Gwen woke in a  glorious mood, her incantation may have worked. She  felt different somehow. She skipped breakfast and headed straight for her chores, inside first then outside ones. It was a good day to be outside. The morning went swiftly for her especially when she worked in her family's garden. Her mother Sofia encouraged it, saying that her daughter just had a way with the plants. She had noticed a lot more of the vegetables were bigger than usual this year compared to the last few.

Late that morning, almost middle of the day Edwynn came to see her. It made her heart soar into oblivion. Her parents were both home that day and actually asked her father if it would be acceptable. That small act of consideration had earned him her fathers respect. It was not given lightly. Gwen was ready and headed out with Edwynn. He took her north through the woods, they strolled a good fifteen miles, to a secluded part of the forest . It was an amazing sight. The horizion looked painted with a remarkable mountain landscape. It looked like something out of a  vision.

He was taking her there for a surprise picnic lunch. Her eyes lit up and she kissed him. It was a lot of fun in the forest with him. The two of them were getting along  well. She was really enjoying his little stories about his own family, and a couple of the friends he had made over the past summer seasons. Edwynn seemed to open himself up more so when he was alone with gwen, especially out here in the forest.

 It was a nice time for them, spending half the afternoon out in the forest. When it was time to go back it saddened her but she knew that it was time to go. She enjoyed walking with him back to his father's shop. Edwynn said his father had work to be done there. Gwen understood, but she kissed him once more before leaving.

She headed not for home but off to Maggies cottage to see if she could get another lesson in before it got too dark to be in the woods. The lessons were always fascinating to her. She loved going to the lessons with Maggie. She did not feel as if Maggie were just a good friend or great teacher. To Gwen Maggie was more like a member of her family in some small way. She was more like a great aunt or grandmother to her instead of her sorcery instructor.

 She adored and idolized Maggie. More often than not Gwen would bring small gifts or tokens to her mentor even on days she did not have a session with her. Gwen swiftly walked down the forest trail, she was anxious to get to Maggies for the late afternoon lesson.

 When Gwen made it to the small cottage she knocked on the old wooden door and then she waited with a bright smile. She did not hear Maggies footsteps from the inside so she knocked again, a little louder this time. After what seemed longer than usual Maggie slowly opened the door. Maggie smiled at her for a moment.

"Gwen , hi there. Right on time I see. Do come in dear." Maggie greeted her young apprentice.

"Thank you." She replied as she went into the small cottage with Maggie following behind her.

That usually was not the case. Gwen enjoyed her lessons almost always, but this one was not coming along as quickly as she would have hoped. Eventually with little to no progress, the lesson was completed. It was now one of Gwen's favorite things about coming here to see her mentor. It was time for a nice cup of tea, and a little social hour that was ritualistic, and a lot of fun. Gwen loved it.

Gwen had quite a lot of things to tell her, first she went on and on about Edwynn, as most teenage girls would. Maggie knew that gwen was in love with the boy, but she did not know if Gwen knew it herself. She told Maggie how well they were getting to know each other, and how nice he was to her. She then went into how her folks were doing well her mother seemed happy.Maggie just sipped her tea, listening to Gwen tell her all of the excitement going on in the small town of Galderia. 

She did not go into the town often, she was aging quickly and aching twice as much. She listened as Gwen told her of her best friend all through childhood, Emily. She told Maggie all of Emily's intended James and that their wedding was not  far away. She told her about the family garden and Maggie snickered a little bit. 

She was telling Maggie almost everything. She decided not to mention the spastic girl she had scared in the woods. She wasn't sure why. Gwen thought if she ran into that Victoria again, maybe then she would bring it to Maggies attention. Gwen kept trying to block the creepy girl from the woods out of her mind, but it did not seem to work for her. She gave Gwen a feeling of discontentment like she had never felt before. 

She had a strange feel that there was something wrong, this person was not one she should run into again. She could feel this was not a creature born of the light.. She was not a good natured or kindred soul by a long shot. She found this a little disturbing. She usually never felt any kind of danger from other people. Her aura was really just off for some reason. Gwen couldn't help it. She was a happy person, she always made time to make friends. She could not understand why anyone would not want to make friends. She did not understand it. Just like with the vision she had suddenly received during meditation, that girl brought a darkness from within her.

Gwen tried to think of anything else to get the confrontation in the woods off of her mind. She just wanted to forget it ever happened. She shifted her thoughts back to Maggie. She quickly finished her tea, and thanked Maggie for the tea as well as her wisdom. She then hugged Maggie and told her farewell, as she headed out of the small cottage, and back through the woods.

