"No one really knows where witches came from or when they first appaeared. I suppose the magic users have been around for as long as mortals and monsters have been. But they are an interesting species, you know? One that can look and behave like a mortal and like a monster."

The blond woman was sitting at a table, making homemade candles with her oldest gret-granddaughter who was no more than eight years of age. The woman herself was decades old yet she didn't look a day over forty.

"Witches and warlocks did not always look and act the way we do, you know."

"They didn't?" The child asked.

"No. In the beginning they were actually very cruel. They hated mortals and they hated mosnters. They hated anyone who was not a magic user like themselves. They hated non-magic users with red-hot sizzling hatred that is more sizzling and red-hot than any hatred you could possibly imagine. They would spend all their time plotting to get rid of mortals and monsters in their particular territory. Their passion was to do away with them, one by one. And because they had such rotten and hate-filled hearts, they were quite ugly."

"How ugly Nanny Anna?"

"Well warlocks had terribly disfigured faces. Ones that resembled corpses. They had no nose and yellow eyes sunken so terribly deep into their skulls. They had gnawing, rat-like teeth and big slopping foreheads. Their arms and hands were very muck like a skeletons. Truly revolting."

"What did the witches look like?"

"They were as bald as a boiled egg and they had no fingernails, only thin, curvy talons like a vulture. They had long and crooked noses, and their skin was oily and covered in boils and warts. Honestly I don't what was more awful-looking. The witches or the warlocks?"

"I never thought that we could be ugly and mean Nanny."

"Well 'we' perse are not ugly and mean. But our ancestors were. Not only that, but they were very clever too. You see they found ways to hide their unpleasant true forms, in order to make sure that no one would suspect them, when they would do terrible things to mortals and monsters."

"What kind of things?"

"Things like turning them into chickens or mice or frogs. Trapping them in paitings or mirrors. Sending their rats to bite them and infect them with the plague, or their snakes to bite them and infect them with venom. Or their crows to peck out their eyes."

"Why were they like this Nanny?"

"Who knows, but I think that they were jealous."

"Jealous?"

"Jealous because mortals dominated the earth, monsters had their own world, but the magic users ruled over nothing. And they probably believed that they deserved to rule the earth and the other realm because they could use magic. So for centuries they would torment and elminate as many non-magic users as they could. Until the time of Salem Massachusettes."

"What happened there?"

"Well there existed a coven of witches in Salem and their leader was Kyoka, the Grand High Witch, said to be the most evil woman in the world. Loathesome, hideous, disgraceful. They say that she was made by the devil himself and for countless years she terrorized the people of Salem with her coven. She tortured men, she possesed women, and she devoured children!"

The little red-haired girl trembled at her great-grandmother's words.

"She seemed unstoppable and it was mostly because no one in Salem knew who she was. No one in Salem knew who any of those witches were. They had disguised themselves very effciently. Then one night, when Kyoka and her coven were outside, standing around their cauldron, throwing bats and toads into the foul-smelling potion that boiled inside, dancing around and chanting in tongues, they were suddenly discovered by the witch hunters. Led Reverend Cobra, they heard the witches chanting and came to destroy them. The witches fled but in their haste, the knocked over and abandoned their youngest member Kiana."

"They abandoned her? But she was part of their coven."

"Covens back then are not as they are now. Now a coven is very much like a family, loyal and devoted always. But back then it was just a means to an end. Anyway, Kiana was discovered by Reverend Cobra's young son Erik and because Kiana was so much younger than the other witches, although it might have been because she was prettier-"

"But Nanny Anna, I thought you said that all witches back then were ugly." Interrupted her second oldest grat-granddaughter, who was six.

The two of them were in the garden planting primroses and wolfsbane when she was telling the same story again, but this time to another child.

"My mistake dear." Anna said correcting herself. "Bad witches don't turn ugly when they're young and innocent. Once they've matured and allowed darkness into their hearts, they morph into replusive hags. But Kiana, being only sixteen at the time, had not fully matured or allowed darkness to full rule her heart. So Erik showed compassion to Kiana, when his father and the other witch hunters appeared on the scene, he lied and said that she was not a witch but an innocent bystander. This shocked Kiana, for she had been led to believe that no mortal would ever help a witch. So the day after, she confronted Erik and asked him why he helped her, and he said that he didn't believe that she deserved to die and Kiana was speechless."

"Really?"

"Oh yes. You see kindness and mercy was a foreign concept in the world witches and warlocks back in those days. What Erik did for Kiana was the first time anyone had ever shown her kindness, and she became even more amazed when Erik invited her into his home to share breakfast with himself and his mother. She accepted and as she dined on bread and milk, she noticed how differently Erik and his mother treated each other from how Kiana had been treated by her coven. Over time a freindship developed between Erik and Kiana, he educated her in ways of the bible and she educated him in the ways of magic. Magic realting to nature that is. Each day they grew closer and closer, which led to them both experincing the greatest magic of all."

"What?"

"The magic of true love. They fell madly in love and found it almost impossible to spend even one day without the other. But Erik's witch hating father and Kiana's cruel coven would surely never allow them to be together. So the lovers decided to elope. To leave Salem and the war between witches and mortals behind. To start a life where they could they could just be together without prejudice and hate. Sadly fate couldn't be so kind, one of the members in Kiana's coven, Seliah, overheard them speaking of their plans one evening and she told the grand witch. She was furious, she viewed such a union as a disgrace to magic users everywhere and she would not allow any magic user to enter in wedlock with a mortal. So on the night the lovers intended to leave, Kyoka and the other witches jumped them. They overpowered Kiana and forced her to watch them brutally murder Erik."

