A Witch and Her In

"My Dearest Thomas," The letter began.

"If you by any chance are reading this letter, it means that your mother and I are no longer with you. I do not know what world you will awaken in, nor how it will accept you once you venture from this "place" - your once former home, my son".

"I am so, so sorry, my boy, that I and your mother are not there with you right now. But I must trust that whoever has found you, if you have not awakened already - has your best interest in mind. It could very well be that the world you have awakened in is a hospitable one, even so you must always be vigilant as I have taught you, and you must never let your guard down. Your mother and I are so, so deeply ashamed of what we did to you, our child. But you must know that putting you in that chamber was our only way to protect you son. Your mother and I spent so many sleepless nights while the plague spread through Promescura and ravished our proud major cities - trying to devise a way to keep you alive. In the end, we both knew that if placing you, our greatest possession - in a prolonged stasis was the only way to ensure your survival, then we as your parents would chance it, If it meant you would live to see another day once this plague had ended."

"We both wept as we watched you struggle against the chamber's liquid's effects, pleading with us through the glass to let you out. Perhaps it was in that moment I, as your father watched you drift off into that deep sleep with tears in your eyes, thought to myself that this method we had spent weeks creating was far "too heartless", but your mother reassured me through her tears "It was the only way." We are both aware that you may likely hate us, even now for what we did, and more importantly that we are not here with you. You have every justifiable right to hate us, but I beg of you son, do not let that hate be the guiding purpose of your new life. Know that as your parents it was our every wish to see our son survive through this blasted calamity and that we would give anything to be with you one more time."

Thomas, As your mother I beg of you, To survive, don't dwell on us even if we are a long and forgotten memory of our world. My son, you must keep moving forward, establish a life for yourself in this new world that you have awakened into. Always, always remember me and your father would have loved to be here with you even now, supporting and guiding you through the hardships you will face in becoming a man, and finding your purpose. Even though we cannot, know that me and your father continue to live on in you my son, my beautiful Thomas.

"If you ever begin to falter, always remember no matter what, we will always love you, our son."

SIncerely, Signed your Father, Philip S. Wulf and Mother Vaera H. Wulf

Penned: Five/Seven/Aprillago

Franka stared at the letter in her hands, she felt guilty having read over something that was never meant to see her eyes, but as the boy's caretaker she ashamedly believed it was in her rights. "Besides-" she said looking at the sleeping boy, his chest rising and falling slowly outlined through her green cloak near the ash-ridden fireplace "He won't know...".

Looking back at the letter in her hands Franka realized that she had not upheld her promise to the boy's mother and father, she had allowed for the boy to be hurt, taken hostage, and who knows what else would have happened to him had she not killed the four succubi last night. Sighing to herself, Franka began to realize just how much better she would need to become in order to properly serve as the boy's protector.

Choosing guiltily, to set such demeaning thoughts aside Franka decided she would give the boy's parents a proper burial. She did not know if it was their final wish or not but Franka believed that it would perhaps be for the best, considering what she realized she would have to do before she and the boy left the abandoned decrepit manor.

Turning her head to look at the morning sunlight streaming in from the broken windows of the library and hearing the rustling leaves of the spruce trees outside, Franka crawled out of her sleeping bag, replacing the now folded letter in her leather bag and walked over to the still peacefully sleeping boy in front of her.

Deciding to move him to her now empty bedroll, she carefully picked him up and decided on placing his sleeping form on the mattress. Checking that nothing about his temperature or complexion was off, and that his small puncture marks from the succubus's talons were beginning to show signs of healing.

Franka, found the hidden lever to the wife's laboratory and walking over to the fireplace watched as the wall slowly slid backwards revealing once again the hidden spiraling stone staircase. Turning to the sleeping figure, Franka said rather to herself " I will only be a moment" before walking down the stone steps.

Getting to the mother and fathers chambers had been the easy part - but now, seeing their floating peacefully sleeping bodies with the thoughts of what she must do Franka grit her teeth.

