Brigit's Flame February Entry #3: Witch Hole (Pt 2)
Brigits Flame February 2010 Entry #3
Prompt: If It Ain't Broke . . .
Genre: Fantasy
Word Count: 2,262
Teaser: Continued from last week- Four children await their fate, trapped on the edge of a haunted forest as night falls.
Weirdlings 3: Witch-hole (Pt 2)
“Wait right there. If I am to convince my parents that you are a worthy bride, Adelle, I must prove that you respect our secrets. We Dawsons are among the richest families in the village, and must protect ourselves from those who are jealous of our wealth.”
Maislin stopped the four other children halfway across the small clearing, then made great pretense of rooting about under a waxy leafed shrub on the edge of the woods. Clods of dirt flew over his shoulder, and he reminded Maristat of a dog worrying at a hidden bone. A laboring dog at that. From the grunts of exertion ensuing, it appeared that whatever buried treasure Maislin was tugging at was not eager to be pulled from the earth. Small wonder, considering Adelle was stealing it.
A much belated abashment seemed to be coming over her friend, the afore-mentioned “bride to be”. Good. Mari tucked a wisp of dark hair behind her ear and cast a shadowed glance in Adelle’s direction. The other girl shifted nervously from one foot to the other, boldness of her actions wilting under the withering glares of both of Maristat’s silent brothers. She hoped, too, that her friend was feeling the bite of guilt. Maislin was only digging up his family prize because Adelle witched him out of his wits. The sooner she realized it, the sooner they could leave this awful mess behind. Maislin could be a prat, but seeing him behave like Adelle’s spaniel turned Mari’s stomach.
“It was wise of your parents to bury something so important on the border of the forest,” Adelle ventured at length, a hint of timidity creeping into her voice. Maislin made no response, but continued his huffing and puffing battle with the bushes. Adelle wound a strand of pale hair around her fingers and glanced back to the Corvines for encouragement. Ash just glowered at her, and Lex gave a terse shake of his head.
“This is your debacle, Adelle Scarlett. Don’t you dare look to us, or Mari, to get you out of it. You’re lucky we didn’t leave you alone to figure out how to undo it yourself. So help me, though, if you take his treasure we will walk away. And we’ll drag Mari if she doesn’t have the moral fortitude to come of her own accord.”
Mari was about to respond, though with what she was not entirely sure, when Maislin crowed in triumph.
“Got it!”
Mari looked over to see him give a colossal yank on what was now visible as a thick hempen rope, and Ashton cried out. It dawned five minutes too late that something was very wrong.
Fissures erupted from the earth in a narrow line from the bush into the clearing, like a snake burrowing just beneath the ground. Grass exploded into the air as the buried rope shook off its loose covering and more of it became visible pulling free of the soil. Mari was dimly aware of Ashton grabbing one of her jerkin sleeves and Adelle clinging desperately to the other. Then the world opened up under them, and everyone was screaming.
***
The first thing Alexis became conscious of was a succession of piercing pains striking different parts of his already sore head. Groaning and rustling gradually faded in around him, punctuated by yelps from his fellows in misery. His long lashes parted as he fluttered his eyelids open with no small degree of effort. His reflexes were still intact, at least; he managed to dodge the small projectile he spied whizzing down at him not seconds after he opened his eyes. It came from the flood of light more than one and a half times his height above him. A hole in the earth. He, his brother and sister, and that thrice cursed Adelle were in a pit. He scrambled to his feet and hazarded a glance up.
Maislin Dawson hovered over them, dropping pebbles into the pit with a lazy smile on his ruddy face. Seeing Alexis struggle to stand, he paused and let the last pebble drop skittering down the earthen walls of the large pit. Lex dodged it easily with a scowl on his upturned face.
“Alright, Dawson, you’ve had your fun. Caught us fair proper and humiliated the woodsman’s children. You can tell the whole village how Henri Strander’s cursed brood lack not only his last name but his woodcraft as well. I didn’t even see your wolf snare.”
