20 years earlier...
Evora laid in the wet grass slipping in and out of consciousness. She could smell the freshly burnt flesh on her leg and warm blood trickling from a further wound on her shoulder. Her body started to shake as started to go into shock.
This fight had not ended well, this was supposed to be her forth kill but this witch had been the most powerful she had come across yet. The witch had made use of more ancient magic, not something Evora had come across since that fateful night in her village. Evora expected that the witch thought she had finished her off and that's how she was still laying there shaking in the grass. But even then Evora thought perhaps this was her end.
"Oh my goodness!" She heard a soft voice exclaim as her eyes started to close.
"Here let me help you..."
Vivid dreams filled Evora's mind as she dreamed of ghostly figure of a man dressed in black with no face. She tried to move around him to get a glimpse but something was blocking her. There was a warmth about the haunting figure and she didn't feel scared of him, if anything she felt at ease by his presence.
"Don't leave me alone, please" she cried as she reached for the stranger's hand.
The first thing Evora could feel as she slowly opened her eyes was warmth coming from a nearby crackling fire. Along with the homely smell of a soup being boiled, it made Evora smile to herself.
"Mother..." she whispered
Evora felt a soft hand squeeze her own hand as she thought just maybe, everything had been a terrible nightmare. She moved her eyes as her sight became less blurry and laid her eyes onto a stranger, making her jump as she pulled her hand away quickly.
"Who are you?" Exclaimed Evora as the woman sat besides her still. She had a friendly smile, long blonde curls that went down to her waist and skin so pale it looked as though you could see through it.
"Please, don't be alarmed. You are safe" she tried to reassure Evora who was looking around the small log cabin for a fast exit.
"I said, who are you?" Evora questioned her again.
"Oh how silly of me! My name is Gisella" she smiled, the woman had an unusually high pitched voice. Gisella picked herself up and went to check on her soup, dipping the spoon in and giving it a stir. She looked over at Evora as she asked "Hungry?"
Evora didn't want to admit it but she was, and the smell of something so homely was a luxury these days as she felt her stomach rumble at the thought of the taste.
Evora was about to give in to the soup but the more she looked around, the more she grew suspicious. There seemed to be lots of herbs, unusual trinkets and potions of all different colours dotted around the place.
"Are you a witch?" Evora outright asked the question she feared the answer to.
"Yes, in theory" smiled Gisella
Evora went pale and then went to jump out of the hard wooden bed. The pain hit her first as she felt the exposed nerves on her leg feel as though it was stabbing her leg a hundred times over. She fell to the ground as she gasped in agony, Gisella came rushing to her aid trying to help her back to the bed.
"Don't touch me!" Cried Evora as she slapped Gisella's hand off her.
"Please, I'm only trying to help you" Gisella offered calmly.
"I don't want help from you!" Evora snapped as she awkwardly sat on the floor unable to move from the pain. Gisella looked at the vulnerable girl on the floor and realised there was a bigger story behind what she simply thought was an injured girl in the woods. If anything, Gisella felt foolish that she hadn't noticed before by Evora's wounds and outbursts towards her after finding out she was a witch that the girl was in this state because of a witch.
Gisella knelt down next to her, sensing Evora's disgust for getting close to her as she softly asked "Did a witch do this to you?"
"What do you think?" Evora said through gritted teeth, trying to ignore the pain.
"Why an earth would anyone want to hurt you?" Gisella asked, confused.
"Because I was trying to kill her" frowned Evora. Gisella was taken back, she hadn't expected that answer.
"But why, my dear?" Gisella questioned Evora still in her kind tone.
"That is none of your business" Evora snapped, the pain overwhelming her. She then proceeded to drag herself across the floor to the door as Gisella tried to stop her as she pleaded "Oh please, you are seriously hurt!"
Evora was surprised that despite her revelation to the witch, she still wanted to help her but Evora did not feel so changed, she didn't want help from a witch. As Evora reached for the door, she felt warm blood from the wound on her shoulder start to trickle down but her stubbornness gave her the will power to pull the door open.
Gisella watched the scene before her, stunned into silence as she watched Evora force herself out of the door and into the cold outdoors.
However, Evora didn't make it too far from the small lodge. She had managed to heave herself off the porch and partly into the woods in front of her. But the pain was getting too much to bare as her surroundings started to spin and her head crash onto the dirt before her.
"Don't leave me alone, please!" she cried as she reached for the stranger's hand once more. She could hear the figure in black shouting what she thought was her name but it only sounded like murmurs in the wind in her mind.
Evora's eyes shot open, she took her surroundings in quicker this time round as she recognised the same homely warmth and smells but she wouldn't be so easily deceived this time.
"You've been out for about a week" she heard Gisella say as she turned to find the witch sitting next to her "With some quite intense dreams by the sounds of it"
"I've been out for a week and didn't kill me?" Evora looked confused.
"I think you need to understand that not all witches are bad" Gisella raised her eyebrow at her.
"But you all belong to the same wretched coven" Snapped Evora, turning away from Gisella.
"Ah" signed Gisella with a hint of amusement in her voice "Someone doesn't know their witch history"
Evora turned back to her and asked "What do you mean?"
"Long ago, there was a break from the ancient coven. Some of us didn't believe in their cruel ways. I guess it was almost like a civil war between us" explained Gisella
"But didn't they try to kill you for siding against them?" Evora was interested in her story.
"At first they did but then they decided there was safety in numbers and the chance that we might defect back to their side" replied Gisella "Though I'm pretty sure none of us have"
"How can I be sure you are telling me the truth?" Evora asked as she felt doubt creep inside her.
"Because I would of killed you if I was one of them" Gisella bluntly put across and it was at that moment Evora did feel like she could trust her.