Witches (The Order)Revised

Chapter 8

Noch

That blasted child is going to be the death of me. I thought again as we ducked underneath low-hanging branches and moss-covered vines. I tracked through the energy in the air, following the lingering effects of my healing work still alive in the air.

"How much farther Noch? Maybe we should pick up the pace?" I heard Fog say from behind me. I looked back at him and saw him carrying the girl. She looked pretty comfortable where she was, even though I couldn't see her face.

"It's still a while off, but if we take off at a jog we might get there in the early afternoon. And then hopefully be done and back before sunset." I said eyeing him. "Are you sure you can manage that with dead weight?"

Fog gave me a warning glare which I ignored. I saw the girl tighten her arms around Fog's neck and her face peeked out from behind his back. I froze as I saw tears brimming in her eyes. Her face was the face that said that she had seen terrible things, a face that might as well have said that she was much older than she looked.

I turned around in a huff. "Make sure to keep up old man." I will not feel sorry for that demon child... I hope.

We took off at a brisk jog, shooting through the undergrowth and flying over roots and logs. I needn't have worried about Fog's speed. He might have been an old coot, but he was still fast and reliable.

We passed the spot where I had found the girl earlier, then I started tracking the faint trail that she had left. Her fear, exhaustion and pain still lingering in the plant life that she had passed in a daze. Because she was not a witch, she had no way of knowing how to keep her presence hidden while travelling. Her energy was faint but everywhere, lingering like a faint smell, or maybe she did know... I looked at her again holding on to Fog.

I could barely feel her presence even though I could clearly sense Fog wasn't doing anything to cloak them. And if she did know how to keep herself hidden, she must have been in too much shock and pain to even be conscious about it. In this instance it was a good thing, time had weakened the sense of where she was, but in such a short time, it was not wiped away completely. Which gave me a clear, albeit faint, trail to follow.

Pretty soon we reached a house. I stopped tracking her energy trail and slowly closed the distance between me and the building. I quickly pulled back my searching energy, making myself blind to the energies around me. I didn't want to feel the other energies coming off from the little building in front of us, it was unpleasant. It stank of evil, rot, and death.

It was a Wraith.

A blasted Wraith had come to these woods and attacked these people in their home. Even from where I was standing outside, I could see the blood splattered on the walls inside, the door was streaked with bloody claw marks as well. The scene itself told a gruesome story, there was no need to expose my energy to the hidden story beneath.

"Nelia!" The girl yelled as she jumped off of Fog's back and grabbed the scythe from my grasp as she came storming past me. "Nelia!" She screamed running towards the building.

In a second I was in front of her, blocking her way. There was no need for her to see what lay inside that ruin.

"Let me go through!" She yelled trying to push her way past me. I grabbed her arm and made her meet my eyes.

"There is no one left alive inside that house." I almost regretted saying it, but she needed to know that going inside would be useless, if not even more harmful to her.

"Wait, when it happened she was still out. She went to the river to go and get water!" She said staring frantically up at my face.

I looked up at Fog and he nodded at me. "Let's go then, there might just be some hope." Fog and I rushed towards the riverside. We heard the girl yelling after us as we rushed forwards. She was obviously trying to keep up, but if it really was a Wraith then it might be better for her to go inside the house rather than follow after us.