The young wolf demon couldn’t get the vision out of her brain. A few months ago, Katerina had almost died. Her parents appeared before her and wanted her to find her brother. She hadn’t known she had a brother. They said they had made a mistake, but what mistake was it. If he was still alive, what had they done to drive him away. It had been a thousand years, and she finally found out that she had a brother. Staring at the sea, the elemental’s thoughts were surrounding her family. Who was he? Was he like her? What did her parents do to drive him away? So many questions ran through Katerina’s mind. The answers she was in search of was in her home town, Nisshoki.  A sigh left her lips pushing back a strand of brown hair behind her ear. The winter winds were blowing her hair from side to side and in front of her face

Katerina had to go back to the place she was born to find any answers. To find her brother she must start there. Turning around, she stared at the forest before her. She hated this forest, always had to be sneaky. If the witches found her, she would be their dinner. They outnumbered her, so she could never fight her way out. No matter what kind of powers she had. Crossing her arms, she looked down the beach then back to the forest. She could always go around, “That would take too long.” She said aloud to herself.  A sigh left her lips as she started back into the forest, she wished she had brought along her wolves. They never mind staying behind, the often did, but they would always welcome her back like she had never left them. Yes, they did want to go sometimes, like this time.  They didn’t think it was going to be safe going back to her homeland. Nisshoki was a dangerous place for her, if they found out her last name, she would probably be sacrificed or put to death. Dead either way.  Katerina was still unsure about the truth in Natsumi’s words but she had to find out. Find her brother and the truth about what happened.

Ending up by the forest was not on her to do list today. The wolf demon had gotten lost and she was kicking herself that she had. It had been a long time since she had been to this island. Stepping over a few branches that laid in her path, she tried to stay silent. If only her wolf form wasn’t so large, she would be in that form. Her paws were light running over the branches and leaves. But being large and white, was a bad mix.


After a few hours, she was finally half way through. Luckily, nothing had happened….yet. Stepping over a falling log, the elemental stopped for a moment and sat down. She needed to rest for a bit before moving on, maybe a bit to eat as well. Taking down her backpack from her shoulders, Katerina sat it down next to hear to take off her dark cloak. Reveling her white low cut top, black pants and knee high boots. It was her usual wear. Somehow, she never got her white top dirty. Laying down her cloak beside her, she reached into her pack and pulled out some bread and cheese. Right now that looked delicious.

It only took her a few minutes to eat before she headed off again. Stepping over a few boulders in her path, she paused to look up at the branches above her, barely any light shown through, but seeing the light, she knew the sun was going down. ‘Shit…’ She thought to herself. The worst time to be here in the forest. Night fall. Hurrying her footsteps, she didn’t see the branch beneath her feet. But instead of breaking, her whole body was lifted up in the air. Dangling from above, she looked down below her. She was quite a few feet from the ground and instead of a flat surface, a hole was dug beneath her with stakes. “Are you fu*king kidding me…” She said aloud to herself, only to hear a chuckle behind her.  Looking over her shoulder, Katerina gripped the ropes that surrounded her. “No, we’re not kidding you.” Said one of the four witches to retrieve her. How could this happen? How could she get captured by these witches? With a sigh, she would just transform and kill them all. But instead of transformer, another witch, not part of the group, appeared beside her. “Goodnight.” She said before blowing some dust in her face. Soon after, darkness took her.

The elemental didn’t know how much time had passed before she awoke slumped over. Slowly opening her eyes, Katerina gasped. In a hurry, she pulled up her legs and pulled them to her chest. A iron cage surrounded her and below her, a large pot of boiling stew. Hearing a few witches, her eyes quickly shot to them. Five stood around her talking about how good white meat tasted, how long they should cook her for, and other things that involved her being cooked alive. Anger filled the wolf demon, cupping her hand, she poured all her energy into it, but…nothing. Looking down at her hand, she gasped. No spike of ice was in her hand. Nothing was there. Nothing. A laugh came from in front of her, taking her eyes to its source. The witch shoved the caged, still laughing. “Magic cannot be performed in this cage. How else would you think we would eat your type of people?” She said aloud, and started to walk away. Ordering her fellow witches to cut more vegetables, or to retrieve more or herbs, anything to make Katerina taste any better than she already is.

]Leaning her head against the iron cage, she sighed. How the hell was she going to get out of this one?

