So much for not being surrounded by trees. This is kind of worse than the woods. Except the loneliness. Brede’s swinging his machete and cutting us a path. I follow behind him with Agnar at the back. I wonder why Agnar doesn’t lead us, he’s the adventurer right? It doesn’t seem like a good time for questions though. There are briars and flowers all over the place, and in all different colors. I know roses have briars but most of these don’t look like roses. It’s hard to focus on any one thing, it’s like trying to pay attention to a single tree from far away. It just seems like part of the jungle instead of its own thing. I’m trying to watch out for danger but I swear I keep seeing things that aren’t there out of the corner of my eye.

  I must look funny turning my head every few seconds because Agnar breaks the silence and makes me jump. “It’s the pixie dust. They live in the trees and you keep seeing their dust fall in your peripheral vision. You’ll get used to it after a while,” he says.

  Pixies. Like Tinkerbell, right? “Can it make you fly?” I ask.

  “Fly? Oh you’re thinkin’ of Peter Pan. No, that stuff is usually just good for illusion magic. You can throw it at someone and make them unable to see Fae, put it on yourself for invisibility or even make an ointment to be able to see invisible stuff,” Brede says.

  “None of that is half as easy as he’s making it out to be,” Agnar says. “Understanding how invisibility works takes time.”

  After that my imagination kind of takes over. I wonder what it would be like to be invisible, what would I have done before the System? Scared the crap out of Benji for sure. I’m having trouble thinking of what else I could do. Listen to people that don’t know I’m there? That seems wrong. Steal stuff? It is kind of fun to think about walking out of a bank with a bunch of money but I’d never actually do it. Maybe sneak places I’m not supposed to be? All I can think about is free candy. That leads to thoughts of flying, even though Brede says it doesn’t do that. Flying seems a lot more fun to me. I don’t think of Mana Walking as flying but I guess it kind of is? Maybe I could put myself in a bubble or something.

  I trip over a root and scold myself for daydreaming. Am I relying on my new friends too much? Brede stops swinging his machete and looks around. I do the same and when I look behind Agnar I’m surprised to see there’s no trail where we came from. The flowers and vines are growing back so fast they look like pretty snakes. Strangely they’re not growing on top of us. How come? Brede is still looking around so I close my eyes for a second and try to feel the mana. Oh wow, it’s everywhere. I’ve been able to almost see before just using mana but it was small areas or there was a lot of stuff missing. Not now, I can see everything, including the big solid ball of mana we’re standing in. What is this? It seems like it’s a little stronger behind me. Oh, it’s Agnar. This is so cool, is he doing this with mana manipulation? How did I not notice it?

  It feels kind of familiar, like when you smell someone’s deodorant but they’re not in the room anymore. I know what this is. This is like my aura. My aura is still there, like a little candle someone is blowing on. I know it can’t go out, or at least I hope not. Can I make something solid out of it? I try to make it surround me but the outside keeps breaking. I hear Brede start swinging again so I open my eyes. He turned right and kept going and I follow after him. I’m not going to close my eyes but I keep messing with my aura. It’s like I don’t have enough aura to do it. I have two choices, try to push more mana into my aura or start smaller. Since we’re walking and there might be danger everywhere I decide to just start smaller. I try to pull the aura back around the mana container above my stomach, making a ball around it.

  *DING*

  Intelligence +1

  Wisdom +1

  Nice, I love it when the System tells me I’m doing something right. When it’s not making fun of me. I make the ball right on top of my mana center, and try to smooth it out. This is way harder than I expected. It’s like trying to make a snowball but any part you touch melts into water immediately. I think I’m doing this wrong. Start again. My aura comes from my center, I can control how much it pushes out. Instead of trying to shape what’s there I should try to control how much is being pushed out. I have to do that all the way around though, not just in one spot. I start trying to push a little where it’s weak and pull where it’s too strong. This is so hard.

  “That’s going to be almost impossible until you improve your mana sense,” Agnar says, making me lose my hold on my mana. “I know it feels like you can sense it pretty well now but trust me you haven’t seen anything yet.”

