The Wonderful Wood

The Gathering

Ethan slept and had strange dreams about his time at the Wonderful Woods.  he dreamed about the wood wraiths. Then he dreamed about the conversation he had with the lady at the petrified palace.

Ethan woke up to the sun shining out brightly from the window. Bees were buzzing about, and the garden had tall sunflowers that nodded their heads in the wind. Ethan woke up and went out of the room, followed by Diagon, who had taken a wolf once again. They went out of the room to the kitchen and found the witch busily cooking.

"Hello," she said without turning to greet them. Then after a few minutes, she turned around to greet them and said, "take a seat, your majesty!"

"You seem to be busy!" said Ethan looking at all the pots lying about the kitchen. "Can I help you with anything?"

"No, your majesty, I'm all done! Here! Have your breakfast!" she said, handing a bowl to Ethan. It was then that Ethan remembered how hungry he was, the witch gave Diagon a bowl, and they both began to eat ravenously.

When they had finished eating, the witch said, "Today is the midsummer gathering of the witches, and it is to be held in my place!" All the witches living around will come to my garden, and we will eat, drink and dance away the night! I was getting the food prepared. I've ordered some food too but thought that I would prepare some myself," said the witch sitting down with her bowl of porridge.

After they had finished eating, the witch said, "now to use the things we brought at the goblin market!" and added, "follow me."

Ethan got up from the table and followed the witch to the basement. They descended a staircase and came to a room that was shrouded in darkness.

Ethan looked around. The Witch banged her staff on the floor, and the candles in the room light up by themselves.

The things they brought from the market were laid on the table. The witch went to a bookcase and grabbed a large volume.

She put it on the table with a thump and began to turn the pages. Then she stopped and banged the staff on the ground, and two chairs came rushing along the floor and placed themselves by the desk.

They were both down on the chair, and the witch started turning the pages. Ethan looked into the book and saw strange pictures of strange things unlike he had ever seen before.

"Yes, it is!" said the witch and then started reading a page all to herself. She read and said, pointing to a picture on the book. "Have you ever seen a manticore before?"

"A manti-what?" asked Ethan, looking at the picture with awe.

"A manticore, one of the ancient magical creatures! It is difficult to summon them, but we will try to because we need the dust of manticore claws to complete our net.

The witch took the box they had brought and tapped on it, and asked, "do you know what this is?"

"No, I don't. I've never seen anything like it before!"

"Well, this is a beast box," said the witch tapping on it. It is used to summon beasts. "First, you must put in a bait or an offering for the best and then you just sprinkle them with the binding brew, which works on most creatures that can be summoned using the beast box!"

"Do you have them prepared?" asked Ethan, excited to see the summoning of a beast.

"Well, I have the bait ready, but I need to prepare the binding brew!"

"Well, let me take out the Brew Book!" said the witch going to her book rack.

Then she took the book down from the rack and laid it open on a desk. Then she began to read:

Dried camomile flower powder, two tablespoons

Dried Rosemary powder, one teaspoon

Dried Yarrow powder, three teaspoons

Olive oil, two tablespoons

Dried wolfsbane, four tablespoons

Powdered mandrake root, three tablespoons

Powdered Fairy Fern, three tablespoons.

Then she went to a small cupboard and took out some glass bottles. She lined them up on the table. Then she asked Ethan to fetch some water from the well in the backyard.

 Ethan carried a bucket of water from the well and emptied it into a basin in the kitchen. Then he took it to the witch and handed it to her. She poured the water into the cauldron.

Then she put the cauldron on the fire and muttered some words while adding the ingredients from the bottle and stirring it.

The cauldron bubbled, and red smoke came out of it. The witch kept muttering, and the smoke changed from red to bright pink, light pink, orange, red, yellow and finally settled down to the proper colour of steam.

Then she mixed the cauldron with a spoon. She kept mixing while the fire died down.

Then she poured the content into the empty basin and then let it settle. It was a clear as water. But it smelt like the smell after rain. "It smells like the smell after the rain!"

"It's called petrichor," said the witch smiling. "That is as it should be, see," she said, pointing to the book.

Ethan looked at the book and saw that it said, "the potion smells like petrichor!"

"That sounds like a word from some spell! Is it a magical word?" asked Ethan looking at the book.

"Words are magical, be they part of the ancient language or not!"

"Yeah, I guess," said Ethan reflecting on the witch's words.

"Now, let us get the beast box and the bait!" said the witch going towards the kitchen. She came with a meaty bone in a dish and then kept the beast box.

 Then she took a piece of chalk from her pocket and drew a circle while muttering some words inaudible. Then she placed the best box in the middle of it