CHAPTER 7
Witch
In a small thatch hut in the North Elf Forests of Narma, Greble the Witch cursed aloud, causing nearby trees to droop, as some of their life force was suddenly sucked out from them. Nearly a full day had passed and there was still no sign of the Sisters. That meant that something Earth-side had somehow gone awry and foiled the plans of two adult dragons.
How was that possible? There should have been no force on Earth capable of stopping them, including the elves and the treacherous sister dragon Jewel.
Encountering Jewel at the triumphant funeral of Joan Simple had been quite a shock. If the dragon had sensed her, Greble’s long quest for revenge against Joan would have probably ended in her own death. Fortunately, witches have ways of avoiding detection, even by dragons.
Getting her revenge on the human Joan Simple had already been tedious enough, as it had taken Greble almost two tens of Earth years to locate the Portal from Narma to Earth. Getting past the elves on the Narma side had been child’s play, and getting past the troll and the aging human Elf Warrior on the Earth side had been even easier.
However emerging from the Earthly sanctuary of the Elf Warrior she didn’t know how she would possibly find Joan Simple among the many thousands of thousands of humans she sensed. She knew nothing of human phone books or computer internets, or anything else about this strange world. She had heard that without aid of magic, humans were short-lived, and she feared that Joan may have already died without feeling Witch vengeance. Yet, her uncle the Elf Warrior still lived, as she sensed his strong presence within the house. So perhaps the wretched girl that had caused her such problems years ago also still lived, she had reasoned.
As she had stood uncertainly in front of the Simple House, a monster as large as an adult throg roared towards her. She prepared to dive back over the picket fence and into the thick growth beyond it, but suddenly realized that it was not a monster at all, but a lifeless wheeled coach that carried within it an ordinary male human. She sensed a sputtering fire deep within the couch, and a fantastically complex set of mechanisms that linked the power of the fire and actions of the couch to those of the human, who worked mechanical knobs and foot pedals to control it. Worst of all, most of the couch was made of magic resisting iron. Instead of fleeing she moved back a step and assumed a defensive stance. If this lifeless iron golem swerved to attack her she would slay the man within it instantly, severing his control of it.
However, the contrivance rolled to a stop only a few feet from her, though the hidden fire still roared deep within it. The man controlling it looked out at her, and smiling, spoke briefly to her. She didn’t understand the specific words, but he could read lust in his thoughts. Good. She had assumed a gauss of a human female, one that was evidently attractive.
The man seemed disappointed at her lack of response, and resumed the tasking that had brought him to this place. He reached out of the large opening in the side of the cart to open a small box that stood upon a wooden pole, and placed inside it a small folded parchment. After one last leering look at her, he had the cart carry him away.
She watched the cart roll to another box on another pole not far away, where the man performed the same ritual disbursement of parchment. Then it moved yet further, to yet another box. Indeed, from where she stood she could see at least ten such boxes along the smooth, hard road, spaced along each side of it, and it appeared that the man in the cart was purposefully stopping at each of them. She also noted other iron contrivances at rest along the same road and off of it on short side-roads that led to large houses. She also saw several other humans. None seemed to be an immediate threat, nor did they threaten each other. They didn't even carry weapons and she sensed that they had no magic powers! The entire scene was eerily peaceful.
This was like an old-fashioned elf village, she realized, where they all felt that they were safe! They would be very easy prey for her to consume!
Curious about the parchment, she removed it from the nearby box. The box was iron, but she managed to open it and snatch out the parchment without hurting herself. Perhaps the boxes were built of iron to deter the sensing of the messages.
She tried to read the message as she held the envelope between her hands, but the message she held wasn’t as potent as elf writing, though emotions swirled deep within it. Even after ripping it open she couldn’t read the detailed gibberish, but she could sense that it was a plea for help with overtones of happiness and concern.
Most interesting of all was the identity of the person that had sent it. Greble sensed that it was from Joan Simple! Her prey lived!
Within hours she had persuaded a human to translate details from the letter, and help her track down the place of its origin. After murdering the human that had helped her find them, murdering the Simples had been almost too easy. Though the steel shell of the auto partly shielded her spell, she easily incapacitated them so that the man lost control of the carriage. Both survived the crash, allowing Greble to then slowly suck the life from each of them in turn, the man first of course, so that Joan could see him die in horrible pain, and know that it was she, Greble, that had done it.
“Your son is next,” she told Joan, before the human lost consciousness forever.
But her son wasn’t next. Greble had planned to kill the boy and the weakened old Knight at the funeral, but then the dragon appeared, disguised as a small black flying Earth creature, forcing her to flee. She could see that the dragon wasn’t tainted Evil and therefore wasn’t part of the Dark Horde.
It all fell into place. The missing egg was here on Earth; it had to be! Why else would a dragon be here on this obscure planet, disguised as an Earth creature? Also, the dragon had to be the long missing rogue Sister, Jewel.
But what could she possibly do with this valuable information? For more than two Earth months she fretted about how she could possibly use it without getting herself killed.
Then only two Earth weeks ago she discovered the Talisman: an ornate black ring of power that she had worn on her finger ever since she found it languishing in a deserted elfin library and museum near the Dark Forest. More accurately stated, the Talisman had found her, as it had actually called to her and led her to itself. Wearing the Talisman, Greble found that her powers more than doubled, and when she slept it brought on visions that often guided her actions. Sometimes it even spoke to her.
She didn’t like dealing with the Dark One or his Dark Horde, but this was an opportunity she couldn’t pass up. She had information on the location of both the egg and the rogue dragon Jewel, the only entities in the Multiverse rumored to be a threat to the Dark One!
But it had to be handled delicately. She couldn’t approach the Dark One directly; that would be totally suicidal, but urged on by the Talisman, she cautiously approached the two Sisters that flew with the Horde.
They might have incinerated her immediately but for the Witch’s knowledge of their rogue sister, Jewel. They had searched for Jewel for centuries, when they weren’t busy searching for the egg. Now Gribble claimed to have the answer to both mysteries. So a bargain was made, and the Sisters went to Earth to retrieve the greatest prizes imaginable: they would seize the egg and bring it back to Narma for the Dark One, and along the way they would also destroy their traitorous Sister dragon Jewel.
According to the Sister dragons Greble’s prize was that she would be one of the few entities in the Multiverse that wouldn’t be absorbed or destroyed by the Dark One. Plus, all elves and humans, when the Dark Wave got around to them, would be hers to personally consume. Surprisingly, despite their physical frailty, there were evidently billions of humans. They apparently bred fast. She could feast on them well for centuries before they were all consumed!
But Greble would have no prize if the Sisters failed. Her bargain was with the Sisters, and not with the Dark One directly. Everything depended on the Sisters gaining favor from the Dark One by giving Him the egg and passing some of their rewards to her. And now they
were late in returning from Earth with the egg!
Above all, Greble feared what the Dark One would do to her if the Sisters failed and he learned of the egg and Jewel. As urged by her Talisman, she decided to again break one of the cardinal rules that had helped her survive for so many centuries: stay away from dragons! The Talisman prompted her to return to Earth to seek the questing Sisters and see if she could save the situation.
On the way to the North Elf Forest Portal on Narma she found herself to be unusually deadly; she sucked the life from everything in her path with wonderful efficiency! She couldn't wait to try out her enhanced deadly powers on Earth! While seeking to save the situation on Earth she would of course along the way feed and amuse herself by consuming thousands of humans.
****