Introduction
Ever since Abigail was a little girl her gran had told her amazing stories about her family history. Abigail’s grandmother’s stories were always fascinating to her; one of her favourite parts of the story was hearing about how she was descended from the youngest of the three original witches. Her name was Lilly.
Abigail knew the story off by heart, by the age of six she could recite every word and often she would tell the story back to her gran.
Six thousand years ago, there was a small village surrounded by forest in what is now known as London. This small village was home to many men and women, one man and one woman were more important than the rest. This couple went by the names of Killian and Emilia; these two were important as they were the parents of the first witches. Their eldest daughter, Hazel, was born after many complications; Emilia fell ill, and the healers tried everything to make her better. They had used every medicinal herb they could think of until one healer used a Corylus flower.
The Corylus flower-or hazel flower- was crushed into a paste and mixed with water, Emilia drank it and within a few weeks Emilia and her little baby were healthy. This miracle flower had saved Emilia’s baby and so her and Killian named her after it. However, after a year Hazel began to show signs of unusual behaviour things her parents couldn’t explain; Hazel could set fire to objects if she stared at them for too long, she could create pain when she touched someone she didn’t like, and she could bring dying flowers back to life. The villagers became suspicious and a little afraid of what Hazel could do, they created a word for her powers; Wicca or as we now say witch. The Corylus flower, which some villages believe gave the child her powers, got a new name; Hamamelis or witch hazel.
Despite the problems with her first pregnancy Emilia had two other babies, the second was named Jasmine after the flower that helped save her life when Emilia and Jasmine were dying. The third was named Lilly, again after the flower that was given to her mother along with the other two to prevent her from getting ill. Every daughter had powers by the time they were one, each more powerful than the last, Lilly being the most powerful of them all.
