Castle Praenunthius

"As the story goes, this hideous, twisted creature could melt the very flesh of a man into a mere candy like substance. I've told it to my daughter several times as to scare her into staying put at night, and still she doesn't seem utterly repulsed by the fairytale! Dare I say, she is fascinated with the foul witch!" Ariseea gasped, shocked of the way her daughter had reacted, as if the little girl had become something possessed by evil influences. "Groondi shows no distaste for witches!" The woman exclaimed, the remaining word dancing dangerously upon her lips, without having been quelled. She assumed the stares of all, the wide eyed masses with mouths falling slack and tankards hovering in a partial ascent to their lips.

"By the Gods, have mercy on my daughter." She prayed in a shaky whisper, as a few patrons rose as to scour the streets for Groondi. The woman's single offsring was still toying with the strange contraption, the green faced witch straddling a broom soaring as high as the child's hands would extend. The black, conical hat which sat upon the wooden figure reflected wear in such a way as it had been dropped, but it seemed the only harm to come of the girl's clumsiness. On the way to meet one named Wilbert, she passed by the steriotypical rendering of a gruesome wooden doll as it whizzed by, the child twirling about as to enclose her, cackles erupting from Groondi to give the effigy a voice. "N-nice marionette you've got there, but the strings seem broken."

Candie spoke in a relaxed tone, words stumbling only once upon her lips. "Yes, I've freed it from the reigns which bind it!" Groondi proclaimed, as if she had performed a heroic action in severing the threads that had made it a controllable puppet. "Not all witches look like that, you know. Witches come in various forms." Candie announced, her face retreated just enough so that she couldn't possibly be observed by Groondi. "They do?" One could easily detect excitement in her tone, Groondi's tiny footfalls swiftly approaching Candie. "Why are you out so late?" The heavily concealed female asked, realizing that the child should have been tucked away within her home, as per the the curfew set by her guardians. "I look to the moon, to see if a witch flies by it. Never saw one yet." She shrugged, her muddy brown gaze kept watch upon the great acromatic orb in the sky. "What name do you own?"

"Groondi Gabaldi." The youth seemed all too eager to divulge the information to the stranger whom inquired, without a note of hesitation despite the fact the Crier had been carrying on about such a scandal that wrought the town in disarray. Candie turned the corner, leaving Groondi and the figure the girl clutched to her bosom, behind. It was an odd sight to see, as if see were standing vigil over the heavens, as if embracing the last remaining hope that a dearly departed could find their way back upon the temporal plane. The Blacksmith seemed less than pleased at her arrival, greeting her with a harsh announcement that he was in preparation to close shop. He eyed her lurid cloak with disapproval, as if he detested the hue entirely. "Did you happen upon Sheaman?" She specified the individual she seemed to be in search of, and he was stricken by silence for several moments, as well as paralysis which restrained his body from performing any movement. "Who wants to know?" His suspicion was welling up within him, his gaze meeting the hidden face sternly. "I am not a foe, if that's what you're wondering." She replied, her words relaying ease of the opposite concept of being his adversary. "Pray tell, is he in some sort of trouble?"

She wound down Wilbert's defenses, like the tedious chisling away at the entrance of an almost completely indomitable fortress. "No, not as far as I could tell. He's had some problems with thieves coveting his weapons, but I've replaced them for him." Candie inched nearer, causing the man to shy away from the fabric which was obscene to his vision. "Goodfield? I know him." Admitted the eavesdropper upon their conversation, as he stepped out of the shadows. "Poor fellow had his daggers stolen, thieves are thick within this realm. Everybody's looking for free commodities, seeking to aquire wealth by false means."
 
Sheaman continued his new qeust, but was left with no direction. knowing her, she could've gone anywhere. He wanted to look around town some more, but it'd take him way too long too look all around town. He needed a hint. A clue. But unlike in the stories, there was no miracle that would help him find such. No, instead he was granted a child. A small girl who bumped into him. "Hey, watch it kid!" He nearly yelled, as he catiosly gripped the arm of the little girl, mistaking her for yet another one of those filthy thieves. The little girl struggled to get her arm free as she looked up at him. "L-let me go!" She demanded, and like a good puppy, he awnered, letting his finger slowly uncoil around her fragile arm. "Sorry, little miss." He apologised, as he looked down at her. He squated and got himself on the same level as her, the girl who now started refusing to talk to him, the big bad bullie. "Hey kid. You shouldn't be out at night. And surely not walking around aimlessly like a beheaded chicken." The girl quicly glaced at him, and unfolder her ams as she still looked at him with darting, convicting eyes. "I can't. I need to keep watching the sky so I don't miss it." Sheaman's eye brows peformed acrobatics as they curled themselves to form a confused expression, which soon glanced up at the sky and then back at her. "Miss what?" " The witch of course!" The girl said joyfully as she showed him the toy with great pleasure and pride. To Sheaman, the toy represented nothing more than a bad stereotype, which caused all the creatures their bad names. Not only that, her hands were bound by strings, who seemed to losely hang for some reason. It made the doll look sinister, as if she had broken chains around her. "...You know, not every witch looks like that. They're are a lot of different ones. Nice ones, bad ones." The girl looked at him, and for some reason, her eyebrows copied exactly his. "Really?" She asked, meaning 2 things rather than 1. "Really." He awnsered, as he slowly got up from his squated position, as he tried to feel his back. He could feel himself getting old already. It was horrid. The chains of time bound him to get older and older and slowly decrease and decrease untill he'd die. His back wasn't what it used to be like. Candie didn't seem to sufffer this problem....That was a positive thing.

