4. Imelda - The Ice Elementalist

"Uh-huh... That unconscious boy that you had mentioned is already awake now, it seems." an unfamiliar voice boomed in the distance accompanied with several men, armed with pitchforks and other menacing looking farming tools.

They ambled close to the campsite and the Pagans were clearly shaken by the sight of those men but neither of them made a move to defend themselves or the camp. They knew they were on someone else's land without permission and they had promised to leave once the unconscious boy awakens.

"It seems that its time for you to clear out from our lands, you unholy pagans. Take all your belongings with you and leave that boy to us. He's one of ours and none of your kind."

"Go on, get packing. Hey boy, you better come with us. They are not those you would associate with. They are unholy and they are the waste of the earth, I tell you."

The man who was wearing a tailcoat of some kind and wearing a large hat was motioning to the pagans to clear out their illegal encampment and move on out of the lands. I look at the pagans and then looked at that man when I suddenly decide to speak my mind.

"Who are you to judge people before others? Are you someone who is of a more supreme being than us? If you knew about my condition why didn't you render your assistance right away?"

Andy glared at the group of men armed with menacing farming tools. Those men were flabbergasted and all looked at the man in the tailcoat.

"Of course we humans are more supreme than any of them, don't you forget that boy. Better scoot over here since you are conscious, they might even turn you into a living puppet and make you do things beyond your control...!"

The man in the tailcoat hollered back, not daring to take a step forward and always maintaining about 10 to 15 feet away from the encampment.

"A human that judges another human and put them in such a derogatory position, is no better than the person whom they curse and spit on. Go before I cast a spell on you...!" Andy bellowed and the last part he made was a false remark and he even made it frighteningly realistic.

"Y-O-U...! A pagan as well...?! I should have known all along... An unholy protecting their own kind...! Bah...! You better be off by this evening or we going to rain arrows on you, git goin' now yea...?!"

The man in the tailcoat spat on the ground as he turned and ushered the scared group of men away from the scene. They thought they were dealing with 8 pagans and little did they expect a ninth to appear.

"Child, you shouldn't declare yourself as a Pagan, even if you are or aren't. The consequences are terrible and the backlash from the public is such you had seen right now."

"Are you well enough to stand on your own and walk? We could follow River Nidd here and follow downstream until we meet River Ouse. Are you sure you have made up your mind to stay with us? Won't you be afraid of constant discrimination and so on from the public?"

A lady named Wendy the weight manipulator highlighted to Andy as he nodded his head, and grimaced a lot when he tried to stand up to his feet. It took several minutes for his wobbly feet to become steady and once his light-headedness had dissipated, he walked around the small encampment and helped the rest to break camp.

Due to his unforeseen arrival, the breaking of the camp had been delayed for almost a week. Since Andy seemed fit enough, he was able to help out the rest and they welcomed an extra pair of hands even though Andy was not a Pagan himself.

From Andy's point of view, these Pagans were normal people with special abilities. They won't suddenly sprout a pair of wings, another head on their shoulders or even tentacles like an octopus and looked like minions from hell or something, would they? In fact, they looked pretty human after all and these wildest imaginations were soon pushed right at the back of his mind.

Days soon turned to weeks and then months as Andy travelled around the River Nidd with the Pagans as they offered their services to the settlers scattered around the riverbanks such as healing potions, tinctures, other medicinal and herbal pills for those who were in need without gaining any profit.

Andy respected these pagans since they neither asked for a handout but had made Andy as one of the forefront people to deal with certain precious materials once in a while of they need to get themselves some sought after provisions such as grains, salt, pepper and sugar.

As times goes by, Andy was able to fashion bows and arrows that he could sell off as well and with Michael getting him the iron minerals in sphere forms, Farah would be able to smelt them into appropriate designs so all Andy could do was just sharpen the arrowheads and sell them to hunters and bowmen.

With that two assistants, Andy was able to help the community to gain something for his services, even though he may sell those bows and arrows at quite a steal. A quiver contains about 50 arrows and he would sell them at only 3 silvers for a field broadhead tip with 3 razor-sharp fins or just 1 silver for a normal field point tip.

The bowmen from the militia were in for a sweet surprise to find that the field point tip arrowhead was able to penetrate poorly maintained or poor quality bronze and iron armour plates if they were shot directly.

However, if at an angle, it would somehow be deflected and at 1 silver for 50 arrows, the prices were quite reasonable. Andy didn't want to produce the field broadhead tip with 3 razor-sharp fins because it may put him in a mighty tight spot.

The previous arrowsmith owner that he had been an apprentice with, might find out about the similarity in design. So he would just concentrate making the arrows with a field tip which was quite common and for him earning a silver coin for a quiver of 50 arrows were quite luxurious.

