I walked barefoot along the beach, scouring the sand for shells. While I collected some, I found so many objects of far greater beauty.
What a fool Giles was for bringing Mona a shell, when if he’d just strayed a little further, he could have brought her pearls.
Before I knew it, my pockets were filled with precious stones of all colors, shapes and sizes. Other than what was obviously a giant pearl, most of them I couldn’t even put a name to. I lost all track of time. I must have walked for miles, enticed further and further away from the wall by the treasures I kept finding. It seemed like the further I strayed, the more gorgeous the jewels became.
I was brought to my senses only when I looked up at the sky and noticed its color beginning to warm. I’d been out all night. I cast my eyes back toward the direction of the gate I had exited and gauged the amount of time it would take me to get back there if I ran at full speed. Ten minutes, at most.
I still had time to bathe in the sea before I returned. I took off my clothes and placed them on the sand, careful not to let any stones fall out of my pockets. I waded into the cool sea until the water was up to my waist before diving in. I swam faster and deeper, enjoying the full stretch of my limbs.
Something smooth brushed against my foot. A dolphin surfaced in the water next to me. It was Kai. I’d spent enough time with him during my journey with Mona to recognize his features.
The dolphin nuzzled his thick nose against my chest. I wasn’t sure how to react. My first instinct was to push him away. But instead I brushed my hand along his back, the way I’d see Mona do. He stayed still in the water, relishing my touch. As soon as I stopped, he nuzzled me again.
If only the witch were so easily befriended.
Leaving the dolphin, I swam back to the beach and pulled on my clothes. As I was about to head off toward the wall, I heard an odd noise coming from behind me. The sound of someone choking. I turned round to see a young woman crawling out of the ocean about twenty feet away. Her clothes were tattered, her hair a matted mess. Cuts covered her body and face.
“H-help,” she croaked. “Ogres… escape…I… need… water…”
Her words barely registered in my head. All my mind could focus on was the blood that had begun to drip from her wounds now that she was out of the water. I walked closer, breathing in her scent. Human blood. My stomach flipped. I could barely remember the last time I’d feasted on a human.
“P-please… help…”
Within a split second, I was by her side, gripping her neck with one hand.
“N-no. Please! I need—” she squealed.
I covered her mouth and lifted her closer to me. The scent of her blood now bringing my senses into overdrive, I didn’t hesitate for another moment. I sank my fangs into her soft flesh and drank deep. With each gulp, I felt the life draining from her. I didn’t pull away until I’d sucked her dry.
Grabbing hold of the corpse’s leg, I dragged it back into the ocean. Once I’d swum into deep enough waters, I let go and watched it sink to the seabed. I hoped that some kind of ocean predator would eat the remains of her body before it managed to wash up on the shore.
Before climbing out of the water, I made sure to wash away all traces of blood. Though I supposed that I didn’t need to worry about it too much. She clearly hadn’t been a resident of our island, so I wouldn’t face banishment for killing her.
My whole body tingled with energy as I raced back to the wall. Even the pang of guilt I felt over claiming an innocent’s life couldn’t distract me from the pleasure I was experiencing. Finally, I felt fully nourished. Animal blood simply didn’t compare.
It occurred to me that the only thing stopping me from drinking from the witch up until now had been the threat of banishment. Had it not been for that, I was sure that I would have already claimed at least a litre from her. Granted, a witch’s blood wasn’t nearly as appealing as human blood, but compared to animal blood it was appetizing.
I reached the gate and knocked twice.
“I thought something might have happened to you,” the guard said as he let me back in. “We had reports of ships floating close to the island last night. You were lucky to have missed them.”
I hadn’t noticed even a single ship all night. But perhaps that was just because I’d been so absorbed in my treasure hunt. Still relishing the aftertaste of the girl’s blood in my mouth, I cast my eyes back up at the sky. If I ran, I still had plenty of time to travel to Brett’s cave and back without needing an umbrella. I whipped through the trees and arrived to see that Brett had already returned from his night duty. He lay sleeping on his bed of straw. But Brett was a man of his word. As he had promised, a new table stood at the entrance. It looked just the right size to me, and sturdier than the one I had broken.
A smile escaped my lips as I noticed a grease mark on one of the table’s legs. I ripped some moss from a rock and wiped it off.
Later that day, as evening drew close again, I walked with an umbrella toward the well. Carrying the table under one arm, I placed it directly in front of the spot Mona normally stood in to lower her bucket. I plucked two broad leaves from a tree and I spread them out on the table, emptying my pockets of the stones on top of them. After folding the leaves over the gems to form a pouch, I retreated into the forest—a different part than I had stood in last time to avoid her spotting me.
The witch approached soon after the sun had set. On reaching my gifts, she put her bucket on the ground and gazed around the forest. I had to duck and close my eyes so she wouldn’t notice me. She turned back to the gifts. I watched as she unfolded the leaves and stared down at the gems. She moved them onto the grass and examined the table, picking it up and running her hand along the wood. Then she picked her bucket up and filled it with water. Balancing it with one hand, she picked up the table with the other and made her way back toward the lake.
I felt indignant that she’d left the gems after I’d spent so many hours collecting them. I wondered whether she didn’t take them simply because she had too much to carry. I retrieved the gems and returned to my room in the tunnels.
The next evening, I placed only the package of gems in front of the well. But she ignored them again, even though it was clear that she had noticed them. The only conclusion I could draw was that perhaps she simply didn’t like the precious stones.
Rather than have them go to waste, I gave the package to the ogre. He squealed when he parted the leaves with his fat fingers.