AN- OC love. Dont love, well obviously, dont read. I will inform you, I have yet to finish the third book. And I will rape both the books AND the movie in this. Consider them date raped. :) This is out of my usual genre, but still, it is is about A character of my own devising, and that of a really good friend. To the Myralielle and Ayazania of this world. And to the Kayra and Kellenesvitch that slowly tear me apart from the inside.
Oh, and seriously. The Toast joke. It makes sense, if you pronounce her name right. It is Rye- ill- ee- ahn- ah.
~FenrirAliceOfIce
~Serafina~Pekkala~
The girl that this story takes place around yawned, and her mentor reached out tentatively with one hand. The teacher was beautiful, a swirling black mass of hair surrounding a somewhat angelic, sharp- featured face.
"'m sorry. I don't mean to be so tired." The teacher smiled in a way that was forlorn, delicate even. Her fingertips lit gently upon the girl's shoulder, under a dark brown- black mass of hair, against silks covering her shoulder.
"Its fine, Nailah. It is late, you've worked hard. Good work today."
"Thank you, Clan Mother." Nailah rose, inclining her head slightly, only to kiss her teacher on the cheek. "G'night."
"Yes, goodnight." The girl turned, never noticing the sad smile that had found its way to her teachers lips, reflecting her aching heart. She waited a few more moments, before letting out a sigh, dropping her head to the stone table she'd been seated at. The girl had been trying so hard today, and coming along still, and yet the mentor still was unsure if she was ready.
"Serafina." She knew that voice, so deep and melodious, even before raising her head. She felt him settle across the table from her in a flutter of wings, which she knew to be white to white- gray. After awhile, and he'd completely settled, she raised her head accordingly, balancing her chin on her arms, to meet his loving gaze with one of her own.
"I do not know if she is ready, and I loathe to release her."
"I am the last one you need to speak those words to, Sera." The goose cocked his graceful head, ruffling his feathers. "But it is a shame, Clan Queen, that she can not follow you, and your steps. But her destiny-"
"I know, I know." Serafina Pekkala sighed, rolling her eyes to the cave's ceiling for a brief moment. "There is just... I find myself wishing that Farder Coram and I... Had had a daughter like her, for she is some witch now! Think of what she could be, Kaisa!" The witch reached out, in a desperate movement, to her daemon, who waddled into her embrace with his hurried, awkward step. "She was so alone, when you found her, Kaisa. And she breaks me... She breaks me like my boy." She burried her fingertips into his feathers, and he tucked his graceful head into her hair.
"Why, Serafina, we have spoken of this already. Multiple times. She has no other mother to truly speak of, so do it. Tell her." He pulled back, locking gazes with his other half. "Tell her she is yours."
"But Farder Coram..." Her voice faded out, and both woman and daemon grew silent, gazing at each other for a countless amount of moments. "I suppose." She moved him to her shoulders, carefully, with his help. "Come, lets check the other children."
~Nailah~Pekkala~
It was still dark, when the child awoke. She saw the inside of her eyelids for a bare second, before a jab in her cold shoulder made her snap them open. She met the eyes of her daemon, currently cat-shaped, crouching into her chest. With a swift movement, Nailah enveloped her daemon in a fierce hug, afraid and not the slightest idea why. They'd both woken, shaking against each other, after their dreams plagued their sleep with images they each could not place.
"I'm scared, Toast." The girl whispered, clutching to her daemon tightly. "And I don't even know why."
"I'm scared too, Nailah." The soft, high voice of her female daemon whispered back. She was one of the minority with same- sex daemons, though it ceased to matter to either of them. From the time when Nailah had been initiated as a witch, and crossed land without her daemon, she had changed. It had not torn the bond as she had feared, but strengthened it. She and her daemon would never be separated now, no matter how much land was between them, or how far the went. She was a witch, and that had been proven. All her daemon had to do now was settle, but there was noone rushing that, especially not the Queen or Nailah. But still, a piece of the girl felt empty, voided, even. And that was the piece of her that longed for nothing more than someone to call a mother.
