was simple enough, and my action went unbeknownst to him.
I waited, standing without fear. What will come, will come, but it ends now. It must, either way. My powers were far too extended, weakened; I would not be able to beat this creature if I battled him one on one.
Alistair was stronger than our last encounter. So too, was I, to even the scales, but there was no way my gods could have known he was gifted with stronger powers for murdering my daughter. They would not have allowed me to do battle with him if they had known.
I was not a witch that time could afford to lose, at any cost. The viper had hidden his gift well. I, being the last of my mother’s line, was the strongest; if I were to fall, my sisters, as well as my daughters, would perish. What a tremendous blow to the solar gods this would prove to be.
What on earth was I to do? I needed my dear ones cloaked and I needed my sight. I must face my life or demise with unveiled eyes, I could forfeit neither. I could see my poor Randar was about to expire in his grief. My little witch daughter’s soul cuddled into her father’s embrace, already mourning the loss of a mother she would now have lost twice. All seemed lost.
I had one chance only. Perhaps my gods had not forsaken me. I called forth the powers that were mine, bestowed upon me as my right of birth.
I was a timeless witch, as my mother had been, as her mother had been and so on. I had been to our beginning; I had been to our end. And I will tell you, as one end meets the beginning, time never stops, it is a continuous circle of life. Either on this planet, or another, either on this plane of existence, or another, or on this universe, or another. Some form of life is constantly being played out. I would use this knowledge to try and save my life and the lives of my entire family.
Alistair was a hairsbreadth away. His serpent’s eyes grew hot with his impending triumph.
“You are mine.”
Slowly his head descended to finish me off. Leisurely, his forked tongue licked at my face, tasting my tears, as though lapping at the champagne of victory. His loathsome lips pulled into a heinous grin. He hissed a ghastly noise, right before the moment he was to strike.
“No, Alistair, you are mine,” I answered calmly.
Quickly, I leaped round him as he struck viciously. My arms encircled his slimy body from behind as I climbed on his back. I slipped for a brief moment, and then dug my fingernails into his scales while he shrieked, and only then did I turn, and offering a sly wink to my beloved Randar, I chanted:
“A timeless witch is in your wake,
Fly me fast to the route I must take,
Travel me to times of flight,
Where beasts of prey wield great height!”
Granted it wasn’t my best, but I was, after all, a little busy to be bothering with a well thought out rhyme.
We began spinning, whirling amidst the ages, back, back, farther and farther.
“ Noooo,” howled Alistair. He struggled wildly, but I refused to let him loose. Back we went, back before Alistair’s time, as everyone knows good has been around longer than evil.
Both of us were suddenly jerked violently to a halt. We tumbled to the ground, he and I. My breath expelled in a loud audible whoosh, as the air was knocked rudely from my lungs. We both jumped to our feet to face one another and his serpent’s head thrashed this way and that, taking in our strange surroundings.
The hairs on the back of my neck rose. I wondered where we were for a brief moment, until it became clear. I had never once traveled to this time; I had never been needed here. The dense foliage surrounding us was a deep hunter green, quiet, mystical and picturesque. The air was sweet, devoid of any contaminants. Plants were high, long and lush. I had never seen anything so eerily magnificent.
Alistair and I regarded one another.
“Where have you taken me, witch?” he hissed.
I felt a slow smile curve my lips. “Why, Alistair, you are in a place where your kind