The hermit-witch, the only one of her kind
Her hand extends to caress the herbs on the 24th, her fingernails scrape the insides of the leaves to reveal red flutters. She grimaces another fake dandelion. With hair white as clouds and eyes as dull as coals, people tend to look at her a bit more carefully before approaching, for who knows what kind of witch she is with that pure-white hair? Not even the elderly have hair as bright-white as that.
“That a twenty,” the lady with crimson red hair who has a devilish tone and smirk chirps. She’s the local herbalist on 28th Apothecary St. Her narrowed hawk-like eyes have given her the nickname “wild-lady” which isn’t something one wants to be called in this little town just west of Norther and east to Summerton.
“Wren, don’t rip me off,”
“what’s with such old verbiage?” The lady smirks, enjoying the sunlight which is piercing through the glass-made rooftop. This little mishap is located just four streets down from the Apothecary shop on 28th Apothecary St. As the name suggests, the whole street is lined up with apothecaries. Most have a green-tinted window-ceiling whilst others look like little cottages for the poor and elderly to stay in. Don’t be mistaken, on the 28th apothecary St. poisons are sold as much so as aliments, and real treatments are hard to come by. There’s a reason why this young witch walked out from her hut in the middle of the ghast forest at the first sign of light. The young witch ignores Wren and standing up, she walks out without another glance around, figuring it is better if she picked all the herbs herself. Her head is a bit woozy as she turns the corner, picking up the pace, she fast-walks knowing levitation will scare the neighbors and her frail lungs cannot handle a hardy run. Back to the forest where Em is waiting, she concentrates on the street signs this time. Earlier this millennia, she fell into a construction site after missing a right turn, and even for a witch, falling into wet cement is pretty traumatizing. She turns left after 28th merchant street, the opposing side is 28th apothecary st. and she avoids it like the plague since no amount of bribes or time saved will be worth walking past her old lover's storefront. She shuffles into the alleyways between 28th merchant st. and 27th merchandise st. like a stray cat. Now, these alleyways are stranger than a normal backstreet. It’s about a person-wide with doors marking every store. No one understands why the construction workers built that extra back door, but there’ve been talks of Gardners so the young witch supposes it's just an extra precaution.
A Gardner despite sounding awfully close to a gardener are completely different entities. A Gardner can come in any form depending on the soul. Most linger around because they have either a curse embedded within them or their mentality was unstable when they died. No, regrets are never resolved, so Gardners can only be eradicated. Why they materialize is still a big question the Imperial Doctors are trying to solve.
Now, this witch carefully walks past every doorway, it doesn’t hurt to take extra precautions. She makes it out of the stuffy alleyway and onto the slums, where broken buildings and tents of all colors reside. The stench can only be comforted by a pouch of herbs so she picks a few out and places some on the roof of their tents, it's almost past their expiration date anyway, she reasons with herself. This isn’t an act of pity, and I am not nice, she thinks in her mind as she makes her way, closer and closer to the broken walls of the west, a section of the wall is rumored to be weak and so she pats the wall down until her hand suddenly slips into the wall,.. Hmm, she observes the phenomenon at play for a few more seconds before deciding it isn’t harmful and proceeds. She crosses over to a plain, grassy area melting into the forest in just a few yards. Satisfied, she reaches out, feeling the familiar burn of the phem barrier. It is invisible to the eye, but detrimental to anyone who carelessly approaches the forest without going through the main gate. It can burn like acid, painfully eroding up to the bone. With her, she can slightly protect herself from it by coating a layer of phem around her body, the phem cancelation notifies the guards, but she doesn’t care--knowing they’re incapable of catching her. She quickly passes the barrier and steps into the forest unscathed.
