The Alpha Twins and their Runaway Witch

7

"Ariel, come watch a movie with me." Mom said turning on both of their favourite movie, Sleeping Beauty. Sitting down beside her. Ariel snuggled up to her mom, watching as the evil fairy cursed the baby princess.

When the good fairies were granting the last blessing to protect the princess from the wicked curse, her mom had kissed her forehead. Gotten up from the couch saying she would be back. Ariel watched the whole movie enraptured just like she did every single they watched this movie together. Only noticing when the credits rolled that her mom hadn't returned. Ariel got up and went to go look for her mom. A social worker was waiting for her outside the tv room. "Ariel, come with me." The social worker had said.

Ariel stepped back, "Where's my mom?" Ariel had asked. A very bad feeling growing in her tiny five year body.

The social worker looked tired and stressed. "Your mom has signed herself out of residential care, she is eighteen now and free to make her own adult decisions." Ariel didn't understand the words. Did not know what the social worker was saying.

She had run, ducked under the arms of the social worker and fled to the small room she had shared with her mom her entire life. Except when she got there, all her moms things were gone. The dresser drawers were left open and empty. Her mothers makeup bag gone alone with all the trinkets she had collected over her life.

She awoke from the nightmare shouting "Mom!" Into the empty house. Tears flowing down her cheeks. Of all the recurring nightmares that plagued her sleep, she hated that one the most. Making her live the day her mom abandoned her. Ariel had never once seen her mother again, wasn't sure if she was dead or alive.

She scrubbed her hands over her face, wiping the tears that had been shed away. The log cabin had grown cold overnight while she slept. The fires she had built yesterday had gone out. She built the fire back up in the fireplace, pleased that her clothes were all dry. Even her sneakers had dried out next to the fire. Doing her best to crush the nightmare and bad memories back down.

The raven cawed out to her as she got up from bed. It had stayed perched on the coat rack. She got dressed and ate more apples with water for breakfast. Sharing some of the apples with the raven sat at the table. She felt depressed, she always did after having that dream. She wished she knew what had happened to her mother after she had left the group home for teenage mothers and their children.

Did she ever miss her? Wonder if Ariel was ok? Did she ever try and find her again? Questions she would never get an answer to. Rubbing the back of her hand over her eye to catch another tear before it fell. "I need to keep moving today." She told the raven, who cawed. In agreement she imagined. "I'm going to need to take some supplies from here." She said. Feeling guilty that she would be essentially stealing, while also feeling like she did not have a choice.

There was a canvas bag hung in the kitchen with a draw string style closure at the top, into it she packed a cast iron pot, the box of matches, all the clothes from the wardrobe, along with the SIN card for Maude Hunt, a blanket, and a dented metal cup and several knives from the kitchen. It was a large and cumbersome pack when she was finished but not too heavy for her to carry. She wished there was a bottle or jar or anything that could hold water to take with her, but there wasn't anything suitable for the job. The last thing she did was dig up several more potatoes, tucking them into her bag, along with as many apples as would possibly fit.

She tidied up the home as best she could. Remade the bed. She closed and latched the doors behind her as she left. Looking towards her raven, "Where to now?" She asked, truly considering the large bird to be hers now. The raven cawed to her and flew into the woods.

She was better able to keep up today, she had eaten her fill last night and this morning. Had drank as much water as she could, and was wearing shoes again. The large canvas bag on her back did add some weight but not enough to be challenging for her right now. The song birds and squirrels were very chatty this morning. The sounds reassuring her that the cackle had not caught up with her.

"I need to find a city, a big one." She said aloud to the raven. She wasn't sure what state she was in or what the nearest large city would even be. It didn't matter. She needed some place with crowds to hide in and options to earn some money. One way or another.

Her raven cawed loudly and continued to lead her through the forest. Stopping midday to enjoy another meal of apples, next to clear stream where she had been able to fill her cup to drink the fresh water. Once she was full, they had set out again.

Same as the day before, a diet of fruit and water lead to another sugar crash late in the afternoon. She had a headache, and her pace had slowed down considerably. Her raven kept calling to her urging her on. She already knew there was no way she would be so lucky as to end up sleeping in another warm bed tonight, she was ready to fall where she stood and sleep now.

She forced her head up as the raven cawed several times. There was a small, dark cave hidden in between some rocks. A cave wasn't glamorous, but it would keep her dry if it rained, and out of the wind. She could hear the babbling sound of a small river or brook nearby, ensuring she would have water. She ducked her head down and made her way inside the cave. It wasn't very large, but it was dry. She dropped the pack off inside the cave.

She first started to gather some branches and twigs from the area, when she had what she thought would be enough she sought out the river. Filling both her cup and the pot and carrying both back to her cave. The raven had taken off high into the sky while she ran water. As soon as he was out of sight, she felt an immense sense of just how alone she was. She was putting far too much attachment on a wild animal.

She gathered some rocks to make a circle to build her campfire in. She didn't know why people always surrounded campfires with rocks, but there was always a ring of rocks in movies, so a ring of rocks was produced. She started by arranging twigs and dry bits of bark in the middle of her rock ring. Digging out the box of stolen matches, she struck one against the striker panel, and quickly put the lit match into her pile of twigs. The small branches quickly caught the flame and burned. She kept adding more and more twigs and branches. Everything was burning far quicker than she had thought possible.

She wasn't going to have enough timber to get anything done. She added some larger limbs to try and buy enough time to get the potatoes ready to cook. Quickly dicing up two potatoes and dropping them into the pot and placing the pot practically on top of her weak fire. She kept feeding the fire, watching her pile of available wood quickly dwindle, while the water in her pot was barely even simmering. She was going to need more wood, a lot of it, but if she left her fire for too long the flames would consume all that was available and go out.

It looked so easy in movies. She had gathered brush and sticks small enough for her to break them smaller bits in a pile that had been as tall as she was. It was already dwindling from this extremely short amount of burn time. She swore. Running farther than she had originally scavenged for burnables. Grabbing as much as she could carry as quickly as possible, running back tot he cave, adding more and more wood to the fire. Barely keeping even, her brush pile kept getting smaller and smaller.

There was all kinds of dead wood around, but all of it was too thick for her to do anything with. She didn't have an axe or hatchet or saw. She did vainly try to use one of her knives, and had only managed to break a knife, cut her hand, and waste time in the process. A small scream of frustration burst forth from her lips against her will.

She was working so hard, just trying to cook a few potatoes. The raven had not returned. It wasn't fair. Nothing was fair. She was tired, her feet were sore from yesterday's barefoot hike. Her back and shoulders were angry about being worked so hard today carrying the pack and then trying to keep the stupid fire going. Her ear was burning from where she had pulled the cuff from her ear.

She was failing. She was hungry, and tired. Then she realized all the birds and squirrels had gone quiet. In the quiet there was a new sound, something dragging along the forest floor. Something large and fearless by the amount of noise she could hear. She was already losing at making potatoes on her own. She gave up. Ran for the cave and took cover. The dragging sound kept coming towards her. She closed her eyes and tried to will her heart to stop beating, her lungs to stop needing air. Wanting to be silent and unseen.