Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Lia stared at her sleeping brother. Mind filled so many thoughts and worry. Their supply is getting fewer and fewer, and the crops will still need another month or two to be harvest, the last bread was eaten. With no money in their purse, and no crops to get, they will starve.
And still, no notes from their parents.
Dark thoughts never fail to invade her mind each night, crawling through her head and spines, reminding her of how hard to live. It all started when their parents left, and Lia was left with the responsibility of aiding to a sick brother.
She shake her head and tried to ignore the snarling voices in her mind, the one that whispers and hisses to her every night, telling her how their pantry would be full if her brother's bed were empty. How she can have a more natural life when Jeongguk was gone. How easy it is to carry his limp body and leave the boy on the woods, into the darkness of it and the raging river inside. After all, Jeongguk is weak.
But Lia would never do that. They are just horrifying thoughts, which makes her sobs silently beside her brother. Asking for forgiveness.
Outside, the cold breeze of the night whistles and Lia hears whimsical giggles, but dismiss the thought of it as it could only be her imagination.
She looks up to the window and gaze at the forest, there was a sudden urge to go in there and try to fetch what they need. What her brother need.
Lia took Jeongguk's small hands in her's for a moment longer. Then she lets go. Gets up and took a robe and maybe a small axe and baskets.
Nobody goes into the forest. The villager would always remind them.
But Lia needs those herbs.
•••
Those who dare to wander inside the woods are at the highest risk of getting lost, in more ways than going inside a normal forest.
After all, the woods hides things humans like them wont understand.
Lia made her way around the tall trees, with so much alertness, her every move are cautious. If she will to get hurt, or did not made it back, her brother will be alone. She dont want that. She must made it back. Her brother needs her.
There was no path, and the way she's taking is badly overgrown. There are bushes with weeds and thorns that catch onto her robe and boots. Lia has to hack her way through.
It was quiet, only sounds of crickets, of an owl hooting somewhere, and wolves howling not far, can be heard all throughout. The moonlight couldn't illuminate the whole forest, as the trees block them, and Lia has to rely more on the wavering flame of her oil lantern, as the cold breeze kept whistling. She keeps walking.
A witch is said to live on the heart of the forest. And their garden is said to grow different types of herbs, and even the rarest herbs on the region can be found there.
But of course, all those tales came from the villagers that never been inside the woods. It was just a mere story passed by generation to generation—it has no proof. And Lia could only wish that those tale are real, that she has to base her luck on hope. She dont want to come back home empty handed.
The night gets deeper and the path never ends. Lia is starting to wonder she was lost. If the forest managed to enticed her way through, that the unnaturals were playing on her.
But then, she sees a light.
Through the fog, sticky shadows between trees comes an orange hue; tinier than the light from her lantern. Lia's breath hitch and she picks up her pace, ignoring the prominent pain on her soles. Sounds of dried leaves, fallen branches and distant howling feels like the woods was attracting all evil thing, as if trying to scare her away, trying to get her out as soon as it can.
Lia suppressed a shudder, as she puts out the lantern when she neared the light, in hopes of taking cover under darkness.
She heard the creaking of woods, and a movement she caught.
Lia remained calmed and alert, as she take in the sudden eerie appearance of the woods. The forest dont look the same. Something changed, and Lia knew that.
A cold breeze blow and it gets even more dark. The shadow swallowing everything up. The gaps between the trees threatened fo pounce on her, Vines and saplings trying to reach her as Lia made her way. The trees' thin leaves starts to look like deformed fingers, but dismissed that thought and feeling, telling herself it were all just nothing but her mind playing tricks. But then, the feeling of being watch never left her head.
Lia focuses on the distant light, as sweat begins to trickle down her face. After some moment of pushing her way through the darkness, a silhouette of a chimneyed cabin came into her view, and smoke was coming out of it.
Suddenly, all the sounds stopped. Not even the sound of crickets could be heard. It's too quiet.
Now Lia know...the tales about the witch are real.
Lia pauses, squints her eyes into the whole structure of the house. There's a sickly-sweet odor on the air, like the smell of freshly brewed coffee and freshly baked pastries. Lia carefully drops the oil lantern, then made her way to the walls surrounding the chimneyed-cabin. The block of rough rocks put together to form what looks like a boundary, that reach Lia's neck. Behind those walls that serve also as a gate, was the garden she was looking for.
And again, all the tales were proven real. There are herbs in there, and one caught her eyes. Vervain!
Her hands set on top of the walls and a small jump before she drops down on the other side. The cabin now stands mere feet away from her, where soft hue of yellow glow emitting from the inside, which serves as a light through the fogged darkness.
As quiet as she could, Lia starts searching through the whole garden. She reached the vervains and gently, quietly, plucks them, setting them on her basket right after. She took enough vervain for several weeks. Before moving to another part where she saw glimpse of horsetail. But the green was located near a window, where she can hear a faint sound of a spinning wheel.
Gulping her fear, she starts taking the herbs she could get before deciding it is enough.
Without getting caught, Lia managed to come back home.
