Chapter 2: The hunter
Raven walked into a huge dark oak mansion, windows covered in planks or dark dust. The huge black door opened at her push. As she closed the door she heard the others living in the house come out.
Jinx, another witch. She and Raven were love to hate friends, some days they would fight over nothing other days they would be like sisters. Jinx herself had pink hair with pink eyes. Her powers weren't as strong as Raven's but Jinx had one special ability, Manipulating the probability of bad luck. Something even Raven wasn't as good as.
Malchior, a powerful wizard. He was the one who always wanted to hang out with Raven, but she would always deny him. She knew he liked her, but she didn't return the feelings. Malchior was way more powerful than Jinx, but not as strong as Raven. He as similar to Jinx had one ability, he could transform into a huge fire breathing dragon.
Her father also lived there, he owned the place. Trigon the magic lord. He was really overprotective for Raven, he knew how strong her powers were and wanted her to take the throne when he would pass. He liked Jinx and Malchior because of their ability to use magic, but every magic user would bow before him. They had just become Raven's friends in her childhood. In honesty he wanted Raven to marry Malchior when the time came, which wasn't long to.
Her mother had died from a hunter ten years ago, she had tried to escape them but was shot in the heart. Raven could still hear her mother's last words, before Raven had escaped. "Run, don't look back… I love you."
As Raven walked down the dark red hallway she began to think of the boy she meet. Why didn't he kill her? He had the chance…
"Raven, there you are." Raven looked up, her father stood in the doorway to the dining room waiting for her. "Come, we're having a meeting." He opened the door for her and closed it behind her.
She sat down at the chair next to her father, Jinx and Malchior was already there.
Before Trigon sat down, began to speak. "I called all of you here because I was out patrolling." Raven went stiff, she knew where this was going. He had totally seen her. "Garfield Logan is hunting us, or… Raven." All eyes turned to Raven. "He saw her last night. But I can't help wonder…" He sat down at the end of the table. "How did he find out about you? And why were you spying at them?" Trigon looked Raven dead in the eyes.
"I saw the fire and got curious…" She said, she looked away hoping to avoid his first question.
"How did he know about you?" Trigon asked, he placed his head on his hands relaxing.
"I-I…" She started. "There was a man, he scared me and I attacked on accident. He must have ran back and gotten the hunter." Raven said, she didn't really want to talk about this.
"Why did you spy on puny humans?" Jinx asked, she looked confused at the hole thing.
"As I said, I got curious about the fire and saw the humans while I got there." Raven folded her arms, this was annoying her.
"Why get curious about a small fire?" Malchior asked, he voice dragging at her, begging for her to say something he wanted to hear.
Raven didn't answer.
"Fine… No one is going out of this house while the hunters are close. I saw you Raven…" Trigon said, he looked at her, with sorrow? "I cannot lose you, like I lost your mother. Please Raven, stay until they go away." Raven gave a nod, she wasn't going to do it, she just needed her father to think so. "Thank you…"
With that they split, at least Trigon did. He went into the kitchen, he was going to tell them what was for dinner.
Raven, Jinx and Malchior walked into the library, Raven wanted to be alone and read, but Jinx kept asking her questions about the hunter. Malchior just followed for no real reason.
"Guys, I need to be alone for a while. I can talk to you later, with that she went behind some bookcases and vanished from their sight.
"All I wanted to know was if he was hot or not…" Jinx muttered before walking off to do her own stuff.
Malchior stayed a little longer before going to the training room to train on his other powers.
Raven sat in one of the huge windows of the library with a book in her hands. "Tale of two hearts" It was a classic romance story about the daughter of Evil fell in love with the son of Good. Sadly, the book ended with them dying in each other's arms. Lucinda the daughter of Evil and Dante the son of Good, were forced to marry two other people, but married each other in secret. Lucinda died after being shot with an arrow and Dante died by drinking poison.
They looked into each other's eyes, they knew it was love at first sight. They stared at each other for a good while, before Evil, Lucinda's father pulled her away. Dante stood there, staring at Lucinda as she was taken away. She stared back, hoping in silence that he would stop them. But he didn't.
A week passed, none of them could sleep as each other was the only thing on their mind.
"Who was he?" Lucinda asked out loud.
