by Willow Rose
Manolo grabbed Sara and threw her to the ground.
A horrific scream filled the room so they had to cover their ears, and out of the monument oozed a white smoke. In it Sara was sure she saw the face of a woman, screaming, her eyes filled with heartbroken sorrow. The smoke found a crack in the stone chamber and disappeared through it.
Sara’s heart stood still for a couple of seconds before she could get up and move on. They walked carefully, still sensing that something or someone was behind them. Since they didn’t see anything, they passed the monument and tried to reach the door at the other end. But as Sara tried to grab the handle, it turned into a hissing serpent that snapped at her. She removed the hand and stepped backwards. As she did, she felt like she was standing on something. It was moving.
The whole floor was moving.
Manolo lowered the torch so they could see what it was. Snakes. Snakes all over the floor. They twisted themselves up their legs and snapped at them. Sara shrieked and tried to kick them to get them off of her, but they were climbing her everywhere. Manolo used the torch to make them withdraw.
“They are afraid of fire,” he said.
But the snakes soon had them cornered.
Manolo kept trying to get the snakes to move away but more and more kept coming in front of them. All of a sudden in the middle of the pile of snakes a figure arose of a man that soon turned into a big wizard. It was as if he grew out of the pile of snakes. Only after a few minutes did Sara notice that the wizard was not one single body, but was made of innumerable long and short snakes.
His hair and arms were snakes hanging down hissing and snapping at her. Even his face had red eyes and a mouth and teeth similar to those of a serpent.
He hissed and looked at them with anger. Then he raised his wand high in the air. It had a stone at the end that lit up the dark chamber.
Sara felt like the blood in her veins froze. Then she looked at Manolo and saw something strange happening to him. His face was changing. Like sand moving by the force of a strong wind, his skin was moving in his face, on his hands and his whole body. It seemed to be altering him, changing him. He was growing and soon became as big as the snake-wizard in front of them.
Then Manolo made a sound, like a groaning, and he set himself on fire. He became one big burning torch wavering at the snakes and wizard. Sara saw the light reflecting in all the snakes’ eyes in front of her and the hissing sound rose.
They began to move, all the snakes at one time as the fire scared them off. They backed off as quickly as they had appeared. As they did, the wizard crumbled in front of her eyes. He disintegrated and thousands of snakes fell onto the floor and disappeared into cracks.
It took a while for Sara’s heart to stop trying to jump out of her chest. She sat at the floor attempting to catch her breath. Manolo quickly returned to his own self and his body fell to the ground. He was quiet for a long time, and Sara was suddenly afraid that something bad had happened to him. But then she saw his leg move and little by little he woke up. He held his hands to his head like he had a big headache and after a while he tried to get up.
“Argh,” he groaned. He stood with his head bowed and his hands leaning on his knees.
“Are you alright?” he asked while trying to catch his breath.
She looked at him. Alright?
“Are you alright?” she asked.
He was gasping.
“I will be. I am just a little out of shape. It has been more than a hundred years since I last did a thing like that. It just took all of my energy. That’s what I hate about it. It drains me.”
She stared at him as he tried to move around but stumbled and fell flat on his face to the ground. Sara had a hard time not laughing. She couldn’t help it. It looked just like he was drunk.
She watched him as he got back on his knees again and slowly back on his two feet.
“Who are you?” she asked.
He sighed. “I am your Protector.”
His whole body swayed when he said that. It seemed like he had a hard time regaining his balance. At first he went a little in one direction then a little in another before he fell to his knees again.
“My what?”
She watched him as he struggled to get back up again.
“Every great sorceress has a Protector while they are still learning. Like a guardian angel, if you want. I am a spirit that has taken the shape of a human. Someone that will always be there for you and protect you from the evil spirits that want to destroy you, because they know what you might become if you stay goodhearted. They know how powerful you can become and therefore you will one day be a great danger for them. You are The Mighty One.”
Sara stared at him not knowing what to say. He still stood bent over, his knees swaying from side to side.
“How do you even know that I am … what you said.”
He took a few seconds before he answered: “I knew it in my heart the first time I saw you.”
“Why?”
Manolo lifted his head and looked at her with surprise.
“You really don’t know who you are, do you?”
Sara shook her head. “No.”
He took a few steps and stood by her side. Then he kneeled in front of her. He removed some of her hair from her cheek and put it behind her ear.
“You are going to be the greatest sorceress to ever have lived. You are the only one who is powerful enough to fight and save your people, the whole world, from going to the hands of the demon Azinehr.”
Sara looked at him and shook her head.
“I don't believe you”
”But it is the truth. That is what the prophesy says. That one day a sorceress mighty enough to match Azinehr will be born out of the Romani people.”
“I have never heard of a prophesy like that. I don’t believe in that kind of thing.”
He took in a deep breath and looked at her with a smile.
“Listen, I know it is lot to take in right now. But you must begin to realize what you are. Who you are.”