Finding the lever's that would allow for the purple liquid to drain from their chambers Franka decided on pulling the mother's first, the process of draining the liquid took about three-minutes, before the brown-haired elve's body began to lean forward from her bronze bed -Franka caught her.

Letting the mother's weight rest on her.It felt weird to her, holding the sleeping woman knowing she would never wake, while the boy's temperature had been slightly cold when he had been caught by her, the temperature of the woman leaning on her was that of only comparable to ice. Franka, deciding to save the woman some dignity and because she was slightly heavier than her son, decided with much deliberation on carrying her up the spiraling stairway in a backstrap carry. Positioning her hands and turning around slowly, she began to crouch to the stone floor, Franka let the brown-haired elve's arms drape over her shoulders letting the mother's head rest a little over her neck due to her being slightly taller than Franka was.

Gently grasping the woman's lower back and leaning forward - Franka moved through the laboratory's wooden doorway and began ascending the stone staircase. When Franka got to the library's floor level, she quickly checked to make sure the boy was still sleeping, not knowing what she would do if he saw her with the dead woman being supported behind her.

Gasping in relief that the boy wrapped in her green cloak was in fact still sleeping on top of her sleeping bag Franka as quietly as she could moved through the abandoned manors hallways and foyer to the broken in doors entrance. With the woman still being supported on her back, Franka decided on burying the mother and father outside the library's windows.

Walking through the overgrown grass and houses gravel foundation "Crunching" as she went, Franka found a spot under a large spruce tree slowly and carefully lowered the woman in a small shaded area of grass, and finding a spot to start in a shaded area of the trees cover - Franka with a little bit of time and maneuvering around inside, pulled from her satchel a round-pointed shovel and began digging.

The burial hole took 2 hours to make, Franka had decided to herself that the two parents deserved to be buried as a proud couple. Putting the shovel in the large pile of dirt a few inches from her Franka pulled from her satchel now a second sleeping bag, this time taking off both of the bags' twin blue sheets and re-placing the mattress back in her bag.

Laying out the rectangular blue sheet, Franka carefully placed the mother's body on top, then with care began to fold the sheet over the woman's body, sleeping face. Finally lifting the mother up in a princess-style carry Franka, gently deposited the woman in her part of the grave, carefully climbing back up the dirt mound to get out.

Moving the Father's body had been a much more difficult task. His weight alone dragged Franka down the entire walk up the stairs with his body weight resting on her the entire time she performed the same pack-strap carry, except this time his feet dragged all the way behind her up the staircase and through the manor, and outside. Getting to the grave, Franka moved the father's body down the mound of dirt she used as a ramp placing him on an already laid out blue sheet next to his wife. Setting him down and covering his body the same way she had the mother, Franka climbed out of the grave and after a minute of staring at the two dead bodies in front of her, took the shovel and began slowly covering the two, filling the hole back up. When the last of the dirt was placed on the parents grave Franka smoothed out the now disturbed mound. Placing her satchel open on the ground Franka then shoved the shovel into the dark abyss inside her bag.

Turning her attention now to the unmarked grave of the boy's parents, Franka pressed her hands together in prayer exclaiming in silent words. "Mr. Philip, Mrs Laera-" She began "I may not have known you, or your son before or after all that happened during the plague-" she continued, eyes trained at the dirt in front of her "But I have made a promise to you, one that I swear I will uphold. In the sacrifice you made for Thomas, I will protect your son from all forces that would dare to harm him, I will show him how to live in this new world and I will teach him all I know in this strange world he will awaken into, I will make sure he survives as you would have wished. this I swear to you."

Finishing her vow, Franka quietly walked back to the manor. Turning around one final time to stare at the shaded unmarked grave in her view. Nodding to herself Franka continued walking back through the foyer into the dilapidated library.

Passing the sleeping boy on her way to the fireplace entrance, Franka then walked back down the stone staircase and into the laboratory one final time. Mentally planning in her head Franka meticulously began gathering any papers with the mother's elvish writing she could find placing all in a small pile in the boy's portion of the laboratory.

