The Witch of the Castle of Glass

Nobori of the Floating Leaf Skulk had once been a brave fairy. He had been strong and full of fire. He had been the fastest runner in the skulk and had joined the scouts when he came of age.

He’d had a family. A mother and a baby sister, whom he had wanted to protect.

It was a purpose long since forgotten.

He was captured by the Wolves of the Silver Lakes during his first scouting mission. He had been brave, but he had been reckless. The wolves would have come his family if they had continued along their path. He’d dashed from the brushes, taunting the wolves. He led them on a long chase through the grasslands, far away from the caravan. Far away from his family.

He had been sure he could outrun the wolves. He had been wrong. How many years had passed since that fateful day? He doubted his little sister even remembered who he was.

Nobori reached into the branches and wrapped his paw carefully around the plump apple. His mouth watered as he imagined the taste of its juices on his parched tongue. How long had it been since he had last eaten? Three days, or perhaps four. His arms was skinny, his fingers skeletal in appearance. His muscles had long ago been eaten away by hunger. He could not remember what it felt like to be strong.

He glanced back at Ripper, the wolf assigned to guard them. Ripper lay on his back and was staring at the stars above as he greedily fed on live mice trapped in a ceramic jar at his waist. Nobori flinched as the wolf withdrew another struggling mouse by the tail and held the terrified creature above his open jaw. Ripper tore the limbs from the poor creature and swallowed them one by one, until the mouse lay still in his grasp. Then Ripper tossed the body into a nearby bush, forgotten.

Nobori’s gaze drifted back to the apple in his grasp. He licked his lips. His mother used to make him eat apples as a child. He’d hated them. But now? Now, he would give anything for just one bite.

“Don’t do it, Nobori,” whispered Indigo from atop the highest branches of the apple tree. She swung down the tree with her monkey tail until she was hanging upside down in front of Nobori. Her purple fur stood on end with alarm. “You’ll end up like Matron.”

Nobori did not want to look, but he could not help himself. He turned his head towards the middle of the grove, where the old antelope woman had been tied, her severed hooves laid at her feet. Nobori didn’t know if Matron was still alive. He liked the old woman, so he hoped she was not. She had suffered long enough.

“I can’t take it any longer, Indigo,” pleaded Nobori, carefully plucking the apple from its branch. “I feel like my stomach is eating itself.”

“But you are the only family I have left,” Indigo begged. “I don’t want to be alone.”

Nobori lifted the apple to his mouth and took a bite. The juices flowed down his parched throat like god-touched wine, and for the briefest moment it had been worth the pain that was to come.

There was a crack as Ripper’s whip sliced through the air and struck Nobori across the back. He gave a yelp of intense pain and fell from the tree, striking the ground hard. He arched in back in agony as Ripper stood above him.

“Ungrateful welp,” came the wolf’s vicious snarl. “You would dare steal from the Silver Lakes? Was the lesson we taught to the antelope bitch not enough to remind you what happens to those who defy us?”

The wolf reached back to strike again. Then he paused, as a sadistic grin stretched across his face as his eyes drifted over to Indigo. Nobori’s heart fell.

“Ripper, please don’t!” shouted Nobori as the wolf struck. The tip of his whip caught Indigo in her left eye. There was a sickening pop, and Indigo fell from the tree in a heap, clutching her face as blood poured to the ground.

“Don’t? Slave, I can do whatever I want. And if I want to rip apart and devour your monkey girlfriend for your transgressions, then I will.” Ripper reached his whip back for another strike. Nobori turned his head away from Indigo, unable to endure the sight of what was to come. He stared into the darkness beyond the grove, trembling as he waited for the sickening crack.

His gaze fell upon a figure standing in the tall grasses beyond the grove, surrounded by the night. Her elegant form reflected the twinkling stars high above and her eyes were filled with a deep red fire that pierced through the darkness. Nobori could feel the fury behind those eyes, and he prayed that this was death finally come to take him away.

The figure lifted its arm and a dense fog rolled across the grove, obscuring Nobori’s view. It was as if a cloud had descended upon them, obscuring the world around him.

There was a roar of outrage from Ripper, and alarmed voices rose up from the other wolf guards.

“Fairy magic,” spat Ripper. “Is this your doing, fox slave? I’ll see you torn limb from limb for this.” Nobori heard Ripper sniff the air, trying to pick up his scent.

There was a crackle in the air, and Nobori felt his fur stand on end. An instant later, a bolt of lightning shot out across the grove. The moment of illumination cut through the fog and darkness of night, and Nobori saw the lightning strike Spiritbreaker, the guard who had laughed hysterically as Matron’s hooves had been severed. The light disappeared before Nobori could watch the wolf die, but the smell of his charred flesh and the thud of his body against the ground told the story of his demise.

