Karina could feel Nyx's eyes burn holes into her back as she joined her mother and her younger self. It was hard to attempt forgetting the person that had brought her to this fantasy, the one that could take it away from her at any second.

Person? Karina clenched her fists. Anyone who could transform into five different people and change their form from human to bird wasn't a person. They were a thing. An it. Something unnatural, uncommon--

Just like me. 

Karina swallowed hard. She was a yaga. Someone who could control...well...something. She was someone who Moracia considered unnatural.

And who was to say that they weren't right?

She shook her head stiffly, focusing on matching her footsteps to her mother's and listening to little Karina and Vasilisa converse. "Karina darling, do you want to go to Hans's house or watch me do my job?"

"Hmm..." The five year old tilted her head to the left. Do I do that? Karina wondered, watching the little girl's eyebrows furrow together as she pondered the situation. Were there some gestures that she was unaware of? Did she slump her shoulders when she thought like this little memory of her did?

"I think I'd like to watch you do your job, Mama," Karina said quietly, folding her hands in front of her solemnly. "Hans can wait."

Vasilisa gave a large smile that looked a bit like one of Hans's smirks. "Alright. We're going to Olga's house. You know who Miz Olga is, right?"

A pompous creep. A perfectionist fool. A heartless, soulless woman who cares about nothing more than herself. A--

"The Oracle, of course. Our spiritual leader." Karina grew more animated as she talked, her eyes lighting up like miniature suns at daybreak. "She summons spirits and communicates with the holy Ancestors."

Karina watched disgustedly at the way her younger self seemed to idolize the very woman that would become her torturer for eight years. How could she have? Why hadn't she been smarter?

"...and she wears a soft wool shawl that's made every year from the youngest sheep to symbolize the cycle of life and how innocence never dies. Right?"

"Right you are." They turned a corner. Karina recognized the route as the way to Olga's. Vasilisa continued: "She's delivering a child and it's supposed to be a tricky birth. We're going to help her."

"How does it work?" the child asked. "Will she be alright?"

"Who knows," Vasilisa muttered quietly before pasting a smile on her features. "I mean, I certainly hope so."

"She's the Oracle," the younger said, frowning slightly. "She can't die."

Oh, would that she had!

"No one is invulnerable, darling," Vasilisa said curtly. "Now, do you know what to do when helping mama work?"

"Stay out of the way, always listen and do what you say, don't say anything, and leave the room whenever you tell me."

"Yes." Vasilisa stared ahead in a resolved manner, her mouth pressed in a thin line. Wisps of red hair flew out from her kerchief but she made no move to brush them aside. She looks like she did the day she...

Died.

Karina's hands trembled like dead autumn leaves, and all of a sudden she couldn't move, couldn't breathe, couldn't think. Because this was the way her mother had looked when flames had charred her mother's freckled skin and pressed against her sides, when smoke had smothered Vasilisa's face until she couldn't breathe.

She had never felt so...so empty.

Every day had been full of feelings. Anger. Bitterness. Hate. Sadness, fear, grief, nervousness, anxiety--all jumbled into a thick, soupy mess of emotions that felt uncomfortable under her skin. But this...this was entirely different.

She was numb.

It was like when Vasilisa healed a particularly bad wound in the winter; she would cover the wound in snow and ice before actually healing it. Her mother had said that it was to help block out the pain, to give the patient something to hold on to. Which made Karina wonder--was she blocking out the pain?

Did she even want it?

A high-pitched scream ripped Karina out of her thoughts, and she ran to catch up with herself and her mother. "We're here," Vasilisa said grimly, opening the door of Olga's house.

It was the same as it had been when Karina had lived there, if in a bit more disarray. Pouches of herbs and flasks of solutions lay all around the room in an extraordinarily disorganized fashion. Everything looked dusty and cobwebby. Smoke from the fireplace, over which a large pot of what appeared to be water, cloaked the already dismal looking setting. And in the middle of it all there was a small blonde-haired girl. Helga.

"Hello, Miss Vasilisa," said Helga. Her glassy, pine green eyes were wide with fear. "Are you here to save Mama?" She jabbed her finger in the direction of Olga's room. "I don't think she's gonna make it," she said matter-of-factly.

Of course she wouldn't feel any emotion about this.

"I'll do my best," Vasilisa promised, clasping Helga's hand before turning to her daughter. "Karina? Stay here with Helga."

"Mama, I--"

"Karina." Vasilisa's voice was low and stern. "The rules. Please get me chamomile, lavender, blue cohosh, the Shepard's Purse Tincture, and the scullcap. You know what to do with them. Then comfort Helga. Understood?"

The younger Karina bowed her head and set to work, busily gathering the needed materials from the various pouches and flasks. Vasilisa hurried to Olga's room, from which another shriek emitted. Helga set her mouth in a grim line and set up a mortar and pestle in front of Karina.

"Do it, and do it fast."

The auburn-haired five year old stared into the blonde girl's intense gaze before returning to her work of gathering the materials. She crushed the thin yellow roots of the blue cohosh into a thick paste before turning to Helga with straight-faced seriousness.

"I need hot water to make the Oracle tea."

Helga complied, carefully dipping a small wooden cup into the pot over the fire and handing it to Karina anxiously. The midwife's daughter scooped out the paste, letting it drop into the drink, before stirring it vigorously with a thin spoon. Once the child was done mixing she threw in a small handful of chamomile and lavender each. A soft, supple scent wafted up towards the girls. Karina then grabbed the pouch of scullcap, a small flask of the tincture, and handed all three to Helga, who struggled to balance them. A bit of hot liquid sloshed out of the cup, and Helga shoved it towards Karina, who shoved it straight back at her.

"You carry them."

Helga's chin jutted out. "I'll tell my mother and she'll ask the Ancestors to lay a curse on you. Or I could tell Duras. Mama is very close with him, you know."

"Duras is a village outsider," Karina said scornfully. Helga clucked her tongue and muttered something about telling Miss Vasilisa. Karina's small mouth turned upside down. "I'll suppose I'll help you, though you didn't help me." Karina grabbed the tincture and the pouch, and together both girls walked to Olga's room.

It was strange to see her torturer for eight years so entirely immobile and pained. Olga was red-faced and screaming with fluid leaking from her stony eyes. For a moment Karina almost felt a flicker of pity of the woman. Then it was gone, the dim glow of a lightning bug that flitted away into the night.

Karina the younger handed her mother the tea, who fed it to Olga. It dribbled down the woman's face and neck. Her mouth was open an epic scream that thrilled some obscure part of Karina.

The five year old version of her was horrified.

Eyes and mouth open wide, fingers clenched into red-and-white fists. Because she actually liked this woman.

Karina wasn't so sure this was the fantasy she had dreamed of.

OH. MY. GOD.

76. SEVENTY SIX! NIGHT WITCH RANKED AT 76! WE BROKE 100! WHAT?!?!!!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU (x100)

Okay. Down to business. Sorry for the crazy.

This chapter was probably confusing based on the two different Karinas. If there are any questions you have about this, please ask in a comment and I'll do my best to fix it.  Please comment anything that needs fixing about this chapter.  It's one of my weaker ones, but it's super meta-filled so I really want it to be as good as it can be.

What did you think of little Helga? What did you think of little Karina? Please tell me in a comment!

Don't forget to vote if you enjoyed this! Bye! Hugs! See you next week! :D