Tag: Wild West

#Lore24 – Entry #183 – Supers Month II #2 – The Way of Magic

From the journal of Abigail “Sassy” Dawson, Mage of the Order of Hecate

I’d learn a few things when I finally woke up and took account of where I was.  I could smell the age of the old cabin mixed with the scent of herbs and fresh-baked bread, saw that my wounds had been tended and bandaged.  It only took a few moments before I realized I was right hungry, so I eased out of bed, unsteady as I was at the time, and stepped through the open doorway into the main room of the cabin.  That was when I’d meet Granny Opal for the first time, a witch older than the hills themselves so it was said.  I’d heard the name growin’ up but didn’t ever figure the tales of a witch up in the distant hills to be fact till I saw her and she introduced herself.  She weren’t nothing like what I figured from what I’d heard about her; she looked more like the ‘granny’ of her namesake than the old crone you’d think of when you hear the word “witch”, gray hair up in a bun, plump and wrinkled with age, a little pair of glasses threatening to slip off her nose, that kind of look. 

Still, she weren’t one to mince words and dillydally about, so she told me how it was and how it was going to be for a fair sight.  As she told it, I’d sought her out on my own after a fashion now that my powers had woke up, and she was gonna teach me how not to get myself and others killed with what I could do, at least, not by accident.  I guess maybe she took a bit of pity on me then when my stomach spoke up, cause she said she’d wait till after breakfast before startin’ my lessons.  I never once questioned her ‘bout all this; just seemed right to me now that I didn’t really have noweheres else to go; I had family up north ‘round Lexington somewhere, so I’d been told, but I never met them, so they might as well not have ever existed.  I took a seat at the old table and noted all the strange things she had hangin’ ‘round her place, animal bones and sticks and beads and feathers and the like, all kinds of different arrangements, and all kinds of bottles and jugs filled with things I’d learn about later on, not all of them pleasant.  Granny Opal was a good cook, I’d say, fixed some fine bread and stew, though the taste was a little funny till you got used to it.

Once my stomach weren’t interruptin’ us from jawin’, she started teachin’ me about what had happened.  I started gettin’ images in my head of what all had happened that day as my memories came rushin’ back.  I got real close to sickin’ up right then when I remembered what I’d done, but managed to hold all that food I’d just eaten in somehow.  As she went over the basics and started learnin’ me some techniques to focus my mind and spirit and my head cleared up, I first became aware of my familiar, Asher, lingerin’ over by the fence, chewin’ on some grass.  Turns out he’d been my familiar since I’d handled breakin’ him in a couple years back, I just never realized what it was I’d done.  Now that I’d started learnin’ the ways of magic, it weren’t long before I was talkin’ to him in my head and hearin’ his voice just as plain as day.  That’s how I eventually learned he’d picked me up out in the woods, havin’ slipped outta the stables on his own once the shootin’ started, and he’d sensed Granny Opal all on his own and took me to her.

I’d be sittin’ out the rest of the War with Granny Opal, becoming an apprentice witch, I suppose.  She’d introduce me to her familiar soon enough, a big ol’ bobcat named Smoky, and though he weren’t no normal bobcat, he still put Asher’s nerves on edge whenever he was about.  I’d learn that our familiars acted as something of a buffer and a conduit for tappin’ into the magic that was all around us, though I reckon magic had started to fade away from the world a while back for whatever reason, which was why there weren’t too many of us witches about anymore.  They were also magical beings, our familiars, bonded to us for the rest of our days, though they could certainly still be killed through other means, and were that to happen, we’d lose our connection to the majority of our magic till we bonded a new one. 

I’d learn some basic control techniques, how to call upon the elements and formulate magical essence into our “spells”, and a fair bit of her herbalism and alchemy, and how to use the mystic sight, too.  ‘Course, I had to learn all them pesky rules and such about what I should and shouldn’t be doin’ with my magic, but I’ll save all that lecturin’ for somewheres else. 

We didn’t see a lot of visitors out there at Granny Opal’s cabin; not many would venture out that way unless they was in need of some of her special healin’ poultices and the like.  Everyone was downright afraid of her, really, but I figure that was more just somethin’ she spread around to keep most people away.  She enjoyed her privacy, and just tolerated me for a short spell, I reckon.  Still, she weren’t unpleasant or mean, was a good teacher, and was mostly patient with me.  I’d ride Asher down through the hills a good ways to town ever so often to pick up a few supplies that weren’t traded to Granny by her occasional visitors, and I’d pick myself up a rifle for huntin’ and such after a fair bit of tradin’. 

