Nasty Little Witchling

Trissa Hasting

I knelt beside Valeria, folding up the leg of my sister’s old pants we had scrounged from the wardrobe. The drawstring had taken a few attempts to get tight enough to where they didn’t slowly fall off her. They were for my sister when she was seventeen, so it was a bit much to ask that they fit her perfectly.

I was not sure why I had been worried if Valeria would be fine with the faded and fixed up pair. She did not even notice.

Sometimes I forgot Valeria wasn’t just another girl from across the street, even though she constantly reminded me how weird she was. Not knowing how to use a tap was baffling to me, but made some sense in hindsight. One day—when she was more comfortable around me—I’d ask more directly about her life.

I had convinced her to change out of the blouse and put on something with shorter sleeves. I asked about the bruise on her shoulder, but she didn’t remember how she got it.

When I had seen the poor excuse for underthings she had on I had made her change into a new set as well. Thinking that this was like dressing up a doll made me feel disgusted with myself. Valeria was a person and despite what people like Madam Iraya thought, deserved to be treated like more than a charity case.

“Thank you,” Valeria said, once we were ready. The words felt strained like she wasn't used to saying them often.

“It’s no problem.” My sister had never wanted to help me with anything and this felt like my opportunity to prove it wouldn’t have cost her much to give me some of her time. It was fun being a big sister of sorts.

I had been around her several times and had found that she was very easy to be with. Her life’s story was still a mystery to me, but I had a good grasp on her personality or lack of it. Nothing fazed her, not even Jacob doing his best to be mean.

We went back downstairs and I skipped through the hall. I wanted to leave before the mums had finished talking. If things went as they usually did that was a low chance, yet making sure to avoid them was worth the hustle.

I locked the clunky iron lock behind me. The thing annoyed me with how precise I had to wiggle the key. There were barely a hundred trained mages in town and none of them would stoop to theft, so I didn’t see why my parents thought the lock necessary.

We walked down the street towards the gate and I looked down each alleyway and side street with more interest. I wondered how long Valeria had been an orphan and where she had been staying.

Unlike bigger cities, Ulasa didn’t have an orphanage. I heard about tragic deaths every so often, but even if both parents died there was always extended family to take in the child. I couldn’t recall a situation that could have happened to Valeria to leave her alone.

A group of officers from the watch walked past us and I scowled as they stomped through the crowd, expecting everyone to move for them. Their long pikes bobbed above the sea of people, letting everyone know where to avoid.

They were not as bad as some people made them out to be. However, I could agree they were generally a pain. I couldn’t believe they hadn’t noticed a witch living so close to town. I shuddered at the thought of what happened at the capital happening to my town.

I wondered what kind of experience Valeria had with them.

I saw a few of Mum and Dad’s friends, or customers. Mum generally had wealthier clients, while Dad had his store in the regular market. I had tried to help out, but there was always so much blood. It smelled bad and always got under my nails, so I usually ended up stationed at the counter.

The ones I knew better said hello and asked how my parents were and I asked how their children were doing, or how work was going. Valeria stood a ways behind me whenever I did.

I felt bad for her interaction with Madam Iraya and while no one I talked to would be as bad as her, I was still worried about the potential comments they could make.

The gate came into view and I saw the farmers going home—or the pub—for the day. Dad would be heading back at some point, except he said his day was decided by the animals, not the bell.

When I saw the group crowded around the meeting rock I knew it would be an annoying afternoon. They seemed to have already gotten bored of football and hopefully would be playing something I’d enjoy.

I stopped a good distance away, not interested in whatever debate was going on. Valeria was probably better at handling herself than me, but I felt responsible for her and some of these other kids were nasty.

Someone whistled loudly from the group and I heard Jacob start to speak loudly over the remaining murmurs. “Who else thinks we played enough football, raise your hands!”

He and a good number of others raised their hands. I wasn’t sure if they agreed with him, or his statement.

“You are only saying that cause you lost last time!” Greyson said from the side, amongst a group of his friends.

“We’re tied, Grey, and besides most people agree with me.”

“Everyone who wants another match raise your hand,” Greyson said.

I sighed. “It’s going to be one of those days.”

“Does this happen often?” Valeria asked with her strange accent.

“Too often when those two are involved,” I said. Greyson and Jacob used to be good friends. All three of us did, but things started to change when Jacob understood what it meant to be the mayor’s son.

