Witches of The Wood by Skylar Finn

Author:Skylar Finn [Finn, Skylar]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-03-10T22:00:00+00:00

24

The Blacksmith’s Daughter

Gwyneth let herself into the back door of the inn after what felt like hours wandering through the woods. Yet strangely, no time seemed to have passed at all. The sky was lighter outside than it had been when she had left, and her father had not even missed her.

Gwyneth set about her chores, fulfilling her tasks dutifully as she always did.

At the back of her mind, the deer’s offer sat. What if she really could go anywhere, and do anything?

It wasn’t that she necessarily believed the deer. What did it know? It lived in the woods and ate berries and things. It probably didn’t have a deer-wife or a deer-mother. She felt sorry for it, living in the woods with no family that way. No wonder it wanted to befriend her.

The magical powers had intrigued her, however. Maybe she could conjure a second version of herself, another Gwyneth to run the inn and care for her father while she, the real Gwyneth, traveled the world. Maybe she could even see the ocean. She’d seen pictures of it, but had never seen a bigger body of water than the river.

What had the deer asked in return? That she bring people to it, occasionally? The deer must be really very lonely in the woods, if it wanted all these friends.

Gwyneth could scarcely wait to collect her magical powers. She waited till her father and the inn’s only lodger, a hunter traveling north in search of game, were fast asleep. Then she wished herself into the woods. It would be dark, she knew, but the deer would be there. It would make sure that nothing bad happened to her. She clutched the stone in her hand and thought of the forest.

The room around her faded from view. She sat on the forest floor. A pair of orange eyes was the only light in the woods. She watched as the eyes came closer.

“I see you’ve decided to accept my offer,” said the deer.

Gwyneth was uncertain. It sounded like a transaction of some kind, one she hadn’t realized she was making.

“I just have to bring other people back here with me, right?” she said slowly.

“Certainly,” said the deer. “That’s all. Hardly anything, really.”

“Okay,” she said, sounding braver than she felt. “I’ll do it.”

“Very good!” said the deer. It came closer to her. For the first time, it looked less like a deer and more like something else, something she’d never seen before. For the first time, she felt afraid.

“Close your eyes,” it said.

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