“Why did you call me out here?” He asked, avoiding her eyes. He knew what was going on, and he wanted to know what she had to say, but was afraid that it was bad news. There was a slight breeze in the forest today; they had always walked in the forest. For almost two years now they were in love and would walk in the forest at least once a week because that was where they first met.

“I only have a few more hours.” She said sadly to him, walking by his side in the forest.

He grunted in aggravation, then looked back up and smiled, “A few more hours, right? We can do plenty of things in that amount of time, I mean, it’ll-”his voice became distant and soon silence took over her hearing, and everything she saw became blurry until it all fell into darkness. She felt herself fall and she opened her eyes once more to see a blurred form kneeling down by her and she heard her name be called out in what she guessed was his voice.

She gasped waking up but took a while to open her eyes and look around. She found herself in a hospital bed. A nurse was tucking the sheets around her. “You took a nasty fall, from what I heard.” She smiled, “Are you comfortable, and is there anything I can get for you?”

“No ma’am. Thank you.” She whispered softly.

“Alright; just press that button if you need anything.”

She smiled as she walked out and saw him in the corner looking at her “Hey you.”

“A few hours?” he said, rather upset. He was holding back tears, she could see it easily.

She exhaled, “Yes, a few hours until I would die, not until I passed out.”

He laughed to cover up his tears and looked away, “You just keep remaining so calm about this. I mean, why? You’re on your death bed and you’re still just as calm as could be. How-how do you do it? I-” he put his head down on his hands, choking back tears now.

She looked at him compassionately, “I do not know how I do it, truthfully. I just feel so calm, and,” she breathed, “I feel complete. There’s nothing else I need to do.” She smiled sadly and added, “I’m going to miss you.”

He stood up angrily, “No. No, you’re not going to die. You can’t. The doctors will come in and fix you up. Just wait a while longer.”

She sighed loudly to interrupt him, “So they will find a cure in the next hour or so?” she shook her head, “No one has come close to finding the real answer in over a hundred years.”

He stayed back, hating to see her like this. He knew this was true, but suddenly a thought struck him, “Please, just let me-”

“No!” she said quickly, struggling to sit up. She knew what he was about to say. “You will not get my book. Do not touch it. There is no cure for cancer. You have to understand me; under no circumstances will you try to find a spell in that book for healing me.”

He took a few steps closer and sat on the edge of the bed looking into her eyes, “Why not? You healed me once, why can’t I heal you?”

“Because,” she said softly and closed her eyes, “any spell in that book to heal someone who is not human, is dark magic.”

“But you told me dark magic wasn’t evil, just different than white magic.”

“I know what I said, and it’s true. But when dark magic is used to heal a witch or bring someone back to life, it takes them over. Jealousy and greed enter and corrupt the healed person. I do not know how it works, but I’ve seen it happen before, and I do not want to become that.”

“Then just fight it-”

“No!” she almost yelled and jerked her head up. He put his head down, and she saw a tear fall from his eye. She would have been crying as well, but suddenly she felt she had one last thing to do. “Sky?”

“What?” he asked, his head still down.

“Do you remember my first home?”

He picked his head up slightly, but not enough to look into her eyes, “Yes, how could I forget?”

“Take me there.”

“What?” he asked, now looking up into her eyes.

“I don’t want to die in a hospital bed. Please, just take me there.”

He put his hand to his face, as if wanting to wipe away all the emotions he was feeling and his hand moved from down his face to the back of his neck. “Alright,” He sighed.

“Thank you.” She said gently and reached over and pulled the IV needle out her arm along with the heart monitor on her chest. As she sat up the monitor showed a solid line, and she could hear outside the door, nurses running down the hallways to her room. She stood against him and he put his arms around her. “Hold on,” She said to him, smiling. The only way her magic could work was if she was with him. Her white butterfly-like wings shot out from behind her and folded around the couple. The whiteness of her wings clouded most of the surroundings, but it was easy to see colors blending around them beyond her wings. She usually closed her eyes for this, just because it felt more exciting to her. She loved having the comfort of him so close, and she hugged him tighter.

Soon her feet felt the cold stone floor of her old home. She pulled back a little away from him as she unwrapped her wings from around Skyler and herself. She left her wings out though, and smiled weakly as she looked around. Her room was that of an old castle with one wooden door, many old books scattered about and her window a small balcony. She walked over to the window and opened it, allowing the white curtains to fly back in the wind. She stepped out onto the balcony and allowed her wings to feel the breeze, but as they did, she noticed small white glittery pieces were slowly falling off. Her hair whipped around her face almost in slow motion.

He watched her helplessly. He remembered back from the moment he saw her he loved her. The loving, gentle green eyes were enough to have him entranced. Finding out that she had enough power to do anything he wished was never a reason he adored her. He smiled sadly, remembering the day they met.

“Get ‘em!” Skyler ran through the woods, following his dogs’ howls and barks to fetch a herd of deer they had been chasing all night. It was morning but the sun had not yet shown its radiant light over the trees just yet. He whistled to the dogs to keep quiet as he approached a deer slowly. He squatted down and pulled up his gun taking careful aim. Not a single catch in two full days, he had to kill something to go back to his father’s cabin to prove himself worthy. His father was a hunting freak; no one was worth his time unless he knew how to hunt perfectly. Skyler pulled the trigger slowly until he felt the bullet blast from the gun. Skyler closed his eyes quickly but opened them again, expecting to see the deer fall or already on the ground dead, but was disappointed to see the deer still eating as if nothing had transpired. Skyler shook his head slightly as if it perhaps didn’t happen. He knew he couldn’t have missed, the aim was perfect. He sighed and picked up his gun once more and took careful aim. This time the deer would fall down dead, ready for Skyler to bring home. He began to pull the trigger again, but something caught his eye. He let go of the trigger but kept the gun up in case there was danger, and looked a little to his left. He saw something dart behind a tree, something white. Skyler lowered his gun, thinking carefully. “There’s no animal that could possibly be that white…” he stood, which scared the deer away but Skyler didn’t care at this moment. He had to know what that whiteness was; it was beautiful for that short moment he saw it. It took courage to speak at this point, for if he spoke the game around him would most likely run again. “Hello?” he said deeply, to ensure that if anyone was around him they would hear.