He strained to be amicable. Behind him, Ash was stirring and Mari was inquiring of Adelle if anything was broken. He almost hoped something was. From the bent of his sick grin to the fire in eyes, Maislin wasn’t in a mood for making up. Adelle scared him good and he meant to have payback.
“Wolf snare?” the other boy sneered, “No, you got it all wrong, Curse-Name Corvine. That’s what my father uses this for. Me, I like to call it my witch hole.”
Adelle was sobbing in earnest now.
“Ugh! Is she really hurt, Mari, or is she just wailing for effect?” Ashton snapped, propping himself up to a sitting position and rubbing his shoulder. “More importantly, did you survive Maislin’s little joke relatively unharmed? For every bone broken on you or Lex, I’ll break one of Dawson’s.”
Maislin’s unconcerned chuckle floated down, and Maristat fairly growled in response.
“We have some pretty nasty scrapes and have each watered a considerable bit of Dawson land with our blood, but nothing seems to be broken. Lex?”
“Lucky for Dawson, no.”
Lex gave his brother a toothy grin he didn’t really feel and returned his attention to their captor.
“See Dawson, no one’s seriously hurt and you’ve got an excellent one over on us. You have bragging rights but no reason for any adult to truly reprimand you. Boys sport, that’s all.
So let us out. I know wolf snares- once I’m in them, at any rate. If your da makes a good one, even a limber wolf won’t be able to claw its way out,” he coughed a bit, part genuine and part for effect. “The dirt’s loose in this part of the fields, marvelously unwholesome for the lungs if you breathe too much in. Be a mate, untie that rope from the trap, and toss it down to us. I’ll even stand you something at Foster’s.”
“Oh, don’t you talk about Foster’s!” Maislin hurled a larger stone down, sending them all scrabbling for cover. It was cruel slate, shattering on impact even with this soft earth, and they shielded their faces. Ash lunged out to cover Adelle. The luminous girl trembled violently.
“By all the powers, Maislin! I know Adelle did you an ill turn, and I’ll speak to my father of it; but with you so determined to blind her one way or another, I’m starting not to blame her!”
“You wouldn’t, would you?” Maislin’s face purpled in rage. He was now fairly howling down at them. “Handsome Ashton Corvine, with your mystic father who brings so much to the village! Flies in the face of the Creator’s order, invites freakish creatures like you into our cradles,” his face contorted with hatred, “let’s the blood of good men sate his evil forest, and still those addled elders let him live!
For what? So his demon friends let a select few into their haunted wood for twigs and an occasional gamey deer? We were fine without your father’s madness! Without you monsters walking in human form. Without entry to the thrice damned forest!”
“How would you know?” Ash fired back, “You weren’t even born yet, and neither were we. You can’t say my da doesn’t make things better around here!”
“Benjamin Foster could!” Maislin screamed, his growing male voice breaking under the strain of his emotions. “He was my cousin, and he could, ‘cept that he’s dead. He followed your father into those evil woods, and they ate him up. And your da let them!”
He launched a torrent of debris down into the hole. The captive children covered their heads, crying out and coughing as projectiles rained painfully down and dust invaded their noses and mouths. Maislin continued to rail.
“Now this bitch, this deceitful, unnatural mongrel thing, tries to witch my sister out of her jewels and me into her clutches!”
“So what, Maislin?” Maristat snarled, brushing dirt off Adelle and herself, “You’ll call us and ours murderers while you bury us alive! You hypocrite!”
Her accusation made Maislin pause. Even from this distance, Lex could see doubt emerge in the brown-grey puddles of Dawson’s eyes. But that was quickly enveloped by the light of a new nasty idea.
