The Green Witch

Chapter Fourteen

     Something woke Tala up in the middle of the night.

     It was dark outside. She had left the curtains open, as was her habit, and the sky was full of stars, shining steadily and brilliantly. An owl hooted. She listened with her green ears while being careful not to reply. <This is my patch,> the owl was shouting to any other owls that might be close enough to hear. <I know you're out there, trying to poach mice on my turf. Get out of here before I get hold of you. I'll rip your wings off.>

     Tala smiled to herself, reflecting that ordinary people thought that the hooting of owls, and other types of birdsong, was delightful and romantic. She was pretty sure they'd be less enthralled if they knew what they were actually saying to each other. The natural world was vicious and brutal. People deplored the violence that humans inflicted on each other, but there wasn't a single kind of living creature that wasn't just as bad, or even worse. Even plants tried to poison each other with chemicals left by their roots in the soil. Even a beautiful, spreading oak tree was a brutal killer that murdered any acorns that tried to germinate too close to it.

     Was it the owl that had woken her up? No, she didn't think so. There was something else out there, in the darkness beyond the smoky, green glass of her bedroom window. Something malevolent and evil. A wolf? Was it Black Tooth, searching for her so he could betray her to the Crone? He knew her smell, after all, and she must have left it all around the farm by now...

     <There you are!> cried a gleeful voice, and Tala cried out in terror. <I've found you!>

     It was the Crone, or at least her astral projection, and it was right here in the bedroom with her. Tala pulled the woollen blankets up to her chin as she stared out into the darkness, as if she'd be able to actually see the woman who'd been searching for her for so long. And she could see her, she realised with horror. The moon was in the sky somewhere, although she couldn't see it. There was enough of its light reflected from some clouds down near the horizon to allow her to see the vague shapes of furniture around the room, and it illuminated something else as well. The merest suggestion of a face, hovering in the air over her bed, so barely there that she could almost convince herself that she was imagining it. The face of an elderly woman, grinning with gleeful eagerness and desperate longing. The face of a woman willing to do anything, commit any cruelty, any atrocity, to get what she wanted.

     <So pretty!> the Crone sang, staring down at her. <I knew you would be. Pretty and healthy. Many, many healthy years ahead of you. Strong, healthy and pretty. Perfect. Just perfect.>

     "Go away!" said Tala aloud, screwing her eyes shut and pulling the blankets up over her head.

     <Your friends in town were so helpful,> said the Crone. <So eager to help a lonely old woman looking for her only niece. She lived in the cottage that burned down, I said, and they told me exactly where you were.>

     <You're here?> said Tala in horror. This time she remembered to use her green voice. <Actually here?>

     <Just a few miles away, and eager to meet you in person.>

     <Leave me alone! Why can't you just leave me alone?>

     <Ah dearie, if only I could.> Tala sensed the Crone's face dropping lower and she cringed in terror. <If things were different, the things I could teach you. We green witches can do so much more than you know. I can sense your strength. I could have taught you to be one of the greatest of us. One of the greatest there's ever been. What a pity.>

     <What do you want from me? Why can't you just leave me alone?>

     Something pulled the blankets down from Tala's face. To Tala, it felt as if there were someone physically in the room, pulling with their hands. The invisible hands gave a powerful yank and the blankets were pulled clean off the bed, leaving Tala naked on the mattress. She curled up with a gasp of fear and tried to cover her body with her hands.