Isabelok peered around a thick tree, looking into the house where her future lover slept on his stone bed. From her angle, Isabelok could only see Phinabunk, not his brother, Gerb, or his sister, Can-tok. Isabelok felt the familiar tingles of desire and annoyance.
Isabelok spun on her heel and ran in the opposite direction of the house. She didn't return to her own rock home. Instead she made her way through the trees and brush to a small cave. Isabelok hesitated before it. An old wrinkled woman covered in even what Isabelok would call rags stood inside the cave, a small fire sending shadows outside. Her face was blocked by the clumps of gray hanging from her head. The woman was stirring something in what she called a "pot." The pot sat on wooden coals and stones, the fire within it barely surviving.
Isabelok slid the pack off of her shoulder and looked inside. Small versions of Isabelok, Phinabunk, and their families and friends were piled within. Isabelok closed the pack and entered the cave.
"Here," Isabelok handed the pack to the woman, speaking in the language Phinabunk and Gerb had taught her and their friends. The woman seemed to understand what Isabelok was trying to say when she used that language, even when Isabelok couldn't understand the woman.
"I was wondering when you would arrive, my dear," the voice of the elder woman always made Isabelock cringe. The woman reached out and took the pack. Slowly, she removed each figure from the bag, making a line on the ground. Isabelok couldn't suppress her smile when the woman placed the Phinabunk figure next to the Isabelok figure.
The woman faced Isabelok, "Now, I will ask you once more. Are you sure you want me to perform the spell? Remember, that it does come with a large price."
Isabelok pressed her fist to her heart, "Me and Phinabunk together. Never apart." She still had a little trouble with the language.
The elderly woman smiled. Isabelok felt a shiver run up her spine. "As you wish. Now go! I must do the spell alone!"
Isabelok blinked, not quite sure what the woman was saying.
"Go!" the woman pointed into the darkness, which now looked slightly terrifying to Isabelok. But she ran into it without delay. She wasn't sure she wanted to be around the elder woman much longer anyway.
The elder woman chuckled to herself, "Prehistoric romance. Something has to amuse an old witch in her ending days."
She dug into a bucket nearby and removed more humanoid figures, placing them in a row above the others. The last she held on to for a second longer before dropping it. It wasn't quite humanoid, having a strange tail and a goose-like beak, but it had appeared with the others for some reason. The elder witch woman shrugged her curiosity away. She didn't need reasons. Only amusement.
The woman began to chant:
From this moment in time, to the ends of forever and eternity,
I bind these souls together in friendship, love, and hatred.
May destiny morph itself to keep these souls together,
And to always be synonymous to their ancestry.
Let my ancestors and descendants add those souls they wish,
But never will these original souls be taken from the bind.
With all the remaining strength she had, the witch tilted the pot's contents. The figures on the ground were soon drenched in brown, fowl smelling liquid. The woman took her last breath and collapsed beside the pot.