"Lets not go back to sleep Toast. I don't want to. And I know this seems childish, but I feel as if there is a monster hidden in the closet, so to speak." Her daemon jumped, changing into a swallow quietly. "Where are we going?"
"I don't know. For a walk? Maybe elder Corrit is still awake, and we can ask her." Nailah nodded, rising slowly, and offering her hand to her daemon, who landed almost immediately. The caves were cool, the quit dripping of water echoing around the caverns as Nailah and her daemon slipped through quietly. They discussed the few details of their dreams that they remembered, which was not many, and none clear. They were, in a sense, just psyching themselves out, but none the less tried to understand the blurred images anyway. Her daemon suddenly gre quiet, still, and Nailah looked up to face a cavern that not many witches found themselves at often.
"Toast..." She shared a look with her daemon, dropping her voice. "We couldn't!"
"Well, actually I think we could." She changed into a mouse, crawling to perch on Nailah's shoulder.
"Raeilyana! She's Clan Queen!"
"She's your teacher." Her daemon said quietly, their hushed tones barely audible, tucking her paws under her tail. "She told you she'd be there for you. For anything."
"She has so many bigger things to worry about! She shouldn't have to concern herself with just one witch- child, who doesn't even have a mother in the clan, who doesn't have a mother in any clan!" Nailah turned her head to see her daemon had not moved. "I'm not her biggest concern, Raeilyana. I'll never be." She never hid the disheartened undertones from her daemon, and she didn't now. "She is the Clan Queen."
"It can't hurt to try." Nailah didn't know how long she stood there, before she nodded, and drew a deep breath to enter. Her first few steps were quiet, careful, indecisive.
"Clan mother?" There was a glowing orb near to the witch, who's head, along with her daemons, had snapped up at the words. Raeilyana could have sworn she saw the witch's eyes soften just a touch, but was just as nervous as Nailah, and could not be sure of herself.
"Nailah, Raeilyana." She closed the book she had been reading, carefully helping Kaisa up onto a great stone shelf. "I thought you were sleeping, child."
"I... was." Serafina beckoned, and Raeilyana changed again, fluttering to sit beside Kaisa, in the same movement that Nailah joined Serafina on her 'couch' for it was made of a thoroughly comfortable, to the witches, rock.
"I had to discuss something with you anyway, though I was one for talking to you tomorrow, and letting you rest." The Queen looked to her daemon, who inclined his head, clearly telling her to go on. "First I would like to ask about your parents, again."
"I-"
"Not what they were like Nailah. Yambe -akka knows we have asked you that enough." She turned to her daemon again, and stroked his grey- white feathers slowly, in a comfort she rarely got to appreciate. Nailah tilted her head, it had been peace time for the past forty years, as she'd heard it, and she'd never seen Serafina Pekkala so agitated and, well, nervous. "What you felt about them, how you saw them." She seemed to consider adding something to that, but decided against it after all, leaving Nailah to think in a few moments of silence. She thought about them, the dirty- blonde mother she had, and her black haired witch- born father. They were her blood parents, but she could never find herself really referring to either as 'mother' or 'father'. It just hadnt been like that. They had been the ruling judge over everything she'd said and done, and when weird things, her magic, had started to embed themselves into her life, they were the first to leave her. They were the first to disown her.
"I can't say I hated them clan mother." She spoke the words slowly, using the title the children had given to their Queen. "I also can not say that I loved them. They were just there, just people." Serafina nodded, slightly, with some emotion masked in her eyes, and a tighter grip on Kaisa than was necessary. "I feel the witches are more my sisters, my family, than any that I knew there." She paused briefly, again. "I think that there are people closer to me here, than any of the people in southern Finland. Though sometimes, I feel as if the elder witches look at me as if I'm... something that has been lost already. Something that some woman needs to claim, or I'm to be tainted or something."
