To struggle through wet bushes far from town to pick up herbs isn't my idea of a sensible job, but the others didn't object. Liz likes to collect herbs and rocks. Sunny always is glad to walk or run. Elmo and Tom just were happy to be out of town for a while. Richelle wasn't over the moon, but she needed money to buy that dress, she'd seen in a city boutique. I needed money too. The whole week of the holidays passed and there still wasn't any job for Teen Power Inc.
It had been raining every day during the last two weeks. We gathered at somebody's house and played cards or computer games, but everyone seemed to be already sick of it. It was the worst holidays ever! We were glad to take any job. But the phone was silent. We hadn't even delivered the Pen last Thursday, because it was raining so hard that Zim decided to do it on his car.
And finally Liz rang and informed me that she'd had a call about a new job.
'An old lady wants us to pick medicinal herbs for her,' she said when we gathered in the Pen office. 'The job is easy, interesting and she will pay good money.'
'Easy? Liz, are you kidding'? I objected. 'Look outside! To walk through the wet bush isn't easy and interesting at all! It's disgusting!'
She looked at me angrily.
'We haven't got any other job, Nick,' she said. 'Holidays are passing by, we need to take any job we can get.'
The others agreed with her and decided to go to see that woman straightaway. It was a gloomy old woman. Her grey hair was gathered in a knot on the back of her head, she was wearing a black dress. Dry bunches of herb were hanging all around her house. I'd say she was quite creepy, but as my father likes to say, business is business.
She explained what kinds of herbs she needed, gave us samples and said where we could find these herbs. This place was quite far from Raven Hill, down the highway, near the river. The others decided that we would go there as soon as the rain stopped. Even Richelle didn't object, though she hated even dry bush, let alone wet one. And nobody listened to me.
###
The next day the rain stopped, as if even the weather was against me. We gathered on the outskirts of Raven Hill and went down the highway. When we reached the river, we turned from the road and into the wet, disgusting bush. Drops of water dripped down on us from leaves, grass was wet and slippery. In half an hour Richelle began complaining that she got wet to the skin and was freezing. But nobody paid attention to her. Everyone was busy looking for the herbs, which that old woman needed. It turned out more difficult that we had expected. Kinds of herb that we needed weren't growing everywhere. We had to find them in the grass and separate medicinal herbs from plain plants.
The more herb we'll find, the more money we'll get, I kept saying to myself. I decided that if I'd signed for this job, I should earn as much money as possible. It made me look down attentively and soon my bag was half-full. Liz, Elmo and Sunny also did well. Tom was too busy cracking jokes, so he wasn't very successful. Richelle cautiously wandered between trees, trying to save her clothes from water and dirt. The last thing she was thinking about at the moment was herbs.
###
We had been wandering through the bush for about three hours. I was tired, my jeans were wet. Now I bent down only to pick herbs, which were growing in big bunches.
'When will it finish?' I thought, bending down to pluck a bunch of herbs with little blue flowers.
'Aaa!' suddenly I heard Tom scream. Then there was a loud crackle of twigs.
'Tom! What's up?' Liz rushed to where Tom had stood several seconds ago.
'Moysten fell again,' I grumbled crossly. 'Nothing new.'
'Tom, where are you?' Liz was looking around.
'I'm here. I fell down,' we heard Tom's voice.
'I wish we hadn't come here! It's so wet and slippery here, and there's so much clay,' Richelle was muttering under her breath.
Elmo moved thick twigs of bushes apart, but Tom still wasn't in sight.
'Tom, where are you?' Elmo called.
'I'm here, down in the pit,' we heard Tom's voice. 'Help me!'
Finally I noticed him. He was trying to climb out of a deep pit.
'Where's he?' asked Sunny, coming up to us.
'I can't see him,' said Richelle, for some reason looking up at the tops of trees.
'You'd better look down,' I suggested. 'As far as I know Tom doesn't fly yet.'
'That is he flies,' grinned Elmo. 'But only downward.'
He knelt down on the ground and tried to pull Tom out of the pit, but his feet slid on wet grass and he almost joined Tom in the pit.
'No,' Elmo shook his curly head. 'I'm not able to do it on my own. Guys, you've got to help me.'
He grabbed Tom's hands again. Liz and Sunny hold onto him and they all started to pull Tom up. I sighed and joined them. A few minutes later Tom was crawling onto the grass beside us. He was covered with dirt and clay from head to foot.
'You look great,' I grinned.
Tom shot me an unfriendly look, then plucked a big leaf and started to brush dirt from his jeans.
'By the way, Tom, where's your bag with herbs?' I asked, nastily smiling.
'I don't know,' he shrugged. 'Guess I've left it down there.'
Gingerly, he looked down into the pit. The bag was lying on the bottom.
'I'm not going there,' he announced.
'We'll come back here and take your bag when the bushes are dry,' Sunny decided. 'It doesn't really matter now. Your bag was almost empty.
'Well, everyone does what they can do,' I drawled. 'You and I find herbs. Tom finds good deep pits'.