"No!" The sensitve, blue-haired girl cried.

"Yes." Anna sighed. "It was barbaric and heartless. Poor Kiana, being the youngest member, she wasn't as strong as the others and there was nothing she could do to save her beloved. But mark me child, no one gets away with anything. The wicked never goes unpunished. Oh it may take a long time before justice is served, but eventually we all get what's coming to us and those witches were finally going to pay the ultimate price for their many years of cruelty. What they did to Erik devestated and enraged Kiana so much, that she went to Salem's court and exposed both herself and her entire coven as witches. They were all put on trial and sentenced to hang. However Kiana's execution was to be delayed."

"How come?"

"Well it turns out, she was pregnant with Erik's child and although Reverend Cobra blamed Kiana for his son's death, and hated witches so much that he considered the unborn child an abomination that should die along with it's mother, the court ruled that Kiana would be allowed to live until she gave birth. Erik's mother on the other hand, bore Kiana no ill will and desperately wanted to be with her grandchild. The only thing that remained of her son. So one night Goody Cobra took all her husband's money, freed Kiana from prison, and together they left Salem and went to live on a secluded island where they raised child together."

"Was it a boy or a girl?"

"Kiana had a daughter. The very first child of a magic user and a mortal, and she would later grow up to be the very first good witch. A good witch who would pass down her honroable and benvolent teachings to other magic users and they passed it on from generation to generation, which resulted in how things are today."

"She sounds very powerful." Said her youngest great-granddaughter who was also six years old.

She and Anna were sitting in the library, looking at photo albums when she told her story for the third time, for the last child.

"She was indeed."

"But she's a half mortal."

"So?"

"So Daddy says that half mortals aren't very powerful at all."

"Well that's just his pride and bigatory talking. Sad to say, but even though we've become more moral than back in the day, a lot of us still believe that mortals and monsters are inferior to us."

"Are you like that Nanny?"

"Heavens no and I tried to raise your grandmother not to be that way either. But then she married your good for nothing grandfather who twisted her into a bigot like him. And they both tried to raise your mother, and your two aunts to be that way too."

"Did they turn out that way?" The blonde asked.

"Your Aunt Irene, sadly yes. Your Aunt Ondina, absolutely not. Your mother, she wasn't bigoted but she never made it known."

Anna flipped to a page in the album which showed several photo graphs of three little girls playing outside. One had red hair, one had blue hair, and one had blond hair. One photo showed the red-head collecting Witch Hazel and White Root. Another photo showed the bluenette conversing with two white doves. And a third photo showed the blond sitting under a tree and reading a book about stars. But Anna's favorite photo was in the center of the page, the one depicting the three girls playing Ring Around The Rosie.

"Your grandparents were always so busy with their work, they never had much time to look after your mother and her sisters. So they would spend most of their time here with me."

"Did you teach them magic?"

"I taught them something new everyday and I made it fun for them. I would also make them chocolate cake for breakfast, and we never bothered with things like bedtimes and brushing your teeth twice a day."

The little girl laughed at the idea and Anna laughed along with her.

"What precious treasures they were. So special and gifted in their own way. Your Aunt Irene was probably the most intelligent, ambitious, and excelling of the three, and her powers were associated with nature and the earth itself. Your Aunt Ondina was the kinder, fairer, and more empathetic one, and her powers were associated with the heart and soul. As for your mother, she was by far the most free-sprited, cheerful, and rebellious girl I ever knew, and her powers were associated with astrology and fortune."

"Just like me?"

"Just like you." Anna smiled. "They were very different, yet they were as thick as thieves. They were always together, every hour of every day. Three beautiful witch sisters who were completely devoted to one another."

"But if they were so close, how come I never saw Mommy with them?"

Anna gave her a sad look.

"Well for one thing, your poor Aunt Ondina had died just a few months before you were born and your Aunt Irene had strained relationship with them both."

"Why?"

"Because when they were teenagers, your Aunt Ondina fell in love with a mortal and decided that she wanted to marry him instead of the warlock she had been arranged to marry. Irene was prejudiced to mortals, just like your grandparents were, and she thought her sister was foolish for wanting to be with one. And when Ondina chose to run off with her mortal lover, Irene and her parents disowned her."

"What about Mommy?"

"Your mother kept in contact with her through letters, but she always felt guilty for not standing up for Ondina. And even more guilty that she wasn't there when Ondina got married and had her baby."

"Aunt Ondina had a baby?"

"Yes and so did your Aunt Irene. You have two cousins. Erza who's a full-fledged witch and lives in the Other Realm like you. And Juvia who's half mortal and lives on Earth."

"Will I ever get to meet them?"

"You'll meet your cousin Erza when you both attend the academy. As for your cousin Juvia, it's very slim that your paths will ever cross. Your father doesn't want you to have anything to do with mortals or half mortals. Even if they're family."

"Would Mommy let me meet her?"

"Yes she would. I know that if she was still here with us, she would want you to see your cousin as often as you could, half mortal or not."

The girl became sad and hugged Anna.

"I miss Mommy."

"I know Lucy." She said holding the child close. "I miss her too. I miss all three of my girls."

And Anna just sat there, holding Lucy until she fell asleep in her arms. Then she tucked the little one into bed, kissed her goodnight, and before retiring to bed, she closed the photo album and locked it up inside of a chest where she kept her most precious and valuable possessions.

"Ten more years." She said closing the lid and turning the key in the hole. "Ten more years and I'll have to bestow these to a new coven of witches."