The Grey Witch
AvalonReeseFanFics
A/N: Hello My wonderful readers! I have not been having a good week. I completely forgot to get this chapter up on Monday. But it's here now and I hope you like it. I can tell you guys that we're going to have 11 chapters, so two more after this and then an epilogue. So twelve chapters in total and then we'll be done. As always don't forget to leave a review, or a fav or a follow and I'll see you guys next Monday.
Chapter 9
Hansel's P.O.V
As we walked back towards the castle, Ben filled me in on all that I had missed. Like the boat sinking, and getting captured by elves and the magic arrows. He went on for a really long time about how Elves were all supposed to extinct because he sensed that we hadn't been listening when he first went through the explanation.
Apparently this was the third time that Gretel got this lecture and she hadn't listened that time either.
The walk was mostly quick because we were ignoring Ben to get back to the castle as quickly as we could.
Surprisingly no one stopped our march back to the castle. No Elves with magic arrows appeared to stop us, there was no one at the main gates, in fact I hadn't seen very many people on this island at all, and the castle was fairly empty. I was assuming that the inhabitants of this island were either very good at hiding or there weren't very many of them. Except I knew exactly where the people were, or, at least, the people I was looking for.
We made our way through the corridors we had just made our way through a whisper echoing through the hallway with each step. Heralding our entrance before we even got back the main chamber.
That overgrown throne room took my breath away a second time. I was still certain that it would always take my breath away.
Since I had left little blooms on the vines that grew along the walls had opened revealing little lights. The sun was not setting, not even close, but still the lights were there, winking at me. But it was what they were doing to Lorne that really took my breath away.
She stood there, still with the others who were still arguing, those purple eyes pointed in my direction. There just so happened to be a halo of glowing flowers behind her, lighting her up in this heavenly way.
She said nothing and I said nothing in return. Even my sister and Ben were quiet, my sister had the ability but Ben… well I had been starting to doubt that he could be quiet. So I was rather surprised that he hadn't uttered a word yet.
We observed the arguing trio, the man in blue, the woman in yellow both in a very heated discussion. The red-haired man Lorne had called Apple was trying to argue too all while trying to get Carol to let him go. She had clasped herself to his chest and refused to let go no matter how he squirmed.
Lorne said absolutely nothing and neither did we, but, as if they all had a taken a silent cue from her, their eyes swung towards them.
The man in blue turned to her. "Lorne your mortals are back."
"Yes I can see that."
"Why are they back, Lorne," he asked.
"I'm not sure."
And then she was heading towards them. She took each step down from that tree, a dainty foot on each root as if they were steps, with an ease that both my sister and I would not have been able to muster. Why did she seem to float across the floor? Why did she have to seem so… refined as she walked towards us, her hands clasped patiently in front of her.
It served to remind me that we were very different and probably very ill-suited. So why wouldn't my heart stop yearning for her presence? Why did it speed up as she grew closer to me?
She approached us carefully and then pinned us with a smile that I knew was just a polite facsimile of her real smile.
"Was the boat not to your liking?"
"The boat was fine…"
"Then why have you returned?"
"Because we want to help you," I told her and her eyebrows rocketed the top of her forehead. She clearly hadn't been expecting that and she really didn't want us to stay. So I added: "You need us."
"Thank you for the offer, Hansel, it is greatly appreciated but it would be better if you…"
"No," Gretel said. "As much as I dislike you, Hansel is right. You need us. We're immune to the witches' dark magic. We've got practicing fighting them, and quite honestly I am not making that walk back down to the coast again. So we're staying and you're going to deal with it."
Lorne took in that lecture like a champ. She stared at our earnest faces and then glanced back to the people who were waiting
"Looks like our army just got a bit bigger," she said to them which caused the others watching to groan.
She then turned back to us and said: "Alright, let's go meet the family."
Wait a second… family?
Gretel's P.O.V.
Lorne lead us back up to the center of the room where everyone was arguing by that tree. They had stopped arguing and were instead staring at them. Carol was seemingly lost to the world gripping the man in red so tightly it seemed unlikely he could breathe, and yet he seemed most uncomfortable with her presence and not the tightness of her grip on his chest.
"Alright, let's make this quick," Lorne said. "The woman is Gretel, this one is Hansel, that one is Ben."
She pointed to each of them and each of the three people they didn't know nodded taking in each name.
"They're half witches…" "—Half good witch." "Right, good witch, that's important because they're immune to a dark witch's magic."
We nodded eagerly and earnestly and Ben added: "Not immune. I'm just a regular human who knows a lot about folklore."
"Right, yes, keep forgetting that. Sorry Ben," Lorne said and he just smiled at her because he was too nice to actually say anything mean to her.
"Alright, guys. This is my father, Posidian. My Mother Heraphony, and my brother Apolores."