'I'm sick of you, Kontellis,' Tom sighed.
'I think it's time to go home,' Richelle suggested hopefully.
'Yeah,' Sunny agreed. 'We've already picked enough herbs.'
'Let's go down the river, then turn right and come to Raven Hill from the west,' said Elmo. 'In this way we'll be able to find more herbs on our way home.'
'Oh no,' I groaned. 'Let's go straight home!'
But the others, except for Richelle of course, agreed with Elmo.
So, we went down the river. I was getting more and more annoyed. All what I wanted was to go home, have a shower and have a little rest. But when I started complaining, Liz reminded me the formula "the more herbs, the more money." At first it helped. But when the next half an hour passed, I stopped caring about money. And even more, I was ready to give all my own money just to get at home right now.
The bush became thicker. Now there were very tall trees with huge branches. The ground was covered with ivy and ferns. It was midday, but because of closed crowns of the trees, this place was dim. Deep silence hung around. Even birds weren't heard. We cautiously walked on the ivy carpet. Richelle was muttering to herself something about snakes and spiders. The others walked in silence, even Tom. From time to time Elmo repeated that he knew which way to go, but I guess we all felt that we'd chosen a wrong way, but it was too late to turn back. I can't say from which side we'd come. Wherever you look, the bush around was absolutely alike.
'I think in ancient times bandits mugged travelers in such places,' Liz shivered.
Richelle started and looked around. 'Calm down,' I snorted. 'It's the last place where criminals would like to mug someone. Normal people would never go here.'
'Elmo, are you sure we're not lost?' Sunny asked calmly.
'Raven Hill is straight ahead,' Elmo looked at his compass. 'Don't worry. My granddad taught me how to find the right way in the wilderness. He used to say… Oh wow!'
He leaped aside and beckoned us.
'Look here! Isn't it great?!' he exclaimed, standing on the carpet of herb that we needed.
We rushed to pick it. When we finished, our bags were full. Not bad. At least we'll receive good money for this awful day.
In much higher mood we went further. The bush, meanwhile, was getting thicker and thicker. Now we hardly struggled through bushes and trees, our feet were drowning in the grass and ivy.
'It's so dark here,' Liz said quietly.
'It's raining,' Elmo pointed out. 'The sky is covered by clouds. Here must be dim even in fine days.'
I looked up. Sunlight hardly went through the grey mist and thick crowns of trees.
'It's the end of the world,' mumbled Richelle.
'Cheer up, guys! We've picked a lot of herbs,' exclaimed Sunny. 'We'll be paid well when we get home.'
'First we should find the right way to get home,' I grumbled.
We struggled through thick bushes and all of a sudden found ourselves on a huge clearing, which was rimmed by thick bushes and trees from all sides. In the center of the clearing, there was a big, overgrown lake. The smell of rotten grass and mire hung in the air. We looked around in surprise.
'Where are we?' Liz put our thoughts into words.
'What a disgusting smell!' Tom wrinkled his nose. 'As if someone died."
'It's not funny, Tom,' Richelle hissed. 'Let's go out of here. This place gives me the creeps.'
'Shhh. I guess I know where we are,' Elmo said slowly. 'It must be the Witch Lake.'
We all turned to him. Elmo's face immediately went bright red.
'The Witch Lake?' I raised one eyebrow. 'Do you mean that witches live here?'
'Well, I don't know if they live here now, but I'm quite sure that one of them lived here many years ago,' Elmo responded.
'Oh yeah,' I laughed. 'And she used to fly on her broom around this puddle.'
Blow of wind stirred the leaves on the trees. Their rustle sounded quite spooky. Richelle shivered.
'Don't laugh, Nick,' she frowned.
'This witch, her name was Galina,' Elmo went on, "really lived here seventy or eighty years ago. My grandma told me about it. She knew her. When I was little and asked her to tell me a tale, she often told me stories about a young girl, who was believed to be a witch, and who was abandoned by everyone because of that. When she finished her story, she admitted that this Galina was a real woman and even described where she had lived.' Elmo stabbed his finger to the left. 'Her hut was over there.'
'Was she a real witch?' Tom asked with interest.
'As far as I remember from what my grandma told me about her, she could do hoo-doo, love binding, spell casting, healing and other witchcraft stuff. After all Raven Hill citizens made her leave the town.'
'Listen, Tom,' Sunny interrupted. 'Why don't you wash your hands and face in this lake? You'd look really silly going over the town in such dirty clothes.'
'Okay,' he agreed and went towards the lake.
'Be careful, the ground is slippery here,' Elmo warned him. 'You'd better go that way.' He pointed at the overgrown track.
Tom staggered there. But hardly had he done a few steps, when he stopped.
'Hey,' he turned to us. 'Someone made a fire here.'
'What!?' we gasped.
