Chapter One - The Witch of Gelli Gadarn

This is chapter one of The Witch of Gelli Gadarn.

     The moon was high and full when they brought the child to the edge of the woods. It was a clear night, and the stars shined with a silver brightness that pooled on Aderyn’s wide-eyed face as she stood, arms held apart, and stared at the thick trees of the Gelli Gadarn rising to full-height before her. Arms trembling, bare feet rooted in the dirt, she pushed against the pressing hand on her back, against the motion moving her forward, forward to the edge of those cursed woods. 

     The Gelli Gadarn was spoken of on lips pursed and down-turned. Its name was whispered on cool spirit-nights, over large fires inside the safe walls of home, from mouths hot with brashness and drink. Aderyn could hear those whispers now, could feel their weight on her tensed muscles. 

    She opened her mouth to speak and her voice died in dryness. Pulling at the arms constricting her own, she tried to wriggle her little hands free--but like the voice that fell soundless on her lips, her efforts were suffocated in the struggle. 

  Something was moving in the darkness, its shape uncertain against the trees. Aderyn tried to focus her eyes on its form and failed. It flew, bird-like, with a swiftness that evaded vision. One moment here, the next there--Aderyn twisted her neck to keep up. For a beat, it paused, and she was certain her eyes could capture it"but in the same instance, it vanished. The adults behind her did not seem to notice it. Their eyes were searching the ground near the edge of the woods, expecting something to emerge. And something did emerge. 

  As though produced by shadow itself, a figure rose from nothingness at the edge of the Gelli Gadarn. It was tall--taller than any person Aderyn had ever seen--but the darkness shrouded its face, and she could not tell if it was human or creature. A scream rose in her throat, but something pushed it down. Prickling her skin was the gentle shiver of curiosity. 

    Hands fell on her back--two, four, eight of them, pushing her forward. What little resistance she possessed was quickly exhausted. They shoved her like a limp doll. Stumbling, she moved toward the Gelli Gadarn, toward the figure all wrapped up in the night’s garments. Behind her, whispers of encouragement nipped at her heels, and she nearly laughed at the lot of them cowering far away while she padded, bare feet scraping over pebbles and dirt and twigs, closer to the mysterious creature ahead. 

   If she had ever believed her parents loved her, she was now certain they did not. There they stood, a yard away from her, clasping hands with two derwydd. Not a single tear shed, not even the quiver of a lip--they stared on, stone-faced, expectant. When they caught sight of her glaring at them over her shoulder, they shoved their hands forward in the air, shouting something incomprehensible in voices thin and cracked. Perhaps they thought her death would make the harvest plentiful. Yet it was not she who had insulted the gods. How could she? She was a child--young and fumbling. She was the daughter of farmers--she was not a chieftain or a derwydd. If the gods had demanded sacrifice, why not give them the blood of a warrior? Her blood was weak, tainted--and she did not have much to give. 

     The figure stood very still as Aderyn approached. She wondered if her legs were trembling visibly or if the sensation moved only within her bones. Up close, she could make out the creature--it looked human in that it had two eyes, a nose, and a mouth, and possessed hair and all its limbs. It may have even been female. Two swollen lumps rested beneath its black cloak where breasts should have been. But in places it seemed to be more creature. Black feathers stuck out from its neck and shoulders at angles. Its fingers ended in sharp talons in place of nails. Its eyes were wide and yellow and piercing, the pupils rounded in an un-human way. The nose, although shaped in beak-like fashion, was covered in human flesh. It seemed a sort of giant bird-woman--terrifying, supernatural. And her eyes were pinned on Aderyn. 

    “Child,” the creature spoke in a strange voice. It was like a clash of sound, a clash of voices all at once--and in the notes, somewhere, was the shriek of a bird. “You are Aderyn of Daddawd of the tribal lands of Rheinwg. Is this correct?” 

      Aderyn nodded stiffly. “Y-yes,” she squeaked. 

     The creature’s lips twisted into something reminiscent of a smile. “I am the Mwylachen, and this is my forest. From now on, you will be called Aderyn o’r Gelli Gadarn ferch Mwylachen.” 

   “Ferch?” Aderyn echoed. She felt as though she had swallowed sand--her throat was tight and dry, and her voice scraped against her mouth as she spoke. “I’m your daughter?” 

    “You are now, child. And the Gelli Gadarn is your home.” 

