In the midst of the quiet serenity of the spring night throughout the valley the sound of labored breathing began to slowly dispel the sense of tranquility that surrounded the bank of river. Though the troubled sound had managed to carry itself as far as the end of the bridge ahead in the dead of night the only ears it could fall upon at this hour were those of the creatures of the night. The source of the distress as it turned out was the town's local chestnut haired farmhand, Celia, who found herself succumbing to the onset of what appeared to be some sort of attack on her respiratory system, no doubt carried out by the perplexing ailment she possessed. She chaotically staggered about the riverside in what felt like an increasingly hopeless effort to try and make it across the water and back over to her home that sat just beyond the bridge.
"Almost… there…" She wheezed aloud to herself.
Unfortunately, upon her next deep breath Celia found herself collapsing onto the dirt road at her feet, her outstretched arms just barely grazing the wooden planks of the bridge ahead of her. Her chest felt as though it was collapsing onto itself and crushing her lungs, preventing her from doing anything other than continuing to frantically gasp for air like a fish out of water. Her inability to focus on anything other than trying to continuing breathing stopped her from even attempting to cry out for help. She started to regret not having held off on delivering the days harvest to the bar out in town till the morning, especially given that she was home alone for the evening, but her incontrollable sense of guilt would have made her feel like she'd be letting Vesta down had she done so. As her world began to grow dark she prayed from the bottom of her heart that there was at least one soul up at this hour who could aid her.
Fortunately, her predicament was recognized by someone but whether or not it was the knight in shining armor she expected was a different story. Though in her state beggars can't be choosers, especially while passed out.
On the other side of town within the tiny shack she called a home the valley's resident witch found herself disturbed by a strange sensation in the air that seemed to come out of the blue. Almost like a dog who had just heard the faint sound of an intruder outside she perked her head up and focused her senses on the world around her. Eventually she came to recognize the disturbance as a cry for help and quickly shut the book in her hands before placed it upon the bookshelf nearby and heading off into the night. Normally she'd leave investigating such matters to one of the other "less frightening" denizens of the area but seeing as they were all more than likely asleep by this point in the night she couldn't be certain there was anyone else who could handle whatever commotion was disrupting her evening. She just hoped that whoever was in trouble wouldn't mind that she was the one looking to help them.
The streetlamps that aligned the valley's walkways were still lit up as the Witch Princess made her way across town making it easy to spot the passed out figure that lay atop the bridge over the river. Quickening her pace, she rushed over to their side and knelt down beside them as they continued struggling to breath. Despite having lived in the valley for almost a century the Witch Princess was still quite unfamiliar with her neighbors as the sense of terror her presence had to average human practically forced her into keeping her distance from them. While she couldn't identify Celia by her name she was at least able to recognize her as the girl whom she had seen working on the farm across the river from time to time. She was lying face down against the cold wood of the bridge with one hand clutching her chest and her other stretched out towards the her home ahead of her as if to indicate that she had made a futile attempt to try and crawl her way home. The Witch Princess carefully picked her up off the ground and rested her in her arms.
"Poor thing…" She murmured to herself as she stroked the brunette's bangs out of the way.
Cautiously, she placed her fingers against the smooth skin of Celia's neck to feel for a pulse. It was faint, but it was there.
"And just what do you think you're doing!" A booming, though admittedly unintimidating, voice shouted at her just then.
Keeping her hold on Celia the Witch Princess looked behind herself to spot a handful of Harvest Sprites standing on the edge of the bridge. The one who had called out to confront her, Red Ribbon, stood in the middle.
"Relax guys." She calmly replied. "I didn't do anything to her."
"And we're supposed to believe that?" He asked with the sense of irritation in his voice unchanged.
The Witch Princess sighed and looked back at Celia as she continued to breathe heavily in her arms. The last thing she needed right now was to go through the routine of being labeled as a perpetrator by the sprites to a crime she hadn't even been aware of minutes prior, all of course because she was a witch.
"Well?" Ribbon demanded.
"Look," The Witch Princess spat as she turned back around. "Like I already said, I didn't do anything to the poor girl; I found her like this right before you lot showed up."
Ribbon appeared to be unconvinced of her words while the other sprites seemed more focused on Celia's condition.
"What's wrong with her?" The one known as Guts asked in a much gentler tone. "Is she… dead?"
The Witch Princess shook her head. "No, she's still alive, just having some trouble breathing. A lot of trouble it seems..."
"You didn't make it any worse did you?" One of the lesser sprites clad in a light blue asked.
Turning back to Celia the Witch Princess attempted to hide her growing annoyance but it managed to seep out through her words. "I told you I didn't do anything! Why the heck can't you guys understand that?"
An awkward silence fell over the sprites as the answer seemed obvious enough.
"Don't answer that…" The Witch Princess sighed in defeat.
"Look, you took the Goddess and our friends away from not just us but everyone here in the valley. I think we have a right to be just a little bit suspicious here." Ribbon answered despite her wishes. His tone at least was a bit calmer than before.
Sighing once more the Witch Princess rose to her feet, still embracing the unconscious Celia. "I thought I told you that that was an accident. Besides, that farmer's taking care of it now. You'll have your pretty little miss sunshine back in no time."
Ribbon crossed his arms at her. "Having others fix your 'mistakes' while you just sit idly by, typical... And where do you think you're going with her?"
"Argh, I don't have time to just stand around here and chit chat. This girl's in desperate need of help and it seems you all would rather just sit here and point fingers at me about one thing or another than do something about it." She answered angrily.
"You're gonna help someone?" Ribbon laughed. "What are you really going to do? Take her back to your lair and curse her?"
Despite her best intentions to aid her, the Witch Princess could feel as she began to dig her nails into Celia's skin out of anger while she continued to remain unresponsive. Quickly, she spun herself around and began to angrily stomp up to the sprites. "Listen here you little imps! Unlike you weaklings my magical abilities can actually work on and help something other than some damn flowers in a garden, so unless you all want to try and carry this girl back to her home and find a way to help her I suggest you just shut it!"
By the end of her rant she had positioned herself so that she was menacingly looming over the group of sprites, staring down upon them with her fiery red eyes. They huddled together and collectively shook with fear.
"L-L-Look w-we don't want any trouble now…" Guts stammered with fear. "We're just trying to look out for the human's best interests, that's all…"
"Y-Yeah, what about just taking her to a doctor?" A yellow sprite asked.
"You don't think I can do it can you?" She asked, her voice containing a mixture of anger and what sounded to be almost heartbreak. "You don't think I'm capable of helping someone? Is that it? Why, just because I'm supposed to be some kind of devious mischief maker?"
The sprites once more silently exchanged glances amongst themselves.
Not willing to hear their eventual response the Witch Princess turned around yet again and proceeded to cross the bridge to the path leading to Celia's house with her still in her grasp.
Ribbon noticed as she started to separate herself from the group and attempted to pursue her. "Hey! Where do you think yo-"
He found himself cut off by a massive gust of wind that blew straight at him and the other sprites, sending them all tumbling backwards. The Witch Princess didn't even so much as glance back to admire the slight mishap she triggered, not even to try and further intimidate the sprites away. She felt they were smart enough to at least understand that this was the point at which they should just back off and let her go about her business. After all, if they truly didn't believe she was capable of separating herself from that dreadful impression everyone had of her they'd at least have to give her the chance to prove it.