With a ship under his feet, Captain Harrison Jones was fully a free man once again. However he did hear tales of a magical forest on Parvpora, and that was something that he truly couldn't pass up. It was said that fairies lurked in this magical place that could only be found that if you wanted to find it. Of course he wanted to find it, this seemed like an interesting place. He did at the very receive a warning that he should not eat or drink anything there and not make any kind of deals with the locals. Harrison was a well traveled man and knew that the Fae could be dangerous and shouldn't be trusted as much as they weighed. Perhaps he would find some treasures left behind by those who had foolishly perished to the beings in the forest. Another thing that he had heard was that there were witches in the forest who often ate people, well that would certainly prove to be a profitable endeavor. Especially considering that they most likely wouldn't eat the gold and other belongings of those they had managed to capture. That would truly be the horde worth checking out, he only concern with that honestly was how was he going to get it all back to town. Perhaps he could just make multiple trips, but he would eventually run out of luck and that plan would eventually not work. That would have to simply wait until he knew what kind of loot he was dealing with.


When he found himself at the toadstool lined forest he looked upon the trees were glowing along were the berries that were hanging from them. They were rather tempting and part of him wanted to really eat them, but he knew better and resisted. The twilight sky was almost eerie along with the magically glowing trees. Harrison trekked his way through the forest, he was sure he heard partying fae not that far away but it would seem that he managed to dodge that bullet. He wandered for quite some time and that was when he heard something in the distance. It wasn't the laughter of fae, but it sounded rather like a group of old women. The dashing rogue crept up and peered around a tree and that was when he spotted five hags standing around a cauldron. They bustled around preparing the pot with vegetables and herbs, the smell of the broth was quite lovely. That was when he spotted the woman in the cage, her legs were pulled up and she looked like she was defeated. Part of Harrison considering skirting around the outside to get to their cabin, take what he could carry and leave without them being the wiser.


But it would be a shame to let this beautiful woman be devoured in such a way. Harrison hid back behind the tree once more and rubbed at his temples. The things that he did sometimes surprised even him. It was then he burst out from behind the tree, “Well hello ladies! I see you're preparing dinner!”


The witches looked up at him, but they didn't seem all that interested in him, they had a meal already. “You just watch and you're next!” One said.


“You don't want her! She's nothing but skin and bones, certainly wouldn't do!” But that didn't seem to really pay any attention to him as he tried to get their attention. But when that didn't work he got a better plan and started to fling rocks at them. One of them managed to hit one in the head and she cried out.


“C'mon and get me you stupid hags!” The rogue shouted at them as he backed up towards the forest. When he saw they were going to pursue him he darted away. With all the witches on his tale, Harrison saw a giant flower close by that he could easily hid under. The man dove under it without hesitation and immediately found himself rolling in a decay corpse and the smell was quite powerful. Harrison could barely contain the vomit in his mouth. He managed to throw up silently and he waited until the witches passed him.


He scrambled out from underneath the flower, stinking to high heaven and darted back to the witches' camp. He looked up to the girl, “I apologize for my earlier comments and for the smell now.” He then looked around for anything that would open the cage. “Let's get you out of there, shall we before they wise up and come back.” When he didn't spot a a key he reached for a more universal key, a nice solid rock. It was iron and could be broken when the right force was applied. With that he gave a few quick bangs of the rock and the lock popped open. He removed it and opened up the gate and he held up his arms to her, “C'mon, jump down, I'll catch you.” Harrison after all didn't want her to land in the pot.


It was then the moment of victory was interrupted a little with some cackling behind him. The witches had returned.

The heat of the cage was starting make the wolf demon uneasy. The witches continue to talk among themselves like she wasn’t even there. Occasionally one would come to the stew and drop in a few ingredients or stir the soup. Like in that moment, one of the witches came over to stir the pot and looked up to the woman in the cage. “It is almost time to drop you in. I can’t wait for your meat to fall off your bones.” The witch said, making the others behind her laugh. “You can dream, b***h” The wolf demon said as she leaned against the bars to spit in the witch’s face. A gasp left the witch's face and she hit the cage with her wooden spoon. The splatter of hot soup hit the elemental's face. Sitting back quickly in the cage, she used the back off her white sleeve to wipe off the juice. “Your first.” She whispered with a smirk on her face. She was going to get out of this cage, one way or another. The witch just laughed and went back to her group, not caring for the elemental’s words.


