"I wonder why the villagers are so quiet suddenly." Ella wondered out. It has been five days since the villagers have moved to the other side of the uphill and she did not hear anything about them. Gode has been living with her from a few days and her family has traveled to the east to their relatives until the storms subside.

"What is there to wonder, they must be planning to destroy lives again." Gode scowled and frankly she didn't want to care about the villagers as they are too blinded by their beliefs.

An eye blinded person has better senses than a wits blinded person.

"Ella, I have a feeling they would again look up to you for another sacrifice if needed. I suggest you take the advantage of storm and leave from here." Gode was feeling anxious for her friend again. She knew about the town head's visit to the witch and she has a slight feeling that somehow it would end on a very bad note for Ella.

"I don't think I have anything more to sacrifice apart from my breath. If they would ask for my life this time then I would just give it. If nothing else I at least would be glad this time." Ella, though knows that she had nothing to give them this time, she was still a little scared inside.

Gode did not tell anything to make her friend feel good and safe. After all, she too can sense danger coming at her in a slow pace.

"Where have you been late night yesterday?" Gode asked suddenly remembering that Ella was not in bed the last night.

"I – I went on a walk" Ella told hesitantly knowing too well that her friend would tell her that she was hallucinating again and she did not want to believe it. She knew what she was experiencing.

Gode looked at Ella suspiciously but did not dwell on it.

That night Ella yet again heard whispers of her name in her sleep. She felt light butterfly sensitive touches on her face and air playing with her loose hair. She was trying to decipher if it was a dream or real.

As the time progressed by slowly, she felt the knots of her gown loosen and soft skin touching her neck.

Was that someone's lips? She wanted to know what was happening with her but all she could see was dark. Her eyes are not making any effort of opening.

The soft lips along with the light prickly stubbles making their way from her neck to her collar bone. The feeling was so real that it was very hard to believe that she was dreaming. Her breath was coming in gasps and her hands were getting sweaty at the sudden heat rising inside her body.

She could feel the lips on her cleavage and something wet soothing the skin on top of her breast. Suddenly Ella let out a whimper when she felt a pinching sting on the top of her left breast and the sting was followed by a wet soft sponge like thing which soothed the pain away.

Ella couldn't breathe at the weird sensation in her stomach. Her stomach stirred with tickles as if a feather was touching her from inside. It was so ticklish yet so consuming. She wanted the feeling to never stop. She was enjoying it.

Enjoying the lips tracing over skin like a soldier on parade, enjoying the hand which was meandering on her slimly clothed legs and enjoying the deep husky whispers which were prompting her towards an unknown sin!

She wanted to beg for something she was not aware of but she knew she would like it. Her voice was clogged with the constant torture she was experiencing and her moans were sealed with a pair of lips into an endless pit of ecstasy.

"Ella, wake up. Wake up Ella, you are sweating" Gode shook Ella awake. With a hazy mind swirling about the enjoyment she was having earlier, she opened her eyes bright and contented.

"You are sweating, Ella? I was shaking like a dry fallen leaf with the amount of dew here. It is so cold." Ella touched her face and patted her cheeks slowly as if to check if she was really sweating.

She ran her hands on her face, her neck and on her cleavage, still feeling the tingles sparking at the mere touch. Her thoughts went back to the dream last night's intimate sensation. There was a weird sensitivity between her legs as if it was craving something to fill in the emptiness.

Was it real?

Or was she having an erotic dream?

"I do not know. I- I am sweating?" Ella touched her face again and walked towards a small mirror placed on a stool. She looked at herself in the reflection, the knots of her gown were undone and the corset in display showcasing half her breasts.

Looking over her reflection in the mirror, she was getting her senses back to normal hypnotizing her that was just an erotic dream that she was seeing almost every night from few months. But yet, to defy the possibility of dream, there was a small bluish bruise on the top of her breast as if something has bitten her there.

Or was it someone?

Ella shook her head eliminating all the silly ideas. She started saying to herself that it was a mosquito bite. She did not want to dwell on a silly futureless theory of the dream being real.

"Ella, Look!" Gode pulled Ella to the small window of her cabin and pointed out to the mass of people rowing over towards the mountains. "Seems like the rumor of town head and the villagers looking for men from the nearby village is true." She said and leaned forward to look clearly.

"But why young men? Why did the sacred witch ask for particularly eight young men?" Ella asked suspiciously. She never liked the idea of following the witch's orders. Ella did not like how the witch gives strange solutions for calamities and asks for a return of favor in terms of men. The villagers always fulfilled her wishes blindly not even trying to think for something rational.

"Kyla said that the witch got angry and asked for young men to serve her. God only knows what she would do to these men. Last time when the villagers sent few people to serve her, no one has ever seen them again and now these men are transported to the mercy of the witch. I think the witch is using them in evil witchcrafts."

Ella was feeling empathic for those people who were going to be yet another sacrifice by the heartless town. "Where are they from? I think they are not from Shadowvalor."

"No. They are not. Do you really think the town would sacrifice their family? These men are from Freyfall orphan house who were convinced to serve the witch for a better living." Ella was disgusted at the people at their rotten nature.

How can they just be so cruel!

Don't they have any emotions? Any feeling or any sentiments?

What precisely would the witch do with the men is the thought that was haunting Ella's mind. She knew that the previous slaves of the witch were never been seen again or talked of. She couldn't understand why the witch needs so many people to serve her. She was provided with tens of people and still she was been provided more and more. Where are all these people going to?

"Your sacred greatness, we are here for your esteemed mercy." Knox, the town head kneeled before the witch and held her hand with extreme care.

The eight young men who were brought as helpers stood there frozen and stunned were looking at the witch. It must be the seducing spell or the graceful feminine aura that she carries that compels men's attention solely for her.

Madonna eyed the eight from head to the toe in great interest and smiled wickedly at Knox. "I am greatly pleased them, Knox. I am very pleased." Madonna smiled naughtily at Knox and eyed the men with heated look.

"The pleasure is mine, your greatness. Now, about the –" Knox was stopped when Madonna snapped her fingers. The green vines that were hanging on the rocky walls started moving and alienated the wall in to two behind which is a mysteriously looking room.

"You get inside the room." She ordered the men with a solemn look and moved her finger in authority gesturing them to move. The men immediately stuttered into the mysterious looking without any qualms not wanting to enrage the sacred witch.

"There is a way to calm the heavens and stop the floods, Knox. But the issue here is, can you do it?" Madonna placed a finger under Knox chin and pulled him to stand. Knox has a perplexed look but soon morphed into a vicious one when he notices the witch's evil one.