A Brother's Bargain

The Forest of Midnight

The hag was right in telling Maize and Malaya that the moon and the sun were now both in the sky. All around them they heard noises of movement. They could hear twigs breaking, small animals scattering as to not become somethings dinner, and actual trees snapping. They hurried to find the path they had followed to the hags house, but it was slowly disappearing before their eyes.

"How do we find our way back without the path, Maize? I don't want to be a lost soul or a hag trapped here forever," Malaya whispered to her sister. She then reached out and took Maize's hand in her own.

Maize tried hard to sound confident. "Don't worry, dear sister. We will find our way. I think it may be a trick. Can you use the tiara to find out?" She asked.

"I forgot I even had it," Malaya answered, less fearful. She took the tiara off her head and said," Tiara of truth show us what we cannot see."

The tiara's stones started to glow. Malaya placed the tiara back on her head and shrieked with fear, jumping backwards, "Werewolf, right in front of us, blocking the path. We almost walked right into him," she stammered. "What do we do? His back is to us, but I know he can smell us."

"Run?" Maize suggested.

They started to run into the woods, veering off the path. Malaya was right. The werewolf had caught their scent and was running after them through the trees. 

"Stop!" Malaya shouted. "He's an animal right now, not a man." Maize looked at her like she was insane. Malaya crouched down and held out her hand to the wolf. She looked into the animal's eyes, almost like she could see his soul. "You won't hurt us, now, will you?" she asked the wolf as it sniffed her hand. Malaya scratched behind the wolf's ears. 

Maize shook her head in amazement. "How do you do that? The baby dragon and now a werewolf. Are you going to take him home and add him to your collection?" she asked sarcastically.

"He cannot leave the forest. He is a lost soul and the hag did this to punish him. We have to find the path again and get out of here. There's no telling what she'll do to two pure blood witches," Malaya said, fear evident in her voice.

"Will he not show you the way?" Maize asked.

"He cannot or he will be punished. He was sent to stop us and bring us back to the hag. She has no idea what we can do, and animals don't work on me. I tame them as easily as I make flowers grow," Malaya replied.

The girls started walking back the way they had ran off the path. It seemed like they were going in circles. they could see Twilight in the sky. The werewolf followed Malaya right on her heels. She knew he knew the way, but he was too afraid of the hag to tell them.

"I'm going to put the tiara on the wolf," Malaya proclaimed.

"Are you nuts?" Maize questioned her sister.

"I think it will show me his thoughts when I put it back on my head. I know it was to prevent mind control, but I just have a feeling it will work this way too." Malaya explained.

"We're going to die here, "Maize muttered.

"Always the pessimist," Malaya replied as she placed the tiara on the wolfs head. The stones started glowing a red color. Malaya really didn't know enough about the tiara to know if this would work or just convert the tiara to an instrument of evil. After a few minutes she gently removed the tiara and put it back on her own head. The stones began to glow bright green. Maize was extremely worried when her sister began to shake all over and fall to her knees.

When Maize bent down to help her up, Malaya brushed her off. "I know the way out now," Malaya said. Her voice was cold and void of emotion.

"O...okay," Maize stammered. She had never heard her sister speak that way. It sent chills through her bones.

The girls began walking, werewolf right at Malaya's side, and soon enough they were back on the path. Maize couldn't remember which way was out and which way returned to the  hag.

"Which way do we go, Malaya?" Maize asked. Malaya didn't respond. She just waved her hand at Maize to follow her.

They turned right onto the path and began walking. If not for the glow of Maize's necklace, they wouldn't be able to see a foot in front of their face. Maize had a bad feeling about following Malaya when she was acting so strange. She trudged on anyway. Surely a werewolf in an evil forest wouldn't lead them in the wrong direction, she thought to herself sarcastically. 

They walked a little further and there it was, just like Maize thought, standing in the full darkness of night-the hag's house. She knew the werewolf couldn't be trusted. "Malaya! We went the wrong way!" Maize shouted at her sister.

In the same monotone voice, Malaya replied, "This is where  we are supposed to be, Maize. We are supposed to give ourselves willingly to our great grandmother. This is our true path."

"Snap out of it you idiot," Maize snapped. What in the world had that tiara done to her sister? It was supposed to protect her from mental attacks. Did she somehow corrupt it by placing it on the werewolf's head? Maize's mind was racing. It was full on dark and they were still in the forest. They would be stuck there forever, now, as lost souls or turn into hags themselves. Maize was not becoming a hag. She'd die of her own hand first.

"Back so soon, girls?" the hag's voice echoed around them again.

"Just show yourself old woman, I'm tired of your tricks," Maize snapped.

She appeared in the doorway of her dilapidated house. "Now Maize, we've talked about how you should speak to your elders," the hag laughed. Her laugh was like nails on a chalkboard to Maize.

The werewolf walked up to the hag and lay at her feet. "I see you met my friend. Poor fellow really. He turned too many times and became stuck in his wolf form, as happens to all lycanthrope's eventually. He could have stayed with  and been taken care of by his pack if his last change hadn't happened in my woods," she explained.

"He changed Malaya. She put the tiara on his head and now she's a damn zombie," Maize snapped back, remembering she could only ask the woman yes or no questions and she was sure they were very close to the limit of fifteen.

"Malaya is here willingly. You are free to wander about your new home, or you can join her. Malaya has decided she wants to become a hag," the hag replied pointedly.

"No she hasn't. She would never want that. I know my sister," Maize countered. She was shaking her head vigorously.

"I want to be here, Maize. Please accept my choice," Malaya the zombie replied in her monotone voice. 

"See? She chose my ways," the hag said. "You will soon choose them too as being a lost soul is just no fun at all," she sarcastically pouted and then laughed that shrill ear splitting noise.

Maize was not thinking clearly. She needed to stop reacting and start thinking. The tiara was clearly corrupted, but her necklace was not. Yes, the necklace could heal her sister from anything in the forest! She almost let her excitement show on her face. 

"It's dark. I'm still me," she stated.

"It's not instant. You suffer the changes. You feel the parts of you dying away. The last thing to go is your mind. It wouldn't be any fun if I just snapped my fingers and made you my pet like I do with the humans. Witches are more fun to toy with," the hag sneered, followed by her shreiking laughter.

Maize looked down at her necklace, realizing it was still glowing. It would glow as long as it was daylight. The hag must be able to control the skies, Maize realized. If she could get the tiara off her sister's head and heal her with the amethyst, they could make it out of the forest. She had wondered why the werewolf was the only creature they had come across on the path out. At true dark they would have been hunted because of the smell of their witches blood by orcs, the undead, lost souls, and creatures they'd never seen, even in their nightmares.