I open my eyes, and find myself laying down in a bed made of moss. I quickly sit up, and call, "Francis!?" A hand reaches out and takes mine, and I turn to see him sitting on a stump to my right. I sigh with relief.
"Hey," he says, quietly. "You're finally awake. She said you would be, soon."
"She said?" I ask, confused.
Francis nods. "Yeah. When the dinosaur picked you up, you passed out. I started screaming and throwing rocks, but they didn't do anything. You were almost to its jaws when, out of nowhere, she swung over on a fine, dropped onto the dino's head, and stabbed it with her staff."
I frown. "Who is she?" I look around the room, and find that it's made only of natural things, and it seems to be in a tree. "Where is she?"
An odd woman emerges from a whole in the house, and comes over to my side. She's wearing a tiger skin cloak, and I can't tell what she's wearing ( if anything) under that. Her hair is white, and she has a crooked nose, and is missing many teeth.
"Ah, you're awake." she says. "As I predicted." she adds with a wink.
"Who... who are you?" I ask her. She crosses the room to a big, tin bowl that's over a fire, and begins adding things to it from small bottles.
"I'm Merla, the witch of this land of dinosaurs."
I'm dumbfounded. I'm under the care of a witch?
She stirs the mixture, and pour some in a small wooden cup. Then she brings it to me, and I take it. I look down at the bubbling green liquid, and grimace.
"Drink." she tells me.
I take a sip, and am surprised to find that it's good! I drink the whole thing, and she pours more. It's warm, and soothes my aching throat.
"When the beast picked you up," she says. "You passed out of fear. But that's not all that happened to you."
I'm confused. "What happened?"
"His talon pierced your side, and the venom from a snake it had recently tried to eat got into the wound. I'm afraid the poison is in your blood right now!"
Francis stands up from the stump quickly. "You didn't tell me that!" he says. "You said she just got a bit cut!"
I feel I'm going to pass out again, but, with much effort, I hold on to my surroundings and stay conscious.
"Yes, well, I didn't want you to be too worried." said the witch. "And anyway, after drinking that potion, she will probably be fine."
"Probably!" Francis exclaims. "What do I do?"
The witch shrugs. "Bring her back where you came from. Once there she'll be fine, and some outside air will fully cure it."
Francis bites his lip. "Uh... we can't."
The witch turns, and frowns. "What do you mean?" she asks.
Francis explains the lighthouse, and she says. "Well, she won't die if you stay in the lighthouse, but one day of each week, the pain she'll have, even when it's a scar, will be horrible."
"But she can't get hurt i the lighthouse!" Francis says. "It protects us!"
"Not if you're already hurt." the witch says. "Then it can't prevent it."
Francis looks to me, and looks extremely sorrowful. He turns back to the witch. "Isn't there anything we can do?" he asks her.
She nods, and we're relieved. "There is something." she says, and grabs a book off of a shelf. It's purple, and looks very old and medieval. "Let's see," she murmers, flipping through the pages. Finally, she says, "Ah! Here it is." She begins to read aloud:
YOU ARE READING
The Lighthouse Keeper
Romantizm"Well, why DO you want me here?" He sits back in his seat, and takes a breath as if trying to figure out how to tell me something. He finally says, "I'm lonely here in the lighthouse. And even though there's and unlock button, it only lets others in...
