oneshots (indefinite hiatus)

Trio of Staffs- Part 2

After saying their goodnights and putting Anna to bed, Gabriel, Abigail, and Willow head back to their cottages. Gabriel and Abigail walk to the cottage near the water hole and go inside to their rooms to get ready for the next day. Willow walks a bit further past their home and towards the village's edges to her cottage. It's not as fancy as the other's, but it was home.

As she steps inside her doorway, the scent of chamomile and lemon balm pats her nose, filling her with a sense of relaxation. Her bedroom isn't that far from the entrance, so she goes there first, grabbing spare clothes and a small potion bottle full of poppy seeds, cinnamon, and some shards of citrine and amethyst with a lemongrass oil base for good luck. Out of her closet, Willow pulls out a willow tree staff, a medium sized leather satchel, and her belt to hold potions. She stops and stares at the staff. It's a beautiful wooden staff made from a branch of a willow tree with a sphere carved from moldavite wrapped in the wood, the handle of the staff is carved to look like it was twisted together. Resuming her task, she sets the staff down and puts her set out clothes inside the satchel along with extra strips of fabric and a needle with thread in the case of emergency. Willow closes the bag and heads to her kitchen and grabs some of the potions and latches them into her belt's holders and grabs some of the bread she had made prior to this evening and wraps it in a cloth with a handful of hand-picked berries and pops a few into her own mouth as well.

Having gotten everything prepped for the morning, she grabs a flask and goes to the water barrel outside her house and fills it up to the brim, then puts the cap back onto the container and heads back inside. She places the flask next to the belt of potions, the satchel of medical supplies and clothes, and her staff. Seeing as there isn't much left to finish getting ready, she falls asleep to the hope of not going near her home-village the next morning.

In the waking hours of dawn, Abbi wakes up. After staying put in bed for a minute or so, letting her thoughts clear, she gets up, dresses for the day, and grabs her wand of hazel, and goes to wake Gabriel up. About to knock on his door, it opens and reveals Gabriel all ready to go as well. He's holding his wand of oak in one hand and his whittler's knife in the other. Since the two were already ready, Abigail starts to walk to the door outside, but turns and says to her brother, "I'm going to go fetch Willow so we can head out. Mind grabbing my bag as well? I'll take it back when we meet back up. Also, my herbs are in there next to some carnelians, lapis lazuli, and jasper and amber, so please try to make sure they don't break the herbs' bottle. Thank you. I'll see you in a couple of minutes."

"Yeah, that's fine, but are you sure this is a good idea to actually do?" Gabe asks, hopeful Abigail doesn't hear the plead in his words.

"I think it's a noble cause, plus, its an excuse for us to go climb a mountain together and for you to take tree samples, you tree nerd brother of mine, so let's get a move on," Abbi answers, already walking out the door to Willow's cottage.

Gabriel sighs. He picks up their satchels and heads to the northeast edge of town.

Abigail knocks on the door. She gets no answer, so, since they were best enough friends, she simply walks inside and as she steps in, she can tell that there's no scent of chamomile and lemon balm, meaning Willow isn't here. On the off the side, she also notices there's no potions or crystals. Willow had already left. Sighing, Abigail walks back out of the house and towards the edge of town. As she gets closer, a purple blob and auburn blob becomes more and more evident as hair. There the two were.

"Willow, you ready?" Abigail asks, taking her satchel back from Gabe.

Hopping off the chopped log she was on and starting to walk toward the forest, Willow replies, "Yep, let's be off, Little Miss Rosemary."

Abigail and Gabriel had run to catch up with Willow since they were standing frozen in place wondering why Willow called Abbi, Rosemary and not Abbi or Abigail or even Eclipse.

When they were almost caught up, they started growing closer to the Lake. And when they do catch up, the siblings notice the lake is Lake of the Sirens, a lake no one wants to be near for two long, Willow and Gabe have made that mistake before. Without looking to see where Willow was, Gabe just took his sister's hand and ran with her farther into the Forest.

However, Willow noticed this and ran as well to catch up to them, but she heard whispers and saw faint eyes in the forest's shadows. She slowed down, a little out of fear, and mainly because she caught the two runners. Willow looked around and tried to make out the soft voices, but alas, she couldn't. In a state of curiosity, yet anxious, she tried to push past her friends, but was stopped by them.

Gabe speaks first. "Hey, you okay?"

Frantically shaking her head, Willow replies with a witty remark. "The eyes. The voices. Don't you hear them?"

Gabriel and Abigail stop, look, and listen, but they hear nothing.

"No. Let me ask again, Willow, are you feeling okay?"

No answer.

"Willow?"

She pulls out of her trance. "Not really. I think we should hurry out of the forest. Like, right now. Let's go."

Willow starts to walk past them, this time successfully, then starts to go from walking to speed-walking, then to running. She doesn't even look back until she reached the other end of the Forest and can see clearly in front of her, the base of Mount Loche. Panting is heard behind her. Turning around in panic, she releases the feeling with relief for it was just the two friends she just ran far from.

"In the name of Astralene, how do you run so fast," questioned Abigail with a pant as she pulls out her water flask.

"I don't know, the eyes and the voices really freaked me out," Willow answers, rushed. "Lets just head up to the top. Miss Anna Oria is counting on us, even if she is an old woman, I still trust what she says to be true. If you two don't want to do your life's mission and climb a mountain, be my guest, but I'm going."

Gabe stops her from running again. "I mean, yeah, I'm climbing the mountain, but shouldn't we take a break first. It's only been a few hours since we left. We could take a small half hour break until we're ready to climb a mountain."

"Fine," she grumbles back, plopping down on the ground in a crisscross position.