Nobori tried to get to his feet, but his knees shook uncontrollably, and he stumbled. So he began to crawl along the ground. He reached his hands forward, trying desperately to feel for Indigo’s tangled purple fur.

He heard the screech of earth from beyond the mist, being twisted and broken. A sharp crack reverberated across the grove. The mists parted long enough for Nobori to watch a spear of solid stone shoot through the air and impale Greywood the Cruel through her neck. Then the mists closed tight around them once more.

“You dare to attack the Silver Lake wolves with your fairy magics?” Ripper screamed into the mist. “My clan will tear your heart from chest and force your loved ones to feast upon it as you die.”

Ripper cracked his whip angrily around him, blind in the mist. A blow landed next to where Nobori lay, and its tip slicing open his cheek. Nobori clenched his teeth tightly together to stop his pained scream from leaking out.

Nobori risked a desperate whisper. “Indigo, where are you?”

He heard her groan faintly in response, only a few feet away. He crawled towards her, the blood from his cheek dripping into the soil. Nobori flinched at each desperate crack of Ripper’s whip, yet he kept crawling forward until he reached Indigo and wrapped her protectively in his arms. She was shaking, her face covered in blood and her hand clasped where her left eye had once been.

“Nobori,” she whimpered weakly. “I’m afraid. I don’t want to die.”

The grove was lit once more by lightning. Another guard dropped dead, but the light revealed the location of the figure beyond the mist. Quickdraw, Ripper’s last remaining guard, released a crossbow bolt towards the figure. It disappeared beyond the mist, but there was a cry of pain from where the figure stood.

“There you are,” Ripper mumbled, then shouted to Quickdraw. “Don’t let her use her magic again.” Ripper and Quickdraw began to dash towards the figure, eager for the kill.

Nobori had been afraid for so long that he had wrapped it around himself like a blanket. Yet as he held Indigo protectively in his arms and watched Ripper run towards the figure in the darkness, Nobori felt a long dormant bravery spark to life inside him.

“I won’t let you die, Indigo,” promised Nobori as he got to his feet. His back and cheek burned where the whip had struck him, but he was steady on his feet. He held up his paw and extended his filthy, broken claws. If this was the day he would die, then let him face it as he once was. A brave fox.

Nobori dashed forward on all fours and sprang onto Ripper’s back. He climbed up to Ripper’s shoulder and racked his claws across Ripper’s face, trying to slow the vicious beast. Ripper released an enraged howl across the grove, and he reached his hands backwards to grab hold of Nobori.

Nobori held on and dodged the incoming grasps, scampering across Ripper’s back. He slashed and clawed at any exposed skin, and trickles of blood started appearing on Ripper’s fur. Nobori glimpsed the shadow of Quickdraw break through the mist towards the figure in the darkness, and he hoped the distraction had been enough.

Nobori redoubled his efforts, trying desperately to keep Ripper distracted. He had no plan. He knew he could do little to hurt Ripper besides shallow surface wounds. He found himself praying under his breath, hoping for a miracle.

Nobori saw an intense red glow appear beyond the mist, and suddenly there was an explosion of flame. The heat from the flame cascaded across the grove and burned away the mist.

The heat lasted only for a moment, as if its power had been absorbed into the mist, and Nobori could see the night sky above once more. Nobori saw Quickdraw lying on the ground, unmoving, his fur scorched, and flesh burned.

The figure in the darkness was nowhere to be seen.

Nobori risked a glance over his shoulder at Indigo. Her purple fur was covered in blood, and she lay trembling with her back against the apple tree. She was fading away, desperately clinging to consciousness.

“Indigo!” Nobori shouted, and knew it was a mistake. He felt Ripper’s paw close around his foot, and Ripper flung the fox hard to the ground. There was a burst of pain, and his head swam as he struck something hard. Nobori could feel blood flowing from his cracked skull. He struggled to stay awake, and he felt himself starting to fade away.

“You’re dead,” Ripper snarled. “You and your monkey girlfriend.” Ripper raised his foot above Nobori’s head, and Nobori braced himself for death.

“I’m sorry, Indigo. I couldn’t save you,” he whispered through the pain. “Please forgive me.”

The finishing blow never came. The figure in the darkness was suddenly at Ripper’s side, clutching Ripper’s arm with her delicate hand.

Nobori looked up at the figure. It was a fairy woman, only she had no wings and far taller than any he had known. She wore a black dress that reflected twinkling starlight, and her long black hair flowed out of her black pointed hat and down to the small of her back. The crossbow bolt fired by Quickdraw was imbedded in her left shoulder, but there was no pain in her eyes. Only a righteous fire burning beneath her oversized glasses that cut through the darkness and illuminated the utter terror on Ripper’s face.

The woman reminded Nobori of a story he had thought long forgotten beneath his pain, one his grandmother had told him when he was very young. The story of a goddess who had fallen from the stars at the moment of creation and now wandered the night in search of lost souls.