"What if... What if it was me?" The question had barely slipped from Serafina Pekkala's lips, and the quiet hum of discussion between the daemons behind them cut off abruptly, as Kaisa nearly squaked his alarm at Serafina's grip. "I... had a son once. He died, and all too soon, even for a human life." Nailah's eyes widened slightly, but she tried none the less to keep her expression even, a mother. A real mother, a real family. Someone who she could really care about, and love, and know would return the feeling completely. "Would you... just think on it? I understand..."
"I want to! I'd love that!" Serafina sighed, exhaling deeply, as she released Kaisa slightly, and hugged her child.
"Nailah. Nailah Pekkala." The girl nodded slightly, tucking her head into the woman's shoulder. Her name, her real name, it sounded so nice to her ears. She sighed, a mother. Something she'd always wanted. Not only the witches caring for her, but a real mother.
"Clan Mother, Mother. Kaisa-!" The goose chuckled, shaking his feathers out carefully.
"We discussed it already. If I had not approved, dear Serafina would never have gotten such a death grip on me in the first place." He nodded his graceful head to her, in a swift movement, a twinkle in his eyes. "It took longer to talk her into mustering the courage to ask you, but shh..."
"Kaisa!" All of them laughed, except Serafina, who joined the laughter only a few moments after her exclamation. "Anyway, Nailah, you were saying you woke because?" Tucking the child into her shoulder, the girl told her the dream, with additions from Raeilyana the entire time. SHe felt her mind wandering, as they talked, wondering briefly what it would have been like to have been born by this witch, her Queen. In that time, she remembered running away, towards the north for the witch clans. She and Raeilyana had been barely eight, and attacked by some witch- clan she didn't know the name of, and wasn't sure she wanted to know. She remembered the Queen of that clan, with her arrows knocked, prepared to kill the girl, and Kaisa's gut- wrenching screech that cleaved the air in two like nothing else. She would never forget the sight of his mantled wings, his opened beak, and the other bird- daemons flying down from the sky behind him. She had never seen so many daemons together in her life, the sky was so full of them. She and Raeilyana had tried to fight, as much as their young bodies and fear- wracked brain had been able to. And Serafina Pekkala's witches, they came down, firing impossible volleys of arrows, until the field was silent save for the whispers of daemons, and Nailah's own heart and shaking. Serafina had layed an arrow into her bow, and again, it was Kaisa who mantled his wings again, and stared at his human counterpart. She had layed down her bow silently, opening her arms to embrace the forlorn, lost child. Her embrace was still the same as she remembered, warmth in a never ending cold, safety in the frightening world. And it had been a short time since then, barely five years, and could have been an eternity for all the child cared.
And that was exactly what she thought, falling asleep against her witch- mother's shoulder.
~Serafina~Pekkala~
The days, and theweeks passed to quickly for Serafina to keep track of everything. The ferver of which they passed though, it made her heart ache with a dull pound that reminded her of every day to come. The child, no, her, child, was someone she didn't want to let go of, ever. She was powerful in magic, and on the occasion it made Serafina's head spin that the girl was learning at such an astounding speed. But maybe, just maybe fate knew. And if it did, then it also knew it was tearing the witch- Queen apart from the inside out. But then Nailah would apologize, for she was only thirteen, and still got distracted as easily as before, and her mother would shake her head, and change the lessons to those of clan- heir- presumptive. She was so proud of her, yes her, child, and there was no animosity, no resentment from the other sisters. She'd asked her sisters once, and they told her quiet plainly 'Nailah is a witch, and a witch with us. What is changed, beside her name being Pekkala? We would be glad to serve her.' And she, their Queen, loved each and every one of them for it. They'd all accepted her actions without a question, and her girl didn't know the difference. Her girl. Yes, hers now. She was a mother.
"Queen." Her head snapped up from her book, as another of her witch- sisters enterred. She hadn't told this one, an elder sister, her decision. "The girl chose the right cloud pine branch. She's the one." Her words hit Serafina like a bucket of ice on her heart, or a rifle shot from the hand of her love, Farder Coram. Her daughter, her dear sweet daughter.
"Kaisa." Her goose backwinged to her, into her arms, quietly whispering words into her ear.