It all went downhill once he threatened to have his dad kick someone out of the town at eleven. He used to be more obnoxious about it, he was better now, but only in that he was more subtle.

He considered himself the leader and decision maker of us all. The older ones could deal with him in the previous years, unfortunately, they all had apprenticeships and didn’t show up for the games anymore.

The back and forth devolved into raising hands again and counting each one. Valeria and I stayed out of it all, I think she cared for football as little as me. I’d wanted to help her by volunteering for her the last time but felt bad after what Patela did.

“Trissa you haven't voted,” Jacob said from atop the rock.

“Trissa doesn’t like football, why bother asking?” Greyson said.

It wasn’t that I didn’t like it, it wasn’t my favourite, but they played too seriously and that made me feel terrible if I messed up.

“Football or something else, Tris?” Jacob asked.

Why did I feel like this wasn’t about the game?

The attention these two started to give me beyond just friendliness was flattering, I could not help but feel it wasn’t about me. Jacob’s family had invested a lot to get mayorship according to Mum and now had eyes on baron. Mum’s sister was the Baron of a neighbouring province and they pestered Mum about an endorsement from her.

Greyson needed a place at Equitier and thought my aunt could help with that. I’d only met the woman once. Mum thought it would be good for me to see if I liked one of them and I did have some feelings for Jacob. He just kept convincing me not to.

“Something else,” I said and regretted it when Greyson smirked at Jacob.

“Stingers it is!” Greyson shouted.

“I’m it,” Patela said. She picked up a seed pod from a nearby tree and started tossing it around. Everyone scattered into the surrounding fields, down the path, and around the wall.

I grabbed Valeria and ran to the fields of corn. I looked back to see Patela staring at us and started running faster. The bigger girl didn’t seem to understand she went too far sometimes.

I had hoped her volunteering meant one of her siblings angered her, yet she seemed to have chosen me today, or perhaps Valeria going by yesterday's incident.

“What’s happening?” Valeria said from behind me. The narrow path between fields was only wide enough for one at a time.

“If she hits you with the seed, you’re it and have to get the seed to throw at someone else,” I said and turned down another path so Patela couldn’t see us directly from her starting place.

“We can’t sit out like football?” she asked as I slowed down and crouched

“Nope.” I took a few deep breaths. My fitness was not the best and Valeria also looked tired, though not as much as me. “People—especially Patela—will pelt you with seeds until you play.”

Poor Trayton had a broken leg the week before and was told not to run too much, they still threw seeds at him. Older kids said it happened to them so it can happen to us, tradition and such.”

“So we just stay here now?” she asked.

I nodded. “You can go taunt her and try dodge if you’d like.”

That is what some of the others thought was fun. Most people had a thing about going after people they knew over others.

There was rustling around us, other people had the same idea and ran past with heavy steps and hushed whispers. Hopefully covering our route from the huntress.

I counted down in my head the time until Patela would start and reached zero. Valeria and I shuffled a bit to make our crouch more comfortable as we waited. If everything went well she’d go for someone else or miss us.

I kept glancing between the two directions the path went, wherever Patela would appear we had to sprint in the other.

I tried peering between the dense stalks of corn, but there was nothing to see. I looked to Valeria and was going to try to have a quiet conversation about my plan. Her face was turned to the same dense stalks I had tried looking through, her amber eyes slowly following something.

Before I could ask what it was Valeria grabbed under my arm, pulled me to my feet, and locked her hand around my wrist. We were moving fast down the path a moment later.

We exited the field and ran along it. The lettuce was next to us and we couldn’t hide there.

I let her lead me until we stopped next to another entrance to the corn fields. Valeria looked along the corn, slowly, before we dashed back in. We took another two turns, came out on the other side of the field, ran across again, went back in, knelt down, and crouch walked into the dense stalks.

I followed behind her, worried how much we were moving the corn, Patela was tall enough to see it if she was watching from outside the field. There was a tiny area where one of the crops had wilted, we sat almost on top of each other with my legs over her lap.

“What…was…that,” I whispered while taking deep breaths.

“She was chasing us,” Valeria said, still looking away at the stalks.

“Patela?” I asked, but I already knew the answer before she nodded.

I wanted to say it was unnecessary, but her actions were too deliberate. I looked back at all the stopping, watching, waiting, and change of directions. I couldn’t figure out the reason for them. I hadn’t seen or heard anything out of the ordinary.

“Ow! Fuck.”

