By the Wishing Well
If you were to ask me about the town of Hucksford, I would not have much to say. It was a small, tiny village of about 500 people at the top of Mount Ford. The people there, lived without what many may call the basic necessities of a modern life. No internet, no piped water, and certainly no cellphones. The people of this town, were okay with this – mostly because they did not know of a better way of life. I will not go into the systems of this town. For our story, those things do not matter. In fact all that matters is Lucas.
Lucas had spent the day by his friend's house playing games. He lost track of time and was now forced to walk home in the dead of night. Luckily, there was not a cloud in the sky, and the full moon’s shimmer was by his side. Still, even with the assistance of nature – Lucas was tired, his arms and feet were week, and his vision was fading away – and thus he got lost. Lucas, knew, however, that he lived near the wishing well which was at the northern most part of the village. The village was built facing this well, that sat on top of the mountain, perfectly under the gaze of the moon. Lucas, without hesitation, headed north.
If you want a happy ending for our town – try A.
A
When he got to the Well, he noticed a little girl standing over it, crying. He approached her slowly, trying his best not to startle her. “Are you okay?” Lucas asked the child in a hush town. Startled, she screamed and threw a bucket of coins at him before dashing off. Lucas maneuvered his body slowly from the floor, each movement brought him pain. He exclaimed “I wish I wasn’t in so much pain!” as one of the coins fell off his body into the well and by some miracle he was no longer in pain. In fact, he wasn’t even tired.
Lucas stepped away from the Well, confused. Then, out of curiosity he tried a new wish “I wish for a glass of water.” Nothing happened. Lucas shrugged his shoulders as his mind was brought back to reality. He collected the bucket of coins and tossed them into the well and made his way home. Behind him, without realizing, a glass of water appeared on the edge of the well. After a few minutes of walking Lucas made it home.
The story ends here.
B
When he got to the Well, he noticed a little girl standing over it, crying. He approached her slowly, trying his best not to startle her. “Are you okay?” Lucas asked the child in a hush town. Startled, she jumped and stumbled backwards – while falling her bucket tipped over spilling coins everywhere. Lucas ran over to her in concern. As he helped her up, she thanked him.
“Why are you out in the woods at this hour little girl?”
“I am not a child, I am older than you and you sir have no business being out of your hut at this hour. Thank you for your help, but please be gone.”
“Sorry mam, you just looked like a child. Okay, have a nice day.”
Lucas pretended to leave the woman alone, but in truth he went to hide by a tree to see what she was up to. The lady bent down to gather her coins and returned to the face of the town well. It wasn’t a special well, it was old and run down – most people in the village don’t even use it for water anymore – it is more convenient for them to go directly to the springs. Perhaps she was making a wish; but even then, nobody made wishes at this Well. Its only purpose in life is to give direction to the delirious when they’ve lost their way at night. To Lucas’s surprise the woman just stood their, watching the light of the moon hover closer to the well’s waters at the bottom. When the moon was perfectly central she tossed the bucket of coins in and whispered “I wish for to look my age again, I wish for my magic, I wish to be restored to who I am.” As she completed her whispers to the Well a puff of green smoke covered her child like body and when the smoke vanished she looked her age, perhaps younger – but the point stands. With that she vanished off in another cloud of green smoke.
Lucas in shock made his way home as quickly as possible, hoping that he was simply hallucinating from being so tired. He woke up the next morning to the village horns blaring across all sections of the settlement. This could only mean that the head of all the villages in the surrounding moutains has called for an emergency gathering of all the villages later that evening. Lucas’s mother rushed into his room, and ushered him out of bed. “The Witch is back my son, we must get to the safe place.”
“Who? What witch? There are no such things as witches!”
“Remember when you were little and your father would tell you stories about the founders of our villages and how they harnessed the power of an ancient stone to protect the villages from the outside – you know, hide it away from the outside world. Well, those were not just legends and myths. Those were the truth.”
“Still doesn’t explain the presence of a witch, and again, magic isn’t real.”