"Queen, something tells me you are quiet fond of this child, this strange case of an orphaned witch- child..."
"She is not an orphan!" Serafina snapped, the control of her temper breaking upon in merely five of her own words. She felt as if her heart had been hit with an arrow, and was cracking as result. Her child. Her child. Not an orphan. There was a twinkle in her elder witch's eyes, as the Queen stood, clutching her daemon. "She is not an orphan, and never will be again, if I ever have anything to say about it! How dare thee, dishonor my child so. Any of the witch's children!"
"Queen."
"What." Displeasure. Clearly evident in the snap, the tone of voice.
"Though I should be surprised that you of all the witches took her. I am not." The gray haired woman exhaled slowly, and smiled "I am not displeased in the slightest, and actually, I am as proud as your mother would have been. Oh and I must say," She added, turning to leave the cavern "I told you your maternal instincts were going to come out with a bang when you finally used them." Serafina stood, lips thinned into a line, and Kaisa, along with the elder witch chuckled deeply.
"You are a very maternal creature, Sera. No harm in it." Kaisa's deep, soft voice woke her from her shock, and she considered tossing him. "Why should a mother not get defensive on behalf of her daughter? And why not moreso when that mother watched her son die in many moments of pure agony?"
"Even if she is not my... blood? My bones? My power incarnate?"
"Does the ugly duckling love his siblings despite not being related?" There was a pause, and the witch laughed, tears coming to her eyes. Her daemon, the snow goose, was the only one that could use a swan and duck related analogy, as a rhetorical question.
"I overreacted, Kaisa."
"All shalt be forgiven. All good mothers protect their children."
"The best normally overreact a bit too, Mother." The black haired witch nodded, offering her arms in a hug, which the girl accepted. "I understand where she came from with orphan mother. And how should she have known?"There were such emotions from this girl, it could make Serafina cry easily. "You are my mother now, and this is what matters. I love you, and that matters too." Serafina sighed, into the dark brown- black head of her one witch- child. She had a turmoil of emotions running throughout her, as if she was betrayal of all this girl meant to her.
"I was not a mother for very long, Nailah. Forgive me." The girl nodded, smiling, kissing her mother lightly on the cheek before dropping her messages on the stone worktable and turning to leave the caverns. Serafina let a tear escape, thinking wistfully of a world, and of a time, where she would never have to let her child go.
~Nailah~Pekkala~
Nailah, the other six young witches, and six with staggering ages, sat quietly upon their cloudpine branches. They were trying to come up with two more players to drag into their game of Witch Clans and Renegades. It was a simple game really, built for the witches. There were two teams of seven, which where the clans. There was, in each team, one goal keeper, two that would shoot headless arrows at other players to knock them off their brooms, and three that would be trying to put a ball through the goals. The last member of each team was the Queen, and her job was to catch the Renegade, who was the final of the younger witches flew off, and one of Nailah's closest friends, Sage, only a year or so older than her, called out that the previous girl had found a player. The conversation turned to who would play the renegade, and Nailah felt her mother had been lately, she shot her hair up into the air, before zooming off with Raeilyana close behind.
"You really think she'll play?" Raeilyana whispered, soaring in her current favorite form of an eagle.
Well you see, my plan is to not really give her a choice. Even if it contains dragging her out." Raeilyana chuckled, fluffing her feathers for the landing. It wasn't dificult to find Serafina, she was in where she normally was, working. "Mother?" There were worry lines on her eternally- beautiful face, that Nailah noticed, before the witch turned back to her work.
"What seems to be the matter dear?" Raeilyana winged over to Kaisa, and hissed to him quietly, while he listened carefully.
"Well you see, I feel like youre working too hard, mother. And doing too much, too."
"Too much to do, not enough time." Nailah took her hand at a nod from the goose- daemon, carefully and gently.
"Come on!" With a sound pull, she yanked the Queen to her feet, and down the hallway with the daemons leading.
"Nailah!"
"You're playing. Its been decided." Never letting go of the Queen's arm, Nailah grabbed her pine branch, and handed Serafina hers.