“Got you.”

It sounded like it was from somewhere in the field we were in. Our heads followed the rustling sound as someone ran out and then a second set of rustling behind them.

“We should be fine, there’s easier places to find people,” I said.

I listened for the screams of taunts, insults, and shouts of pain. I tried to imagine who it was and where they were. It sounded like Jacob was it and had just hit Robbie in the head, I grimaced.

The seed pods we used could break on hit but were still solid and painful. Robbie was taunted by half a dozen voices, the jeering then replaced by laughter.

That whole group came stampeding through the corn fields around us with a lone sound of rustling dawdling behind them.

After they all passed the hushed voices of Wila and Damian accompanied their shuffling through the stalks. They were a year older than me and by the start of next year would be at an apprenticeship instead of here.

“He ran past us, it's fine,” the boy said.

“Why are we heading into the field, let’s go back to the others, it’s dusty in here,” the girl said.

“I wanted some alone time with you.”

“Oh? What happened to Henrieta?”

“We’re just friends, you know I like you.”

“Is that so? I don’t think I believe you.”

“Can I show you how much I like you instead of telling you?”

“Maybe.”

I could hear the smile in her voice. I was already embarrassed listening to them whisper their embarrassing lines to each other, but the sounds of a kiss made my whole face warm. I buried my head in my hands as it continued.

I parted my fingers to take a peek at Valeria’s reaction, though she seemed more confused than anything.

Was I being childish?

I had kissed a boy once, maybe she had also and I was the weird one for making a big deal out of it. My cheeks still felt warm, but I made an effort to be normal while the sounds of mouths mashing together and lip sucking went on.

“We should head back before someone catches us here,” Wila said.

“No one’s going to come here and we’ll hear them if they do, c’mon one more.”

“Nah ah, Damian, maybe later…get your hand off my butt.”

I felt better about myself seeing red creep into Valeria’s cheeks. The two made a very noisy exit from the field next to us. Neither Valeria or I said a word until we were absolutely sure they were gone and far away.

“Were they…” Val started.

“...kissing? Yes. I would say finally since those two are pretty much attached at the hip, but I wish they chose a different field.”

“Oh, I thought that was, ah, something else.”

I wondered if she had a mortifying talk with anyone about boys and such and if not, should I throw her to the wolves—my parents—or try to do it myself. Also, when I’d tried to offer her pads she’d brushed me off and I was not sure if I should try that again.

“Have you kissed anyone before?” I asked.

Valeria shook her head. “No, I didn’t know what it was when I read about people doing it in my books, still kinda don’t…what about you?”

“I might have kissed Jacob last winter. It was snowing and he was being very sweet, letting me use his gloves while we made snow golems. He leaned in first. We bashed our teeth the first time, but the second was better,” I said, then sighed. “He told his friends the next day and they told everyone else, even my parents heard about it.”

“Is it bad that they know?” she asked and then scrunched her nose like she did when she was thinking. “Is it bad that we know they did?”

“It’s not because we are not going to tell anyone and they were fine with it, Mum gushed, Dad made stupid jokes about hunting him down, it was just embarrassing knowing everyone knew.”

My leg was starting to fall asleep, I tried stretching it out and only half succeeded with Valeria being underneath me.

“How do we win?” Val asked. “Do we wait here till everyone gets bored?”

“You don’t really. We need to make it through the gate before the fifth bell. We just had fourth bell a while ago so there’s plenty of time, if we don’t get in then we have to sit out tomorrow’s game and whoever is it, is it again tomorrow.”

…

“I can’t feel my leg,” Val said after a long while.

“Yeah, I’m tired of sitting in the dirt and if it’s not Patela, I don’t mind trying to outrun them.”

Valeria offered a hand to help me push myself up, it was still awkward trying to find a place to put my feet. I helped her up and we started to shuffle out of the crops to get back to the path.

All the shouting was still in the distance.

Instead of going down the path that would lead directly to the gate, we went towards the lettuce field. It would give us a better chance not to run into people straight away, and see what was going on.

Besides three people jogging across the area, there was not much happening. If there was someone chasing them they’d have a bit more enthusiasm. We moved towards the gate as the loud shouts that usually accompanied the person throwing the pods came closer.

Near the clearing, with the rock between them, two boys moved around. One walking slowly with his arm pulled back and another backing away with more speed. The one ready to throw a pod was Greyson while the other was Jacob.

