Chapter 05 - The second dream
Hunter was standing in the middle of the cold night, holding a torch, alone in a snow-filled forest. Despite being covered from head to toe in warm clothing, his hands were freezing inside those thick gloves. Even so, he continued to stand, waiting...
Some time later a slim woman wearing a hooded cloak that covered her entire outfit appeared, coming towards him. When she was very close, she lowered her hood to reveal a beautiful face framed by long orange hair tied in a voluminous braid. Her skin was unnaturally fair, literally the color of snow, her eyes were a beautiful unearthly shade of yellow, and her ears were pointed like any other witch out there.
"You're late," Hunter said, trying not to shiver as he spoke, but the cold wouldn't let him. His voice sounded grown-up, like in that weird dream he had.
"I'm sorry, Henry," the witch replied. "I tried to come faster, but had to dodge the inhabitants of the neighboring village on the way."
Henry… So he was in a dream and he was that man again… That explained his deep adult voice. Well… The way was to not fight and let the dream take its course until someone woke him up again.
"Happyfied?" Hunter, now Henry, asked worriedly.
"Yes," the witch replied with a sad look in her eyes. "They're doing that again…"
"Who was the poor unfortunate soul this time?" Henry asked.
"I do not know," she answered. "I just saw those crazy people from Happyfied, with torches and pitchforks in hand, looking for some unfortunate person… Probably a poor girl who did nothing but be different…"
"Or like to sing, or know how to treat illnesses with tea, or be a midwife, or not accept Calvin's teachings, or be too ugly, or be too pretty, or have a pet, or... Well, the list of possibilities is great…" Henry spoke, counting each case on his fingers. "Yeah, okay, you're right, be different. Changing the subject, talking about pets, I finally used that weird blue piece of wood you gave me.
"Really? Finally!" the witch yelled excitedly.
"Shhh," Henry whispered worriedly. "Talk more quietly, please. We don't want to draw unnecessary attention."
"Henry, we're in the middle of nowhere, in the dead of night. Both your village and Happyfield are far away. I bet it took you hours to walk just to get here, which means the people in your village are likely to be sleeping hours away too! The only freaks who should still be awake are those Happyfield lunatics, but they're too busy on the other side of the woods hunting someone who must have gotten away by now! No need to get paranoid, my friend . We are safe! Harbinger is on the lookout and will warn us if anything suspicious approaches."
"Harbinger?"
"My palisman," the witch replied with a smile. "Speaking of which, you still haven't told me about yours."
"My what?" Henry asked, confused.
"Your palisman, of course," the witch replied as if that were the most obvious thing in the world. "Didn't you just say you used the palisdrom wood I gave you?"
"Yes?" Henry replied, sounding a little worried. "I said so…"
"Well then, the creature you carved from that log to fulfill your wish is called a palisman. By the way, what was your wish?"
"Wish?" Henry asked, confused.
"Don't you remember making any wishes?" The witch asked even more confused.
"Not to a piece of wood!"
"But you must have complained that something was missing in your life while you were near that log, didn't you?"
"Yes, that I did."
"It counts as a wish," the witch said victoriously. "So what was it?"
"I wouldn't like to say it..." Henry said.
"Why?"
"Because this wish was silly and childish!"
"And? The most powerful palismans in the Boiling Isles were made out of silly or childish wishes. Even my Harbinger was born from one and he's a palisman considered quite powerful and dangerous over there."
"Really?"
"Yeah. No one dares to torment me when they see Harbinger perched on my shoulder."
"Interesting…" Henry muttered to himself.
"So… Are you going to tell me what your wish was?" The witch insisted again.
"Only if you tell me yours first," Henry said.
"Deal," the witch replied, smiling. "I made my wish when I was ten and it wasn't intentional either, like yours. Actually that piece of palisdrom wood that was on top of dad's office workbench wasn't even for me, but the magic contained within it reacted to my wish when I walked in the office crying after another terrible day at magic school where I used to study. In my crying I wad saying that I didn't want to be the target of the mean girls at my school again and that I wanted to be stronger than them, very much much much stronger than them and that I didn't want to be fooled by them anymore and by anyone else from new. So I was guided by magic to the piece of wood and my body began to carve the palisman with the tools I found there. At the end of a few hours Harbinger was created."
"That…" Henry tried to speak, but he was in shock from the report. "That wasn't a silly wish, Ava."
"But it was raised out of a childish tantrum," the witch, or Ava as she seemed to be called, insisted.
"To me it looks like it was created in reaction to the badness of bad people who hurt you. There's nothing silly or childish there! I'm even ashamed to say what mine was after hearing this."
"No way! It's not fair! You promised me that you would tell me what your wish was after I say what mine was! Don't even think in go back on your word now!"
"All right… Since I promised… My wish was to have a friend to talk…"
"And you don't have any friends?" Ava asked sadly. "Are we not friends?!"