"Who was she?" Dante asked to no one.
"Raven?" Raven snapped up from her book, that she had at least read nine times.
"What is it Malchior?" She asked as she saw him under her by the window. He looked up at her.
"Your father wanted me to get you, he want to speak with you. He's in the study" Malchior said, before he left her. The study was just down the hall.
She got up and walked there, as she opened the door she felt a wave of worry wash over her.
She bowed gently before speaking. "What is it father?"
"I want you to stay home tonight, after what I saw last night…" He slowed down as the thought pained him. "I just don't want you hurt." He said, he placed his hand on her shoulder he bowed down at her level. Seeing as he was a good three or four heads taller than her.
"But I-" He cut her off. She really wanted to speak with the hunter, maybe they could come to an agreement.
"No Raven… I need you to be safe. That's why I'm sending Malchior out to hunt them."
"What? But that would be suicide for him!" Raven almost yelled, just because she didn't return his feelings in love, she felt him as a type of brother.
"This argument is over" Raven knew not to fight him. She walked out angry at everything. She walked up to the balcony, took her raven bird form and flew off not caring if her father would follow her in his own hawk form.
She flew at her top speed going to nowhere in particular, she just needed air and alone time. She heard a screech behind her, as she looked she saw her father, of course.
She dove into the dark forest, hoping to lose him. Sadly she didn't, she tried to fly faster, but he was just too fast.
Come on... She thought, she came up with an idea. Flying really fast passed a group of trees she closed her wings and flew through two trees that crossed each other. She knew her father's form was too big to fit, she flew away as she noticed he was stuck.
Flying away she flew to where she meet the hunter last night. They were still there, sitting down on a branch she watched them.
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"Garfield Logan! You can't go out now, it's almost nighttime." Richard said, trying to keep Garfield out of trouble. He had ended up telling them he saw the witch, but she got away. They knew him and knew that he would go after her as soon as possible.
"I know, but nighttime is the best the best time to hunt her down." He said, getting his weapons ready. "Beside, I don't want to kill her, not yet…" He began to think of beautiful she was in the moonlight, shaking her out of his head he got up ready to leave. "If I can capture her, we could use her against Trigon and put a stop to his dominant dark rule."
"I know, everyone is afraid of Trigon and nobody really can stand up to him." Victor said.
"That is why we are going to capture her, I have heard that, that the daughter of Trigon is almost as powerful as him. If we could get her on our side, we could take down Trigon and have a powerful witch.
"Hmm…" Richard thought, he as a knight would want the best for the kingdom. Kori came to his mind. "Okay, but if that witch hurt anyone! She is gone." Gar nodded.
They packed up their things, ready to go hunting. Gar had given Victor a special weapon, since Vic didn't know much about fighting especially a witch.
As they walked they couldn't help feel like they were being watched.
"Does anyone else feel that?" Victor said, just as he finished a big white light shot towards them. They managed to dodge and as they looked up to see a man with long white hair, he looked like Rorek. Then it hit them, that was Malchior.
"Malchior! What are you doing here?" Garfield yelled, he got his silver knife out.
"I am here for a job by my master." He said as he fired another beam. They didn't have time to dodge, but the beam was stopped by a black shield. They looked around, Garfield smiled a little as he saw who stood before the moon on top of the tree.
"Malchior, you know as well as I that we don't kill just to kill!" Raven yelled as she floated down in front of the humans.
"You don't kill just to kill. I, on the other hand, follow my and your father's orders." He said with a smirk, he went to fire another beam. But was reminded that if he ever hurt Raven, he would pay in hell.
"Leave…" Raven growled, her fists began to glow with the dark magic she possessed.
"Your father will know of this sweet Raven…" He said before he transformed into a small black dragon, not his full size one. He flew off toward the house.
"R-Raven?" She turned around and saw the fright on at least Victor and Richards faces. She turned back around ready to fly away into the night. But was stopped as Garfield grabbed her arm.
"Let go…" She said, trying to sound angry and threatening.
"No… You're coming with me." He said, he wasn't going to let her go when he had her so close. "I want to talk to you."
Raven looked him in the eyes, she felt him digging into her. She stopped resisting hoping he would loosen his grip. But he didn't, he just looked at her.