Granny thought I was a might touched in the head when I came back with that gun, since everything we could ever need we could work through magic in some way or another, but I just didn’t feel right not havin’ one.  Sure, I could fling rocks or manage a spurt of fire, or somethin’ else like that by then, but I don’t reckon that’d go over well outside her little holler.  Folk just weren’t gonna accept that sort of thing in the modern world.  Might actually be why magic started to fade, I guess; people just stopped believen’ in it.  I didn’t plan on stickin’ around forever, and she didn’t expect me to either.  So, I’d start playin’ around on my own, and as I’d learn, I could do some right fancy tricks when I combined my magic with my shootin’. 

#Lore24 – Entry #182 – Supers Month II #1 – An Awakenin’ Magic

From the journal of Abigail “Sassy” Dawson, Mage of the Order of Hecate

I weren’t raised for no book learnin’, and I never figured I’d ever be writin’ this stuff down, but I guess things in life don’t always go how you figured they would.  Since I joined up with the Order, I’ve been asked by Chrona to write out some details ‘bout my past and start keepin’ a record of things, so here we are, I guess.

I was raised up in the hills of Kentucky, over on the eastern part, in a good-sized family, the hard workin’ kind that took care of a large spread up in those hills, tendin’ to the plantin’ and raisin’ animals and such, though my paw always wanted to get a proper horse farm a goin’.  Back then, I had three brothers and a sister, and though we weren’t ever what you’d call “rich”, we lived pretty good.  Weren’t nothin’ really stood out about my early life too much, ‘cept my way with horses, I suppose.  I was always good with them, could “whisper” to’em as I heard it called back then, always knew what they were a thinkin’ and how to get’em to do whatever it was I need’em to do when nobody else could.  Put my big brothers to shame a time or two, I reckon, when none of them could break a particularly spirited horse to saddle, and I could just walk up to’em and speak a few things and they’d let me on’em just as pretty as you please.

‘Course, that was before the War Between the States done got started up, and everythin’ went to Hell.  We was in a border state, so weren’t never nothin’ easy back then.  Always had to walk on eggshells ‘round people who had been close friends back then, and there was always a sense of paranoia around.  Well, things went bad for my family back then, what with my brothers signin’ up and joinin’ the Confederacy along with most everyone else ‘round the hometown.  Won’t be speakin’ much of the details ‘bout then first couple years, just a bit too personal.  It’s what came later on that matters here, cause that’s when I really opened up my gates and experienced my magic for the first time, outside of what I was doin’ with the horses.

Well, as it was, the war went just about everywhere back then, so course, it had to come home eventually.  Weren’t good to learn that two of my brothers had gotten killed, put maw and my sister and me in a right bad state when my last brother rode in damn near dead from gunshot wounds that night.  Course, we didn’t have much time to grieve or register what was really goin’ down, cause weren’t too long before that Union detachment rode up, hot on the trail of my brother.  They was lead by one of our neighbors’ sons, one who I’d been sweet on once, show’d ‘em right where we were. 

Things got…violent, then.  Words were said, voices raised, and before we knew it the shootin’ started.  I weren’t too bad with a gun back then, cause I’d been raised with’em and had to start helpin’ with the huntin’ and such, not near as good as I am now, so I don’t think some of them soldiers were expectin’ it when me and my sis fought back too.  Well, that didn’t last, cause we weren’t no trained soldiers, and they had us outnumbered by a good many.  I don’t rightly recall how exactly it all went down, just remember that my paw and maw and brother were dead, my sis was dyin’ from a shot to her gut, and I had a bullet in my arm. 

As them soldiers came inside on us, the things they said, the outright hate they were a spewin’ at us, and the things they tried to do to me…well, something done broke inside me then.  It was like a dam just exploded then, and I felt my first real taste of magic just wellin’ up inside of me as all my anger and sorrow gushed out.  I remember them soldiers who were hasslin’ my sis went first, just exploded all over the place like nothin’ I’d ever seen before.  The rest…well, it was pure chaos.  Fire, ice, stuff I’m not so sure what it was, all of it went through them Union men and spread over the homestead, but specifics are lackin’ in my mind.

After it was all said and done, I remember churnin’ up the earth and buryin’ my family after that, like that magic flow was doin’ whatever I wanted it too at the time, then remember staggerin’ off into the woods, but don’t recall how exactly I wound up where I did after that, cause all that magic what came outta me left me drained.  Reckon it was a week later when I finally woke up, not as dead as I woulda figured on bein’, in an unfamiliar cabin a good ways off from the old homeplace, no idea how I’d wound up there.