Next finding the schematics for both the chalkboards in the parent's chamber room Franka erased them both before throwing them blank - face down in the same growing pile in the boys chamber, lastly Franka following the memorized schematics instructions reactivated the boys stasis chamber, looking at the pile in front of the boys bronze chamber she spoke an incantation.

Within seconds the papers and chalk boards were a roaring orange inferno, Franka saw the glass of the boy's chamber on the other side of the hidden room begin to warp and watched the bronze melt slowly before beginning to collapse on itself, the purple liquid inside finally reaching its boiling point burst out causing the glass to branch out in a drunkenly made spider web before it exploded, instantly spilling out and soaking the paperwork and wooden chalkboards around it.

The purple liquid used to keep subjects in stasis according to the wife's elvish handwriting was extremely volatile. Watching from the room's hidden doorway Franka watched as the room past her magic-induced markings leading to the next chamber was quickly filled with now wild bright purple flames.and then thick smoke. Franka had worried that the incantation she used would not be enough to contain the raging purple flames in front of her but was pleasantly surprised her work had continued to hold.

Satisfied now with the melted bronze and burnt slag in front of her, Franka resealed the boy's chamber. Finding the metal alcove cover she pulled from her satchel a small jar of tree sap, thoroughly applying to the back end she placed the metal cover now over a broken lever switch.

With the alcove in the back wall hidden, Franka reset the two now empty stasis chambers, repeating the same procedure this time from the doorway leading to the stone spiral staircase. After being satisfied seeing only bronze slag and black glowing coals in front of her, Franka nodded in approval - closing the large door to the laboratory behind her and making her way back up the stairway. Getting through the hearth's entrance, Franka made her way to the laboratories hidden book lever, resealing the fireplace for the last time.

Now once again finding herself in the library, Franka walked over to the ever-so-sleeping wolf-kin, and gently lifted him off of her sleeping bag and wrapped it and stowed the roll in her satchel.

Looking outside the library's broken windows, She saw the sun had moved to about afternoon-time, deliberating for a minute, Franka finally psyched herself into leaving the manor with the boy. "But where should we go?" Franka said,looking at the sleeping boy. She still had so many questions regarding the parent's letter and the boy's purple ichorous blood and there was still in the back of her mind her own mission....

Realizing that the best thing she could do for the boy in front of her was to take him to a doctor, who could give her some assistance for the clearly semi-comatose boy. Franka decided the best and closest option would be the village where she had stayed two days ago. SIghing to herself, Franka walking to the sleeping boy wrapped in her green cloak, leaned down playfully pinching his cheek "Won't you just wake up already?" she said with a smile in her voice, staring at his closed eyes and soft breathing from chest.

Chuckling to herself, Franka re-adjusted her half frame glasses and moved her straight silver elvish hair from the sides of her face, delicately began picking up the boy - letting him rest in her arms. His head and black wolf-ears hanging off her left arm no matter how often she tried to keep it resting, pillowed on the space between her elbow and left arm, his shaggy black-fur tail, and flesh colored legs and feet - peeking out from the green of the cloak and dangling over her right arm.

Walking slowly, Franka left the destroyed library, passing the corpse of the slumped over brown-haired succubus on the right hallway wall. She exited the doorway and into the cracked and creaking wooden hallway, to the foyer only lit with rays of peeping in sunlight and moss and vines filling the cracks in the decaying walls, finally venturing out the manor missing front door entrance - this time Franka did not look back.

With the sleeping wolf-kin cradled in her arms, Franka headed back on to the winding gravel and dirt path through the thick forest, until she found herself walking back on the cobblestone and dirt road back to the woman-led town. With the sun shining brightly above her, Franka moved forward determined to get the boy in her arms to a doctor she knew in the town. With multiple thoughts and questions still floating through her head she trudged on and made her way out of the forest.