“Naw, Mari. I’ll not have blood on my hands. I’m not like you weirdlings. We’ll let your precious forest decide. You’re just within the boundaries, technically. What is your father’s rule? Never go there at night, not without a trained woodsman. Obvious enough none of you qualify. I’ll come back in the morning, and set you free- if you’re still here. Feel free to scream yourselves hoarse, though. Or attempt escape on your own. You’ll find my father’s trap is good, and far enough that no one is ever bothered by the howls of creatures stupid enough to get caught in it.”
Already he was backing away, lost from view by the time his last words reached their ears. Lex felt the waters of mute frustration welling up hot from the depths of his raven dark eyes.
***
“The forest won’t really hurt us, will it? We come from there. Maybe they will even take us back with them!”
It was the first time that Adelle ventured to add her own voice to their plight. It was breathy, barely above a whisper. Mari was reassured, at least, that her friend appeared back to normal. To bad she had no understanding of the way of things.
The rich indigo of twilight slowly soaked and deepened the blush of the sunken sun overheard. The earthen walls were cool around them, and Lexi was shivering with chill. His reprimands dried on his tongue as his impotent, angry tears dried on his cheeks. Ashton ceased his contemplation of the lattice of branches above the northern edge of the hole and regarded Adelle. His face was soft, and something of a weary compassion limned his eyes.
“Do you hate your lot in life that much, Adelle?”
“Oh yes,” she hissed, the sound of acid on her pink lips, “as you have seen my sister, how could you doubt it? Beautiful, perfect Circe, who barely acknowledges she has a sister, let alone a twin. I drink in the intimacy of you three like the wine of envy.”
“But surely, your parents-,” Ash fumbled. Mari knew what he was feeling. The same stumbling disbelief fell from her mouth when Adelle first shared these sentiments with her. The closeness she shared with her brothers came so naturally that she took it for granted all siblings must be so, and doubly those who shared a birth.
Adelle rolled her glowing green eyes.
“Your mother, Ashton? You have a father, at least; but how does your mother look at you? Does she see her son, or a counterfeit, a weirdling? It is that way with both my parents. Why should I not hate them, resent them all? I am more powerful than they are, see the world in ways they cannot even begin to comprehend. They should treasure me. But they revile me.”
Ashton sucked his breath in between his teeth, Lex looked positively disgusted, even Mari suppressed a shudder huddled in the growing dark with Adelle’s vitriol. Perhaps what repulsed them the most was that Adelle was not given voice to anything they had not themselves felt, at one time or another. In the shadows of their hearts, the murky pools no one but they themselves beheld, Mari knew these thoughts lurked and whispered.
But even as she sickened with a momentary self loathing at the ugly mirror Adelle’s words held to her own soul, there was something of gladness as well. Adelle would pass through this, like she and her brothers had to. It was only taking her more of time because she had no father like they did to guide her out of the cold tunnels of hate and arrogance. She would take Adelle to Henri her father. Da would help her to understand, to let go of all the bad feelings and love the world.
Dirt shifted and tumbled into the pit, interrupting her reverie and jarring the others out of the uncomfortable silence that followed Adelle’s declarations. Mari started, her head snapping up. Night had enveloped the world while they spoke, and stars were visible in the fabric of the black sky. Silhouetted against the firmament was the dark form of a man.
She choked back a gasp, feeling Adelle grip her arm like an iron band. Ashton was back on his feet in an instant, and Lex called up to the figure, daring words of hope.
“Father? Is that you?”
No answer was forthcoming.
“Uncle Gwyn?”
The shadow disappeared.
“Mr. Walsh?”
Something hurtled into the pit, uncoiling as it fell to reveal a cord of sturdy wisteria by the time it reached the bottom. Ashton, being the most grown, gave it a tug to assure it would bare his weight. The cord went taut, but held. The figure reappeared and called down to him.
“Woodsman’s son, you and your friends should make haste. Only fools trespass at this hour.”
