Chapter 37 - 38. Antonie
Suddenly I felt that something pull my shirt hard so that unintentionally I dropped Mickey, and I felt my feet were not on the ground anymore. "Mickey!" my voice was echoing in the quietness and the mist of the forest. Kerberos who walked far ahead of us turned back hear me screaming.
Something was lifting me up. From the corner of my eyes, I caught phantom knight we encounter few days ago.
Kerberos barked loudly and the barked woke me up, they were many in number, and one of them was taking me and the others flying around me.
I fought to release myself but their body was just like haze, my hands could not touch it. I saw Kerberos was trying hard to help me by attacking them. His sharp nails ripped the air as if wanted to pounce on the phantom knight that kept circling. His efforts were for nothing, just like mine, useless.
On another side, Mickey was trying to get some help from the stone birds. As soon as they were coming, they threw bright red gravel to the phantom knight, but the gravels just went through their bodies, and then it turned into dark black and fell on the ground.
They were faceless, only one mouth that whispering something I did not really understand. One creature whispered to another one, and continued to another else. And when they said it together it would hurt your head so badly. Their body was just like dark smoke of burning thing with cold air surrounded it.
They took me far into the deep of the forest, flying in line and passed through one portal. After that, everything around me changed totally.
The blue sky turned into night, and as far as my eyes could reach was only rubbles. I smelled awful odor all around that place. I looked more closely, and I saw many dead bodies lay on the rubbles.
I could not remember how long I had flown, they took me to the tallest building, and someone had waited for us.
"Welcome Tha," her welcome greetings were ambiguous. I did not know her, but she seemed to know me. "It is my first time a common human could kill a wizard," it was an insinuation. "I want to know the person named Tha is like," this time she sounded belittled me.
I grew more vigilance when she walked around to assess me.
"I did not kill her," I told her the truth. "It was coincidence." I tried to remain calm, even when the floor felt so cold on my barren feet. I even could smell very strong smell of iron and rancid from somewhere in there
"You know the spell for removing spirits, don't you?" I did not reply, I wanted to hear his next words. "You know, if you are able to share with me, I will give you everything you ask for," he sounded so arrogant.
"I am sorry, I guess you are coming to the wrong person," I cut her words. "I know nothing about magic. I am not a wizard. I am just a student with my heaviest burden is my final assignment, and a worker at a florist. That is me," I said softly, trying not to trigger her emotions
"Do you that all wizards are looking for you?" this time he was threatening me, "If you give that spell to me, I will help you and I will guarantee your safety," his offer sounded so tempting, but I was not interested. "I have a good relationship with the leader and I will make sure they will not hunt you anymore," he did not give up persuading me.
I ran out of words how to explain to her that I was not a wizard, I did not have any knowledge about the spells she wanted. "Miss, I think you are wrong. I am not a wizard and I knew nothing about that spell." I spoke slowly to make her understand.
Suddenly her expression changed to be very angry because she failed to get what wanted from me. My body flew off the floor but the next second, I was thrown to the floor really fast.
She directly dragged my body to a place even before I came on from the shock and the great pain I felt.
…
I came on and found myself in a small cage, and the cage was hung in a very big room. I faintly saw the light of fire that was likely to come from a fireplace far below there.
After getting better vision, I looked my surrounding and in fact I was not alone. Many kinds of creatures with different kinds of shapes that I never saw before were in the cages like me..
Our cages were hung on cables or some kind of thick ropes which were in aline. I was panicked and confused trying to get out of that cage. I pushed and kicked and banged it but nothing happened.
Whispers from five little children, aged seven to ten years old, distracted me. They were watching me in a cage on my left side.
They were whispering to one another while looking at me with very strange expressions. I ignored them and continued doing things to free myself from that cage.
There was something to keep struggling to get out of that place as soon as I could. The image about Manjis crossed to my mind, how they helped me run from the wizard who wanted to kill me. Right now I really hope that either they or anyone could take me out of that place.
"Hello!," someone from the cage next to me waved her hand. "Are you human? Do you understand my utterances?" I just nodded. "Hey, why were you caught?" he sounded enthusiastic.
At first I did not want to reply him. But he seemed to expect my reply. I finally gave up and told him. "Emmm…it seemed that I was caught due to a misunderstanding that I was thought to have killed a wizard but it was not me." He looked confused with my story.
"I believe, Azalea would not just catch anyone. You must have a problem with her, or maybe she has a plan over you." His smile was a sly one. But what he told me might be true.
"How long have you been caught?" I wanted to change the topic so that to avoid my negative thoughts crawling in my brain. "And what kind of place is this? It is not like in my world anyway.
"Welcome to the jungle of witch," he said. "In this dimension all abandoned black witches live." To the truth I was rather confused. "Those who live here are the witches exiled by the south groups of black witches." Even so, we are still part of them, and they still admit our existence," I nodded, as a sign that I tried to understand his explanation. "By the way, you have got beautiful eyes," He smiled this time.
I was not sure what to say with his last words, a flattery or honesty. Finally I simply said, "Thank you."
"Welcome," his replied.
…
During staying in the cage, it felt as if time stopped winding for me. Day and night were simply the same, stuffy and full of strong iron smell. The witch who was imprisoned next to me was Antonie, a name that I disliked it because it reminded me of the worst incident, Zie's death. Antonie was a newbie who ran from his school who was later caught by Azalea.
"Why were you caught?" I wanted to get rid of the boredom by chatting with him. "Aren't you an ordinary witch?"
"Not really,. She wants the spell that I forgot." He was ambiguous.
"What do you mean?" I frowned. His statement intrigued my curiosity. "Is it something very important?"
"Errr," he was thoughtful. "Actually, I am a master of one magic spell which is quite dangerous if you don't use it properly," he looked at me with a strange smile. "People say it is the spell of mortality
My eyes pooped out in disbelief. Instantly, I remember Zie. 'is it the same magic spell used for Zie?' I thought.
"One day I tried it to myself, but it was a failure. Because of that, I could not recall some events I have ever been through.." I was just silent not knowing what to respond.