Chapter 22: The Red Witch

  The goblin jumped back as soon as he saw the horned woman appear from out of a nearby thicket.

  "no, hurt, I no hurt." She spoke in the goblin tongue, something that she hoped no one would ever see, Gestures were far too embarrassing to ever show anyone.

  "who are you?" A cold sweat began to fall down her forehead as she turned around to see a young human man, he was slightly shorter than her but not by much.

  "You've seen too much," She said as she raised her hand, ready to cast a fire spell, but before she could do anything, the goblin who had only a moment ago jumped in fright, attacked her as he yelled," Run!!" In a language foreign to her.

She had never heard a goblin speak another language.

“I’m the red witch.” She wryly smiled as she grabbed the goblin by the neck and tossed him onto the ground.

  Scitus looked at her closely, he hadn't expected the reason for her name to be because of her skin literally being red. Her two horns that were elegantly placed on each side of her forehead gave her an almost regal appearance and her demeanor was equally elegant. She stood tall and proud before Scitus.

“ah, so you’re the one who gave the goblins the ingredients to summon me.”

  "Yes, that's!!" She stops mid-sentence and stares at him. "Wait, you're a god?" She didn't really believe him, there had never before been a god who accepted monsters as subjects. In the few recorded cases that it did happen, it was usually for some ulterior motive.

  "He is god" Arisa came out from behind a nearby tree, with Scitus's permission. She spoke in the human tongue, she had been practicing how so that she may one day communicate with humans. She couldn't speak all that well yet but it was good enough to form simple sentences.

Arisa's words manage to quiet the Red Witch. "You can speak human?"

"a little." The red witch turned to Scitus, "that's impressive."

"fine, let's say I believe you." She questioned Scitus, "why did you become a god of monsters"

  “I thought humans would be harder to deal with.” She giggled as he spoke, partially out of amusement and another part in agreement.

  "Now it's my turn." At this statement, she readied her casting hand, expecting a possible attack, though she was only surprised by Scitus's response, "You helped my subjects out in the past, I suppose you want compensation. Just as she said, you asked for something from the humans you helped." She relaxed her stance and fixes her black and red robes back into place.

  “so you’ve met them?” she says, never surrendering her confident smile. “yes, their leader is a pain in the ass.” She laughs in agreement,  “but at least she’s cute” She added

  “I wouldn’t know, it was dark.” The red witch smiled brightly, “Stop it your killing me here.” She said as she contained her laughter

  "I'm not trying to be funny." Her bright smile radiated majestically as she desperately tried to appear serious. She unaccustomed to people talking to her so casually and it resonated with her, she couldn't hide her glee, she couldn't act serious like she always did. "your right, I help out and, in turn, want to be helped out." She responded and finally her smile faded as if not wishing to dwell on her own nature.

  "Then what do you want," Scitus said curtly, he wanted to give her what she wanted and then be done with it, he didn't want to deal with such a dangerous person. Judging by what Kaya had told Hera, he and his colony would never be able to deal with the godless and they would not be able to deal with her, "not without significant sacrifice".

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  "No need to be so rude." Her tone of voice became agitated, Scitus had struck a nerve. Her heart shook as a prick pierced it. Her face returned to its ordinarily demanding appearance and her smile faded into a grimace.

  “Fine, then, I won’t kill all of you if you can get be the 3rd book of gods.” She said talking with a coldness that chilled even Scitus.

  "very well," Scitus responded just as coldly. It took her off guard, for a moment she almost let her grimace slip back into a smile. Then her mind caught up with his words and she stared deeply into his eyes and asked.

“what did you say?” 

  "I actually have the book in my possession." Ordinarily, he would try to give something else other than the book of gods, but he had already finished reading the book and he didn't see it having any use to anyone but a god.

“It should be in the cave of endless night.”  She said disbelieving his words.

  "Is that what that cave was called?" She wanted to smile, she desperately wanted to smile but she couldn't show the young god that side of her, it would ruin her reputation. Scitus gestured towards the west and asked the Red which to follow.

