OK!! And I really am sorry that it took so long with another chapter of Witchcraft! But please, people, if I don't get reviews, I wont post for awhile. Ok, so maybe that's just an excuse, and its not even good one. anyway, lets just get on with the story.

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As the door burst wide, a small-ish girl stood there and looked around. She seemed kind of impertinent, but in a likable way. She headed straight past Mai to Chris and said to him "Go ahead and start a fire; I've got everything for dinner, and I'd like to start right away."

Mai just kind of stood there staring at the red haired girl. Why did she look so familiar?? Something about the sweet, kind face, the way she looked up with such admiration to her big brother. Mai was suddenly snapped from her thoughts by that same innocent face looking up at her with the biggest eyes she had ever seen.

"Who are you?"

Chris hastily introduced the two: "Oh! Mai, this is my sister Lynia. Lynia, this is Mai. She'll be staying with us for a while."

"Wow!! My own big sister!!" Lynia exclaimed, and hugged Mai around the waist. Mai kind of doubled over at the tight and unexpected embrace and looked at Chris for help. He could only say a meek "uh.sorry 'bout her, she gets kind of excited." and shrugged apologetically.

Mai could only carefully remove the spindly arms from around her waist. "Now, your brother was saying something about getting me a bath. Maybe you could help me out with the details on that, because it appears that you don't have running water."

"Oh, no, not near by. We get our water from a well. But wouldn't that be cold this time of year? We only do that in the spring and summer."

"Oh. Okay.well then, what's the drill?"

"You don't know how to heat water for a bath? Wow, you must be royalty or something! Well, can't hurt to learn now! And what do you mean 'drill'?"

What was this girl talking about? She couldn't look to Chris for guidance; he had slipped out, presumably to get some firewood. Sure enough, as Lynia was bustling about, getting the water into a pot on a big hook over the fireplace, he came in with his arms full of firewood. Mai couldn't do anything but sit back and watch as Lynia started on dinner and Chris started a fire underneath that huge pot.

*Why is everyone here so old fashioned?* thought Mai. *I only think I've seen one of those fireplaces in my history text boo. Wait!! It can't be! But, it makes everything make sense! That little Witch's Circle thing made me go back in time! So that means that it really belonged to a witch in this time period. But why would Joey have one half of it.* However, as soon as Mai was making some sense of things, Lynia's high pitched voice piped up: "Mai! The water is done! If you could take the pot around back, I'll get the soap!"

So she grabbed a rag and took the pot to the side of the house without the windows. Mai noticed an old wooden tub standing up against the house. As soon as she had set it down, Lynia came around with some soap and two ragged towels. "I'm afraid it isn't much, but I'm sure you can make do." This young girl had something about her that made her wise beyond her years. It was almost natural for both of them to have her talk to Mai like a mother would to her daughter. With that she turned around and left Mai to her bath.

***

At first Mai had some trouble with the clothes that Lynia had left for her. First off, there was the corset. It wasn't that much different from her usual costume, but the strings were too short to wear it the looser way Mai liked it. Then there was the shift. It was a little big. No, really big. When she first put it on, she contemplated putting the corset back on over it, just to keep it up. In the end, she found the bodice under the skirt, and but that on over the shift. The skirt was also kind of big. *ha, ha, kind of.* It dragged a good 5 inches on the ground! She had to rip a strip of cloth off of her purple jacket to make sash so it would actually stay up.

Finally, Mai was fully dressed and walked back into the house. Dinner was on the table and so she sat down at the empty chair. She caught Lynia's startled stare, but she quickly looked away, leaving her to wonder what she was looking at. She didn't have to wait long; Chris leaned over to her and whispered "Your shift is hanging off your shoulder."

Mai looked at her shoulder. "Yes, it is. Is something wrong with that?" she asked innocently.

Chris looked shocked. "Well yes! It looks hideous!"

Mai thought a minute- *that's right. People in this time period didn't like seeing a lot of skin* "Oh! Yeah, that's absolutely right." She quickly pulled the sleeve over her shoulder. And she had to do so during the whole meal. The shift was so large on her, it kept slipping off her shoulder.

Finally, the supper of salad and a small piece of meat each was finished and the earthenware dishes were set aside to be washed tomorrow. As everyone settled in for the night, Chris brought out a knife and a piece of wood and started whittling, while Lynia opened up a large wooden chest at the foot of one of the small beds on one side of the one room house. At first Mai just stood there looking around and for the first time really looked at her surroundings.

It wasn't an exceptionally large room, but big enough to comfortably sustain a good 5 people. The back wall had the fireplace and the 2 beds, with the table across from the fireplace off to the side. The muddy plaster walls had a bench or two against them hiding an extra storage space beneath them. The benches, table, chairs, cabinets, and beds each were carved very ornately. Delicate flowers bloomed off of thickly twisted vines, beastly feet clawed at the ground and looked as though they would leave scratch marks. Even the chest, appearing dull at first glance, showed a forest with beautiful fairies playing in the moonlight. And when she glanced at the piece of wood in Chris's hand, she could already see the shape of a bird in it even though he'd only been working on it for a couple of minutes.

