The Ash Tree - A Witcher FanFiction

{02}

I felt something strange in my gut that day.

Though I was still shaken from the events some days prior, and though I mingled with this village, something kept creeping in my gut.

I continued brushing it off, despite my intuition never once being wrong.

I excused it for stress and confusion, adjustment.

As I sat on a rock, weaving (or trying to at least) a pattern, I sensed someone's gaze.

I assumed it was the other children at first, running around and playing, trying to force me to join in.

But no.

It was Brie.

Her gaze fell on me several times, more and more as the day they came approached.

I wasn't sure if she felt something in her gut too, perhaps she feared me.

She did look a bit afraid.

Giving up on my weaving, I aided Maelo in feeding the animals.

He was a farmer too.

Like them.

My heart sank, images flashed through my mind, but I suppressed those emotions, fearing the consequences.

Guilt.

And then, on the last day, the sky was cloudy.

It gave me the same breathless feeling I felt when the storm was in my chest.

Because something was wrong.

Very wrong.

Children, families, they all ran inside fearing the rain.

They thought the rain would be water.

Brienne approached me then, Maelo watched us in curiosity.

"How are you feeling today, Mira?" She asked.

I thought for a moment, "strange."

She took my hand gently, "me too."

We stood in silence for a moment.

Then a gust of wind settled.

And they came.

The coal was here.

Brie squeezed my hand, trying to comfort me, but maybe herself more.

Maelo walked closer to us, spitting on the ground, glaring at the Nilfgaardians.

My green eyes stared at them, curious.

"Who are they?" I asked Brie.

"Oh, I'm sure they're just passing by," she replied.

Confusion.

Those who stayed outside gathered behind Maelo, mothers caressed their sons and daughters.

A couple of village dogs barked and growled.

"Good day," the leading man said, forcing a pleasant tone.

"What is it you seek?" Brie asked.

Maelo tensed, placing a hand on my shoulder. It started to hurt.

I could feel the pulse in his palm.

"Only food and water, miss," his blue eyes searched the crowd.

"Surely you carried enough with you when you've amassed such an army, Black Knight," Brie almost seemed to growl, "we've but a small village, not nearly enough to feed all of those men."

"Then perhaps," The Black Knight replied, "you could help me understand what happened to the other village we passed? It seems it's all been turned to rubble."

"Indeed," Brie continued, "we presumed it was your doing."

The Black Knight tilted his head slightly, "then you're mistaken. We've only arrived just a few days. That flame has been there for quite some time. Impressive really... You don't happen to know who might have done it?"

"No, no."

The Black Knight eyed the carriage, the only carriage in the village. Then his gaze shot to Maelo, who stood closest to it.

"What a shame, that Ash Bringer seemed quite gifted," his eyes glanced at Maelo's hand on my shoulder, then to me (he stared at me momentarily), then back to Brienne.

He turned to a few of his guards, nodded towards me, "bring that one over."

"Over my dead body," Brienne threatened, "you'll take none of us."

Under the Knight's orders, the guards unsheathed their swords and marched over to me.

Brie took one step forward and screamed.

The guards flew back with a thundering force.

Horses whinnied.

Children screamed.

Women cried.

Men charged.

And the red rain began.

Maelo told me to run, before an arrow plunged into his neck.

Blood splattered across my face.

I screamed, backed away, and covered my ears.

Villagers versus an army, which do you presume won?

Body upon body, puddles of red. I never would have guessed a human body carried that much.

Despite my panic, I tried to calm myself, isolate.

Not again.

Please, not again.

Two soldiers approached me, and I felt it.

The heat in my eyes, my hands.

The storm in my chest.

My hair started to float.

And I yelled, "LEAVE ME ALONE!"

With that, flame erupted from my hands, devouring the men.

They screamed in anguish, trying helplessly to remove their armor.

Done in vain, of course.

The Black Knight watched in awe, before ordering two more men to grab me.

They approached me more cautiously, fearing the rage in my eyes, which clouded my judgment.

But I was tired. Inexperienced.

And as villagers tried escaping their merciless deaths, I saw Brienne helping others escape.

Then she looked at me, eyes wide, a glint in her eye.

She knew.

She knew this whole time.

She mouthed a "forgive me," running off with survivors, pursued by soldiers into the forest.

When I turned my attention back to my captors, a sudden rush of light, pain, then darkness filled my head.

That was the day I was reborn.

Rejuvenated.

The cycle.

Red rain.