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

Chapter 1-10 Days and Counting Down

DISCLAIMER: No spells, herbal remedies, potions, prayers etc are real. They will not help you get whatever you want at all. To use The Craft wisely and responsible takes years of learning.

ONLY Authors note ever: This is a work in progress. I will not be doing Author Notes in the story itself as I personally find these a distraction to the story. Any A/N will appear in the comments at the end of each chapter but only when absolutely needed. I will add to my story as I write it but will NOT give a definitive day for my uploads. I welcome any comments, suggestions and constructive criticism. If you like it please vote. If you don't like it please leave a comment as to why. Thanks! I hope you enjoy the story as it unfolds.

CHAPTER 1 - 10 days and counting

The biggest question I will face on my thirteenth birthday is, "Do I want follow in my mother's and her mother's and her mother's, mother's footsteps all the way back to the first woman in our ancestral line or do I just want to blaze a new path of my own? Throwing away hundreds of years of my clan's traditions and learning?" I have known all my life this day may come but figured I wouldn't have to make the decision since I was a boy and the family's most closely guarded secrets are passed from mother to daughter. Just my luck I am the oldest boy in our clan, which is our large extended family with only male heir, that has shown a talent for Magick. Why couldn't someone have had a girl this generation?"

You see I come from a clan of hereditary Witches and at the age of 13 the oldest, usually female, of the next generation needs to chose to follow and learn our family's Wicce ways or be turn out of the clan a year and a day after their birthday to follow their own path and allow the next in line to be fully taught in the traditions and mysteries of our clan. Now I'm not saying each new generation doesn't add a new idea here and there to our core beliefs' because they do. What I am saying is I wouldn't be able to change anything until I was a full-fledged Witch myself, which takes about five years or more of training. Yes males are called Witch not warlock when it comes to walking in the path of Light in the Wicce world. By the way Wicce means wise woman another reason the girls are given the honor of learning our family's many traditions and secret ways. The boys learn some of the simpler things but we do not need to learn everything.

There may be an out for me yet, if either of my Aunts have their baby in the next ten days and it's a girl, then I won't have to decide as the girl will be raised from birth to be the next generations Witch. "Now which God or Goddess is it that decides these things?", I ask myself as I walk through the woods looking for some meat to bring home for dinner. Oh well I try to think of it later.

The boys just learn simple herbal remedies, like for patching up a cut or scrape or burn when we are hunting, fishing or just rough housing with each other. We learn simple protection spells to keep us safe and which God or Goddess to call upon for a successful hunt and protection. Other then that we don't need to know anything because there is always a women who can do the more complicate, time consuming things for us. Plus what thirteen to eighteen year old boy wants to learn the mysteries of becoming a woman, childbirth or spend days cooking up the more powerful remedies and potions or the right way to make a talismans? I cringe at the thought of having to help with delivering of any woman or animal. Today I'll just enjoy the sun, woods and hunting. Oh well I just think about it tomorrow, I still have over a week to decide and maybe, hopefully a girl will be born by then.

Time to start tracking my prey for the day. Boys learn to track all kinds of animals and birds from the moment we can walk. We learn how to use a bow and arrow from the age of 4 years old and the proper way to make a kill so the animal suffers very little, if at all. We learn the proper way to give thanks for the life that has been given to help sustain our own and how to use every part of our kill so nothing goes to waste. Even the innards we can't eat or use in another way get put back into the forest for other animals to consume. We would never think of hunting, tracking and killing just for pleasure. Now what is the Goddess or God that helps me hunt? Well I think about it later if I can't find anything on my own.

4 hours later....

Guess I better really start thinking of the Goddess name since I have not seen any prey at the end of any tracks I followed today and I don't want to come back empty handed leaving my family with no meat on the table tonight. What is her name?...AHHHH... Diana that's it! As I look out into the vast forest I pray, " I call upon Diana the greatest huntress of all, help me find prey so my family may eat meat and be stronger. Thank you." With that said I start off again to look for fresh tracks. In about a minute I find those of a good size deer and quite a few rabbits have crossed the same path too. "So do I want to have to pull a good size deer back home and not have to hunt for a few of days or do I want to get some rabbits and have to hunt again tomorrow?", I stand here thinking as the prey gets further and further away. Rabbits they maybe smaller but they are certainly easier to carry. As I walk quietly through the woods my mind turns back to the big question, "To be or not to be a Witch?" Oh well I'll think about it tomorrow.

I wound up getting 6 rabbits, enough meat for my family for two days. Thank you for your help Diana! The meat will be used for stews and to eat, the skins will make wonderful, warm boots; the bones and all the rest will make a tasty treat for other animals. All in all I think a good days hunt. I arrive home tired, cold, wet and hungry, all I want to do is eat and then sleep. I'm a little smelly from my efforts in the forest but Oh well I'll take a bath tomorrow.