Elize put her hand inside the long gla.s.s jar and took out a chocolate chip cookie. She sniffed it before quickly stuffing it into her mouth. "Mmmm." She groaned, closing her eyes. Relis.h.i.+ng the feeling of the coin sized biscuit melt in her mouth. She had been sitting in the same spot on the kitchen counter for the past one hour, munching on Aileen"s snacks. It was in the middle of their talk that Agatha had received a fire message from someone. Both the head witch and her friend had rushed out of the house after a minute, leaving her with a huge book to look through.
Elize had planned on sneaking out of the place and to the pack house as soon as they left, so she welcomed the intrusion with all her heart. To her disappointment, Aileen had sealed the house with a spell before they left. Hence she could not open a single door or a window for that matter, no matter how hard she tried. To top it all off, she had no magic in her body. As Agatha had remarked earlier that night, she was practically a human at the moment.
Seeing that she had no way out, Elize had resorted to eat her stress out, ignoring the one task she was given to do- read. Thankfully, Aileen always had her cupboard stocked with all sorts of baked goods. So when her tummy started making weird gurgling noises after finis.h.i.+ng three entire jars of cookies, it was no surprise.
She scrunched her face in distaste and looked down at her bulged stomach. "Faaainee! I"ll stop." Elize said, poking her tummy.
Pus.h.i.+ng the cookie jar away from her, she jumped down from the marbled counter. Elize slipped into her shoes and started walking towards the drawing room while patting her tummy gently.
"What shall I as a normal human being do?" She asked herself, looking around the house with a bored look. Since all kinds of technology miraculously failed to work on the Island, there was nothing much that she could think of. There wasn"t much to do in the house other than read one of the many strange books in Aileen"s treasured collection. Hoping to find at least a novel to indulge herself in, Elize searched stacks and stacks of books on the cupboard. There was none. Turning around to the couch, she sighed in defeat.
That"s when her sight landed on the huge book that Aileen had left her with. It was lying in front of her, on the polished wooden tea table, inviting her to come take a peek at it.
"Nope. Not falling for it." Elize said in an accusing tone, shaking her finger at the ancient looking book.
She didn"t want to open the book after hearing what Aileen had said to her about herself. The old woman had first interrogated her about her knowledge about the medicine that she had prescribed for herself. Apparently the method was not known to many outside the Island. Aileen had doubted that someone had entered her dream while she was unconscious.
Since dream walking was not a simple thing to do, she was convinced that some powerful witch was trying to reach out to her, possibly because the news of her being the chosen one had traveled far and wide in the witch community by now. The head witch had proposed many other theories, the possibility of all which Elize denied with an eye roll.
Since she couldn"t get anything out of her stubborn ward, she gave up on the question ,just like the day at the pack house. Aileen then explained to her in detail about the two stones of the island myth a.s.sociated with the moon G.o.ddess- the Tohar Sehlah and the Dam Sehlah. Her explanation was unlike Luna"s. It mainly revolved around how the rocks were misused by a coven of witches then living on the island who in liege with demons, had tried to bring to life a new creature who was in part wolf and in part a demon.
The creature who"s yin-yang balance was off, went on a killing spree pushed by the darkness in its instincts. Raping every being in sight, the creature tore apart their flesh in two, after he was done with them. Growing stronger after finis.h.i.+ng off each of its victims, no man or woman, no witch or wolf was spared, including the ones who brought forth its existence. As the creature pa.s.sed through the length and breadth of the Island, fire raged behind it, burning everything in its wake. The inhabitants of the Island had put up much resistance, but the thing was too powerful for them.
The fight went on for three days, at the end of which, some witches came up with an agreement with the creature. Seeing its endless s.e.xual appet.i.te and hunger for power, it wouldn"t be sated even if it killed all the witches and wolves on the Island. The said witches then proposed to offer to the creature, their head witch- a woman named Dara who was from a long line of witches who called themselves the Ruah Yareach. Although Dara was the Island"s head witch, the witches knew that she was the only one there, who was powerful enough to sate the creature"s appet.i.te.
Minutes after their agreement, an eighteen year old Dara was brought to the creature, drugged and tied. The vile beast mercilessly violated the unconscious girl, who was still innocent in the ways of the world. As the effects of the drug started wearing off, Dara started screaming at the top of her lungs, only to die straight after. Within seconds, the land started shaking violently and the earth split in two. No one saw what happened after that, as everyone was busy running for their own lives. But that was the last that the Island had seen of the two- both the creature and Dara.
Soon afterwards, both the magical stones had disappeared from the face of the Island and the place was p.r.o.ne to attacks from all sorts of dark powers from outside. The Ruah Yareach had turned their backs on the Island and its inhabitants and so had the moon G.o.ddess for some strange reason. For seven hundred years, the Islanders lived in misery, performing offerings upon offerings to the moon G.o.ddess hoping for some miracle.
One fine day, the miracle happened in the form of a prophecy- of girl born in the family of Ruah Yareach saving the Island three hundred years from then. But soon after, the Ruah Yareach had disappeared from the Island, crus.h.i.+ng all hopes of fulfillment of the prophecy
In the years after, the witches and the wolves on the Island had learned to live on their own, learning to set up barriers and depending on each other for survival. The Island had been since then become a safe haven for persecuted witches and wolves from all parts of the world. The cooperation was barely keeping them alive. But for strange reasons, they experienced three hundred years of peace, causing the stories of the stones and the Ruah Yareach to be sidelined as myths for generations after.
Aileen had opened her mouth to say something more when the fire message had interrupted the story session. Elize sighed, recalling how hastily both the witches had run out of the house, trapping her inside with a task to read a huge book without further explanation. She had wanted to go with them, but they had left her out saying that it was too dangerous to go out at this time especially since she has lost her powers. From her expression, Elize knew that there was more to it than that.
There was something going on in the Island and she was in the dark. Her gaze fell on the thick book on the tea table. It had the words "Book of the lost Covens" written in bold dark letters on top of it.