Pulling her legs back up to her chest, Katerina kept going around and around in her brain on how to get out. She didn’t want to die like this. She needed to find her brother. She needed to get out of this place, lucky her the little girl she found was with a friend. This wouldn’t be a place for a child. The moment of her uncle’s death floated into her mind. As soon as the picture of the knife cutting into his skull came into mind, she pushed her thoughts away.

Katerina mentally sighed, she didn’t know how she was going to get out of this. That was until a man jumped out from behind a tree. “What the hell?!” She gasped and leaned up to grab a hold of the bars. ‘He is nuts!’ She thought to herself as a laugh escaped her lips as the witches ran after him. “Nuts but smart.” She said aloud to herself as she watch the witches disappear from view. Looking around the area, she didn’t see the man come back again. Maybe they had captured him too. Leaning back in the cage, a sigh escaped her lips.

As soon as the man’s voice hit her ears, Katerina sat up to look down at him. A smile came to her lips. “Thanks and it’s alright, I have smelled worse.” She said her thanks quickly as he broke the cage opened. The door swung open and she stared down at the man before her. She was about to jump when she saw the witches come from behind. “We have company.” She said as she jumped out of the cage, her hands pushing off the man’s shoulders to flip and land in between the witches and the man.

“No one puts me in a cage.” She growled as she held out her hands, swirls of smoke circled around her wrist to her elbow. Her hands closed into fists and she kneeled while slamming her hands into the ground. Shards of ice burst from the ground under the witches. Screams echoed through the skies as they were hit by the shards. One witch fell to the ground, a spike protruding from her neck. Only three left to deal with.

The lead witch gasped, her face covered with cuts and blood. “Take care of them!” She yelled before turning away and running. Raising her hand up, spikes of ice shot from her hands and towards the running witch. Most of them missed beside one that hit her in the shoulder. A scream came from the witch, but she didn’t stop running.

With her attention on the witch, she didn’t see the witch coming at her, a knife in her hands. At the last second, Katerina saw the knife coming from the corner of her eye. Jumping backward from the witch, the wolf demon felt the nick that cut through her white sleeve. The knife had cut her forearm. Without a second thought, the elemental hand shot out towards the witch, frozen air and froze flew into the witch's face making her fall back into the ground. Shards of ice protruding from her face and chest. “AHH! You B***h”  The witch screamed at the wolf demon. “Yep.” The wolf demon said as she shot a ice spike into the woman’s chest.

Turning around quickly, Katerina had to see if the man was alright. Seeing his face, it began to fade. “Oh shit.” She slurred out before falling onto the ground. Darkness taking her.

The rogue gave her a smile when she said she had smelled worse. Given that there was that horrible mess that he found in the forest who knew what kind of awful things were also laying around here. The jovial look vanished from his face as he heard the witches behind him, he knew that his diversion wouldn't last for too long before they would wise up and return here. He turned around to face them and then he felt the girl he was intending on rescuing springboard off his shoulders, flip and land in front of him. She was quite the nimble little minx. For a moment his mind wandered to how flexible she was and how grateful she would be for rescuing her from being made into a stew. But those thoughts were quickly dismissed as he refocused on the task at hand.


The woman spoke and then her hands were held out, that was when things became really interesting for Harrison. There was smoke that began to surround her arms and she slammed her fists into the ground and then ice exploded up into the group of witches. One of them was quickly impaled on one of the spikes of ice and another one fled from the injuries she had sustained. The rogue gaped a little at the woman, what had he let out of that cage exactly? It was alright because they were on the same side right now. There was part of him that cringed, he hadn't seen a magic user in quite some time and her certainly didn't want to be on the receiving end of those spells.


He saw a witch leap at her with a knife and made a small cut on the girl he had rescued but then the witch got a spike through her chest and was taken care of with confidence. It would seem that she had easily dispatched all the witches, and it made him wonder what had caused her to be captured in the first place. She looked at him and then he could tell something wasn't quite right. She cursed softly and then crumpled to the ground. Harrison sighed softly, what was he going to do exactly. Some of the witches had run of into the woods when faced with this girl's power, who's to say they wouldn't return to see if maybe she had worn herself out.


