The Hidden Witch

Edith. 

It’s a beautiful Saturday morning here in my little two-bedroom cottage hidden in the Forest of Dean, it’s 6am and I have risen with the birds to make a hearty breakfast for my daughter and myself as we have a busy day ahead of us. She’s still sleeping now but I know she will be up in a hour, she always is. I’ve decided as today is going to be gruelling, then I am going to make a full English breakfast which is both of our favourites. I plan on doing two pieces of bacon, two fried eggs, two sausages, mushrooms, baked beans, half a grilled tomato, two slices of black pigs pudding and of course two pieces of toast with a cup of coffee each, as I said, we need the energy for today. I’m currently sat in my rocking chair on my porch watching the forest wake up whilst drinking my first cup of coffee this morning. The birds are singing, deer are starting to roam, and I can see the odd squirrel running up and down the trees, all are most likely looking for their breakfast too. My chickens and pigs have yet to wake up but when they do Rayne will sort their breakfast out, that’s her chore, she knows not to get attached to the animals they are after all our food source as I don’t like leaving home, not for long anyway, It’s safe here with the protections and wards I put in place 18 years ago. They will need strengthening soon though before Rayne’s 18th birthday comes around in a month and her full power is unleashed, she is going to be so powerful. Even more so than me and that is saying something, I’m only an earth witch but I am a strong one however when Rayne was born and I saw her eyes I knew she was no ordinary witch. Her eyes proved to me that abandoning my life as I knew it and running as far as I could when I found out I was pregnant, was the right thing to do. I knew she would need protecting and I knew I would protect her with my life. No one knows where I went or why and it will stay that way. I need to tell her the truth. I’m going to tell her at the end of the day she needs to know and soon. I’m getting antsy sat here thinking about telling Rayne the whole truth so I need to busy myself, starting with breakfast, I just hope Rayne see’s sense and realises everything I’ve done was and always has been to protect her. I’ve almost finished cooking it smells delightful I know Rayne is going to love this. I hear her bedroom door open and smell her sweet scent of rain and lilac.

“Morning dear how are you?” I ask turning to face her, she stretches and yawns “morning mother I’m okay how are you? This smells great. Please tell me it is what I think it is?” Rayne’s eyes are huge and almost puppy dog like n she has the biggest grin on her face she loves her food. I laugh “yes I thought I’d cook your favourite today and lots of it, we need the energy” she pauses whilst putting on her boots and frowns “why do we need the energy?” She asks confused. Oh, my daughter would forget her own head if it wasn’t attached to her body! “Did you forget? We need to restock the potion room and reinforce the wards, protections and add a shield” Rayne grumbles “why do we even need to do this? We hardly ever use potions and the wards are just fine they don’t need reinforcing” “that is where your inexperience comes out, wards and protections need reinforcing every year and this year you can help me now your almost 18, and we do use potions, be grateful there’s some potions we’ve never had to use. But we need to restock on healing ones and making a few others couldn’t hurt. You never know when we may need them and right now you not at full power, if we were ever attacked, the potions will be your best friend” my voice is getting high pitched as I tell Rayne this. Rayne raises her hands in the air in a surrendering gesture “okay, okay calm down mum, I’m sorry your right, but I don’t think anyone will attack us were in the middle of nowhere we haven’t done anything wrong, I’m not even sure if a coven is close by.” I smile at her and nod, it’s all I can do. I know I over reacted but I’m so stressed out about telling her the truth. I spin back around to the cooker to finish breakfast, and I hear shuffling behind me. “I’m going to quickly feed the animals I won’t be long” and with that Rayne has shut the door behind her and I sigh, I hope I can keep it together until tonight.

