Brigit's Flame February Entry #2: Witch Hole (Pt 1)
Brigits Flame February 2010 Entry #2
Prompt: A Fool and His Money
Genre: Fantasy
Word Count: 1,596
Teaser: Continued from last week- As any power grows, so too does the temptation to use it for selfish purposes.
Weirdlings 2: Witch-hole (Pt 1)
The fading red light of day poured through a hole in the earth a little over 5 feet above the crumpled heap of children. Mari massaged her neck as she craned her head upward to try and see through the opening. It was a vain effort. Empty sky and the branches of outlying trees on the edge of the woods were all that greeted her squinting scrutiny.
Maislin was right. No one would find them before darkness fell. Then the forest would have its say.
***
“Leave off, Weirdlings! You’re too close to my land!”
Cliché. That was the word Lex might have used, if he hadn’t been shouting colorful swears. Something out of a thousand stories. The whistle of the stone, the sharp sting as it bit into her temple, the trickled of warm blood down her cheek. Maislin Dawson and the cronies he called friends, plump and well dressed and stooping for more rocks to throw on a little knob of earth not far away.
You’re the villains, Maristat wanted to shout, I’ve heard this tale a hundred times. You think we’re garbage, something foul. But we’ll come back when we’re grown up and show you. We’ll be the heroes!
But Adelle was wailing and dodging flying stones the size of marbles, and Mari had no voice. Just a body to shield her friend, swift legs to reach Maislin, a fist to throw into his face before he put out Adelle’s eye. They were out in the fields, far from town or any of their parents. Let Maislin match his words with blows when throwing things from a safe distance was no longer an option. She felt Ashton tense beside her, knew they were of one mind. Leap forward, draw their damn stones for all they were worth in the seconds it would take the two Corvines to reach the three other boys. Lex would cover Adelle, and Ash and Mari would give Dawson and his pups a thrashing they would never forget.
They sprang, taking momentary flight like the birds that were their namesakes.
“Wait.”
The voice was Adelle’s, and yet not. It was richer, deeper, deadlier. It washed over Mari like a torrent of icy water, freezing her. A cat’s voice, languid and powerful. A purr. Mari’s feet were on the ground again. She turned, treading a reedy pool of dread with every move.
A startling change had come over Adelle. No longer shrinking, she stood straight and proud. Every muscle was taut and her wicked smile in place. Something like arrogance gilded its curve. Her luminous eyes locked with Maislin, a cat sighting her mouse.
***
Alexis coughed, his delicate face painted with dark smears of dirt and the tracks of rage born tears. Brown earth lined the walls around them, veined with roots and precariously crumbling. Struggle too much, and they would never get it out of their lungs. He did not struggle, or sob anymore; merely glower at his sister’s friend.
“You know,” he hissed, soft voice low with loathing, “Forest gifts don’t make a witch. Intent makes a witch, good or bad. Guess what direction your intent took you?”
***
The three boys were also waiting, stones in their ready hands. Mari had the terrible suspicion that they could not move. Adelle scowled at them, and motioned imperiously with one hand.
“Oh, drop those right now.”
She sounded like Mari’s mother, unconcerned and only slightly agitated, with little thought that her orders would not be obeyed. Mari watched her stride past, and heard the clattered of stones hitting the ground behind her. She turned her attention back to Maislin and his bunch, which Adelle had reached.
The pale girl’s white blond hair floated on a ghostly wind, or maybe the charge of her own power. She approached Maislin fearlessly, and well she might. Her opponent’s puffy face was a frozen mask of horrible fascination. He couldn’t take his watery eyes off her.
“Maislin?” she asked, drawing a coy hand along his chin. The other child shuddered, but remained still. “Do you think I’m pretty?”
“Y-yes!”
Maislin sounded startled, but over which part, Maristat could not tell; that he was speaking, what he was saying, maybe even that he meant it. She felt the breeze stir beside her and heard Ashton’s hissing intake of breath. Behind them, Lex let out exhaled his own breath not seconds after. Quietly, she sensed him closing the ground between them. She could not take her eyes from Maislin, and the pitiable terror written across his face.
