A Witch's Apprentice | Xiaoven

Chapter 5

Fear washed over the people as chaos erupted. The citizens screamed, panicking while the witch hunters hesitated to step any closer towards us. They shoved one another up to face Barbatos, but no one complied.

Barbatos let out a heavy sigh, staring at them with deadly eyes.
"Listen, I'm not in the mood for bloodshed, so why don't we make a deal, eh?" He smiled at me, bending his back over, shuffling with putting the witch on his back in the right position for him to fight in case if they don't agree. "You let us go, and no one here ends up in a casket."

They were hesitant to reply, afraid if it was a trick or not, but Barbatos eyes faded down on the glow, and he stepped down from the chipped away logs, and landed his feet gracefully onto the ground.

"If I'm not given an answer, and you won't step up to fight me, then I'm off," he said, walking a good 3 meters away from them. "May we come face to face with each other next time."

And with that, a gust of wind swirled around us in the color of green, and we were swept up. I couldn't even feel if I had a body while it happened. Within a second, all of us appeared infront of the cottage with Dvalin standing watch. He was still wide awake.

"Another one?" Dvalin eyed him. "What happened to only having one apprent-"

"She isn't some new apprentice of mine." Barbatos said to him. "She's a witch."

Dvalin's eyes widened, as he clawed into the grass.
"Another witch?" Dvalin question him. "I thought you knew better then to trust a witch other than yourself."

"Yes yes..well it seems I'm about to repeat the same mistake I did centuries ago." Barbatos walked into the house, ignoring all of Dvalin's warnings and tending to the injured witch and I.

"The both of you have some really bad burns, the flames even scorched deeper into your skin than I thought it would.." he lip his nail. "Stay put, I'll need to find some strong medicine to fix it up."

He fled away upstairs to one of his rooms, leaving me and that witch together. Alone.

"So.., what's your name?" I asked her politely, trying to smile. She didn't reply back. That's when I remembered something. "You idiot Xiao..her tongue had been sliced off...!"

I sat there uncomfortable next to her for a while until she reached for the feathered pen and a few sheets of paper that were placed on the table.

Sara.

That's all she wrote down before scribbling some more words onto the paper.

What's yours?

"Oh-, I'm Xiao." I told her. "I'm Barbatos apprentice, what about you? What did you do?"
She looked down at the table for a moment, thinking about it before writing her thoughts down.

I was a waitress at Good Hunter before they found out about my magic and captured me.

The look on her face was sadness, and I hugged her, wrapping my arms around her to comfort her. I gave her my pity. She was shocked for a moment before smiling gently at me.

"Well isn't this just a sweet sight to behold," Barbatos smiled at us, carrying a liquid substance in in a vital. He crouched down in front of us, and opened it. "Drink up."

I gladly compelled, trusting that Barbatos wouldn't poison me. Sara on the other hand, hesitated, gently shaking her head as a sign meaning no.

"Do really still not trust me?" Barbatos sighed, tilting his head to the side slightly, holding a spoonful of it to her mouth. Sara nodded, looking down at the coffee table and scribbling something down on the paper.

I thank you for saving me, and I'm extremely thankful but if I've learned anything from my past, it's to never trust another witch. Especially one with a kill count.

Barbatos looked at the paper, picking it up to read it all.
"I suppose you're right," he shrugged. "But I truly do want to help, so choke it down while I'm still playing nice."

Sara stared at the spoon, still unsure of whether to take it or not. I grabbed her shirt sleeve, seeing as Barbatos was getting impatient.
"Take it." I whispered over to her. "It'll help your wounds."

Hopefully her tongue would grow back or something. I depended on Barbatos's medicine to help her. Sara sipped it all up off the spoon, gulping it down.

She still couldn't talk. She opened her mouth to feel around for her tongue, but clearly it still wasn't there.

"Ah..-I thought-." I started.

"No, that medicine isn't strong enough to heal back her tongue. It was only to fix up those burn marks of yours." Barbatos spoke up. "I have to use a different method for that."

Both me and Sara were confused. Then what did he drink? Suddenly, both of our scorch marks began to tingle, and disappear as if it was never there.

"Then what will you do to heal back her tongue?" I asked, tugging on his shirt sleeve.

In response, he got up, leaning his face closer in on Sara. My jaw dropped. Their lips were barely an inch apart, and I assumed just as he was, he'd put his tongue in.

Sara's face flushed red, as he grabbed her face.
"Ahhh!! Wait wait wait-!" I stopped him, cupping his mouth as Sara sunk into the couch. "Isn't there some other method that we could try out..?"

"I mean, this one is much more effective, but the other option is fairly good as well." Barbatos told us. "You want this choice, or the other?"

"Well.. you haven't exactly explained what the other one is." I reminded him.

"It's pretty gross," Barbatos said. "But if you're willing to, it's probably a better option then to go mouth to mouth."

He grabbed her face, lifting it up to his.
"Bleh.," he spit into her mouth, as the saliva dripped down. He shut her lips together, telling her to swallow it all down.

All while I stood there. Quite literally, traumatized.
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(/Yeah it's pretty gross but this is some topic Ima be bring back in later up in the story)