[color=39b54a][i][u][h1][center]~Hellena Leigh~[/center][/h1][/u][/i][/color]


[i][u]Earlier...[/u][/i]

Hellena’s drooped eyes fluttered open to sheer curiosity to the distant sound of loud dog barks. She watched a pack of angry wolves at quite a far distance in the forest, making their way in tight groups towards Bloodrose Castle with unbelievable speed. Still stuck in quite a light-headed state from a short nap by a tree stump, she had not been able to grab time to process if what she had heard along with the serious of barks, between it squeezed eerie cries and screams of human voices, before the forest became quiet again.

After what seemed like an hour or so of waiting, she felt the heavy weight of her pet snake, Lucy, as she slithered her way up Hellena’s arm and around the back of her neck, resting both of her ends; head and tail, on both of her owner’s shoulders.
Pinched between Lucy’s fangs was a dead blue butterfly, baby blue wings punctured in holes and scratches, but Hellena gladly disregarded the fact and took it from her pet serpent’s grasp. From her basket, she took out a small glass jar and carefully placed the butterfly inside.
[color=ed1c24]“The wings of a Holly Blue, just as you asked for, my mistress.”[/color] Lucy hissed with a slight bow of her head to pay her respects to her beloved owner. [color=ed1c24]“Pray tell, what will you be using it for this time?”[/color]
[color=00a651]“With how beautiful their wings are, there must be something into it that I can put to good use for my potions.”[/color] The witch replied as she scanned the lifeless creature inside the glass container. [color=39b54a]"Now tell me, how did you find the butterfly?" [/color]
[color=ed1c24]"I saw it already dead, stuck on a spider web. No killing, just as you said, my mistress."[/color]  The snake hissed.

With that last confirmation, Hellena then carefully placed the small glass bottle back inside her straw basket – one of the listed items that the red-headed witch simply cannot roam around the forest without. 

The red head had known Alexina for quite some time ever since joining the coven. She knew what the place such as the forest could mean to her leader. As much as possible, Hellena would always put up her respects.

At the very same time, the witch and her serpent looked up at the towering trees of the forest that covered the rays of the sun, but it was getting dim enough to know that more than half of the day had already went by. 
[color=ed1c24]“High time we return to the coven, mistress.”[/color] The serpent hissed at her owner, making it enough for Hellena to jolt her body to fully wake up and heave herself up into a complete stand. 

Dusting off dried leaves and bits of soil that stuck onto her green cloak, she started to lightly tread on the pathway that led back to the castle with her hissing pet just beside her ear. 
[color=39b54a]“Did you see it earlier? Those hounds.”[/color] Hellena asked her serpent, tints of weariness lacing around her voice.
[color=ed1c24]“As a matter of fact, I have, my mistress. They were quite loud.”[/color] The serpent hissed back at her. At this point, the witch decided to stay quiet throughout the journey. Staying in the coven for a period of time, wolves have grown to have quite a picture for her. Thoughts of only one subject flooded her mind;

[i]Could something have happened with Alexina?[/i]

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Once the red head reached the castle courtyard, quite a scene welcomed her rather late arrival.

Witches of the coven gathered around the courtyard as they eyed Alexina, standing in the middle of twelve wolves, all of them looking down at five deeply injured witches. 
[color=ed1c24]“Look, mistress! Aren’t those the hounds that we saw-“[/color]
[color=39b54a]“Shh. Quiet.”[/color] Hellena shushed Lucy. 

Hellena watched Alexina’s eyes burn with great fury as the coven leader spoke out about how the audacity and rebellion of five witches led them to terrorize the village of Goldencrest and take the lives of countless innocents, but once Alexina included the lives of young children to the list, Hellena’s eyes bolted wide. It didn’t take long for Hellena’s eyes to start expressing an empty kind of sorrow. 

The injustice surely seemed distraughtful.

The conversation between the rebellious and the leader went on. As one of the witches attempted to taunt Alexina, knowing her leader, Hellena could only think of the many possible approaches that she could do, that witch chose one of the least that any one, or at least herself, would do. In the end, the red head watched the expected as Alexina took her fury out on the witch, tightly grasping her neck till her last breath. 

Hellena’s face showed revulsion as Alexina tossed the bloody, lifeless body down to the side as if it were a mere toy. 
[b]“No!”[/b]
A masculine voice roared out. The eyes of the red headed witch distinctively fell on a male warlock who ran to the body and tried his best to reassure any remaining life in her. Unfortunately, luck didn’t seem to stand on either of his sides.

[color=ed1c24]“My, my. This is getting quite exhilarating, don’t you think so, mistress? Mistress Alexina sure has quite an iron heart.”[/color]
And once again, Hellena found herself shushing her little serpent to silence.
[color=39b54a]“Either you stay quiet, or let Alexina have your tongue. She can hear you.”[/color] Hellena remarked at her slithering friend. As a sole response, Lucy let out a quiet, long hiss as a way of saying [color=ed1c24]“Oops.”[/color]

As Hellena’s eyes went up to her coven leader, she couldn’t help but allow a string of pride lace around her as she continued to watch the woman who took her under her wing. But nevertheless, an ominous feeling that grew and stuck onto her cannot be shaken off, now that these five witches have stirred trouble for their home. And most inevitably, their lives.