  “How did you know?” I ask, a little annoyed.

  “You started feeling around when we stopped earlier. If your mana sense was as good as mine you wouldn’t have to do that. What made you start messing with your aura now anyway?”

  “The plants aren’t growing on top of us,” I say.

  “Oh, good catch,” Agnar says. “Yeah that’s why I’m surrounding us with my aura. The plants can tell I’m strong enough they don’t want to fight me for mana. Actually this is a great place to work on your mana sense. If you want my opinion you should just try sensing the mana around you. Feel how it moves and how it interacts with everything around it. You already figured that out though or you wouldn’t be feeling around.. Before you try to change things make sure you know how they work. That might be hard for you, I know you like to constantly be doing instead of just being.”

  Quiet again. I’m pretty sure he just told me to stop being so hyper. It wasn’t that long ago that I’d get whiny at something like that. Instead of being bratty I hear what he doesn’t say. Subtext. That was something I learned with English homework. Kind of like negative space in art. What did the author mean with his black curtains and no light? Sometimes I think the people writing textbooks were trying too hard though. Maybe they were just setting the mood, does everything have to mean something else? Focus Marie. I was kind of day dreaming again. Back to Agnar. He was teaching me while acting like it was all something I should already know. How could I sense mana without using mine to push against it though? Was he saying that was wrong or just telling me he could feel what was happening inside his aura?

  Just be, he said. How do I do that? I walk behind Brede and try to just breathe and walk. I’m paying attention to mana but I’m trying not to do anything with it. I can feel the mana move past me as I walk, it’s in the air. The air moves around the jungle touching everything. I can feel a little of the mana entering leaves and trees. Different mana comes out. I breathe in and the mana from the leaves and trees comes in with the air. The mana that comes out is a little different, like the mana that goes in the leaves. I know this, it’s part of photosynthesis. I try focusing on the light that makes it through the trees, a little bit of the warmth from it goes into trees and me too. Mana is literally everywhere, just stronger here and weaker there. We walk and I just try to concentrate on mana moving and changing.

  *DING*

  Mana Sense Upgraded

  Advanced Mana Sense

  I can feel it coming in the air tonight, hold on! Sense Mana better than before.

  I don’t care that the description barely changed, I can see so much better now. Before everything was like water, just these big blobs moving everywhere. It’s not that though, it’s like millions of tiny little lightning bugs that all stick together and fly around. I can see individual particles(?) of mana going in and out of things. That’s what’s wrong with my aura, my mana center is leaking. I think I get it now, my aura shouldn’t just be out like that at all, it should stay inside my center unless I let it out. I start looking inside and can see that all that mana I thought was flowing through my body was an absolute mess. I was leaking everywhere, bits of it was getting stuck in different places, no wonder Agnar was so shocked. I make my gauntlet and look at it. It’s leaking too but not as bad as everything else. With a little effort I stop most of the leaking. No good. With a sigh I decide I’m probably going to have to start all over from scratch. With my luck I’ll be doing that every time I level up my senses. Is this what growing up is like? Just realizing that you could be better at everything you’re good at? That every time you think you know something it turns out you just started learning?

  I’m thinking of some specific questions to ask when Brede stops and I almost run into him.

  “Shit,” he says.

  “What is it,” I ask.

  He moves to the side and points down with his machete at what looks like cat poop. “Shit,” he says again.

  I pop a shield on my right arm but don’t reach for my sword. I don’t want to accidentally hit my friends. I think for a second and then make a shield on my other arm.

  “Can you tell what kind and how old?” Agnar asks.

  “Other’n cat? No. I hope it’s Cait Sidhe, they’re not so bad as long you ain’t dyin’.”

  “You don’t think the Tatzelwurm is here do you?”

  “You know Agnar, I can’t say I’ve ever seen Tatzelwurm shit that I can remember. Now that you say it, dragon and cat shit do look a lot alike though.”

  “It’s not a Lynx though, right?” I ask.

