Welcome to Gaia! ::

Sendora didn't falter in her incantations, though her observers were now putting forth a distinctly threatening aura. How long they had been there she wasn't sure; and the young witch berated herself for such carelessness. Be aware of your surroundings at all times, Sendora, and not just what you see and hear and smell... be aware of what's there. It was practically the first lesson pounded into her thick skull by her teacher, and she had let these two halfwits almost take her by surprise. She'd right that, however. Sendora stood - her posture not changing at all, the dark robes not stirring, the gray eyes open and shining with malice. The boy seemed to be of little importance, so little as to be amusing, but the woman could be a challenge.

A dark smirk curled her lips, and she waited.

Jay feels the tension building, he pulls the dagger from his boot. He knows he and the lady have been noticed. He feels like Zack is safe for now. He and Zack have hunted like this many times, but the prey has never been a witch before. He looks to the lady for some sign, anything, but sees her drawing on the ground. "Ok," he thinks, "this is up to me and my boy..." He leaps from limb to limb until he feels he is close enough to toss the knife if need be, but far enough away to jump and run. He uses his most discreet hand motion for Zack to lay low and be silent.

Lorelei knew her plan hadn't quite worked without even glancing. She could feel the heat from the spell aimed at her even from where she was.

"I'll take what I can get." she muttered, taking her knife and cutting a deep slash through her runes and planting her palm firmly over them. The half-finished spell caused her body to quake from the extra strain, but it cast all the same.

The ethereal energy in the ground beneath the witch began to almost bubble, threatening to erupt in streams of spiritual fire.

"Dodge or take the hit, which will it be? We both burn or we both get out unhurt.."

She hoped for the latter - it was hot enough already.

The moment she felt the slight shift beneath her feet, she knew she'd been right. The woman was the danger, and now she was offering a cry-off. ...we both burn or we both get out unhurt... which will it be?

Sendora smirked again, though the heat rising from the ground was growing more intense by the moment, and then something bounced off of her shoulder. She quirked a brow. The boy was throwing pinecones. She blinked and replayed that in her brain.

The boy was throwing pinecones. Throwing pinecones?

She wasn't sure if she felt insulted, amused, ridiculous or all of the above. Regardless, she had more pressing matters. The ground was outright shaking from the force of the other woman's spell, nearly rattling her teeth in their very sockets.

Sendora turned her hands outward with a pretty fluttering gesture toward her opponent and called out her response, her voice a lilting trill, the red flush of her palms coagulating into a single flaming sphere. "I see you're as foolish as you are arrogant. Cry off now, and I'll leave your face where it is, pretty one. Cry off, or we both go down together."

Zack runs after the pinecone. "NO ZACK!" he screams, but its too late, the retriever in him won't let it go. He darts towards it, bumping the witch then takes off back to his hiding spot. Jay jumps down now, trying to distract the witch from the direction his dog went, then flattened on the ground and seemed to disappear.

Sendora sneered and raised her hands with a slight outward push. She'd given the woman a chance to slink away, to leave her be, but it had gone unheeded. As she lowered her head, ready to let the burning mass of flame between her fingers fly, there was a sudden jolt against her legs and a shout. A flash of black startled her, and as quick as he was there, he was gone. To her left, there was a sudden rustle as the boy gracefully dropped from the trees before he also disappeared into the brush.

Sendora's soft, feminine voice was filled with irritation and anger. She didn't have time for games, though the force of the other woman's spell had been nothing to take lightly. Either way, she was done with this foolishness.

"Consider this a gift from your gods, dearest." The fire cupped in her hands disappeared and she struck her palms together with a sharp, ringing clap coupled with a guttural utterance from her throat.

And then, like mist rolls into water and sunbeams retract into shadow, she was simply gone, leaving only a vague wisp of wind.

Lorelei sighed and let the tension slip out of her body. She didn't know whether she should be thankful or irritated that Jay's antics sent the witch - her prey - teleporting off to who-knows-where.

But it was too close a call for her to feel too upset that the battle hadn't finished.

She changed her grip on her knife - slippery with her blood, and wiped it clean on the grass of the forest floor before sliding it back into place on her garter. She looked at her palm. It was a deep cut... She wondered how much pain a normal person would be in right now. The gathered spirits she was planning to use as a dispersion against the fire spell were now directed into her hand. It would speed the healing and prevent much scarring, not that she could do much more. There was already a well defined line running across her palm.

"I guess even my type has trouble healing.."

She glanced up at the man, only now acknowledging him, and took his hand with her own, still bloody.

"I'm called Lorelei."

Lorelei looked at this newcomer with half-open eyes.

"What is it, now?" she thought aloud. Why was today, what should have been an ordinary witch hunt, so weird. Had she irritated any spirits? Become the target of some mischievous fairy manipulating things around her? First a weirdo with a dog, then a witch who cornered her and then ran off, and now a strange girl hanging from a tree.

She glanced at her lacerated palm, and then clenched her fist.

"Nothing. That you should be terribly concerned about, at least." She said, holding herself back from demonstrating exactly what her self-inflicted injury could have led to. Glancing at her male compatriot, she had sudden thoughts that something of the sort may become necessary regardless.

Normal people who stumbled on magic generally weren't regarded in very kind eyes. Lord knows, she hadn't been. No spells finished casting besides the teleport, but just how much had he seen?

Lorelei sighed. She hated summer.