    The Gelli Gadarn lay before Aderyn in all its dark vastness, in all its mystery, guarded by the bird-like giantess who would be her mother. In the distance, against the starry sky, she could just barely see the peaks of the Carreglas Mountains poking out from a sea of trees. A new world lay before her, unexplored, brimming with mystical energy and legendary creatures--and now, if what the Mwylachen spoke was true, it would be hers. 

     Aderyn searched the strange, creature-like face of the Mwylachen--in the slope of her mouth, she found no humour. Could she be telling the truth? Aderyn thought perhaps the creature was tricking her into feeling safe, secure--it would make spilling her blood an easier task. But the yellow eyes of the Mwylachen were soft. 

   “I don’t understand,” she said in a small voice. In her ears thudded the quick dance of her heartbeat. “Aren’t you going to kill me?” 

    The Mwylachen laughed. It was a deep, throaty sound, and it resonated all throughout the forest. It gathered volume in the hollows of stone, reverberating back to Aderyn from near and far-away sources, as though tiny Mwylachens fluttered in the air around her head, singing a chorus of laughter. The din must have even reached Aderyn’s parents and their derwydd, standing so far back they seemed faceless shadows--a wave of breathy gasps rushed from their position, mingling with the Mwylachen’s lingering laughter. Aderyn’s head buzzed with dizzying noise. 

     “Why would I kill you, child?” The Mwylachen’s lips pulled back as she spoke, revealing a set of very human teeth. 

     “I heard the Gelli Gadarn is a dangerous place. That monsters live here,” Aderyn spoke slowly, wringing her slick little hands together. “And everyone said I offended the gods because the crops won’t grow. They pulled me out of bed and I thought--I thought I was to be sacrificed.” 

       The Mwylachen leaned forward, lowering herself to near normal height. The feathers crowning her face spread out like spikes. Around her neck dangled a strange talisman--a black, roughly cut stone inlaid in bone, wrapped up in leather straps--and as she knelt, the amulet swayed forward and lightly tapped Aderyn on the forehead. “They are frightened of you,” she whispered in that strange voice. “Just as they are frightened of me. We have power they do not understand. The derwydd in your village contacted me because they knew I would know what to do with you--and I do. I will raise you, train you in mystical arts, teach you to survive. But I will not force you.” She paused. Smiled. For a moment, she appeared very human--the feathers growing from her skin seemed nothing more than the trimming of her cloak; the bird-like features of her face softened and a middle-aged woman emerged. She extended a hand to Aderyn, palm up, talon-free. It was just a human hand, lined in faint wrinkles, decorated with strange symbols pressed into flesh with black ink. “So, little Aderyn, will you come with me?” 

     Aderyn turned her heavy body in the direction of her parents--in the grey-blackness of night, she could barely distinguish them. Their forms were vague, incomplete--they seemed to blend with the derwydd in one tangled mess of bodies, and she could not tell blood relative from holy man. Her heart panged with longing--not for her parents’ love, not for their affection or appraisal--no, she longed to be understood. 

     A fleet of dark clouds crowded the sky, stealing silver light away from the stars and the moon. A stark curtain of shadow fell over the forest, and as Aderyn turned to face her would-be mother, she could only see two yellow discs winking out at her from the darkness. 

    Slowly, she stretched her hand forward, feeling blindly for the Mwylachen’s palm. At the prick of a talon, she flinched and nearly drew her hand back--steadying her arm, she grasped at a mix of flesh, claw, and feathers. “I will come with you,” she whispered. 

    “There’s a good girl,” said that multi-toned voice from somewhere in the shadows. 

   Aderyn’s lips readied for a response, but before the words escaped, she was wrapped up in something soft and warm, and everything was spinning in a mess of colour and noise. She was being lifted, up, up--she blinked away the blurriness and found nothing but black all around her. There was a steady whirring sound, a rock of motion. Her fingers curled around something that felt like fur, like the fur of an animal she had smoothed in the past. Her eyes followed the sensation of the fur, finding her own small white hands clutching fabric--her paleness stood out like white-capped stones surrounded by a dark sea. Wind broke against her little frame in powerful gusts, and although she wanted to move, she felt pinned to--to what? Feeling around, unable to move her head, she suspected she was in the large arms of the Mwylachen, tucked away against her chest. 

     “Don’t worry, child.” The Mwylachen’s voice reached her over the deafening rush of wind--it was faint, but her tone sounded different, strained. “We are flying over the Gelli Gadarn. Look!” 

    The Mwylachen shifted Aderyn’s position in her arms, twisting her around so the back of the child’s head nestled safely between her breasts. 

