Pooka
' Wanda, your people have need of the Scarlet Witch. Will you help
them?' The shaman, Sven, looks inquisitively at the former Avenger.
Her brother reaches out to her, desperate.
' Little Ansel has gone Wanda, the forests are not a safe place for
him to be at night. There are too many predators out there. I need
your help, sister!' The anguish is plain in his face is plain to Wanda
but there is little she can do to save her nephew. As Scarlet Witch
she has the power to manipulate probabilities, to warp reality in the
most bizarre ways. As a witch she can summon demons and spirits and
control the forces of nature. Nothing she can do will help find the
child.
' I'm sorry Gregor. There is nothing I can do. My powers are not like
that. I am as likely to find the child as I am to do any other number
of bizarre things. I will help you search for my nephew but I can do
no more.'
Gregor is desolate. ' I thought that you would be able to help. You
are an Avenger.'
' I was an Avenger. I have left them. I cannot call upon their
resources anymore. I have said that I will help in the search for the
child but I can do no more. The longer we wait for you to accept that
the more danger that you boy is exposed to. I advise you to hurry up
and get me a torch!' Gregor starts at the severe tone of her voice but
scuttles off to gather the other gypsies.
' You sell yourself short Wanda Maximoff. The people look to you but
you will not help them.' Sven looks at her with a stern face.
' There is nothing my power can do to help. I am not a tracker or a
telepath.'
' No, you are not. You are a witch however, and your people respect
witches. Without that respect you cannot gain the power that the title
holds.'
' So I should try to find the child with my magical powers?'
' Why not. If you want me to train you, as a shaman - or as a witch,
you have to have belief in the powers that I will teach you.'
' So why don't they just ask you to do it? You are their shaman?'
' Ah yes, but you are a superhero. Next to that I pale into
insignificance.' Sven smiles as Wanda storms away.
*********************************
Ebony looks at the crowd gathered next to their caravans. He marvels
that the human race has not yet developed a more advanced set of
senses to handle these matters. Their extreme reliance on sight as a
predatory sense is astounding. Ebony stalks off into the woods,
following the scent of the child.
*********************************
The woods are dense and dark. The ground is wet and slippery under
foot. Wanda's mind is dancing in an abstract manner on how disgusted
Jan would be with the tangled mess that she is in. The villagers were
doing an excellent job of scaring the local wildlife by screaming
Ansel's name at the top of their voice. Behind her was the sobbing
shape of Gregor's wife. She was screaming the name of her lost son.
Wanda remembers her lost children but only just. Whatever Immortus did
to her had almost wiped the memories of her twins. She could remember
almost all of what had happened to them; she had reviewed that time
and time again in the Avengers archives. She could remember their
laughter - small giggles of laughter. And two round little faces. She
could also feel the hollow pit of despair that still filled her when
she had the vague memories.
She can also remember the face of her sister-in-law as they left the
gathering of caravans. The faith that she had in the power of the
Scarlet Witch was immense, even though Wanda had continued to protest
that her powers could not really help with the search. Sadly, that did
not deter the spirit of Ansel's mother as she clasped Wanda's hands
and beseeched her to help. There was nothing that Wanda could say -
she could not shatter the mother's hopes. Now she just had to look
hard and wrack her brain for a way that her magical expertise could
help find the child.
********************************
Ebony stalks through the forest undergrowth. He can smell the child
clearly up ahead and can hear the cacophony of the human search party
far in the distance. They have turned their search now and are
actually heading in the right direction - a minor miracle considering
their random technique. As he plunges through the ferns the enormity
of his approaching problem. Whilst the child was almost certainly safe
and well it is highly unlikely that he will just jump up and walk home
with a scrawny black cat. Ebony will have to try some more subtle
methods of guiding the stray back to safety.
********************************
Wanda sits on a fallen tree to catch her breath and get her bearings.
The searching men have fallen behind her - they are probably surprised
by her agility and stamina but they have never had to train with the
likes of Hawkeye and Captain America. She looks around in the
darkness. This search is forlorn. The depths of the forest have little
or no light and the torches that they are using cast a pitiful amount
of light. Even when she has used her hex powers to boost the light
coming from the torch it still didn't help. It just caused the twisted
and gnarled wood of the forest to cast even stranger shadows around
the ill-used track.
Wanda was sure that Sven was trying to help her in the search but she
was bemused as to what he meant. There was no divination in the
teachings that Agatha had given her and Sven had not yet started to
instruct her in the ways of tribal shamanism. Yet he was adamant that
there was a way that she could find the child without her hex power.
What would she have done as a child when she got lost? Well for a
start she wouldn't have got lost! Djando kept such an eagle eye on her
and Pietro. Even then, she was sure that she would have been safe. She
grins to herself. After all, she was looked after by the Pooka.
The Pooka!
***********************************
Ebony twitches his nose and shakes his tail. He hates this bit. He
likes being a cat. He has been a witches cat for as many lifetimes as
he cares to remember. When all he had to worry about was a few over
zealous clergy or some idiotic villagers everything was fine. Nowadays
everything was far too complicated . Cars and hordes of humans make
walking the streets even more dangerous than the really nasty dogs did
in the middle ages. And dear old Agatha was possibly the most bizarre
mistress a familiar could wish for. Her involvement with these
powerful humans has led Ebony into some fairly wild situations.
Nothing he cannot handle, but still quite strange. One of the things
he has been called upon to do in the past is change shape. It is not
his favourite pastime, but needs must.
Where there once stood a thin black cat, now ambled a elfin looking
dwarf.
************************************
Wanda begins to quietly chant the rhyme her mother used to lull her to
sleep with. In her hands she gently rolls some fallen nuts, the
traditional food of the Pooka. In her mind she tries to imagine the
lost child as she had last seen him. In her heart she feels for the
poor mother.
************************************
Off in the distance a shriek of joy is raised as one of the searching
men finds the lost child. All the others. including Wanda rush to his
side. Young Ansel is fine and grasps his fathers legs in joy when he
arrives. The overjoyed gypsy bends down to ask the young boy how he
found his way back to the beaten track and the boy replies that he was
guided by a Pooka. The men burst into laughter and shake their heads.
Only Wanda is truly amazed by the child's answer.
************************************
Without ceremony, Ebony changes back into his comfortable, agile and
very useful feline form. He slides into the undergrowth in search of a
hapless rodent.
************************************
Wanda embraces Gregor and Sven. They are standing by a road leading
off towards the capital of Transia. In the distance a bus is
approaching.
' You will return to us, Wanda Maximoff?'
' Yes Sven. I will be returning as soon as I have settled my business
in New York. After that I need to thank Agatha for her training and
then I will return to be with my people.'
Wanda turns to her brother. ' Look after those children of yours.
Maybe when I return I will bring their Uncle Pietro and they can meet
Luna.'
The bus pulls up and she gets onto it. She settles into her seat and
waves to the two men. She reflects that neither have tried to control
her or tell her how she should run her life. They have let her come to
her own decisions on everything. She enjoys that.
At the back of the bus, an old woman sits with a black cat curled on
her lap. She doesn't know where the stray has come from but he is
adorable. Ebony purrs and snuggles into her ample stomach.
At the edge of the woods a set of sparkling eyes peer from the
undergrowth. Pointy ears prick at the slightest sound and a tiny elfin
creature trundles back into the woods. The Pooka wonders what all the
fuss was about......
**********************************************************************
Scarlet Witch Issue #8 Wanda
travels back to the US to tell the Avengers of her final decision.
This is the finale to Wanda's quest. The answers will shock the
Avengers, the Vision, Wonder Man and you, fair reader.
**********************************************************************
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