this is part of it! The path they had been shown to was dusty, and with every step it became harder for them to breathe. Carla had rode silently on the horse that was gladly given to her with Kyle on one side of her and Justin on the other side. She was still reluctant to find these forgotten parents, but when she realized how much her friends had been put through, she couldn’t do anything but agree. Everyone else seemed to be quiet too, except I light chatter between judgments on the way to go, everyone kept to himself or herself. They day seemed to go by quickly, and the trail started to darken. The trees surrounded the path and it seemed that they blocked out any source of the sun. There was no way to tell what time of day it was, and so they kept going until they felt a sign of fatigue. Ashley was the first to admit that she was tired, and quickly found and open area and plopped down to rest her feet. She stood only three feet tall, so when her small voice called, everyone else almost missed it. “Wait where did Ashley go?” Asked Patric. “She’s sitting over there you big loof,” Nathan mumbled as he made his way towards Ashley. Patric sighed at the insignificant insult and leaned against a tree and closed his eyes to rest. “How far have we gone?” Carla asked patiently. “About a good twenty miles.” Grumbled Justin from behind her, startling her off her horse. “Twenty miles?” It seemed like they should’ve gone a hundred miles, but she realized that walking is a lot more difficult than just driving places. “It seemed like it went by so fast,” she said quickly so that no one would get disappointed. Everyone seemed to drift apart and make his or her own separate beddings. Some slept in groups, but most slept by themselves. Ben made his way into the woods and came back with some wood for a fire. Once he got it going, everyone seemed to wander over by it and warm up. No one was saying anything so Sharon started to tell a story. “No too long ago, there lived a loving couple, in these woods. They were newly wed, and just found a spot on their land where they wanted to build a house. They didn’t have a lot of money, but the husband was determined to start the perfect life with his beautiful new wife. They were both young, just in their twenties, which was abnormal for most couples, who are normally ten to twenty years apart. Like most of the village, their families weren’t pleased with the marriage, and refused to help with the building of the house. It took about a year for them to finish making the small boxy building, and another year to make the inside livable. Their marriage was cursed instead of blessed, so they came across many problems, but it didn’t stop the love they had for each other. After a few years, the young wife became a young mother. She had a lovely daughter and named her Rosemary. Their family slowly grew, but they seemed to not be able to bare a son. After their fourth daughter, Peony, was born the husband became very ill. “After a month he died of a fever. This left the young mother and her four daughters helpless. And with no one else to help, the mother unburied her past. She hadn’t practiced for years, but she had enough knowledge to teach her daughters. The women in her family had magical powers, and her grandmother was a known witch, and a very powerful one. Her mother refused to teach her, but her grandmother taught her as much as she could before she passed away. The mother taught her daughters the best of both worlds, and let their powers develop naturally, and they did. The oldest was Rosemary and her powers grew to a nurturing power. She obtained the gift from Mother Nature herself. The next was Begonia, whose power to intellect. She obtained the power from the air. Then there was Tuberose, whose power grew like her great grand mother’s. She obtained power from fire, and became over sexual with her power. The youngest was Peony and her power grew to purification and love. She obtained her power from water. These girls grew more and more powerful every year, and when their mother died, they had to make it on their own; with what little their mother had been able to teach them. Rosemary was twelve then, and didn’t know exactly what to do with three younger siblings, but with her gift she was able to make things work. Now Rosemary should be about 20, and they are more powerful than anyone alive.” “Now you’re telling us that these witches are in these woods, and that we could run into them?” Ashley asked. “Well I’m not sure if this is correct, but people say that their home is on this very trail, and many have passed it, and only a few have come back.” “These witches, are they evil or good?” Justin asked curiously. “I can’t say, but by the sound of their stories, they sound a bit evil.” “This is rubbish. I can’t believe you guys really believe this storyteller. Where are the facts?” Ben shouted to the group. “I don’t have the facts, it’s just a warning. We just have to be careful.” Sharon said patiently to Ben who was still rolling his eyes at her. “Well it’s always nice to know so we can be ready for it.” Ryan stated while grabbing onto Ben’s shoulder and squeezing it hard. “Right