The solstice

prologue:
A young women runs through the woods carrying a box till she gets to a raging river as she looks for a way across the river when a hand grabs her shoulder and spins her to face the person she sees it's a older women, with flowing blue and purple hair her skins is grey and she can see her veins on her arm but everything else is covered by a cloak, the young women collapses on to her knees and begins crying she sees the women smile and say "well looks like you are out of options" suddenly from the box comes a cry both of them look at the box the witch reaches for the box when the women begins begging the witch says "well how about a deal i take the child and you go home" the women calms down some as the witch raises her hand and a bridge is formed across the river the women says "can i say goodbye to my son atleast" the witch says "no, not that it would matter his memories will be wiped" the women saying no more runs over the bridge the witch picks up the child and walks into the woods again whistling

3 days till the solstice
Theo sweeps the witches cottage clean in the blistering cold as he cleans the door opens and the witch walks in carrying a bag she drops it on the floor and says "theo dear i would like you to prepare these ingredients for the solstice the king requires this potion so if you mess this up i will-" Theo simply rolls his eyes and says "turn me to a toad for a week yeah yeah" she says "good you learn" she pats him on his head as she walks too her room and as she gets to the door she says "oh and i already ate you make your own food" theo sighs before snapping and sending the broom back to the corner he walks over to the bag and begins unpacking it when he grabs a jar he look inside and sees a fairy punching the glass as hard as she can theo leans in closer and looks at her, he sees her short blue shaggy hair so light it almost glows it cause a warm feeling to flow through him as a lump forms in his throat, she turns to look at him and yell "hey you gotta let me out of here that... witch actully plans to cook me" theo ignores her and places her on top of the fireplace she begins to shout again as she kicks the glass theo finshes unpacking trying to ignore as she swaps between begging and insulting him

after his dinner theo lays down on the couch in front of the fireplace and attempts to sleep after many failed attempts to fall asleep he instead resorts to watching the fireplace as the flames crackle he looks up and sees the fairy trying to push the jar he watches her try for awhile before, saying "you can't get out like that" she stops and looks at him before saying "and why is that" theo rolls over and says "you can't push things from inside them everyone knows that" she shouts back "why don't you mind your own buisness" theo sighs and says "whatever tiny" and rolls over the fairy gasps and yells "you disrespectful brat we fairys are the gurdians for forests we are legends with no equals..." after a couple minutes of yelling she realizes he isn't listening, she sighs and sits down before smiriking and saying "maybe you can't push from the inside" before flying and pushing the jar it soon begins to move as it gets to the edge and tips over theo turns around and raises an arm the ground turns squishy and the jar sinks into it he runs over and picks up the jar before placing it back onto the fire place he then whispers something and a glue sticks the jar to the fire place she glares at him as he sighs and says "goodnight... also i guess you were right" with that they both lay down

2 days till the solstice
the fairy wakes up in early in the morning to see theo already cleaning the fire place she then stands up to see a bottle cap full of food she sits down next to it and realizes how hungry she is, but she pushes it away refusing to eat anything prepared by her captors after a hour or two, theo walks over to her he sees that she hasn't eaten any of her food and she is looking away from him he says "is the food bad" she says "it's cold" he says "sorry i should have waited till you were awake" he opens his hand and the bottle cap appears in his hand theo then says "is their any food you want" she doesn't respond theo says "i'll make both of us some stew", theo looks for the smallest thimble he can find and chops the ingrdients small enough to fit into it brings it to her, theo sees the fairy hasn't moved he snaps and the thimble it teleports into the jar then kneels infront of the fireplace and begins eating she suddenly picks up the thimble and throws it into the glass the thimble bounces off she then begins pounding on the glass till she runs out of steam and begins panting theo says "are you done" she just grumbles and lays down, theo sits there in silence for awhile when he finally says "so whats it like" she says "in the jar... terrible" he says "no i mean outside... in the real world" she sits up and looks at him saying "what do you mean, it's the world theres not much to tell you" theo stares at the floor she says "you've never left this cabin have you" theo begins blushing she stares out the window and sees only the shadows of the trees outside so thick she can't even see the sky, she sees a small dismal pond full of frogs and bugs, she says "well i haven't seen much more than this but i can tell you about my village" theo stares at her with eyes full of wonder and nods

