Sabrina touched the ring one last time, fingertip trailing over the delicate silver leaves branching out from the thin gold band, tracing a pattern she knew as intimately as her own skin. This was it, and while she didn't relish what she had to do, it was now or never.

Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she crouched down in front of her daughter.

"Listen closely," she said softly to the toddler. "I need you to do as I say. I'll explain everything later, but right now, we have to leave. It's not safe for you here anymore."

Her daughter gazed at her with grey eyes disconcerting for their seriousness, then gave a single, slow nod.

Sabrina closed her eyes, searching for something known only to her, then after a moment, she blinked her eyes open and pressed her lips into a thin line.

"It's time," she said.

Rising to her feet, she took one last look around the halls that had been her home for the past three years, her heart aching both over what she was leaving behind, as well as what she was taking away. Straightening her shoulders, she adjusted her red velvet cloak, picked up her child, then walked quickly down the corridor, her steps light on the cold stone floor.

After a few twists and turns, she strode through the jagged mouth of the cave and emerged into the clearing, the black of night preparing to give way to dawn at any moment. Summoning her courage once again, she stepped from the stone floor onto the pine needle-covered ground, relieved she could still sense the direction she needed to go.

The direction home.

Hugging her daughter closer, Sabrina took another step forward just as a deep voice called out behind her: "Going somewhere?"

Spinning around as her heart leapt to her throat, Sabrina locked eyes with the Waldkonig, or Forest King. After so long with him, she could see the edges of the glamour he wore, the woven strands of light fraying just enough to offer a glimpse of the sickness concealed underneath.

"I know what you mean to use her for," Sabrina said. "And I won't let you."

"I'm afraid that's not your decision to make," he replied smoothly.

"I will fight my way out, if I must," warned Sabrina.

One side of the Waldkonig's mouth rose in a disbelieving smile, and she extended her hand, firing a burst of light that caused him to curse and leap to one side. The ground rolled beneath her feet, and Sabrina took off running, refusing to look behind her. She had to get her daughter to safety.

Unfortunately, she'd only managed to sprint a few yards when a tree root sprang up from the ground and wrapped around her ankle, causing her to fall. The impact knocked her daughter from her arms, and the child rolled a few feet before pushing herself up into a sitting position.

"Mama!" she shrieked as Sabrina directed a breaking spell at the root and blasted it into splinters before crawling forward to comfort the terrified girl.

Sensing Kobald's approach, Sabrina quickly pushed herself to her feet, standing defiantly between the girl and the ancient forest entity.

"She's not going anywhere!" snarled the Forest King. The sharp tines of his large gold and silver crown glinted wickedly in the first rays of early morning light. "She belongs to me!"

Vines rose from the ground, thick and green, barbed thorns dripping with poison, and they snaked towards Sabrina, wrapping around her arms and legs as she struggled, screaming when the thorns pierced her skin.

"Mama, no!" shouted the child, toddling forward and placing a small hand against the ground. She was barely aware of her power, much less skilled at directing it, but she focused on one of the vines and commanded it to stop hurting her mother.

The attacking vine froze, then went limp, black lines streaking across its leaves before it fell to the ground, disintegrating into a fine ash.

The remaining vines, furious at their loss, immediately let go of Sabrina and hurtled towards the girl. She screamed as they wrapped around her upper arms, thorns slicing open her skin, pouring their poison into her blood. Crying in pain, she thrashed her head from side to side just as a vine lashed upwards, slapping her hard across her face and tearing open a wide gash from the corner of her eye to her jaw.

"Stop!" screamed Sabrina, not about to use a spell to destroy the vines when they were wrapped around her daughter. "Make them stop, Kobald, they're hurting her!"

The vines disappeared as if they'd been jerked underground by an invisible hand, and the Waldkonig stepped closer, his eyes never leaving the girl.

"Why would my magic hurt her?" he demanded. "She's my daughter!"

"She's not only your daughter," snapped Sabrina, tugging off her cloak and wrapping it around the whimpering girl before gathering the child into her arms, trying to clear the blood from her wounds to see how deep they were. She ignored her own body's warning as she did so, a whisper in the back of her head reminding her of the poison making its way through her, shutting her organs down one by one and slowly killing her from the inside out.

Thankfully, her daughter's wounds were already beginning to heal, the girl's skin knitting together to form long, white scars wherever it had been sliced by a thorn.

"She couldn't have drained the life force from the vine if she didn't possess my magic," argued Kobald. "So why would my poison hurt her?"

Sabrina hitched the child higher on her hip.

"Without taking the time to run a complete experiment, I'd say she has enough of you in her to ensure your magic won't kill her, but at the same time, she has enough of me in her for it to still cause injury."

Kobald considered this, then sighed.

"I'm sorry," he said gently. He reached out to touch the child, but Sabrina took a step back. "Don't do this," he said, voice still low as his lovely hazel-grey eyes fastened on to hers. "Come back, and we can discuss things."

His voice was so patient, so kind, so persuasive, everything inside Sabrina told her to stop being silly and go to him. Then, her daughter whimpered again, and all other thoughts were forgotten.

"I'm sorry," she said instead, and what's more, she meant it.

The Waldkonig's eyes narrowed as she raised a hand. Rather than cast another spell, she imagined herself reaching deep into the earth, connecting to the extensive deposits of copper that lay slumbering beneath their feet.

Help me, she both commanded and pleaded, and the ground trembled, then split open as the copper rushed to the surface, exploding upwards in a reddish-gold wave that separated her from Kobald.

