Juniper’s Daughter: The Final War, A novel by Nick Armbrister

   Walking into a bigger town, the outskirts of which were boarded up or abandoned, a road led up to a hill. She stopped and gazed around her, to the snow covered hills rising to mountains behind them and at the houses along over the valley, before her. Her gaze washed over the town that was even further away, all different places of the same town with so many different names. People still lived there, tough folk who had endured so much.

   In the distance she noticed something very odd that sent shock waves through her soul. Pausing mid breath, she silently screamed, “No!”

   Many miles distant, a hideous sight greeted her. She had seen this before but this was still fresh, fires slowly burnt themselves out on anything combustible after the initial blast. Smoke hung over the distant town centre of Oldham some six or seven miles distant and flickering fires could be seen amongst the wasteland of what was once a town. A huge distant cloud, faintly resembling a mushroom cloud was just about visible, remnants of the event carrying fallout to kill more in a hideous radiological death. 

Immediately she knew what this was and what it stood for, what had happened.

   She had to get there now; there was only one way to do it – magic! Opening her bag she got her secret magic crystal, the key to her power in so many ways. Holding it out in front of her at arms length, she chanted incoherent incantations, age old with meaning only known to herself and her mother. With a whip crack and rush of wind Juniper’s Daughter was carried through the very air, her power compressing and changing it so she was there in seconds. Slightly dizzy and disorientated, she opened her eyes to see a ruined townscape beneath her as she held her arms out to land on the scorched earth amidst nuclear devastation. She wanted to cry at the loss of life and destruction but she channelled her energies into bringing positivity here, slighting the Devil’s hand and making way for her Mother’s influence to nourish and redeem her land again, away from the nuclear poisons.

   Her crystal glowed as she brought down magic around her, incantations away dear witch girl! Her small spell done, she walked over the rubble of blocks of houses and climbed over the black bricks and unidentifiable things. Bits of skeletons stuck out of some brick piles. No flesh, just white bone shaded in black from the fire. She picked up an arm bone and tossed it up into the air, caught it and scrutinised it. The witch knew that this was a person once. A tear ran down her cheek, she understood so clearly the loss and death at ground zero. Again it had happened; she wasn’t quick enough to stop it. Carefully she placed the bone back and said a short prayer:

   “My great Earth Mother please forgive and heal the unfortunate people who perished here, on this spot before their natural time was up. They are lost souls now and need our guidance and unconditional love. Remove all evil from this place, let peace reign and keep the Devil at bay. So mote it be.”