it's late into the day and the fairy is still telling theo about the outside world when suddenly an arm wraps around his neck a chilly voice whispers "whatcha talking about" suddenly the witch is sitting behind him theo spins around in a panic she says "don't mind me" she turns into smoke and floats over to the couch sitting down "luckily enough for you the house was clean but... you were supposed to be practicing your magic" theo begins to stammer out an exscuse when she waves her hand and he can't make noise anymore she then says "shhhh, why don't you go make us all some dinner" he can speak again and says "y-yes ma'am" before stumbling off and running to the kitchen, the witch sits on the couch and watches before saying "what do you want sprite" the fairy says "i'm a fairy, hag" the witch smiles at her and says "what do you want fairy" the fairy says "i hear he doesn't get out much" the witch says "no he doesn't, does that bother you" the fairy watches theo prepare dinner and says "of course not i'm just wondering about him" the witch says "well that won't matter in a few days will it" the fairy says "i will escape and when i do i will pay you back" the witch smiles wider as the cloak covers her eyes and says "we will have to wait and see till then let's eat sprite"

the day before the solstice
the fairy sits inside her jar watching theo practise his magic he hasn't talked to her since last night but she decides to put that out of her mind as she begins trying to break the glass again she tries for awhile till theo says "so i have a question" she stops for a second and see him walk closer to the jar she sits down and says "what do you want to know" theo looks nervous as he says "you said fairys could use magic so... why can't you" she doesn't speak for awhile before facing away from him and saying "i dont know" he is about to question her more but decides it's best to drop it and begins to walk away she then says "so i never asked what's your name" he says "theodore theo for short" she says "theodore huh my names serenity" theo goes back to practise and she countinues to try and break the jar till she get too tired and passes out

serenity wakes up to see somethings diffrent she looks at the label to see it has changed from "fairy" to "serenity" theos off somwhere in the back of the cabin soon the witch walks into the cabin and is about to enter the back room when serenity asks her "where do you go back there from what i can see there is only one room" the witch cackles and says "that's an odd question to ask on your last day alive" serenity just glares at her the witch stops smiling and snaps saying "with a snap of out fingers we can change which room it is" before walking into the back room

theo soon walks into the room and gives serenity a bottle cap full of food he then lays down on the couch and waves his hand unsticking the jar before serenity can say anything theo falls asleep serenity takes her chance to begin pushing the jar after awhileit begins to fall of the fireplace when suddenly the witch grabs the jar and smiles at it saying "i believe i may have given you to much freedom" suddenly threads begin to wrap her up the witch then says "and to make sure you won't ever try to break out again" and rips out her wings serenity begins to scream when the thread gags her the witch then puts her back on the fire place and walks off humming

the day of the solstice
theo wakes up to hear something boiling he sees in the back room the witch standing by a cauldron with a bolt of electricty connecting her to it theo walks over to her and she says "theodore, your awake quick take over" the bolt jumps over too him he quickly catches it it knocks the wind out of him immediately he falls to his knees he soon stands up as his vision blurs they sit there for awhile in silence the witch says "is something bothering you" theo doesn't look away from the pot as he says "nothing serenity was just missing when i woke up" the witch says "well put that out of your mind you need a clear mind for this" theo focuses everything on the spell he has no clue how long he was their could have been hours or seconds but his focus is suddenly broken by a shout of many obscenities which breaks his concentration he looks to see serenity in the witches hand

theo shuts his eyes and tells himself that he already knew this would happen, the witch shouts "your focus is slipping" he opens his eyes and sees serenity staring at him terrified he then looks back at the pot and begins trying to focus again when he hears serenity quietly sobbing and in an instant theo fires the electricty at the witch she drops sereinty and redirects it into a shelf she stares at him her sheer anger can be felt from even a distance, finally she says "theodore, dear would you care to explain why you just tried to kill me" as she spoke her grin came back and the hood covered her face again, theo sits there frozen till they see serenity running away the witch throws bolt of lighting at her theo creates a pole metal which draws the bolt to it as serenity gets closer to the door the witch raises her hand to snap and remove the door from the room, theo creates a hand from the wood and throws serenity through the door

as soon as serenity hits the ground she sees the door become a kitchen begins running again only to trip onto the floor she notices the landing broke her leg she tells herself she'll need to pay theo back for that one she then realizes that theos still back there she conisders turning back but decides it's best to just run she begins to limp toward the door when she hears a snap she immediately jumps under the couch she soon sees the witches boots infront of the couch, serenity crawls into some kind of shell thats under the couch she then hears the couch go flying then it goes quiet she hears junk around her shifting she then hears the witch shout before kicking the shell shes under, it goes tumbling into the wall shatering this causes sereinty to scream out the witch stares at her and smiles suddenly theo jumps the witch to the floor

