Chapter Twelve: The Witching Well

It took several more days but eventually Lysette and Ally arrived at a small cottage in the middle of a lush, golden field. The cottage was small and made from cobblestone and outside of the cottage, rested an old Well.

Lyette and Ally approached the dark red wooden door and knocked three times before hearing a rattling coming from within the home.

" One minute! " called a voice from behind the door as more rattling could be heard from within. After a few moments, the door finally swung open and there, stood a rather round woman whose hair was long and silver. She seemed quite pleasant and friendly to Ally who smiled at the sight of her.

" Lysette? Is that you! You ol' flea nibbler" The Witch laughed and welcomed the two into her home.

" Rosha..where is your sister, Heika? " Lysette inquired as she looked around and had not seen her. The home was quite cozy and slightly cluttered. It seems as though Rosha had been cooking something before the duos arrival and from what Lysette remembered..Rosha was not a good cook.

" Oh, she went down the well. She was suppose to bring back some herbs that we hid down there but it's been a few days " Rosha laughed though Lysette was concerned.

" Okay, So a couple of questions. Why did you store herbs down the well? And also, why are you not concerned that it's been days since you've last seen her.." Lysette had always preferred Heika over Rosha simply because Heika talked significantly less.

" Well, We don't want any herb snatchers to stumble upon our humble home and assume they can abscond with all of her herbs, now do we? And also, the well is very deep..it can take weeks to reach the bottom" Rosha smiled widely as Ally watched on.

" Well, We have come here because Ally is very sick " Lysette looks down to little Ally who continues to smile happily.

" I was hoping that you both could take a look at her and see if you couldn't help? " Lysette knew that the sisters were a strange bunch..but vastly superior in knowledge when it came to cures and uncommon remedies.

" Well what seems to be troubling you, little one? " Rosha looks down at Ally but after looking deep within her eyes, she can immediately sense what is wrong.

" Oh no, no I cannot help you with that" Rosha backed away. " I'm sorry but I can't " She continued backing away, backing herself into a table and almost tripping over it completely.

Lysette refused to allow that to be the end of the discussion however " What do you mean you can do nothing? There has to be something that you can do!We have traveled a great distance to get here and we need help" Lysette looked back down to Ally.

" She is just a little girl. And i'm worried that if we don't do something soon, Then her life may be cut shorter than it should be.." Lysette wanted the absolutely best for Ally and would do whatever she could to help. And she had hoped the sisters would as well to some degree.

" There is nothing that can help with that. The child is cursed..." Rosha explains.

" So then break the curse? " Lysette couldn't understand why this was such an issue but Rosha continued to shake her head.

" No one can technically break that curse. I've seen it once before and I had hoped that I would never see it again.." Rosha explained.

" And also, In order for a curse to be broken at least in the traditional sense, Someone would have had to put the curse upon her. However, the curse she has, was not placed upon her but rarher..born and festers within her"

" How can someone be born with a curse? " Lysette questioned.

" So the best way that I can possibly explain this to you Is that when two creatures that are not suppose to mix..mate..they create an offspring that tends to have defects. The same can be held true for magic and or beings of magic. When the two meet, it can create defects from time to time. Surprisingly, this defect doesn't happen all that often but it does happen enough to know there isn't much that can be done about it." Rosha explains.

" So its not a curse..it's a defect? " Lysette was now more confused than before as she was almost certain that there was no way this could be the case for Ally as her parents were both Lycan.

" In a sense, yes. But there is some level of magic involved here, thus I call it a curse. It is something that will eat the child up inside until eventually..her body surrenders to it" Rosha sighed and walked over to a bookshelf crammed with a few dozen old leather books and pulls one out and hands it to Lysette.

" More than likely, This is not going to help you however, It's honestly the best that I can do" Rosha offers her condolences.

" Well what about the Well water? Isn't that supoose to have magical healing properties. Perhaps it could do something for Ally? " Lysette was desperate.

" Well, You would definitely think that. As a matter of fact, The books that I gave you mentions of remedy of sorts involving the water. However, I have also tried that before and it didn't work. The last time I encountered this curse, nothing worked to remove it" Rosha sat down and watched the two stand in complete disbelief.

" So this book is more just theories and experiments that we could try but in reality, would probably just be wasting our time" Lysette was frustrated that there seemed to be no solution, but she would not give up.

" You can try the well water, but I'm telling you, it won't work" Rosha shrugged and walked past the two, and headed outside and peered down into the well and shouted " Heika..I'm sending Lysette and her little friend down, if you can hear me, make sure you bring me up some of that special green stuff.." And with that, she turned back around and headed back inside.

" Okaaaay.." Lysette sighed and turned around and with Allys hand in her own, made their way to the well.

" It sure does look deep" Ally gasped as she peered down the well and saw nothing but pitch blackness.

" That it is..." Lysette sighed.