Lycan Alpha's Witch

The omnipresent night was covering everything in the forest, hugging and almost strangling us as we were resting at a small fireplace located in the middle of our makeshift camp. All women, not more than thirty years of age, were sitting in a circular formation, in a different distance from the tiny flame. Everyone looked tired, beaten and haggard. The flame was slightly flickering, but other than that, nothing else was moving. Nobody was saying a word. We were all listening to the sound of the forest while taking a refuge from the fights that we had managed to escape. The war between werewolves and witches had been going for years but the fights had quickly escalated just a few weeks ago. Here we were, trying to scrape the rest of our powers, to be able to help our sisters to fight, while gathered around a magic fireplace. I was resting my back against an old oak tree, taking deep breaths. A small cut on my face had blood slowly dripping from it, running along my cheek down to my brown cloak which was made from a very rough scratchy fabric. My simple white cotton dress was all torn and muddy. I sighed as I reached inside my crossbody leather bag. We were all getting more exhausted the longer the fights in the werewolf forests were taking place. Our powers and mana were getting drained and yet we still had to fight. It felt like there was no end to this suffering. No time to sleep, almost no time to eat either, we could only close our eyes for a while. Dusk was nearing and we knew that during that time we had to go and find a different place to take a refuge, to stay and recover. There were only a few hours left as midnight had passed quite a while ago. We would try to find a safe spot, create a makeshift camp again, recover as much as we could, and move to a different place as night falls once again. We could only hope that we wouldn’t encounter any werewolves on the way. It was quite easy for the dogs to sniff us out. The only way to stay hidden from their powerful sense of smell and hearing was to keep a magic cover. But keeping it up was getting harder each time we had to set it up as nobody had the strength to do it anymore. One witch would always try her best to ensure safety of the whole camp, while the others were recovering their mana. I took out a little crystal flask with a clear sky-blue liquid inside. This time it’s me. We were running low even on mana flasks. Without mana, we were just like other humans. Every witch could regenerate their own mana, but the process in the werewolf forests was too slow. The air, ground, even trees had almost no mana in them. The werewolf shamans made well sure of that. Our recovery here was too slow to help us withstand long-lasting battles. Mana flasks and crystals were the only things keeping us alive. But we were running low on them as well. We were as vulnerable as we could get. Like small children running in a dark forest without knowing anything. The supplies around the front lines were dwindling, it was too hard and dangerous to deliver them. Not to mention most of the times the other witches in charge of supplies delivery couldn’t even locate us as we were mostly in hiding, erasing our footprints, scents, voices and our presences. I pulled the hood over my head, a strand of an unevenly cut wavy hair fell into my face. I lost the rest of it in a battle with a crazy wolf during the fight. He even gave me this bleeding scratch, which wasn’t healing. Luckily, it was just the strand of hair I lost this time with a tiny wound, it wasn’t my head. I placed my last mana flask in the middle of my right hand and deeply inhaled through my mouth. The flask shattered and disappeared into the air with a few light blue sprinkles. The last crystals left with a few almost invisible shines before mana seeped into my body. It felt like I could breathe after a long while once again. The tightness in my chest had disappeared as mana was finally flowing through my body again. It was enough to cover our whole group for tomorrow. The other witches that were in my battle group started slowly gathering around the fire, trying to make themselves feel better using the warmth that was offered by the tiny flame that was born out of magic. They were whispering and laughing over some things from their homes. I wasn’t interested in joining them at all. As I was the second-in-command of this group, they didn’t respect me as much. I was the black sheep whenever our leader had gone away, this time it was to gather information about the enemy’s positions. She was the one these ladies were listening to. I was just looked down upon, no matter how many times I had saved their butts. I was the newcomer who rose the ranks too fast according to them. They didn’t care about my skills at all, to which they could thank for still having their precious heads on their tiny necks. A werewolf would snap them in two without even putting any effort into it. I looked away, deeper into the forest. The full moon had just appeared from behind the clouds. The white cold light made everything around us more visible. It would be a beautiful sight if our enemy didn’t quietly hide somewhere among those trees and bushes, waiting for their opportunity. “Shut it! Do you want them to hear you?! Give us away?!” The leader had finally come back. Her quiet hissing at the other girls made everyone go quiet again. It was finally just the light breeze, forest night sounds and almost silent fire cracking sounds. I closed my eyes and made myself more comfortable on the moss that was growing in between this tree’s roots. I had gotten used to leading my life like this just way too quickly. It hadn’t been that long since I had no idea about how war worked, how it felt like losing people around you, how life could be so fleeting. I was as sheltered as I could have ever been. Remembering it now made the inside of my mouth feel bitter. All that pompous wealth, peaceful life without having to care about a single thing. It was just a silver bubble. The harsh reality of the front lines made me wake up almost instantly. There was no time to plan or take time to make decisions. There were no lush clothes, no more sleeping on a comfortable bed. I couldn’t even eat whatever and whenever I wanted. I was happy to find some forest berries or plants that were edible. We had meat only when we had the time and strength to catch anything. Water was scarce as well unless someone conjured a bit for the rest to quench their thirst. I snuggled deeper into my cloak, hoping to get some more warmth out of it. However, it was far-fetched from being even a bit comfortable. The smell of mud and dogs was all over it.