The Burning Witch || The Witcher ||

Chapter 1 -Beast

"One, two, three, the mage crossed the sea, four, five, six she jumped over the cliff" a young girl with copper hair, reddish cheeks, white as the snow skin and deep red eyes as if they were made of rubies sang, jumping up and down, her hair dancing all around, the cool ocean breeze filling her lungs with that outstanding smell of sea, as if she could smell the salt melting in her little tongue, the bright sun on that beautiful day kissing her skin.

 She had a big smile crossing her face, her cheeks blusing from the laughter of her childish plays, aching from the long and sincere smile that seemed to never end, showing off her beautiful teeth, very aligned upper teeth and a bit crooked down teeth. 

She had just finished changing her baby teeth and was enjoying not having the pain of them growing.

"Seven, eight, nine, she crossed the line" she kept singing, with her tender voice filling the halls of the grandious Aretuza.

The redhead kept running, barefoot, feet full of dirt and little cuts healed from running around with no shoes all the time, making those small scars all over her little feet. She liked running around, climbing trees and mostly playing with fire, crawling over the blaze, playing with the flames on her hands. It was incredibly hard and complicated to create fire out of nothing, but whenever she was close to heat, to any sort of fire, it was as easy and trivial as breathing.

She was just born to be bathed in flames.

Hestia made a turn to the left, almost falling after slipping on a small puddle of water, that only turned the dirt on her feet into mud. She laughed, always brave, never afraid of getting hurt, she was not a spoiled child, nothing close to that, Hestia enjoyed pretending to be a pioneer, exploring, discovering, living.

Hestia was about to enter her room, running at full speed, when she felt immense pain on her face, something was thrown on her head, hitting her hard on the eyebrow.

The young girl fell, knees to the rock, cold, ground, hands on her face, feeling the pain on the contact skin to cut, blood to fingers, hair strand to uneven nails.

"BEAST" the first voice, a female one, hit her like an arrow, straight to the head. Painful, hurtful, numbing. Hestia felt a tingling on the tip of her fingers, knowing something was wrong. Her fingers slipped to her scalp, as she grabbed her hair tighter, stronger, more aggressive.

"MONSTER" another voice, now male, along with another rock, now hitting her left hand.

Both of them laughed, as Hestia crawled back, just like a turtle trying to hide in her shell, as if that was possible or helpful in anyway.

It started with the tingling on the tip of the fingers, crawling inside of her, consuming her heartbeat, traveling through her veins, heating her skin. 

She shut her eyes tight, her lungs bagging for cool air, her skin burning, her sight blurring into a whiteness that could be compared as looking directly into the sun. The voices started to muffle, mingling with the background, the sound of the ocean, the swearing, the high pitched voice, the disgraceful laugh, the sound of a pan heating, the sound of wood burning. Next the body went numb, the feeling of breathing was gone. She felt gone.

"Go to your bedrooms now" a soothing but firm voice commanded, still mingled with the sound of the ocean, but the other voices were finally gone "hestia, stand up, right now" the voice focused on her.

The kid looked up, scared of what the woman would say or do. Hestia's hands were shaking and so was her entire body. Her dark green vests were dirty with mud and wet blood.

"Go clean yourself and I'll fix your cut" Tissaia commanded, opening the bedroom door.

Hestia ran inside, shutting the door behind her. Tears streamed down non stop and a will to throw up mingled with her guts. She looked in the mirror, her reflection shifted from a sweet pale redheaded girl to a dirty bloody kid with eyes screaming of vengence.

The young girl took her clothes off, leaving them on the floor, besides her bed. She grabbed a wet cloth and did her best to bathe herself. The dirt was almost all gone, only missing some spots on her back and ribs. Hestia quickly changed herself, putting on a clean dress.

She opened the door quickly, facing her motherly figure, with a serious expression, not showing any feelings beside annoyance.

Tissaia took her by the hand, racing to her chambers.

"Sit" she pointed at a dark wooden chair, the kid obeyed.

Tissaia walked back with a cloth, pressing it against the girl's head.

"Ouch!" She screamed, feeling her head sting, with an expression of a kid picking close to a tantrum.

"Don't even start" Tissaia took a deep breath and put the cloth on a table next to Hestia. She raised her hand, touching the cut very softly and started whispering words in Elder.

When finished, Hestia ran to the closest mirror, taking a good look at her healed cut. She took a while to realize what happened, prejudice was still something the girl couldn't understand.

She didn't feel like a monster, since she didn't even looked like one, she had two legs, two arms, two ears, one mouth and two eyes, red ones, but still, she looked like everyone else, or so she thought.

"Why do they hate me?" Hestia questioned, almost whispering to herself.

"All hate is based on fear, my dear" Tissaia walked closer to the girl, touching her shoulder delicately.

"So why do they fear me? Is it because of my eyes? I can change them when I become a mage, I can look just like them" She widened her eyes, staring closer into them.

"Because you're gifted, Hestia" she gently stroked the girl's hair "they envy your powers and also fear them" Tissaia turned the kid gently, to face her "don't ever change what makes you unique just because people can't handle it, you're stronger, you're powerful , Hestia, you will be the most powerful mage of it all and people will get jealous, they will try to bring you down, but you won't let me, you know why?".

"Why..." she said, all shy, looking at her feet.

"Because you're Hestia de Aretuza, my fire girl" she gently guided her chin up "head always...".

"High, I know" Hestia interrupted "to the sky, so one day I can reach the stars".

"Now go get ready, you have to study and practice, so you can overcome you weaknesses".

"And control the chaos in me" Hestia took a deep breath "I love you, Tiss".

Tissaia gave a soft smile and a kiss on the girl's head, then stood up and sighted, turning her back to the girl.

"Control your feelings, Hestia, control your chaos".

That voice lingered in Hestia's mind for years, almost becoming a mantra to her.

And so she walked out, ready to get in control.

To tame it.

"Control your feelings, Hestia, control your chaos".