Nearly Witches

Alysanne was torn between being high amused, highly frustrated and completely done with the world and her own abilities for lying to her. She had been watching this man scream at the bank’s door for little over an hour now, as soon as the power went out, she knew someone; somewhere would try her patience. Even if she was slightly impressed by the sheer amount of cursing, he had done. Maybe I can use some of them, Alysanne thought to herself. No, if she dropped one of those words around her father, he would immediately ask who said it and where she had heard it. Still, she couldn’t help but wonder how long it would take him to get into the bank and how long she was going to have to watch him. Alysanne was sure she had been watching him for twenty minutes in shunned disbelieve before sending Ghost and Nymeria to see if her Tweedledee came with a Tweedledum; maybe even had his own Alice, Cheshire Cat or a White Rabbit that could never arrive on time. She had yet to hear anyone screaming I’m Late, so she doubted it. But her abilities said something around this area was dangerous. Since she was eight years old, she could tell if there was any danger around her and it had grown in radius as she had grown older to the point, that she was sure it covered her small town. It was a full moon when she looked at the sky, the criminal hadn’t spotted her from her tree branch across from him. Neither Ghost nor Nymeria had connected her in the last thirty odd minutes, but she had learnt over the years of being partners; that no news was good news or world ending news. Since her head wasn’t trying to split in half, she would take as the former and continue to watch the bank. If only the cameras were still on, she thought to herself, how amused security would be if they had seen this sad attempt of robbery. Alysanne knew that she couldn’t do anything to him until he stabbed foot into said bank, she could shoot him with her arrows the moment he walked in and not beforehand. Alysanne would shoot him in a spot that wouldn’t put him on disability, which was harder than most people thought it was and she didn’t think robbery was a death sentence. She really needed different arrows, kind of like Hawkeye from Marvel or Green Arrow from DC, trick arrows she thinks they were called. Luckily, the cops didn’t know who she was nor would they, they never got her arrows as she either collected them were possible and she wore leather gloves when handling them. No one knew about her second bow and arrow set anyway, they were hidden in a spot that not even her father knew about and Alysanne had grown to love crawl spaces as they allowed to hide so much from her parents over the years. ‘Nymeria? Ghost?’ Alysanne asked reaching her mind out to her partners, her hands tightening around the branch she was sitting on, it wouldn’t do to give herself away because she fall backwards or forwards. Something was going to happen, since she could still feel a dull pain behind her eyes, and she had a feeling it was going to get worse soon. Did that mean he would get in? Or someone would come along who knew what they were doing? At least it wasn’t painful to the point where she wanted to cry in a corner. She didn’t know how it was dangerous to scream at a door, unless it fall on him and she wasn’t going to stop Lady Irony or Lady Fate from doing what they wanted. Alysanne didn’t even know if he was breaking the law or not, it was a crime to break in and steal money, dangerous to the town’s finances if that happened. ‘Clear,’ Nymeria told her. ‘Clear on this side,’ Ghost added. ‘Keep an eye out, run around the block,’ Alysanne suggested; for as long as she could remember she had been able to understand and talk to animals; she could hear them in her mind and she could talk to them in the same fashion. She knew that the town didn’t like her, not as much as they liked Tribe or Captain Justice, might have given her, her alias Artemis and Huntress; depending on the newspaper or website you read or person you spoke to. Still, they knew she was reliable at night and more active than Tribe or Cap was, had stopped most night-time crime from happening. She had stopped people from breaking into homes, she had stopped a handful of rapes and she was sure she had stopped a murder. Alysanne was also wary of saying she stopped a spree killer from killing a traveller on her way back from grandmother’s last December, but she didn’t regret shooting that asshole in the back of the neck. Nor did she think the police found his body; she was sure that a pack of wolves had dragged it away and left it to be covered by Mother Nature herself, after they got what they wanted from it at least and that as far as her thoughts would allow her to go on the topic. Both abilities meant she had been an odd child. Other children didn’t want to go near her when her mum took her to the park, she was sure that some parents didn’t want their children near her, and it wasn’t like she had noticed at the time. It didn’t bother her; she had been too busy listening to the animals around her. Listening to honeybees and hummingbirds, telling her tales about a patch of flowers and how to find nectar. She never picked any of the flowers, nor did she tell anyone else they were, and she was glad that she didn’t. Children would have pulled them up and they would have stopped talking to her, since she would have been the reason their food source had been destroyed. ‘Still clear,’ Nymeria told her, pulling Alysanne out of her thoughts and when she checked on the criminal’s process; nothing had changed, and he was still beating on the door while swearing his head off. She couldn’t see his face, since he was wearing a black beanie with holes cut out for his eyes, mouth and nose. Alysanne might have been slightly pity, since she thought she looked better in the colour and it was most of her outfit, like his. Black ankle boots, black stockings and biker shorts; black long-sleeved shirt with a hood over her head to hide her hair colour, along with a black headband to keep it out of her face. She was glad that all her ballet classes had taught her how to tightly do her hair in a bun. All in all, she had chosen an outfit that wouldn’t get in the way of her bow or make her stand out in the middle of the night. ‘Ghost?’ Alysanne asked as she watched the would-be criminal drop a hammer on his foot and jump around in a circle. Why did she fee like she was wasting her time? ‘Tribe and Captain Justice are coming your way,’ Ghost warned her, which was a good thing and meant that they could deal with him and she could find the reason for her headache. Which might have something to do with the two dark shadows that had just passed her tree before darting back into the forest. Putting her bow around her shoulder, she slipped down from the tree and made sure she was hidden from the i***t’s sight before trying to spot what had ran past her. ‘Nymeria, Ghost, group up and I’ll meet you,’ Alysanne told them; they weren’t near her as she knew it wasn’t them. Blinking as water wrapped itself around her wrist, looking behind herself she could see a makeshift bolt and chain keeping her in place. Ghost and Nymeria would stay where they were, until she sounded off her distress signal. “Tribe,” Alysanne greeted as he walked in front of her, looking her up and done before huffing at her appearance. Captain Justice seemed to be after the thief, since he was screaming and swearing at her. “You’re wearing as much black as I am, only Cap over there is wearing any sort of colour.” She wasn’t kidding, he had black fingerless gloves, black mask and pants. His shirt might be a dark navy, but she wasn’t going to stare at his torso long enough to figure it out and she had better things to do with her time. Captain Justice on the other hand was wearing a short white dress, red gloves and black biker shorts. “You’ve arrived with Captain Justice,” Alysanne said as he continued to stare at her. The newspaper had nicknamed both her and Tribe, he had got his nickname because his powers reminded everyone of the water tribe from Avatar: The Last Airbender but thought that Water Tribe would too long and he wasn’t female, so Tribe it was. Alysanne was slightly tempted to tell him he was wasting his time, but her headache was getting worse. “And you are?” Tribe asked her. “People call me Artemis,” she told him, her headache was slowly getting worse. She knew that Ghost and Nymeria were now looking for the source, she was just happy that they weren’t going off on their own to do so. Her parents were smart, they knew how to look after themselves. Alysanne trusted them to do so, to know when to fight or run. “Huntress,” Tribe growled but let her go. “That to,” she told him. ‘We have a problem,’ Nymeria told her. ‘What kind of problem?’ Alysanne asked as she kept an eye on Tribe and looked at her dry sleeve and glove. ‘Large wolves,’ Ghost told her. ‘How many?’ Alysanne asked. ‘Would call it a small army,’ Nymeria replied. ‘I’ll be there in a minute,’ Alysanne promised before closing her eyes, warning the forest creatures about the army of wolves near their homes; that she would own anyone who’d help Nymeria and Ghost fight them off. She knew it was dangerous to owe ‘wild’ animals favours, but she would do anything short of breaking the law and they knew that. This wouldn’t be the first time she made such a plea and she doubted it would be the last. It had to be done. “You with me moon eyes?” Tribe asked her. “If I’m not?” Alysanne asked him. “You’re not with the thief.” “Would-be robber’s yours, guy can’t even open the door.” “How long have you been watching?” “Give or take about an hour,” Alysanne told him and he just looked at her, she just looked at him before picking an arrow and showing it to him. He would have to understand that her method wasn’t one to take lightly. “I’ll be going then.” “And where are you going?” Tribe asked. “Why so interested, you don’t need three people for this one,” she told him before walking away from him. “I’m not need and thus, I would like to get some sleep before the night is over.” ‘Helps here,’ Nymeria told her. ‘It’s gets worse,’ Ghost told her. ‘They’re Direwolves, about the size of small money.’ ‘And small brained,’ Nymeria chimed in. ‘Direwolves?’ Alysanne asked them before running off as she turned the corner, Tribe long gone by the time she made it. When she arrived at the scene a block later, it was complete chaos and she looked at the letter next to her. Everything from bears to birds and mouse were fighting giant black creatures, one crow landed on her shoulder as she quickly went to the ladder; she was a long-distance fighter and she was sure she could take pot shots from the flat roof of the bakery. The black creatures had her think she had walked into a dream of hers; now all she needed to complete the confusion was three fire breathing dragons, ones that looked like Dany’s or any creature from that world that better left in a fantasy setting. Where they couldn’t kill her. Alysanne would know, she had named her own white and brown wolves after two Direwolves from A Song of Ice and Fire; after her two favourite northerners; Jon Snow and Arya Stark, just like how her mum had named her after Good Queen Alysanne. By that point in time, Alysanne thinks the name had been mentioned once. Without think, she took her bow out and shoot a Direwolf through the neck. It would have bitten off Ghost’s tail overwise and she was sure her white wolf was attached to it. Blinking she watched as it disappeared and the crow on her shoulder drove down to her arrow back to her. ‘Thank you,’ she told her. ‘Want to help, don’t want to fight,’ the crow told her. “Fair enough,” Alysanne said out loud, before picking up her arrow and firing it at another Direwolf, before continuing to fire, being careful not to hit any of her allies. “Just be careful not to get shot, I’d like you to stay alive.” When she hit another Direwolf in the neck, watching as it too disappear into the shadows. Her quiver only had about twenty arrows in it, she was just lucky a few more crows were happy to help the first one collect them. Or she would have ran out awhile ago. “For the love of Apollon and Hermes,” she whispered to herself, as more turned up to the fight as she took another one down. ‘I’ll get their eyes,’ a Hawk told her. ‘You do  that,’ she told him before picking up the dropped arrows at her feet, returning them to her quiver before going back to hitting any Direwolf she could safely hit. Now, she was happy that the would-be robber had ran in the opposite direction, taking Captain Justice and Tribe with him. She didn’t know how they deal with this threat; she didn’t know how the police would deal with this threat. Alysanne didn’t know how long they had been fighting her, but the muscles in her arms didn’t like her right now. If she hadn’t been wearing her leather gloves, she would fear that blood would be going down her fingertips. All time, she was sore and cranky. And she had a feeling that would need to replace the string on her bow; thankfully, she had a few at home and didn’t need to buy anymore from the nearest major city as her town didn’t have stores with bow strings. And she would need to do it before going out again as Artemis. Something was off about the whole thing and as she went for another arrow, they disappeared as she loaded it onto her bow. It was almost as if they were never there, the crows grabbed the last of her arrows, putting them at her feet before leaving. “This can’t be right,” she said to herself before picking them up and putting them back into her quiver. It was almost as if they were fighting their own shadows the entire time and now, she knew, they weren’t real. Someone had created them from the very shadows themselves. They weren’t Direwolves as Nymeria and Ghost had labelled them, they were more likely Hell Hounds. Creatures that guarded the underworld for Hades in Greek Mythology. Now their glowing red eyes made sense to her. “Artemis, she who runs with animals and in the wild,” a voice said behind her, turning around as she spotted a man looking at her with skin so pale, it was almost grey in colour. “The Huntress and Moon Goddess; such a strong name for such a weak mortal.” “Who are you?” Alysanne asked as she shoot an arrow at him, he just dodged it and fired a second one, maybe she should start learning how to use a dagger or sword, something that could be used in close quarters. That would mean she’d also need to require them without tipping anyone off. “You have hunting dogs, wolves, but you don’t have any silver deer,” he went on as if he didn’t just dodge two of her arrows. “Greek and Roman Gods were almost lost to time itself, if it hadn’t been for the Ottoman Empire and their greed for information.” ‘Alysanne?’ Nymeria asked. “You might be a Moon Goddess,” he told her disappearing from her sight, when Alysanne took a step forward and looked around, he grabbed her arm and then grabbed her throat. That was going to bruise in the morning, at least she could still somewhat breath. “But I’m death itself, older than the underworld.” Alysanne could barely think as she kicked at him, a raven flying over his head as it went to get her two fired arrows. Before a hawk could take his eyes out, he threw her over the building and disappeared before its claws could reach his eyes. ‘I’ve got you,’ a kind voice told her before she was caught in a Mama Bear’s arms; Susan, she had named this bear. ‘Thanks Susan,’ Alysanne told her, as she looked at her dropped arrows. Somehow, none of them were broken and Susan had caught her before she landed on the ground.  ‘That asshole threw you,’ Nymeria told her as she got onto her feet, collecting her arrows and returning them to her quiver. Her motorcycle should be where she left it, on the other side of the bakery. ‘I know,’ Alysanne told her. ‘I have arrows,’ Robin the Raven told her as she dropped them at her feet. ‘Thank you, Robin,’ she told her. ‘What would you do without me?’ Robin asked her. ‘Have to replace my arrows more often,’ Alysanne shot back, before rubbing her neck and wincing, somehow, she was glad it was a weekend. School would have been a pain otherwise, that and she needed to do some laundry. No bills this week, thankfully. ‘Let’s go home,’ Alysanne told Ghost and Nymeria. ‘After this s**t, I need some sleep and pain meds.’ ‘Food and water,’ Nymeria told her. ‘Along with a midnight snack,’ she agreed.