The Witchers Phoenix ( Witcher x Six of Crows x OC and original story)

Chapter 4: The Hag and the Dreamscape

(Right, so, last chapter was quite spicy. I still can't quite believe I wrote that!!)

Authors Note
This chapter is a bit short, nevertheless, I hope you like it! P. S. There is a surprise in the next chapter coming soon!!)

Ava and Bella were crouching behind a crumbled down, mossy wall.

Ava looked up at her older sister's face , which was streaked with tears, like hers. Ava knew something was wrong, Bella was never like this, she was always level headed.

"Bella, Bella what's wrong! Where's mother and Father why aren't they protecting us! Spheres, where is Vel, where is everyone!", Ava cried as she shook her sister, trying to awaken her from whatever fugue state her sister was in.

Bella lifted her head, and spoke in a choked voice, "They're dead, all of them slaughtered: Vel, Mother, Father, all of our people and our home. They are all dead!".

Ava gasped, her world was crumbling around her, she had no anchor. Vel, gods, Vel! He was dead! Everyone was dead except them. She crouched down to hug her sister, but when she pulled away, the scene had changed.

The grass was now snow covered stone, her sister no longer alive but dead in her arms. No, no, this was not happening again. Please, gods, no. A twig snapped behind her, she turned toward the sound, shielding her sister.

Something or someone was shuffling their way out of the shadows, Ava backed away.

"What, who, are you?", she asked her voice quivering.

Finally, the figure stopped, skeletal, old, hands lifted from the folds of her cloak. Slowly, the figures hands, which were adorned with black, grotesque claws, travelled toward the hood of  the cloak. It was like watching an animatronic doll; Only, far, far more sinister. The hands, or claws, Ava wasn't sure which, lifted the moth eaten cloth from her head to reveal....

Ava gasped, then backed away, still clutching the now rigid corpse of her sister to her.

The old hag looked centuries , even eons old, but unlike  Nemphis, Ava did not feel comforted as she looked into the wizened figure's face, she felt as if she was looking at death herself. 

Grey matted hair stuck out from beneath her hood, given the length, the old woman's hair might once have been breathtaking; but the face of the old woman had since lost all humanity.

The Hags eyes, were deep, cavernous holes, full off unspeakable  horrors that not even the most twisted of  minds could fathom. The Pits of black where in the place of where her eyes should be, but from the eye sockets blood dripped. The blood was not red or scarlet, it was black, and thick like tar. In the place of a mouth, a wide gash stretched from one side of her face to the other. Crooked, blackened teeth protruded from her crudely shaped mouth, the same tar like blood, coated these teeth and dripped from her twisted mouth. Her nose was covered in grotesque, dark red boils, so much so, that Ava could not be sure this hag even had a nose.

The Hag shuffled closer, her cloak slithering on the ground, like a serpent through the underbrush. The old woman was now close enough that Ava could smell her breath, bile rose in Ava's throat, her eyes watering. The odour, was a smell Ava had smelt only once before.....
The Hags breath smelt exactly like death. To Ava, death smelt of her dead parents and people, it smelt like rotting burnt flesh with an odd sickly sweet scent underneath.

"My child, I am neither a what or a who, I just am. I simply exist"

Ava spoke,"That's impossible, you can't just simply exist you have to have come from somewhere "

"Child, I do come from some where, eons ago, before I The continent even existed. I come from a world  where death is impossible, where illness is impossible and dreams are possible"

"So, you're immortal and some how you are here, talking to me, why?"

"For a child of fire, you are quite ignorant" , The Hag commented.

Ava bristled,"Look, Hag, if you hadn't noticed, I am some how in a dreamscape, where I am experiencing my sisters death again. Oh and how can I forget, an elven goddess has told me that I have a  mate; who I just slept with. And I'm the only one who can save Ilvor.  So, I beg your fucking pardon if I'm a bit slow!". Ava finished, breathing heavily.

"Child, you might as well be done with this quest now, because believe me , child, the Fates have a lot more planned for you, before your thread is cut"

"'My thread'? What do you mean 'my thread' ? Does that mean I will die soon. If that's true then that is really the straw that break the camels back!" Ava said, laughing hysterically.
  
If the Hag had eyes she would have rolled them ,"Listen child, calm down you will have a long life. The fates have divined that  if everything works out as they should, you will have the throne of Ilvor. But in rebuilding your kingdom, you will have too overcome great obstacles.  "

Ava managed to calm herself , as much as she could anyway - (a few seconds ago, she had been in a bad state, now Ava was slowly transition to the "why is this my fucking life" state). Ava took a deep breath and said, " I appreciate you candor, Hag, but I would like to wake up now."

And as Ava floated away from the dreamscape into the land of consciousness, The Hag said, "But child you could always leave this place you just had to recover your message! Good Luck child, and remember, look out for crows from another sphere."