The royal moon witch

Chapter 1 - A eventful day

* Elvira P.O.V. *

Chaos, all around me it was chaos. I heard people scream and engines roar. People ran for their lives and others clanged onto their loved ones that were bleeding heavily. I saw how some threw with rocks and fire balls, while others were trying to heal the wounded. I heard shots being fired and looked around to see where my little brother and sister were.

‘’ Emma! Jonas!’’ I shouted and was scared for their lives. Not for mine, I didn’t care about myself, I wanted my brother and sister to be safe. I turned around and saw one of the girls that had her ritual today being stabbed in the heart with a dagger. Poor child.

Suddenly a scream I knew all too well from the times she saw a spider made me focus on where I should go. I ran and even though I had been hit by a bullet in my leg, I ignored the pain. ‘’Emma!’’ I yelled and grabbed my wand from inside my sleeve.

‘’Emma!’’ I yelled again and then saw a blond male corner her.

‘’Lignum praesidium!’’ I yelled and the closest tree to him started to move and trapped its branches around the weapon he held. It broke under the tight grip and the male turned around.

‘’You filthy witch!’’ he said and I scoffed. I was used to being called bad names for being different than normal humans.

‘’You call me filthy but what are you for picking on girls at least ten years younger than you’’ I said in a daring tone and he ran towards me.

"alright, then I''ll pick on you" he said in a threatening way. I grabbed a few rocks and threw them at him before starting to run.

‘’Hide Emma!’’ I yelled before running a different direction. I was followed by the blonde male and soon I heard someone join him, yet he was on a trike.

I knew I couldn’t outrun him, but I could at least try to get them away from my people. This was my only goal.

‘’Rursus humum et luto’’ I said and the water that was inside the earth came up so the ground got muddy and they started to slip and got stuck.

‘’Get her!’’ One of them said and I could only guess that they got off their trike and started to run after me.

I was getting out of breath and knew I would not be able to do this for long. Suddenly a loud whistle made my pursuers stop running and I quickly hid myself behind a large oak tree.

‘’Please let me hide here for my life and I’ll be ever so grateful" I whispered and I could feel the energy of the friendly oak respond to my question. The two males looked at each other and then at the male that had blown on the whistle.

‘’Time to go back! Enough of those filthy witches are dead, let’s go’’ He said.

I was happy to hear that they were leaving and peeked from behind my hiding spot. I saw a crest on his pants and recognized it as the royal crest. Were this royal guards? But, we were peaceful folk and never did any harm to others. We even helped the farmers and the capital city we lived close to with protection against super natural creatures that meant harm to the humans. Why would they do such a thing?

I looked better at the male who had called back the other two, he was tall and had a natural sun-tanned skin, dark brown almost black hair. I couldn’t see his eyes but I knew I would never forget the way he looked from a distance. When they were out of sight, I realized it was over. I didn’t know how much of my people were gone, I didn’t even know where my little brother was or where my sister went after I had found her. Let alone talk about my parents, I had no idea where they had gone after we had heard the engines roar into our directions. I sighed and closed my eyes, this day had started so happy and easy.

*That same day, at the beginning of the afternoon*

I was hanging up our laundry and watched my younger sister and brother play with some of their toys in front of our cabin when my mother came walking towards me.

‘’Busy bee, did you do your daily practice already?’’ She asked me and I nodded.

‘’Yes mom.. I went to the farmers field and cleaned out the water of the ditch without them seeing me use my magic’’ I said. My mother smiled at me and laid her hand on my cheek.

‘’You are such a good young women’’ she said. I chuckled and raised a eyebrow.

‘’Don’t you mean witch?’’ I asked and she shook her head.

"You know how I think about that word Elvira. We are Woodfolk.’’ She then said and I chuckled. Of course we were witches, she just didn’t like the word witch because of the known stories and the pictures you saw from witches on the internet. She called us Woodfolk which was in my opinion worse than witch but different people, different opinions.

‘’Alright Emma.. Jonas... Time to clean up and wash your faces’’ My mother said and I heard them complain. Of course they wanted to play a little more but today was a special day.

Two girls in our coven turned sixteen and they would get their wand and element. I was nineteen and had been a full on witch.. Or Woodfolk as my mother called us with a lot of lack on imagination, for three years. I liked the word witch more, I mean it was what we were. We are all born with magic in our veins, it often shows the moment we begin to walk and once we turn sixteen, we get a special ritual in which we are shown what our element is, our familiar animal and we get a wand. So what was it about us that didn’t make us a witch or wizard? That we don’t fly on brooms? Well, I actually tried that but it ended up with me landing in a tree being stuck for a full night because the tree was angry.

