Tara was six when she cast her first spell.
She'd been practicing little ones with her mommy since she was four and she must have been good at them cause every time they finish her Mommy would praise her on how her power was progressing, but this would be her first on her own and without her mommy there to make sure she didn't get hurt.
But Tara was already hurting. Her brother had hurt her again once he knew Mommy wouldn't be back from visiting with the doctor for another hour or so "squishing out the badness" as he'd called it every time his fist would land another hard punch to Taras already bruised skin. that's why she'd come here to her secret special place.
Her Willow tree is out on the very edge of the family property line.
She's heard her mom talking about how willows bark would make the pain go away and right now Tara was hurting bad. Not physically hurt anymore. She'd already gotten used to that given how often her brother and father would try to beat the demon out of her when her Mommy wasn't around to run interference but the other kind.
"I call upon the Goddess herself, send me a friend. Send me someone to take this hurt away." The little girl pleaded putting every bit of magic she could muster at her current age of six years old into her plea as her fingers push as hard as she could into the side of her haven.
Her willow tree always made her feel safe, made her feel special even when she was grumpy the times, she and her Mommy couldn't do magic cause her mommy was scared Daddy or Donny would find out and start calling them demons again.
The improvised spell must have been working cause inside her heart Tara could feel something like the threads of rope coiling out from her. Out to where she didn't know but she imagined as hard as she could gathering up these new threads and pulling on them more in a coaxing way rather than the hard demanding tug, she wanted knowing whoever was on the other side would keep her safe even from herself.
Even when she had tried to be gentle, she must have pulled too hard considering not seconds later the warning thud of a body hitting the ground sounded from the other side of the wide tree trunk and had the young witch gasping in shock.
She'd done it. She'd done magic all by herself.
"Well, that's defiantly going to bruise"
Tara frowned at the hissed words as she hesitantly got up to go meet her new friend.
The six-year-olds anticipation and joy turned to a bashful blush as she gave a surprised squeak when her eyes landed on the pretty woman with hair the color of fire laying sprawled out among the twisted roots of Tara's favorite tree.
"Uhh, Y-your n-n-naked" the child says not that Tara had been able to see much of the older woman's cloth-less body before the six-year-old had politely closed her eyes given how much cover the tree roots gave but somehow Tara just knew it was true.
Going by the lady's following sharp intake of breath she hadn't noticed the spying child creeping around the side of the wide tree trunk. "I didn't see anything, promise" the younger girl says without opening her eyes she crept back around to her original side of the tree to collect the few things; she'd thought to bring along this trip to her hiding place.
"My name is Tara, wants yours?" she questioned as a distraction. She assumed the pretty woman had a name other than 'pretty lady'.
A watery sniff soon followed the telling of her name. "T—Tara?" the woman questioned.
"That's me" Tara confirmed talking a little louder so she could still be heard as she dusted off the grass and leaves dirtying the blanket she'd been sitting on "Tara Maclay."
Tara paled at the sound of her new friend crying. "Don't cry. Please don't cry" the six-year-old begged hurrying back around the separating tree trunk dragging the no longer cleaned blanket with her.
The rushing child trips on an overly twisted tree root a fall that would have been painful if it hadn't been for the whispered spell saving her at the last second. The woman who'd cast it was not in any shape to make the steadying catch herself given the hard landing she'd made in coming here.
"Th-th-thank you." The child stammered her blush returning in spades even when she forced herself to look at the pretty woman's face and not her currently naked state despite the woman covering herself as best she could at Tara's reappearance as if just then realized she wasn't wearing clothes.
"You're welcome" the redhead grinned her eyes still shining with unshed tears.
"H-here" The six-year-old holds out the blanket in offering. "Sorry, it got a little dirty again." Tara will swear her heart flips in her chest at the soft giggle the redhaired woman gives as she wraps herself up against the early fall chill. The child made a quiet promise to bring along one o her mother's dresses on her next visit just in case this wasn't all a really real feeling dream.
"What's your name?" Tara questioned once more feeling much more confident now her friend wouldn't be cold.
"Willow," the woman says in a groan as she sits up a little straighter against the supporting backing of the tree trunk.
"I mean your real name" Tara sighed in that overly dramatic way of a six-year-old. Her head was really starting to hurt in a way it always did when her Mommy said she was using too much magic all at once.
"That is my real name." Willow says truthfully.
Tara gives her a disbelieving look but lets the matter drop or now. Instead, the child hands over one of her uneaten sandwiches when she heard the soft rumbling of her new friend's stomach.
"You seemed sad when you heard my name." the child says sitting back against the tree like Willow was as she watched the woman take the first bite of the carefully made pbj Tara had brought along. "Why?"
"I lost someone recently. Someone very special to me." Willow confesses after a few beats of quiet as she slowly chews another bite of her gifted sandwich.
"Her name was Tara too?"
Willow nodes her head once in conformation.
"But how'd I get here?" the red-haired woman questioned.
"You don't know either?" Tara asked curiously. She could see the question was an attempted dodge. dodging what the child didn't know.
Willow shakes her head in denial this time.
"I summoned you. I can do magic not a lot, but I must be as strong as my Mommy says if I could bring you here." Tara explains with a proud smile. she could tell just by looking at her, that her new friend had some kind of magical abilities like her, like her mom.
Willow smiles reaching over to run a hand through Tara's hair "So strong." She agrees her eyes still wet with tears she'd yet to let fall as she pushes a few strains back behind the child's ear. "Strong like an Amazon."
"You think so?" Tara asks
"I know so." Willow promises.
The sound of her mother's voice calling her name draws the child's attention.
"They can't know about me." Willow warns her voice panicked now. "Not even your Mom." She adds before Tara could voice her pouting question. "I promise I will find a way to come back just promise me you won't tell anyone I was here."
Her mother's voice was growing closer as Tara looked between her magic-created friend's worried expression and the direction her mother's voice was calling from. "I promise." Tara decides "just come back." She bargains noticing that Willow is already starting to fade away
Warm lips pressed against her forehead warming the six-year-old in a way she'd never experienced before. "I promise my little Amazon."
Then Tara blinked and Willow was gone. Only the blanket she'd been wrapped in laying at her feet and the fading warmth of the press of lips against her forehead showed any signs she'd even been at all.
"Tara, sweetheart" her mother sighs in relief once she'd caught sight of the tired child leaning heavily against the tree trunk.
"Hi, Mama." Tara smiles "Sorry I fall asleep."
She could see her Mother knew she was lying but her mother just knelt in front of the smaller girl pulling her in for a hug. "Come help me with dinner alright, sweetheart?"
Tara nodes but pauses going back to wrap her arms as far as she was able around the trunk of her Willow tree. "See you soon." She whispers before hurrying back to her waiting mother's side.