The Bard And The Owl (A Raeda Fanfic)

Chapter One

Our story begins with a young witch named Raine Whispers. Raine was a bright, curious, creative soul, and came off as a very peaceful individual to everyone they met. But they could also be the slightest bit rebellious. 

Raine was from a town called Bonesborough, which was ruled by Emperor Belos, who had made it required by law for any and all witches in the town to join a coven, forcing them to only practice the one type of magic they'd chosen for the rest of their life. Belos and his subordinates hated Wild Magic. They treated it like America treated Communism in the human realm.

The only magic Raine was really good at was bard magic, but they wanted to learn other types of magic too, and that was never going to happen if they stayed in Bonesborough and joined a coven. Especially with Terra Snapdragon, Head Witch of the plant coven, constantly nagging them with reminders to do so. 

So Raine had the clever idea to flee Bonesborough, and after a lot of thought, they decided to go for it. The law was only enforced there, so if Raine left the town, it would technically be legal for them to practice Wild Magic. They essentially became a nomad, camping out in the wilderness until they found somewhere else to go. And it hadn't been so bad; they could handle themself, they knew enough about the nature surrounding them that they'd be able to stay safe, everything was going fine. Until one fateful night.

The bard had been about to set up camp in a peaceful clearing in the woods when they saw a fluffy black and brown tortie cat scampering around.

"Oh... Hello there, adorable creature," Raine greeted it.

The cat meowed, and gave a smile so wide its eyes shut involuntarily.

"Aww," Raine smiled back. "How cute."

The cat approached them and rubbed against Raine's ankle. Raine carefully reached a hand out for the cat to sniff it, so it would trust them. The cat sniffed it, and decided Raine was friendly. Raine petted its head, patting down its fluffy fur.

Suddenly there was a loud noise-- Raine was unsure of what it was, but it sounded like an owl. The cat, alarmed, jumped and scampered off.

"Whoa-- it's okay, sweet thing..." They began. Then they realized it was headed towards the Haunted Hollow, the most dangerous place in the forest, and their expression darkened. "Hey, wait, come back!"

The cat didn't listen. It would surely meet its end if it went any further. And while Raine was smart and knew not to go into the Haunted Hollow unless you have a death wish, they first and foremost were someone who felt it was their responsibility to protect the innocent creatures of the Boiling Isles.

So they chased after the cat, deep into the mossy thicket. 

I'm probably going to regret this, they thought.

"Here, kitty! Come on out," Raine said in a low voice. "It's not safe here... You'll get hurt, you don't know what you're getting into..."

The cat stopped, looked at Raine with its cheeky smile, meowed, and let out a purr. Raine tried to slowly approach it, but it scampered away again.

"No--!" Raine continued after the cat, running on tiptoe.

The cat finally refused to trot off any further. At last, Raine reached it, but caught their boot under a thick tree root, and when they tried to get it out, they fell into a shallow ditch.

"Ouch!" They said as they hit the dirt. They looked up at the cat. It was just smiling down at them.

Another noise echoed through the grove. The cat trotted away... out of the undergrowth. Back into the safety of the peaceful woods.

Seriously?!

They heard the unearthly noise again and frantically tried to climb out. They were successful, but then they stumbled and crashed to the ground... And then the dirt below them became fluid and began to swallow them up.

Raine screamed in terror. They grabbed at a vine and tried to pull themselves out, but it snapped. They attempted to summon their things from their pocket dimension, to help them, but they couldn't move their hand properly to do so, as the ground was wrestling them down.

"No!" they desperately cried out over and over again. But all they could do was pray that there was something under this puddle of what they could only imagine was mud mixed with possessed Abomination fluid.

They felt a sharp pain in their leg. Then their arm. Their lower abdomen. A minor pain on their back.

As air escaped from their lungs, and tears from their eyes, they felt their hand slipping from the roots they were clinging to for dear life, and prepared to let this mucky Abomination-pink hellmouth swallow them whole. But before their hand joined the rest of what had already been sucked in, someone grabbed it firmly, and pulled as hard as they could.

"Hang on tight, rascal!"

Raine gasped in shock. But they did as instructed; they held on with all the strength they could muster, for as long as possible. They were terrified. But somehow, their effort to keep their grasp on the person's hand was enough, and before they knew it, they were free.

Thoroughly shaken, they tried to catch their breath. With a stutter, they wondered aloud, "what's going on," but their words were unable to be heard or understood. They made a feeble attempt to focus their eyes, and they gained a limited sense of what was happening.

Before them was a mysterious woman. It was hard to see in the dark, but they could tell her skin was practically white as a cloud. She had long, thick, wild hair that appeared colorless. And she was as tall as a Titan.

She was speaking, but her voice sounded echoey, far away. And Raine's vision was too blurry for them to be completely sure, but as far as they could guess, it seemed the woman was lifting them from the ground, taking them in her arms, and carrying them away. Raine had no idea why they were being carried away, and they wanted to protest, but they didn't have the energy. None of their senses were fully functioning. With their dizziness and inability to properly hear, they only understood a single cluster of words.

"You'll be okay," the woman said.

Raine watched as the woman conjured something; what it was, they didn’t know. But ultimately, Raine settled into her arms and let sleep claim them. They felt assured that under her protection, they'd be safe, and eventually they'd wake up again.