Witch

Isidro throws himself at the troll, but the beast parries his blade with surprising skill and drives him tumbling across the ground. Cornered against a tree it cleaves through, then flat on his back with the axe rising, the boy is spared when a scatter of berries strikes the creature's snout and sends it fleeing in fright. A voice behind him orders him to stay still: the green-haired girl has arrived.

She warns Isidro, Puck, Farnese, and Casca that trolls never hunt alone and points out the horde already perched in the branches overhead. Herding everyone into the center of a clearing, she rings them with a length of rope, sets odd objects along its edge, a sandbag, a small twig, and forbids anyone to step outside it. Puck names the working as magic, and the elf riding her hat confirms plainly that the girl is a witch whose ritual will shield them.

She seals the circle by tracing a five-pointed star that hangs glowing in the air. Charging trolls slam into an unseen wall and recoil from the burning pentagram. The witch then pulls a clump of hair, blows it loose, and the strands streak toward the pack, searing them though leaving no visible wound; carrying fire magic, the hair harms beings outside the mortal world just as fire arrows harm the living. The trolls scatter. She advises the travelers to leave the region or face more raids, dismissing Isidro's boast of experience after watching how badly he fared, and walks off.

Stung, Isidro stumbles over the rope, lurches into her, and accidentally gropes her, only to realize the body he clutches belongs to a girl near his own age rather than the crone he pictured. Offended, she raps him with her staff and hypnotizes him into believing he is a chimp, leaving him to swing through the branches on the walk back, where the group meets a worried Guts and Serpico. Watching from afar, the young witch marvels that these non-magicians could see her pentagram at all, blaming an intruding Astral layer, and notes a distortion in the air that radiates only from Guts and Casca.

The witch rescues Isidro and shields the group from the troll pack with a rope circle, a floating pentagram, and hair charged with fire magic. She reveals the fundamentals of harming Astral creatures and warns the travelers to leave. After Isidro gropes her and is hypnotized, she privately observes that a strange distortion clings to Guts and Casca, and that an invading Astral layer lets ordinary people perceive her magic.

This nineteen-page chapter of the Millennium Falcon arc appeared in Young Animal issue seven on March 22, 2002. It marks Schierke's first real display of witchcraft and lays out core rules of the series' spirit lore, while hinting that her senses have already registered the supernatural mark carried by Guts and Casca.