Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The king woke up in her women's room. He was donning his garment ready for the day. Queen Lorelai called him. "Darling, it was years ago when you vowed that you would avenge the death of your warlord. Do not forget how important he was to the kingdom, but the witches killed him. It has been a long day and you can knight his son to honor him if he succeeds in wiping them out". The king had thought over it. He nodded his head and left. 

Queen Lorelai gave a wicked smirk behind him. The king consulted his adviser. " Your majesty, this nation is great together with the witches. Do not think of wiping them out. What happened in the past has passed. Let us not jeopardize the future", he advised. "So, on what basis is the death of Ronnet, the great hero of this land they humiliated?" The king asked. He felt the advice was not good enough. The adviser replied, "Now, you have his son. What if you lose him again?".

The king grimaced, "keep your advice full of curses to yourself. This time, I will succeed in wiping them out." When he left, he summoned Connor over", Connor, you know your dad was brutally murdered by the witches years ago, right?" Connor replied, "yes, your majesty. 

I have been waiting for an opportunity to avenge my father. What must I do?". The king was happy to hear such from him, " you are your father's soon. I am proud of you. You must find a way to wipe them out of this city. If you do, you will take over the knighthood from your dad, " the king said. He bowed and left. Connor met one of the survivors of the war years ago, to learn from their mistakes. After that, he proceeded to meet his soldiers. He talked to them and they also had training sessions. 

The next day, Connor had a letter posted everywhere that read: every witch must evacuate the kingdom before sunrise tomorrow or prepare to fight Connor, the son of the great Ronnet, whose death you rejoiced over years ago, after its sunset. Every witch was terrified at the sudden upheaval. At this time, Althea was the leader, because Adelinda had long died.

They met to hold their night meeting and plan things out. "Daughters of darkness, the beasts are at it again. The king watched his soldier threaten us to leave the land we met our great-grandfather living in. 

The founder of the dynasty might have been accommodating enough to give us land to live in, but we will not watch his offspring oppress us for no reason without defending ourselves and our land.  For this, I urge you all to get ready for war". "This time around, after killing Connor just like we did to his father, we will advance to conquer the kingdom. It looks like their authority over the city is due for renewal" Chimera added.

They bowed in conformity. It was another day. According to the information circulated, the witches were to evacuate Boerne before sunset. Althea and others warned the witches who would not be out to fight to stay safe behind their walls. 

They assured them that they would be leaving nowhere. That gave them some rest of mind. In the deepest of night, the werewolves in the army went into the open and began tearing down every neighborhood where witches live and killing them. The witches quickly attacked them to stop the operation. They took the werewolves by surprise. Some of the witches turned into a vulture to pluck out the werewolf's eyes while others smite them with silver weapons.

The battle was going in favor of the witches. For every witch killed, there were three or four werewolves down. The werewolves could not take the loss any longer, so they began to flee for their lives. There was a chant of victory from one of the witches which was sounded through the town. 

The witches launched a hot pursuit of the werewolves as the plan was to destroy them completely and take over the kingdom. However, as they chased the werewolves, they were oblivious to their back. Connor had devised a war tactic of dealing with the witches by dividing the army into two. One of them was to observe the turn of the war. Since the whole army of the witches was focused on chasing a sector of their army, they seized them from behind. Connor was at the forefront. 

They all were in their werewolf form and were pursuing the witches at full speed. The witches were too engrossed in their supposed win that they did not sense on time that another army was behind them. "We are hemmed in!" Chimera screamed as she turned back to fight but Connor picked her up and smashed her to the floor. She died instantly.

Althea began to scream, "divide yourself! Turn to your back! Face the front!" She kept directing, meanwhile, the fleeing werewolves had turned to them in fury too. The moon was full. Althea quickly went the way of Connor to attack him but he howled dangerously and charged at her. Althea threw her silver head spear but it missed him. He soon held her and smashed his head with a heavy stone. 

Another tried to blind him by turning into a vulture, but he hit it so hard with his fist that the bed staggered to the floor. He then hurried towards it and mashed it with his foot. The very few remaining witches flew away in the form of birds. Connor's range was not quenched, so he jumped as high as he could and hit two of the birds, crashing them to the ground. He then howled very loudly to celebrate the victory.

They spent the rest of the night destroying every recognizable witch's home and killing the civilians. That night most of the witches migrated, while some who could not, were left to the mercy of the angry werewolves or remained unnoticed.

 Ann was sleeping when she heard the howling of a werewolf. She was terrified throughout that night. She looked for her daughter who was on the rooftop watching the whole battle spiritually. When she heard the sound of a human's breath, she knew it was her mother. She quickly started walking back and met her mother. "Why are you here? Can't you hear that the kingdom is on fire? Do you want to die?". She replied, "Mom, they are hunting witches. I am a werewolf like my dad".

At that juncture, Ann could no longer keep the truth from her, "you are a half-witch and half-werewolf".  She held and dragged her inside. 

That night, Avice was the most confused being, "how, mom?  You are just a normal human being, but I possess a dual personality. How then are you truly my mum?" Ann thought it would make no sense to tell her another lie, "my girl, I am sorry I have to tell you this. I have been barren and sad all my life.

It was only after I picked you up from the well, during the first battle between the werewolves and the witches, I found joy. I wondered why a mother would do that to her daughter". Avice could not fight back her tears. "so, you are not my mum? I was left to die in the well when you saved me. That explains why my life is so miserable." She wept. Ann went to console her.

"But, how could you have kept this from me for so long?" She replied tearfully, "you were too small to bear the truth, now that you are a bit grown up, I felt there was no reason to lie to you anymore". 

 Ann's heart raced up to her neck when she heard someone knocking. She took Avice up inside the roof. "promise that whatever happens, you will remain here and be unnoticed". "I promise, mother," Avice replied. She then climbed down to hide but she was caught up by the intruder who had broken the door. She grabbed her by her throat, "where is she?!".

Avice was watching through a hole. She knew the person holding Ann's neck. It was the same girl who was watching her on the day they walked out of the palace. She was the same girl who spied on her days ago. "answer me!". 

Ann kept quiet and she was vividly shaking. Avice watched the woman who had saved her and raised her as her own all her life struggle to live. The worst happened when the intruder smashed Ann's head with a hammer. She almost let out a cry, but she held her mouth tightly as the intruder searched the house without success. She finally left. Avice eventually had the chance to pour out her pain. She cried loudly.

She had no fighting skills as she never got to attend a training school. She watched the only joy she had left lying lifeless in her pool of blood. She realized she had no time to stay as the intruder might be back at any time. She hurried into the dark. She could see brightly as a witch. She could not even utilize her power to her will, she just made sure she prevented meeting anybody as she scrambled to find ease in a distant forest.