5. Walter - The Water Elementalist

The Pagan moved constantly from one place to another and do not plan to stay put in one place to set up a proper settlement. It is not that they do not desire to have one place to stay and build their lives but then it seems that everywhere they went, people would shun away from them.

Besides, the further they travelled downstream River Ouse, the lesser inhabitants they seemed to encounter. They knew about the hushed news of some villages being abandoned by inhabitants since they moved to other bigger towns that promised better job opportunities.

The last village they had encountered was called Adewera or Aldwark as it is known today. It was a fairly old settlement that had only 20 houses and there were a single blacksmith and a granary. Their main trade was agriculture and most of the villagers had moved on to York to begin their new life.

"You should move on downstream, heading along River Ouse, where it will merge into River Ure. There is a new settlement around there, presumably developed in late winter early this year in February, I reckon."

"Why not you all move on there? It may take a while to trek along the river, why not build yourself a small raft to get there in a much shorter time instead?"

An old villager from Adewera advised to us and she may have suspected the rest as Pagan Witches since everyone was wearing robes and long dresses in the heat of summer.

Although it was the last week of summer, and autumn was peeking just around the corner, but still she finds it awkward for everyone to be all dressed in black.

"Ah... The fall of the leaf. That's when the daytime and nighttime air cools considerably and leaves starts to change colour and fall to the ground. It would be reddish-brown and would litter around the paths and forest lands." Andy pointed out as he reminiscence of the cool days and evenings as he worked as a gong farmer, collecting these dung from the cattle and such.

The weather was just right for the outdoors and those cowpats that had been air and sun-dried would be snapped up like hot pies, albeit them being inedible. Haha.

"Granny, how far is it from here to the settlement that you had mentioned?" Andy asked with interest since he knew he would be able to ply his trade there. There are as much as 5 quivers of arrows that he had made and it would be such a waste to not sell them to bowmen.

Hunters have specific arrowheads for fishing, small game and big games like deer or wild boar so basically, those arrowheads need to be specific for them. He had another trump card but he needs to have a right place to design the arrowheads since it would be able to knock off or even knock down a knight on a warhorse.

"Ah...if you follow the river here all the way to Burghbrig, you should be able to see a small settlement just under a mile there by the riverbanks."

"It was quite a new settlement I reckon some would say but I have not seen it before. An old lady like me would just prefer to stay back in this old village, that's all."

The old villager replied and smiled at me. Her face was rather weather-beaten and her hands were pretty rough and wrinkly as she worked many years in the domestic industry. Her eyes carried a twinkle of hope and wished that she was younger and able to travel far to the settlement to see for herself.

"There's only the old folks like us left in this village here. I heard that there are about 150 or so residents living there and it was really a busy little settlement."

"I'm not sure, maybe there more residents right now. It had been some months since I heard about that settlement. Try your luck there, young man. Bring the pretty girl by your side there as well along with her parents, I reckon."

"It's definitely better than in Adewera right now. Hehehe." the old villager laughed as she saw Andy choked up when she mentioned about the pretty girl that was beside Andy right now. That pretty girl was Imelda, of course. The youngest Pagan Witch.

"Thank you so much for the valuable information, Granny. We would head downstream and most probably we would make camp before the sun goes down. Thank you once again and we pray for your good health in many more years to come."

I blessed her and we all made our goodbyes to the old villager, who seemed she had not talked with anyone much these days and watch with forlorn eyes as we stepped forward downstream from River Ouse to meet the adjoining River Ure about some 7½ miles away.

Since we had no rush in reaching our destination to Burghbrig, we merely walked slowly by the riverbanks and watched fishes splash across the surface to catch the flying insects hovering near its surface.

It was a rather idyllic life as a Pagan Witch where basically they had not much interest in worldly possession, thus they don't own a wagon, handcart or even livestock at all. All they had was a small bundle of possessions that they had used a long yellow bamboo and slung it over their shoulders.

In that bundle, it would consist of their spare clothes, and also the provisions of flour that had been split into several sacks. Actually, the sacks of flour were carried by the men and Andy.

As for Andy, he was carrying the 5 quivers made of green bamboo, a hunting bow and a sack of flour. He doesn't have any possessions at all and doesn't require so. This way, he travels very light and able to help out the ladies if the stuff they were carrying gets too heavy.

