The Witch and the Wolf ✔️

Most Strange and Terrible

By the time the sun sank into the twiggy trees, I think I covered a lot of ground. The problem was, I still wasn't anywhere close to another town. Instead, I was still in the middle of the forest, with no hint of when it would end.

I dared not stray towards the dirt road, where surely the wolves would be looking for me. Instead, I stayed in the forests— following the path I knew the stars would be in.

Although, given the moonrise, I realized that I might have been going about this all wrong, since I appeared to have gotten turned about in the process.

Still, because I knew how to forage, I wasn't too hungry. It was only the cold that was starting to prove a problem. My feet were also blistered and sore, and I couldn't wait to find the nearest town— so I could make a healing poultice.

But I would need to stop soon. Yeah, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I'd screwed up by traveling during the day.

So I tried to stumble through the night, trying to stay awake and follow the stars. Surely, if I followed them long enough, I'd be able to go where I wanted— no, needed— to go.

 🐺🌙🔮

There are other kinds of monsters that haunt this world. Among these are nixes. Ice monsters, created from wizards and witches who overextend their power. The power goes somewhere, and creates the vacuum.

Fire is the only way to defeat a nix.

-Lenora Bishop, 1976

🐺🌙🔮

I knew something was wrong the second I set foot in a clearing full of snow. It was late June. None of the rest of the forest was like this, frozen white around the twigs. At least a foot of the stuff was on the ground, packed densely.

But I could hear the howling growing closer again, and I knew that with a nix nearby, the wolves would steer clear of this place. Giving me a place to hide.

Besides, I reasoned as I summoned flame to my hand, I've never had trouble with fire.

Treading lightly, I barely left footprints in the pristine snow. The night outside drew silent, and I could only hear the crackling of the fire, and shuddering breaths from the nix.

"Hello?"

A creature, with too many eyes and tentacles and made from blackness, shadow, was lying in the center of the frozen grove.

I lowered my hand, and dropped to my knees. "I'm not here to hurt you. I just want your protection."

The nix rumbled a response. The words weren't clear, but it was vaguely negative.

"I really don't mean any harm," I said. "You were human once. I know you can understand reason."

I received my answer with icicles that dropped, grazing the side of my arm and leg. I scrambled to my feet, and summoned the fire again, holding it out menacingly.

"I don't want to do this," I said. "I just want to stay until the wolves pass. Then I'll leave you alone."

That was when the nix roared. An icy blast knocked me to the ground, and spikes of ice started growing around, trapping me in a cage.

I blasted a fireball at the ice, causing it to melt, and I charged at the nix, ready to wreak my vengeance. I poured all of my frustrations into my magic, causing the flames to dance higher and higher from my hands, until it was tornado of flame and fury.

With a scream, I fired it at the nix, and I wasn't prepared for the recoil. In a flash, the nix was gone, leaving only melting snow and me. I wasn't prepared for how weak the act of destroying a nix left me. It took so much power to make enough fire— and the nix had been sapping my strength so slowly I didn't notice it until it was gone.