“And what are you, then? I could never do what you just did.”
“What I did was nothing compared to what you are going to be able to do one day. All I can do is create things with fire. Your powers are so much stronger. But you have to believe that you are the one I say you are. You can’t be a good sorceress without believing it.”
“Do you believe that I am … that? Do you believe that prophesy?”
Manolo smiled widely. He had a beautiful smile, she thought.
“I believe in you. I saw what you did to the cage they put me in, remember?”
“All I can do is move stuff when I get mad. I can’t even control it.”
“You have so little faith,” Manolo said and got up from the floor. He reached his hand out so Sara could grab it.
She hesitated.
“Do you trust me?” he asked.
She stared at him, still a bit overwhelmed by this sudden change in their relationship.
“Well do you?” he asked again.
She grabbed his hand reluctantly and he helped her back on her feet.
“I take that as a yes,” he said.
10
WILD WITCHES VALLEY
The air felt fresher than ever when Sara and Manolo finally stepped outside the cave again. Manolo had guided them to the exit and now they stood in a valley surrounded by high pointy mountains and steep slopes. The valley was enclosed and the only way out was a narrow passage at the other end, Manolo told her.
In front of them was a forest of large pine trees.
“We have to cross that to get to the passage at the other end,” Manolo said, pointing.
“What are we waiting for?” Sara asked and took a step closer to the forest.
As they walked closer, the pine trees seemed to grow into the sky, and as they entered the forest, it was like the sunlight disappeared, as if someone had switched a button somewhere and turned it off.
Darkness was wrapped a
round them.
Luckily, Manolo still had his torch. He blew on it with a quick blow and it lit on fire. Sara was impressed. Then they started walking on the soft forest soil of needles fallen from the trees.
The forest seemed to become alive as they walked through it, taking one careful step at the time. Everywhere they went something creaked or shrieked. Small squirrels, beavers, big black birds in the trees, an owl that stared at them, a bush that would shake as they passed it.
At one point Sara, got the feeling that someone was right behind her, staring at her and she turned around. But nothing was there. She stopped for a second and listened. Waiting for whatever was behind them to reveal itself.
Manolo stopped, too, and looked at her.
“Why did you stop?”
“I thought I heard something,” Sara said. She took a couple of steps in the direction of where she sensed someone was watching her.. She looked around her and behind a tree. Manolo brought the torch and helped her see. But nothing was there. Then she heard another sound. It came from a bush. She lifted the lower branches, and a mouse stared at her with huge eyes.
Manolo laughed.
“Come on, let’s move on. This forest is filled with all kinds of animals. We can’t be stopping every time you hear a sound.”
But Sara knew within her heart that it wasn’t the mouse that had been following them and staring at her from a distance. It was something else. Something much bigger. It had the size of an animal or even a human being.
The wind had picked up outside the forest, causing the treetops to sway and make a whooshing sound.
A big black crow the size of a cat flew so close to her that she had to duck her head. She turned around and looked at it as it passed her and watched as it perched on a treetop making loud throaty sounds. Sara stopped and stared at it. She felt strangely drawn to the bird.
“They use that sound to either indicate hunger or to mark territory,” Manolo said. He was standing right next to her. “Crows are very intelligent animals. They can hear sound frequencies lower than those that humans can hear.”
Sara looked at the black bird. She felt it was staring right at her. Like it saw right into her heart.
“Do they attack humans?”
“Only if controlled by others. Why?”
“Because this one will attack us now!”
As the words left Sara’s mouth, the bird took off from the branch it was perched on and flew directly at her face. She ducked down a second before it hit her face but its claws grabbed her hair and became tangled up in it. The crow made loud noises causing other crows to appear and attack Manolo and Sara. Manolo hit the birds with the burning torch while Sara screamed and tried to get the bird off her head. It kept pulling her hair and making that loud sound in her ears. Finally, she managed to grab it by the legs, and while it kept pecking at her hands with its beak, , she managed to get its claws untangled. Her hands bleeding from the attack, she watched as the bird flew high up to the treetops.
“What the hell was that?” Sara asked.
Manolo looked at the birds disappearing.
“The wild witches,” he said. “They rule this forest. Well the whole valley. Hence the name.”
“They don’t like people crossing the valley?”
“They just don’t like anyone,” he said and started walking again.
They stopped for the night at a small clearing. Manolo looked at the sky with a worried look on his face. Sara noticed it.
“What are you thinking of?” she asked while eating the rabbit meat.
He turned around and smiled at her like adults do when they don’t want you to worry, but you can tell that they do.
“Nothing. Just hoping the witches will leave us alone for the night.”
Sara nodded and looked at the sky as well. The sun had set behind the mountains and the stars were shinning like small eyes staring down at them. It was getting cold and Manolo gave her a blanket from his bag.
“How old are you, anyway?” she asked.
“Why do you ask?”