  “Hard tellin’ I hate to be the one to break the news that Fae does have Lynxes. They’re bigger, meaner and more prone to killin’ than the regular kind.”

  “I think it was better before you told me that,” I say.

  “Ignorance ain’t no cure for danger Marie. I am jokin’ a bit though, this is too small for a Lynx and you’d smell it’s piss afore we got to it.” Taking his machete he flings the poop into the jungle. “Well it’s old enough to be hard, we might be ok.”

  Brede starts walking again and so do we. It takes a little while before we all calm down and I drop the shields. I hadn’t stopped sensing mana the whole time so I noticed some stuff that I only kind of understand. Agnar’s aura got smaller and thicker around us when I popped my shields. It felt thick enough I thought I should be able to see it without mana sense but I couldn’t. Like when the bathroom gets super steamy and you can taste water in the air, the mana felt that thick but without mana sense it was like it wasn’t even there. Kind of like radiation but hopefully not bad for me.

  I start looking inside myself again. I’ve read enough about religion now to know how that sounds. Maybe they were onto something though. I mean, there is mana inside of me. And chakras or whatever? I’m going to have to look more into that, I can’t just rely on my knowledge from Avatar: The Last Airbender. I’m still a little mad that I haven’t been able to get my magic to work like bending but I think that might be possible one day. I’ll probably learn that’s a bad way to use magic or something.

  I focus on my breathing again and try to follow mana as it goes through my body. The first stop is my left shoulder. Mana is coming out of it but the more I look the more it’s like a dam with a bunch of sticks is in the way and the only reason mana is getting through is there’s a lot of it. I start trying to push the “sticks” out of the way with the mana. It kind of hurts. Not like getting hit or stabbed but like when you stub your toe. I keep pushing and don’t realize I’m holding my breath until I open up a spot and breathe out. It feels better, mana is going through the hole quicker. The spot is little, like smaller than my pinkie finger. There’s got to be dozens and dozens of these. The extra mana just makes the other spots stick out more. I start the next one.

  Three down and I feel something slide across my leg. “What the,” I stop walking. I was so busy trying to fix my mana flow I had stopped paying attention to anything else. Brede and Agnar both stop, Brede looking back at me. We all look down and see briars braided together around and between my ankles.

  “How,” Agnar starts to say when the vines tighten and pull. The briars go right through my pants. These aren’t as good armor as Morrigan said I think as land on my stomach. The breath is knocked out of me and Brede and Agnar both try to grab me. It’s too late , I’m being dragged into the jungle and the flowers are covering my tracks as fast I’m pulled.

  I feel weird. I should be scared or freaking out. I should at least be upset about all the needles in my legs. Instead I just feel sleepy. I should ask Morrigan if she kept the receipt I think as I close my eyes, still being dragged off to somewhere.

  *****

  I wake up sitting in a chair with a pair of yellow eyes staring at me. “MEW” says the cat attached to the eyes. It’s big and grey and fluffy and adorable. I’m petting it before I can stop myself. It purrs happily as I give it attention. I don’t stop petting as I look around. I’m sitting at a round table, the edges are carved into a round wavy pattern. There’s a cushy rug under my feet. There are different dried plants hanging from crossed logs below the ceiling. Everything is made of hard wood, this is definitely not a house like I’m used to. ‘Thatched roof’ pops into my mind as I stare up at hay or straw or whichever one this uses. There’s another room but I can’t see into it very well from where I’m sitting. There’s a wood stove on the other side of the table and a bunch of shelves with bottles of all kinds of stuff. I see eyeballs and tongues and plenty of stuff I can’t identify. Actually I could probably Identify it, but I’m not sure I want to know.

  There’s a few good things. I seem to be ok, you’d think I’d hurt being dragged like that but I feel fine. The walls aren’t made of candy so hopefully whoever is here won’t try to eat me. The cat seems nice. Now for the bad. I don’t know where I am. My sword and sheath aren’t on me and neither is my bookbag. I lean forward and try to look to my left into the other room. I can just barely see what looks like straps from my sheath on the back of a chair.