Maybe I should explain that part. You see, we are not like Harry Potter witches and wizards. We do not get a letter out of no where and become a witch or wizard. As I just explained we are born with it, well maybe that is the same. But we often live in small groups in the nature and the nature is our source of magic. The elements are connected to us and we only do things nature allows us. If we make something that hurts nature, nature can hurt us back just as much. So when I tried to make the branch fly, even though it had fallen off out of his own, the tree it belonged too once, got angry with me for playing with him and trapped me against him for a whole night.

I walked back with my empty basket and went inside our cabin. It was self-build by my parents and very cozy yet not as small as you would think. We all had our own bedroom, a living room where we could sit with all of us and a kitchen connected to the living room with the newest appliances. No, we don’t live as if we are in the middle ages. We had running water, gas and ever thing a normal house in a city had too. We did live of nature mostly but we also did our groceries in a normal store. I smiled as I heard my brother and sister bicker in the bathroom.

‘’Emma, Jonas.. Come on don’t bicker so much and do as mom says’’ I said and they looked at me. ‘’Or else she will go all fire-witch on you two and burn your butts’’ I said and they looked shocked. They quickly went to do their thing and I chuckled softly.

Especially because the element of my mother was water and not fire. My father was a earth wizard and I suspected Emma to be a fire witch. She had quite a temper and often needed a cold bucket of water thrown over her to cool off. From Jonas I suspected him to be a air wizard, which meant with a lot of training he actually could learn to fly.

‘’Hey little moon witch’’ my father said when he walked in and I chuckled.

‘’Hey dad’’ I said and gave him a hug. I was a little bit of a different story with the element. You see, I was born during a blue moon which happens only once every hundred-fifty years. This doesn’t mean that I am all power full but I do have two elements in stead of one. There is a catch, I automatically got both the elements of my parents. This also came with extra responsibilities which were not always funny.

‘’Is everything ready for tonight?’’ my father, Angelo Bianchi, asked and I nodded.

‘’Yes everything is.. And when the mothers are going with them to the river to take the ritual bath, I’ll make the circle and once they are done mom will take over the ritual’’ I said and grabbed a few apples from the fruit basket. I then grabbed a knife and started to cut them in pieces for me and my brother and sister.

‘’Hey guys, do you want cinnamon on the apples?’’ I asked but already knew the answer.

‘’Yes!’’ Emma said happy while at the same time Jason yelled: ‘’Eewww! You want to poison me?’’. I chuckled and I made them each a plate with apples and put cinnamon on Emma and my apple parts.

My father chuckled and helped me put them on the tables.

‘’When will I get my wand?’’ Emma asked and sat down.

‘’In six years’’ I said to my ten year old sister.

‘’That is soooo long!’’ She said and we all laughed.

‘’I’ll get mine in three years’’ Jason said proud, he was thirteen right now and I nodded.

‘’Yes, that is true’’ I said and ate from my apples.

We had out afternoon snack and after that the kids went to their friends to play a bit until the ritual would start and I worked a bit more on my spells. While doing this I started to get a weird feeling in my stomach, as if something would happen today. I shook it off because today was the first time I would help with the ritual to embrace two new sisters into our coven. I looked at the clock after a while and saw it was time for a ground cleaning. It sounded weird but it was a part of the ritual that needed to be done and was quite easy. You simply sweep all the leaves, twigs and nuts from the ground. I went to the spot and started sweeping and while I did that I hummed a bit because I felt so happy.

A moment later I was done and looked at the sun, it was about time for the ceremonial walk towards the river so I quickly ran home and put on my white tunic with a white pair of jeans and walked bare foot towards the house of the first girl who would be brought towards the river. I took my place in the line that she would walk past and held up my branch with rosemary.

The moment the door opened, we started to sing one of the ancient songs and when she walked past, we bowed down and kept singing until she had reached the end of the line. There she was stripped from her clothes and put on a long white dress and given a crown of lavender and rosemary. I had personally hated the smell of lavender but it was part of the ritual and I had withstand the smell three years ago. I saw how she was guided towards the river and those that had stood in the line now walked to the next house. There the same thing happened and we sung our song, made our bow and waited until she was dressed in the long white dress and given the crown.

‘’This brings up memories, doesn’t it?’’ the women next to me, on of the oldest ladies here and the one seen as our coven’s grandmother whispered and I nodded.

‘’Yes it does..’’ I whispered back with a smile. To others she was the coven’s grandmother, to me she was my real grandmother.

‘’I hated the smell of lavender... Just like you did’’ she then suddenly whispered and I had to hold back a laugh. I swallowed and looked at her from the corner of my eyes, I saw a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. I knew she didn’t agree with the age of sixteen, in her time it had been eighteen to become a full witch. Once the second girl was walking towards the river, I got up again and walked back to the area for the ritual.

