Escaping Prophecy

Chapter Two

So here is chapter two. I'm sorry it is unedited and unrevised and frankly not that great. It is also quite short BUT I didn't want to wait to upload it so here it is. I promise that the enxt one will be better, but may take a while to get up. 

Time in Hazel’s world was marked by her encounters with the object. When Hazel was little she had taken particular interest in a music box that sat on high shelf, locked up. The moments in young Hazel’s world were marked by times her mother took the box off of the high shelf. Hazel would sit staring at it, mesmerized.

                That silver pink music box had been lost, but Hazel had seen the same object that day. It was the object of desire. Hazel’s thoughts drifted to people, places, and worlds far away. She remembered worlds on the other side of boundaries she couldn’t cross. She remembered her mother, and her smiling eyes. 

Hazel was knocked out of her daydreams when Peter began to stir. When he opened his eyes he saw he was lying on a pile of straw. On his right was a shelf with ornate carvings. Balanced on a ledge was a bowl of berries, the rare blue ones standing out in a mass of red ones. On his left was Hazel, strong smelling incense in her hand. Her hair had come loose from her braid now, and it flowed around her shoulders. Hazel was looking down at Peter with an intense stare. He blinked at her.

“I thought you were a dream,” the comment surprised Hazel.

“I wish you were a dream,” Hazel retorted, upset she had to care for this boy like he was a helpless baby.  An expression of shock and anger settled on Peter’s features, and Hazel quickly made up for her mean words by extending out one pale hand to help Peter up from the floor. Peter refused the hand, and scrambled up on his own. He took a seat on the in rickety woven chair in the corner of Hazel’s cave. 

“Hey! That’s my chair,” Hazel’s words bit into Peter and he shrugged. Hazel was experated. She had saved the life of this boy when he fainted. She had dragged him away from the cottage of the witch. Peter ought to be forever grateful to her.

Hazel fought back her negative thoughts and pushed a plate towards Peter, “I thought you might be hungry,” she said tartly. He smiled at her and began to eat.  Peter must have been ravenous. The food was gone before Hazel had even had time to sit down.

“You’ve found out half my secret, I suppose I’ll have to tell you the whole thing. But you must not tell anyone, and if you do I’ll slice you like the deer I ate for lunch,”

Peter nodded meekly and Hazel went on, “We witches live all over in huts, houses, and caves,” Hazel gestured to the cave around them. “We hunt animals and gather nuts and berries for our food. We live with nature and are so close we can often control her with her getting angry. We have many spells that don’t involve the main elements, but all of our spells are based on nature. We are the healers and take care of the world. We are wood witches,”

“But then there are The Heartless Ones,” Hazel’s voice took on a heated edge. “They are not good as we are and spend their days controlling others. They have no respect for Mother Nature and they use their powers to torture and kill anyone who may interfere with their plans. Everyone else who runs along their paths become their slaves. “

Hazel finished her story and Peter spoke for the first time since he had woken up. “But what did I do?”

“Oh, you were with the object of desire. I’m a protector and my job is to protect people from the object. It changes depending on what you most desire. I told you about its evil powers, didn’t I?”

Peter didn’t answer her question, “That’s why I saw the golden pear. My father left us when I was little. He packed up everything and if you walked in you wouldn’t even be able to tell he had been there. The last thing I remember him saying was something about a golden pear. I’ve been searching for it since then,”

Hazel’s heart immediately went out to Peter, who now had a tear dripping down his smooth skin. Peter turned so Hazel didn’t see him continue to cry. The room became quiet and still. Hazel was reminded of the time she and her father sat with their legs in the lake, as he showed her how to fish. Hazel had quickly mastered the art and both of them were silently absorbed in their job for hours.

                The difference was that this was a sad quiet, and the other had been a happy one. Hazel closed her eyes. They were each thinking of someplace in time they could never go back to. Hazel felt a tear dripping down her own cheek, as she looked within herself

                What she found was quite alarming. Hazel had so many weaknesses it scared her. She suddenly felt like she needed a hand to hold on to and she reached out and grabbed Peter’s. Her rough callused hand gripped his smooth one and she felt her heart explode and burst into a million pieces.