Ben?” Ben nodded but shrugged Ryan’s hand off his shoulder and wandered away from the light of the fire. Everyone seemed to loosen up after that, and started to chat amongst themselves. Stories were being swapped back and forth, while tips or training techniques were shared. It was a while before Ben walked back to the fire and sat next to Rachel, who was witling away at a hunk of wood she found next to the fire. He sighed and looked over at his companion. She wore her tattered travel cloak and had her fiery red hair seemed to reach to the fire as if it were one. He reached over to brush her hair away when she quickly wrapped her small arms around him and held her small dagger to his neck. “Rachel what are you doing?” Ben whimpered. She said nothing and slowly moved back to her position. Everyone kept their eyes on her, but she did nothing else, she just went back to witling the piece of wood. The voices started up again, but after awhile everyone drifted to their beddings. Ryan and Justin stayed awake, to keep the area safe. They talked to each other silently when Ryan was startled by a noise. Justin listened carefully but couldn’t hear what Ryan did. Ryan listened to the noise carefully, studying what it could be coming from. He started to walk towards it when it suddenly stopped over Ben and Rachel. They were sleeping soundlessly, but there was something around them. Ryan tried to cast a spell to detect what it was, but was only blinded by a bright light. Ryan stumbled back, and Justin replaced him with his sword drawn. “What is it?” He whispered. Ryan didn’t answer. “Ryan? What was it that you saw?” “Nothing.” Ryan mumbled as he rubbed his face. “It was something unnatural. I’ve never seen such power.” “Where? We could take it.” “It’s one of our own.” Justin turned towards Ryan and saw him bent over rubbing his face. “One of our own? Who is it?” “I don’t know for sure, but it’s either Ben or Rachel.” Justin looked back at the sleeping bodies and sat close to them. “Well I’ll be here just in case.” Ryan laughed quietly and sat next to Justin. They talked for the rest of the night, and once they saw that some light was showing through the cramped branches, they started waking everyone. Ryan avoided Ben and Rachel, so Justin rolled his eyes and kicked Ben lightly in the side. “Ben you and your wench need to wake.” Ben didn’t stir but Rachel raised her body and smiled at Justin. He looked over at Ryan who was watching and looked back at the once ugly girl. Rachel rarely smiled, and to see her smile made Justin panic. He rushed away to wake someone else. Rachel silently looked down at Ben and whispered in his ear. Ben’s eyes shot open and he looked up at her. She smiled at him and stood up to find some food for the both of them. He drowsily sat up and looked around. People were getting ready to leave, and he wasn’t even packed up yet. He scrambled to get things into their bags; Rachel walked up with some food, and gave him an awkward look. “Everyone is getting ready to leave, help me pack.” She looked around at everyone standing around chatting then looked back down at Ben and started to laugh. “What?” Rachel shook her head and walked towards Sharon. Ben took a look around and realized he panic for nothing and joined Rachel in talking to Sharon. “I had the strangest dream last night,” Ben announced. Ryan over heard him so he listened into the conversation. “I was walking through the woods and a great flash of light surrounded me and I put up my arms to cover my eyes and saw this demon like creature facing me. I don’t really remember anything else, but that creature’s face lingers in my head.” “What did it look like?” Sharon asked curiously. “It was a creature of fire, and had long horns and a devious smile.” Ben shuddered at the thought of it, and noticed Rachel’s face. “Are you okay?” She smiled at him and started to walk away when Justin stopped her. “Look I feel that she might be the cause of the bad dream. Ryan walked towards you guys last night because he heard a voice and when he tried to detect what was going on and a light blinded him. And now you had a dream of a blinding light that surrounds a demon creature of fire. There has to be an explanation.” Ben looked over at Rachel and back at Justin. “She couldn’t possess such powers.” “Well I feel uncomfortable with her around, do we need her anyway?” “Yes we do, everyone plays their parts.” Carla answered. “I don’t want anyone to be abandoned.” “Well keep her away from me.” Justin grumbled back to Carla. “Why don’t you just ask me?” Rachel finally said. Everyone was shocked at the fact that she finally spoke, but Ben smiled at her then turned to Justin. “Yeah, why don’t you just ask her?” “She would probably just lie anyway.” Justin said at Ben. “Well I think that she would tell you the truth if you gave her a chance.” Ben said while putting his arm around her. “So tell us, what’s going on with the demon and bright lights?” “I don’t know anything about demons, but I know that there was something in the air last night, and maybe that could’ve triggered the bright light.” “No.” Ryan yelled. “It wasn’t just something in the air. It was directly from either you