(concluded next week)
previous chapter- Weirdlings 2: Witch Hole (Pt 1)
next chapter- Weirdlings 4: Forest Lord
Prompt: If It Ain't Broke . . .
Genre: Fantasy
Word Count: 2,262
Teaser: Continued from last week- Four children await their fate, trapped on the edge of a haunted forest as night falls.
Weirdlings 3: Witch-hole (Pt 2)
“Wait right there. If I am to convince my parents that you are a worthy bride, Adelle, I must prove that you respect our secrets. We Dawsons are among the richest families in the village, and must protect ourselves from those who are jealous of our wealth.”
Maislin stopped the four other children halfway across the small clearing, then made great pretense of rooting about under a waxy leafed shrub on the edge of the woods. Clods of dirt flew over his shoulder, and he reminded Maristat of a dog worrying at a hidden bone. A laboring dog at that. From the grunts of exertion ensuing, it appeared that whatever buried treasure Maislin was tugging at was not eager to be pulled from the earth. Small wonder, considering Adelle was stealing it.
A much belated abashment seemed to be coming over her friend, the afore-mentioned “bride to be”. Good. Mari tucked a wisp of dark hair behind her ear and cast a shadowed glance in Adelle’s direction. The other girl shifted nervously from one foot to the other, boldness of her actions wilting under the withering glares of both of Maristat’s silent brothers. She hoped, too, that her friend was feeling the bite of guilt. Maislin was only digging up his family prize because Adelle witched him out of his wits. The sooner she realized it, the sooner they could leave this awful mess behind. Maislin could be a prat, but seeing him behave like Adelle’s spaniel turned Mari’s stomach.
“It was wise of your parents to bury something so important on the border of the forest,” Adelle ventured at length, a hint of timidity creeping into her voice. Maislin made no response, but continued his huffing and puffing battle with the bushes. Adelle wound a strand of pale hair around her fingers and glanced back to the Corvines for encouragement. Ash just glowered at her, and Lex gave a terse shake of his head.
“This is your debacle, Adelle Scarlett. Don’t you dare look to us, or Mari, to get you out of it. You’re lucky we didn’t leave you alone to figure out how to undo it yourself. So help me, though, if you take his treasure we will walk away. And we’ll drag Mari if she doesn’t have the moral fortitude to come of her own accord.”
Mari was about to respond, though with what she was not entirely sure, when Maislin crowed in triumph.
“Got it!”
Mari looked over to see him give a colossal yank on what was now visible as a thick hempen rope, and Ashton cried out. It dawned five minutes too late that something was very wrong.
Fissures erupted from the earth in a narrow line from the bush into the clearing, like a snake burrowing just beneath the ground. Grass exploded into the air as the buried rope shook off its loose covering and more of it became visible pulling free of the soil. Mari was dimly aware of Ashton grabbing one of her jerkin sleeves and Adelle clinging desperately to the other. Then the world opened up under them, and everyone was screaming.
***
The first thing Alexis became conscious of was a succession of piercing pains striking different parts of his already sore head. Groaning and rustling gradually faded in around him, punctuated by yelps from his fellows in misery. His long lashes parted as he fluttered his eyelids open with no small degree of effort. His reflexes were still intact, at least; he managed to dodge the small projectile he spied whizzing down at him not seconds after he opened his eyes. It came from the flood of light more than one and a half times his height above him. A hole in the earth. He, his brother and sister, and that thrice cursed Adelle were in a pit. He scrambled to his feet and hazarded a glance up.
Maislin Dawson hovered over them, dropping pebbles into the pit with a lazy smile on his ruddy face. Seeing Alexis struggle to stand, he paused and let the last pebble drop skittering down the earthen walls of the large pit. Lex dodged it easily with a scowl on his upturned face.
“Alright, Dawson, you’ve had your fun. Caught us fair proper and humiliated the woodsman’s children. You can tell the whole village how Henri Strander’s cursed brood lack not only his last name but his woodcraft as well. I didn’t even see your wolf snare.”
