“Welcome, you can call me Anna.” A witch with bright eyes appeared in front of Sylvie. Her two blue eyes were as pure as water and also very eye-catching. However, what was even more mind blowing was her magical power — it was tremendous, gave off a profound and resounding feeling and seemed to hardly contain any flaws. It looked like slowly turning cube that was composed of three colors, black, white, and gray, which gathered all of the surrounding magic and twisted it into its orbit.
“Hey, my name is Lightning!” the little girl who had been flying beside the basket said. Maggie was sitting on her shoulder.
“
When all the witches of Sleeping Island had been introduced by Ashes, Wendy smilingly invited everyone to climb aboard the basket.
“This huge air sac above our head is called a hot air balloon, as long as it is provided with hot air, it will be able to take us across the mountains, and towards our destination.” She paused, turned towards Ashes before she asked, “Do you really not want to come along and take a look at Border Town? I think His Highness would also want to see you again.”
“He would not welcome a person who intended to lure away his witches,” she laughed, “I will trouble you to take care of these children.”
“Alright…” Wendy pursed her lips, looking as if she felt regretful. “Rest assured, I will treat them with care.”
“In that case, everyone pay attention” Anna reminded, “Cloud Gazer is about to rise into the sky.”
Sylvie only felt a slight tremble at her feet before the basket had already left the ground. Sticking her head over the edge, she saw Ashes and Molly waving at them. As the hot air balloon rose, the scene on the ground became smaller and smaller, soon turning the two into fingernail-sized spots — no matter what, their new life would soon begin.
It seemed that Wendy had the ability to control the wind and thus the hot air balloon which was under her control flew towards Graycastle and the mainland.
It was Sylvie’s first-time overlooking the earth from up in the sky. Even though the earth and rocks couldn’t stop her exploration, having such a large field of view available to her was nevertheless a new and odd experience. So when she tried to evoking her magic eye, she never expected the chaotic flood of scenes which came pouring into her mind — the cliffs and mountains hidden in the ocean depths, the underground rivers connected to the sea, the animals bones buried in the earth, as well as the ever-changing subterranean rock strata… Trying to arrange this flood of images Sylvie felt the onset of a splitting headache just as her magical power rapidly dropped. Hurriedly interrupting her magic eye, Sylvie sat on the ground and leaned against the basket wall, slowly trying to catch her breath.
“Are you alright?” Someone asked. Opening her eyes, she discovered that it was Wendy who was asking.
“Well, I’m merely a little… dizzy.”
“After taking a few deep breaths it will soon feel a little better,” Wendy smiled. “Many people feel uncomfortable when they leave the ground for the first time.”
“Thank you, I’m already better,” Sylvie nodded.
Along the way, the atmosphere was much more harmonious than she had initially expected, and it was exactly like Ashes had said, Wendy was full of concern for everyone and she didn’t treat them any differently because of them being newcomers. Anna, although she didn’t speak much on her own accord, would still answer in all seriousness whenever someone asked her a question. Lightning who was seemingly a very good friend of Maggie’s had a vivacious personality, and together with the fat pigeon would come into the basket from time to time to chat with everyone, not treating them as if they were strangers at all.
With Maggie being the confidant of both sides, the other four witches were gradually able to relax, one after another asking Lightning about the situation in Border Town. Later, the little girl simply hovered beside the basket, and told them stories about the fights against the demonic beasts and invaders, as well as about all of His Highness the Prince’s inconceivable invention, giving them one surprise after another.
After a little while, the hot air balloon arrived in the sky over the castle.
Just by looking at its size from high up, the town was really worthy of its name. It was both a small and remote place, with a size that was less than 1/3 of Sleeping Island’s. However contrary to what one might expect, it had a large number of townsfolk within. No matter if it was the center square, or the walls or on the river shore, everywhere she looked she could see people gathering together in crowds and groups. Traveling to and fro, they turned into a surging stream.