  I stopped petting the cat for a second and it pushes its face into mine, clearly wanting more lovins. I can do that. I get back to petting the cat when I hear a door open and close and a woman wearing a cloak walks into the room.

  After last night I was expecting another hag. Nope, she’s absolutely beautiful. She has long black hair, and pointy ears. She is really pale though. Maybe this is one of those light elves or wood elves or something Agnar mentioned. She doesn’t look evil, like the redcap or the hag. I know better than to say all evil is ugly and all good is pretty though. It could also be a trick.

  “Awake already, are you?” She asks with what kind of sounds like a British accent. “What a resilient little girl you are. I knew you were something special the moment you entered my domain. So young, and with a mage class to boot. Level 12, however did you manage to get to Fae? I don’t know how you got with those ruffians but don’t worry dearie auntie Gerdie will stave them off.”

  Level 12? The necklace, of course. Agnar was worried I would scare people, he didn’t think it might make me a target. Crap, what do I do? She thinks I’m just a little girl, which I guess I am, but she expects me to act like one. She does sound like she thought she was helping but she also kidnapped me, put me to sleep with magic and may have done something with my friends. OK, how do I sound eight?

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “They’re not ruffians,” I say pouting, “They’re very nice.” I sat for a second. “What’s a ruffian?” I ask.

  “Thugs, hooligans, brutes,” she says. “People with more muscles than brains. Dragging a poor defenseless girl through the woods and making her carry a great big sword and bag.”

  “That’s my sword!” I say, “and my bookbag!”

  “I’m sure they made you think so, but what would a little girl do with such a big nasty sword?”

  “Slay goblins and redcaps!” I say excitedly. This is kind of fun. So far she seems ok, but she’s probably trying to get me to trust her.”

  “Oh dearie, whyever would you want to do that? Trust me you don’t want to fight either of those, redcaps especially. Nasty little creatures, all they care about is murdering young innocents. Surely your ‘friends’ wouldn’t let you face something so dire?”

  “I’m really strong though,” I say, making a muscle with my left arm and slapping it with my right hand. This of course upsets the cat who I start petting again.

  “Well in any case, I see you’ve met Smoke and he seems quite taken with you. Perhaps you’d like to stay here with me and learn to be a witch. I could use an apprentice, it’s very lonely here in the wood.”

  The crazy thing is if I had met her first that would sound like a great idea. It still sounded good if I’m being honest but no way am I abandoning my friends. Also, and this is important, she kidnapped and drugged me with briars.

  “I’m sorry, I can’t. My friends are taking me to the city.”

  “Ingenburg? I don’t think they’d let you in dearie. No, I’m certain you should stay here with me. I won’t even charge you much for your tutelage, maybe some hairs and fingernail clippings.”

  My heart tried its best to climb up my throat. What does she want that for? How do I say no without giving myself away?Think Marie, what would you have said if someone asked for hair and fingernail clippings before the system?.

  I giggled, “you’re funny. Maybe I can come visit after I go to the city? But you gotta make a promise, no more briars, ok? That hurt.”

  She looked at me for a minute. “Where are my manners? Let me make you something to eat and get you some drink, I’m sure you’ll feel much better and we can discuss your future some more.”

  Dammit, this isn’t working. I never answered her about coming to Fae though, maybe I can use Morrigan somehow?

  “Godmother says not to take food and drink from strangers. She’d get real mad.”

  That stopped her.

  “So that’s how you got here. Does your godmother know where you are? How did you meet your um, friends?” She asks carefully.

  If I do this right I can get her to calm down.“Yeah, she sent them to make sure I was ok, they told me. They said I could help them with stuff and I’d be their partner. They were really excited when they met me.”

  Gerdie the witch’s shoulders relaxed. Then she turned to her stove and lit it with magic, putting a tea kettle on the top. “Well, maybe we were meant to meet. Surely your godmother wouldn’t want you galavanting with a bunch of hoodlums. I can teach you more refined magic than slinging big swords around or whatever they had you doing. Who did you say your godmother was again?”