We crowded around Tom. He was right. We were standing in front of a fire site. It was quite weird, I have to say. In the centre there was a fire pit, circled by rocks. It was full of ash and half-burned woods. Then there was a wide circle of green grass, which was surrounded by another circle of burned ground. It looked as if someone drew three circles by a huge pair of compasses.
'How strange,' Liz said thoughtfully. 'Why did they burn a circle around the fire?'
'Why did someone set a fire in this place?' Sunny frowned. 'It's dangerous.'
'Guys… I think I know why…' Elmo said slowly. 'I think it's a witch fire.'
'Witch fire? What do you mean?' Richelle widened her big blue eyes.
'Yeah,' Elmo nodded. 'I read that witches set such fires during their Sabbaths. A big fire in the centre and a circle of fire around it. It helps them to call the evil spirits. Usually it happens on the full-moon nights…'
'Are you serious?' I stared at him.
'Do you think it's a joke?' Tom pointed at the strange fire.
'But Elmo, you said that Galina had died seventy or so years ago,' Sunny reminded.
Richelle's fingernails dug into my arm. 'She might be dead, but it's still a sort of rotten place,' she mumbled. 'And by the way, witches never completely die. Their souls never die. And they always have pupils.'
Richelle believes in this stuff about witches and ghosts. As for me, I think it's stupid. But stupid or not it was quite scary to stay in that creepy dark place near a strange fire and unfriendly-looking lake.
'Elmo, did Galina have any pupils?' Tom asked.
'How should I know,' shrugged Elmo. "But look at the fire. It looks quite fresh. I'd say it was set about two weeks or so ago. And two weeks ago it was full moon, by the way. I can say it for sure, because my cat becomes a bit odd on these days.'
'Do you think they will come here again,' Liz whispered, looking around with fear in her eyes.
'Who? The pupils?' I raised one eyebrow.
'I don't know,' Elmo shrugged. 'But my grandma told me that dead witches become alive once a month and turn up where they lived before. I remember when she fell ill, she shared a secret with me. A few days before that, she was walking along a street and met Galina. Grandma greeted her, Galina replied and passed by. Only then my grandma realised that Galina had been dead for years. She said that obviously it was time for her to die because Galina had come from the underworld to take her away.'
'And?' I asked impatiently.
'And my grandma died in a week after that conversation,' Elmo said.
The sky was covered by grey, heavy clouds again. It was only midday, but twilight deepened over the clearing. We didn't hear any bird. There was a complete creepy silence around. I felt uncomfortable. By the others' faces I could say that they felt the same. Richelle moved closer to me, I put my arm around her.
'Listen Tom,' Liz said nervously. 'Wash your hands quickly and let's get out of here.'
'Yeah,' Sunny nodded. 'I'm freezing.'
Tom took a step towards the lake, but tripped over a tussock and fell down. Again.
'Tom! For heaven's sake!' Sunny groaned.
Now Tom was covered with a layer of ooze above the layer of clay.
'Well, Moysten,' I giggled. 'Now we can grow plants on you.'
He didn't bother to answer me, just knelt down on the ground, plucked a wide leaf of fern and started wiping his hands. Suddenly, with exclamation, "Oh, wow, what is it?" he bent forward and picked up something from the grass. The next moment he let out a scream, scaring us all to death. We stared at him. He was carefully holding a strange thing on a chain.
'It looks like a piece of mummy,' Richelle gazed at the thing in horror.
I took the thing from Tom's hand. 'It looks as if someone wore it on his or her neck,' I said. Then I looked closer at the thing and shuddered. 'Boy, is it a dried hoof?'
'That's right,' Elmo nodded. 'It's the dried hoof of a goat or a sheep.'
'Nobody, except for a witch, would wear such a horrible thing on the neck, if you ask me,' Liz whispered.
'It proves that someone had a witch's Sabbath here', Richelle breathed out, tightly squeezing my arm.
'Yeah', Tom said slowly. 'And this thing must have fallen from someone's neck. Look here, the chain is broken.'
'What could have they done to break such a thick chain?' Sunny thoughtfully fingered the massive chain.
'Maybe there was a scuffle between witches,' I snorted.
'Be careful Nick, don't insult them,' Richelle warned me.
'Okay, don't be silly, guys!' Sunny firmly exclaimed. 'I don't believe in witches. There must be a reasonable explanation of it.'
'It could be a sect,' Liz's eyes widened.
Sunny's face changed. I have to admit I also felt uneasy. Witches and witchcraft is one thing. It's more like a scary tale. But the sect is absolutely another thing. They are real. And who can be sure that they aren't on their way here right at this moment.
'Okay, let's go out of here,' Sunny ordered. 'We'll discuss it when we get home.'
She went back and turned to the west. I shoved the thing into my pocket automatically and followed the others. We skirted the lake and made our way through bushes to the west. We went on and on. When I started to think that we'd never find the way out, I saw a gap in the bushes ahead and soon the first houses appeared.
We dropped in our bags with herbs to the old lady, and received our money. She said she needed more herbs, so we decided to go to the bush again in a day or two. She agreed and, at last we went home.