The Familiars of the Lost Witch (ONC 2024)

8. Asha

He had a sister?

Before Asha could ask anything more, Kyrell came back and the boy jumped up, ready walk again. "Did you talk about anything interesting while I was gone?", asked Kyrell with a tilted head.

"No, nothing that would be of interest to you", Asha meowed nonchalant and standing up too. There wasn't exactly a reason why she didn't Kyrell about the things she found out. She didn't tell him about the times the boy sneaked out or what her feline friends told her.

The only reason she could think of was that she didn't want to worry Kyrell more, he was already anxious enough because of his nightmares. And there still wasn't a reason to distrust the boy, what he did wouldn't cause them harm or bring them in danger, she thought.

If she had to be honest, she just liked to keep secrets to herself, contrast to Kyrell, who loved finding out secrets as much as she, but didn't see the value of keeping them. He would just share whatever he wanted to with whoever, you could never know.

That was one of the reasons Cybele didn't trust him with the really secret stuff, because she had to make sure he would tell someone else "on accident". She still loved him very much of course, with all his flaws. He was like her child, it was obvious that he regarded her as his mother and that she was. Even though she wasn't a bird and didn't lay his egg, she was the first thing he saw after he hatched.

The had such a deep bond Asha envied sometimes, although she knew there wasn't anything to envy. She had lived with Cybele years before Kyrell was born, she had chosen to live with her and make a familiar bond, leaving her former life behind. Kyrell never really had that choice. When they tried to release him back into the wild the other birds didn't accept him and tried to kill him. Asha could always go back to the pack of street cats, he had nowhere else to go.

Walking for hours made her feel nostalgic and there wasn't much else to do than reveling in memories. It also helped keep her thoughts away from her aching paws and growing exhaustion.

She even slepped the whole night past the morning sun, woken up by Kyrell's horrifying singing. The boy seemed to have been awake awhile too, he sat leaning against a tree and studying the book he brought along.

To hide her embarrassament for sleeping the longest, she stretched and began cleaning her fur. Her paws didn't ache anymore, but she was sure they would if they traveled all day again. Maybe she should ask the boy to carry her in his bag even though it was beneath her dignity.

They hadn't spoken since she had questioned him about the food he sneaked to the orphanage and him revealing that his sister lived there. The silence between them grew awkward.

"There's a lake not far away", Kyrell croaked from a branch above of her. "You should reach it before the sun reaches it's highest point."

That meant they were still on the right way, but they had another problem. Going around the lake would take them longer because of how big it is and they couldn't swim through. Not that Asha would swim even if it was a small river. It would be the best if they could get a boat and cross the lake with it. They had to hope they would come across a fisherman who would take them or lend them their boat.

----

"You want to cross the lake with your cat?" The old fisherman looked skeptical.

The boy nodded. They had agreed that he would do the talking, if Asha talked it could scare the old man. Kyrell sat on the last tree behind them and would fly across the lake. It may come across even weirder if he had a cat and a crow next to him.

"I can take you both, but that will cost something, the cat costs extra too." A glimmer in the fishermans eyes revealed him to be quite greedy, but Asha had already suspected that he wouldn't take them for free.

They boy looked down at her and she nodded... It was Cybele's money they took with them so he couldn't just spend however much he wanted, that Asha had made clear.

"Give me five, no, six coins, boy." He stretched out his hand, awaiting the money.

"I'll give you three." That didn't please the old man, but he didn't back down that easily. After arguing one more time he caved in and got four coins. It was a fair deal, three for the boy and one for the cat, he said.

Asha had never been on a boat, but now she knew what she hated even more than flying. There was water everywhere and even though she didn't get wet, except those few droplets, she could only sit still while the little waves were rocketing the boat and hoping the boat wouldn't tip over and they wouldn't sink. It was horrible!

As they finally reached land again, it felt like an eternity, she jump out as fast as she could and rolled on the sweet ground. Her paws belonged on the ground, nowhere else!

Kyrell laughed at her from above, but she simply ignored him. He had it easy with his wings.

The boy didn't seem like he had enjoyed the boat trip either. Just as the fisherman was about to leave the shore, the boy thanked him again for taking them and asked: "Have you seen a woman with red hair?"

"No", the man answered promptly. "Have seen no witches here."

The boy seemed to have thought the same thing as her. "How do you know she's a witch?"

The fisherman just schrugged and said: "Aren't all red haired woman witches?" That was not very nice.

At least now they knew Cybele hadn't been walking around here, but that Asha had already suspected, they didn't have to ask. So far away from home Cybele would have only walked when nobody was around and fly most of the time. The fisherman couldn't have seen her then.

But something still felt kind of off about his answer and he was very fast to get away from them. Maybe he did see her? But when?

There was no use thinking about it, they also couldn't press for answers, the old man was already far away and surely wouldn't come back to them.

They also still had a long way to go and they had rested enough. Asha called Kyrell so he could tell her what it looked like from above and she would know in which direction to go.

The forest would end soon and shift into fields. They would reach their destination tomorrow if they didn't come across Cybele by then. They were almost there.

Asha hoped they would find Cybele soon, Kyrell also looked so hopeful.

___

wordcount:
chapter: 1179 words
in total: 10.345 words

Halfway through the story, yay! ;D