There I grabbed a special bag with white sand and started to draw the circle with it. I was finished the moment I heard the women come my way. I looked up and smiled.

‘’Welcome my dear sister’’ I said and opened my arms. I gave each a hug and then with the same sand I drew a little circle on their still wet foreheads. I leaded them into the circle and the elder women and myself stood just outside it.

‘’Today.. We are gathered here to welcome two new witches’’ my grandmother said and I smiled. ‘’Repeat after me my sisters’’ she said and we all said at the same time:

‘’Welcome new sisters, young and full of life. Welcome new elements, bring us happiness and stop the world of strife. Welcome young witches, learn and become wise for only you can lead us to new heights’’

Suddenly our chant, which we repeated several times was interrupted by a roaring sound. It did sometimes happen that with this ritual, we summoned a different type of weather when the element of one of the new sisters was water. But this was a different roaring sound, it sounded like trucks and trikes. I turned around and saw two trucks and three trikes drive into our camp. They were filled with men that looked strong and clearly had no good intentions. ‘’Run!’’ I heard my father suddenly shout and saw how everyone started running. Behind me I heard the sound of glass breaking and I saw one of our cabins catch fire. What was happening?!

I started to run and looked around for my brother and sister, my mother and father and of course for my grandmother. I saw how they got slaughtered in cold blood and swallowed.

‘’Elvira..’’ I heard my name being called. ‘’Elvira... Elvira wake up...’’ I then heard again, I tried to open my eyes but at first I couldn’t. Then the one who was calling my name, grabbed my shoulders and started to shake me.

‘’Elvira! Wake up now!’’ the voice said and I did. I woke up screaming. I was still being shook but that stopped when the one that did this, saw I had my eyes open. It was dark outside, I had fallen asleep behind the oak tree that had given me shelter. I was scared but suddenly felt a pair of arm's around me that I would always recognized right away. Well, I recognized the natural herby smell of the man that was now holding me. My father. I started sobbing and crying, he held me in his strong arms.

‘’It is alright sweety.. You’re safe’’ he said.

‘’W..Where...’’ I started to say but he knew what I wanted to say and shushed me.

‘’You’re mother is safe too.. just as Emma and Jason’’ he said and I nodded. I was glad to hear that and took a deep breath.

‘’And..?’’ I asked and looked at him.

‘’I’m sorry sweety.. They got to her too fast..’’ he whispered and I knew that I had lost my grandmother. my sobbing then got worse because of the loss of my grandmother. She had helped me through a lot and helped me understand that having two elements isn't as bad as I had thought the first two years after my ritual.

I tried to get up and my father helped me. I looked around and remembered how I hid behind this big oak. I laid my hand on it to thank it for the protection and I could hear it creak back. I was too young to fully understand the language of the trees but I could feel he was happy he could have helped. I started walking back with my father and I could smell fire and death on our ground.

‘’Why did they do this?’’ I asked and looked at my father. He shrugged his shoulders at my question.

‘’They were from the royal guard..’’ I said and my father looked at me surprised.

‘’How do you know?’’ he asked.

‘’Someone called back two men that were following me after I saved Emma from one of them.. And suddenly I heard a whistle and someone said that enough of us had died..’’ I said and shivered from the memory. We walked to our cabin, clearly they just threw their fires randomly because our cabin had not been burned down.

‘’What will we do now?’’ I asked as we walked inside.

I just had taken one step inside and I was suddenly embraced by three pair of arms.

‘’Oh thank the God's you are safe!’’ my mother said and I could feel her tears against my own cheek.

‘’Thank you for saving me Ella!’’ Emma said and I embraced them all as good as I could.

After a while my mother let go of me and I hugged my brother and sister a little longer.

‘’I’m glad you all are safe’’ I said and gave them each a kiss on their cheeks.

‘’Not all..’’ Jason whispered sadly and I knew he meant our grandmother.

‘’I know..’’ I whispered and I knew he always had a great bond with her. Mine was strong with my grandmother because I was her first grandchild but Jason had been her first grandson. He had been her little sugar tooth ever since he was off the bottle and could eat normal things. I sighed and when they both had let go, I sat down on the couch and stared at the fire in the fireplace.

I heard my father and mother talk behind me, and even though I didn’t focus on what they said I heard the words: Royal guard, visit, king and queen. I closed my eyes and felt how I drifted away again. I slept that night on the couch, hunted by the horrible events of the day before and the sight of the male that had called back the other two. Who was he? And more importantly: Why did they attack us?