....willow thought back....
thinking on how she came to be sitting in a soft booth, traveling at strange speeds....on a very strange train..
she thought to how the village had turned on her so easily.
how they had been so easily swayed. how simple it was to twist their hearts and manipulate their tender human feelings.
mortichai had turned them all against her, telling them her magic was foul and evil.
for so long he had wanted to be rid of her, seeing willow as a powerful rival, and it took no time for him to take advantage of opportunity.
a convenient famine, some mutilated livestock and a few missing babies later, he was sweeping his hand in the direction of the witchling named willow.
they were upon her home in the blink of an eye. ready for blood....ready for fire. infected with the subtle spells of vengance and fear.
mortichai cast the first spell and willow threw one back at him.
back and forth they went, when suddenly mortichai pulled forth a spell that had been forbidden for a thousand years....
he turned willow into a child. but not any child...a doll-child. banishing her to the form of one small and tiny.
willow cast one last spell...a spell of freeze-time... and watched all around her as those she loved stood frozen still, rage and hate stamped across once loving faces.
'it will only last for so long," mortichai yelled, for all but his mouth and eyes were frozen, "so you'd better start running little witch...you'd better start running."
"i only need a little while to gather my articles, you bastard, so don't you worry!" willow snapped to the man , "before you can catch your breath i will be away from here and you won't have to take anymore of your precious time to ruin my existance."
"why don't you just kill them now that you have them frozen?" mortichai questioned smiling, "why don't you just kill them all....they were ready to kill you."
willow cast a spell of silence on the man. "SILENCE!!" her voice boomed from her now small form, "that's what happens when you don't shut your foul mouth!! to kill would make me like you...and that is not necessary. i cared for these people and this place...but it took so little to sway them to darkness and mindless violence....you can have them," willow spat, "you are perfect for each other....i will fight no more."
gathering the last of her most important things, willow left quickly, using what magic she had left to increase the speed of her travel across the fields. she new of only one that could help her. one she had read of in letters from other witches. she needed to find the van der zee express line....one of the trains that traveled on the shadow lines....its tracks laid down between realities.
that train would bring her to her destination....
it would bring her to the realm of the witch melorah-viollet.