Witch

Chapter 3. Sybil

It was around six o'clock in the morning when the dark was slowly lifted, which was recent, and the priestess knew the sun would make its appearance any minute now. The wasteland she needed to cross to get to the Shadow forest would take at least two days by horse and there were few places she could use to rest. No need to even mention the lack of water or any other resources in that place. She was travelling with a newborn child on top of that. Thanks to her magic and blessing of the Moon Goddess, she needed only six days to get to the village and spent only one day in wasteland but she was travelling without the child. Now on her way back she would be slower.

Priestess stopped Alistair looking ahead of her, watching the dry dead land in front of them as she was trying to come up with the best solution. She was still at the foot of Meridian mountain, nearby a small stream flowing directly from the mountain, following its foot back to the village she left a few hours ago. The mountain was at the west with enough rock niches, so once the sun would be up enough it would provide the soothing shadow from the burning sun.

As she was thinking about her current plan, she realized the detour she should take. Alone, she crossed the wasteland straight across with no stops to refresh. The incantation kept Alistair fresh and full of power, but with the child; she needed to stop to feed her, or at least slow down to do so. Not to mention the fact she already used most of her powers and she cannot keep the speed, heat protection and care for the baby at the same time. She couldn't take the straight way across. Instead of heading south-east, she should make a detour to north-east to White Rock for the first stop and for the second day the Shadow fang Rock. With this realization, she made a quick decision.

She patted Alistair's mane that gave her his full attention as he turned his big smart eyes to his mistress. She didn't need to say anything. The simple turn she made and looked to the west was enough for Alistair to understand as he moved towards the nearest rock niche. It was big and deep enough you could consider it as a small cave. She jumped off from Alistair, still clinging to the child in her arms, heading inside the small cave.

Alistair looked around to find himself also a nice and comfortable place filled with short grass where he can lie down and eat. He ended up beside a small stream, drinking the water before he lay down. Meanwhile, the priestess took out a heavy blanket from her magical pouch and set it on the ground, putting the sleeping child on it. When she made sure the baby was still sound asleep, she took off her cloak, placing it aside. "I guess it's time to change" looking at her clothes, taking out the white harem pants with a white crop top from her pouch. Same as her previous clothes there was again silk flowing down from right below the breast part split right in the middle covering the bareback and sides and ended right below the ankles. Taking off her clothes and accessories except for the one on her forehead, she changed into her new ones. She cared little if someone could see her. She was sure there was absolutely no one, otherwise she would have felt their presence.

When she was ready, she moved to the nearby stream and started filling travelling leather bags with water. She counted how much water they would need for her and Alistair. The child would have milk, which provides enough hydration and nutrition so she would not need water for her. Also, they would move late afternoon when the sun was already going down and during the night. In her pouch, she still had two bags from the trip to the village. She emptied those and filled them with fresh water, plus added another six. Better to have more than less.

After she finished, she placed all the bags back in her pouch. Now you would probably ask and wonder how she can carry all of this in the simple small pouch. They created the pouch from the leather of deer living in the magic realm. Well, at least when there were still plenty of them alive. Which means the pouch was connected to that realm and contains the residue of the potent magic from the animal. Every living creature in the magic realm had their own magic in their blood. This magic would normally return to the land upon their death if they remained pure, untouched by the darkness. Thanks to this magic and the skills of the craftworker, items created from the magical materials were carrying their unique characteristics. The highly skilled craft worker with the excellent material can create pouches with unlimited space inside and with the ability like reducing the weight of each item to zero, which was one of many abilities.

Priestess came back to a small cave, placing the half ball fire stone in the middle. She whispered a few words and fire came up directly from the stone. Another great magical material from her world. She looked around, focusing her attention out of the cave to the wasteland. 'I need to hide us' was her major concern now immediately lifting her hands palms up closing her eyes. As she was whispering protection spells, the air above her palms danced the same as the hot air above the fire. A few seconds after, the air showed themselves as small dancing bubbles slowly increasing their size. In less than a minute both bubbles were already touching and bouncing on each other till they connected and created one enormous bubble, now locking the priestess inside. She continued the spell a few more minutes before the size of her protection field satisfied her. From inside it looks like a watery bubble dome but from outside it was like a mirror except it doesn't show the image of you but the image of the cave without the current inhabitants covering also enough space around the stream to hide Alistair.

"Alistair," the priestess calls the horse. He turned his head to face the priestess with curiosity and seeing a red apple in her hand he stood up as fast he could and ran to her happily. She smiled at him, patting his mane and cuddling with him while he was eating the apple. "I didn't forget you, my friend, don't worry." After that, she took out another apple, giving it to him and also searching for some food to eat herself. It was a long day and night, she realized as the tiredness finally hit her. But first, she needed to attend the baby. She didn't want to wake her up, but she wanted to get rest herself and sure the baby would wake because of hunger. Actually, the priestess didn't understand how come she didn't wake up till now and slept all the time without crying for food.

She shook her head and moved closer to the baby. She lifted her up carefully, letting her rest in her arms, and slowly tried to wake her up. "Wake up, little one. Wake up" the priestess slightly poked her chubby cheeks, and the girl showed attempts to move. When she finally opened her cute little eyes, the priestess noticed their unusual colour. During the ritual, the baby was watching her, but she didn't see the colour properly since candles illuminated the room only. But now, when there was daylight, her eyes shine like diamonds. She had moon eyes, it's scary but very tempting. "Sybil" whispers the priestess. Beautiful, dangerously alluring grey eyes.

She took a small glass bottle of milk with the piece of rubber covering the head of the bottle and by knife; she made a small hole in the rubber. The bottle filled with milk was cold, so the priestess placed it close to the fire and waited while playing with the child. "You have the same eyes as the witch I knew a long time ago. Her name was Sybil, do you know that? Do you?" She gibbered. "You want to be called Sybil too? Will you be a great witch?" she let the baby hold her finger with that tiny little hand and was poking her nose at the same time. The girl was giving her beautiful, radiant smile and was giggling all the time. "Mhmm, you like it? You want to be called Sybil?" Still gibbering, which brought her more giggles and laughs. "Mhmm? So Sybil? Is that so? When you are older, I will tell you the amazing story about Sybil" She promised as she continued to talk and poked her nose and Sybil was definitely enjoying the attention.

Priestess checked the milk, and since the temperature was good now, she gave it to the baby feeding her. When Sybil was full and happy, it didn't take long before she slept again. The priestess tucked her with the moon silk, but not too much since the actual heat of the wasteland sun would hit the ground soon. They were covered and in shadow plus her protection spell would catch a big part of the heat too, but every traveller knows the wasteland heat was deadly and no one was travelling during the daylight there. At least not without someone with magic. She lay down beside now soundly asleep Sybil after she checked Alistair, who was also resting his head and let the sleep consume her. They all needed the rest before their real journey started.