  “Shhh, that’s a secret.”

  “Come on now, you can tell me. Why I’m sure you’ll consider us good friends in no time if you just have a nice cup of tea with me.”

  I’ll just bet I would, lady. You can’t get me that easy. “What kind of tea?” I ask, trying to sound interested.

  “Oh just something I came up with dearie,” She reaches up and grabs a jar with some herbs in it and adds it to the water. How did she get it boiling so fast? I’ll have to experiment with water and fire magic together. Now what though? Actually my water magic is pretty good, I wonder if I could pretend to drink? Wait no, she probably has mana senses that are better than mine. What even is she? I inspect her to find out, leaving out distance.

  Level 0 Human

  Level 21 Black Forest Witch

  HP: 154

  She’s human? But she looks so much like Fae. Also that means I can’t trust anything she says, right? So that might have been all for nothing? What even is a Black Forest Witch anyway?

  Black Forest Witch

  Hedging her bets. Witches who protect the border between worlds. Can gain boons from supernatural creatures to become more like them.

  Does that mean she’s become like the Fae? If that’s the case then maybe she doesn’t lie. And maybe my tea trick can work. If it doesn’t I can definitely fight my way out. So long as she doesn’t try anything sneaky like the vines. Ugh. If I have to fight I better hit her with everything I have. She pulls two cups from somewhere above her and I start trying to sense her mana. She’s leakier than I am. Hmmm. She also actually has a witch class, so maybe she has to cast actual spells to do things?

  She puts a cup full of liquid near me and one in front of her. “Come on now dear, I promise it won’t kill you. Have a cup and things will seem far more agreeable. Then we can discuss your future. Why I bet by the time your friends get here you won’t even want to leave.”

  I pick up the cup with both hands. This is going to be hard but I think I can do it. I hold the cup up with my right hand and put my index finger from my left hand in like I’m checking the temperature. Then I shake my left hand up and put the tea to my mouth. I have to be perfect here.She stares at my left hand with not enough fingers and I use water magic to make the liquid from the cup go down and around my right arm and under the rug. She’s still focused on my hand.

  I set my cup down and just stare off into space. I don’t know what it’s supposed to do so I’m guessing. Gerdie slumps in her chair and watches me for a minute. I’ve stopped petting Smoke and he gets up and starts rubbing his shoulders against me. She wipes her hand across her face and it changes completely. The pointy ears are gone and she looks much older, but not ugly and warty. She looks like she could be my grandma’s friend or something.

  “Oh do keep petting him, he does love the attention.” Her voice sounds a little harsher, the accent not quite the same. It’s not a huge change, like she was faking the whole thing just more relaxed.

  I start petting him again. To be fair, I like petting him too. He seems like a nice kitty.

  “How did you lose your fingers anyway? Did those two you're traveling with take them? I’m no saint myself but if they’re out here chopping fingers off little girls I might have to get a little payback for you.”

  “A lynx took them,” I answer honestly.

  “A lynx you say? And here you were and are petting my grimalkin like nothing happened. What a brave little girl you are. Well don’t you worry, Auntie Girdie will take care of you just like I said. I must admit the system is quite exciting. You know I’ve looked this old for quite some time, but here you are and I can take some of your youth and you’ll never even miss it. Had to be careful about stuff like that in the past. People get awfully upset if you take their children, never seemed worth the risk. But you! Work hard and we can both stay young forever,” She says standing up, “Isn’t that a hoot? Now you’ll have to work, but I’ll make you up into a proper witch in no time. Now come a long dear, I have some wood that needs splitting and plenty of other chores.”

  I stand up to follow her. She wants me to split wood? I can do that, she already said the magic words. My friends are coming. So what if she wants to take some of my youth? Maybe I should let her, I already feel older than I am. I am older than I am. Ugh. That makes my head hurt. I note my bag and sword are both sitting on the back of her chair. She stops in front of her door and turns to me. “Just a mo dearie, who is your godmother?”

