The great witch of white

No voice was heard in years.

No sound was made in ages.

Everyone was asleep.

Everything laid still.

In the deep earth kingdom, time stopped since 200 years ago, after a spell was cast on the realm and its inhabitants. Sleep descended on the people as a fate, as witchcraft, as a curse. All entities surrendered to the pressing sultan of slumber. Even animals, insects, and ants. They all rested on the dead grass unconscious, as time looked the other way and left them alone, not dead nor alive. Just mere portraits of themselves.

Only the great witch of white, was able to fight the sleep. She spent the 200 years awake, never blinking, never closing her glass light blue eyes. With time, her eyes become mirrors of the stillness. Her delicate body as a thin paper, minimizing the heat it produces, the air it breaths, the ideas it reflects.

But now, her time is up and there’s a journey she must take. A perilous and risky task awaits her. She must awaken the sleeping princess.

Covered with a thick layer of ice, the great witch of white, left her grotto, in which she took refuge for years. The cold wind suited her well, maintaining the ice blades on her body. She looked like a knight in shining icy armor. She brought nothing with her, her body ran on ice instead of food. There was nothing to eat in these lands anyway, only fear. She remembered how it was before, when the princess was born.

“Such an angelic child” She said to the queen, during her baptism.

The king and queen were hosting a ball in the occasion of their daughter baptism. All the great witches of colors were invited, along with high ranking diplomats and known figures of aristocracy.

Suddenly, the great witch of violet, storms unto the palace. Her long messy tangled hair made her stumble, she was about to fall flat on her face, before she maintained her posture with difficulty.

Amid the laughter of the guests and their ruthless comments, the great witch of violet, declared a gruesome prophecy. She went up and stud on the central table, where all the food was presented and said in a faint voice, that matches her faint stature:

“The princess will only live to the age of 16 and she will die a painful death”.

She tried to add some words to its incoherent curse but failed to do so.

Sounds of objection and protests grew in the ballroom. In a matter of seconds, the great witch of violet, escaped leaving the invitees frustrated and in owe.

The queen held her newborn princess in her arms, while the rest of the witches tried to console her.  

- She is not powerful enough to cast such a spell, said the king to his primary adviser.

- We all know who is behind her, your majesty, who is manipulating her to reach us.

- Indeed, but what can be done now? Asked the king.

- I will put a counter-spell, suggested the great witch of white, that will make her sleep not die.

- But what about us? Objected the queen, “I want to see her grow and attend her wedding”

- If you want, you can sleep as well, your majesty, answered the great witch of white, “all of you can”. She added.

The counter-spell began after the princess reached her sixteen birthday. The political and economic power of the kingdom were sacrificed, for the life of the princess. And the great witch of violet, along with her allies formed a neighboring kingdom, offering a life and miserable working conditions for those who wished to escape the curse. Many choose to do so.

Life in the new kingdom was certainly different, harboring numerous dangers and disorder, but it was a life after all.

The cold wind kept blowing at her, the freshness of the ice alimented her body with the energy it needs. Mountains of snow lay ahead, that didn’t worry her, the only thing that worried her was the lingering question on her mind: will she able to wake the princess up? 200 years have passed; the body is weak. She linked her body, to the princess, by an ancient spell. She didn’t sleep because the princess slept, that was the pact she made, in order to counter spell.

Her weak body moves across the field with an agility of a witch, the softness of nature just before spring. When she reached the deserted castle, she was exhausted. Her icy armor melted showing her frail white body. She was old, she knew it well, and her powers were fading.

The steps to the highest room in the castle, where the princess slept, seemed like mountains to climb. She was the one to put the princess here, she will be the one to wake her up.

She approached the bed, and the body it holds. The great witch of white put her head on the pillow, and she was able to close her eyes for the first time in 200 years. Beside her, the princess, opened her eyes.

“Everything is blur, I’m heavy. Where Am I? My legs, I can’t feel my legs. Everything is so heavy. I feel I’m in the bottom of the ocean, a prisoner of water and gravity. I’m confused, my head about to fall off. I can’t lift a finger. My eyes, I can barely open them, my tongue is stranger to words. My muscles are gone; I have no muscles. I’m awake and not really awake. I’m here, but not really here.

I need to open my eyes. I need to see. Where Am I? Who is this? I see a figure sleeping beside me. Is it flesh? I feel the bones. It’s a skeleton. A little skeleton. I’m dizzy.  I must try to sit. My legs and my arms are yelling in my head to leave them alone. They are not responding to me. I beg my mind to make them work, to obey me. I need to sit”

As the princess regain slowly her strength, she found herself in an old dirty room, half crumbling. Next to her a sack of bones, and a life not consumed. She descended the stairs, as the castle was falling. The kingdom is in ruins. She was the only survivor, her mother and father, the king and queen were dead. Everyone she knew was dead. The great witch of white has tricked them all, but was true to only her. She saved only her. The icy feeling of the air filled her. She was now the great witch of the white and her only destination was the neighboring kingdom where once the great witch of violet was queen.