“Hello.” It echoed back to him, but it was not his voice in the echo, but a higher pitched voice, as if it were a young girl giggling the word.

“If you are there, come out.” He ordered, setting the gun to the ground, thinking it was a young girl. Instead, a voice answered back to him, the same high pitched voice as before, “Catch me if you can, and I will come out.” Suddenly a small butterfly flew up in front of Skyler’s face and landed on a tree near him. Skyler wanted to slap himself; butterflies don’t talk, do they?

The voice laughed, “No, they don’t.” Skyler looked at the butterfly curiously and quickly tried to grab it, but only to miss. It flew up above him as if teasing him and landed on a plant nearby. He set his entire luggage on the ground carefully, and approached the plant slowly, grabbing out at it once again. The butterfly flew up just in time once again and began flying farther into the woods. He had a mind to forget the entire deal and try to hunt for more game, but the butterfly had a certain something to it which he just had to find out. What made the voice; why couldn’t he catch the butterfly? He sighed and followed without trying to catch it.

Soon he found himself at a river, and only a few feet to his left was an amazing waterfall. He looked back where the butterfly was, but it was gone. It had been flying in front of him at eye level for so long and now it was nowhere in sight. He looked around himself and looked on the other side of the river and was startled to see what he saw. A girl was standing there alone; long brown hair fell down the sides of her shoulders and she wore a long white sleeveless dress. She had her head tilted to one side as she admired the white butterfly on her left hand. It sat calmly, not twitching nor flying away when she gently blew on it. The way she was blowing though, it seemed as if she were whispering something to it. She finally looked p at Skyler and smiled.

“Where are you from?” she said carefully, as if this were her first time speaking English.

“I live with my father, just down the hill a ways.”

“I understand.” She smiled sweetly and threw her hand up, causing the butterfly to take off. “And what brought you here?”

He gave the question some quick thought, and realized “You’re voice. You sound so-”

“Young?” she guessed and smiled, “Yes, I thought that would lead you here. You have a caring heart, a weak spot for younger children.” As she said this, a deer family came up from behind the trees behind her and came to drink from the river. They didn’t seem fazed at all at the fact she was standing there. “Is that not the beautiful creature you tried to exterminate earlier?” she asked with a sudden sad look on her face.

He looked over to the deer family to find that the father of the group was indeed the deer he tried shooting earlier. The female deer nudged the baby of the group closer to the water but the father had already begun to drink from the river. Skyler wanted to say no, but he felt there was no way he could lie to her. “Yes, it is.”

“Did you not think of the daughter he had with him?”

“No, I mean, when one hunts we don’t think of the family, we just kill so that we can live. It’s-”

“Not the way of life.” She finished for him, although it was the opposite of what he was going to say. “Using pathetic excuses to kill; is this the way of all humans?” she asked as if hopeless. Skyler was not sure what to say; where did this girl come from? Why did she refer to humans as if they were different from her?

“So many questions.” She said suddenly, interrupting his thoughts.

“Yes.” He shrugged. “Do you mind?”

“Not at all.” She said, and suddenly the smile came back to her face. “You want to know why I ask about humans, right?” Skyler did not answer, just nodded his head, waiting for the answer.

“I have never been near a human before.”

“You’re human, right?” he asked, confused.

She had a very thoughtful look on her face as if she never thought of it before, “Yes,” she began slowly, “I once was, perhaps. I am not sure. I can only remember back a few hundred years.”

Skyler’s eyes widened “Hundred years?”

“Yes.” She shrugged, “I told you, I am not human.”

“Then, what are you?” he asked.

“I am known by many names. I know the few men that saw my sisters called them witches, so I will allow you to call me a witch as well if you desire to do so.”

“I really want to call you by name, as that is how we humans do it.” he said smirking and began walking closer to her. Suddenly her eyes widened as his foot came near the river. “What’s wrong?”

“No man has ever crossed these waters. I do not know if I should stop you… or not.”

Skyler looked at her carefully; she looks so afraid, he thought to himself.

“I am.” She answered. “I’ve never felt fear before, but I know this is what it feels like.” She smiled, “After reading your memories, I guess you would call them books, yes? I read many books.” she laughed.

He smiled; there was something about her he really liked. “Please, tell me your name.”

She giggled, “I have no name. My sisters and I waited here at the castle until someone came along and took us into the world. I thought I was going to be the one to stay alone forever, but I guess not. You are the first man to see me, so you must name me and I am yours.”

“You mean, you didn’t have parents?”

“No.” she said quickly, “My sisters and I were created by a witch from a long time ago. She prophesized, ‘If you are stolen from my castle I promise you all; the world and all life will fall.’ I never thought it would come true, but here you are, to take me away.”

“I do not wish to steal you.” He said quickly and took a step back.

She had a look of surprise on her face, and she smiled, “You do not have to. It is whatever you wish.” She turned and disappeared within the woods before Skyler could even ask her to wait.