Prophesy: The Immortal Witch (13)

Part 12 at: https://www.abctales.com/story/marandina/prophesy-immortal-witch-12

After sunset, temperatures in a desert plummet heralding a very different world. A place where striped hyenas, Arabian wolves and red foxes roam. A place where porcupines, jerboas and caracals live and die amongst the rocks and plants that make up the arid wilderness.

Against a canvas of cloudless cobalt sky where stars shone dimly like faint alabaster fairy lights, Jezebel reluctantly led the creature out of the cave. A meteor raced across the horizon prompting both travellers to look up and take notice. Silent thoughts considered this a portentous sight; an ominous sight. One suggesting ill fortune.

The journey to be taken was seemingly a lightless one, one of calculated consequences for the unbound creature. Along the way, it did not ask its companion’s name nor offered one of its own. The only reference it had for an unwilling guide was that of witch. Both instinctively knew the parameters of their fledgling union; one of master and servant.

The decision to travel after dusk was a conscious one, an aversion to moving during the daytime apparent. Jezebel mentally noted that she would tackle the beast about this when the time was right.  They would be at the village in a few days, the restriction of resting during the day slowing progress.

Until she knew the motive for this most sinister of pilgrimages, the grinding pace would be of no concern. She hoped to uncover the reason for a trip to probably the last place on Earth she wanted to go. There would be no joyous homecoming waiting for her.

Having been saved from terminal thirst, the so-called witch found her senses changing. They were becoming sharper, more carnal. She discovered a talent for capturing scorpions and spiders and an appetite for arachnids to match new hunting skills. Her reflexes were suddenly rapier-like, her eyesight penetrating the gloom to isolate prey. She put all of this down to drinking from the creature’s veins. What else could it be?

It was a curious sight watching the woman seek out food. In contrast her partner was indolent. This woman had been sent by the gods, it thought. They always came eventually; it was just a matter of waiting.    

Before the sun rose at the end of the first night, they found shelter to avoid any, as yet, undisclosed effect on the creature. There had mainly been long periods of silence broken only by the occasional exchange about how close to sunrise they were.

The lack of any developing relationship would be odd under normal circumstances but, after decades alone in the dark, the cave dweller had come to embrace the lack of chatter.

It was on the second night that, in something of an impromptu juxtaposition, before sleeping, Jezebel curled up in her captor’s reedy arms like a supplicant child. Her body pressed against its torso, wings curled around them both as though a macabre foetus in a womb. It was a soundless act, almost contrite in its benignness. This way was warmer she told herself despite an underlying fear of the beast. She welcomed the affection from this, the most unlikely of paternal surrogates.  

It was six days before they finally arrived at the outskirts of the settlement. A large fire was ablaze with most of the villagers scattered around it in small groups. Music was playing, songs of celebration sung as wine flowed. Flickering light from the bonfire made people appear like indistinct phantoms from a distance.

Still unsure as to what it was that the creature wanted, from the corner of her eye Jezebel noticed its bat-like nostrils sniffing the air. Turning her head to peer more closely, she could see an ambiguous smile crossing its thin lips in the gloom.

Aharon, a popular carpenter much loved by the community, was the first to see them approaching. It was hard to make out who the two individuals were but, as they neared, alarm triggered inside him. There was a feeling of foreboding, a sense that something was terribly wrong.

“Who are you and what business have you here?”

Aharon stood upright trying to make himself taller, chest puffed out to muster all the authority he could. Milling about his legs were his son and daughter playing together. They continued despite the presence of strangers.

Others had started to notice the intruders and a crowd gathered to see what the din was.

“Isn’t….isn’t that Jezebel? A middle-aged man decried.

“And who is she with? An old crone asked.

“The witch is back!” A skinny man clutching a goblet shouted, its contents spilling over the sides.

At the sound of voices, the creature’s wings opened, their span fully six feet in length on both sides. Its body was now taut, primed for action, senses on high alert compensating for its lack of sight.

A spectral howl broke the tension. It was the call of hyenas in search of food.

It made for an eerie scene, wooden instruments hushed by the incursion of intruders

Jezebel stared at the villagers, terrified of what would come next. Turning to quietly quiz the beast for an indication as to what the purpose of the visit was, she was greeted only by a vision of empty desert and abandoned sand. The creature was airborne, invisible in the inky atmosphere, its only trace leathery wings flapping sonorously overhead.

A child screamed.

With the gathering turning to see where the commotion was coming from, more shrieking followed moments later. A mother had been driven to panic, her toddler stolen away into the night from above.

All of a sudden things had been made plain. The beast was here to abduct. Thievery presumably for sustenance. Maybe.

This would not end well.

With people running about in random directions chaotically trying to avoid this unforeseen peril, Jezebel sloped away back into the relative safety of the surrounding scrubland hoping that she wouldn’t be followed. She had already been banished as it was. This further indiscretion would lead to her execution if she was discovered, she surmised. It was better to leave for a second time; only this time she would not be coming back whatever the threat made.

Mayhem was rife for what seemed an age. Although only one child was taken, the terror of not knowing if the assault had ended created a hysteria that spread like a rampant contagion. Some brave but foolish men harboured hopes of being heroes by capturing the harpy.

Unnoticed at first due to the spiriting away of the infant, it became evident that the abductee’s father had been struck down by the animalistic assailant, a long deep slash across his face evidence of a fleeting, vicious assault. The wound was deep, blood staining the soft ground, delayed wails of pain drawing medical assistance.

When realisation finally dawned that there would be no further attacks, a small posse decided to track into the bowels of the surrounding Negev to see whether they could find either or both of the couple responsible for the chaos.

By then, woman and creature were long gone.

Part 14 at: https://www.abctales.com/story/marandina/prophesy-immortal-witch-14

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