Bewitching

[virtualoo]

Name: Nathan Wallace

Age:20

Occupation: Farmer on the Family Farm/Studying Herbs and Cooking

Likes: Animals, Learning more about his chosen occupation, sweets

 

 

"That a girl.." Nathan said as he finished milking the last of the family cows, wiping his forehead of some beading sweat. He rubbed her back as he fed her a few shreds of hay from his hand. "Got a lot out of you today! Might be able to have enough to make some cheese and have some left to use" Nathan laughed as he left the barn, setting the milk in its designated spot in the home.

 

His father was out for the day chopping wood and his mother had gone to the market to sell some of their wares. "I guess that means it is up to us to get dinner, eh Bandit?" Nathan looked down at the table to see a familiar little ball of brown and black fur on the table. "I bet we can bring back a few rabbits and be back before even Mother gets home!" He chuckled to himself as he prepared a few traps to carry in his burlap sack.

 

"Now...up you go Bandit!" Nathan pat his shoulder and the little ball unfurled, Nathan extending his arm and letting Bandit crawl up him to perch up on his shoulder. "We should get going, I do not want to be out too late if I want to have rabbit in time for supper" He smiled and with everything prepared he was on his way.

 

Nathan heard of many rabbits lying in the knoll on the outskirts of the village. The older woman would go on about this 'witch' and he chuckled to himself thinking of it. "A witch..imagine that" He laughed as he headed further into the woods.

 

Now to start setting the traps..

 

This seemed like a good spot to set up a few traps. The rabbits seemed to love this area for it being secluded away from the main areas of the village. All of the places to hide made for a perfect breeding ground for rabbits and a place to escape from predators to ensure their survival. Nathan looked carefully at the ground, trying to track any animal marking to find the most populated spots for rabbits to pass by.

 

Nathan set up a few in the surrounding area, making sure to disguise each trap with some leafs and twigs so the trap would not be obvious to the rabbits. While they may be animals, they sure were quite cunning and crafty little creatures. At least if they were hidden, he had a better chance of getting a catch or multiple traps all at once.

 

After having just set one up, Nathan looked around for a place to set his last trap, searching around the knoll for the perfect spot. -There you are..-Nathan thought to himself, excited to have found what looked to be a burrow. If there were still rabbits using this burrow, he could certainly get a decent sized rabbit in the trap. Now all he had to do was set it up...

 

Nathan carefully and quietly crept over to the hole, slowly lowering the trap to the ground. He did not want to make a wrong move and alert any nearby animals or game to his presence. Nathan set the trap in place, making sure to make similar preparations like all the other traps that had come before it. Bandit remained quiet on his shoulder, sniffing the air around him as Nathan worked.

 

-There...And now all we need to do is wait.." Nathan thought to himself as he decided he should wait it out in the knoll, wanting to make sure he got the rabbits fresh out of the traps. He did not want them sitting there for am extended period of time for any number of reasons. Nathan decided the best hiding spot was behind a fallen tree, laying beside it as he fell quiet. Nathan slowed his breathing and remained still, keeping himself as invisible to the rabbits as he could. He quietly pet Bandit so he would not run off and cause any trouble to him

[Rumpleteaser]

 

Name: Emmanuel

Age: 1635

Occupation: Male witch

Likes: Animals, setting traps, rewards, trophies, treasure, screams, rain, night-time, hunting, young men

Dislikes: Whimpering, laziness, people touching his treasure, snooping, nosey questions, cuss words

 

The day was sunny and bright but there was a chill to the wind. It chased around the boulders sitting at the base of the knoll and whistled through the thin copse of trees. There were rabbits abound. It was late autumn so they were all fat and fully grown, ready for the winter chill. There was nothing suspecting at all about the knoll that day. It just looked like any other hill. If not for the mutterings of the townsfolk nearby, one would assume it was just another mundane locale. It was said to be the lair of an evil witch, who lived beneath the boulders in a deep cave. The witch hibernated every winter then came out to prey on anyone who left their doors unlocked at night. The townsfolk, in their superstitious ways, hung iron horseshoes above their door frames to ward the witch off. It was said that a yowling cat would scare the witch off so everybody in the town had at least two cats.

 

The bunnies sniffed the air and scampered about, minding their own business. Few people ever bothered them there and they were free to roam as they pleased. They sat cleaning themselves or nibbling on the dry, autumn grass or the thick lichen growing on the rocks. They did not at all notice the traps laid out for them or the ferret ready to chase them through their burrows. They were as free as free could be. At least, they were until one older rabbit hopped into the woven trap at the end of one of the burrows. It struggled and squealed out loud, only managing to tangle itself more and more into the weave. With its panic, other rabbits scurried into their burrows, some even getting caught in other traps laid out for them.

