The Five Cursed Witches: Volume 4 - Mirai, the Witch of Sight - Chapter 21 Friend (2025)

 
Mirai
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I landed in Nox's valley. It was as dark there as well, if not even more, so I couldn't see a thing. 
"Nox!" I shouted out in the night. "Where are you? I need your help." 
The whooshing of wings, wind that gushed, and then the earth shook as he landed before me. 
"Who do you think I am, little clairvoyant? Do you think I am your servant?" he roared at me and I clasped my hands over my ears at the loud noise. 
"Please, Nox," I begged him. "My coven will be here in just a few minutes. I need some place to hide. And I... I was hoping you could do more than just hide me." 
He huffed. "What exactly do you have in mind?"
"Please, can you... can you scare them for me? If they think I'm under your protection, they might leave me alone." 
The snake head let out a hiss and he lowered his body. He was still so huge that I had to crane my neck to look up at him, and though it was dark and I couldn't see properly, I felt from his glares that he was dissatisfied with my answer. 
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"Are you trying to suggest that I'll act as a bodyguard?" he growled. 
"No! But I do hope you will help a friend out." 
"Friend?" the snake head hissed. 
"Who are you to call yourself my friend?" the goat head bleated. 
"I know you do care for me. If you didn't, you would have already killed me. And if you don't help me, I'll die." 
I didn't have time to say more, had no time for any other arguments or to even know if he would help me or not. 
I heard the popping of several teleportations behind me. It made me jump and turn around. I took a step backwards, a step towards Nox. But not more than that. If he wasn't willing to help me, then I needed to stand firm and be ready to fight. I couldn't cower. 
The area was lit up by clouds of light being sent into the sky. 
There were ten of them. All of them looked in my direction, but it wasn't me that their eyes were on. They all took in Nox and all of their faces paled. 
Nox, however, yawned with all three of his heads. "I'm going back to sleep then," he said and flew off to a cave in the side of the mountain. 
The bravery came back to the witches before me in an instance and I had to fight back the urge to run and hide. I really couldn't do that anymore. There would be no end to my running then. 
The Priestess stepped forward from among the witches and, from the smug smile on her face, she had the same train of thought as me.
"Why don't you just come home, Mirai? End this ridiculous game of hide and seek. We will help break the curse upon you. There's no need for you to worry." She almost sounded kind, but the smugness on her face was still there. 
"Will you tell me who she is? I know you know," I pointed out and was happy that my voice didn't have any trace of the trembling fear I felt. 
"You got that wrong, Mirai. Why would we lie and not tell you who she is? But we'll help you in some other way. Finding her will be impossible anyway, without you knowing who she is." 
I shook my head. I was still fearful, and I knew that my next move likely wouldn't lead to anything good. But it was what I had to do for her and for myself. 
The first spell I cast was one I had done many times and required little concentration and effort. It was a spell that created an invisible barrier around me. Since I knew it so well, I did not need to say the words out loud, so it went up without them noticing. Then I went straight in for the next spell. It was one meant for attacks. I mumbled the words and, as I did, I noticed the shift among the witches as well. 
I sent the ball of light out from my hands and at the Priestess before she had time to stop it. She stumbled back a few steps, but the spell wasn't strong enough to make her fall. When I cast it again, spells from the other witches collided with my barrier. I could feel it shake, though there weren't really any physical properties to it. But fortunately, it remained intact. The spells that hit it ricocheted. Some hit the walls of the valley and made stones crumble down. Others went soaring back to its originator, and I realized the barrier was my best defense and offense. 
I focused all of my powers on keeping it intact. Surrounded myself with it. They hit spell after spell, all of them determined to break it. Sweat broke out on my body and my legs shook underneath me. I breathed heavily and my heart pounded as if I was running. It was clear it was only a matter of time before the barrier would break, but I would fight to keep it there with every fiber of my being. 
I saw, through the light of the different spells, how the Priestess formed an electric cloud before her. It grew bigger and bigger and I knew that when she launched it, my barrier would break, like a mirror meeting the force of a sledgehammer. 
When it started rushing my way, I closed my eyes to wait for the impact. But it never came. Instead, I felt something wrap around my waist at the same time as a mighty lion's roar filled the night and drowned the sounds of the spells and crumbling rocks. I was lifted into the air by Nox's tail, up and onto his back. 
"Hold on tight, little clairvoyant," the goat head told me and I grabbed hold of his neck. 
The spells had all stopped and as I peered out at the witches, their faces had turned pale again. 
"Ten against one," Nox chuckled from the lion head while the snake head hissed in the background. "What cowards you have to be."
He then took off towards them. He was large enough that he only needed three steps before he was at them. With his paw, he made three of them flying in one movement. That was enough to make the others scatter, teleport themselves away. The three who had been hit collided with the stone. The sounds of the teleporting drowned the sounds of their impact, and I was happy about that. I had never really talked to the three of them, but nonetheless I knew that if I had heard the sound of them breaking, it would have made my guilt be a stabbing in my stomach which would have had me double over. 
Now I could pretend they had simply fallen unconscious, as it was too dark to see any blood. And as the light the witches had produced dimmed before disappearing completely, it became so dark I couldn't even see the three corpses. 
"Thank you, Nox," I mumbled and leaned my head against the goat's neck. "You saved my life." 
"Make sure to care for it better in the future," he snorted. "I do not like wasting energy on useless things."