The Winter Staff

A Hunter's Mission

"Myra, are you ready for this?" I asked.

"Of course. We've trained our whole lives for this. The only reason the Council chose us so young, is that they wanted us to have agile, ready bodies. Also, your father was a master hunter," Myra Takaya confirmed.

Yes, I knew all about my father. The master Witch Hunter. 'Jordan Starr was one of the greatest Witch Hunters in history,' the Council often said. 'Octavia must be just like him,' everyone else said. I didn't believe that. Was I powerful? Yes. But alas, I am always uncertain of myself, which drags me down.

I looked at Myra. She wore the same outfit as me, but yet she looked completely different. For starters, she had short, choppy, jet black hair, while my long light blonde hair was in a french braid, cascading down my backside. She was also much taller, but less built. Her grey eyes, were much like storm clouds, but mine were clear blue, like a raging ocean. We still had many different features, aside from those, but those were the most notable.

I felt her stare at me from the other side of the armory. "Octavia? Are you ready for this?"

I wasn't exactly sure. We were tasked with locating, and capturing the Winter Witch. She was ominous, so no one knew how powerful she was. For all we knew, she could be the most powerful witch this world has ever seen, and the whole mission was a waste of lives.

"I'm not really sure Myra, I'm not really sure."

She could only nod. She slugged a backpack over her shoulder, and slid her golden dagger into the pack on her belt. I did the same, except I had a diamond dagger. It was given to me by the Council, saying that it was my father's, and it was only given to people who held high rankings throughout the community. I guess they only gave it to me because I had pretty much nothing from my parents, besides a baby blanket and a picture. I didn't even have a memory.

"Well, Tavie, I guess you might have to be, because we best be on our way," Myra said.

We left our small Witch Hunting town, to go onto the trail that would take us to Yuri in about three hours, if we made good ground. Yuri was a large farming community, and on the way to the Boreas Mountains, where we would be headed on our search for the Winter Witch.

-

After a few hours of walking it was already twilight. We had already passed Yuri, and now we were in Demet Forest. Rarely anyone came here anymore, but we decided it would be the fastest way. We had set up a tent, and unloaded our backpacks.

"Pretty easy so far, Tavie," Myra pointed out.

"Yeah, for now. All we had to do was walk. The only thing I'm worried about is the witch part."

She snorted. I heard rustling outside. She must have heard it too, because we moved in sync. We hopped out of the tent, and stood face to face with a girl, about eighteen. She looked just as startled as we did. She had long dark hair, in a braid, like mine. She also had dark brown eyes, and wore the clothes of a Native.

It was only an exchange of stares for at least five minutes until she popped out six small words. "Hi, I'm Cas, and you are?"