Chapter 1: Matilda

a frail, malnourished, yet rather tall for his age; boy is running as fast as he can into the woods. The child looked no older than 5 years old, and his clothing was dirty and filled with holes obviously from years of wear and tare. he hadn't realized but he had already ran 2 miles non-stop which would be an incredible feat for a 5-year-old in a healthy condition. 

"Help Us"

"Help Us"

"Please Help Us"

The boy screamed at the top of his lungs his throat burning. the boy was hyperventilating and choking back his tears as he desperately tried to keep an eye out for the woman he was looking for. This woman lived in the woods outside of the village he lived in and would come down sporadically to provide medical services but the boy had never met her and only knew of her. Just as his legs seemed like they could no longer carry him forward he ran into what he thought was a tree. Falling back he looked up at the object he ran into and makes eye contact with a woman standing at least 6 ft in height, with fair skin and piercing blue eyes. Her eyes softened ever so slightly as she saw the boy crumpled on the ground.

"Are You..."

Trying to catch his breath and pick himself up off the ground the boy manages to get out his question 

"Are you the medicine woman?"

Matilda didn't expect to be found while so far from her hut. She was doing what she did every morning, collecting herbs that naturally grew in the forest when she was ran into by a child. 

"Young man, why are you in such a panic?" she asked in a nonchalant tone while towering over the child

"My mother is bleeding and she won't wake up! No one in town can help her so I need to find the medicine lady!" The boy screamed this at the top of his lungs not realizing he was now face to face with the woman he was looking for. 

"Hmmm, my services aren't cheap, and by the looks of it, a snot-nosed brat like you doesn't have much to offer." She said still unbothered by the child's disheveled appearance, lack of breath, and tears forming in his eyes.

"Please! Please! I'll give you anything! please just help me save my mom!" The boy could no longer hold back as a flood of tears and pained sobbing came flooding out of him

"Anything? Alright kid I'd say we have ourselves a deal, I'm going to hold you to that kid and my name isn't Medicine Lady it's Matilda"

Matilda without warning picked the boy up, threw him over her shoulder, and began running in the direction he came from. Matilda kept a small amount of first-aid equipment on her at all times; this was a habit she picked up over her lifetime of unexpected cuts, bites, and falls.

Without any more words spoken between the two the boy was now moving back in the direction of his village. For a while, he admired how fast he was moving, running up hills, jumping across creeks, and watching as the trees blurred by. Obstacles that slowed him down no longer felt like obstacles while riding on top of Matilda's shoulders. As he was riding out of the forest on her right shoulder, hanging like a sack of potatoes, he also noticed he was no longer in pain or out of breath. All his thoughts stopped once they started reaching the entrance of the forest and he started remembering his mother's health and that she needed help as soon as possible

When Matilda burst out of the woods with the boy on her shoulder she spotted a very run-down house near the edge of town. the roof had holes in it and the windows were boarded up. 

"Kid is this one yours?" Matilda asked as she placed him down in front of the decaying house. 

"Yes, Please Hurry!" the boy responded anxious for his mother to be treated 

As they started making their way into the house Matilda spotted 2 women standing over a bed.

When Matilda stepped inside completely it became abundantly clear that the mother was pregnant and not just with one child but two. Matilda went up to the mother to check her vital signs, her heartbeat was very weak and she was barely breathing. Matilda demanded the 2 women to grab a bucket of water a lots of towels. 

As soon as the 2 women left Matilda turned back to the mother, her eye color changing from blue to golden yellow, and began chanting "Heal-lio" under her breath. 

The boy still present was dumbfounded watching this scene but also very confused because his mother wasn't getting any better. Matilda looked perplexed as well noticing that none of the magic she was using was going toward the mother, it was all being absorbed to heal the 2 children in her womb.

Matilda turns to the boy and says

"Listen kid, your mother is pregnant and she's going to give birth any second now, I can save the babies but I can't save her."

The boy shocked by what he heard asked

"Why not... can't you save both of them"

Matilda took a deep breath and replied

"No. Do we still have a deal or do you want them both to die"

The boy still not realizing what he was agreeing to and just being told they were about to have a baby brother/sister replied frantically.

"Yes please I'll give you whatever you want please save the baby."

Before Matilda turned back to the mother she snapped her fingers and with a sharp *click* noise that filled the room the boy tumbled onto the ground. Matilda needed to put the boy to sleep as the next step was not going to be pretty. Matilda not worrying about keeping the mother alive anymore began performing a C-Section. A normal C-Section takes anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour if you are trying to keep the mother alive and not leave any lasting wounds. Matilda was done with the C-Section in 60 seconds.

The 2 women Matilda sent away came back with the water and towels. The women gasped in horror as they saw the bloody aftermath of the procedure. Before the women could fully grasp the situation, Matilda snapped her fingers together and the lights in their eyes dulled and the expression on their faces slackened. 

Matilda handed the babies to the now-hypnotized women and ordered them to clean and ready the twin girls for departure. Matilda proceeded to gather up the sleeping child and anything she could find of use from the house. She then took back the twin babies and deposited them and her findings in a wagon that she found outside.

She then turned to the two hypnotized women and said

"Look into my eyes and listen to my words. You came across this home engulfed in flames and the woman inside unable to be saved."

Matilda then turned towards the house and with her eyes changing to gold she raised her right hand up and whispered "Caleo". A flame the size of an ostrich egg appeared floating in front of her hand and with but a thought it shot away from her hand and landed on the run-down home.

Matilda not sticking around to watch her handy work picked up the front end of the wagon and began pulling it back into the forest toward her house. Once she made it home she again snapped her fingers and the spell she placed the two women under ceased. 

Matilda not caring too much now that she was home dumped the child onto her couch and took the twin girls into her bedroom.