The Witch

Nadia smiled Broadly at the image of herself on the mirror which was right in front of her, She had a long blonde hair and wonderful dazzling eyes.

"Gosh I'm such a beauty." She muttered to herself blushing uncontrollably as she buckled the top of the beautiful pink gown that she had chosen for today's event.

Today was her 18th birthday, and her father - the king - had chosen to fix her coronation together with her birthday party at the palace's ballroom.

She had had so many expectations for this day, not just because she was becoming an adult but basically because she was going to be crowned princess according to the custom of the land which demanded that she had to come of age first.

She had pictured herself on several occasions wearing the princess' crown prior to today, hence her excitement knew no bounds as the D-day had finally arrived.

"Hello baby." Her mother (Queen Gwennivie) called as she walked into her room holding a sculpture.

"Hello mum!" She replied excitedly before turning around to give her mum a tight hug.

"Have you come to give me some more lectures on how to be the future Queen?" She asked, smiling broadly at her mum.

Gwennivie chuckled at her daughter's joke, but that was not what she had come for, she needed to tell her a great secret, one which only the king and queen of the city knew about.

"Nadia baby, please sit, I believe this is the right time for me to tell you this." She said as she went and sat on the bed moving some clothes aside in order to create a space for Nadia to sit on.

Nadia sighed slowly as she sat wondering what could be so important that could not wait until after the coronation.

"Now everyone in this city, already know the story of the Great witch Selena, you all must have heard how our people used to live in peace with the witches and other supernatural beings in the past until Selena decided to go rogue and started killing innocent people with her dark magic..." Gwennivie narrated, but she was interrupted by Nadia's sigh, "what is it that you want to say? You look like I am boring you with what I am saying."

Nadia adjusted her sitting position in a way that she was able to hold her mother's hands and stare deeply into her eyes.

"Mum, like you rightly said, I already know the Selina's story, I know how my great grandfather summoned all his knights and fought bravely against her until they killed her and hence banished all the witches, werewolves and every other magical being from the kingdom, and I also know about the stern rule he gave about putting them to death if any of them is found in or around the kingdom, but what I do not understand is why you decided to tell me about it all over again at this crucial moment ." She sighed.

The narration that Nadia had just given was what everyone in the kingdom thought, Nadia's great grandfather who was the king at that time had made everybody to believe that the witch had been killed by himself and his knights, but the truth was that Selena was not killed, she had casted a spell on the king and his knights, which made them to fall into a deep sleep and by the time they woke up, she was nowhere to be found.

The king made the Knights take an oath never to tell the truth to anyone, while he only passed it down as a secret to his children to prepare them incase she tried to return for revenge.

Gwennivie took her time to explain this to Nadia as she listened attentively.

"There's something I need to show you."Gwennivie stated at the end of the narration. She brought out a sculpture that she had come with and handed it over to Nadia. "This is the last known image of Selena that we have."

The story that Nadia had just heard scared her to the bones, she took the sculpture with shaky hands. "So there's a tendency that she might still be out there?"

"Probably, we know that witches have the ability to extend their lives in this part of the world, but we pray that she might have been executed wherever she might have exiled to as a punishment for her wickedness and evil acts." Gwen answered wishing that this might calm Nadia's curious heart.

Nadia nodded, she shared in the same prayer that her mum had just talked made, the witch had not bothered any other king after her great grandfather, she hoped that her turn would not be an exception.

Gwen stood up slowly from the bed, bringing Nadia back from her diverted thoughts. "Alright honey, let me go now, I will see you at the celebration, and please don't keep your dad and our esteemed guests waiting."

Nadia sunk in her bed as she watched her mum walk out of the room. The day now seemed a little bit longer than usual for her.

Although she was still a little bit shaky, she was still anxious about the celebrations.

"Let's get this over with shall we?" She stated as she stood up and walked into the ballroom expectantly.

**

At the end of the Coronation, it was time for all the guests to congratulate and present their gifts to the princess. The guests were mainly royalties from other kingdoms and some Noblemen in the city which had been specially invited by the king.

The king himself (king Alexander) sat with Gwen a few meters behind Nadia giving her enough space to keep the present that she received.

She had a huge smile on her face as the guests came to her in a single file dropping their gifts and exchanging hand shakes with her before going back to the various positions for the birthday celebration.

Although she was a little bit skeptical about all the people that were coming to her, she tried her best not to show it.

"Thank you very much." She said to a fat prince who winked at her as he gave her his own gifts.

He walked away smiling from cheek to cheek.

Her eyes followed his retreating figure and as she was about to bring it back to the person in front of her, it met with those of an old woman who was smiling at her.

She wanted to ignore the woman and attend to the person standing in front of her but there was a striking resemblance between her and someone that she thought she might have seen somewhere else.

She took a closer look - it was the old witch that her mum had told her about earlier - she looked exactly like the sculpture.

"What the hell?" Nadia muttered to herself staggering a few steps backwards in shock.

She held her breath when she saw that everyone's attention had turned to her.

"This is just a figment of my imagination, Selena is dead." She whispered to herself in order to be able to comport herself in front of the onlookers.

Soon it was the woman's turn to present her gift, she hurriedly grabbed Nadia's hand as though she was giving her a handshake, then she whispered something into her ears.

"You recognize me don't you? It's strange that you are the only one that does." Selena had said into Nadia's ears causing her to gasp in fear.

She saw Nadia's reaction but did not stop talking, she tried to make her understand that she might have special powers. "For you to be able to see through my Disguise, it means that you are a witch just like me."

Nadia felt like shouting, but it seemed as though what Selena was doing to her was actually getting to her head. So instead of shouting, she stood still and listened to know if Selena had anything more to say.

"I can help you, and I want to help you develop this power, so you can either scream now and I'd vanish again like I did back then but trust me, sooner or later they would find out about you and you'd die without knowing how to defend yourself, or you can go with me now silently and no one has to know what happened." Selena added.

Nadia could not stand there listening to any of the things that Selena was saying anymore, so she freed herself from the witch's grip and ran out of the ballroom with the eyes of everyone following her movement until they could not see her anymore.

"She'd come around." Selena muttered to herself with a smirk on her face as she walked away from the palace.

**