"Yes, I have friends and yes we are! But my friends are just my little brother and you," Henry began to explain. "And…well, you're not here all the time to talk as it's dangerous for you to come here and be discovered by fanatics like Hardman. And Phil… I definitely don't want to worry that kid with a lot of nonsense coming out of my head! At least not after everything he went through before we came to the Colonies…"
"Got it…" Ava replied, looking embarrassed. "And… I'm sorry for getting annoyed by nonsense. You have the right to want to have friends other than me and your little brother, and that is not a silly or childish wish."
"You don't have to be nice, Ava."
"I'm not being nice! I'm being honest! Your wish is not silly, it's cute! And the fact that your need to find someone else to vent came out of your wish to protect Phil and me is even cuter! You are so cute!"
"I'm not cute!"
"Yes, you are, and before we continue to stubbornly argue all night, what palisman did you carve?"
"Hey! But I said I'm no…" Henry, flushed with embarrassment, tried to remain stubborn, but gave up. "Okay… Screw it! He's a red cardinal."
"A what?"
"A red songbird very common here in this region."
"How cute!" Ava spoke excitedly. "And then you say you're not cute! Creating a cute bir… Wait! Did you say bird?"
"Yes, I did" Henry replied worriedly. "Why?"
"No big deal, it's just that carving birds like palismans is a Clawthorne's thing, that is, my family's thing.
"And is it bad?"
"Not at all! This is just an indication that maybe Mom and Dad will get a son-in-law soon."
"What?!" Henry asked, surprised and confused.
"Just kidding," Ava said, turning as red as Winter's feathers. "But I wouldn't mind if it were true..." She muttered awkwardly.
Then it was Henry's turn to blush.
"I wouldn't mind either…" The human muttered, looking away, turning redder than Winter's feathers.
The witch widened her eyes at that.
"Well… Eh… Look at the sky! From the position of the Moon it must be almost morning." Henry said trying to change the subject and hide his embarrassment. "I think… I think we'd better say goodbye and I'll just kill myself somewhere real quick and… Goodbye, see you never again…"
Shocked and embarrassed Ava froze up as she watched Henry stride away and mutter desperately, "What have I done? What have I done? What have I done?" as he walked out of there.
Then Henry started running in despair, extremally embarrassed, towards the village.
After hours of running, Henry finally made it home. Opening the door he found a sleeping Philip sitting in a chair against the wall beside the door. Winter was also asleep, on top of Philip's head.
This scene was so cute that it warmed Henry's heart and he was very sorry to disturb them both, but he had to, as he couldn't let his brother sleep uncomfortably for the rest of the night.
"Phil?" Henry called softly, gently pushing the sleeping young man's shoulder, trying to wake him up. "Philip?"
"Huh?" Philip blurted out, still groggy. "Is it already morning?"
"No, it isn't," Henry replied softly.
"Then let me sleep…" Philip replied, his eyes still closed, settling even more on the chair, which ended up waking Winter, who, yawning, flew off and landed on top of Henry's head.
"I will," Henry replied softly, trying to gently lift his younger brother from his chair. "But only after you're comfortable on your bed."
"Evil brother…" Philip complained, muttering, still with his eyes closed, but letting himself be lifted by his brother.
Henry just smiled as he took Philip's arm and rested it on his shoulder as he helped the sleeping young man into his room. Once there, Henry placed Philip gently on the bed, covering him with a blanket right away and as he walked away he felt something grab the cuff of his shirt. Henry turned and saw it was Philip. Still groggy from sleep and with his eyes closed, the younger of the brothers said:
"Don't leave me please…"
Henry approached his brother and kissed his forehead good night, saying:
"I won't leave you."
So Henry sat on the bed, right next to his brother and waited for him to go back to sleep…
"Hunter?" Winter's voice called as if he were shouting from far away.
Strange… The bird was on top of his head, so why was he listening it like it came from so far away?
"Hunter?" Winter's voice called again.
Henry ignored the call once more.
"Hunter?" Winter's voice insisted.
And with that, everything began to fade away around him.
"Hunter! Hunter, Hunter, Huuuunteeeeer!" Winter insisted, pecking the boy lightly from time to time. "It's already six o'clock, or rather, it was six o'clock when I started calling you, now it's six-eleven."
"Already?!" The boy sat up in a jump, it even looked like he had been electrocuted.
"Yes, already. It's time to wake up. There's an E-NOR-MOUS stack of documents for you to fill in today, remember?"
"Unfortunately…" Hunter grunted dejectedly.
"Did you sleep well?"
"I think so… I mean, at least it's more than I'm used to sleeping."
"More than you're used to sleeping?! You're kidding, right? You went to sleep at nearly one o'clock in the morning and I'm waking you up at six. That's barely five hours of sleep!"
"And?"
"So don't complain if you stop growing and stay shorty forever."
"I'm not shorty!" Hunter replied indignantly.
"Yes, you are! You're very short for a boy who is supposed to be sixteen," Winter said without pity. "And you will get even shorter if you keep getting little sleep and eating poorly. Now get up, get dressed and have a good breakfast because today will be a busy day."