"Its true, Sera." Kaisa continued, in his melodious voice. "The others seem to be waiting for their Renegade, and you, my dear, fit the description all too well."
"What description is this?"
"Tall, eternally beautiful, with lovely black hair and the Queen of Lake Enara's witches." Raeilyana answered promptly, pulling alongside them in eagle form. The Queen eyed both daemons, and when there was no response, she gave in.
"Fine."
"Yes!" It was all three of the others that cried out, and all Serafina could do was laugh.
"Do inform me who the Queens are for this round." Serafina managed to get out, between laughing at all of them. Nailah nodded, detailing the players and the positions, and then reminding the woman that she was not supposed to get caught at all. When they arrived, if the other witches were surprised to see Serafina Pekkala playing, none of them showed it. Instead, the players took their positions, and the most grueling, intense game she'd been a member of yet. Which really wasn't saying much because Serafina didn't play all that often. Nailah was glad to see Serafina having fun, and being quiet the daredevil too. Some of the aerial tricks would stop Kaisa where he was, fetching Nailah's arrows, until he'd confirmed that his other half was alright, and then he'd wing to the girl as quickly as he could to make up the time. The 'Queen' players were having a hard time, as far as Nailah could tell, of catching her mother, and their Queen, when she thought up the randomest acrobatic she could devise on the spot, and carry it would catch Serafina looking over to her every now and then, and felt herself bristle with pride. When she was watching though, she could plainly see that her mother was having fun. And that made her happiest of looked away for a moment, from both Serafina, and from Kaisa, aiming her bow, when Kaisa let out a scream high enough to crack glass.
Serafina immediately changed directions, picking up a drastic amount of speed, her heart frozen in fear. It was too soon, too soon for them to come. She streaked through the air, around the other players, barely even seeing them, nearly a blur, towards her darling, her daughter.
The crack of Serafina Pekkala's shoulder into her diaphragm was enough to throw the breath from Nailah's lungs with ease. Raeilyana's cry had been cut off with the lack of oxygen, and her shape clung with sharp talons into the girl's arm. There was the cracing of riffles, and the well- known twang of volleys and volleys of arrows being let loose into the air.
"Mother-"
"Shh." Serafina drew her arms away from the girl, but still holding her tight. "I'm so sorry. I... I couldn't... I couldn't keep them from you..." She took the headless arrows from Nailah, dropping them carelessly, and tightening the strap of Nailah's real arrows. The witch- queen felt a hand in her hair, and stilled almost immediatley.
"Mother? What is happening? I'm so confused," There was a witch's battle cry, and the witches behing Serafina could be seen letting loose their arrows again and again, each with deadly accuracy. "Why are there humans here, in Lake Enara? Mother-?"
"You have to flee, Nailah." Her voice, how was it so calm, so assured? That was nothing of what Serafina felt, she was afraid; for her daughter, her sisters, everyone. She unhooked a flower from her crown, which she managed to keep on through the game and layed it gently into her daughters hand. "If you ever truly need me..." She nodded slowly, and then reached under her silks to pass a knife scabbard to the girl. "I was given this for you, almost fourty years ago, the last time it was needed. Fix it, and keep it a secret, and use it, my child."
"Mother-" The elder witch shook her head, closed Nailah's hands around the scabbard, and backed up a step. "Mother, I can't leave you!" Nailah made the mistake of meeting the witch- queen's eyes, and saw the tears welled in them, and the fierce determination behind them.
"I love you, Nailah. Nailah Pekkala." She mounted the pine branch, and in one last breath, "Fly safe for me, and fly now!" Nailah shivered, at the Queen's words, and grabbed her branch to fly quickly, looking behind, and see the great witch let loose her first arrow.
"Mother!" Raeilyana screeched, and Kaisa let his battle cry fuel the witches, as they hurried from the cracking battle.
I love you all! I'm crying now, but Nailah is my heart. I think that that would tear me to peaces.
Yes people, Witch Clans and Renegades, is Quidditch. Im obsessed.
Read Review, and Love!