Ripper tried feebly to wrench his arm from the woman’s grasp, but she held him fast with unnatural strength.

“How dare you, you god damn bit…” The starlight woman did not let Ripper finish his final insult. Fragments of earth floated up and encased her left fist like armor. She drew her fist back to her waist and struck the beast in the chest. Ripper flew backwards thirty feet, skidding along the ground until he slammed against the trunk of a tree, its apples raining down upon him from the force of the impact.

The starlight woman closed the distance to the wolf in less than a second. Nobori had never seen a creature move so quickly. She stood over his crumpled form with her earthen fist, eyes alight in the darkness.

“Please, no…” Ripper begged pathetically.

They were the last words Ripper ever spoke. The starlight woman struck his skull with her earthen fist, again and again without mercy or hesitation, until Ripper lay in a lifeless and bloody heap. Nobori heard the woman let out a cathartic yell as she landed the final blows, a mirror of the pain that Nobori held in his soul.

Nobori crawled over to Indigo, his head swimming with pain and his vision blurred. His fur was drenched in blood, and he was growing weak. He embraced Indigo, resting his head in her lap. She had stopped shaking, and Nobori knew she was taking her final breaths in this world.

The starlight woman stood over him, the fire in her eyes now a gentle blue.

“I am ready, Goddess of Starlight,” he sighed, growing weaker with every word. “Please, lead me to the life beyond.” He grasped Indigo’s hand in his and closed his eyes, grateful that his suffering was finally at an end.

The Goddess rested her hand on the top of his broken skull, and he felt his pain being drawn from him as he slipped into death.

Only, this didn’t feel like death. He could feel the cracked bone shift and fuse together. He felt warm, and the warmth spread to his cheek and back, where the whips had torn his flesh. Nobori dared to open his eyes, and he saw gentle blue flames dancing across his skin, healing where they came to rest. Nobori had seen his skulk’s healers mend broken bones and infections before, but this healing surpassed anything that he had heard of, save for what was told in legend.

Nobori blinked, and he could see clearly again. The Goddess lifted her hand from his head and placed it on Indigo. Nobori watched with astonishment as the blue flames began to dance over Indigo’s wounds. The wound across her eye stopped bleeding and began to seal itself, leaving a deep pink scar where her eye had once been. Indigo began to breathe deeply, and Nobori’s heart leapt with joy when her eyes fluttered open and stared into his.

“Nobori? What…,” Indigo did not get a chance to finish. Nobori embraced her tightly, filled with more happiness than he had ever felt.

“Indigo! You’re alive! We’re alive!” he exclaimed excitedly, then pressed his nose against hers affectionately. “The Goddess of Starlight has set us free.”

Nobori turned to pray before the Goddess, only to find her kneeling before Matron in the middle of the grove. Matron was encased in the healing fire, and the other three fairies of their slave group had gathered around her. In the light of her flames, Nobori could see sweat beaded on the Goddess’ brow, as if the effort had strained her deeply.

The healing flames grew weak and then vanished. Matron remained where she was, eyes closed and unmoving. The fire in the Goddess’ eyes died away, revealing a simple hazel color. The same color as his sister Mikoko.

“I’m sorry,” the Goddess finally said. “I am not strong enough to save her.”

The Goddess walked over to Nobori and knelt at his side. Nobori could see the exhaustion etched in her face, as if she had been drained to her core.

“You are brave, little one. Thank you for your assistance. Can I trust you to lead these fairies to safety?” she asked him with a weak smile.

Nobori heart soared. He would do anything she had asked of him. This Goddess of Starlight, who had rescued them from torment. He would follow her to the ends of the Earth. “Yes, of course Goddess,” he said. The words felt inadequate for the occasion but seemed to satisfy her.

“Thank you,” she said softly. She pointed into the distance, towards a river valley. “Your people gather beyond that rise, about five miles away. Please, lead them to the safety of their camps, and be free.”

Nobori bowed awkwardly and helped Indigo to her feet. Together, they joined the others who had gathered around Matron’s body. They untied her bindings and lowered her carefully to the ground. Nobori felt the tears building in his eyes as the fairies finally allowed themselves to grieve. They grieved for Matron, and for those lost before her. And they grieved for themselves.

“Goddess, what will you…,” Nobori started to ask. But when he turned around, she had vanished. The only trace of her that remained was a bloody crossbow bolt laying on the ground beneath the grove’s largest apple tree.

Nobori felt Indigo rest her head on his shoulders. He held her hand in his paw as they let their tears fall.

An hour later, with Matron laid to rest beneath a pile of stones, Nobori led the fairy slaves towards the gathering.

Ready to begin life anew.

And grateful to the Goddess who had freed them.

* * *