“Find a pregnant boar and feed with milkfoil root and dryad flower. Have a dozen women scream at her until she is forced into early birth. Ferment the suckling in a jar filled with vinegar, a handful of powdered rotkin blood, and water from the womb of the mother. Mix it with the fat of an exhumed corpse of a newborn child. Then, seal it with beeswax and bury it under the soil for two winters.”

  -Recipe of a youth unguent, spoken by the witch of the north, Grethena

  Lodur was up and running. He had the color back on his face and the strength back on his legs. He and Rob were currently following the girl who saved their lives to her house. Apparently she was a witch who lived alone in the woods.

  Normally Lodur and Rob would’ve been running away from the girl if not for the floating stick by her side and the magics that witches were known for. He’s heard stories of witches turning men to pigs and flying across villages to spread itching powders. He was currently scared of the girl as she skipped through the piles of corpses like it was nothing, but he and Rob decided to listen to her, since she did just save his life.

  “I’m Rob by the way great witch, and this is my friend Lodur. Again, we thank you for your help.” Rob said, sweat dripping from his brow.

  “Oh hoh hoh, aww stop it, great witch is my grandma, call me Beelza instead.” The girl smiled as she waved their concerns.

  The girl pointed to a cozy looking cabin covered in moss and vines that hid it from view. “There it is, that’s my house. You guys can stay at one of the rooms if you’d like for the night. Eee, this is so much fun, I’ve never had friends over before.”

  Lodur gave Rob a stare that said ‘Rob, I really don’t want to be stuck in a cabin with a freaking witch’.

  To which rob replied with a stare that said ‘What do you think we could do? The girl just spat on your back and healed you in a second. Who knows what other stuff she’s capable of’.

  Lodur replied with a ‘Sorry, I’m just a bit scared of her, I mean she is a witch after all. I heard some witches even harvest semen from people by castrating them and use it in dark and evil hexes. Rob, I really don’t want my semen to be harvested!’ look.

  Rob gave a ‘Well she probably won’t cut off your balls Lodur, but you’re right we need to get away from her as quick as possible. After tonight we leave and head straight south, to Burgees port, that place has no witches. I heard that they feared the sea and they would melt if they touched saltwater’ look.

  Beelza gave a ‘Whatcha two talkin’ ‘bout’ look.

  “GAAH!” The two boys were startled by the girl’s interruption.

  “N-n-nothing miss Beelza, we were umm just talking about how we needed to go to the away soon. To Burgees port. To umm meet my parents!” Lodur, the orphan who spent his whole life in a bell tower with no parents, said and winked at Rob.

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  “Y-yeah, what Lodur said. We really need to go soon.”

  “Burgees port eh? Well you could at least stay for the night, and by the looks of it you both need a proper bath and a meal.” She smiled as she stared the two filthy boys who smelled and looked like wet rats from the sewers.

  They got to the cabin and Beelza muttered some kind of incantation before the door opened by itself. What awaited the two visitors would stick with them their entire lives.

  Inside the dark interior of the cabin Beelza lit a candle and illuminated the place. The walls were littered with sigils and weird markings. Shelves upon shelves of clay jars filled with bubbling components. Several plants dried from hanging in the ceiling. And a huge cauldron at the center of the room. It gave of an unnatural green glow.

  “Well what are you standing there for, come in.” Beelza rushed inside the cabin with a spring in her barefoot step.

  The two boys gulped and looked at each other.

  “Rob, you’re right, I think we should leave after tonight. I want to stay far away from this cabin for the rest of my life.” Lodur whispered.

  Rob nodded. A vine that hung from the cabin wall brushed his shoulder and elicited a yelp, making him quickly tread inside the dimly lit cabin.

  Beelza lit a fire below the cauldron and added various other things, like a basket of tomatoes, some dried fish, a root of some kind, some deer meat and, was that a live frog?

  “So Lodur, you got a curse with you right? Must be awful.” She stirred the cauldron as it bubbled. “What does it do?”

  Lodur stopped staring at the shelves and snapped his head towards Beelza.

  “It uh makes whatever I touch into a corpse.”

  “Oof that sounds awful. Sorry I couldn’t help. Witchcraft can only do so much since godly curses are a bit stronger than normal hexes.”

  Beelza put a finger in the cauldron and tasted the dish.

  “Say can you show it to me?” She said grinning.

  “Uhh okay”

  Lodur took a nearby leaf on the ground and saw it morph into a dead fish that plopped to the ground.

  “Amazing! So you can do that with anything?” Beelza took the fish in the ground and dumped it in the cauldron.

  She grinned and threw a stick. “Quick make a person!”

  Lodur didn’t have time to react as he touched the stick and saw it become a dead infant which hit Rob in the shoulder.

  “Ow, what the hell dude! Also you promised not to make anymore dead infants.”

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to, it’s just that when she threw a stick at me I panicked.”

  “*Sigh* Well we gotta dispose of this thing now, sorry for the hassle Beelza.” Rob moved to pick it up and throw it outside when he was stopped by the girl who had the biggest smile on her face.

  “You can make dead babies.” She picked the corpse up and held it high. She then proceeded to dance around the cauldron making happy noises. “You can make dead babies!”

  She ran to a nearby chest and took out an unusually large mortar and pestle. It had marks all around it that glowed and gave off an unholy aura. She took a ladle and scooped up a bowlful of stew and dropped it in the pestle.

  Lodur and Rob were frozen in shock at what transpired next.

  She dropped the dead baby in the mortar.

  “What are you doing?!” Rob said as he pulled on his hair.

  “What do you mean? I’m making ointment.”

  “With a dead baby?”

  “Well how else am i supposed to make one? Besides, you were going to throw it outside anyway, better to not be wasteful and see the beasts get to it.”

  “But it’s a baby, a human baby!”

  “And?”

  “I can’t believe this. Lodur say something to the insane woman.”

  “Insane? INSANE? I’ll have you know I’m a perfectly sane woman. I happen to know stuff far better than someone like you. I know how to read, write, and perform arithmetic on my own.”

  “Arithmetic? Writing? Do you even hear yourself, only insane people read and write. I knew we shouldn’t have went inside the home of a witch. All witches are the same.”

  “Well this witch just saved your friend’s life! He’d be dead without the insane witch helping him. Why can’t you ”

  Both of them butted heads and Lodur could’ve sworn lightning sparked between them.

  “Ughh I can’t believe this I’m going outside for a while.” Rob raised his hands and walked to the front door.”

  “Not if I get out first!” Beelza stormed out of another exit at the back of cabin, slamming the door on the way.

  *Sigh*

  Lodur sighed as he was left in the cabin with a giant mortar and pestle with a dead baby inside.

  “Oops, forgot my mortar.” Beelza took out the mortar and pestle with the dead baby in it and dragged it to the back.

  “Oh phooey” Lodur slumped.