“Thank you for your honesty, Maislin.”
Adelle continued speaking, focused on stoking the fires of her power. A cloud blotted out the June sun, and the air grew cooler. The waving wheat of the common plot thrashed in a wind rolling out of the forest.
“I think that’s the real reason you were throwing rocks, Maislin. You think I’m pretty, and you wanted my attention. Well, there are nicer ways to tell me how much you like me.”
Her head snapped about with the swiftness of an adder to glare down the other two boys.
“Leave. I don’t want either of you.”
They fled, whimpering, across the fields towards town and abandoning their leader to his fate. Adelle’s gaze returned to Maislin. Though her back was to Maristat, the smile was audible in her voice.
“Now as I was saying, Maislin, there are better ways to show me how pretty you think I am. I have always thought your sister’s jade stone cameo ribbon would match my eyes beautifully. If you really want to show me how much you love me, you’ll give it to me.”
***
“It’s no use us fighting amongst ourselves. We’ll deal with how foolish this was after we get out of here.”
Ashton bit his lip and stared up at the deepening sky. This whole little set up was a clever idea, one he would have to warn his father about. He hoped he would get the chance. Weirdlings or no, the forest still might eat them.
He didn’t really believe that; at least he hadn’t while the bright light of day had been flooding the hole. Now that night was teasing the edges of their window to the world, he hoped he was right. His father still lost hunters to the woods, and the Woodsman of Verden was considered king of the weirdlings by many. Some of the forest spirits just had no use for human beings, even if they were half their own.
The eaves of forest overhung the hole, branches swaying in the air of early evening. Ash wondered if they were reaching, grasping for the children caught in the snare of earth.
***
Maislin shook himself, brown eyes clearing and hardening. This is it, thought Mari, almost relieved. None of us can hold that kind of power for long. We’re not meant to. Now, Maislin will run screaming for his father and we’ll have to deal with the consequences. At least it would be over.
Nothing could be worse than what she was feeling now. She thought she had found a friend, like Ash had in Ruston. But she hardly knew Adelle. This proved it.
“I have something better, Adelle.”
Mari’s jaw dropped. Was Maislin still witched? Ashton put a hand on her shoulder, shook his head, nodded to Lexi. Something was wrong. The three Corvines closed ranks and approached where Adelle stood with her back to them. The cloud passed from the sun and drifted aimless through the robin’s egg sky. But for the witchcraft, this would have seemed an innocent summer afternoon.
“My family’s treasure. I want to give it to you, a pledge that we’ll be married someday,” Maislin was saying. Adelle’s response sounded tremulous.
“Mari!” she turned, green eyes alight and smile radiant, a virgin blush raising to her cheeks. “Do you hear that? He’s completely smitten with me!”
She crossed to Maristat and grasped both her hands, still beaming all the while. She talked of Maislin as if he weren’t even there. It was her own power that she was infatuated with.
Lex narrowed his eyes and cocked his head at the girl, unimpressed. He opened his mouth, and Mari could feel the rebuke about to break over her new friend like thunder. A slight flick of Ash’s hand, and Lex closed his lips. Ash shook his head again, a warning that Alexis’s tact wouldn’t work. Their communication was brief but potent, a language secret even from other weirdlings. Raven talk, they called it. Mari was never more grateful for it than now.
Ashton spoke to his sister’s friend, soft and cajoling.
“Adelle, something is wrong here. I understand how you feel. Believe me, I want to see these curs pay for our suffering sometimes, too. But this is not the way and it all smells wrong now, any rate.”
“Oh, Ash, you worry too much! You should be happy for me on my engagement day,” Adelle’s smile was undaunted. Ash frowned in response.
“And are you content in your heart to steal?”
Now Adelle’s mouth flattened, and she furrowed her brow at Ash. Mari imagined she didn’t much like being called a thief. But the truth of her brother’s words were undeniable.
“Adelle, are you coming?” Maislin called. “I can’t wait to give it to you!”
Mari’s heart sank as her friend’s smile returned, now with an ugly smirking quality to it.
“You know what they say, Ash. A fool and his money are soon parted.”
