl just say she was...dead?
So these ragged and worn down clothes were once hers? Oh dear, she felt light headed and it became difficult to keep standing.
The Tourist girl gave a small smile. "It's too late now, but still, thanks for the sentiment. Haha, I don't even know why I'm bothering to thank you. You can't see or hear me, no one can..."
The girl must have noticed Hannah's gaze never leaving her corporeal form. The girl floated smoothly back and forth, switching directions suddenly and randomly as a test.
Hannah's eyes tracked the girl's every movement.
"EH?! You can see me!" The ghost girl flew in front of her face, exclaiming excitedly about finally being noticed by someone. The sheer joy gleaming from those "dead" eyes shined bright like jewels. It was too much.
This was all a dream. It had to be.
She wasn't late, she wasn't seeing or talking to ghosts, and she certainly didn't just fall from the sky and crash like an asteroid. And Live. Nope. She was currently in her bed and snoozing comfortably back in the real world right now.
The craziness and sheer insanity of the last three or so hours as well as the shock finally caught up to her.
Hannah's eyes rolled back, her body falling limply to the ground as she felt herself slowly losing consciousness. The sight of the other girl's panicked face filled her darkening vision, her lips moving as she frantically spoke words that Hannah couldn't hear.
Hannah wasn't a superstitious person. Yes, she was a witch, but she still believed in the fundamental laws of nature in regards to the dead. People die and either stay dead or get resurrected for a short duration with magic.
This was just ridiculous.
Note:
Don't mind me, just giving best girl some love. I like Hannah, and she doesn't have a lot of stories to her name.
I'll still be working on Lucky Sharms, so if you're worried, don't be.
If you don't know what Lucky Sharms is, don't worry about it.