Witch

4. Blue fire

The sun was already hidden behind the mountain when Sybil woke up for the third time loudly announcing a feeding time. Priestess lazily opens her eyes trying to figure out why she even agreed to this task in the first place just to be disappointed by the fact she had no choice at all.

Don't get me wrong, she loves the babies. Every single time their family accepts a new member there is joy in it but she already spent six days travelling almost without a break. Most of the time she kept her spells and chants on Alistair to keep the speed up and make it as easy as possible for him to not exhaust him. Alistair is one of the last of his kind. Horse from the magic realms. They can travel faster with less time to rest and without water or food if the riders channelling their power. Stronger the rider is faster they can travel

One would expect that with all the connections to Moon Goddess, the different varieties of gifts among her people and with two oracles, they would know about the child sooner but not. There were no signs, no future readings, no warmings’ till it was almost late. The last day of her six days long trip the priestess travelled all day across the wasteland. This itself took a huge amount of her stamina and magical powers while she was protecting herself and Alistair from deadly heat and adding to his speed. She continued half of the night before she finally arrived at the village. Performed the ritual of purity and the rest of the night she travelled back to the edge of the wasteland where she was now.

I will not exaggerate if I say she was drained and exhausted and this little terrorist didn't let her sleep enough. She needed rest more than anything yet this little eater had to wake up every few hours demanding her portion of milk. Few hours of sleep might be enough for a normal human to regain their stamina at least in the short term but not for magical creatures. The amount of magic in their blood is directly affecting their stamina and powers and it can be replenished by sleeping or by sharing the power with another magus.

Humans never travelled wasteland by themselves. It doesn't matter which time you travel, almost every time it is a suicidal mission unless you have magus with you. For mortals, magus are any creatures whether human or not human who used magic or have magic in their blood except the animals. During daylight in the wasteland, the most common death is from exhaustion due to unnatural heat. But night, that is a different story. Wasteland is home to shadows. Magical creature from another world without physical bodies. No one knows what or who they are. If you are caught sleeping, they lock you inside your worst nightmare from which you never wake up. That's why most travellers travel at night. Keep light up and you might avoid them.

But still, she felt restless. Shadows are not that big a problem for her but they still can affect Sybil. The only thing that brings a little bit of peace to her mind is knowing once she crosses the wasteland Sybil will be alright and the rest of the way will be easy and more relaxing.

She took out another bottle of milk placing it near the fire, then moved to Sybil to change her. "Uuh you stinky little monster" she said in a cute voice poking Sybil's belly while cleaning her. "Like a new are we? Are we?" As The priestess was tickling little Sybil with her nose which earns her a huge portion of giggling and squeaking from a little baby. Before she puts on her new diaper she takes out from her pouch a bottle of specially made corn powder pouring it down on her ass making her look like a mountain's top in winter. She gives her a bottle of milk when all is done.

Little Sybil is eating and the priestess has now time to think about her plan. She needs to take a detour if she plans to keep both of them safe, especially Sybil who can't protect herself. It will add an extra half a day to her trip across the wasteland but feeling her magical power it seems like the only option. She will not be able to keep a heat shield all day long. White Rock is north-east and if she travels all night they can be there at dawn. With this thought, she places three more milk bottles beside the fire and goes to the stream for water.

She placed a small bowl of water in front of her back inside the cave and took out a bag with firestone powder mixing it with water. Warm bottles of milk are one by one covered by this mixture from head to toe and placed back near the fire to let the clay dry. The thing is fire stones have a very amazing ability. They are radiating heat. In winter times you can just keep a few fire stones around in your house and you don't need to worry about freezing anymore. At a high temperature, the stones start to melt, releasing particles into the air which are flammable so it’s easy to keep the fire up thanks to slow melting. Ball of the same size as a human head can keep the fire for almost twenty-four hours. That's why they split them in half and use them when travelling.

The clay is dried, Alistair seems rested and fed enough, little Sybil sleeps again so it looks all is settled and they are ready to go. Lifting the protection spell she placed early morning, placing all stuff back to her pouch and putting her black cloak on, she jumps up into Alistair's saddle. "Let's go my friend" Alistair didn't need more encouragement before heading to a dead land.

                                              * * *

Few hours prior

The moonstone placed in the middle of her forehead burned long before she finally saw them on both sides of running Alistair. Only a few hours left till dawn, moonlight leaving the ground more dark grey but now few places around her completely dark like the ink. They move fast, keeping speed with Alistair. Priestess feels the Alastair anxiety, he wants to run faster, run away from them. The noise he can hear made by them as their dark essence is colliding with the ground makes him shiver. "Shhhhh, my friend. Relax." Priestess soothes her friend stroking his mane with one of her hands.

Thanks, goddess a few hours ago when Sybil was hungry she tied around her chest and back her longest scarf placing Sybil carefully inside. She had this idea after first feeding when she found out it's difficult to keep riding, feeding the child and holding herself firmly in the saddle. They almost fell down.

So now she has both of her hands free and the child safely placed close to her chest. As the shadows were slowly locking them trying to make the horse stop priestess closed her eyes and focused on the Moon above. As a reply from Moon Goddess itself, the light from the moon becomes visibly stronger, shining directly at the priestess leaving her moonstone shining like a second moon. Priestess feeling the power borrowed from the moon itself, chanted a spell creating six small flying orbs of light from her moonstone. Three orbs descended to the level of Alistair's belly circling abound providing enough light to illuminate the road in front of him and the other three others ascended little above the priestess's head circling in the opposite direction.

The light was warm and soothing for Alistair, calming him down. The priestess felt anger from the shadows. They were furious. Trey tried to attack the orbs but every time their essence touched the light she heard hissing the same as you pour cold water to hot stone.

The commotion and noise were enough to wake up Sybil. Directly she started to cry from the raw dark emotions radiating from her shadows around. The orbs kept them far enough to not cause any physical damage but both priestess and Sybil felt them.

But what came next the priestess didn't expect. The light from all of her orbs was gradually increasing the radius which they were able to affect pushing the shadows farther from them. The first priestess didn't understand it wasn't her magic and except Sybil, there was no one else. She holds the scarf where the little witch was dwelling locking her eyes with those of the girl. She gasped in shock. Her pupils dilated, irises slowly changing the colour to icy blue. She looked back to the orbs of light just to see the light changing into the fire. One by one each orb ignited with blue fire.

It was beautiful. She couldn't leave her eyes from the orbs icy blue fireballs. They started to move chaotic but with one purpose, to hit those unnatural creatures. When they hit their target it wasn't the same as with the light. No, there was no hissing sound instead every single time they hit their target new blue fire was ignited and the scream she heard from the creature announced that it was dying.

She looked back down to little Sybil now happily looking back at the priestess while she was playing with her own fingers. One would think she is playing some invisible instrument. Each time the ball hit the target the eyes of the little witch sparked. The priestess was left speechless in awe.

It didn't take long for the little witch to eliminate more than half of the shadows. The rest of them just disappeared into the night and the little baby was just loudly asking for her new portion of food. Priestess didn't waste any time giving her last bottle of warm milk, still looking at her dumbfounded. 'How?' What the only word occupying the priestess's mind. The sunrise snapped her back to reality as she finally saw the White Rock in front of them.

They arrived at the rock shortly after the sun made a full appearance. She found a place similar to that small cave before and again prepared the camp. She fed Alistair with some fruits and vegetables the same as herself and settled all of them to sleep. But this time it took her longer than before to slip into the world of dreams as her mind was still occupied by the thoughts of Sybil's power.