The Witch of Vera Wood: Chapter 6

The Witch of Vera Wood

Chapter 6

            “Don’t take it personally,” said Peter. “I’m just not much of a teacher, and it, you know, involves actual work.” Lina chuckled.

            “It’s ok,” she said. “I think you’ll be fine, and I’ll try to make this as painless as possible for you.”

            “That’s appreciated,” said Peter with a laugh. “I can’t believe I’ve been forced into this. Well I guess annoying her has a price. So, what do you want to know?”

            “Well…” started Lina, pausing to think. “What exactly do you do as Tarja’s familiar?”

            “My main job is to help her in her magical endeavors. Fetch anything she needs, you know? Provide help for spells that require more than one person…umm…and, I guess, protecting her in a way.”

            “So, a familiar is a magical helper?” asked Lina. Peter nodded. “Are they magical creatures themselves or something?”

            “Not really, no,” said Peter. “Like witches, we’re originally human. The witches themselves give us powers with a special spell-potion combination. Part of becoming an official witch is finding someone to be your familiar and performing the spell yourself with the help of your mentor. The spell also magically binds a witch and her familiar. The familiar cannot live without the witch he is bound to. If the witch dies of natural causes, the familiar dies with her.”

            “Only if she dies of natural causes? What if she’s murdered or something?” asked Lina.

            “Well, in that case, the familiar must serve the one who vanquished his or her witch. If someone were to kill Tarja, I would be obliged to serve the killer.”

            “Could you run away or something? Suppose you didn’t want to be a certain witch’s familiar.”

            “The spell upon us causes us pain whenever we leave the witch without the intent of coming back. The farther you get, the more it hurts. Go far enough, and the pain kills you. So running away is not an option,” said Peter. Lina looked bewildered.

            “So there’s no way you can go free?” she asked, wide eyed.

            “Nope. Not short of suicide, anyway,” said Peter curtly, shaking his head.

            “Why would anyone want to be a familiar then?” asked Lina, shocked.

            “You act like we have a choice!” exclaimed Peter with a slight chuckle. “No, it’s the witch’s choice who the familiar is. Traditionally, it’s her first victim.”

            “Victim?!” Lina asked, her eyes widening even more. “What do you mean by ‘victim’”?

            “Well this is getting into Tarja’s territory a little bit,” Peter said, looking down at the table and twiddling his thumbs. “Let me explain this first. Witches without their potions are just human. Witches are basically humans trained in the art of witchcraft. They’re not supernatural beings or anything like that either. The reason they can live for a really long time is a special potion that stops death. Also added to that potion is an ingredient that keeps them young. This ingredient is Virginity.”

            Lina stared in disbelief. “H-h-how does that work?” she stuttered.

            “You would think that ‘losing your virginity’ or ‘taking someone’s virginity’ is just an expression, but it isn’t. It’s quite literal. When the time comes, Tarja will explain the specifics. When I said ‘victim’ I meant the first person a witch takes their virginity from,” said Peter.

            “So…where you Tarja’s first…?” Lina started. Peter nodded his head. “Interesting,” said Lina. “Well that explains the rumors. Boys are always going into the woods and coming back with stories about their first times.”

            “Yep,” nodded Peter in agreement. “Unfortunately some of those idiots aren’t coming for their first times. If you haven’t noticed yet, Tarja has temper issues. That’s why you hear about so many of those ‘disappearances’ in the news. So, unfortunately, the task of collection often falls to me.”

            “To you? You mean you go and…” Lina started.

            “Yep. I go into town myself, find a virgin, and take her ‘purity’ away,” said Peter, grinning a bit. “Only part of this job I actually like.” His smile grew wider.

            “Wow,” said Lina, wide-eyed with disbelief. “Do you do it a lot?”

            “These days Tarja has to send me more and more often. Not because she doesn’t have the ability to get any, it’s just that it’s not as much fun, not as much of a game as it used to be. You know, even as recently as a hundred years ago, Tarja would go out and lure any young man who she found worthy and break him, so to speak, until he gave it all up willingly. These days, not only are the virgins getting younger and younger, but there’s no longer this whole idea of purity. These days, a horny teenage boy won’t think twice if offered.” Peter shook his head sadly. “Same with girls too. I try my best to find someone who’s nearing adulthood, but I usually end up with a fourteen or fifteen year old girl just begging to lose it. That’s just a bit gross for me.”

            “Wow. I-is that what I’m going to have to do too? You know, when I’m a qualified witch?” Lina asked nervously.

            “Well, you don’t have to, but if you don’t you’ll just grow old and die. The Witches Council won’t be happy, and neither will Tarja. She would have spent all that energy training you for nothing.”

            Lina sat there, lost. Did she really want to be a witch if it required all this? It seemed…wrong to her. She was raised a Christian by her mother, despite her father leading a Wiccan coven. She rarely went to church and never took it seriously, but throughout her life the morals she learned had stuck with her. She herself was still a virgin at nineteen. Not that she wanted to wait until marriage, but she just never found anyone she wanted to do it with. Now if she wanted to be a witch, she’d just have to lose her own virginity to some stranger. Peter noticed her thinking.

            “If you’re having second thoughts, don’t. It’s really not all that bad, you know? And your familiar can help you out if you need it. Plus, do you really still want to live like they all do? I thought you didn’t like your old life. This is a chance for you to escape from society. Not many people have this opportunity. You don’t have to do anything like it until long into your training. And you’ll get used to it, I promise.”

            “I’ll do it if I have to,” said Lina, straightening up. Peter was right. How bad could it possibly be?

            “Good girl,” said Peter. “Is there anything else you want to know about familiars?”

            “Umm…” said Lina, thinking. “Can you really turn into anything you want?”

            “Sure can,” said Peter. With a smile, he suddenly melted away, and on his chair was a pile of the clothes he was just wearing and something in the middle trying to wriggle its way out. Lina looked over and yanked off the t-shirt on top of the pile. As soon as she did a magnificent hawk spread its wings and took flight. It circled around the cabin, and every lap it made, it changed into another bird. From hawk to raven, from raven to a swallow, from swallow to what looked like a phoenix. The phoenix landed behind the armchair by the fire, and there stood Peter again.

            “Pass me my clothes, will ya?” he asked. Lina picked them up and tossed them to Peter. He got dressed and came back to sit at the table. “Well?”

            “That was amazing!” exclaimed Lina. “Can’t wait to get my own familiar!”

            “Ha ha, that poor boy,” said Peter, laughing. “So ends our lesson for today. Next time, history of witchcraft.”

            “I’ll be looking forward to it,” smiled Lina.

            “While those two little school girls are chatting, want to take a walk?” asked Peter.

            “Sure. Why not?”

            “Shame, I just got dressed,” Peter said smiling. He changed into a dog, leaving the clothes he just put on on the floor. The two left the cabin and went outside, leaving Tarja and Johanna to their stories and giggling.

Note: The next few chapters will just be Lina having lessons with Tarja, Peter, and Johanna. In them, you'll learn all about the world of witches =). I'll have those up....eventually...=P