Dichtende Designerin

Oc: Esmeralda, the altruistic witch, wc: 1045, tw: implied death by stake (this is her backstory)

The grass gets trampled as I run away from the town and to the forest. Hastily I look over my shoulder to check if they are following me. Two men and one woman are running behind me. “Get the witch! Don’t let her escape!“, screams my neighbour at the top of her lungs. The priest can barely keep up with their pace. Smoke from his censer is waving behind him. A big silver cross is hanging around his chest. The hunter is waving a burning torch. I can’t risk getting caught! They will burn me alive. So I stumble deeper into the forest and don’t risk looking back. They don’t know the forest as I do. They barely leave our shitty town. “You will burn! Witches have to burn!“, screams the hunter in the distance and lets out a low growl, like a demon. I’m running for my life! Branches keep snapping in my face. Little stones and thorns scratch my bare feet. When did I lose my shoes? Never mind, I’m grounded to the earth now. “Mother Earth, giver of all life in the forest, hear me out. Mother Earth, cover up my tracks with twigs and leaves“, I pray out of breath. A breeze is blowing around me, caressing my bare skin and rustling the leaves over my footprints. „Thank you“, I whisper and run to the right, hoping they will take the left way.

Their curses get more muffled as I run deeper into the forest. I surpassed the newer part of the forest where the villagers fell trees for their houses. Old oaks and silver birch trees are witnessing my escape. The air is electric with old magic. It still shocks me how quickly the villagers turned against me. I tended to their needs, I delivered their children, and I brewed potions to heal their sickness. Where’s their gratitude now? So many of them would have been dead now if I hadn’t interfered and use the magic of the forest to help them. Never did the thought cross my mind that they would burn me like my sisters. Witch hunts are a thing of the past, we are part of their society now. How could I have been so stupid to trust the villagers? All I’ve ever done is share the powers that I was granted. Why did I help that poor creature? It was barely alive when it reached my cottage on the outskirts of the forest. There were deep cuts with oozing blood all over its body. It screeched in pain and it could barely walk. From its horns hung the flesh of an animal, like it got into a fight and lost. Damned be my pity! Of course, I took it in my cottage and tended to the wounds. From the herbs in my kitchen, I brewed a healing potion. After three days, it could walk again. It started to growl in a demonic voice and it scared me a bit. So I decided to take it back to the forest after I visited my sick neighbour. When I returned home, it was gone.

It caused chaos in the village and killed a few sheep. It didn’t take long for the villagers to find out I helped the poor little creature. They turned against me so quickly. A painful pull disrupts my thoughts. My skirt caught on a thorny bush. Not my favourite skirt! I weaved in the myth of the first witch born in this forest. With a grim look, I tear it off. How dishevelled I must look! Standing on a clearing in nothing but my dirty underwear. A protection spell! If I do it right and Mother Earth grants me her powers, I could make myself nearly invisible. Never lost, always found. A broken promise from old times. He ran away after our lovechild … It shreds my heart into tiny pieces to think about my stillborn daughter. Stop it! Desperately, I breathe in the mildewed air and clear my mind. With a twig, I draw a pentagram into the mud. Carefully, I place mandragora, black henbane, aconite, ephedra and scopolia on the five tips of the pentagram. Thank Mother Earth that I carry her most useful herbs in a little pouch bound around my waist wherever I go. Then I fall down to my knees and start chanting:

The earth beneath my fingers crumbles, wind gusts through my hair and I feel an unrivalled power seeping into me. A manic laugh escapes my throat. It works! As long as I am inside my pentagram, nobody can harm me. Grinning at my cunning, I look up and freeze as I see my neighbour, the priest and the hunter standing right in front of me. „Here you are, spawn of hell“, says the priest with a menacing grin. “Did you really think you could escape? Stupid bitch! I can smell your flowery perfume from miles away“, laughs the hunter and waves the torch. “We will burn you! Witches deserve to burn!“ I am on the verge of bursting into tears. My only hope is my tethered bond with my neighbour. “Minerva, I brought your daughter into the world! Your daughter would have been stillborn like mine without my magic. Do you want my blood on your hands? All I ever did was help you! All of you! Please, Minerva, help me,” I beg. She looks away, ashamed. “I’ve always known that Esmeralda only wants to do us harm”, hisses my neighbour while avoiding a look into my eyes. “I healed the creature just as I healed you! I couldn’t leave it to die!” I croak in my defence, but my voice fails me. “Traitor! You have chosen the wrong side! To the stake with you!“, shouts the hunter. “You can’t hurt me as long as this pentagram exists“, I warn him. “Oh, not a problem“, he whispers and starts obliterating the lines of my pentagram with his shoe. „Take the herbs!“, he bellows to Minerva and she bends down to collect the herbs she grew in her garden for me. Oh how much I wish I was a more powerful witch. „Praise God, this witch will be burned at the stake tomorrow“, the priest announces.