Frankly, he owed his life to them and without their help before, Andy guessed that he may have sunk to the bottom of the river and became fish feed. (because of his weighted tunic that was lined with silvers and coppers. Hahaha)

It was close to the evening as the horizons changed its colours to reddish-green and everyone stopped at the riverbank to fetch some water to make some tea. It was made from mulberry tea and also its berries and its colour was slightly reddish, like the setting sun over the horizons.

Although water is considered as relatively unclean at that time, in reality, it is a must-have water. It was boiled and then it was flavoured with tea and sugar. It was a welcoming drink as it soothes and calms one's nerves.

Besides, in case the water deemed to have smell or colour, then Walter, our Water Elementalist would be able to conjure water from the air like an atmospheric water generator in the present day.

He would readily pull these water from thin air and fill up our kettle for our own use or even from the ground to be like a small spring and into a lake.

Besides, having him around was a blessing since most times the Pagan Witches would be deep inside the forest from any peering eyes, to hide away from the public and also from the humiliation as well.

Unlike Imelda that conjures up snow and ice around her that forms through her touch or a wave of her hand, Walter had a different approach. He was able to 'see' these waves of water in front of him and around him and all he needs to do was to cast an incantation and pull or 'lasso' these waves of water around and cast it to a vessel.

If it was for a lake or a small oasis that he had made before all he need to do was to have Earl, the Earth Elementalist to manipulate the ground to have a sort of indentation or depression. From there, he could see those waves of water underground and cast an incantation to 'lasso' them and bring them up to the surface, like a spring.

The water would be there like a permanent fixture until another cast of incantations were made to release the water back into the ground.

Today, the water looks good so there was no need for Walter to conjure up his skills to gather water from the air or from the ground. Besides, these Pagan Witches were unlike those witches that use their internal energies to conjure up these special abilities.

In fact, they use their mental energies instead, that could be replenished after an hour of a power nap. This was unlike those sorcerers that require potion to replenish their spent internal energies.

Potions come in 3 sizes, mini, normal and max and there was a cool down timing after each use and was something like 5 minutes, 15 minutes and 30 minutes. In case the sorcerers used a potion before the cooling time ends, it would revert back to the last one they had consumed.

It was a troublesome feat for such sorcerers but they were rather recognised in their profession compared to the Pagan Witches. Andy knew about this because he heard from one of his friend who worked at the farmlands since his friend's great grandfather was a sorcerer before, or so it seemed.

Walter the Water Elementalist used to help the farmers to be able to source out groundwater before. He learnt water-diviner from his parents and they used a dousing stick during that time. They fused their energies with nature and 'speaks' to it from the beginning.

Normally the divining rods that were made from willow or apple twigs shaped like a 'Y' would dip to the ground when the dowsers had associated with their divining rods. However, in the case of Walter, it was much different.

He had associated his own body as a divining rod and thus he was gifted with an ability to see waves of water whenever he starts his incantation. In fact, there was water everywhere on the surface of the earth but the question is, "How deep would the groundwater be and how deep would the well be dug?"

By seeing these waves of water, he was able to stick a piece of a bamboo pole, about 6 feet deep into the ground, slowly hammered it down and then conjured up the water slowly to travel up the bamboo pole.

In this way, he was able to produce water gushing out from the bamboo pole and even control the flow of the water. He could virtually conjure water deep inside a forest, on barren and infertile lands as well as desert such as the Dungeness headland of Kent, England.

He was quite to be a remarkable person to take over his parents until one day someone pointed out that dowsing is the work of Satanism and even produced a verse from the Bible in Hosea 4:12. As a staunch Christian and being called as a worshipper of Satan was truly unbecoming.

He had no choice but flee from his village as far away as possible since the person who associated him to be doing the work of Satan was also one of his relatives. With little money on him, he ran off to remote places and offer his services to farmers for some food on a plate.

He explained to the farmers that if he was doing Satan's work, does bringing water to farmers and making their lands fertile, families, as well as livestock, was considered as evil?

The farmers agreed with him and with that he has gotten his meal for the day and also some food to be carried off with him in case he got hungry.

Moving around from one farmland to another, he was able to survive through the kindness of the farmers he had helped as one fine day, he was 'found' by Penelope and thus they congregated and moved together in a group.

Since they were moving close to a body of water, there wasn't a need to look for farmers if they need to dig up a well or find a water source for their crops at all. However, it would still be beneficial for Hendry since he needs pure water to mix with his herbs to produce medications.