 

This older rabbit, however, was caught beneath one of the large, lichen-covered boulders. This was no ordinary burrow, however. This boulder was the portal to a pocket realm where a wicked witch lived. The rabbits came and went as they pleased, hopping between the two realms as if it were normal. If Nathan were to reach in and grab the rabbit, he would be tumbled down into the witch's realm by accident. He would end up on the other side of an identical set of boulders on an identical knoll, except that it was symmetrical to the original. Left was right and right was left. Everything else was different though.

 

Instead of a large paddock of long, dry grass and a few trees, there was a large orchard of the most varied kind. There were peaches, plums, apples, pears, cherries, lemons, cumquats, quinces, mandarins, oranges, chestnuts and all kinds of nuts imaginable. A family could live very well off the orchard alone. What was most unusual, however, was that each tree had four main branches that appeared to be living in the four different seasons. Each tree had a branch for winter, a branch for summer, a branch for spring and a branch for autumn. That way there was an abundance of food to be harvested all year around. Some trees were so heavily laden with fruit and nuts that they drooped to one side. The trees were moaning and groaning under the strain of so much to harvest but there was nobody around to pick them.

[virtualoo]

Nathan laid quietly in wait, relaxing his breathing as he looked up into the sky. These moments were always filled with an atmosphere that seemed both stressful and yet relaxing. The stress comes from the anticipation of the hunt, waiting for the 'prey' to enter the hunters trap. You could get all, some or nothing and you will not know until the moment happens. The animals will be the deciding factor in whether he would be going home in anticipation of a still empty belly or one full of fresh meat.

 

SNAP!

 

Nathan always did get startled slightly at the sudden noise of the traps, especially after a long time of waiting. He heard multiple traps go off so one rabbit must have triggered a panic and had other rabbits running off right into other traps. "Go get 'em Bandit!" Nathan exclaimed, the ferret scurrying off his shoulder and chasing after some of the rabbits scurrying for their burrows. The ferret kept chasing after rabbits until it seemed most of them had ran away for cover. Nathan was finally able to get a good look over what he had caught, taking a silent count of the rabbits in the traps. There seemed to be quite a few..Nathan thought to himself as he went to start his work.

 

Nathan went to each and every trap, making sure each and every rabbit was not left terrified or struggling for too long. He tried to give animals some kindness, despite the contrary of him trapping them without suspecting. But causing minimal suffering to animals was more of a personal choice for Nathan above all else. Was it easier to clean up and prepare? Sure! But every animal deserved some form of kindness for being able to be his next meal.

 

While Bandit scurried around the dirt floor of the forest, Nathan had just about finished getting each rabbit from each trap. He would put away his trap after each one, seeing what looked to be an older one beneath a larger boulder. "A good one! That has to be a good few meals worth of Rabbit there!" Nathan smiled happily down at his furry little friend. "Rather stuck in there aren't you..." Nathan talked out loud as if he was talking to the rabbit. "Come on then Bandit, lets get it out of there" Nathan spoke, Bandit crawling up his back and perching on his shoulders.

 

Nathan got down on his knees, adjusting the bag slung around his shoulder. It seemed further back than he first thought..Nathan was thinking as his arm went to reach for the trapped rabbit. Just..a bit..further..Nathan stretched out his arm and yet no end seemed to be in sight.

 

Nathan soon found himself tumbling downward, as if he was falling down a well of some kind. He tumbled and rolled, falling out of what seemed to be another hole. He groaned as he sat up, unsure of what just happened to him. Did he hit his head on something? Or was it just by pure chance the ground was concave enough to form a hole of some kind, the ground soft like mud and forming some kind of sinkhole for him to fall into?

 

Nonsense!

 

His theories about what happened seemed more outlandish than what his eyes seemed to witness right now. Nathan rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times to make sure what he was seeing was not some trick of the eyes. Trees...so many trees bearing all matter of fruit! With the amount of fruit on these trees, they can feed an entire village! No..! They could surely feed multiple villages with enough left over to store and or sell! But...whats this? Each tree seemed..to have different fruit on them? That can't possibly be....Fruit that would grow only in spring was on trees with fruit from fall and...It baffled him that these trees can hold many different seasons of fruit on one tree!

 

But then...Where was he right now? And which way was home?

