Before I knew what was happening, the figure beside me had already rolled to the side. Not even a second later, I felt something brush past my face and instinctively jerked my head back to avoid it. Right after that, there was a frightening boom as dirt and grass scattered into the air.

With a start, I realized that I was able to control my body again and clambered up to my feet. Looking down, I saw the ground next to me was upturned and scarred as if someone had taken a sickle and gouged out the earth with it.

My heart thudded in my chest. If I had been there instead of the other person, if that…thing had been aimed at me instead, I dreaded thinking about what would’ve happened. I pressed myself as close to the tree as possible, sweat dampening my palms as I tried to figure out what had just occurred.

It was then that the cloaked figure spoke. I twisted my head and looked sideways, careful to avoid making any abrupt movements. Although the figure seemed uninjured, the attack had still managed to do some damage, scraps of fabric lying on the ground as a testament. With large portions of its robe sliced apart, I could now tell that the person was an expressionless, pale man with a gaunt face. His sunken eyes turned downwards towards an object in his fist.

“...Witch. The witch is here. Requesting immediate assistance.” The man intoned while grasping a black star between his two palms.

What? How did he-

“Witch? Ha, aha. Ahahah.”

Sporadic, mocking laughter that sounded like choking resounded through the air. “Me, a witch? How ignorant. How stupid. You truly are nothing but an imperial dog. ...Oh? You aren’t even a dog. You’re a dog of that dog. A dog’s dog hm?” That peculiar laugh sounded out once again.

When I looked up towards the source, I saw a lady garbed in a midnight black coat. Sitting atop a tree branch with legs folded atop each other, she gazed down haughtily at the mumbling figure. Slowly raising her arm, she pointed a finger at the man with a cold smile.

“Die.”

A dark blur shot through the air faster than I could track, sending up another cloud of dirt and debris as the man twisted towards one side to avoid it. With a flick of her wrist, numerous more of those dark blurs launched themselves toward the man.

Barrage after barrage sent soil and plants scattering into the air before raining back down. Dust and sand filled the air, making it difficult to see and breathe. Through the rumbling explosions, I faintly noticed the smell of something burning.

I couldn’t see anything in the flurry of falling rubble. I couldn’t hear anything over the sound of roaring. I was afraid to move, afraid to run. I was afraid that I was going to die.

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Clutching my ears and shutting my eyes while crouching down, I waited for seemed like forever. Each minute in this hellish situation felt like an hour. My heart clamored, limbs and body shaking as I waited for it to stop. Dirt rained down and explosions thundered across the sky. The tree trembled along with my chest, the ground shook along with my legs.

I was truly afraid that it would only cease when I was killed.

However, as the ringing in my ears stopped and the haze slowly drifted away, I tentatively realized I was still alive. Moving was painful, and blood seeped from various cuts on my arms, but I was alive. Wobbling to my feet, I rubbed my eyes uncertainly.

When I saw what was left over, I took in a sharp breath. The entire area was flattened and overturned. All the way to the road, hundreds upon thousands of scars marred the ground. Grass fluttered in the air, entire swaths mowed down and blown away. Dirt and soil were blasted far away by the explosions, craters covering the earth like the holes in ragged clothing.

I looked around carefully. Both the man and the woman were gone and nowhere to be seen. I took a breath and was about to sprint to the road when a shadow fell over me.

Something dropped to the floor with a loud thud, messy and oozing out blood.

It rolled slowly. Once, twice. Then it stopped, a bloody skull covered in tattered flaps of flesh. Two empty holes, once eyesockets, gazed out, staring at me. I was faintly conscious of the sound of dripping.

I looked up. And recoiled backward as a bloody heap came crashing down from the tree. A lump of flesh lay on the floor, scarlet rivulets flowing down into the dirt. If not for the deformed chunk of black metal laying atop it, it would have been unidentifiable.

Slowly, I turned my eyes. I met the face of the lady, smiling as if she had just played a funny prank on a close friend. The once green leaves of the tree were now coated a bright crimson, reflecting back the light of the moon. I tasted iron in my mouth.

I, who was afraid of breaking the silence, and she, who looked down at me with amused eyes and curved lips. Neither of us spoke. Neither of us moved.

However, in the end, I was the first to take an action. I smiled despite my shaking heart and opened my mouth.

“Miss seems to be quite talented at magic,” I said smoothly. “Is perhaps this young lady perchance a… Warlock?”

Magic. It was something most humans would die without witnessing. Even for those who did have magical capabilities, it was usually quite pathetic and amounted to nothing more than street tricks.

However, there were fantastical stories about other magical beings, of elves and lizan, changelings and halflings, of incredible species out there. Even demons and spirits.

I opened my mouth to continue speaking, but a slight pressure on my forehead stopped me.

Suddenly, a single slim finger pressed between my eyes, the lady in front of me smiling with curled lips.

My voice faltered.

A pair of thin, bloodred lips whispered.

“Pardon me, but this lady does not know who you are. May this lady inquire as to who is presumptuous enough to talk to this one? May this lady be given a reason not to split open your skull? May this lady be given a reason to not dissect your internals? May this lady be given even a single, valid reason as to why this lady should not give the vultures an even grander feast tonight?”

My throat moved up and down several times before I found my voice.

Slowly, I reached up and remove the hand placed against my forehead. I tilted my head and grinned, the lady’s hand clasped between mine.

“What a perfect moon we’ve been graced with tonight. Wouldn’t you agree?”

“Does Miss know of the one single thing that must never, ever be done underneath a full moon?”

“You must never look into the eyes of a person hated by all during a full moon, lest you become cursed for the rest of your days.”

My grin grows wider.

“Let me introduce myself. My name is Altair.”

I turn around and look at the moon, quietly taking a vial from my bag in one hand.

“And I have oftentimes been called and cursed as,”

I swing around and shatter the vial against the tree before finishing,

“Altair the Witch.”