Child of the Goddess

This story was an English assessment at High School, the task being to write the first chapter of a story in a genre of our choice. I love fantasy novels and especially love the auther Traci Harding, so thats where my inspiration came from. I think I got a merit for this piece which I was gutted about because my teacher told me it was worth an excellence, but the one who moderated it didn't like fantasy works. Grr. Reading it again I think it could have been a lot better, but oh well. Here ya go.

Child of the Goddess

The sound of the wind whipping through the trees reached Ella’s ears as she soaked in the old-fashioned claw footed tub. Swirling the bubbles through her fingers she reached over to the radio with her free hand and turned up the volume, smiling as the sound of her favourite song echoed through the marble and stone bathroom. “Candles set on a cloth of red, memories floating through my head” she sang along, making sure her long auburn curls were secure on the top of her head.

Ella lived in a big old house on the edge of town. A lot of people thought the house ugly and a bit scary, but Ella loved it. It was a big sprawling two-storey house; built with big grey stone slabs with a pointed slate roof and a rounded tower attached to one end, facing east, a perfect place to watch the sun rise. The whole place, including the twenty-five hectare section, which contained now horse-less stables and a guest house which had once been the maids quarters, was surrounded by a thick, five metre high hedge which made the place very secluded and isolated. The house was probably originally built for someone of the lesser nobility many centuries ago, someone with a big family and many servants. Ella lived alone, but she didn’t mind. She had her budgie and her cats for company, and unlike most young women she was not easily scared, so the strange creaks and moans of the old house didn’t bother her in the slightest.

Pottering around in the kitchen later, Ella suddenly paused, then smiled. “Shae.” she said reaching for the phone, picking it up just as it started ringing. See, Ella was…well, not exactly a ‘witch’ as people defined them, but close enough. She called herself a child of the Goddess, as all other terms seemed to have a bad feeling attached to them. Ella had certain abilities that most people didn’t. Magickal abilities. Teleportation, which is the ability to transfer one’s body, and anything else you are touching, from one place to another instantly, was her fortĕ, but she was also adept at mind reading (knowing what others are thinking and feeling, just by looking at them) and telekinesis, which meant she was able to lift and move objects with her mind alone. All of these drained her strength, so she didn’t use them much, only when Shae was near.

Shae was her tutor, her mentor, her Merlin if you will. His voice sounded stern through the phone. “Be at the Stones in one hour. Do not keep me waiting” came the curt voice down the line, then all Ella could hear was the dial tone. She hung up the receiver and went to get ready, she was used to those phone calls.

“Come on puss.” Ella picked up the little grey fur ball that had just hurtled into the kitchen and walked to the bottom of the stairs, the kittens’ purr sounding too loud for his tiny body. Ella loved her cats, she had found this kitten half drowned in the fields a month ago and it was a miracle he had survived. She quickly named him Mystik as he became her constant companion when she was studying her magick.

A big black bound book and a red pen came flying out of the next room and followed Ella and Mystik sedately up the stairs to her study, a circular room in the tower on the end of the house. This study had been her mother’s, and her grandmother’s, and her grandmother’s grandmother’s, back about 7 generations. They had all practised their magick in this room, so it was only right that Ella should too. The Rosewood door gleamed in the lamplight, and inside the room candles lit as she entered. Ella said a prayer of thanks to the Goddess, as she always did before studying her craft. Sitting down at the big rosewood desk she opened the book, which had obediently lain down with the pen neatly next to it, she started reading over the section on stars and astrology which was a part of her studies Ella had difficulty with, and one which Shae was sure to test her on at their meeting tonight.

Shae paced around the perimeter of the Kings Men Stones. He was a tall, good looking young man, with dark unruly hair and green cat’s eyes. He smiled as he walked, this site was pulsing with magickal energy just waiting to be tapped into and used, for good or for bad depending on the witch tapping it. Shae fortified the circle with his own personal energies and sat down in the centre, waiting for Ella to arrive, picturing her rushing around at the last minute, arriving exactly two minutes late as usual. Shae nodded to her in greeting, his mouth curling in a half smile as she seated herself, then concentrated and suddenly the air around them was alive with a buzzing purple mist.

Ella smiled, these lessons were the best. Shae had transported them to the Otherworld, a place in a parallel existence to their own, a world that was much cleaner, brighter and quieter than their own. A place full of magick and magickal creatures, such as dragons and fairies and the like. This was Shaes fortĕ, teleportation to alternate dimensions with the aid of the fairy folk in the otherworld. He was almost strong enough to time travel now, so he was studying hard at his magick, and spending numerous hours in meditation, learning much from unseen forces.

He placed a hand on Ella’s forehead. “Let us begin” he said. A demonic look flashed for an instant in his eyes and he caught Ella as she fell unconscious in his arms. Manic laughter filled the air around them as the world faded to black…