Her father was the man with blue hair that curled around his name in unruly tangles. He was wearing a sea blue toga with a crown of coral upon his head. Her mother was the woman with black hair just like Lorne's but she was in a pale-yellow toga with a crown of jasmine and fireflies clearly trained to hover around her head. Who had trained fireflies? Or was it magic?
Her brother, the man she often called Apple, had spiky red hair and dressed similar to Lorne. He was in an orange tunic with white breeches. And they already knew Carol who was still attached to him.
"Wait. Poseidon, Hera, Apollo?" Ben asked. "Like the Deities from the land of Hellas we visited last year?"
"Yes, we used to reside there for a while. Some of our relatives still do," said Posidian. "My brothers, Hadeion and Zelanous are still there."
Wait… they… they were gods! Like real gods? Well damn. I shot a glance to my brother who seemed to have gone ashen in the face of her family. This was probably not how he imagined meeting her family for the first time. I wondered if they knew the relationship between my brother and their daughter.
"I am the youngest of the family and born here so I do not have godly translation," Lorne explained.
"But you have a name like theirs," Hansel whispered, more a statement than a question.
"Yes, it's Lornalei. I changed it to Lorne when I joined the mortals and learned that names like ours died out. I thought it would help me blend in better."
"And how did that work out for you?" Apple asked and she shot him a dry glare because we all knew that it did not work out for her at all.
"I'd like to know what this is all about," Ben said. "Why, if they've left you alone for so long, are they converging on you now?"
They all exchanged glances and then turned to the tree. Lorne lifted a hand and the branches began to move revealing flowers budding up above them and one singular apple, shiny and red nestled in the leaves.
"That is a fruit of eternity. Anyone who eats is granted eternal life. It is what has given us our longevity," Lorne said. "They can only be cultivated in very special places, such as this island where the natural magics pool. Every hundred years one ripens."
"And every hundred years we have witches, mortals and many other creatures trying to steal it from us, by any means necessary."
"Okay, but if you've been doing this for years, why is this year a problem?"
"Because normally we have more support," Posidian told them. "What usually happens, is when one of the trees flowers, we all go there to help the others protect the tree. This year, the trees are all blooming at once. That means all the other trees need to be protected as well and we're spread thin."
"And we can't let out the monsters because someone is worried about the mortals," Apple snarled shooting a glare at his sister.
"We should care about the mortals!" Lorne snapped. "They are our neighbours and they should not have to suffer through our war. And we all know the monsters will not differentiate."
We all shook our heads at them, this was not the time for quibbling, this was the time to draw up battle plans. I glanced to my brother wondering if he had the same idea and he clearly did because he turned to them and said: "Well lucky for you guys, we have a plan."
And then we went straight to explaining it.
Hansel's P.O.V.
After laying out the plan and sending everyone off to complete their tasks, I found myself staring up at the tree and the fruit hanging there.
To say I wasn't tempted would be a lie. Who wouldn't be tempted by eternal life? And while immortality was desirable, I would only want it if I had someone to spend my eternal life with. Normally I'd want it to be my sister, but my mind kept wandering back to Lorne, already immortal and clearly still holding onto my heart. I couldn't help but think that immortality would be worth it if I always had her by my side.
"Are you tempted, Hansel?"
I turn to where she is standing just behind me and I smile. Not because I am tempted, though I am, but because she is there and she always makes me smile.
"I'm tempted by a lot of things, but not that fruit."
"Oh? Eternal life doesn't tempt you?"
"I mean… it would… if I had the right person to live eternally with."
She tilted her head at me, as if she were confused. I was standing in front of her now, she was still dressed in that grey and purple dress from before. She was supposed to change into a more battle appropriate outfit but she clearly hadn't yet.
I wanted to reach out and hold her hand, but I shouldn't so I don't.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"Why did you come back Hansel?"
The question comes out of her quietly but her gaze does not leave my face, determined to read my response both on my face and in my eyes.
"I had to," I said and that, at least, isn't a lie, but the rest that comes out of me is. "You've saved my life, I'm indebted to you."
Her face falls. Which is remarkable because her face had been passive beforehand, not a single shred of hope had been on her face, but even I can see that glimmer in her eyes die at my words.
"I see," she says after a while, no longer holding my gaze. "Well… thank you. After this, you and I will be even and we can go our separate ways."
But I don't want that.
I shouldn't have lied. I should have told her the truth. Why was I so afraid? I could face an army of witches more than once but ask me to bare my heart or talk about my feelings and I become a coward. I wished I was different, that I could be the person she deserved.
"I uh… I may have come back a little bit because… I… I love you."
Oh god I said it, why did I say that? It's there it's out there, the words hovering like a cloud between us. Her eye shave found my again but she's said nothing.
God why wouldn't she say anything?
A low cry of a horn breaks the sudden silence between us and we both turn to it as we both know what it means.
The witches have come.