The Summoner and the Enchantress

Chapter 8

The coldness of the damp and lifeless cave had warmed slightly from the heat emanating from the pair cuddled together. The violet sorceress had her head laid gently on the green haired boy, her arms tucked between her and her teammate.

The former emerald changeling's new pale skin had managed to find a shade even paler than before, he had redness around his eyes and nose. He had curled himself up under the purple fabric remains of Raven's cloak. His body trembled slightly as if the coldness of the cave ignored the shared heat from the two.

Raven gradually came to from her peaceful slumber, her glazed eyes focused on her makeshift bed. Panic flooded her as her mind fully comprehended what she had been cuddled into. Scrambling away in a flurry of panic, her leg caught on an uneven edge of the cave floor. Sent tumbling forward, she threw her arms out to catch herself.

The uneven cave floor had loose rubble and larger rocks, all of which dug into Raven's out stretched hands. A particularly large rock impaled itself into her right palm, the cut wasn't deep nor wide but it did still draw blood.

She knew that in this new world there maybe no antibiotics available at your nearest tree or shrubbery which could spell serious trouble for her if she didn't address this cut and soon. It was bad enough that the forest and animal expert now lay feverish and sick close by her, she bet he knew some herbal concoction or something.

Letting out a deep sigh, she centred herself and focused on her breathing. She needed to focus, and she couldn't do that while she had her thoughts on waking up beside the green haired idiot. The sound of the water flow inside the cave and Beast Boy's feverish breathing held enough distraction to keep her from achieving peace.

Deciding that with the rising sun, and that Beast Boy wasn't going to suddenly get better and annoy her, she could get some mediation in. Though she didn't want to stray far from the cave in case her jade haired teammate got any worse, she wanted to find somewhere that held tranquillity and serenity to fully bring herself peace from her harrowing adventure into this new land.

Tearing off a few strips of fabric from the bottom of her cloak, trying to leave enough for Beast Boy to stay wrapped up in, she bandaged herself up as best as she could without her healing powers. Before she left the cave in her pursuit of peace, she refreshed the damp pieces of fabric on Beast Boy's head.

The blazing light from the twin stars glared down on the bountiful green forest, the water sparkled its deep azure blue under the intensity, the emerald forest swayed gently in the soft breeze. The wind took on another characteristic as it sailed over the mountains, a gentle soft song listed lazily through the air.

The song lifted casually as the wind blew over the high mountains and dropped softly over the valley, there was no rhyme or rhythm but the melody it created soothed all those that could hear it. The song gained a now sound as the twin stars rose ever higher in their path, a chorus of chirrups from numerous yellow fluff balls joined the songs ethereal marvel.

The yellow fluff balls didn't add any sort of semblance to the song, it sounded more like their answer to the mountains' call.

The purple sorceress could feel her troubles fade away, the tenseness in her body melted away as the song continued. Letting herself drink in the song's calming effect, she sat herself down by the cave entrance.

As time drifted by, Raven couldn't get rid of the thought that she had used that green haired moron as makeshift bed, cuddling into him like they were a couple.

Raven blanched suddenly, that single thought should never have crossed her mind, nor should it even be something that could be considered by any rational person. If someone had said so then she would have laughed them out of the building.

There was one thing that she couldn't shake from her mind though, after her horrific nightmare that weakened her resolve, she had gone back to sleep which had always been a bad idea. Her nightmares had no care for being only once a night ordeal, they occurred whenever she fell asleep regardless of her condition.

Normally, she would have either made herself her usual herbal tea or read one of her books before meditating till the sun rose from the horizon. She could not ever face the prospect of going back to into that realm of darkness and horror for she may appear fearless, but she held more fear than most of the titans' combine.

Being told all her life that she would be the bringer of destruction that would kill all life on earth does make one very fearful. Though, with the help of the monks of Azarath, she learned how to hide her fear and the rest of her emotions.

As much as she feared the idea of going to sleep after her nightmare, there was something about the sleeping form of the green haired idiot beside her that somehow set her at ease.