“You don't get to die after I've gone through the trouble of rescuing you.” The rogue then crouched down to the ground and careful not to stab her with his hook moved her unconscious body to his shoulder so he could carry her out of here. Staying her would be a worse idea than him coming to her rescue in the first place. With that he began to move as quickly as he could, years of working aboard a ship had built up his endurance for such thing so he had no problem carrying her for some time. When he figured that they were a good distance away from the witch's camp he gently sat her down propped up against the tree and gave her a look over.


It was then he noticed the cut on his arm and realized that she could very easily be poisoned. “That's never a good sign.” The rogue then held a hand to her neck to feel for a pulse and to see if she was breathing. It would be rather disappointing to have gotten this far to have her die like this. It was certainly better than being cooked up and put in a stew, but to die out here because of the witches too was a terrible way to go. “What do I even do?” He had never dealt with poison and he had no idea what to do.

The pain is what she felt first as the darkness surrounded her. Her body felt as if it was on fire. Her insides were burning. Her heart began to beat faster and faster. The feeling was like her heart was going to explode out of her chest.  Screams erupted in her mind, but on the outside she was silent. Her body didn’t move and no scream left her mouth.  Her breaths came out quick and sweat started to fall from her brow, her skin felt hot to the touch.

‘It will pass..it will pass..’ She thought within her mind in between the screams. The pain didn’t subside for a long time. She didn’t know how much time had past, but the pain lasted a lifetime. She had experienced this type of of poisoning before. It had been almost three hundred years since she was last poisoned. It was not as painful as this. This was like her body was really on fire.

A gasp left her lips as she sat forward, almost hitting the man’s head before her.   Her eyes shot open to look at the dark hair man before her. Without her strength, Katerina was unable to jump back away from the back. Instead she fell back against the tree and her eyes looked up at the tree branches. “Thanks… for the …help back there.” She said between her shaky breaths. Her eyes looked around then stopped at the man. He had gotten them out of the camp, she was unsure of where they were, but at least they were far away from the witches.

“Name’s Katerina….” She said with a small smile. Her eyes moved from him and down to her body. The pain in her dream was still there. Trying to sit up, she bit her lip holding back a scream. Her body felt like it was snapping in half. “So… Here is the deal… I know we don’t know each other.” She paused and licked her dried lips. “It would be great if you don’t leave me..” She whispered between gasps of breath. ‘What the hell am I doing… asking a damn stranger.’ She thought to herself, but she did need his help.

Katerina’s eyes locked with the man before her. They were complete strangers, yet he had helped her. Saved her life. So maybe he wouldn’t leave her side to die. With her being incapable to move, the witches could come back and finish her off. If she was a human, she would be already dead.

Harrison felt panic beginning to set in as he felt how fast her heart was beating, not to mention she was breathing rather quickly. When he touched her flesh she felt like she was going to burst into flames at any moment and the rogue furrowed his eyebrows. He had no idea what to do for her to at least bring her temperature down. He hadn't dealt with anything quite like this and he bit his lip as he tried to come up with something to help. It was then she gasped and sat up, Harrison fell backwards from his crouched position. His blue eyes were wide as he looked at her, how was she beginning to get better. He searched her face for an answer, it was then she poke a little more, thanking him for his help. He was completely stunned for the moment as he tried to piece together what was going on. He breathed a small sigh of relief as she seemed to be recovering rather nicely.


Her name was Katerina, what a lovely name. Harrison listened to her words after that, he gave her a nod without hesitation at her request. “Of course I'll stay, you're in no shape to be on your own.” He then got into a more comfortable sitting position on the ground as his blue eyes watched her for a moment before he spoke up. “My name is Harrison, and you're welcome. After all, how could a true gentleman let a such a lovely lady be devoured by such awful creatures.” He said with a small laugh as he tried to bring up the mood of the situation. Harrison considered what to say next, what could he really say? He honestly didn't want her to speak all that much, after all she was still in pretty bad shape and in no condition to truly carry on a conversation. But then again a part of him couldn't stop himself as he mouth would begin to move and form words into sentences.


“So tell me, how are you still alive? You felt like you were going to explode into fire at any moment, your heart was doing its damnedest to break out of your ribs, and you were breathing faster than I could keep up with my eyes. Either you're really lucky that poison didn't kill you or you are certainly more than human.” The dashing rogue said, his eyes didn't leave hers. He bit his lower lip as he thought about his words, “Is there anything that I can do to help you recover a little better? What do you need to recover?” He had no idea with how to truly help her out, healing wasn't something that was within his knowledge.