Hair Witch (eBook)

Liza Nayaka (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2024 | 1. Auflage
165 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-3509-6484-4 (ISBN)

Infos

'The Hair Witch' adapts well-known and obscure Grimm Fairy Tales through an Indian cultural perspective to explore the gravity of human connection, mental health, and embracing your inner strength.

Liza Nayaka is a mental therapist by day and a writer by night. She loves bringing her Indian culture into her stories to give them a personal twist.

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As a witch with the power to cast magic with her hair, Keya is content about staying in the safety of her tower home. When a powerful and deadly curse strikes Rana, the crown prince and Keya's best friend, she has no choice but to travel to the mysterious and dangerous Vandelfel Woods to ask the Witch of the Woods for help. Her traveling companion? Vishval, one of Rana's elite guard with a secret of his own and a hatred of witches. With creatures, killer plants, and rogue magic blocking their way, Vishval and Keya must act to save Rana before the curse claims his life. A retelling mixing both well-known and obscure Grimm Fairy Tales combined with Indian culture, "e;The Hair Witch"e; explores how mental health can impact every aspect of one's life and the importance of connecting with others.

Textauszug

Chapter 1

Keya yelped as she almost dropped the crate of flasks onto the wooden floor as she stumbled over the curled end of a rug. A few tense moments passed as she scrambled to get her feet under her, the glass flasks clinking dangerously against each other.

She let out a long sigh of relief before setting the crate on the ground as she needed a moment to recover from the almost heart-attack. Wouldn’t that be something? Young witch dies of heart attack after her teacher yells at her for destroying five hours’ worth of work in a mere ten seconds. That was definitely the type of news that would travel across the kingdom of Pavitra in less than half a day.

“Are those the potions for today?”

Keya startled and glanced at the bottom of the staircase where her teacher stood with her arms crossed. Ekiya was a stern-faced woman with a strong jaw, her thick black hair cut short, so it was out of the way. Like Keya, she wore a dark blue salwar kameez, the edges accented in gold and purple, the uniform of the witches that worked for the kingdom.

“Oh, uh, yes.” Keya gestured to the flasks with the different colored liquids inside. “I finished the first page of orders.”

Ekiya kneeled and randomly took out a flask and held it up to the sunlight peering in through the nearest window. Her dark eyes glowed from an internal light as she stared at the flask. She blinked, the glow fading with it and she nodded. “Good. I think you are getting the hang of potions.” A smile quirked at the corner of her lips. “I might make a potions witch out of you yet.”

Keya wrinkled her nose at the thought. “No thanks, I would rather not take your title.”

Ekiya laughed. “True, this world only needs one Potion Witch.” She stood and reached into the pouch tied around her waist and pulled out one of the many small vials she kept there. Despite being unlabeled, Keya had never seen her teacher pull out the wrong one. After uncorking the green tinted bottle, Ekiya poured a few drops on the crate holding the flasks. Once the liquid sunk into the wood, it took effect, and the crate began to float upwards until it was hovering at Ekiya’s shoulder.

Before Ekiya could ask, Keya grabbed some rope from the nearest desk and handed it over. With a murmur of thanks, Ekiya tied it to the crate and began tugging it along like an odd balloon. “I’ll be back later tonight. The King and Queen want to speak to me regarding the Festival of Colors.”

Keya nodded. With how long those discussions went, it meant if she didn’t dawdle on finishing the orders, she could have the tower to herself tonight.

“Do you think you will try going this year?” asked Ekiya.

“No, it’s fine. I ordered a few new books and I’m planning on reading them that day.” Keya pointedly ignored Ekiya’s slightly worried look.

“Well think more about it. You have to get out there sometime Keya.”

It was hard but Keya forced herself to keep the easy-going smile on as she gave Ekiya a light push in the direction of the front door. “You better get going, I know the King and Queen don’t like it when you’re late and they’ll want those potions as soon as possible.”

Ekiya’s long sigh made it clear the conversation wasn’t over, but she knew Keya was right. Tugging the crate balloon along, Ekiya opened the front door and walked out into the bright sun. Keya’s shoulders didn’t relax until the door slammed shut behind the Potions Witch.

With a sigh of her own, Keya stretched her hands over her head before heading up the stairs. The marble tower that she lived, studied, and worked in was taller than it was wide, and each floor only had a single room. A poor design if Keya had to be honest but it meant she had very good stamina and very strong legs. Living room, dining room, kitchen, library, multiple bedrooms, and on the top floor was her destination, the workshop. Most of the circular chamber was made up of Ekiya’s things. A large worktable sat next to a cauldron. Vials, flasks, and other glass objects to hold liquids were scattered about in a chaotic organization pattern that was only known to Ekiya.