"Look kid. You shouldn't be looking for witches. Just try to avoid them." He warned, trying to reffer to Candie shortly. "Why not?" She asked truthfully. Only that qeustion was needed in order for Sheaman to see how ignorant he was himself compared to those humans he always reffered to. There was a moment of silence as he almost seemed to admire here, that small girl with a witch doll, who curiously looked up at him without any sign of fear or disgust. "....If only the whole world was as innocent as you, then this would be a great place" He said, looking at her, but rather talking to himself. And with that not he left her, going back to his original journey. He felt as if he was so close to a clue or a hint. Did he really miss something while he was talking to that girl. With a simple shrug he put of that burden and went back into his rational mind rather than his guessing heart.
 
"Aren't thieves cleansed by fire, or do they not uphold the practice of that torture anymore?"The two men thought of the question as queer, since even though pyres were erected as a common form of execution, the popularity of this method has dwindled since two hundred years ago. It was also utilized for those branded as witches, whilst the gallows were where those accused of theft and other crimes hung their heads. She had also referred to it as -torture- in such a vehement manner of speaking, it seemed as if she had a secret of which to be persecuted, and the Lawmen had deemed her actions worthy of such a demise.

Wilbert shook his head, deciding to correct her afterall. "Those accused of theft hang, unless other vigilante justice is brought upon them. Witches are bound to the pyres, so that they will confess their deviltries to the heavens ..evulsed by flames lapping at their flesh. They will be aquainted with a taste of the Hellfire which will consume their souls everlasting." "What of the child with that infernal toy? We all realize that it is a beacon for the unholy energies to thrive within, to stain the land with such evil that even the powers of the Gods would be lost as to exorcise it. She won't allow for it to be relieved of her possession! The little brat screams bloody murder every time someone approaches with that intention! She's keen to trickeries as well. That damnable shrew of a mother spares her of the rod, of any punishment at all!"

Candie began to slowly usher herself toward the exit, leaving the two men in their heated conversation. The first sounds of the outdoors to fall upon her ears was the projected voice of the crier, announcing the unfortunate events to have taken to place at Iemoowa's. Thus far, no one seemed to claim the open position there. "Iemoowa is a kind and generous to work for! And such a lively establishment as to immerse oneself in! Loads of perks if staffed at Iemoowa's!"

He was a mere boy on the verge of pubescence, and was ignorant to the truth of tavern life. Men scented of the products of poor hygiene, rowdy and boisterous of imbibing intoxicants until they either passed out wherever their bodies dropped, or grabbing women in such a disrespectful fashion as if controlled by their baser desires. Liquor had always brought out the worst in those which partook of it, clouding all rational thought and action, and the memories of destructive behaviors having been exhibited the previously to suffering hangover upon being greeted with the harsh light of the rising sun.

Morbidia was standing in the square which seemed to be an everyday occurrance, trying to unload her Skull flowers upon an unwelcoming public. Most would diverge from the quickest path to their desired destinations, just to save their ears of her gloomy twist of tongue. She was a conspicuous figure painted in black upon those cobbled streets, her clothing a high contrast against skin the color of fine porcelain. Her stygian tendrils fell down her back in subtle wavelets, like the churning of the tides of the River Styx when a newly departed soul is ushered into the afterlife.

"Skullflower?" She would extend the ghastly headed floret toward a woman whose status as stranger seemed blatantly stamped across her face as she greeted this peculiar female with not revulsion, but a smile. "I apologize, but I've not a coin to my name." The abomination of a bouquet seemed not to be contain the delightful scents of flowers which grew upon the glen, but instead they reeked of a mingling of skunk and entrails which baked in a midday sun.

"Pluck a flower from my grasp, the skies shall darken, the wind will rasp. Prick your flesh of the thorn, not a blessing but a curse to those lovelorn. Murdering passions, hopes shall die.." The visitor to Pryhollow was forcibly removed from the spot she stood by one of the natives to the city, breaking the thrall Morbidia's poem would induce upon her.The crimson pigmentation which encircled her eyes would reflect that she seemed to suffer an affliction of one whom wept tears of blood, the ruddy color had appeared a permanent stain upon her ghostly countenance. She was too pre-occupied with trying to force the exchange the ownership of her flowers that she was oblivious to to the vacancy of the street. "...and uncontrolled, a weeping eye. Upon a sigh, your expired dreams, lost to your gaze, the lively gleam."


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