A tug on her sleeve brought her back to her senses. Lynia was looking up at her to give her a small stack of shifts under a bone needle and some coarse thread. She said, "Since your going to need some more shifts, and Momma's are too big, why don't you go ahead and alter them so they don't hang off the shoulder like that." She gave Mai a sweet little smile and went back to the chest and got herself a little embroidery hoop and sat down by the fire and started stitching.

Even though she had gotten an A in Home Ec., that was over a year ago, so she had some trouble figuring out how to stitch up the garment to make it fit. *Now, if I make a couple stitches here.No, no that won't do anything.Well, maybe if I make one of those dart things here.* When she finally had it figured out, she had to get the needle threaded. These needles were almost nothing like the ones they had used in class. There was barely even a hole at all! Only when a small shadow fell across her lap did she finally look up. Chris was leaning over and smiling.

He only said, "I've always had the same problem." and wrapped one arm around her and took the thread and needle. Mai blushed at how close they were as he twisted the end of the thread and carefully put it through the opening at the top of the needle right in front of her. He then put it back in her hand and went back to his little bird.

She looked over at him and said "Thank you so much."

He only replied "Your welcome." And left her to her sewing.

***

Once the fire had burned down to some glowing coals, Chris said, "Alright Lynia, time for bed."

"But Christopher!!"

"No buts! It's already past your bedtime! Now you go and get ready for bed, while I brew up some tea."

"Oh, so you and Mai get to stay up but I have to go to sleep!"

"Believe me, it won't be any fun. We're just going to talk about boring grown up stuff."

Lynia still looked skeptical. "If you're just going to talk about that, you can do it in front of me!"

"Yes, but then it would be even further past your bedtime, and you'd be even harder to wake up in the morning."

Mai smiled at this little display. *My life would be so different if I had a little brother or sister.* By the time she had finished that thought, Lynia had started to stalk over to the chest at the foot of her bed with a defeated look on her face. *That was quick* She glanced over at Chris who was fixing up a kettle on the big hook over the dying flames. So she put down her sewing and went over to the counter and grabbed the lantern and a couple mugs. Chris came over and took the candle from the lantern and lit it from the fireplace. They sat across the table from each other on their benches and waited for Lynia to get into bed. She came over to each of them to say good night, but when she leaned over to say good night she whispered in Mai's ear "knock 'im dead" and said good night in a more audible voice. Mai could only guess what she meant, but thought had already crossed her mind.

They mutually understood that Chris had some questions he didn't want Lynia to hear, so they each waited until they heard her breathing gain a regular rhythm. He got right to the point:

"Where did you really come from?"

Mai looked down at her hands resting on the table. Could she really tell him the truth? More over, would he even believe her? Finally she decided to try him. "First you have to say, even though what I'll say might be crazy, you're going to have to believe me." When he nodded his head yes, she continued. She pulled out the half of the Witch's Circle she had been able to hold onto. "I can barely believe it myself, but I think I've traveled here from the future."

She watched his unbelieving eyes get wide. "I know, I know, it's crazy. But I think it really is true. You see, I found this in a shop in the 21st century and.wait, this is the other half! The one that Joey gave me! I must have dropped the other one. Anyway, I bought this old thing in a shop in my home town, and a friend gave the other half to me. When I put them together, I got transported to the forest where you found me."

Chris looked confused. "Wha- Wai- Huh? What are you talking about?"

"Well, the old woman who sold it to me said something about a curse. Of course, I didn't believe her, but now I'm not so sure."

"Let's go over this again. Your from the future?"

"Yes."

"And that thing is called a Witch's Circle?"

"Yes."

"And it's really old."

"That's right. But now I'd like you to answer some questions. Like what year is it?"

"It's 1622."

"Okay, so I only had one question." They sat in silence for a minute.

Chris finally broke the silence. "Wow. You must be really scared. Being so far away from everything that seems normal to you."

And for the first time that day, she discovered he was right. This place was so different, so foreign, it was really frightening. And for the first time in years, Mai could feel tears silently running down her cheeks. Then she felt an arm come around her shoulders; Chris had come around the table and was now sitting next to her. She leaned into him and let him comfort her, another thing she hadn't done in years. Chris felt her racking sobs, and pulled up her chin and looked into her eyes. Tears streamed down her cheeks and he bent over and kissed her lightly on the lips. But this wasn't enough for Mai, so she wrapped her arms around his neck and they deepened the kiss and fell back on the bench.

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Alright folks, that's another chapter. Now leave some good reviews!!