intro,,

text goes here

story,,

I was destined to become a witch. There was never any questioning of the matter. I was the seventh child, and the seventh child of any family was always gifted with magic. The deal was set when my mother deposited my bawling newborn being, still red from my birth, into the arms of the local medicine woman.

There was one older child with her at the time of my arrival, him being four years of age. It was fairly uncommon for families to have more than five children, especially by the same set of parents, so in our small village of three hundred modest men and women only three Sevenths had been born in the last decade. One of them, being ten years my superior, had already left for The Woods.

We lived humbly. The medicine woman, who we were taught, along with the other village children, to call Granny, was in her sixties and earned her food and keep by doing favors for the other villagers. She would make them medicines, and find little magical remedies for all their tiniest tribulations. She was a Seventh herself, but she had not gone into The Woods and completed her Task. Her parents had rebelled against her going, as none ever returned from The Woods.

To clarify, our village was situated alongside a river, which provided us with all our freshwater and fish-related needs. We lived in a field that people farmed on. Around us were patches of trees and forest, where wild game could be hunted, but they were different from The Woods. Young children of the village were taught never to enter The Woods, as great and mysterious creatures of magic dwelled beneath those darkened canopies. No one went in The Woods. Only the Sevenths. Occasionally Granny would go to the outskirts to pick herbs of a more enchanted variety, but even she did not dare to set foot beneath those great trees.

She taught us well, the boy and I. His name was Edmund, if I remember correctly. He was never the most talented magician, and I remember clearly one day when I was four or five, and I did a spell he had been struggling with just to tease him. Granny opted to favor me for my gifts, which she seemed to be more aware of than I was. I simply did as she instructed to, read the spell books she gave to me, and practiced whenever I could. I was quite fond of these arts.

Then one day, Edmund was gone. He left when he was twelve, and I but eight. There's never a set year for when they go, they simply go, usually between the years of ten and thirteen. There's never any warning, any ceremony. Just one day a Seventh leaves for The Woods, and never returns.

I believe Granny worried for him. His skills may have been sufficient to keep him alive those first years, but I do not doubt that he was incapable of completing the Task.

It was in my tenth year that Granny explained the Task to me. Every Seventh had to complete it in order to become a full-fledged magician. Not long before the changes to adulthood began, every Seventh who wished to reach their full potential had to leave for The Woods. There, they would spend several years learning to survive on their own. Then, before their transformation to adulthood was complete, they had to fuse with a magical creature and absorb its power through the capture of its soul as it departs in death.

I left at eleven years old. It just so happened that that one morning I woke with a profound itch in my legs, and a feeling of total oppression. Fearing for my freedom – nay, my life – I hastily gathered up a small bag of provisions and left before even half of the sun had emerged from beneath the horizon. I practically ran to The Woods, plagued by a sensation of being chased by a ferocious predator, and I only managed to achieve a sense of safety after I had stumbled into the darkness of those trees.

Only was it that when my heart rate slowed to anything resembling normality, did I fully began to realize the alien nature of my surroundings. The forest was utterly quiet, and yet the silence was louder than any noise I had ever heard. The trees jutted up from the ground like so many giant statues, the mysterious kind that were a relic of some long-dead civilization. I quaked under their fearsome majesty.

I wandered aimlessly for days, until finally I found myself a nice clearing alongside a cheerful little brook. I set up a camp of some sort there, collecting leaves to be my bed, and using the blanket I had packed to cover myself in the nights. There was no use for a tent, as I detected no weather and no animals within The Woods. This was reassuring, while at the same time puzzling. I had found a few berries that while unfamiliar to me I found satisfactory for eating, however, there was no food of substance to be found aside from my meager provisions. My belly began to hunger for meat, and it was thus that my first task of any industrial use was to weave a net out of the long grasses that grew alongside the steam. Eventually I came to string it against a narrow part of the brook, and I lay on my stomach in wait until finally, a fish was caught, writhing against the reeds. I greedily snatched the creature out of the water, only to let out a yell and hastily drop it. The fish was of no color I had ever seen before, nonetheless on a fish, and it was covered in tiny little spines that had pricked my finger. Discouraged, I returned to my camp.

It took me several more days before I was able to hold on to any fish, and then I made myself a little fire and feasted quite happily. Fish from The Woods just so happened to taste better than any that lived outside of it.

There was more to this forest than had initially revealed itself to me. After a week and a half I began to see peculiar birds flitting about in the canopies, and in another week I managed to shoot one down. I made a crown of its feathers, which I was quite pleased with. It was yet another week before I saw my first animal of any size. It was a great lumbering bear-like creature, except that its face was quite more squashed, and it had three pairs of legs, instead of two. I watched it amble by from where I crouched behind a tree some distance away. I remember trembling quite terribly from fear, but the creature did not seem to notice me.

Eventually, I grew more accustomed to the woods. As I grew bigger and stronger, I began to hunt the smaller animals of the forest, and once felled a large hoofed animal, then used its pelt to make myself a marvelous cloak. I fashioned myself all sorts of items from what The Woods provided me with. She was a generous caretaker, and did not deserve the fearful connotations her name held with my people.

I explored. I learned that The Woods were more expansive than I had initially imagined. I followed my brook in for a month; it seemed, until I came to its source at a giant lake, so vast I had to squint to see the other shore. I did not stop to investigate the contents of the lake, as I imagine they would be the sort that would be dangerous to me. I left before nightfall, which was all very well, because I did later discover that sirens made their home in those waters.

