Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The first thing Lia does after coming back home, was to ready the herbs. Washing them to take off the dirts. And then setting fire and boiling water. After the fire turns blue, and the water on the pot boiled, she drops in the herbs.
She kept stirring very so often with a curved spoon, making the fragrance to mix in the cold night's air.
Now she wonders, does witches grow their herbs with magic? She wonders—a bit too late—if there will be side effects when these herbs was given to her brother.
When the herb was ready, she put the water mixed with its flavor into a cup, and hurriedly walk towards her brother's room.
The boy was asleep, but the cup can't wait until morning or it will spoil.
"Jeongguk..." Lia called, slightly shaking her brother. The boy stirred awake, but too tired and too weak to sit on his own, and so Lia helped him into an upright position. She took the mug and gently blow unto it to lessen the heat. "I have your medicine." She said and tried making the boy drink.
"You smell like grass and dirt," Her brother said, taking the cup from her.
Well Lia do smell like that. With all the grass and soil that managed to cling unto her clothings, and maybe charcoal on her arms for setting the fire, she definitely wont smell like flowers or perfume.
But if it's for her brother...she dont mind smelling and looking like dirt.
The boy's pillow was soaked from fever-sweat, but he still smile back at her with crinkling eyes. And from that moment, Lia did not regret sneaking into a witch's garden and stealing from them.
"How is it?" She asked, gently brushing some hair strand from the boy's face.
The boy's eyes widen upon tasting the first sip, staring back at Lia in surprise.
"It's good!" The boy said, astonished. "It's really good! It tastes like..like.." another sip from the cup and a delight sigh, "Like..when you were thirsty and no water was around but then soon you found a clear pond and drink from there.. It tastes like that!"
Lia laugh, her heart is pounding. "Yeah?" She hummed, adoration can be seen from her eyes as she look at her brother. "That's great! So now I expect you to not complain when I make you drink every two hours." She said.
The boy make a face, and Lia laughed more, so, so overjoyed.
Her brother is not going to die.
•••
But before she knew it. The herbs are gone.
She did not steal enough.
Lia witnessed the changes in her brother. Jeongguk can now walk by his own, run around the backyard of their home while Lia collects woods. He don't look too pale anymore, his color have come back. And every time Jeongguk would offer to carry few wood branches, Lia is delighted.
But then she was filled with worry as she eyed the receding amount of herbs she installed in their pantry.
A cup every two hours consume the tisane, and now she was pounding the bottom of the pot to get every drop of medicine from it.
Jeongguk sleep peacefully now. He dont wake up every hour clutching himself in pain anymore. But Lia still sits beside his bed, worrying. Worrying that the medicine would run out. And now it did.
She needs more.
Lia walk towards the window, stared at dark of the forest, and shudder.
She needs to go back.
•••
When the sky darkens, the night gets deeper, and the village was silent, Lia slips out. She walks until the moon can barely lighten her way when she entered the forest.
She made sure to remember the way back to the cabin inside the forest. The quicker she managed to get the herbs and leave the forest, the better. And so she walk and walk and walk until a familiar dim orange hue came into her view.
Lia's heart was pounding loud and clear inside her chest. It was because of fear. Fear that starts to consume her. There was a voice in the very back of her mind telling her to just go back, or something bad will happen. But if she were to listen to that voice, her brother would fall ill again and worst, die.
She sighed, calming her raging heart.
For my brother...
Lia tighten her fingers around her basket and hurries on. Ignoring the fact that unlike before, the trees around her seem to increase in numbers. There are more of them now. Surrounding her, circling her. But she still continue her journey. Perhaps she even imagine hearing their raspy voices coming from those oak woods, eyes gleam as they watch her closely.
The walls that separate and protect the cabin welcomed her yet again, looming when she approaches. Lia hook the basket on her elbow and prepares to jump. But she was startled when she heard a hiss, "Go away!" Said a misty voice coming from behind her, but when she looks around, there was no one.
She shake her head, telling herself that she might have been imagining the voice.
But..."Go away!" But the voice hissed again.
Lia bites her lips and prepare herself to jump through the walls again, ignoring the voice, which come into silence once she managed to get pass those stone walls, her boots dropping hard unto the soil of the garden.
Lia sighed, watching her surrounding a bit closely.
She needs to get the herbs then run as fast as she can. Just like before. Just like before...
Lia can easily locate where the vervain and horsetail are, much quicker than the last time she've been there. And once she comes closer, she noticed that the destruction she'd made on her first steal, had been fixed.
A wave of shiver run down her spine.
Now she needs to be more careful.
She can already tell by that, that the witch growing this garden, or whoever owns this place, is already aware of Lia's existence.
In then out. Like a professional thief! Her inner voice hissed to her. Like a professional thief...
But right after she kneels and reaches for the vervain, for that very moment, she feels it. A soft texture of thread, finer than silk, though invisible to her, it do still felt real as it came in contact with Lia's arm. And before she knew it, a bell chimed.
The door of the cabin booms open. "And what does little human doing in my garden?" Said a voice, coming from the door behind her. That's when she knew, Lia knew, at that very moment, that she did the grave mistake of entering the forbidden land.
Lia's heart pounded loudly in her chest, as a hand yanked her into an upright position, slamming her to the house's wall. A hand wrapped around her neck, not too tight but enough to keep her in place.
She tried to get away, eyes closed tightly.
"Stop struggling, human!" Hissed a manly voice. Lia opened her eyes, and an oval shaped face came into her view, illuminated by the fire coming from the inside of the house.
Lia freezes.
This..is the witch?
It was a beautiful man, in a way that can make anyone be lured by him with just one glance. His eyes are mesmerizing, his lips are plump and pinkish, skin a bit pale but still complements his overall feature. A beauty that resemble daggers and red apples and snowy white corpses.
His voice is warm but there was an underlying hatred when he says, "So you are my petty little thief."