  Uh oh. I open my mouth and try to think of what to say. Do I tell her? Morrigan told me not to, the only reason my friends know is she told them. Well it was fun while it lasted. I really don’t want to kill her though, what she did was mean but she doesn’t seem all that bad. Unless I was actually helpless then she’s kind of bad. But not like murdery? I tense up when she speaks again.

  “Stop, you must be under a geas or something, you looked like your head was going to explode. I’ll have to figure out how to untangle it later. I should be able to separate you and your godmother and take her role in the process. That will be fun for you, I don’t know what sort of country bumpkin adopted you but I’ll show you some real power.”

  It took everything I had not to laugh in her face. Both because she saved me when I thought I’d messed up and for calling Morrigan a “country bumpkin”. I can’t kill her, she’s too ridiculous. Maybe we can make her do something nice as punishment. Just as soon as my friends get here.

  I follow her outside and around her house and Smoke follows me. He kind of makes a little purring sound every step. Adorable. The house is actually kind of nice for what it is. I guess I would call this a cottage. The walls are made out of rocks, but there’s wood in between making big squares all the way around. The windows have big wooden shutters, and the glass looks like it hasn’t been cleaned in years.

  Gerdie sees me staring at the windows. “Don’t worry dearie, you can clean those later. Here we are.” There are several trees laying behind the house. The limbs and tops have been cut off but it’s still a lot of wood. “There’s an axe against the house there. Please stack them over that way,” She says pointing at an axe that looks like it’s never been sharpened with one hand and flat space about 20 feet away from her house with the other.

  “Alright dearie, I’m old and I need a nap, have at it, just do the best you can and I’ll have you redo whatever you mess up later. It’ll be a bit before your friends arrive but you can send them away if I’m not up yet.” With that she went into the house and shut the door. Smoke just looked up at me. I patted him on the head and went to work. I haven’t really exercised today anyway.

  I don’t know what Gerdie expected but this wood was really easy to cut through with my mana blades. It only takes me a couple of hours to cut and stack her wood. Why would I do such a thing? It could be the point in strength and dexterity I earned for hard work. Or it could be because now she owes me. Since I’ve finished my chore it’s time to play with kitty!

  *****

  The sun is setting when my friends arrive.I hear them before I see them. They’re loudly arguing over what they’re going to do to Gerdie. Agnar wants to chop her head off. Brede wants to tie her up and sell her to goblins. I think we can let her off a little easier. This time. Instead of rushing to see them I just wait for them to get to me. I would give a lot for a picture of their faces when they walk up still arguing to see me sitting on the ground petting Smoke.

  “M-Marie?” Agnar asks.

  “Shhh,” I say. “The witch is taking a nap.”

  They both look at me like I’m crazy.

  “I’m fine,” I say. “She told me you were coming. She also tried to drug me and ‘made’ me cut all her firewood. I’m sorry guys I was messing with my mana and not paying attention. I’m really sorry you had to rescue me.”

  “You’re sorry? I had us all surrounded with my aura,” Agnar says. “I still don’t know how she did that. You say she tried to drug you? I’ll have her head.”

  “She’s not that bad. She just wanted me to do some chores and some of my youth,”

  “Your youth? Marie, that's awful. You only get to be young once. Don’t let anyone take that away from you.”

  I just looked at him. Did he really just say that? To me?

  Brede decided that was a good time to speak, “Marie now ain’t the time for that argument. For what it’s worth I agree with Agnar but your decisions are yours. If you want to stay-”

  “No way,” I say. “I just don’t think it’s that big of a deal when the System can make it so you live forever. Or at least I think it can.”

  “Still though, you’ll only be eight once,” Agnar says.

  “Yeah, so was Batman,” I reply. “I’m sorry, I don’t want to fight with you guys, I just feel kind of bad for her. She’s out here all by herself. Well, her and this cutie pie.”

  “You know that’s her familiar, right?” Agnar asks.

  “Yeah. But if he’s out here being babied by me he’s not in there telling her you’re here.”