the witch flings theo off her and creates a ghost like hand to fly towards serenity theo launchs serenity to the sky knocking her away from the hand, serenity grabs the door handle the witch waves her hand and the door handle fades away theo turns the floor beneath her into a marshmellow she bounces on it for a second the witch then turns it into a sticky goop which traps her there, theo launches the witch across the room she replies by dragging him toward her she grabs him by the neck and creates a knife and raises it above his head as she is about to stab him he turns it into a rubber toy he then pushes her off and changes the floor around serenity back to a normal floor he then gives her a pair of red and purple wings she uses them to get to the window, the witch then turns the window to steel theo then creates a hole inside it and serenity dives through the hole she then tumbles into the grass she looks back at the house as the wings fade away the then begins limping away

theo gets launched into the back room the witch rushes for the front door theo then swaps their positions and snaps changing the rooms around continuously, soon the witch appears for just a second and launches a wave of fire at him theo tries to jump to the side but realizes he is paralyzed the wave is lauchend through the front wall, he goes tumbling across the front lawn and into the pond she then launches a spear at himhe rolls out of the way and they begin launching spells back and forward, till the witch hits theo in the arm and knocks him into the dirt

sereinty watches from behind a tree as theo lays in the dirt his shoulder his bleeding bad and his entire body is covered in burns, she begins to cry as she yells at herself for not being to help him when suddenly she notices her leg doesn't hurt she then begins waving her hand back and forwards and watches the grass sway with her hand she then smiles

theo holds his shoulder in pain as the witch walks up to him saying "you couldn't have just sit there and watched you brat" her voice slow and filled with rage, she then kneels down with her knee on his stomach she grabs by the collar and calms down slightly before saying "do you even know what that spell would have done" theo says "i don't care what it-" the witch says "it would have completed your training finally make you a true wizard" theo goes silent she says "finally become my equal" she lets go of his collar and drops him she then says "but you ruined it, like you do everything else" she then pins him down by his shoulder with her foot and raises a spear above her head and prepares to kill him when suddenly the grass behind her grows and grabs her hands pulling her down to the floor they both look to see a small figure dash behind a tree

the witch looks to her and says "well it seems you gained some skill in magic" she the snaps and turns the tree into paper it blows away she revealing sereinty who then turns makes the leaves fall from the trees around the flying directly into the witch, the witch simply creates a barrier infront of her when suddenly a bolt of lightning hits her in the back gets launched back some but quickly rights herself she then sees theo standing back up she prepares to strike back, but theo and serenity both begin throwing everything they have at her she is but on the defensive trying to block the barrage of plants and elements she then expands her barrier pushing them back, theo and serenity both get knocked back into a tree the witch then launches a spear hitting theo in the gut pinning him to the tree, sereinty lays in the dirt her body is covered in bruises she then begins to wave her hand over her body healing it up when the witch kicks her across the yard, the witch then walks over to serenity as she lays down the witch says "well then it is time for your death, sprite" serenity tries to stand up when the witch kicks her over and prepares to crush her when suddenly theo smacks the witch over the head with a rock, the witch gets knocked out as theo kneals down next to serenity and says "are you okay" he says between deep breaths she says "yeah but are-" he then blacks out and falls face first in the dirt sereinty goes over to him she then begins punching him saying "come on, wake up man" he doesn't respond she begins to panic trying to wake him up

theo wakes up in the same spot but his injurys are gone he looks around to see serenity sleeping on a rock next to him he also sees the witch tied up with vines and runes he stands up and looks at the trail leading away from the cabin he watches for awhile till serenity says "where are you going now" he turns to see her standing up on the rock he says "who knows don't really know where to go, probably going to find my parents what about you, you heading home now" she sits back down says "i can't our wings are symbol of pride with none left i'm not welcome home anymore" he just says "sorry about that" she says "you know you will need someone to guide you" theo looks back toward the road and says "yeah but where could i find one" serenity stands back up and says "well i don't have anywhere to go i could stick with you for awhile" theo says "really after i-" she stops him and says "well i can't make it really anywhere with no wings so what do you say" he says "okay well where do we go now" as he lowers his hand she jumps on and says "well there is a small town not far from here" he puts her on his shoulder and says "how long will it takes us to get there" she says "on foot a couple days, we'll need to pack" theo says "there is some dried meat and bread in the cabin" she says "good well lets go" they both smile as the pack and then they set off on their journey

THE END