Maid in the Mist

The End

Solaria had that it was all a dream, that she would awaken to find herself in her bed. Luna would be in her bed, complaining of her sister's laziness. Her mother would be at her pot, stirring a potion for the people of Farthing, the brew of success for the next season and a reward for all hard work. Rufus would be curled up in Solaria's bed purring, and Solaria would go raise hell with her mates.

But when her eyes opened to darkness and pure cold, the reality was true. Her mates were all either with slit throats or broken necks hanging from a tree. Her mother laid in the layers of the earth, rotting, becoming a worm's meal. Solaria hoped that Stellaria would feed those worms well. Those worms didn't know that they were gorging themselves on a favored witch, Solaria hoped those worms enjoyed the taste. As morbid as that sounded.

She laid in a rocky bowl with walls of blackish blue. Above her, sparkling stones, rough uncut nor polished gems of silver. Like sharp water drops or ice shards to get more technical.

The walls were like a tall rink, a Roman dome of stone that many would crowd around to watch a lion be taunted. Or so, that was how Solaria perceived it. Luna would know of such times, and she would hit Solaria in the head with said book for not studying hard enough. Solaria would normally curse her or own sister's existence. But now, she would embrace the bullying of her own intelligence. At least things would be normal.

The first thing Solaria noticed about herself was she was now at full size, the right age. The things from her pockets were all removed, and Solaria was trapped in a rock bowl that was very unclimbable. At least without the help of magic. Thankfully, Solaria knew just the spell to climb.

"Ah...so the potion worked..."

The cold slimy feminine voice grazed Solaria's ears, causing a rush of adrenaline the sit the young witch upright and spring her to her feet. She then skittered to the walls like a mouse in a maze.

"Stickya!"

A thick amber substance stuck to Solaria's hands, sticking them to whatever they graced with their touch. All Solaria had to do was apply the pressure to the rocky incline.

But in the blink of an eye, a piercing white arrow soared through the air from the outer rim of the bowl, almost like a comet. An omen of death in those times.

It took only seconds before Solaria tasted the bitter coppery flavor of her own blood in her mouth, spilling from the corners of her mouth in tiny speckled trails on her lips and chin. Her hand stung like hot lava, and blurry vision coming into focus would reveal two bloody stumps of the middle and ring finger of her left hand as it tightly clasped the white long javelin-like arrow sticking into her diaphragm like a thumbtack holds paper to a bulletin board.

There was no blood, but the struggling rattle of Solaria's lungs indicated that she would soon be at death's door. Either chocking on her own blood or the loss of her breath through her pierced diaphragm. But as there was no blood, removing the sharp arrow would result in a fierce bleeding out. She was doomed to die no matter where she went. No matter what path, it was stained a bloody black.

"That's against the rules..." the sadistic echo of a voice purred.

"S...Show yourself..." was all Solaria could utter.

Through the shadows, white mist poured into the bowl like milk. There in the icy haze, of which would turn the most fiery blood to ice, a form of wispy evil reared itself. An image that would plague the young witch for the rest of her life, be it brief or everlasting.

A bony creature of periwinkle skin, black yarn like hair frayed and ratted past its shoulders. Bony long fingers and arms. Black pools of emotionless darkness in place of eyes. A candy red dress that sparkled way more than it should for such a feral creature of black nails and green pointed teeth that smelled like the ice on windowpanes mixed with burning coal. Her bunion spotted feet were stained with brown mud and rusted blood. It was hard to distinguish such things as Solaria's vision faded black and back with every two breaths.