The Grey Witch

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Okay guys, so here's the real chapter. I swear I was not paying attention when I was writing this story before because THIS is the real chapter 7, the one before is chapter 6. Okay, the point is I plan to be more active here. Not going to lie I've kinda lost where I was going to go with the story, so I hope that I can find my way. I don't think this story will go on very much longer to be honest, I might be able to bring it to a complete close very soon. The goal, hopefully is to complete this story by the end of November. Wish me luck!

Chapter 7

Gretel's POV

The island, though apparently small, was actually quite larger than they were told. Ben had thought it wise to follow the river, if the sirens were travelling to and from the gods then they must be using something to travel. In his mind, that logically meant the river. But we had been following the river for what seemed to be hours now and all we had found was nothing but forest. The plan, was to find the temple, do some recon, see if we could find a safe way in and then they could avenge Hansel.

The trees seemed impossibly large. The canopy dense, the sunlight dappled and in some places, there was nothing but shadows. The river was wide and roaring, its foam tips cresting at every lurch and Gretel had no intention of falling into it this time.

Other then the roar of the water there was no sound. No woodland creatures scurrying, no birds cawing, not even the wind rustled through the leaves.

Where the hell was everything?

"The island is supposed to be a menagerie," Carol's small voice came from behind me. I had almost forgotten that she was trailing behind us. "Every sort of animal is supposed to be here."

"Nothing seems to be here," Ben answered.

"But that isn't right," Carol said again. "Something's wrong."

I came to a stop and turned back to her. "Well what could be the problem?" I asked. "They can't know we're here. They can't know that we're looking for them."

"But it shouldn't be this quiet," Carol hissed. She was looking around as if something was going to pop out at them at any point in time.

"Okay, and what would you propose we do? Hmm?" I asked, hands on hips waiting for an answer.

"I think we should take cover, or climb the trees, or something, because if it's this quiet here than something's wrong. We should be prepared for an ambush," Carol said, mirroring my image.

We didn't have time for this. I needed to find my brother. I needed to either rescue him or find his body before he was devoured. I didn't have time to play treehouse with a disgruntled sea woman who may or may not be obsessed with a god that lived on this island.

"I don't have time for this," I snapped and turned around. I took one step and something whooshed past my face scratching my cheek.

I turned, an arrow was stuck in a branch above me. We were under attack! I brought out my pocket crossbow, ready to take aim at whatever was attacking us but nothing was visible. Ben had taken his crossbow out as well, even Carol behind me has a knife in her hand. Probably used to gut fish but desperate times called for desperate measures.

We waited, back to back for any sort of movement. And the arrows started flying again. They hit the ground around us, they hit the branches above us. We shot arrows in the dark, in any direction hoping to hit anything. But after a while the arrows stopped and it was clearly that we hadn't hit a single thing.

Finally, I took a good look at the arrows around us. They were silver bolts, with white feathers and crystal arrow heads. Around each bolt, from the feather side, hung a string of different blue beads.

"Do those arrows look weird to you?" I asked Ben.

Ben knelt down to look at the one closest to him. "It was said, once, back when the Elves roamed the world, that they would make special bolts that they could shoot spells," he explained. "But the elves have been extinct for years and their recipe for magic bolts died with them."

Well these looked an awful lot like magic arrows. They just weren't active yet. Still I scoffed to show that I wasn't afraid. "That's a nice fairy tale," I said.

And then the hum started. First it was just a low buzzing that caused us to look around, but it quickly escalated into a high pitch near scream. The strings of blue beads hovered and the lights erupted from them. Warping and criss-crossing until they were nothing but a mesh of blue lights.

I stared at them. Magic didn't work on me, but it would work on Carol and Ben. I tried to put my hand through and got shocked. What?

"I thought magic didn't work on you…" Ben whispered.

It didn't but it didn't explain this.

"Elven magic is different from a witch's magic," a voice said and from the trees appeared a tribe of peoples. They wore flowing green togas and wore intricate crowns woven of flora clearly indigenous to the island.

The leader of the group, who wore his long deep green hair in a series of beaded braids. He smiled warmly at us and said: "It's time for you to meet our Gods."

Hansel's POV

It didn't take long for me to realize that the door was locked by magic and though usually magic didn't work on me, it sure as hell worked on the door. With no other options I opted to climb out the window. I had no idea I was in a tower until I actually found my way out of the room, hanging precariously from the lavender ivy. From my vantage point I saw that the building was essentially a keep. Complete with a moat, a large wall with turrets and a huge blooming apple tree in the middle of what I assumed was the throne room.

