The Witch, last part. This will be more than most people can take and be warned. Welcome Steemit Friends I invite you into my world for some horror and the power to overcome horror. It is a world of the spirit and the hidden abilities some people have that they find out and secretly use to the benefit of all of us. Written for Steemit.

Photo by Robert Collins on Unsplash Royalty Free

Previous Chapters:

Table of Contents - Page 1

The Dancer - The Witch 10

The adults wanted to sit and watch the next show, which lasted another hour. Gran’pa probably needed the relaxation after his second sight of the events at the dance. It did upset him though he hid it. He was Gran’pa and recovered quickly. After they went home, until dinner was ready Martha, Pete, and Bjorn sat in her room together reading through the books, of which there were three. They read after dinner but in the living room. Each book was a little more than a hundred pages. Bjorn had to leave at ten and go home. Martha read into the late hours but Pete fell asleep.

Kicked out of the ceremony at the Lucas County Fair, Toledo, Ohio, by the Bird Dancer she reentered her body.

She had no choice but to re-enter her body or be completely destroyed. She had wasted so much power calling forth the spirits of her minions. She was completely drained and felt as old as she was, six hundred and twenty-five years.

Yes, she lived in a cave. Anyone who found her would think she was a homeless person surviving in the forest. She had lived in this cave or another secluded far from civilization or far enough for a couple of hundred years. She preferred the honor of residing in a pyramid but that had changed with the Spanish Conquest and she had to flee. She fled north, far north.

It was necessary that she was somewhat near human beings, of which she did not consider herself to be one any longer. The arts had changed her. It was what she had sought and what she had achieved.

She was an ascetic. The gold and the fine arts and furnishings of the pyramid surrounded by the city were long gone. She was an expert of all the plants and animals of the whole continent on what they could be used for. She gained power from nature and so living in the cave was part of what kept her alive.

When she had lived in what is now Mexico, the people had brought her what was needed but now she had to forage for herself for every single thing required, including sacrifices. Over the centuries, she no longer needed the body of the person as much. It was the soul she wanted and she could take it, if need be. Though, sometimes the flesh was necessary, especially in the beginning, sometimes even now.

She was a hunter, a predator, and she knew it. She had attempted to return to Mexico twice to retake it. She sat cross legged and meditating until she could recover enough to open her eyes. It was a nice fine day outside in what is now called Canada. She knew that as if she were outside.

When she opened her eyes, there was a man seated before her. Her mate, if he could be called that. He was more like a pupil but had advanced far beyond anyone else she had ever taught. He was also still living compared to the others. He did not have as much ability as her, not yet, and he appeared very young where she was old, very old, getting ready to change.

She could move her arms and so reached out for one of her concoctions she stored in a clay jar she had made. She removed the human skin cover by untying the human leather thong that kept it sealed. It was her own skin from a previous body, not that of a victim's. If you were to examine her, you would not find any areas where her skin had been removed to make this, not even on that body. She was an expert healer. She did not always perform solely evil. In the pyramid, she did many great acts of good for the people. She was revered, holy.

She drank from it. She did not know how long it took for her to recover to the point to where she could drink from the ceramic jar. One sip was all that was required as the contents of the jar were potent, highly refined, distilled, and preserved in the ancient ways of those who followed her beliefs and knew the secrets.

“I was thwarted.” She spoke to the man in the ancient tongue. They used the forgotten tongue to speak, always. The words in it were not in any other language on the Earth in quite the same way, “Remember the girl dancing on the south side of the lake?”

He nodded in response.

“She is, has become much stronger and she was there. With her, those we wish to destroy were able to hold me off.”

“We should go together on these things from now on.” He said to her.

“No, there are at least two others, young, not as knowledgeable but powerful, boys.”

“The others we saw at the lake?”

“One of them was at the lake, the young boy. The other not there, he is as old as she is and a warrior as well, though his skills are nothing before us, not yet. The two were also with her.” She said to him, and took one more sip, then resealed the jar. She tied the leather thong. “Give me your power and then we shall leave this afternoon together to find the three and destroy them if possible.”

“Are you ready so soon?”

“I will be after we exchange our power but we should eat first. We will remove them this time for certain. We shall sneak up on them unawares and strike when each is alone.”

“The Spanish said a three-fold cord is rarely broken as they ate food gathered from the forest around the cave.”

“That is why we shall break one fold of the cord this day. She does not yet truly know what she is doing and if she finds out, it will be much harder.”

"I mean to suggest we should find another one of us or make one."

“We will find her first?” She nodded to his question and ignored his suggestion because she doubted any were left like them. She had searched and she did not have four or five hundred years she wanted to wait.

“One of them will perish this day and we hope it is her.”

When they finished eating, they exchanged power: it means they had sex in ritualistic ways. When finished she said, “I will become young again soon, at the full moon.”

“Maybe we should wait until your rebirth. Your power will be greater.”

“Maybe she should be my new body?” She smiled at him, “Hmmm?”

He preferred a woman from their people and so he did not say anything. Whenever she suggested something, she was wise and he learned from it, more things that were possible than he knew but then asked, “What if we go to retake wouldn’t one of us, the people there make it easier?”

“A body, a pure soul consumed with much power and potential will always make life easier. She is pure.”

“She is large for a woman of our people.”

“She is commanding in height. Beautiful, you do not like these new people but will it matter when we remove them?”

“They are very arrogant, stupid fools.” She nodded and smiled at him. The way she maintained her body was to change it.

Martha expected to go fishing but Gran’pa called and said he had to visit the doctor’s this morning for a physical. It was unexpected but he would call back if he was allowed to go fishing today. After breakfast, Martha took the time to read her new books, do a little practice. “The song must be in the heart as well, sung in the mind during the dance, joined to the music.” The book she read said. She played the record while she read, memorized the songs, the steps. The steps were not concrete. The dances were worship and the dance was a battle.

Copyright:
Written for Steemit: Copyright © 2017 Jeff Kubitz - The Dancer - et al. All Rights Reserved. Steemit.com/steemit/@jeff-kubitz