To Be or Not To Be a Witch? (Book 1 of As the Mysteries Unfold)

Chapter 5- Only 3 Days Left

CHAPTER 5 - ONLY 3 DAYS AWAY

Now I am beginning to panic, only three days and I become the next family Witch. Where is the girl that should have been born? Why can't one or both of my Aunts take the potion that make babies come sooner? Uhmmmm.... I wonder if I can slip some into their afternoon herbal tea? They drink it to be strong when their time comes to deliver so a little help in getting them to do it quicker and save me from this fate should be OK. Right? I mean it's not like they weren't suppose to have their babies all ready or anything. YES I AM going to do that, since today I have to brew it properly all by myself. I don't have to worry about anyone else tasting it before them. I just have to worry about getting the stuff that's in it right. Hunting and fishing here I come, I know this will work.... well I'm pretty sure it will.

Later that afternoon....

Well I got everything in the tea and in the right amounts I was supposed to use, plus my surprise ingredient. Now to just sit back and.... a loud scream is hear at the other end of the village...guess I won't have to wait as long as I though for it to work.

OH NO! The Witch that helps all women with childbirth is at our front door and with the way her eyes are bugging out of her head and the wild hair this can't be a good think. Or can it? She is telling my mother that I have to come with her right this second, that I have to learn how to assist with a birth. My mother is pointing out that until after the initiation I am still considered a full male in our clan and so it wouldn't be proper for me to see, much less assist with a birth. I am hearing this as I lean over the edge of my sleeping loft. I have to lean down a little further so I can hear them as they start to whisper..."He has to come'," the Birthing Witch exclaims. "He will be helping me with my duties in just 2 1/2 days anyway." To which mother replies, "That maybe what if.... mumbling" So as I lean out a little further to try to hear what they are saying, I lose my grip and plummet to the floor at their feet. I look up in pain and meekly say, "Uh, hi." They both look down at me with questioning expressions and exclaim in unison, "What are you doing? Were you listening? Get up off that floor now!!!!" As I try to get up the room around me goes black.

I start to come around and find myself surround by the best and most practiced healers in our clan as well as those of two more neighboring clans. I try to sit up and find that my body will not move at all. I look around and ask, "What happen? Why am I in the healers home on a soft bed and not at home?". There is a quite in the room, the only noise is the clearing of throats. Finally the High Priestess and High Priest of my clan are let through, by the grave looks on their faces I know what they will say isn't good. The High Priestess, Magdalene speaks first, "We know what you gave to your Aunts in their tea yesterday afternoon. While their laying in has started there is no child born as yet. I had you taught the right herbs to use to bring this on in the hopes you would use them so a girl child maybe born before your initiation." Then the High Priest, Samuel, takes over, "You have been injured severely in your fall. You may never walk or move from this bed again. This seems to be a punishment from the God and Goddess for you trying to get out of your duty to your family and clan. We will allow your mother to take care of you for a year and a day if at that time you are still unable to move or walk, we will take you to the Sacred Mountain and place you in a cave there. In that cave live two very old and wise Witches, who have healed people other healers could not. Of course that is if you live that long." High Priestess Magdalene starts speaking again but this time it is the old language and spoken as a chant, "Mother of all life and Father of protection bring this boy back to us whole. This is our will for him So Mote It Be." By now I understand her words, which frankly surprised me. After the blessing I am given a brew to drink and feel myself falling back into darkness. As I do I think to myself, "I'll worry about all of this tomorrow."