7 7. The Return (1/2)

It was the final day, I could feel the anxiousness coursing throughout my body. Ranulf, had taken residency in the kingdom. It had been arranged that he would be the next king, the nymphs couldn't be any happier. But my head was not there, it was somewhere else, still captivated by the image of the beautiful little witch.

I was about to join the others at the main hall when I felt the pull. I could feel it, this was it...it was happening that exact moment. Her voice were calling me.

”Arkael! Come to us...”

My body was sucked up to the surface, I could hear her chanting the old language. But her voice slowly faded to the background, as her beauty captivated me.

Walking to her, I let my hand out to her. She was looking at me, I knew at that exact moment she was affected by my presence. Then seconds later she was back to the ritual.

In front of her, was a large pot that she fill with her concoction. She was back to concentrating, while glancing my way every couple of seconds.

”Florence, come...we're doing this now, I need you to relax and put your hand in mine. Walter, would you stay next to her just in case. I've never done this before, but you will know when she needs you. Your bond is already strong...” she was giving more instructions to Florence and her mate Walter, then carry on with the ritual.

The energy in the room was changing, it was cold at the beginning then turn to hot moments later when Shani poured the black potion into the pot.

Then I was feeling the extreme pain all over my body, just like the first day I was sent down to hell. ”Argghhh... ugghh.....”

She kept on chanting her words, my blood boiled inside me, my vision was blurry. I was gripping the table when my legs were having a hard time in supporting my body. I tried to keep it all in, I didn't want to stop her from the ritual. She already glanced back and forth at me. But I looked into her eyes, somehow telling her that I was good, and that she should hurry with the process.

Florence was leaning to her healer, her energy was quickly draining as her hand was still connected to Shani. She must've seen my past cause she gave me the look. Her tears fell as she saw glimpses of my first few decades in hell.

Then the ground moved and the house shook, as if there was an earthquake. They were holding on to each other, while I couldn't help but let out a louder groan. My skin was painfully peeling itself, it was pure torture. The flakes of skin shattered to magic dust and dispersed into thin air. Then it happened all over again, layer after layer of my chapped skin were peeled off of my body.

The temperature was ice cold in an instant, I was starting to gasp while trying hold in the pain. Shani was chanting louder and putting more stuff into the pot.

She kept on pronouncing her words, she looked at me then to Florence from time to time. I knew that she was trying to finish the ritual, as fast as she could. I was in much deeper pain, as I kept on lowering down my body to hold the pain, until eventually Shani put her last ingredient that was on the table and put it into the pot and finished her ritual.

And that was when I changed. My arms was revealing its human skin as the final layer was peeled off. It was the most excruciating pain I've ever endured. ”Argghhh.....I...don't... think... argghhh...” I was growling louder. I was just about to gave up and call everything off, until the pain slowly diminish and the air was slowly warming up.

I was still dragging on my breath as I rest my back on the kitchen wall, the air around us was coming to normal and the ground had stopped to quake.