(continued next week)
previous chapter- Weirdlings
next chapter- Weirdlings 2: Witch Hole (pt 2)
Prompt: A Fool and His Money
Genre: Fantasy
Word Count: 1,596
Teaser: Continued from last week- As any power grows, so too does the temptation to use it for selfish purposes.
Weirdlings 2: Witch-hole (Pt 1)
The fading red light of day poured through a hole in the earth a little over 5 feet above the crumpled heap of children. Mari massaged her neck as she craned her head upward to try and see through the opening. It was a vain effort. Empty sky and the branches of outlying trees on the edge of the woods were all that greeted her squinting scrutiny.
Maislin was right. No one would find them before darkness fell. Then the forest would have its say.
***
“Leave off, Weirdlings! You’re too close to my land!”
Cliché. That was the word Lex might have used, if he hadn’t been shouting colorful swears. Something out of a thousand stories. The whistle of the stone, the sharp sting as it bit into her temple, the trickled of warm blood down her cheek. Maislin Dawson and the cronies he called friends, plump and well dressed and stooping for more rocks to throw on a little knob of earth not far away.
You’re the villains, Maristat wanted to shout, I’ve heard this tale a hundred times. You think we’re garbage, something foul. But we’ll come back when we’re grown up and show you. We’ll be the heroes!
But Adelle was wailing and dodging flying stones the size of marbles, and Mari had no voice. Just a body to shield her friend, swift legs to reach Maislin, a fist to throw into his face before he put out Adelle’s eye. They were out in the fields, far from town or any of their parents. Let Maislin match his words with blows when throwing things from a safe distance was no longer an option. She felt Ashton tense beside her, knew they were of one mind. Leap forward, draw their damn stones for all they were worth in the seconds it would take the two Corvines to reach the three other boys. Lex would cover Adelle, and Ash and Mari would give Dawson and his pups a thrashing they would never forget.
They sprang, taking momentary flight like the birds that were their namesakes.
“Wait.”
The voice was Adelle’s, and yet not. It was richer, deeper, deadlier. It washed over Mari like a torrent of icy water, freezing her. A cat’s voice, languid and powerful. A purr. Mari’s feet were on the ground again. She turned, treading a reedy pool of dread with every move.
A startling change had come over Adelle. No longer shrinking, she stood straight and proud. Every muscle was taut and her wicked smile in place. Something like arrogance gilded its curve. Her luminous eyes locked with Maislin, a cat sighting her mouse.
***
Alexis coughed, his delicate face painted with dark smears of dirt and the tracks of rage born tears. Brown earth lined the walls around them, veined with roots and precariously crumbling. Struggle too much, and they would never get it out of their lungs. He did not struggle, or sob anymore; merely glower at his sister’s friend.
“You know,” he hissed, soft voice low with loathing, “Forest gifts don’t make a witch. Intent makes a witch, good or bad. Guess what direction your intent took you?”
***
The three boys were also waiting, stones in their ready hands. Mari had the terrible suspicion that they could not move. Adelle scowled at them, and motioned imperiously with one hand.
“Oh, drop those right now.”
She sounded like Mari’s mother, unconcerned and only slightly agitated, with little thought that her orders would not be obeyed. Mari watched her stride past, and heard the clattered of stones hitting the ground behind her. She turned her attention back to Maislin and his bunch, which Adelle had reached.
The pale girl’s white blond hair floated on a ghostly wind, or maybe the charge of her own power. She approached Maislin fearlessly, and well she might. Her opponent’s puffy face was a frozen mask of horrible fascination. He couldn’t take his watery eyes off her.
“Maislin?” she asked, drawing a coy hand along his chin. The other child shuddered, but remained still. “Do you think I’m pretty?”
“Y-yes!”
Maislin sounded startled, but over which part, Maristat could not tell; that he was speaking, what he was saying, maybe even that he meant it. She felt the breeze stir beside her and heard Ashton’s hissing intake of breath. Behind them, Lex let out exhaled his own breath not seconds after. Quietly, she sensed him closing the ground between them. She could not take her eyes from Maislin, and the pitiable terror written across his face.
“Thank you for your honesty, Maislin.”