"F-Fine…" She said, she felt sort of angry at herself for allowing this. Garfield gave her friendly smile before letting go. She didn't run off, which made Gar smile even more.
"Follow us." Vic said, he seem oddly okay with Raven's presence. Richard looked a little surprised by her behavior, she was a witch. shouldn't she try to kill them? Or at least try for a escape. But no, she was calm and didn't seem to want to attack.
When they got back to the cave they sat down outside.
"why did you save us?" Garfield asked.
"My reasons are my own." She said, turning her head sounding a little irritated.
"Umm… Why haven't you killed us yet?" Richard asked, he regretted it as he felt angry eyes from Victor and Garfield.
"Why?... Not all witches and wizards are cold blood killers." She said, her eyes had almost turned to flames as she spoke, clearly that question angered her.
"Okay, but… Anyway! I wanted to ask you to join us, you know stop trigon." It was like he had forgotten she was his daughter, but she was so different from what others had told and what stories said.
"I wish I could, but…" She trailed off, then out of nowhere flames erupted from the ground. They all looked shocked as the fire took a form of a snake. It looked at them, than Raven. She seem to back away from it, it shot towards her. But she stopped it before it could reach her, her powers threw up a shield. The snake backed away for a seconds before shooting forwards again.
This time she threw four black daggers at it, each dagger hit a weak spot. It's forehead, the eyes, and the snout. The fire snake fell to the ground hissing in pain as Raven dug the daggers deeper into it. Just than she called water to rise from some ponds and puddles nearby, the water swirled around before capturing the snake. Again it hissed in pain before damping away.
The three boys looked at her as her powers died down.
"What was that?!" Victor yelled.
"That was some powerful magic!" Richard yelled, he had all of a sudden become scared of the dark witch.
"Told you… Raven?" Garfield walked closer to her, she was sitting on her knees breathing heavily. "You okay?"
"I… I have to go…" She said before turning into a raven a flew away. Garfield didn't manage to grab her before she was gone.
"Wait!" He yelled, sorrow was clear in his voice.
Vic and Richard walked up to him, watching where Raven had taken off.
"What kind of hunter am I?" He asked himself. "I can't kill her, I just…" He screamed out in anger. What had she done to him? He had never wanted someone so bad, he felt sad that she wasn't near anymore.
Victor and Richard looked at each other.
"You're a great hunter, you have taken down so many witches. This one shouldn't be many harder, and if I know you… You'll get her." Victor said with a comforting smile.
"Yeah, she can't run forever. You'll get her next time" Richard said.
It was like they hadn't heard him, he couldn't kill her. The thought of killing her, killed him. He sighed feeling angry at himself, he walked into the cave and pulled out his notebook.
March 27.
I found the witch, Raven. What is with her? She just saved my, Vic and Richard's lives! I feel like I can't kill her, I have never in all my years been so confused about witches. She is just beautiful, I want to see her again. But the next time, I will have to do something so I don't lose my job or something…
Raven… Raven… Raven…
Garfield.
He closed the notebook, he only wrote in it on missions. This could be a rare find, plus the more he wrote, the easier it would be for new hunters to follow.
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Raven landed on the balcony again, she walked inside careful not to make any noise, sadly that didn't work as she stepped on a plank, it had to make the loudest noise ever.
Trigon, Jinx and Malchior came out to the hallway. Raven wanted so badly to just run away, but she felt her father's eyes dig into her as they looked at her from behind.
"Raven! Where have you been?!" Trigon roared, the whole house was shaking.
"Outside." She answered, she wasn't going to tell him that she talked with the hunter.
"Malchior said you stopped him from killing the hunter! Is that true?" He roared again, he was shaking his hands around angrily.
"Yes." She said plain, she didn't care what he would say now. She wasn't a killer, and she wouldn't want to be around killers. Malchior just lived there, in truth she wanted him to move and stay as far away as possible.
Trigon didn't say anything, he just glared at her. "Raven…" He said, he sounded sad, which made her look up at him. He shook his head. "I am disappointed in you, you are grounded." He pointed at her, before something struck her. She looked down at herself, a necklace was placed around her neck, she knew what it did. It prevented her from going more than three steps outside the house. She walked away and into the library.
