She flinched at the words, at her own name hurled at her like a curse.
"No," she shook her head again. "No one is running around casting spells. You have it wrong."
She stood slowly. Tilly was looking at the three tall women, damning her with their eyes and silence.
"I think," Astra's head cocked, her eyes holding Tilly's in challenge, "that your town will find that they do not appreciate being played with by a small coven of women."
"What are you talking about?"A swelling filled Tilly's stomach, a coldness filled her limbs as the three stepped forward. Shestumbled back, an invisible hand pressing her back down to the ground.
"Interesting thing about humans. Making women the enemy requires little campaigning. It has been etched into their bones to hate the ones who carry their bloodline. One of life's great mysteries, really. Is it because women are a threat with all of that power?" She shrugged, the indifference slicing through Tilly's stomach. "But to make a woman who truly holds magic in her belly the enemy," Astra laughed. Her white teeth gleamed, and Tilly was chilled by the way that her cruelty could be wrapped in laughter. When Astra leaned down, her voice dropping low, Tilly held her breath as she said, "Well, the world is just begging us to give them those women to hate."
The point of Astra's black boot pressed firmly into her thigh, the skin and muscle cried out at the contact, and something flashed in her eyes, making her cry out and double over. That blackness fell over her in a falling trap, cold and unyielding. Her head pounded.
She saw the grandmother clock's gothic tower.
Chaos, upheaval, danger.
She heard a voice, so familiar and so shrill.
It wove through her mind on an endless loop of unkindness she knew intimately.
Keep quiet.
Ugly, overweight, too much.
Don't be too emotional.
When a cold hand pressed against her cheek, she opened her eyes wide, pain searing her as she looked into Astra's brown-eyed study of her.
Something was off. The air shifted, taking a moment to pause before it changed direction and dropped noticeable goose-flesh degrees.
She cried out, closing her eyes tightly as images flashed behind closed lids.
She couldn't make sense of them but they collected in her mind as the pain and coldness shot through, shocking her system.
Birds collectively let out their distinct caws, screeches, and some opened their beaks with song. Bullfrogs bellowed from where they hid under boulders and plump ferns. A red fox with knee-high black socks and a pointed face crawled out of a hollow log, its face raised to the tops of the trees in a low bark that turned high and loud in a scream that made Tilly's hair along her arms and fingers stand on end.
The cacophony of the forest was a battle cry.
The sound of gently creeping frost pulled her eyes up to see sparkling white cover the tips of the green leaves, slowly moving in towards the trunks of large trees. The summer-humid moss that lay languid on large rocks and over fallen trees looked like a woman embracing her grey roots.
Astra's face took on a look of fear as she froze at the changes to the forest around them. Then she stood from her crouched position as the other two women pushed themselves shoulder-to-shoulder. She communicated without words as they made a decision.
One more pointed look down at Tilly, Astra spoke with her eyes: a warning with a glint of promise that landed how Tilly imagined she intended.
And then they were off, running gracefully through the woods at a cadence that spoke of practiced synchronization. They were nearly one form split into three.
When the sound of a stick breaking behind her reached her ears, she turned and shot up to standing so quickly that her vision just barely caught up with the movement. Her eyes were wide, hands up for defense, heart pumping.
The chief stood there watching her with a calm air, his large hands moving slowly from his sides into a sign of peace.
"You're okay," his deep voice slid through the dark space and landed on her, warm in this sudden cold landscape. "I'm going to walk toward you slowly. Is that alright?"
Her chest heaved as the sounds of the forest were still loud and raging. The air around them must have been kissed by winter as her muscles pulled tightly, trying to fight for warmth.
But she nodded slowly because there was something about him that made her heart slow, her limbs not hold themselves nearly as tightly.
And then he was in front of her and his eyes roved over her face and down her figure until they were back at her eyes with relief.
