A gust of spring air whirled through the underground cottage, distorting the firelight. Hazella entered and slammed the door. Loose debris showered down between the beams of dirt ceiling. The insane woman bounced across the room in a dance, happily singing. Her shrill voice sounded like a bag of feral cats.
I gripped the edge of the pot and soapy scrub brush. Hazella hadn't noticed me. Usually, she glowered over me or wandered in and out of her secret back room, making snide comments about my work in passing. This time, she hung her bag on a peg protruding from the wall above the fireplace.
The bag flopped back and forth on the peg. Whatever poor creature Hazella had caught struggled for life and shrieked like a teapot about to boil over. Images of frogs, dragonflies, and squirrels trapped in that bag came to my mind. Hazella always caught those types of creatures, but she never built cages for them. She usually killed them or chopped off their legs so they couldn't run away.
Hazella chanted inaudible words in a melodic rhythm as she gathered sticks, spider webs, and Shadow Wolf fur from her collection of ingredients. Hazella made a stick frame and meticulously weaved the spider's silk and wolf fur into a tight net around the box frame to make a cage.
The old witch put food and water in tiny thimbles and set them in the cage. She was feeding it. Whatever it was, she wanted it to live.
Hazella snatched the bag from the wall and shook it. "Quiet, you!" she said to the creature. Hazella eyed me. I quickly looked away and pretended not to care.
I couldn't understand. Why did she want this particular creature to live? There had to be a reason Hazella wasn't following her usual pattern of capture and kill.
The witch covered the cage with a rag to hide the creature from view. "I must leave quickly. Time be runnin' out." Hazella grabbed her bag and set a knife and glass vial on the table. "Girl, fill this now!"
I knew exactly what that meant. I clenched my teeth together, took the knife, and pierced the skin on the palm of my hand. I pressed around the wound to make the blood flow into the vial.
Hazella scowled. "Don't be selfish!" She reached for the knife. I grabbed it before she could and made the cut a hair deeper to increase the flow.
Hazella snatched the filled vial, put it in her bag, and prepared to leave while I bandaged my hand. She wouldn't say what for, but every month for the last seven months, she left the cottage with a vial of my blood, but this was the last time she would harvest anything from me.
I gasped under my breath, "Harvest." That was the only reason Hazella kept anything alive. I glanced at the rag-covered cage. What was she harvesting from the poor creature?
Hazella pointed to the door. "Ye keep outta the cottage while I be gone. Ye hear now?"
I nodded, trying to look innocent and somber. Every cell in my body raced with adrenaline as I walked out the door. This was it. Not only would I escape, but I would liberate the creature in the cage as well. The strange fire that had enveloped me last winter had made my legs even stronger than before the wolf attack.
I picked up the axe, the one I would take to protect myself from the wolves, and I started chopping wood for the fireplace outside the cottage. Usually, Hazella forced me to stay in the cottage while she was gone. Obviously, this time she didn't trust me alone with the new creature.
Hazella hobbled down the path toward the villages with her bag of potions and my blood over her shoulder.
I pretended to do my chores and chopped wood until she was out of sight, then bounded to the edge of the clearing and watched Hazella amble around the bend. She was finally gone. I raced to the cottage, threw open the door, and dashed to the larder. I grabbed a few handfuls of bread and stuffed them into a bedroll.
I approached the cage and slowed my pace so I wouldn't startle the poor critter Hazella had caught. I lifted the cloth from the creature's cage.
Glittering silver light scattered across the tabletop.
A strange, but beautiful, creature looked at me with big azure eyes and pleaded, "Help Cassi! Please help poor Cassi!" Her voice chimed like bells.
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The Watchers Book 1: Knight of Light
Teen Fiction"The Watchers" are supernatural beings in human form, charged with protecting mankind from the armies of darkness. Unfortunately, some of these Watchers go bad. Deirdra Eden's The Watcher's Series is written in a traditional fairytale style with a...