There was one other thing that still bothered her, after she fell asleep in Beast Boy's embrace, she had a dream. Not one filled with blood, gore, and horror, but one that had a certain green changeling and a field of roses.

Just remembering the dream had her both blushing deeply and as pale as snow. She had no idea how she was supposed to get her mind around the new experience or the new information that she could be rid of her nightmares for good with the only exception that she had to have that annoying green idiot in her bed with her.

Raven had considered herself rather open minded though in this case, she had very much wanted to forget everything that happened last night. There is one thing she was glad of, her lack of powers made toiling over problems such as this easier to handle without half the room being turned into a painting by Jackson Pollock.

The amethyst sorceress's attention had been broken by the sudden arrival of the several yellow fluff balls that had taken purchase on the branches of nearby trees. They had been silent during her reverie, curiously staring at her with their black soulless eyes.

Her ire grew as more of the annoying yellow birds arrived to view her as an object in a gallery, when she got her powers back then retribution shall be hers. Though, there is an upside to them, they were great to past the time with imaging how she could use them as a football.

Even though Raven had been sending endless amounts of death glares and promises of future agony, they continued to arrive in numbers. Now when the yellow fluff balls had filled almost all the available branches on the nearby trees had Raven notice that there was something off with them.

The way they were gathered on the trees revealed a pattern to their layout, whether intentional or not, they had created an arch in the forest. A pathway through the forest out of yellow feathers and black soulless eyes.

Deciding that she could spend eternity torturing herself over how the annoying green idiot might be her salvation to a good night's sleep, it would be better to take a leap and trust these evil creatures of yellow feathers.

Getting to her feet, she dusted off her leotard and checked in on her ailing teammate before she set off on the yellow feathered path. Raven immediately slapped a hand over her forehead, regretting thinking of that idea as she would take sleeping with Beast Boy over being in The Wizard of Oz.

As Raven followed the path that had been laid out by the yellow fluff balls, said fluff balls began to chirrup in increasing volume. Almost as if they were congratulating her on deciding to trust them after their actions the previous day, they had to be egotistical birds as well as annoying.

The path winded through the lush and vibrant emerald forest, the heat from the glaring twin stars rained down on Raven. The wind cooled her skin with gentle gusts and the large canopy offered by the trees gave more protection from the twin stars reign.

The path took her through parts of the forest that she had never seen before, though she had been asleep the entire day before didn't help. She did happen across a fresh water lake they could use for bathing and a waterfall for drinking water, there was also several bushes with berries on them.

Those berries must have been poisonous as every time she reached out in hunger for the sustenance those berries could offer, she would be assault by one or more of the yellow fluff balls. After they had finished chirruping angrily at her they continued to hop from branch to branch to lay out the path.

It had taken only half an hour to follow the path that the yellow fluff balls had laid before they dispersed into a clearing before her. The clearing held soft light green grass filled with white flowers that closely resembled daisies, the trees circled around the clearing in a near perfect ring.

What took the violet sorceress's breath away was what the clearing held at its centre, several sizeable white flowers with red leaves. The flowers had a slight star sharp design to them with a small green light gently glowing at the centre, the red leaves had gold inlay veins to them.

There were only a few of them and they were all gathered around a substantially large tree, though it may look like a tree it was anything but, its trunk had been fashioned out of opaque crystal with a variety of colours for the leaves that adorned the crystal tree.

A single fluff ball broke from the group and perched itself on Raven's shoulder, chirruping loudly into her ear, it made a sort of gesture towards the small idyllic garden. Startled by the bird's fearlessness, Raven jerked suddenly which sent the bird into the air before it returned to her shoulder once more, a few angry chirrups later Raven followed the bird's instructions.

As she approached the idyllic garden, the small lights within the white flowers glowed brighter. As she reached out to touch the flower's petal, she got an warning chirrup from her new shoulder companion.

Exchanging death glares, Raven gestured towards the flowers in a vague attempt to get the bird to some how explain its purpose of bringing her here. Taking the hint, the yellow fluff ball took flight and hovered over by the red leaves.