Stop him, she directed the copper, even though she knew the delay would be only temporary. While she could command metal, the fact that it came from within the Schwarzwald meant, regardless of its allegiance, it ultimately answered to Kobald and would eventually be forced to submit to him.

Thankfully, she only needed a few seconds.

The wall of copper began to twist into chains that flung themselves at the Forest King, attempting to wrap around his legs, arms, and throat. As he fought them off, Sabrina turned towards the mountains above the sheltered canyon. Extending her hand, she drew a deep breath, connecting to the silver mines dotting the insides of the largest peak. Then, something pierced her side, and she gasped, looking down to see a vine wedging itself between her ribs.

"You'll have to do better than that!" shouted Kobald, grasping the copper chain attempting to wrap around his neck and breaking it in two before throwing it to the ground, where it lay still.

Sabrina clenched her teeth and reestablished her connection to the metal. Then, with a mighty yank of her hand, she pulled every scrap of silver in the mountainside toward her. Rocks rattled and trees swayed as the mountain began to cave inwards, creating an avalanche of dirt, metal, and snow.

Vaporizing the vine between her ribs with a quick spell, Sabrina held her daughter close, then turned and ran with all her might into the forest, darting between the trees as the avalanche rained down behind her, burying the canyon beneath the detritus of her landslide.

The Waldkonig couldn't go beyond the boundaries of the Schwarzwald, which meant her survival depended on escaping the forest, and there was only one way to reach the edge of the woods fast enough—using treeways, portals that developed between close-growing trees, and Sabrina ducked into the nearest one as the avalanche shook the forest around her.

Treeways formed wherever two different types of trees grew close enough to join their branches, intertwining to create an archway of boughs and leaves. She had needed Kobald's magic to be able to see them, which was one of the reasons they'd created her ring, applying her metal-working skills to silver and gold from his forest.

As he'd slipped the ring on her finger, he'd told her it was a sign of how much he trusted her, sharing his magic with her and allowing her to travel through the woods wherever she pleased. Kobald had then shown her how to look at the trees from the corner of her eye, to recognize when the space between them didn't match the rest of the surroundings, instead revealing a gateway to another part of the forest.

Of course, she'd known that when the time came to make her escape, she wouldn't have the luxury of searching for treeways, so she'd done her best to memorize their locations, either when she'd traveled with Kobald or used them by herself.

She wasn't so naïve as to think Kobald had died in the avalanche, but with any luck, he would be indisposed for a long period of time. If he came to before she escaped, there was a very good chance he would level the entire forest to stop her, effectively disabling the treeways and rendering her ring useless. The thought spurred her on, renewing her strength and making it easier to put her own injury from her mind.

On and on Sabrina ran, ducking into one treeway, running across the tangled undergrowth of the forest floor, and then leaping into another. She ran as fast as she could, even as her arms ached from carrying her daughter and her legs and lungs burned from over-exertion.

Please let them be there, she thought, barely able to hear herself think over her pounding heart. She'd come so far, but there were still so many if's...

If she was fast enough...

If the other witches had received her message...

If Kobald didn't catch her...

Finally, after Sabrina had run farther and gone through more treeways than she could count, she saw it...a bright sliver of water, barely visible through a gap in the trees. She was almost there!

Her legs suddenly gave out from under her, and she stumbled, falling forward but managing to roll onto her side to avoid crushing her daughter. The poison was spreading faster than she'd expected. Gasping for air, she forced herself back to her feet, swaying as she stood.

She could do this.

She had to do this.

Bracing herself against the trees for support, Sabrina forced one foot in front of the other, keeping her eyes on the spaces between the trunks, spaces that were becoming larger as the trees grew farther apart, allowing sunlight to stream inwards...a sure sign she was almost at the edge of the forest.

Everything inside her hurt, and she bared her teeth and screamed as she shuffled forward, unable to run any longer, every movement a fight against the poison coursing through her. It was becoming harder to breathe, and the trees tilted around her, wobbling from one side to another as she tried to keep her gaze fixed directly ahead.

And then she saw it—two figures standing on the other side of the trees. Hope swelled in her chest, renewing her resolve and giving her strength in a way no magic could have, and she cried out in relief, even though her tongue was starting to feel too thick to form words.

At last, Sabrina burst from the forest, gripping her daughter against her chest, blood pouring from the wound at her side, the poison making its way into every corner of her body.

"Please," she rasped to the two wide-eyed women standing before her. "Please take her."

She offered up her daughter, and one of the women quickly grabbed the toddler, who wailed and reached back for her mother.

"I don't have much time," panted Sabrina, pulling her ring off her finger, "and our magic is no good against Schwarzwald poison. One day everything I did will make sense. One day, everyone will understand just how special Katja is. Please, whatever you do, look after my daughter."

She held out her ring, and the woman not holding her daughter took it.

Before anyone could speak further, a terrible noise rang out from the forest. The entire Schwarzwald exploded in a howl of fury, as if every living thing inside the woods echoed the rage felt by the Waldkonig. The nearby trees groaned and quaked, their branches growing long enough to claw at the ground.

The poison had dulled Sabrina's senses, making her feel as if she was merely watching things happen, rather than experiencing them herself, and the last thing she saw before she closed her eyes was a brown, gnarled tree root wrapping around her ankle.

One way or another, this was the end.

(Artwork by SimonMettler from Pixabay)