It was quite magnificent.

The tower I was connected to the west corner. It was the only part of the keep covered in ivy. One had a giant window with a telescope peaking out of it, another I swore was made out of seashells and the last had smoke furling out of all of the windows.

I figured as soon as I got to the ground, I could find my way out of the Keep, out to the shore and off of this stupid island. As much as my heart didn't want to leave, my brain knew better. Staying here when I couldn't control myself, when I yearned for a monster, was not wise. That was a way to lose my life, whether it be in figuratively or literally. Staying near Lorne, would kill me.

But when I got to the ground I was no alone. Materializing, almost out of no where were two men in different colored green togas. They had nothing in the name of weapons but the way they were staring at me in such a calm confidence I had a feeling that they wouldn't need weapons to stop me from leaving.

So, I let them take my upper arms and drag me through the keep. All the way to the throne room. The sights on the way, the moving stain-glass windows, the iridescent bricks that glimmered and gleamed a long the way. Each new corner was something magical and wonderful. I had never seen magic used to create such wonderful things and it took my breath away.

And I did not get it back.

The throne room was essentially just the tree. The floor was mostly water, the roots creating pathways to walk towards. Thrones sat in four corners, an ivy and lavender throne, one of seashells and sand, one of bricks and metal work and one spun of glass and what seemed to be stars.

Each throne belonged to a single person. Lorne at the ivy, a man with fiery red hair and an orange tunic at the bricks, a man with blue hair and a sea blue toga at the sea shell, and a woman with black hair just like Lorne's but in a pale-yellow toga with a crown of jasmine and fireflies.

They had not noticed me and my captors as we made our way towards them. They were too engrossed in their argument.

"The time has come to fight back," the man in orange shouted.

"I keep telling you that we will not win an outright battle," Lorne snapped back, keeping her voice level. Out of the three people she was the only one still sitting. The others were up and pacing about, she lounged back in her throne as if whatever had the others this agitated meant nothing at all to her.

"But we cannot sit by and do nothing," the other woman said. "If Lornalei is right, the witches will come no matter what we do to ward them off. Rough waters and sirens will only keep them at bay for so long."

"We could let loose the monsters," the man in blue offered and finally Lorne looked angry.

"The humans who live opposite us will not enjoy the presence of the monsters and our monsters will not distinguish the difference between mortal and witch. You know this. This is why they are locked away," she argued.

"You are your stupid mortals," the man in orange snapped. "You care more about them then you do our family!"

"They are not stupid," Lorne snapped. "Some are quite wonderful. They make up for their short lifespans with such wonderful imagination."

"Says the woman who moved all over the world because they kept hunting you and chasing you around," the man in orange snapped. "Admit it! You don't think humans are wonderful you think your pet is wonderful."

Lorne colored and jumped to her feet. "At least I don't toy with mortal's only to throw them aside and leave them struggling to get to our island once a month hoping for a glimpse of me!"

"No, your pet got himself caught in a siren trap and brought his vicious sister, her know-it-all boyfriend and my mortal plaything to the damn island," the man in orange growled.

"I have told you once and I will tell you again. Once I hand Hansel over, his sister and her boyfriend will leave. Your play thing however, is entirely your problem and you'll have to deal with that yourself," she said all haughty and prim.

"Children, please," the woman in yellow said with a sigh. "Please behave in front of company."

And then all eyes were on me again. Lorne merely threw her head back and groaned. "Where did you find him?"

"Climbing down from the tower," one of the men said. They let me go and took a step back. "We have word that they found the others. They are bringing them here."

"Thank you," she said to them. They bowed to her before leaving us there. Lorne took a step towards me and immediately I was torn between stepping towards her, holding her hand or running away.

"Why couldn't you just wait like I asked?" she asked me and I frowned. "I said I would reunite you with your sister. I meant it."

"I wished to limit my time with you," I found myself saying and I immediately regretted it. The words seemed to sadden Lorne so deeply. She crossed her arms over her chest and seemed to sink into her own body. But it was the man in orange who spoke next.

"HEY! Any time with my sister is a gift!" he said pointing a finger at me. A sort of smoke had begun to expel from him until Lorne but a hand to his arm.

"It's alright, Apple," she said trying to smile. "He will be gone soon. Just as he so desires."

I opened my mouth to argue. To explain to her that I meant not to be a burden on their house, to merely find my sister who must have been out of her mind with worry, but I never got a chance.

There came a resounding shout of: "You fucking bitch!" that echoed around us.

And my sister was here.