Page 11 of Wandering Witch

“It might be early, but we’ve been traveling for many long hours over many long days. We should be better rested before we tackle whatever shades lurk ahead of us now.”

Roan

The sound of voices pulled me out of my musings as I lay stretched out over the tops of the posts that formed a wall separating my home from the waterside. I groaned as I lifted my head to see where the voices were coming from, with no luck.

“Ugh, what is it this time? Campers aren’t allowed in that part of the woods.” With great effort and willpower, I hoisted myself up and over where I had reclined.

As I descended, I floated in the direction that I had heard the voices, not concerned in the least of being seen. After all, in the centuries since this colony had fallen, not a single soul had been able to see me.

The reconstructed and frankly better-designed fort stood empty of visitors as I made my way through on my search for the source of the voices that had roused my interest. I passed through the various buildings and allowed glimpses of visions of the past to enter my mind as my essence made contact with fragments of the original colony that still remained.

I shook the memories from my head as I continued on my way, refusing to allow myself to get lost in those darker days. It was bad enough that humans of recent generations had been obsessed with the destruction of this place. I didn’t need my own memories of those days filling my head.

I continued forward until I approached the forgotten remains of a cabin some distance from the main settlement.

I faltered in my steps as the voices seemed to come from the other side of the cabin, a male who rumbled like thunder. His partner, on the other hand, her voice chimed like the sweetest bells.

Their voices held a strain that while it wasn’t new, something about it pulled at my soul tethers regardless. I floated through the building, stopping with just my head poking through the furthest wall. From my hiding spot, I saw the outlines of figures looking like they were in the process of setting up their campsite.

Curious, I moved closer to the couple, dashing from tree to tree, hiding in the trunks to keep from sight.

How bizarre, I thought as I watched them. There are no available campsites in this part of the park. So what could these two be up to?

I continued to circle the pair as I studied them, impressed at how rustic their camping style appeared to be. While it wasn’t completely unheard of for people in today’s world to camp so rustically, this was both taken to a new level and not a sanctioned location to do so. And so my interest remained.

As I continued to move closer, I noticed that the male’s movements grew stiffer and more rigid. He also appeared to find reasons to get closer to the female and remain at her side as the day wore on, though he never made physical contact with her.

By the time night had fallen, I was sprawled out on some branches above their camp as I listened to their movements below. That was all the noise they made. Not a single word had been shared between them since my arrival. Strange since they had no trouble speaking until I got close.

An added oddness was that there were a few times that I would watch them, and it would end with them seeming to watch me back. It was almost like they could actually see me. But not a single soul had been able to see me since the fall of the settlement. Once I died, so did the ability of the rest of the world to acknowledge me.

It was, I’ll admit, a very disturbing sensation to be noticed after all these years. But a rather addictive one if I was being completely honest with myself; addictive enough that I would periodically look down to watch them in hopes of causing them to watch me back.

Though, now that it was night, I knew that any chance of seeing me was gone. Even with a campfire to ward off the chill, it didn’t produce enough light to reach me high above them.

So I had to change my location and find myself a new stalking spot closer to the pair.

With little effort, I rolled off the branch I was on and floated down to land in some bushes just on the edge of the ring of light. As I settled in with my face protruding from the bushes, I saw they had something laid out between them on the ground. I had to move a little bit closer to see just what it was. A map. It looked to be a map of the continental United States. Curious.

I crawled a few hairs closer when the male set his massive hand on the woman’s shoulder before murmuring in her ear. After that, he stood up and walked out of the site, so I just assumed he had to water the weeds.

The woman, now alone for the first time since I’d arrived, tensed. That only lasted mere moments before she took what I guessed to be calming breaths, chanting something under her breath.

I was so focused on what she was doing that I missed her partner returning until an incredibly heavy weight was slammed into my back, sending me sprawling face-first in the dirt.

Farren

Ijust barely held back my scream when the specter that had been haunting us all day came flying out of the bushes. Locke had been the first to notice we weren’t alone out here. When he did, his attitude changed.

Before it was as though he couldn’t wait to put some distance between us, but after, he stayed close to me. And the spirit just kept creeping closer and closer until he was in the trees above our camp.

At one point, I asked Locke under my breath if we should move our camp, but he declined. The ghost would follow us there anyway. So we stayed where we were.

By sunset, it looked like all the ghost wanted to do was hang around our campsite and watch us. Nothing too strange there, I’d come across a few spirits in my travels and they were all either lost to themselves or curious about the living that drew near them.

This one was very different, however. He looked like he could have died anywhere between this morning and two years ago, but his essence felt much, much older. He also didn’t appear to enjoy having his voyeuristic tendencies interrupted. Every time his gaze would linger too long on either of us, we would look up and match his gaze.

After a few seconds of staring at one another, he would break first and look away for a time. I honestly didn’t know what to make of him.

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