Miserablown

Chapter 4

Soon, I reached a narrow stone path that went straight to the blurry horizon and headed North. I followed the path for a while and it soon started to snow and get really cold.

I pulled the winter coat that Alestar had given to me out of my backpack. I was grateful he had given it to me, it kept me unexpectedly warm. I walked a few more hours on the stone path, then stopped for lunch, then continued walking. 15 minutes after I had stopped to have my lunch, the path had stopped in front of what looked like a big ice arch. There was writing engraved on it which read "The Witches Land" and underneath in smaller print, "whoever passes will come out miserable."

Well, that's pretty obvious, I thought.

I went through the arch. Immediately, I saw a silhouette of a witch appear in the blizzard in front of me.

A cold voice I didn't recognize asked me "What do you come here for? To become miserable, I suppose? Or even worse, to die?"

I started to tremble slightly, but stood my ground. I decided to answer with the truth.

"No, I come here to save Miserablown and make everyone happy except for you."

I took out my dagger, but the silhouette had disappeared. I slowly walked through the blizzard searching for any form of a witch.  

At one point I saw a flash of blond hair. I hadn't registered before if the witch I was looking for had blond hair, but in this deserted plain, there wasn't much life. I headed towards the hair I'd seen. I couldn't see well, because it was really dark. I ended up crashing into someone.

"Oof", made the person in front of me. But it wasn't a witch.

The girl turned towards me. She had bright blue eyes and a couple freckles, but best of all, an awesome smile. I smiled back at her, confirming each other that we were both human.

"H-Hi...", she said to me, "I'm Ainsley... Uh... have you seen an evil witch? Kinda gotta kill one to get outta here...", she explained briefly and a bit awkwardly. Then she looked up at me, expecting an answer.

"Hey, I'm doing the same thing as you! I also have to kill a witch, I mean... maybe we could do it together?" I welcomed her as a friend.

"Oh! Awesome idea! Yeah... we just gotta find her..." Ainsley agreed, but before she walked off, I grabbed her arm.

"Wait, one more question; Wh- Who made you come here?" I asked.

"There's this village, Miserablown, I'm their 'Champion', apparently. The leader guy, Gordern, sent me." She answered coolly, then pulled away. "Let's go."

As I looked around, I thought of this new character. She had the same story as me, but the leader's name was different, and it didn't seem to be the same village. Maybe there were multiple bewitched towns? Either way, I was glad to have some help. Killing a witch alone is never fun.

Ainsley came back to me, saying "Ugh, this is so hard! We're just wasting our time!"

I sighed, "Yah, I know... If only we had, like, a GPS or something, but even then I'm sure there's no wifi out here..."

Ainsley nodded solemnly, thinking hard about a solution.

Suddenly, it clicked. The map! Why did I not think of that earlier! I scolded myself, as I dropped my bag to the ground and opened it, pulling out the map.

Ainsley watched as I unrolled it. Then from her own bag she grabbed a flashlight and shown it onto the map, looking over my shoulder. On it, we could see 2 small dots labeled 'Champion' beside each other. Not far away, there was another dot, unlabeled. Then a little way off from that dot, there was another, and another, and another. Soon enough, we realized we were surrounded by little unidentified dots that formed a circle around us. I whimpered slightly, realizing what a big challenge this was. Behind me, Ainsley took the light off the map and flashed it around, looking for the circle of unknown beings.

Her light stopped on a pair of glowing green eyes. I felt her shiver faintly against my back. I rolled up the map, sticking it under my arm. Then I leaned towards my bag and took out the dagger. I noticed it had a faint blue glow to it. My own flashlight, that would be useful. I put the dagger in front of me and headed towards the witch, (or at least I guessed it was the witch).

Ainsley stood still, probably out of fright. Suddenly she gasped. I turned to look at her, using my dagger to light up the sight. She was in the witch's arms, a sword to her throat. I gasped as well, starting to run towards her. The witch saw me running and stuck out her hand. I crashed into a hard, cold wall and everything went black.

My head throbbed as I stood up. Same scene in front of me, the witch's eyes still on me. I guessed I'd only been knocked out for a few seconds. I put up the dagger again, my eyes never leaving Margaret's bright green ones. This time, instead of heading straight for her, I turned around and walked away. I didn't think it would work, but it confused the witch for a few moments, as she took down the invisible barrier.

As soon as I heard her little breath of relief, I turned around and before anyone could analyze anything, my dagger was stabbed right in that witch's face and Ainsley was on the ground.

Two deaths at the same time.

After a few moments, I took my dagger away from the witch's face. Somehow, she was still intact. Not a scratch on her face. I was so confused, I just stood there for a moment. Then I remembered two things; (1) This witch has freaking insane magical powers, and (2) Ainsley is on the ground and I'm standing here like an idiot.

I immediately bent down to my new friend, ignoring Margaret. I knew the witch wouldn't hurt me while I was like this, I'd figured she wasn't so smart and she probably wanted to watch me. I scanned Ainsley with my eyes and I saw she had a humongous deep gash on her neck and it was bleeding a disturbing amount. There was no way I could save her now, even with the best doctor. So I leaned over and looked into her eyes, which were now looking at me with a pained expression.

"Ainsley, you..." but I couldn't finish. Obviously she knew her own death, why was I so stupid!

She just nodded and made an awful, cut-off sound that was probably supposed to be a sigh or a sad laugh.

"Kill..." she whispered quietly, and I was surprised I could even hear her. She pointed at the witch who was watching a little way off. "Kill... for me..." she repeated.

I nodded at her reassuringly, "I will, I promise, please just.. stay with me. We can get you healed, maybe, if we use her magic..."

But I stopped when Ainsley gave me a small smirk and shook her head slowly.
Then she let it rest on the ground, looking up to the starry night sky.

"No... don't... I can't if you're not here. Please, just..." I whispered frantically in her ear, holding her head up with my hands.

But she didn't respond, just stared up some more. I lowered her chin so she could see me. Blood made its way all over me, but I couldn't care less.

"Was nice.. meeting y..." were her last words as her body became limp in my arms.