The Avarice Witch

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐯𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡

A.N. I wrote this back in 2021. It was supposed to be part of a like fairy tale book I wrote but I've since scrapped all that. Instead, I thought I'd put it here in its own little thing. This is unedited so it isn't the best but I hope you get some entertainment from it.

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There once was an unlucky merchant's daughter. Her name was Jane. When she was young, her mother died and as she lay on her deathbed, she gave her precious daughter a gift. A little wooden bear. She told her daughter to ask the bear for aid if ever she was in desperate need. At the death of her mother, Jane asked the little wooden bear for its help, clutching the toy tightly. It was not long before her father was taken from her too. The merchant, having died out at sea, was lost beneath the waves of the Ocean King.

Alone in the bitter winter, the girl struggled to keep herself warm and find food to quell her rumbling stomach. Her rickety old house made for little protection against the freezing cold outside. Jane was staying in her childhood home, an old cottage that stood at the top of a hill. A forest of trees, barren of any leaves, lay scattered below. They called it the Hollow Woods. A place haunted by spirits, fairies, and most frightening of them all, the old gods.

The crunch of footsteps on snow alerted Jane to the stranger approaching her home. Huddled beneath raggedy blankets she crept toward the window but saw only a layer of frost. At the stranger's knock on the wooden door, Jane cried out, "Who goes there?"

Carefully opening the creaky door, Jane was presented with a strange sight. It was a young man. He wore a large brown makeshift cloak and in his hands was a crooked staff. Black hair fell in braids down his shoulders and strange gold markings painted his skin.

"Greetings, I am a humble wanderer. Please rest your unease for I mean you no harm," a honey-sweet voice fell from his lips but Jane was not so easily fooled.

She almost scoffed. She did not know this man nor his intentions. However, there was one certainty; this man was not to be trusted. Jane asked cautiously behind the barrier of her door, "Then what do you seek, humble wanderer?"

"A deal."

Gazing up at the man, Jane again took note of the wanderer's appearance. The scraggy clothing. Messy hair. He held no meaningful possessions but strangely he was very clean. For peasants, there was little worth in wasting time being clean for that was a noble's worry.

Jane decided to indulge him, being the first guest she has had in months. She said, "You are a beggar like me. You have nothing I do not already have."

"I assure you I am nothing like you, girl." As the wanderer spoke, his eyes glowed a mischievous golden hue. "A deal. You retrieve for me a special item of gold from the kind dame who dwells in the heart of the Hollow Woods. In return, I shall grant you any wish you so desire."

Jane gasped and exclaimed, "To enter the Hollow Woods is to sign your soul to a devil. It is blasphemy. You are no wanderer. You are a witch. I do not make deals with hags!"

The man who calls himself a 'wanderer' frowns at the insult. His pretty features scrunched together in annoyance. He pressed on.

Leaning in close, he said in a jovial but soothing tone, "When was it last you left this decrepit place? Do you not wish for a life beyond this? I will offer you anything in your wildest dreams. All you must do is retrieve a golden trinket."