I wanted to roll my eyes. One probably ran past at least twenty other people in order to target, or taunt, the other.

A few called for him to throw it and others called out to run. A few tried to draw Greyson’s attention, but his eyes were locked on Jacob.

As Jacob looked back to check his footing he saw Valeria and I. He turned and sprinted towards us with Greyson also breaking out into a run to catch up.

I backed up as much as I could, though at this point it was only the field behind us and no pathways nearby. Valeria stepped in front slightly, but Jacob ran around her to hide behind me.

He grabbed my shoulders as I tried to turn and kept me facing Greyson, who was now coming to a stop nearby.

He could easily walk up and drop the seed on Jacob’s head, but some people only saw this game as a way to try to throw the seed at someone as hard as possible. There was no way for Jacob to fully hide behind me and Greyson kept pacing to the sides, trying to get more of him to throw at.

“Really Jacob?” Greyson said. “You think I won’t just throw it at Trissa instead?”

“Then why haven't you? Huh? Scared?” Jacob said while moving me about. I looked down, waiting for this idiot to put his foot near mine so I could stomp on it. Valeria looked lost at what to do besides staying nearby.

“If this hits you, Trissa, just remember whose fault it is,” Greyson said. He pulled back his arm further and launched it forward. I saw the brown pod for a second as it left his palm.

Jacob still held me as I tried to move away. Greyson was already backing up, prepared to run.

I lost sight of the seed in my panic and brought up my hands to block it from hitting my face. Between my fingers, I saw Valeria step closer and dart her hand out.

I slowly put my hands down when I realised I heard the thwack of the seed hitting her palm.

Valeria tossed it from her left hand to her right, pulled her arm back slightly then whipped it forward. The seed shot out like a crossbow bolt, I heard it whistle through the air as Greyson started to run.

I could have sworn it curved slightly to match the turn Greyson was making, he must have seen it as well because he turned his head forward with a panicked expression as the pod broke open on the back of his head.

It was an impressive throw.

Jacob was also watching and had stuck his foot out to try to crouch behind me more. I lifted my boot and stomped down with all my weight and might. He howled as his foot was crushed into the dirt and let go of my shoulders.

I moved towards Valeria and grabbed her arm.

Greyson was holding the back of his head and trying to get another pod from the nearby tree. Jacob had his foot lifted in the air, hissing at the pain. We ran to the gate.

Others were laughing and running away from Greyson’s vicinity. It was frowned upon to leave too early, but the boys needed a chance to calm down and I wanted to do that far away from them.

Valeria and I made it to the first side street before I imagined Jacob’s howl of pain and the sound the seed made when it smacked the back of his head. I started laughing too hard to keep up the pace we were going.

I didn’t care if my foot stomp might have been too far, he shouldn’t have grabbed me to use a shield.

“What a throw,” I said after I had calmed down enough to take a deep breath. “Did you see what I did to Jacob?”

Valeria had a full toothed smile as she nodded.

I spent the walk back gesturing wildly while trying to reenact the whole scene, threatening to make myself laugh again. We desperately needed the wash we had before dinner and despite it being more stew my hunger made me look forward to it.

…

“I don’t like that woman,” Dad said after hearing what Madam Iraya had said that morning. Mum was telling it like it was a funny story, but Dad didn’t see it that way. I was instead looking at how cute Valeria was trying to hold her spoon in a way that was obviously weird to her.

Madam Iraya was at least consistent in dishing out disparaging comments. Dad had been on the receiving end of more than a few, so was more annoyed at her. She didn’t like his beard, or profession, and liked to make that known in as many ways as she could. Mum had never gotten one of her barbed comments, so she wouldn’t get it.

Mum wisely decided to change the subject and chose me to do it with, right as I started chewing on a fatty piece of venison. “Do you think Valeria should go to school with you tomorrow?”

I chewed and chewed and nudged my head towards the girl in question.

“What school?” Val asked.

“Once a week everyone not yet sixteen goes to have lessons. They start off basic, but the stuff Trissa is learning can be quite difficult and we are not sure if you would be okay in her class, or starting at a younger age group.”

I finally finished chewing as Valeria thought about her answer. “She can come along and I’ll sit next to her and help, she told me she reads sometimes so she can at least follow along with what’s on the board.”

“Does that sound alright with you dear?” Mum asked Valeria who nodded since she had taken me speaking as a chance to stuff her cheeks with potato.