Trigon sighed, he didn't like doing this. But he had to keep her safe, she was the only one who could take the throne after her. And he wasn't going to let anyone get in the way of him. He did love Raven, but he had a strange way to show it.
"I'll talk to her." Jinx offered before going after Raven. "Raven?" She asked upon entering the huge library, in all honesty even Raven could get lost in here. Three floors of bookcases and long hallways between, they could barely see the end. She sighed before starting her hunt on her sister.
It took a good hour or two before she found her in her spot, why didn't I look here in the beginning? she asked herself. Raven was almost always found in this spot, looking out the huge window or just reading beside it. This time, she was just looking out. Jinx could feel that her sister wanted to go outside, but the necklace would stop her.
"It's not fair." Raven muttered, she sounded really sad. She was sitting with her legs up to her chest with her head resting on them and arms holding around them. Jinx had no idea what to do, the last time Trigon had to use the necklace had been years ago when she found a boy. Raven had come home talking about him and saying they were friends. But Trigon didn't like the idea of her having friends outside the magic world and or a human. She wasn't allowed outside for weeks.
"I know Raven, but he is doing this for your own good." Jinx said, trying to sound calm. She sat down in front of raven, the other side of the window's couch.
"Great, now you're taking his side?!" She muttered angry.
"I'm not taking anyone's side, just think about what you're doing. You know that he want to protect you, you are after all…" She smiled a little "... The princess of magic."
Raven sunk her head into her legs, she felt so sad. She wanted to see the hunter again.
"What's so special about this hunter anyways…" Jinx asked.
"I don't know… It's just…" She didn't finish. She couldn't.
"Do you like him?" Jinx asked with her flirty smirk, she raised her eyebrows and leaned forward.
Raven blushed and pushed Jinx away playfully. "No!" She yelled with embarrassment. "I barely know him, and he is a hunter." Her last words came out with thick sorrow.
"So you do like him, I can tell. Your eyes, blush and voice is betraying your words." Jinx giggled, she leaned back against the wall as Raven blushed deeper.
Jinx started to laugh out loud when Raven didn't answer, she knew Raven and when she didn't answer then Jinx or anyone would have won the argument.
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-Flashback-
A young 4 year old Raven sat outside in a field, a wheat field. She was just outside a village, the village of Gruth. The village was known to be good at findings. Raven looked at the village from the tree she was sitting in, she sighed. She wanted to go inside to get friends, but she knew her father wouldn't let her.
Just out of nowhere an arrow struck right next to her. She looked down, to her horror she was a huge mob looking at her. Feeling panicked she took to her raven form, which sadly wasn't so strong. She flew into the forest at full speed, but the mob had her tracked. She flew up to a house, the house was medium sized with two floors and a dark wood texture.
She ran into the house and slammed the door.
"Raven?" The sound of her worried father made her look at him. Still scared, she ran up to him and hugged his leg. He placed his hand on her head, trying to comfort her. "What's wron-" He was cut short as a knock on the door.
"No…" Raven cried.
Trigon placed Raven behind him as he opened the door, an angry mob of humans gasped as they saw him. They tried to attack, but Trigon's magic pushed them outside. He closed the door behind him after telling Raven "Go upstairs, keep away from the windows."
All she heard was people scream in pain, but Raven had almost gotten used to it. She went upstairs to her room and began to play with her plush cat. A pitch black cat with amber buttons for eyes. She also had a black raven plush with red button eyes. She played with both her toys until the screaming stopped. She picked up Mr. Night, the raven and Mrs. Amber the cat. She dragged them after her as she went downstairs. Her father was sitting on a chair. He noticed her and smiled. "They're gone now." He got up and hugged her. "Nothing will hurt my baby"
-End of Flashback-
Raven woke from her dream, she remembered that day. She didn't know what her father had done, but she knew now that she was grown. He had killed them.
"What is it with that?" She asked, why was he so protective? She was 17, she could take care of herself.
The thought of the hunter ran to her mind, she smiled. "Garfield…" She muttered. She had gotten his name from his aura, it told her so much about him, but not enough. She smiled as she went back to sleep. The thought of the hunter gave her a pleasant dream about the two.
"Garfield Logan… My hunter…"
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Well, this is going somewhere...