  She followed him and along the way she saw goblins hard at work with one another, they were cutting trees and stacking the logs onto one side.

  "I'm amazed how well trained the goblins are." She had never seen goblins working so well with one another or rather she had never seen them working together for a greater goal. Goblins were naturally short-sighted and cutting down trees was something that to them would seem useless to do, at most, they would store food but they only did that if there was a surplus from a days hunt.

  "they are more clever than people give them credit for", Scitus began to explain the nature of goblins to her, someone who had acquired a vast knowledge of monsters over the years, " they may not have much foresight, but their learning speed is incredible, better than I thought it would be."

  “Obviously, this is the holy land.” She responded, “and for that very reason, I can’t believe you are a god, to be a god of the holy land you need…” She began to connect the dots. Only a God of immense Magical power could make a piece of the holy land his territory and only a god of such immense power could obtain the third book that hid inside the cave of endless night. Normally she would think this person was tricking the goblins, as some people have tried to do in the past with goblins and other monsters. But it was only recently that she lost her left hand to a large fireball of immense magic power.

  "The holy land?" Scitus said as The colony came into view. The Forest that had surrounded the encampment. Wooden pillars were tied together by hemp and protected the city.

  The encampment had grown and near the middle of each wall lay a large wooden gate to allow for entry.  The Red Witch couldn't help but be impressed, despite it being rather primitive in design, it was still something completely unheard of. Goblins creating an encampment would probably terrify the mortal races of they heard a word of it.

  "Incredible," she let out in an almost childlike excitement, Scitus looked at her with a raised brow and she looked back at him, "say anything and I'll kill you." For a moment she let that side of her slip out but it swiftly returned to the recesses of her mind and left that cold side of her at its outer edge.

   She let out her inner child out for a moment and it was immediately seen, despite her abrasive nature she always loved learning new things and surely being one of the first to discover a goblin encampment was certainly a cause for excitement for her.

  "Tell me," She began, as she looked at young goblin children playing with each other near their tents. "did you summon a fireball recently?" Scitus's ears perked and he began to sweat. "No, why do you ask?" He refused to admit it simply because he knew that if she was asking it meant she saw it and if she saw it probably caused her problems.

  The Red Witch  spoke seriously, "I lost my left hand thanks to you." Scitus's turns to see both her hands completely intact. "Regeneration." She responds not needing Scitus' to ask the question himself.

  “Tell me, what is this holy land business about?” Scitus asked still curious as to her response to him saying the goblins were learning faster than normal.

  "hmm?" She lightly smiled, "the holy land is name given to places blessed by the true Gods, this piece of it is where one of them was born and it has a variety of effects on the land itself, from positive to negative, one of the possible traits is surge of genius allowing a sort of shared knowledge between everyone within the sphere of influence. In short, it easier to learn things that someone else already knows when they are within the sphere.” She spoke the truth, but she failed to mention that this effect only applied to people who had a strong enough connection to one another, whether that me love, friendship or respect, or even deep fear.

  “Here it is.” By that point, after conversing with Scitus, she quickly realized that he truly was a god and not just any god but a benevolent god. The least troublesome to deal with.

  "thank you, I'll be back."  She smiled, no longer trying to hide it,  "My name is Sia by the way" He only stared back at her in disinterest. She laughed before heading off.

  "Well wasn't that interesting?" She thought to herself as she traveled through the forest. The leaves covered much of the sun but it was still bright enough to see.  "He didn't seem to look at me In disgust or fear, this means he probably doesn't know much of my lineage, now that I think about it, I did give goblins the ingredients to summon a god, but I don't remember ever teaching them how to do the ritual."

  As she walked deeper into the first she began to hear a strange whisper, she knew what these whispers were coming from and who was making them, but she wondered why they all seemed so restless. Were they looking for something?

“Stop, your trespassing.”

“Oh?” Sia raised her brow and readied herself for battle.