He strained to be amicable. Behind him, Ash was stirring and Mari was inquiring of Adelle if anything was broken. He almost hoped something was. From the bent of his sick grin to the fire in eyes, Maislin wasn’t in a mood for making up. Adelle scared him good and he meant to have payback.
“Wolf snare?” the other boy sneered, “No, you got it all wrong, Curse-Name Corvine. That’s what my father uses this for. Me, I like to call it my witch hole.”
Adelle was sobbing in earnest now.
“Ugh! Is she really hurt, Mari, or is she just wailing for effect?” Ashton snapped, propping himself up to a sitting position and rubbing his shoulder. “More importantly, did you survive Maislin’s little joke relatively unharmed? For every bone broken on you or Lex, I’ll break one of Dawson’s.”
Maislin’s unconcerned chuckle floated down, and Maristat fairly growled in response.
“We have some pretty nasty scrapes and have each watered a considerable bit of Dawson land with our blood, but nothing seems to be broken. Lex?”
“Lucky for Dawson, no.”
Lex gave his brother a toothy grin he didn’t really feel and returned his attention to their captor.
“See Dawson, no one’s seriously hurt and you’ve got an excellent one over on us. You have bragging rights but no reason for any adult to truly reprimand you. Boys sport, that’s all.
So let us out. I know wolf snares- once I’m in them, at any rate. If your da makes a good one, even a limber wolf won’t be able to claw its way out,” he coughed a bit, part genuine and part for effect. “The dirt’s loose in this part of the fields, marvelously unwholesome for the lungs if you breathe too much in. Be a mate, untie that rope from the trap, and toss it down to us. I’ll even stand you something at Foster’s.”
“Oh, don’t you talk about Foster’s!” Maislin hurled a larger stone down, sending them all scrabbling for cover. It was cruel slate, shattering on impact even with this soft earth, and they shielded their faces. Ash lunged out to cover Adelle. The luminous girl trembled violently.
“By all the powers, Maislin! I know Adelle did you an ill turn, and I’ll speak to my father of it; but with you so determined to blind her one way or another, I’m starting not to blame her!”
“You wouldn’t, would you?” Maislin’s face purpled in rage. He was now fairly howling down at them. “Handsome Ashton Corvine, with your mystic father who brings so much to the village! Flies in the face of the Creator’s order, invites freakish creatures like you into our cradles,” his face contorted with hatred, “let’s the blood of good men sate his evil forest, and still those addled elders let him live!
For what? So his demon friends let a select few into their haunted wood for twigs and an occasional gamey deer? We were fine without your father’s madness! Without you monsters walking in human form. Without entry to the thrice damned forest!”
“How would you know?” Ash fired back, “You weren’t even born yet, and neither were we. You can’t say my da doesn’t make things better around here!”
“Benjamin Foster could!” Maislin screamed, his growing male voice breaking under the strain of his emotions. “He was my cousin, and he could, ‘cept that he’s dead. He followed your father into those evil woods, and they ate him up. And your da let them!”
He launched a torrent of debris down into the hole. The captive children covered their heads, crying out and coughing as projectiles rained painfully down and dust invaded their noses and mouths. Maislin continued to rail.
“Now this bitch, this deceitful, unnatural mongrel thing, tries to witch my sister out of her jewels and me into her clutches!”
“So what, Maislin?” Maristat snarled, brushing dirt off Adelle and herself, “You’ll call us and ours murderers while you bury us alive! You hypocrite!”
Her accusation made Maislin pause. Even from this distance, Lex could see doubt emerge in the brown-grey puddles of Dawson’s eyes. But that was quickly enveloped by the light of a new nasty idea.