  That’s when the door opened and Gerdie came walking out, yawning. “Marie, you’re supposed to be chopping wood, and why didn’t you send your friends on their-” she stops with her mouth open and sees all the wood neatly piled. “That’s…how? Marie, did you do all this?”

  “I sure did,” I say, standing up. “Sorry Smoke it’s time for grownup talk.

  “How did you disenchant her,” Gerdie says looking at Agnar and Brede. “I was already a powerful witch before the System and it’s only made me better.

  Brede started laughing, “Marie the jig is up, why don’t you take that necklace off for a minute.”

  “A necklace? What does it do?” Gerdie asks as I pull it over my neck.

  “Why don’t you identify her?” Agnar asks. “Might as well identify us too.”

  “Please, you think I didn’t do that before I-” Her eyes got really big and her mouth kept moving but nothing came out. Smoke started rubbing against my leg and finally she managed to say something. “Smoke, Smoke come here. Please Smoke come here.” He seemed kind of pouty when he looked up at me, but he walked over to her. She gathered him up in her arms before she looked back at me and said, “What are you?”

  When Agnar asked me that, it made me cry. It wasn’t even that long ago. When she asked me though? She had knocked me out, kidnapped me, and was going to steal from me and make me do her chores. So when she looked at me all flustered and afraid I just laughed. “I’m an eight year old girl who’s had a really hard year.”

  Gerdie looked from me to Agnar and Brede. Agnar just nodded. She didn’t seem to know what to do, she just stood there and held Smoke. It was sad. I was expecting some kind of sitcom moment where she overacted and was like “Oh No!” But instead she just seemed like she had no idea what to do. Like she was waiting for me to get that old axe and make her pay. Thank the goddess for Brede.

  “Seems to me,” he says, “You made yourself an awful mess here. Now Agnar was set on takin’ your head.” Her eyes widened. “I thought that a mite too harsh. I figured we could sell you to goblins.” She fell back against her door and looked really small. “Lucky for you,” he continues, “Our Marie here is a sweet girl, she thinks that’s too much. Be that as it may, you did her wrong and on top of it you asked her to do what you thought was an impossible task. Well she did it, and that means you owe her.”

  “Wait a minute,” Gerdie started, “I never said-”

  “You can owe her or us,” Agnar says.

  “What do you want?” She says, looking at me.

  Luckily I’ve had hours to think about it. “Two things,”’ I say. “One, no more kidnapping and drugging children. That’s messed up.I think that’s fair to pay for abusing guest right.”

  “I didn’t give you guest right,” She says. What happened to her being afraid? Does she want to steal kids that bad?

  “You brought me into your house, promised me safety and offered me food and tea,” I say.

  “Sounds like guest right to me,” Brede says.

  “Fine,” she says, “I promise not to drug and kidnap children.”

  “‘Or’ Agnar says.

  “I promise not to kidnap or drug children. What else do you want?” Apparently she figured out I wasn’t going to do something terrible to her and her personality seemed to be coming back.

  “I want to get a witchcraft lesson sometime. And to play with Smoke.”

  She wasn’t expecting that. She looked at me and then the wood I stacked. “First lesson is free, anything after that you have to do some more chores.”

  “Deal,” I say.

  “Now hang on a minute,” Brede says, “I know we ain’t in the biggest of hurries but we do gotta get back to the city, especially if the two of you are gonna go off with that hairbrained idea to kill a Tatzelwurm.”

  “I know,” I say. “I’ll come back some other time. I want to learn some witchcraft since Hecate is my patron.” Hecate never told me I couldn't tell anyone. And she’s the goddess of witches.

  “Your Patron is Hecate?” Gerdie asks slowly.

  “Yep.”

  “I think I’m going to be sick.”

  “You think that now, you must not know who her godmother is.”

  “Brede I’m not supposed to tell.”

  “You sure ain’t young ‘un. But I happen to know ole Gertrude here won’t spread it around. She’ll be just a beggin’ to help you. Anythin’ to stop The Morrigan bein’ mad at her.”