or Ben.” “Well it can’t be me, I have no magical abilities.” Rachel reasoned. “Well just watch yourselves until we figure this out.” Sharon added. With that Justin gave up and started to get everyone ready to leave. Once they were back on the trail, everyone feel silent except the light humming coming from Ashley. The trail took them into the town of Mordal, but Justin was uneasy about them staying, so he pushed that they kept traveling. Everyone was growing tired and wanted to stay in a real bed for the night, but Justin argued that this town wasn’t a town to stay at. “What’s going to happen if we stay here?” Kyle asked. “Bad things happen in this town. People disappear and there’re witches that will steal your soul.” Justin replied. “Now lets keep walking, we still have a few more hours until night, we can make it far enough away.” “Not more witches,” whined Ben. “We can stay here and not be harmed.” Sharon said with ease. “All we have to do is be careful of who we talk to. This is the town that the four witch sisters were raised near.” Justin looked down at her and sighed heavily. “Okay, but I am not saving anyone if you get in trouble.” He grumbled while starting his way over to the small tavern. Everyone followed him in. The tavern was dimly light with maybe five people in it. The bar keep seemed to be older than usual, and was talking to a pretty woman who seemed to be a waitress. She laughed loud about something he said and gave him a little shove. She looked over and noticed more people were coming in and wandered over to the table where Justin, Ryan, and Nathan sat. “How can I help you Huns?” she asked sweetly. “I would like some whisky.” Justin grunted. “I would like some too.” Nathan laughed. “Water.” Ryan said sympathetically. “Alrighty, I’ll be back soon.” She smiled at them and walked to the next table, but everyone else wasn’t interested in drinking. Sharon looked around to try to find someone to ask about the legendary witches, but there were only travelers in the tavern. Sharon sighed and started to work her way towards the rooms, when Ben was being pushed up against the wall, and Rachel had someone pinned against the floor with her sword. Justin leapt up to join in the action, but things were still, and no one was talking or trying to fix the situation, they just stared at one another. “What’s going on?” Justin demanded with his sword drawn and staring at Rachel who was sitting on a person on the floor. She stood up and held her sword to the lady’s neck. “Put him down or I’ll make sure she’ll never speak again.” The man dropped Ben and moved over to hit Rachel but Justin pushed him against the wall. “Don’t think about it.” Justin demanded. Rachel let the girl up, and she ran out the door, and her partner followed close behind. “Okay, can you guys explain what just happened?” “They tried to steal from us, and we couldn’t just let it happen.” Ben answered. “And how did you wined up against the wall?” Justin laughed. “Okay he was a bit stronger than me.” “A bit?” Ashley laughed then started to mimic Ben’s face when he was against the wall. Everyone laughed, and Ben started to get red in the face. “Look I’m not a fighter.” “No, but Rachel sure could’ve taken him.” Nathan pointed out. “I couldn’t of.” Rachel argued. “Look this is a pointless argument, lets try to be more civilized.” “I agree, now lets get back to drinking,” Ashley stated. Everyone relaxed and went back to what they were doing before hand, when after a few minutes a woman in a cloak came running in the tavern. “I need help, I need help.” She screamed at the bar keeper. “What is it dear?” “The witches are here.” Everyone looked at each other, and Justin rose to his feet. “Where are these witches you speak of?” “They are riding into town as we speak. Please do something last time they were here my sister had a miscarriage and half of our livestock died.” “Couldn’t that just be coincidence?” Patric stated. “These witches are evil, they cast curses on the ones who look at the in a different way.” She frantically stated. “Please could you help us? I couldn’t afford another winter without my livestock.” “I will” Sharon stated, and looked around for others to join. “We will too.” Ben added. “And I’ll come too.” Ryan said and smiled at Sharon. They walked out the door, and noticed everyone was in their houses, except four ladies on horses. There they are, hat are we going to do?” “We’ll ask them to come over and talk.” “What? Are you crazy?” Ben asked. “No these girls aren’t evil, they are just trying to survive.” Sharon walked over to the horses and the other three followed right behind. Once she got up to them the eldest looked down at her and gave a questioning stare. “Are you girls the witches everyone is talking about?” “Yes, now why don’t you go hide like everyone else?” The red haired one bluntly stated. “We are interested in learning the truth about you. Can we come with you and maybe talk?” Sharon stood sturdy at the evil glares from the three youngest. “Why that would be wonderful. We haven’t had guests in a long time.” The eldest said politely. “We are heading home anyway. Are you okay walking?” “Yes we are.” Sharon answered.