It was when I was nearing fifteen years of age that I discovered the mountains. A game trail I had been following led me up to higher and higher elevations, until I finally came upon a small clearing atop a hill, at the center of which was a gigantic tree. I climbed up into it, finding handholds in its deep grooves. I sat myself on one of the branches, and observed, for the first time, a jagged row of claws jutting from the forest. They extended infinitely upward – or so it seemed – and were cragged and ominous. As I was observing, a fairy alighted beside me. The feathered creature told me an interesting story. She told me that a dragon lived up there, in one of the caves. He was old and spiteful and sick with the power of his species. I nodded halfheartedly, and proceeded to forget about this tidbit of information, although I took to living in that tree for another two months.

I had developed a rather transient lifestyle, though. Feeling no need to create a permanent shelter, I wandered the forests, pursuing game and my own whims with all the aimlessness of youth. I would settle in one place I found pleasing for any portion of time, and then I would move on when the itch became great enough. All the while I practiced magic, and fighting. As I grew older, the aggressive tendencies became greater and greater. Still, I had left those mountains, only to return to them at sixteen years old.

I cannot fully describe the sensation that drew me back to them. It was similar to the feeling that had brought me into the forest. That same feeling of pursuit, and that same earnest, oppressive sensation, dogged my every step. I could not sleep for days because it consumed me so.

I cannot tell you how long it took for me to reach the range, because all the days melded with the nights which melded with the time in between, until my existence became some muddled soup that had no defining character. It simply happened, and it continued happening, until I had arrived. And then, the feeling stopped.

For a week, I remained at the foot of the mountain. I hunted animals, and gained strength. I fashioned myself weapons of a quality unlike any that I had made before. I made myself a sort of makeshift armor, and I sharpened blades and tools. When I finally set about to climbing the rocky precipice, I traveled light.

I climbed all morning and into the afternoon, taking breaks only to drink from my flask, and to eat some dried meat I had packed with me. I was fully prepared, though, when I set foot upon the level ground before the open chasm of the cave. Its huge maw could have easily swallowed a dozen of me with no difficulty, but I felt no fear. I know, with a complete and total conviction, that this was my Task.

The steps up to the entrance passed with little time at all, until I had rooted myself at the entrance of the cave. At the top of my lungs, I called out to the beast within. "Oh! Great dragon of this mountain, do reveal yourself to me!"

My voice echoed momentarily, then all was silent. I stood there, heart racing to get as many pumps in before its predicted termination, as I waited for a response. Then, there was a low shuffling sound, and a slithering. Before me, from the depths of the shadows, appeared a giant, crimson dragon.

He stared at me for a long time, breathing in the deep manner that dragons breathe in. Finally, he spoke. "Ah, little Seventh, your time is near. Do you wish to end me?"

Unfazed, I stared up at him. "Precisely," I breathed.

The dragon laughed. "Foolish girl! Have you no idea who I am? What I am? I am a dragon! I have ruled over these mountains for the last three hundred years! Why do you not act sensible like the rest of your kind, and steal the skin of a siren or snake?"

I shook my head violently. Then, without thinking about it, I lunged foreword and managed to nick the side of his foot, in his unguarded state.

This act against him enraged him, and caused him to engage in a struggle with me, each for our own lives. I sustained many injuries in the course of the battle, but he was old, and he was complacent. I caught him off guard with a spell, and then struck one of his fatal points with my spear. I then stood back, and watched as his life seeped out from him.

Then, I saw it; the bright flash as his soul struggled to free itself from the pain of this body. I caught it, roped it in from the heavens, and cupped it in my hands. Then I pressed the glowing orb into my chest, and fell over in a swoon.

I awoke several minutes later to find a new vigor in me, and my wounds healed. Except for one peculiarity…my hands no longer resembled that of a human. Instead, they were a rusty color, and my fingers were long, spindly and pointed, ending in claws. They were encased in hard scales, which extended up my forearm. I knew to expect some change of this sort from my teachings, but never this drastic. I knew I could not dwell on this, though, as I had a task to do. Carefully, meticulously, I took the old dragon's skin for my cloak, in the act that would complete my Task.

serraona,,

Name: Serraona
Gender: Female
Species: Witch
Sub-species: Dragon, human
Exchanged: Hands
Age: 112
Phase one: Eleven
Phase two: Sixteen
Power: 76% matured
Element: Fire
Rank: 5th in The Woods, 1st in the Kingdom of Kartha
Territory: South eastern (Kartha)

Appears: Mid-twenties
Physique: Slim, atheletic
Height: Approximately 5'7
Hair: Black, straight
Skin: Red dragon

Footnote: It has been a century since Serraona first entered the woods. Now, due to seniority, talent, and the power of her merged animal, she has distinguished herself as one of the top witches in The Woods. Kartha took a particular interest to her and now she is bound by a loose allegiance of her choosing to that kingdom. It has its perks, being royally sponsored, that is, but at the same time it does have its restrictions.

NEOPETS, characters, logos, names and all related indicia
are trademarks of Neopets, Inc., © 1999-2009.
® denotes Reg. US Pat. & TM Office. All rights reserved.
PRIVACY POLICY | Safety Tips | Contact Us | About Us | Press Kit
Use of this site signifies your acceptance of the Terms and Conditions