"OK…"
And so the boy went through his daily routine, starting to fill out the coven's overdue documentation shortly thereafter, with the help of his palisman. With that, the day went faster than it would if Hunter had to do those boring chores without the help of his feathered friend.
By late afternoon the young leader of the Emperor's Coven was exhausted but happy that he had gotten so much out of the way. If he continued at this pace he would be able to catch up before the end of the week and still give him time to study about 'how to behave like a regular teenager' and 'what to do at a slumber party' so he wouldn' t make a fool of himself at the party of Darius' siblings on Monday.
"On second thought, I'd better start researching about it tonight, rather than Sunday…" Hunter spoke to himself.
"Research about what?" Winter asked, confused, over Hunter's shoulder.
"About how to behave like a normal teenager."
"But you are one!"
"Teenager? Yes, I am. Normal? I doubt it."
"Why?"
"Because I grew up here at the castle. Everyone I've talked to in my life, with the exception of the human, the youngest of the Blights and the Owl Woman's pet rat, have been adults. I have no idea of what other people my age do or say when they have some free time."
"And what do you do in your free time?"
"You've already seen it. I study wild magic hiddenly, watch anime and cartoons and talk to you."
"And do you think this is so different from what other teenagers do?"
"Probably."
"Are you sure you have no idea what they do?"
"Well... I guess I'm starting to remember now Ralph complaining that his teenage son has been spending all his time at the scroll watching and posting nonsense on Penstagram and Witchtube all day..."
"Who is Ralph?"
"He is a member of the Emperor's Coven," Hunter replied. "And one of the oldest scouts still working at the keep. It was Ralph, Steve, and Rita who helped Uncle Belos take care of me when I was a baby."
"So cute!"
"It is not cute!"
"Yes, it is!"
"No, it isn't!"
"Yes it is and I will repeat it until the end of time. Now back to what we were talking about, does this Ralph guy talk a lot about his son?"
"Quite a bit," Hunter replied, giving up. "He complains that the boy wants to be a 'digital influencer' or whatever instead of trying to join the Emperor's Coven or something… Is being a teenager something like it? Or is it just Ralph's son who's weird?
"I think this might be a pretty common behavior among teenagers," Winter said thoughtfully.
"Okay, so I guess I'll have to create a Penstagram account," Hunter said thoughtfully. "And then what? What do I do on Penstagram?"
"I guess you should watch some videos and see some pictures at night before bed to find out what teenagers like to do or something like it."
"Yeah… I guess that way I can avoid making a fool of myself on Monday… Perfect! Time to start executing this plan."
"Hunter, plan or no plan, you won't make a fool of yourself at the party."
"How do you know it?"
"Because you, along with my old witch, are the coolest witch I know. I bet everyone at the party will want to be your friend."
"Are you sure? What if they find my voice annoying, like Kiki and the Owl Lady?"
"I think it's more likely that they will find your voice cute, like Darius."
"Why you say that?"
"Because Kikimora and the Owl Lady are your enemies, so of course they must find everything about you bad or annoying. But I'm sure anyone else can see how cool you and your voice are. This I can guarantee because I saw it the day we first met in Latissa and that's why I chose you."
"Really?" Hunter asked, flushed and a little happy with the palisman's words.
"Yes!" Winter replied. "You remind me a lot of my old witch and you're just as cool as he was."
"You must love your old witch very much to talk about him so much," Hunter commented with a smile.
"Yes!" Winter replied excitedly. "He was my best friend! I loved him so much for that and I love you just the same!"
"Thanks..." Hunter replied blushing awkwardly, having never heard that in his life, not even from his uncle. "I love you too, my friend."
Winter was so overjoyed by this declaration that he began to fly excitedly around Hunter chanting "friends, best friends, friends forever" excitedly.
Hunter was smiling, caught up in the red cardinal's joy for a few seconds, then he decided to put his plan into action, taking his scroll out of his pocket and starting to create a Penstagram account.
So the boy started to follow the necessary steps to create the account until…
"Okay, looks like the next step in doing the account is to write down my full name," Hunter told himself.
"Already creating the Penstagram account?" Winter asked, landing on his shoulder.
"Yep," Hunter admitted.
"Is it difficult?"
"Actually no, but it sucks," Hunter replied. "I had to do a bunch of boring steps like typing in a security code I got via email before I finally got to this screen."
"Um… that doesn't sound like much fun…" Winter said.
"And it isn't."
"But, at least, after you write your full name, it ends, right?"
"Hope so."
"Speaking of which, we've known each other for several days and you've never even told me your full name once."
"Sorry," Hunter apologized. "It's not even been three days that I've been able to understand you and we haven't had the opportunity to talk about it until then… Still, I'm sorry."
"No problem," Winter replied. "Now that the opportunity has arisen, what's your full name?"
"It's Hunter Wittebane."
"Oh, yeah… WHAT?!"