  Gerdie sat down hard. Poor Smoke didn’t take being shaken very well and let out a long annoyed “meow”. “I’ll come to Ingenburg, I have to do some things first, but I’ll come. I’ll teach you about being a witch Marie, OK? You’ll tell them I helped you right? This was a misunderstanding. I’ll be a good teacher to you, I promise.”

  I don’t like this feeling. It feels icky to have someone begging me for their life. I don’t think I want to play any more games. This was supposed to be kind of funny, the witch finds out she captured the wrong girl, not this. “It’s ok Gerdie, I’ll ask them to leave you alone.”

  “Thank you Marie,” She sounds so sincere. And Sad. Dammit.

  *****

  I ask Brede not to do that again, not to tell people who my godmother is or use my secrets to hurt people. I don’t think he meant to. I think he got scared something bad happened to me and didn’t have time to cool off when he found me. He promised he wouldn’t and apologized for doing it. I forgave him and gave him and Agnar a hug. I thanked them for coming to get me and told them what happened.

  It felt like a game when it was happening. She was powerful enough to kidnap me. Powerful enough to knock me out. But in a real fight? She’d be dead in seconds. So I thought I’d teach her a lesson. Show her what it was like to be the one without power. I’m not saying I’ll never play a trick or try to show someone they’re doing bad again. But not like that. That’s not who I want to be. I made a joke about Batman because I felt a little like him. Like I was getting vengeance for her bad deeds. Maybe she deserves a little vengeance. I don’t think I should be giving it out.

  I’m not just a little girl, not just a kid whatever Agnar says. I’m dangerous. Maybe instead of Batman I should be like Spiderman. Great power and great responsibility. No, that’s not right either. Maybe I’ll just be Marie, and hopefully figure out what that means without hurting anyone else. Or at least no one who doesn’t deserve it.

  Sometimes my thoughts are just too big. They go around and around in my head and I can’t get them to stop. Try to think of what’s going right. I’m glad to be back with my friends, I should focus on that. I tried to apologize for getting kidnapped but they both said I was being ridiculous, they weren’t able to stop it. The sun was almost down when we stopped scaring the crap out of Gerdie, and she invited us to spend the night. I was surprised when Agnar said it was fine, less surprised when she gave us guest right up front.

  We talk awhile before bed, Gerdie tells us about how she got here. She’s been a witch since the 1500’s and in Fae for most of that. Apparently she befriended someone named Baba Yaga who taught her how to be a witch. Brede says she’s famous and I should look her up later. Agnar thinks we should have a bedtime story which leads to Gerdie finding out about our ability to play music. Apparently scrying tvs and concerts is something no one ever taught her to do. She asked me to play O Maria Salvatoris and cried when I did. I can’t imagine going 500 years without the music I like. Then again I can’t imagine 500 years, I’m still trying to make it to ten. We listen to The Book of Three. I’ve been planning to read the Prydain series anyway after passing out trying to watch the Disney movie. When we get to the part where Doli wants to cut the gwythaint’s head off Gerdie gets really pale. Brede says that it’s a terrible description of a dwarf but I think everyone liked it. I liked Eilonwy, she gets distracted easier than I do. Listening to her ramble on and misunderstand stuff made me feel like maybe I was going to be ok. She was an orphan too, and she did ok.

  I still sleep in my bed, the tent is just attached to the inside of Gerdie’s cabin. I can’t sleep at first because I keep thinking about what I could have done different. Some of the thoughts are really bad, like what if I just killed her. What if I got scared and killed Smoke when I saw him? I swear the cat can hear my thoughts or knows when I’m upset because it comes right in my tent and jumps into bed with me. I still can’t sleep so I bring up the archive and look up Baba Yaga. Unless these stories are lies Gerdie is like an angel compared to this witch. She seems like the type of witch I should kill. That’s kind of a terrible thought. Well I did one thing right, I found out who she was before I decided whether to fight her or not. That’s the thought that finally makes me relax and I fall to sleep with Smoke purring beside me.