Rayne

I trudge down to the animal pens grumbling to myself about this morning. Why do we have to do all this in one day? Why can’t we do the protections and wards today and the potions tomorrow? It’s not like were in a rush or anything! I love my mum but it’s always her way, so there’s no point in suggesting we split the chores into two days she’ll never go for it. I sigh I’m so frustrated I want to scream, but I won’t. I'll scare the animals, so I kick a rock instead. I decide I will deal with the chickens first, I’m not supposed to use magic to help me, but what my mother doesn’t know won’t hurt her. I use my hands and concentrate hard and direct some water from the nearby stream to float through the air and into the water container, I’m getting so much better at this, before I know it the container is full. I stop the flow of water with a triumphant smile on my face, one down one to go, the pigs one is always harder as its bigger and uses more magic. I briefly consider filling it up with the hose but ultimately, I decide to just use magic, I need the practice anyway, I quickly grab the chicken feeders and run to the nearby shed and fill them up then I run back to the pen and place them in their usual spots. I open the hatch to let the chickens out of their coop into their fenced in run and they squawk at me, I like to think they are thanking me and greeting me “good morning to you too ladies, I hope you left some tasty eggs in your nest boxes.” They obviously don’t answer me but the animals are my only friends as we are so isolated from the rest of the world, not even dog walkers come to this part of the forest, at least I’ve never seen any. I wonder if all witches live like this, if they did then I don’t feel so lonely knowing my kind are all living the same simple mundane life. I contemplate this as I collect the eggs, we’ve got six already this morning, mum will be happy “thank you ladies” they squawk again and go about eating. I finish feeding our pigs, it’s a shame the babies are going to begin to get butchered soon now there fat enough, I know it’s part of life but they are so cute as babies, not so much when they grow up though. However none of them will be wasted whatever we can’t fit in our huge walk in freezer will be sold at the farmers market along with some eggs in four days. It makes me happy that they won’t go to waste and mum says we need the money they make us. I guess she is right we always need something but we're not short for money. As I begin to focus on the stream again and begin directing the water it stops and my head whips around, my mother has just conjured a shield to stop the water going any further. “What! Muuuum” I whine “you know better than to waste your magic on silly stuff like filling the buckets with water! Use the hose and save your magic you will need it; it’s not an endless supply” mum shouts. “Fine” I snap back and I storm off in the direction of the hose shoving the basket of eggs at mum.

Edith

Stupid child! She knows if she uses magic recklessly shell quickly drain herself of power as she does not know yet how to completely control it and with the wards and protections needing reinforcing, they are weaker and magic can be easily picked up if someone were looking. We need to reinforce those asap, after breakfast if she is going to be reckless, I need to make sure we are safe, I’ll also check the trail cams to make sure no one is nearby, I hope for both of our sakes no one was looking for a spike in magic.

We eat breakfast in complete silence. I will give Rayne all the time she needs to realise she was being silly. As I start clearing up, I hear her clear her voice “sorry mum, I just wanted to practice” there it is I can read this girl like a book. “it’s okay sweetheart we just can’t be doing silly things like this. Your normal lessons will resume again soon I promise you on my life I will teach you everything I know but for now, no recklessness, understood” she nods and walks off into her bedroom to quickly get ready for the day. That’s okay, I will wash up and get myself ready too after I check the cameras. An hour later were both ready and I’m so relieved I didn’t spot anything out of the ordinary on the cameras. We decide to do the wards first. We mix black salt (which is sea salt mixed with the charcoal from a protective fire) with rosemary and rue, I tell Rayne the black salt is to keep out negative spirts and people who wish us harm. Rosemary is for safeguarding our home and land and rue is used to ward off the evil eye, she’s heard me explain this a million times so I don’t think she’s listening to me. We sprinkle this mixture by window sills and doorways and rub it on the iron horse shoes we have there. Next, we grab black tourmaline and pop it on the shelf by the door and windows. We then grab the rosemary mixture four black tourmaline crystals and four iron spikes and carry them outside to the most northern, eastern, western and southern point of our land. We bury the spikes and the crystals removing the old ones and we both spill a few drops of our blood onto the crystals and spikes before covering them up with the dirt. We circle our entire property from crystal to crystal sprinkling the rosemary and salt mixture then we recite the incantation three times

“By stone and mortar, beam and slate, I bar the path and lock the gate.

No shadow creeps, no malice nears, to sow the seed of doubt or fears.

By breath of wind and root of tree, this property is bound and held by me.

From floor to roof, from wall to sill, be shielded by my word and will.

As I do speak, the circle spins, to keep out woe and peace in,

By ancient earth and salt of sea,

As is my word, so mote it be.”

As soon as the last sentence is spoken a faint shimmering haze appears, so faint you have to squint to see it, but it’s stronger than what was there before meaning we did it successfully. Also the noise outside of the ward has settled, we can only hear things inside our protections. I look across at Rayne who is swaying on her feet, she needs rest and food fast. This was too much too soon for her, but she needs to be pushed. I get her home and make her some scrambled eggs on toast she thanks me and eats like she’s never eaten before. I tell her to go nap for an hour afterwards and she does, I can spare an hour after all.