 

He would figure that out in a moment..Right now, it seemed that once his thoughts calmed themselves, he could hear what seemed to be a groan coming from the trees. A...groan? Whose trees were these for them both to make noise and bear multiple seasons of fruit? Nathan looked around, as if to see if there was anyone around in the vicinity to ask about these trees.

 

"Um.." Nathan started to talk out loud, not even sure why he was talking out loud to begin with. "I'm just...going to take this...if thats okay" He spoke out loud again, walking up to one tree and going to pick a few apples and cherries to start with, carefully placing them into his messenger bag.

 

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[Rumpleteaser]

'SHAKE ME! SHAKE ME! SHAKE ME!' came an eerie, groaning voice. It wavered and groaned with the light breeze. Soon other voices joined in the chorus until Nathan was surrounded by voices begging him to shake them.

 

The trunk of the closest cherry tree seemed to shift and move as if it were made of muscles all bunching and stretching around a centre point. They stretched wide like a mouth and a willowed face with closed eyes appeared. The tree's eyes opened and blinked a few times before staring at the young man who'd plucked his cherries. There were no irises or pupils so it was hard to tell which way the tree was looking but there were eyelids and the tree could tilt its face from side to side. It moved it's mouth as if it were chewing, trying to work its mouth into action.

 

'Young boy, could you do this old tree a favour and shake his branches? I am so laden with cherries I fear my branches might break,' the tree said. 'That's it, shake the cherries to the ground. Put them in a pile so nobody steps on my precious fruit.'

 

Soon other faces on other trees appeared, all watching Nathan. They too blinked and watched him. Each tree had a face as unique as any human. Some were male, some were female but all of them looked about the same age. It was impossible to tell how old they were, really though. They looked old but not yet ancient and decaying. They still had a lot of life left in them.

 

'Shake us too!' cried another tree.

 

'Shake all of us!' called a female voice. It was still groaning in nature but had a lighter tone to it.

 

'SHAKE ME! SHAKE ME! SHAKE ME!'

 

'Nobody ever comes to pick us! Our fruit stays on the branch until the fruit flies arrive.'

 

'Nasty fiends! They fill our beautiful fruit with their eggs and grow maggots inside them.'

 

'SHAKE ME! SHAKE ME! SHAKE ME!'

 

'Our fruit rots on the branch and fouls up the air with their stench!' called a female tree.

 

'Don't just stand there as if you've never seen a talking tree before! Do something!'

 

'SHAKE ME! SHAKE ME! SHAKE ME!'

 

The trees continued their groaning and their pleas for help. A breeze rustled through their leaves, carrying beautiful scents of fruit and blossoms through the air. Blossom petals danced on the breeze and drifted through the air, along with the dried leaves of the autumn branches. Clouds were starting to form overhead but they weren't storm clouds. It was like a peaceful spring day in this part of the witch's realm.

 

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[virtualoo]

"I cannot say I have ever seen talking trees before..." Nathan got startled at the sudden noise as he looked over all the trees, all had a variety of features and faces."Please give me some time, I shall try and pluck the fruit from you all!" Nathan said as he adjusted the messenger bag along his body. What an odd group of trees...trees that can talk? Surely it must his imagination at play, yet they all were so different? Trees that can talk was quite odd even for a dream..but was he not awake? He must be awake..everything was far too real for a dream.

 

He chose not to dwell on this thought for long, starting at the tree closest to him. Nathan reached up and proceeded to shake its branches. Once he had completed this task, he remembered that at least the cherry tree had asked to put their fruit into a pile. Nathan began to do so, trying to place the fruit next to trunk as for no one to step on their fruit. He was satisfied with the pile that he had created, looking over it to make sure the fruit would not leave a mess.

 

Nathan looked at all the others trees, realizing how many trees that there were still left to do. "Well, I should not rush. I do not want to do a bad job and squish the fruit..' He spoke out loud to himself, moving onto the next tree. One by one, he repeated the process for each tree. Shake the branches..arrange the fruit...move onto the next tree. Soon, he thought he ha surely shaken and done every tree, looking at the many piles.

 

"I hope I was able to be of help trees" Nathan said with a polite nod. "Thank you for letting me take some fruit..I will put them back if they are not my place to take but I would love to take some home to my mother" He explained, not wanted to cause trouble. He would rather not anger whoever might take care of these trees, although it seemed from their speech that they had been neglected per chance. They complained of flies..? But perhaps he had been mistaken?

 

But now where was he to go..? He had no where to turn after having fallen down the hole...Where was he to talk to?

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