Adelle continued speaking, focused on stoking the fires of her power. A cloud blotted out the June sun, and the air grew cooler. The waving wheat of the common plot thrashed in a wind rolling out of the forest.
“I think that’s the real reason you were throwing rocks, Maislin. You think I’m pretty, and you wanted my attention. Well, there are nicer ways to tell me how much you like me.”
Her head snapped about with the swiftness of an adder to glare down the other two boys.
“Leave. I don’t want either of you.”
They fled, whimpering, across the fields towards town and abandoning their leader to his fate. Adelle’s gaze returned to Maislin. Though her back was to Maristat, the smile was audible in her voice.
“Now as I was saying, Maislin, there are better ways to show me how pretty you think I am. I have always thought your sister’s jade stone cameo ribbon would match my eyes beautifully. If you really want to show me how much you love me, you’ll give it to me.”
***
“It’s no use us fighting amongst ourselves. We’ll deal with how foolish this was after we get out of here.”
Ashton bit his lip and stared up at the deepening sky. This whole little set up was a clever idea, one he would have to warn his father about. He hoped he would get the chance. Weirdlings or no, the forest still might eat them.
He didn’t really believe that; at least he hadn’t while the bright light of day had been flooding the hole. Now that night was teasing the edges of their window to the world, he hoped he was right. His father still lost hunters to the woods, and the Woodsman of Verden was considered king of the weirdlings by many. Some of the forest spirits just had no use for human beings, even if they were half their own.
The eaves of forest overhung the hole, branches swaying in the air of early evening. Ash wondered if they were reaching, grasping for the children caught in the snare of earth.
***
Maislin shook himself, brown eyes clearing and hardening. This is it, thought Mari, almost relieved. None of us can hold that kind of power for long. We’re not meant to. Now, Maislin will run screaming for his father and we’ll have to deal with the consequences. At least it would be over.
Nothing could be worse than what she was feeling now. She thought she had found a friend, like Ash had in Ruston. But she hardly knew Adelle. This proved it.
“I have something better, Adelle.”
Mari’s jaw dropped. Was Maislin still witched? Ashton put a hand on her shoulder, shook his head, nodded to Lexi. Something was wrong. The three Corvines closed ranks and approached where Adelle stood with her back to them. The cloud passed from the sun and drifted aimless through the robin’s egg sky. But for the witchcraft, this would have seemed an innocent summer afternoon.
“My family’s treasure. I want to give it to you, a pledge that we’ll be married someday,” Maislin was saying. Adelle’s response sounded tremulous.
“Mari!” she turned, green eyes alight and smile radiant, a virgin blush raising to her cheeks. “Do you hear that? He’s completely smitten with me!”
She crossed to Maristat and grasped both her hands, still beaming all the while. She talked of Maislin as if he weren’t even there. It was her own power that she was infatuated with.
Lex narrowed his eyes and cocked his head at the girl, unimpressed. He opened his mouth, and Mari could feel the rebuke about to break over her new friend like thunder. A slight flick of Ash’s hand, and Lex closed his lips. Ash shook his head again, a warning that Alexis’s tact wouldn’t work. Their communication was brief but potent, a language secret even from other weirdlings. Raven talk, they called it. Mari was never more grateful for it than now.
Ashton spoke to his sister’s friend, soft and cajoling.
“Adelle, something is wrong here. I understand how you feel. Believe me, I want to see these curs pay for our suffering sometimes, too. But this is not the way and it all smells wrong now, any rate.”
“Oh, Ash, you worry too much! You should be happy for me on my engagement day,” Adelle’s smile was undaunted. Ash frowned in response.
“And are you content in your heart to steal?”
Now Adelle’s mouth flattened, and she furrowed her brow at Ash. Mari imagined she didn’t much like being called a thief. But the truth of her brother’s words were undeniable.
“Adelle, are you coming?” Maislin called. “I can’t wait to give it to you!”
Mari’s heart sank as her friend’s smile returned, now with an ugly smirking quality to it.
“You know what they say, Ash. A fool and his money are soon parted.”
(continued next week)
previous chapter- Weirdlings
next chapter- Weirdlings 2: Witch Hole (pt 2)