The Wishing Well | ✔

• Four •

Peter clung motionlessly to the walls as he waited. Any moment now, a guard would turn around and he would be discovered.

A guard turned his neck at the faint plop. Peter breathlessly watched as the man's eyes scanned the stony edge of the well, travelling to the inside wall...

A shriek came from somewhere out in the square. All four guards jumped into action, leaving their positions by the well.

Peter knew that he had not a second to waste. He clambered up the last three meters and over the edge of the well. Once he was safely out, he ran, hands clutching his pockets so that they wouldn't clink and attract unwanted suspicion. He barely even glanced at the new crowd forming a short distance away.

Once he reached the inn, he climbed back up to his room and slid the door open. He smiled to himself triumphantly as he once again beheld the sleeping faces of the two girls he loved so dearly.

Peter quickly opened his handbag, which was sitting on the floor near the doorway, and emptied all of the money into it. His heart skipped as he began to realize how much value these coins held.

Using the moonlight as lighting, he examined some of the coins. Some of them were dated as old as fifteen years ago, while others were inscribed with much more recent dates. Either way, he had made a fortune. They had made a fortune. This would be enough to take him, his wife, and his daughter off their toes.

Another uproar in the street reminded him of the new pandemonium that was taking place outside. Once he was sure there was no money left in his pockets or shoes, Peter made his way out of the inn and towards the crowd of people.

As he grew nearer, he became aware that there wasn't just one crowd—there were several. One crowd's focus seemed to be glued to a handsome brown horse. 

"What's happening here?" Peter asked a nearby lady.

"The horse just, appeared, out of the blue," said the lady, motioning dramatically with her hands in the air. "This man was just walking down the street, and suddenly there was this horse."

"Appeared, you say?" asked Peter, bewildered.

"Yes. It wasn't there, then it was," she affirmed. "That's all there is to it. Yet, it's impossible!"

Peter walked toward the next group of murmuring people. In their midst, there was a woman tearfully cradling a child in her arms.

Before he even had the chance to inquire, a man spoke to the crowd. "So, this woman claims to have not been a mother five minutes ago, and suddenly this baby just...popped into her arms? Ha, ha, as if!"

Peter was incredulous. Instead of examining the next party, he stopped one of the guards who was running across the street.

"What is going on?" Peter demanded.

"A very good question," he replied, seemingly distressed. "Things are happening...appearing. If having random horses and babies appearing beside people is bizarre enough, it's even stranger that it's all happening at the same time."

Peter left the guard and approached another crowd. It was difficult to see over the heads of all of the gathered people. He was standing just in front of an old, grey-haired woman, trying to see over her head. Then something astounding occurred, and he saw it with his own two eyes.

The grey hair in front of him suddenly turned a rich, golden-brown colour. The old woman seemed to grow a couple inches in height.

"Gah!" she cried, swirling around to face Audra's father. "What—" That's when she reached over and pulled some of her hair into her vision. She gasped, partly from horror and partly from surprise. Pulling out a mirror, she nearly fell over in shock. "I'm young again," she whispered. "I'm young again!"