“Naw, Mari. I’ll not have blood on my hands. I’m not like you weirdlings. We’ll let your precious forest decide. You’re just within the boundaries, technically. What is your father’s rule? Never go there at night, not without a trained woodsman. Obvious enough none of you qualify. I’ll come back in the morning, and set you free- if you’re still here. Feel free to scream yourselves hoarse, though. Or attempt escape on your own. You’ll find my father’s trap is good, and far enough that no one is ever bothered by the howls of creatures stupid enough to get caught in it.”
Already he was backing away, lost from view by the time his last words reached their ears. Lex felt the waters of mute frustration welling up hot from the depths of his raven dark eyes.
***
“The forest won’t really hurt us, will it? We come from there. Maybe they will even take us back with them!”
It was the first time that Adelle ventured to add her own voice to their plight. It was breathy, barely above a whisper. Mari was reassured, at least, that her friend appeared back to normal. To bad she had no understanding of the way of things.
The rich indigo of twilight slowly soaked and deepened the blush of the sunken sun overheard. The earthen walls were cool around them, and Lexi was shivering with chill. His reprimands dried on his tongue as his impotent, angry tears dried on his cheeks. Ashton ceased his contemplation of the lattice of branches above the northern edge of the hole and regarded Adelle. His face was soft, and something of a weary compassion limned his eyes.
“Do you hate your lot in life that much, Adelle?”
“Oh yes,” she hissed, the sound of acid on her pink lips, “as you have seen my sister, how could you doubt it? Beautiful, perfect Circe, who barely acknowledges she has a sister, let alone a twin. I drink in the intimacy of you three like the wine of envy.”
“But surely, your parents-,” Ash fumbled. Mari knew what he was feeling. The same stumbling disbelief fell from her mouth when Adelle first shared these sentiments with her. The closeness she shared with her brothers came so naturally that she took it for granted all siblings must be so, and doubly those who shared a birth.
Adelle rolled her glowing green eyes.
“Your mother, Ashton? You have a father, at least; but how does your mother look at you? Does she see her son, or a counterfeit, a weirdling? It is that way with both my parents. Why should I not hate them, resent them all? I am more powerful than they are, see the world in ways they cannot even begin to comprehend. They should treasure me. But they revile me.”
Ashton sucked his breath in between his teeth, Lex looked positively disgusted, even Mari suppressed a shudder huddled in the growing dark with Adelle’s vitriol. Perhaps what repulsed them the most was that Adelle was not given voice to anything they had not themselves felt, at one time or another. In the shadows of their hearts, the murky pools no one but they themselves beheld, Mari knew these thoughts lurked and whispered.
But even as she sickened with a momentary self loathing at the ugly mirror Adelle’s words held to her own soul, there was something of gladness as well. Adelle would pass through this, like she and her brothers had to. It was only taking her more of time because she had no father like they did to guide her out of the cold tunnels of hate and arrogance. She would take Adelle to Henri her father. Da would help her to understand, to let go of all the bad feelings and love the world.
Dirt shifted and tumbled into the pit, interrupting her reverie and jarring the others out of the uncomfortable silence that followed Adelle’s declarations. Mari started, her head snapping up. Night had enveloped the world while they spoke, and stars were visible in the fabric of the black sky. Silhouetted against the firmament was the dark form of a man.
She choked back a gasp, feeling Adelle grip her arm like an iron band. Ashton was back on his feet in an instant, and Lex called up to the figure, daring words of hope.
“Father? Is that you?”
No answer was forthcoming.
“Uncle Gwyn?”
The shadow disappeared.
“Mr. Walsh?”
Something hurtled into the pit, uncoiling as it fell to reveal a cord of sturdy wisteria by the time it reached the bottom. Ashton, being the most grown, gave it a tug to assure it would bare his weight. The cord went taut, but held. The figure reappeared and called down to him.
“Woodsman’s son, you and your friends should make haste. Only fools trespass at this hour.”
(concluded next week)
previous chapter- Weirdlings 2: Witch Hole (Pt 1)
next chapter- Weirdlings 4: Forest Lord