Chapter Text
There's a cottage in the middle of the woods. It's quaint, very cute, with vines on the sides and mushrooms growing around it. Katherine's never noticed it before, so it's surprising that she noticed it now, while currently in the middle of running for her life. She'd think that the adrenaline pumping through her and the throbbing pain of the arrow embedded in her shoulder would be more distracting.
As it is, she was so busy noticing the cottage for the first time that Katherine neglected to notice the equally cute stone well directly in her path. It was honestly pretty embarrassing how she ended up running into it, saved from toppling in only by catching her hand on the beams of the wooden cover.
The moment she stopped running however, Katherine could feel the exhaustion start to catch up with her. She had no idea how long she'd been running, but the cries of her pursuers weren't that far behind. She could almost feel the snapping of their dogs at her heels, the rush of arrows around her, the torch fire crackling- No. Katherine couldn't think about that, what was behind her, or she'd never make it forward. She had to keep going.
That being said, the prospect of running more wasn't looking promising. The stars of the night were slipping away into the sunrise, sapping her strength more than any running could. Even if it wasn't, she had no hope of outrunning the dogs and the mob behind her in the daylight. Already, her fur was starting to recede, leaving her cold. Every tiny twitch seemed to jostle her injuries. Katherine knew that she can't run forever, but she certainly couldn't hesitate here any longer.
As if to prove her point, the shouting that was following her was growing concerningly loud. The hounds could be heard baying into the cool morning air. Her pursuers would clear the remaining forest between her and them in mere seconds. Katherine had to move, and move now.
It's a split second decision that Katherine makes, but she did not continue her run into the forest. Instead she swung herself into the well she's been leaning against, using all her strength to cling to the rope leading into the depths of it. Weakened and an arrow in her shoulder or not, Katherine hasn't spent time building muscles for nothing. The rope stayed strong while she hung out of sight.
Everything is muffled, hanging in a well, and Katherine worked to quiet her breathing as the sound of the mob echoed through the clearing and into the well. There was shouting of instructions she couldn't quite make out, a group thundering past her hiding place, and then someone was quite clearly pounding on what must be the door to the cottage.
Things quieted down for a moment waiting for a response before Katherine can hear more knocking. There was some clattering as well as a low murmur from the mob. Finally, a new voice made itself heard, following an audible yawn.
"Huh? What are you all doing here? I-" Another yawns cuts in. "The sun hasn't even risen yet."
The answering voice made Katherine shudder, then immediately and forcefully still herself, barely daring to breathe. She can't- She can't give the Captain any indication where she is. She wouldn't survive that a second time.
"We apologize for waking you so early. Witch." The Captain was saying, his apology, as always, lacking any sincerity. "The beast is rampaging through the area and for your own safety we have to conduct a check through your home in the case it has attempted to conceal itself here."
There was silence for a moment, broken only by the shuffling of feet and whining of dogs. Then the inhabitant of the cottage, the witch presumably, spoke again with a snort of awkward laughter. "Nice try? You're still not allowed into my house, Captain , and no 'rampaging beast' is going to change that. Besides, if it's rampaging, how is it supposed to conceal itself? That's not even a good excuse."
The Captain huffed. An actually huff, loud enough for Katherine to hear it. "I figured you would treat this without the the weight it entails. Witch." Okay, the "Witch." thing was getting kind of weird, Katherine didn't know why he kept saying it like that. "Although I expected at least some level of arcane knowledge, but you rarely fail to disappoint." That one was just rude. Katherine thought the witch deserved better than that.
This time the Captain audibly sniffed. "The beast is dangerous, with the ability to disguise itself as a beautiful woman," Katherine could have lived her entire life without hearing him say beautiful like that, that was extremely gross. "but you cannot be fooled! It is nothing but a foul beast in reality."
"Uh huh." The witch sounded unimpressed. Her voice was also getting closer. "Listen, I don't know why you woke me up this early, but I'm definitely not letting you search my house for this beast that I still don't think is real-" Katherine winced, then looked up to see the witch at the side of the well, staring straight at her. She met her golden eyes with her own dark ones and tried her best to silently plead to not give her away. The witch blinked, then turned away. "Anyways, if you're so caught up on this 'beautiful woman beast' why don't you go away and keep looking. You're wasting time talking to me about it."
The sound of the Captain walking over to the witch seemed overly loud, and Katherine held her breath as he spoke just at the well's edge. "You are right, for once, that we cannot afford to waste time, but we cannot let you get away with sheltering this danger. Witch." Katherine could see her, presumably holding the Captain's gaze. "Are you providing refuge to this beast in your home?"
Once again, Katherine could do nothing but pray that the witch didn't give her away. Everything was all over if the Captain knew she was there. There was no way she could escape from where she was.
Thankfully, Katherine was filled with gratitude, the witch shook her head. "No, there is nothing sheltered in my house." The gravity of the moment was cut when she yawned again. "Now can you please go away? I'll wait."
The witch didn't move, but Katherine could hear the Captain move away. He was shouting instructions, but the exact words were lost under the sound of Katherine's heart pounding in her ears. She lost herself to the way the rushing of blood past her ears sounded like the water below her, her eyes shut with only her grip on the rope as a connection to reality.
Eventually though, the Captain and his mob must have left, been safely away, because the witch leaned back over the well.
"Hello? Are you okay? Do you need help up?" Katherine opened her eyes at the sound of her voice, letting herself breathe again. The witch's hair was pure white, and it fell around her face like beams of moonlight. It was almost too bright against the well's shadows.
Katherine let out a shaky laugh. "I'm... I'm alright. I can get myself out." It took some effort to force open one of her hands to start climbing the rope out, but she managed. One hand at a time, she ascended up the rope, trying desperately to ignore the screaming of her shoulder as she did. It almost worked, at least until she bumped the stone on the way out, knocking at the arrow.
The breath left her body in a small cry and Katherine nearly lost her grip on the rim of the well if it weren't for the immediate wrapping of smaller hands around hers. She looked up to find the witch right in front of her, gripping her hands tightly. Her golden eyes were beautiful.
"Hang on!" The witch called, despite being right next to her. Her voice echoed through the well in a much more unique way than any of the other sounds Katherine had heard down there. Then the witch was tugging backwards and Katherine was scrabbling her way out of the well. She overbalanced slightly, landing right against the witch.
She made an adorable "Eep!" sound, but stood her ground until Katherine straightened out, blushing. She let go of her arms quickly, sticking her hands into her pockets. "You have an arrow in your shoulder! Do you need help?"
Katherine shook her head. "I'll be okay. You've done enough for me, and I should get going before you get in trouble because I'm here." She could handle taking care of the arrow. It wasn't anything new, just another scar of many. "Thank you for not ratting me out though."
"No!" She cried, before quieting quickly. "I mean, you're welcome. I'm glad I was able to help, but it was no trouble, really." She blinked, eyes straying to the arrow before returning to look deep into Katherine's. "You don't have to leave. At least let me help you with that arrow first."
"Okay." The agreement was said before she could think about it. Katherine couldn't deny that the arrow was in an inconvenient spot, but somehow she didn't think that was why she agreed. Even the general ache of her body wasn't truly at fault. It's just... It was hard to not want to spend more time with the witch.
Secretly, Katherine couldn't regret her decision when she saw the witch absolutely light up. "Great! My name's Shelby and welcome to my home."
Katherine smiled, trying not to focus too much on the way that her heart fluttered. "I'm Katherine. Thank you for sheltering me."