Chapter 6.0

I didn't fancy fending off wild beasts with illusions and black smoke from my nox spell. Unlike humans, beasts were smart enough to keep track of more than just their sense of sight. And while perhaps I was overreacting since I'd only been attacked once on the way here - and in the middle of the night, at that - I was wounded now. There was more than one beast on Earth that could sense weakness and I suspected the same was true of Arda.

I was still seriously pissed off and aggrieved about the loss of my wand and in pain from my injuries but I didn't give in to the urge to scream and moan. I was sixteen, more or less, and very nearly an adult witch. So long as I wasn't polyjuiced I wasn't a kid anymore and I was determined to be the master of my emotions. Then again, that didn't mean I couldn't climb a tree for safety and cry a little as I healed.

I slipped up from time to time, drifting off into a troubled sleep for seconds or minutes before snapping back awake. Some hours later I tired of the fitful resting and made my way back down to the ground. It was dim through the thick canopy but the sun was rising in the west, a dull red glow that would help guide me through the centuries-old woods.

I tried my best not to limp as I moved along the forest floor. There were many strange and fell creatures in the woods, many of them watching me, and I was wary of looking anything other than fierce. If they were anything like the predators of Earth then they preyed on weakness, and I hadn't felt so weak since I was a little girl. And I was weak. Half-healed legs would make a physical fight difficult if not impossible, and with my wand destroyed I was practically useless as a witch. There were a few spells I could cast wandlessly, true, but none that were useful. They mostly amounted to petty illusion spells and my peculiar not-light. The last was likely my best chance in a fight or as a means of escape, though I doubted its effectiveness here in the forest. Draining the light from an area with blacklight or casting a black fog with nox wasn't very useful against giant eyeless insects.

I failed to hide my wince as a particularly jarring step down a bank sent a shock down through my hand. My legs were actually healing up fairly well. They were sore but acted like they'd been healing for weeks instead of hours and I could keep them held up in the air to keep from re-damaging them. My still-human fingers though, they were less quick to mend. It was a shame I'd had such poor luck with the elves, if I still had the magic ring I would have been healed up in no time. Then again, as a side effect I'd also be munch-on-souls-level hungry instead of just eat-a-horse hungry.

I flinched again, this time at so casually referencing the preferred diet of demonic spiders, the race I was in large part a member of. It was still far too soon to think about my shameful encounter with the little wizard with any sort of objectivity. Instead I tried not to think about anything at all, just a low, ceaseless hum going through my head as I kept a wary eye on my surroundings.

Compared to my usual pace I felt like a snail, but compared to a normal human I was still moving at a slow jog. Around midday I reached the edge of the treeline and trotted the last few miles to the river on my good legs. I drank deep, swallowing a full gallon before worries about parasites and water-borne diseases occurred to me. It was probably fine though. Even plain witches were more resistant to such things than muggles and I wasn't just a witch any longer.

I might've liked to relax for a while but the sun was hateful in its intensity. It was strange that it affected me so strongly. I was fair-skinned and prone to burns as a child but now half of me was black carapace and the other half was caramel-colored skin. I couldn't tell if I was still sensitized from the light spell that blasted wizard burnt me with at the castle or if I was under the influence of some spider instinct towards bright light. Or demonic instinct, for that matter. I'd studied up a fair bit on spiders since my transformation started but the demonic aspect was something I was still in the dark about. Hopefully demon species weren't as bad as muggles made them out to be, though the appetite for souls wasn't inspiring. I'd have to check and see if Hogwarts had any books on the subject.

Strange, inhuman instinct or not, it seemed like a good idea to get out of the sun. I was injured so it was only right to pamper my body as much as I could while adventuring without supplies on another planet. It was a long way back to the forest though, and even the safety of the very edges was dubious. Better, perhaps, to rest by the river for a time and wait for the sun to fall a ways.

'Perfect.' The tree looked like some type of beech, though species cross-comparisons across worlds were often misleading. Regardless, it had leaves and shade aplenty. Even better, it was close enough to the water to stick my injured legs in to soak.

The water was a pleasant chill over the aching half-healed breaks. "Much better," I sighed, sigh mixing with a spidery hiss of contentment. Dipping my hand in as well I felt almost comfortable for the first time in far too long.

A little nap sounded like a capital idea.