       The entire length of the forest spanned below Aderyn’s dangling feet. It looked dark, tiny. She flinched instinctively--she had never been this high up before and the sight made her stomach tighten and twist. From so far up, she could barely tell where sky met land. It was all monochrome--the trees, the ground, the sky. One big mess of varying shades of black and grey, dotted faintly with glowing white stars. She searched for sight of her parents, for one last look at them. Perhaps she was only seeing what she wanted to see, but there seemed to be four figures moving slowly away from the Gelli Gadarn toward the light of a village in the distance. Silently, Aderyn said goodbye to her family. She said goodbye to fingers blistered and calloused from farm work. Goodbye to hard, narrowed eyes pinned on her face. Goodbye to loneliness. Goodbye to fear. Goodbye to the family who created her, raised her--but did not love her. 

   Wind rushed up then, and Aderyn knew the Mwylachen had begun their descent. They were landing in the Gelli Gadarn, near the base of the Carreglas Mountains. As they fell gently through the air, passing through a thin gap between the leafy tops of the trees, Aderyn clutched the arms of her guardian. Although she could feel the Mwylachen’s bird-like talons pressing against her sides, although she moved through the air in the arms of a winged creature, she felt--for the first time in her life--safe. 

Reviews

[Raven Moonchild]

(applauds) This is amazing!!! Oh,the detail and use of Welsh language is spectacular. As a fellow pagan,I salute you and your creativity,madame. :)

[Raven Moonchild]

I can't wait to see the next chapter!!! :D

[M L Marshall]

Thank you so very much!! It really means so much to me that you enjoyed my writing! I am glad you share an appreciation for the Welsh language. :) And I'm thrilled the work was well received by a fellow pagan! I hope you will like the next chapters just as much as the first! :D

[Raven Moonchild]

It is a fresh breath of air to meet a fellow pagan. :) And I look forward to more of your fantastic work. lol I have a bit of Welsh in my blood and I've always found the language fascinating. :)

[M L Marshall]

It certainly is! It's even more exciting to meet fellow pagans my age, as well! :) Thank you so much! I haven't worked on the story as much lately, but your comment has revitalised my energy to work, so thank you!! That's incredible! It is a fascinating language. I'm from America, but my husband is Welsh so I'm currently living in Wales. It's certainly inspired this work, and encouraged me to study the language. :)

[Raven Moonchild]

lol I honestly didn't think that I'd meet another pagan until I got to your side of the pond. There aren't many pagans here in the US. :( Good thing you got away to a less sucky part of the world. :) I'm so happy to know that another chapter will be coming!!!! :D

[M L Marshall]

Oh, I completely understand how you feel! Luckily, I found a great group of pagan ladies in my hometown in the US (about a year before I moved, haha), and that helped me loads. They have an online presence actually, mostly through Facebook, so if you'd be interested in meeting some other pagans, let me know! :) Haha, I'm very lucky that I managed to get away. Good luck in coming to this side of the pond yourself! Thank you so much!! I will let you know when it is posted! :D

[Raven Moonchild]

That's fantastic!!! :D Where in the US did you live that there were pagans nearby? And can I live there? lol

And thank you. :) I plan to save up a HUGE travel fund to hopefully one day live on your side of the pond. :)

And thank you for posting your amazing work. :3

[M L Marshall]

Sorry for the late reply! I am from a very small town called Joplin, Missouri that surprisingly had a decent pagan population. :P Beyond that, it's a rather backwards place.

Good luck with moving over here! I highly recommend it. It's absolutely lovely. :)

Aw, thank you so much! I am so flattered that you appreciate my work. :)

[Raven Moonchild]

lol No worries, dear. :) And that's pretty cool. :D I live in southern Mississippi where every street corner has a cross. lol

It won't be for many years knowing my luck, but thank you. :3

Your work is so deep and imaginative, I couldn't get enough of it. You MUST let me know when you post your next chapter!!!! :D (throws horns)

[Paul]

As I've said, reading is not my thing, an attention span of a goldfish! But how you have written this must have had the adverse affect on me! :-) its the most I've read in one sitting! :-)

[M L Marshall]

I'm so glad to hear that, Paul! Thank you very much. I really appreciate it! Chapter Two will be out in just a couple days. I hope you enjoy that one just as much! :)

[aj milton]

Excellent start, Very descriptive and yet plenty of mystery and questions unanswered - making the reader want to know more.

[M L Marshall]

Thank you so much! I'm so glad you enjoyed it. :)