Reaching out once more, Raven took hold of one of the red leaves before gently taking it off its stem. The instance she did the action a sudden burst of golden light exploded from the leaf, a warmth grew from the point of contact between her hand and the now glowing leaf which spread throughout her entire body.

The warmth grew in intensity, yet it wasn't alarming nor frightening, quite the opposite, it was calming and reassuring. The light died down after a few seconds of its sudden appearance, the red and gold leaf had disappeared but in its place was now a rather large flask of red liquid with a stopper held in place with wax.

Her doubt and paranoia came into play when she took hold of the neck of the flask, she looked towards her new fluff ball companion who had at some point taken its place back upon her shoulder. Said fluff ball merely chirruped at her encouragingly or whatever could resemble encouraging.

Tentatively taking the wax from the stopper, she removed the stopper and let the scent of the red liquid fill her nose, a scent of berries and medicine filled her. Hesitantly, she lifted the bottle to her lips, taking a timid sip from the red liquid she immediately put the stopper back in.

As the red liquid travelled down her throat, she could already feel an instant effect from the substance and not a negative one. Her tiredness and sore feet healed promptly, her bruises from sleeping on the cave floor all but disappeared.

Raven practically tore off the bandages she had haphazardly placed over her injury she had sustain this morning, and much to her delight she found that her wound was now completely healed.

This had to be magical medicine, she could use this to heal her sick teammate and there would still be plenty left over for whenever they needed it to heal future injuries or sickness. As the soft glow died down around her a sudden chorus of chirrups echoed around the clearing, all of the yellow fluff balls had taken flight including her shoulder companion.

A low growl rang out behind her, Raven whipped around sharply. Her training come into play and her muscles already deciding on what spell to conjure to fight whatever had made a sudden appearance.

As her vision landed on the creature, her mind came back to the realisation that her powers were no longer available, and she now faced a black tiger like creature with horns adorning its head and teeth like that of a sabretooth. Its coat was a mix of fur and scales, and its eyes even more soulless than the yellow fluff balls.

As the first strings of fear began to tangle around Raven, she realised that she is defenceless, and this big cat creature had now started to prowl towards her. This will be her end, her death at the hands of an alien creature, no one will know that she died by this creature's paws, not even Beast Boy whom may not live through his illness without her help or the medicine, the end of her story.


Author's Note: muhahahah, I am evil. Not saying anything about whats going to happen but will raven survive? Will she get the medicine to BB? Will the birds help? Or did they plan to lead Raven into this trap? Or are they that useless to not know if a predator was sneaking up behind them?

Personally, I am not a fan of this chapter but I would like to hear what you all think of this chapter. Its not that I dislike my writing but there are parts that I cant decide how I want them to be written. Anyway this chapter was suppose to be chapter 7 but I had the idea of Raven's nightmare as a bit of a filler episode and a bit of character development.

Raven had spotted the fresh water lake and waterfall as part of the survival training that Robin had them all go through and she would need some way of apologising to BB about not listening to him about finding a place for them to hole up in for the time being.

The song from the mountains came from the idea of the singing towers from doctor who. I had wanted to create a peaceful scene and area as the forest they are in is supposed to be a rather sacred place that little to no one has found, well that's the idea at the moment but it may be subject to change at a later date.

Don't know if I want to make the berries poisonous or have the birds be very impatient, though I will leave that for when or if BB wakes up.

I made Raven go with the birds because she had needed the distraction from thinking too much on what happened the night before and with her new-found freedom of emotions it meant she would be thinking on it for awhile.

I wanted BB to be the cure to Raven's nightmares but I will need to figure out how to explain that or I can leave it as coincidence. Raven's dream might be revisited at a later chapter or if I am very evil then I might just leave it to you, the reader, imagination as to what happened in her dream.

Comments

YourDemonicAssassin – Thank you for the continued support of my writing, it really helps me and encourages me to keep writing. I agree, I wanted it to be dark not because it was a nightmare but because Raven has been through a lot and she has a vivid imagination which could lead to very detailed nightmares. That said, she has been told all her life that she was born to kill all life, that she was the bringer of death and that does make some people a bit fearful of making friends or even being able to sleep without having a nightmare.