With a single silver coin, the Pagans were able to stock up 25 pounds of flour to make pan-fried bread with chives, salt and animal fat as a flavouring. Whenever Andy goes to the market within the towns nearby or villages and settlements, Imelda the Ice Elementalist would accompany him.

As she was a year older than Andy, she would be like an elder sister to him and anywhere Andy goes to trade his wares in the market, especially his arrowheads, he would then buy the necessary provisions and Imelda would help him carry it back to their encampment.

While Imelda and Andy were together out doing the trade and performing some groceries shopping, Imelda would dressed up in a dark green long sleeve damask tunic, a belt and a headscarf. Even though it was simple, but it sure made a lot of heads turn.

"Imelda, you really got on a pair of nice clothes today. It seems that you look different than usual, don't you think. If only black wasn't a compulsory colour to do your err... Work, then you and the rest of the ladies would be able to wear like any other." Andy wasn't sure if he could pass that as a compliment because he seldom interacted with women much before.

"Thank you, Andy. Thanks for noticing. I hope you do like them. It was one of my old clothes in the collection inside the bundle so I would normally use this to mask our identities. Furthermore, as you can know, I am an Ice Elementalist, so basically it doesn't do much to benefit others."

"Maybe to keep cool during the hot summer days? Hehehe. I wonder how would people live in an ice-encrusted house during summer. It would be great, right? Hehehe."

Imelda laughed at the idea of people wearing winter clothes inside the house even when the weather outside was sweltering. Andy laughed along because he had never seen actual physical snow before and wondered how ice would look like.

"How does ice looked like, Imelda? I had never seen snow or such, but what I used to know was sleet when the snow comes down like rain." Andy asked innocently since he was curious about how ice was formed.

"Oh, I will show you when we get back. It is going to be fun. Imagine being cool while others were sweltering under the summer's heat. Hehehe." Imelda giggled again and continued to the market area where she chooses some greens that were not available in the wilds.

Andy had learnt much about the lifestyle and where the Pagans came to become one as they congregate from one end of town to another. As news spread, the other hiding Pagans would reappear and join the others but normally, they would just shut themselves in.

Andy also learnt that the 8 of them actually wasn't related to one another, but came from Ireland and other parts of England. But the aura of a Pagan witch could be seen through even if one was drabbed in clothing other than black.

The latest member was, of course, Imelda who had come into the group about 2 years before. She was discovered to be a witch one day when her uncle wanted to take advantage of her. She was an orphan and she stayed with her uncle and aunt.

One night, when her aunt wasn't at home and her uncle had too much beer, approached her when she was sleeping inside her room. You should have guessed what happened next...!

The moment she felt some burly hands on her that night, she screamed. And during that time she panicked and held on to the hands that were groping her.

Immediately she felt a sense of an overwhelming supreme power permeating from within her chest, and it travelled right to her hands. During that moment, all she could feel was a very calming buzzing effect and when she looked at her hands, it was glowing bluish-white at that time.

Her uncle was shocked beyond words as his hands were wrapped up with a glowing light and he was transfixed and couldn't even move his fingers and wrists at that time. He even was shocked until there was not a single sound coming out from his mouth.

The bluish-white light that permeated from Imelda's hands soon enveloped her uncle's hands right up to his elbows. When Imelda turned and rushed out of the room, she accidentally knocked into her uncle and he fell to the ground with a loud splintering crash...!

The bluish-white light that enveloped both her uncle's hands and arms were frozen solid...! She was scared out of her wits and only one thing crossed her mind — make a run for it. Her uncle that she had knocked over, fell over to his side and the splintering crash was actually made by the ice breaking.

Not just the ice broke that night, but the arms of both her uncle's broke too, leaving two bloody stumps just below the elbows. Her uncle hollered out loudly and was at a loss when he saw that he had stumps instead of hands as the icy arms broke into many pieces and no one could put it together back again...!

She fetched blanket and a dress, bundled them up and stepped over her uncle's screaming body. Without arms and hands, her uncle could not grasp in order to restrain her at all. There was no pain at the stumps, just two bloody ends near the elbow and was frozen through and that numbed the nerves pretty well.

Her uncle bellowed and hollered, and when she stepped out of the house, several of the residents were looking at her and peering inside the house to see what's the commotion about. Imelda ran helter-skelter and soon came to the end of town near the forest.

Feeling exhausted, she curled up under some overgrown bush and fell asleep. During the day, she was discovered by a gentle old lady who worked as a farmer and ushered her into the house for shelter.

At first, she kept mum about what happened and when the old lady knew what had happened, she chased Imelda out, calling her a sly fox and other names, terrified that what happened to her uncle might happen to the old lady one day.

She kept on running until she was called by a lady named Penelope, where she detected an aura of a Pagan witch that just had her awakening.

That's how she ended up with the Pagan Witches from Knaresborough Cave.