How To Be Brave

The witch (Woodcarver!!!)

Jack softly stroke my head to soothe me as we flew on Toothless. I didn't care where we were going, if it just was away from him.

Suddenly Toothless stopped, throwing us of his back. "Toothless!" I sobbed. Jack offered me a hand, which I grateful took.

"Look", he whispered. I obeyed and turned. A whole circle of huge stones was planted around us. Toothless paced at the edge of the circle. "Maybe we shouldn't be here, Hicc", he said, grabbing my wrist. "Let's leave." I wanted to follow him, but got stopped by a blue light in my eye corner.

"Wait." I loosened his grip on my wrist. On the other side of the circle, a wisp peacefully floated. I tried to catch it. it disappeared, just like fifteen years ago. And just like fifteen years ago, the wisps made a trail for us to follow. I looked to Jack. He nodded. "C'mon, Toothless", I hissed. He shook his head. "Toothless!" He still ignored me. I rolled my eyes and we left the circle, Jack ahead of me. Toothless quickly ran around the circle to follow us.

We followed the wisps up to deep in the forest. Everytime we got too close, the wisp disappeared. Finally, the trail ended before an old cottage. "Why would the wisps lead us here?" Jack asked. I shrugged.

"Care to find out?" We walked to the door and carefully opened it. It was low, we both had to duck to avoid hitting our heads. A bell rang and we both stood in a room full of carved dragons.

"Look around", a voice behind us said. We turned around and saw an old lady carving a large wooden Changewing. "You holler if you see anything you like. Everything is half of."

"Er", I hesitated. "Who are you?" I asked.

"Just a humble woodcarver", she responded, sweeping the floor.

"I don't understand", Jack started, picking up a pot decorated with little Nightfuries.

"See anything you like?" The woman asked, suddenly standing next to him. "Perhaps a touch of whimsy to brighten any dark chamber?"

"But the will-o'-the-wisps, they..." I muttered.

"This one is one of a kind", she interrupted me, picking up another carving. "I'll make you a deal for this at a rare prize." However, a sweeping sound distracted me and I turned.

"Your broom!" I gasped. "It was sweeping by itself."

"That's ridiculous", she protested. "Wood cannot be imbued with magical properties. I should know, I'm a... Whittler." She fake-smiled. "Of wood." When she tried starting the conversation again, Jack turned around. I followed his gaze to the black crow that sat on one of the larger carvings. "Don't touch that, it's stuffed", the woman said. Jack ignored her and tried to touch it, but...

"Staring is rude!" The crow snarled.

"The crow is talking!" Jack yelped.

"That's not all I can do", the bird said. He started, well, singing. As far as you can call it like that. With a snap of her fingers, the woman made the broom hit the crow, so he shut up.

"You're a witch!" I concluded, turning to her.

"Woodcarver", she sang.

"That's why the wisps led us here", Jack said.

"Woodcarver!"

"You'll change our fate!" I said.

"Woodcarver!"

"You see, it's his dad", Jack started.

"I'm not a witch! Too many unsatisfied customers!" The woman said. "If you're not going to buy anything, get out", she snarled. With one snap, all the knives in the room rose up, pointing to us. "Get out! Shoo! Be gone with you!" She shouted, as the knives actuated us to the door.

"I'll buy it all!" She stopped and froze.

"What? What was that?" She asked, startled.

"Every carving", I cleared myself.

"And how are you going to pay for that, sweetie?" She asked me.

"With this", I responded, putting off the bracelet that clung around my chest. It was pure silver, decorated with three little Nightfuries.

"Oh my, that's lovely that is", she whispered.

"That would set us up for months", the crow spoke. The knives fell down and she tried to grab the bracelet, but...

"A-a-a", Jack hummed. "Every carving, and one spell."

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

"I want a spell to change my dad", I spoke. "That'll change our fate."

"Done." She dragged us out.

"Where are you going?" Jack asked. Instead of answering, w-she snapped her fingers. The door closed.

"There." She dragged us in again.

"What are you doing?" I repeated Jack.

"You never conjure where you carve. Very important." She opened the door again. This time, it led to a totally different room. All the carvings were gone, much more candles and books replacing them. "The last time I did this was for a prince", the witch hummed. "He demanded that I'd give him the strength of ten men. And he gave me this for a spell." She took a ring from her pocket. "A spell that would change his fate." While I looked more closely to the ring, Jack asked:

"And did he get what he was after?"

"Yes", she laughed. "And made off with an especially attractive made mahogany chees board." I rolled my eyes. "Now, what do I need? Just a little bit of this", she threw it in the pot, followed by a little poll of dried grass. The crow flew to us and pulled out some hairs.

"Ouch", we protested.

"That'll do", she said, now stirring in the cauldron. She put on a weird mask and gave her crow one as well.

"What..." Both Jack and I looked into the cauldron, but the witch immediately covered our eyes.

"And now let's see. What have we here?" She pulled a little thing out of the potion.

"A cake?" We asked in unison.

"You don't want it?"

"Yes, we want it. You're sure, if I give this to my dad, it will change our fate?" She laughed.

"Trust me. It'll do the trick, dearies." She led us out. "Expect the delivery of your purchase withing a fortnight." Dhe sounded like she suddenly thought of something. "What was that thing about the spell?" I turned.

"Did you say something about" The cottage was gone. We stood in the circle again. "the spell?" I finished my question. No answer came.