”Because you are not fifteen as you claim to be and look like.”
“I am the age you want me to be.”
Sara drank some water.
”That was a strange answer,” she said.
He sat down.
“If I had been an adult would you have come to me when you needed someone? Would you have brought me along on this trip?”
“Probably not.”
“Therefore, I will always be exactly what you need me to be. I could even be a dog or a big cat, if you needed that. But right now all you need is a friend, so therefore I am just that.”
Sara was satisfied with his answer and certainly didn’t want him to be a dog or a cat. He was right. A friend was just what she needed for this quest.
That night they did not get much sleep. Just as Manolo had feared, the wild witches would not leave them alone. Nighttime was their time to come out.
It began with a scream. Sara had only just fallen asleep when she heard it. Well, almost felt it, for it was one of those screams that goes right through to your bone marrow.
And then more screaming filled the air. Sara got to her feet. She looked up in the sky and saw five witches on their brooms circling over the clearing. Around and around. Some of them would dive down over her head screaming with a high-pitched sound that made Sara cover her ears with her hands.
“We will scratch you with our nails. We will rip, peel and tear you apart,” they screamed.
Manolo woke up, too.
“Don’t mind them,” he said. “You need to sleep. I will stay awake.”
“We will eat your fingers in the morning, your arms and legs for dinner,” they kept screaming.
Then one of them flew right at Sara and began to scratch her with her sharp claws.
“Don’t move,” Manolo said. “Don’t show fear.”
Sara stood still while the witch was all over her. She was like a rock. She refused to be moved.
The wild witch was screaming as Manolo shaped a ball of fire between his hands and threw it right at her. By the power of the ball, the witch and her broom were thrown far into the deep forest where she hit a tree with a loud pitchy shriek that made the four other wild witches withdraw.
“Wow, you will have to teach me how to do that one day,” Sara said.
Manolo smiled. He took out a handkerchief and started wiping blood off Sara’s face.
“First, you need some sleep.”
“Do you think that was enough to keep them away?” she asked.
Manolo had that worried look on his face again.
”I am not sure,” he said and looked up. “I am not sure.”
All night they heard the witches scream from behind the mountaintops and the two of them got only a little sleep. At last when the sun rose from behind the mountains it was time to get up. Sara felt so tired it was almost impossible for Manolo to wake her up. He shook her and called for her.
“Wake up, Sara. We have to go now.”
Finally, she opened her eyes and looked at him but she didn’t see him. She didn’t see anything!
“Manolo! Something is wrong,” she said. “I can’t see anything.”
Manolo looked at her eyes. They looked perfectly normal to him.
“It is all black,” Sara said, slightly panicking.
“It must be a spell,” Manolo said.
“What kind of spell?”
“A blind spell. It caused you to lose your sight.”
Sara was beginning to feel angry, and although she couldn’t see it herself, she sensed that things had begun to move around them in the clearing.
“Please, Sara, calm down. I need our bags,” Manolo said. “Right now it is flying around in the air and I can’t catch it.”
“Sorry,” she said. “But I can’t really control it.”
She took in a deep breath and tried to calm down. She heard a bag land on the ground.
“Thanks,” Ma
nolo said.
“No problem.”
“Now I need my sweater.”
Sara overheard him.
“But who did this to me? The witches?”
Manolo sighed.
“It was probably Orael.”
“Who?”
“Orael. The mother of all wild witches. The saying goes that she is like this gigantic spider and that she has a nest in the mountains where all the wild witches are hatched from.
“How do I get out of this spell, then?”
Sara heard Manolo strap on his guitar and imagined him standing in front of her looking at her with his brown eyes and wearing that soft brown hat he always wore. She missed being able to see.
“You don’t.”
“What?”
“It will wear out.”
“When?”
“When it is time,” he said. “Now, can I have my sweater?”
Sara wasn’t satisfied with just accepting to be blinded, oh no she certainly wasn’t. She was angry and that complicated their journey. They walked hand in hand while Manolo escorted her but everywhere they went something would lift off the ground. Needles from the trees that had just fallen off, branches and even animals were lifted up. Some things were just moved to another place while others were put in a treetop. Manolo felt bad for the animals that got in Sara’s way, especially when she made a small gray weasel fly all the way to a treetop.
Sara was furious and kept mumbling and groaning most of the way through the forest.
“How did you know that the crow was about to attack us?” Manolo suddenly asked.
“I don’t know,” Sara said. “I guess I just sensed it.”
“I think you have a connection with animals,” Manolo said. “That might be one of your many gifts.”
“I don’t know…”
Manolo stopped and squeezed her hand.
“Of course you don’t. You are still just a child. But your gifts will be stronger as you begin to use them.”
Sara smiled not knowing what to say. She had always felt strangely connected to animals, sometimes even feeling she could hear their thoughts. And there was the neighbor’s cat that she was certain had talked to her a few times. But she had just thought she was being weird, like people told her that she was.