“The part of the story we don’t tell kids is that the founders got the stone from a dangerous and powerful sorcerous, who promised to one day kill us all if she didn’t get her stone back by the full moon. The founders tricked the woman and bounded her magic to the north Well, trapping her a s a child forever without her magic. However, once every 100 years, when the full moon is at its peak the legend says she comes to the Well and tries to wish for her powers back but fails. This time around she succeeded.”
“If I am to believe you. How is this time any different?”
“I don’t know son, pack your bags, we need to go now.”
Lucas and his mother packed up all their essential things and made their way to the safe place. Everyone was pilling into the building. Hundreds of people. The adults were whispering amongst each other wondering whose fault it was for the Witch to appear. Lucas and his other friends sat across the room in shock, trying to process all the information that had been unloaded onto them so suddenly. There were three loud knocks on the wooden desk at the front of the room and silence enveloped the room. The head chief and all the other chiefs stood with menacing glares that chilled the room.
“The curse our forefathers placed on the Witch was broken by one our children. The curse was so designed that unless touched by a child of one of founding fathers, in an act of kindness, nothing the Witch did could reverse her curse. She was not aware of this, and neither were our children. For the last 600 years, she has avoided our children and instead gone after us, the elders. But it seems that she has changed her mind-”
“Actually no, I didn’t change my mind.” Lucas stood in shock as the woman from the Well appeared in the room. Everyone drew for their weapons, but with the wave of her hand all of them vanished. “I truly did not know how to break the curse, I read every book, I did everything. The wishing well does grant wishes, but I used it once before, and it didn’t work. I was, desperate this time around. Then that boy over there snuck up on me, and I thought it was one of you elders coming to run me off. But instead he showed me kindness. For that Lucas, I am truly grateful. You have allowed me the sweet taste of revenge – now, chief where is my stone?”
“I will never tell you.”
“How unfortunate.” The Witch reached out her hand and grabbed one of Lucas’s friends, she then tore her heart out and squeezed the blood down her throat – the Witch kept her alive with her magic so she could taste every second of her death. After the heart had been squeezed to death, The Witch tossed the child before the council of chiefs. Everyone in the room tried to run but the doors were locked from the outside. “My stone gentlemen, or I will kill everyone in here.”
The elders called her bluff. Forty people died before they surrendered the stone. After the Witch got the stone, she killed everyone anyway – except Lucas and his mother. “You boy, you are the reason I have my stone back, and for that I am grateful. You and your mother are spared to live on. With my magic I can have you start over anywhere in the world, with new memories, forgetting all this bloodshed. Would you like to forget it all?”
Lucas and his mother said yes after the initial shock wore off. They thought that remembering would be a worse fate. The two spent the rest of his life in bliss.
C
Things follow the exact same path as B, but Lucas and his mother said no to the Witch’s offer. They spent the rest of their days hunting the Witch, dying in misery as their fallen friends haunted their minds.
D
Instead of walking away like he did in A, Lucas stays to solve the question of how his pain vanished. Lucas learned after an hour that in order to make a wish come to pass he needed to through a coin in the Well. He was taken aback by this information of course, but after the initial shock left him, his mind began to realize the endless possibilities before him. Initially he made wishes for the village to have endless food, clean water and all the usual selfless things that people typically wish for when raised right. Then he sat there, after making all the wishes he could for himself, and his village what next he could wish for. There was rustling in the bushes behind him and when he turned to investigate it the little girl he scared off stood their with puppy eyes.
“You’re magic?” She said in a soft and trembled voice
“I suppose I am.” Lucas said while patting her shoulder.
“Could you make a wish for me?”
“What’s the wish?”
“I wish I had what I lost, and that I was my normal self again.”
Lucas tossed the coin in the well and the girl was covered by green smoke. Things continued like B or C.
E
If you want to make the story more interesting, make Lucas the Witch and the Witch Lucas. If you want to add some backstory for the village chiefs and why they cursed the witch in the first place that’s up to you. If you think that the story would be better if the Witch doesn’t get her wish, or if she does and Lucas and his mother avenge the death of their friends then go ahead. It really does not matter how you spin it, there is only one true ending to this story.
Someone suffers.
The village, Lucas, the Witch or other – it does not matter – whichever ending; someone suffers. But that’s the point of this story, to highlight the fact, that sometimes, not everyone can win.