In sharp contrast, Keya’s corner was neat. She had her own desk and chair along with a few books on magic and casting spells by the window that overlooked the forest that surrounded the castle. On a good day, when the weather conditions were just right, she could make out the outer wall of Lakgaria, the capital of Pavitra.

Of course this was not the time to be dawdling, she had a bunch of orders to finish so she could have the evening to herself! There was this new chicken biryani recipe she had found in a cookbook she really wanted to make.

Instead of going to her workstation, she walked over to Ekiya’s and picked up the order list from the worktable and gave it a quick look over. First off, ten orders of vitality and strength huh?

After filling ten flasks with water, she set them on the worktable before reaching back and began the process of freeing her hair from its braid. Thick and bouncy and full of volume, Keya’s black hair went down to her ankles when she was standing up. According to Ekiya, other girls Keya’s age would be jealous of Keya’s hair. Besides being so luscious and unusually long, it also had the benefit of never shedding on its own, so Keya never had to worry about finding long hairs in random places.

Of course there was a reason for that. Unlike her teacher, whose spells were created through the mixing and creating of potions, Keya’s power came from her hair.

Keya carefully separated out a strand of hair and with a sharp tug, pulled it from her head. With a deep breath, she kept the strand of hair locked tight in her left hand while she splayed her right hand over the water filled flasks. Her magic thrummed under her skin as it came to life, the strand of hair burning away as she focused on the flasks and embedding vitality and strength into the water. The color of the water shifted to a light purple, a signal that the spell had taken hold.

She picked up each flask and held it up to the light. Unlike Ekiya, she couldn’t tell the strength of the potion with sight alone but based on the color, it looked like the spell had taken well. Wait, nope, the last three on the end were a lighter color than the rest.

“Well, seven out of ten isn’t bad.” She set those three aside. Without knowing how much power she had embedded into water, she could mess up the whole ratio by trying to cast it again. That was not worth the lecture Ekiya would give. The only thing she could do was start again from scratch. She sighed as she looked at the pile of papers in the order list. This was definitely going to take a while.

***

The sun was slowly making its way downwards, the workshop awash in reds and oranges by the time Keya finished the orders. Her head ached slightly from using so much magic in one go and her fingertips were numb but those were only temporary annoyances. Nothing compared to the feeling of being ahead of the potion orders for once. Even better, there was more than enough time to make the biryani and enjoy it before Ekiya got back. Sure, Keya enjoyed eating with her teacher but sometimes it was nice having the tower to herself and not have Ekiya hovering over her shoulder asking when the meal would be ready.

She got up from the worktable and was about to head downstairs when she spotted something moving in the sky through the open window. She walked over and squinted. Nope, it wasn’t her imagination, there was definitely a small dot slowly getting bigger. She wrapped a strand of hair around her finger and while holding one end, she pulled so only a piece of the hair strand broke off.

Her magic thrummed to life as the piece of hair burned away as she cast a spell on her eyes to strengthen her vision. It took a moment but as the spell took hold, she could make out the ever-growing shape of a flying golden chariot with two figures in it.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she muttered as she shook her head and let the spell go so her vision returned to normal. “Can’t you read the room Rana? I finally got the tower to myself.” Alas, he didn’t hear her cries as his vimana got closer and closer to the tower.

Knowing there was no time to spare, she braided her hair as she raced down the stairs to the kitchen. Instead of making biryani, she threw a pot on the stove along with spices and milk to make chai. “Plates…plates…plates…” Finding one, she threw it on the counter and began hunting for things to put on it. Crap, Ekiya had not done the weekly shopping yet.

“Ack!” she yelped as she glanced at the stove and saw the milk had boiled over. She dashed over and took it off, wincing at how hot the handle was. No time to complain though. After lowering the heat, she set the pot back on the stove and threw in teabags and sugar to let it simmer a while longer.

Back to the original problem. What to give alongside the tea? Rana wouldn’t mind but she knew Ekiya would wring Keya’s neck if the crown prince wasn’t shown the bare minimum of courtesy. After some scrambling and looking through the pantry and cold box, she managed to find some cashews...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 23.8.2024
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Kinder- / Jugendbuch
• ISBN-13: 979-8-3509-6484-4 / 9798350964844