Chapter One

The warm spring air rustled the leaves all around my tiny cottage that I have lived in since I was a small child. My mother built this home for me when she was accused of witch craft by my father all those years ago. My mother wasn't a witch though but a healer who used the herbs from her garden to make teas for the sick. She had taught me her recipes before my father fell for the baker's daughter. Instead of asking the King for a divorce he decided to accuse her of witch craft instead.

I kneeled down next to my thriving garden of herbs and vegetables. My hands caked in mud I pulled the weeds from the damp earth. This was where I felt the closest to my mother. The smell of damp earth filled my nose from the rain the night before. Here I was happy and had no intention of returning to the city.

The sound of a tree branch breaking caught my attention startling me. No one had ever came this far outside the city not once. I took hold of my walking stick lifting it above my head to protect myself. The bushes parted as a young man stepped into the light his sword drawn and his armor dented from battle. His dark black hair short revealing his light blue eyes.

"I am looking for the Witch of Asgar." He said sword at the ready. His voice was deep with almost a growl.

"Then you have come to the wrong cottage. My mother has been dead my father wrongly accused her of witch craft." I said hiding behind the wall of my cottage.

"Lies! Everyone knows this is where the witch lives! Now come out and admit to what you have done!" The knight said.

"I cannot, I have done nothing! I am just a woman who lives here!" I said my back pressed firmly to the cottage wall, my heart pounded hard inside my chest.

"I must slay the witch that set a plague on my people! I am the prince it was left to me to bring back the witches head!" He screamed raising his sword even higher.

"Then I am afraid good prince you have failed for there is no witch here as I have said! I am only a human! What must I do to prove it to you?" I asked terrified.

"Witches are said to be the ugliest creature in the world. Step into the light show me your face!" The prince demanded.

I took a deep breath my legs trembling beneath me. I needed to prove to him I was not a witch but I am not beautiful, my hair was a knotted mess my dress was covered in mud. I stepped from around the side of the cottage my eyes glued to the ground. I held the walking sick close to my chest my fingers turning white and I gripped it tightly.