 She walked slowly through the forest, enjoying the scenes it provided, it helped her to think. Once she made it into Galderia , she picked up the pace. It was getting dark, just a little. She didn't want to be too late, or walking in the pitch black darkness. She wanted to get home anyway, she wanted to do another meditation, to see what would happen.

     other witch  

Veronica spent the next day buried in her studies. She had a lot of questions , and didn't want to forget anything and she was doing a lot of research before she went to see her mentor. She had gotten a lot of work done before that afternoon. She then noticed it was time to go, she grabbed her bag of supplies and headed out of the castle. She went through the large court yard and headed north to Triadia's fortress, not too far from her own castle. It took less than a half hour walk to get there. Even though Veronica preferred the darkness, it was a nice afternoon for a walk in the forest. 

The late night hours, the dead of night seemed to comfort her. She felt at peace, lost in the pull of the nocturnal hours. Veronica walked slowly through the forest, admiring a weeping willow near the path. There was just something about it. That remarkable tree made her smile. She had always liked those trees but not exactly sure why. To Veronica those trees held a powerful essence that she could feel and see. She watched a crow circle above the tree and perched himself at the top of the tree.

She then continued walking on, she slowly passed mellow creek, a small stream, no bigger than a duck pond, narrow yet serene, at least Veronica thought so. She loved it out here. She enjoyed her walk "Miss Veronica, it is good to see you again." He then bowed to her. She thought it was charming of him.

"It is good to see you again too. Is Triadia here?" Veronica replied getting straight to the point.

" Yes miss she is in the study, I shall walk you." Rueford replied to her.

Veronica nodded and thanked him.

Rueford was a nice and attractive fellow in his early thirties, he had gemstone sparkling green eyes. His hair was thick wavy and the color was darker than the dead of night. Rueford was the butler, but a sweet gentleman. He led her down a long dimly lit corridor. At the end of the long hallway they took a left turn to the end of the next hallway to the left door. There was the study, Triadia was in there deeply invested in some kind of research. She barely noticed for a few minutes that she had even arrived. Rueford held back a laugh.He then asked if they required anything else before leaving the study, to give them their privacy.

"Veronica darling you're early, that's fine." Triadia greeted her.

"Have a seat young one." She offered and veronica sat down. Triadia was an excellent teacher and a lot of fun. She had jet black eyes and fire red curls past her shoulders, she looked to be almost thirty but she was closer to fort

"So what is our lesson for today?" veronica asked her getting to the point.

"Thought form magic young one." she replied with a dark grin. Veronica smiled. It sounded like something she would like to learn most definitely. Triadia got straight to the lesson. Veronica did her best to stay focused and pay attention for the most part. Her mind kept drifting back to the forest wench she had met. She did not know why or even how, but the girl repulsed her. She wanted to do nothing but get away from her. 

The girl just being there made her nauseated. She had to get away from the twit in the woods. Veronica tried to force those thoughts back, to forget about ever meeting the mindless twit. She tried to concentrate on the thought form lesson but she found it rather difficult. Lucky for her it had not taken much longer and the lesson was over. She knew she would need to work on this on her own to get better at it. She could not wait she had a lot she wanted to tell Triadia. That her spell book had entries in it she did not remember writing, also she wanted to tell her of the forest idiot she had met and the strange feeling she received when she met the girl. If anyone could make any sense of this it was Triadia.

Right when the lesson ended she asked her teacher to sit with her, she had some strange things she wanted to talk about, and could use her input. Veronica wanted answers to this, whatever it was going on. Veronica spilled out as much information as she had on these bizarre occurrences. She listened to her young student until she had told her everything that went on in the last few days. Tirade's eyes flared with worry. She was protective of her young student. She also believed in omens, dreams and superstition.

"Your deep rooted paranoia will destroy your dark essence young one..." Triadia warned her. She said nothing more on the subject. Veronica nodded to her mentor, thanking her for her time before heading back home.

Veronica was a little disappointed on the walk home she was sure this meant something. It felt like a sign that there would be more to this, and soon. She had noticed over the next few days those events would replay themselves in her mind over and over again. It was like getting a song stuck in your head. She knew she needed to be patient and wait for another sign, a dream or to see if there would be something more to this.

 She noticed it was not much further now. Veronica truly loved going to see her mentor. That was a huge compliment, Veronica did not like that many people as a general rule. There was something dark and famillar about Triadia. Veronica did not understand it, not yet, but accepted it openly. Once she finally did reach the enormous fortress, she knocked on the large metal double doors. with in the next few minutes the door was opened and Rueford smiled at her.

�Cr�Lx