Chapter8: Phantom Valley

In the desert

Upon entering the desert surrounded by dead silence all around her, Grace had been meaning to focus on staying on the trail straight ahead and not to wander off. She gazed from left to right to watch out for any warning signs that may be posted anywhere. So far, there had been none as Grace kept walking to think about how she would be able to talk the witch into removing the spell off her friends.

"What if the farmer is right about this?" she said to herself as she gazed at a few of the dead trees and bushes. "Maybe the witch won't listen to me, even if I begged her." She shook her head in disbelief. "I have to at least try. What other choice do I have to make?" She turned her attention back to the desert trail and kept on walking straight forward.

But after the young heifer had been walking for almost an hour, she began to feel her stomach ache and rumble possibly from hunger. The only problem was that there was hardly anything to eat in this dreadful world so far and nothing in this desert proved to be helpful at the least. Now she had been wishing for a fresh bundle of that sweet hay from back on the Patch of Heaven farm.

"I probably shouldn't be thinking of food right now, but I haven't had anything to eat in this world ever since I walked out of Pumpkin Hollow. I wish I had a bundle of fresh hay to satisfy my taste buds," Grace sat against a large boulder to take a rest from a long hour of walking.

As she still sat there, she didn't seem to notice a flash of light spark from behind her unexpectedly until she turned her head back. To her surprise, there were piles of golden hay sitting beside her position. Grace felt her heart fill with delight and her mouth water with starvation as she started chewing and gulping down almost every bit of it without having to question herself on how it appeared here. She didn't care as long as she is filling her empty stomach. She continued eating as if she had not eaten in weeks or months from swallowing, chewing, munching, and chomping all the way. This was the sweetest hay she ever tasted.

Finally, she had stopped when she felt her stomach had been full enough for now. There had been only a few minimal ounces of hay left on the ground, but Grace couldn't take even another small bite of it for once. "Enough is enough for me," she said with a burp. "I still have a mansion to get to." She rose up from the ground to continue walking down the desert trail unaware of two read eyes belonging to a vulture watching her from the branch of a dead tree.

"That enchanted hay works every time," it snickered in a creaking voice. "Let's see how well she handles the shape shifters."

In the midst of the desert

Truth was that Grace was unaware that she had just been eating a sort of enchanted hay which may have been possibly cast by one of Callie's minions stalking her as Minerva had predicted. In this world, anybody would already know that any kind of magic food whether intended for people or animals causes the victim to eat and eat until they exploded or when their teeth fell out. Luckily there wasn't that much hay for Grace to keep on going. Still, the taste of the hay made her want to eat more right now, despite feeling full. She wondered how it was that she was unable to get a hold of herself from eating so fast. It was as if she was under a spell of some sort.

"Everything sure seems quiet around here," she whispered as she gazed at the dead trees and cactuses. She could see a few canyons in the distance similar to the ones in her world. But even in the dead silence, the feeling of something lurking in the shadows watching her sank deep into her mind from all the memories of Lucky Jack's campfire tales. How she wished she never had to listen to them that night and not be stuck in this eerie world trying to help her friends. The sky had grown from light to dark which signaled the coming of nighttime upon her. The orange sun sank below the canyon rocks. The feelings of loneliness came to her mind.

In the centre of the desert trail came a few tumbleweeds rolling past her. The most peculiar thing was that there had been no sound of wind blowing. As she watched them blow by, she wondered what else kind of witchery might be prowling about in this desert. There had also been more dead trees and bushes with limbs gnarled, twisted, and shaped like skeletal arms and claws. Grace remembered the tales of man eating trees waiting for their prey to approach in order to eat them like flies in a web, whether in the dark forest or the desert. As she tried to pass by them without looking, she thought she felt something claw at her back legs.

"Ouch, what was that?" Grace turned her head back and thought she viewed the twigs in a leafless bush to be more like tiny monster claws either grabbing or cutting her. "Grace gasped and pulled away from its grasp. Now her back legs had a couple of minimal cuts. No matter how dead everything seemed around her, anything is bound to happen; especially if she was beginning to see something white hanging around the branches of the dead trees. It may have been possible that lightning struck parts of these trees while a few living souls of newcomers had been standing close to them. And now they're here wandering the desert forever without any hope of resting in peace. She passed the dead trees in safety, but soon there would be new perils lying before when she would at least expect it.

About a hundred feet from the haunted trees, there lay two high plateaus in between her standing position like some giant gate into another territory. As she approached them, she felt herself break into a tremble. She thought she heard another howl far in the distance; she gulped as she prepared to go between them holding the map with her tail. This area was referred to as Twin Plateaus. Its shadows loomed over her considering it to be another cursed place. It was as if it was waiting for her to pass in order to swallow her up.

The hairs on her hide rose up with terror passing between. What other turn would she have to make? Grace let out a sigh of relief when she managed to make it out of the two plateaus. But now she felt the ground beneath her shaking. Could it be an earthquake? No, that's impossible. Only a rumble like that could be caused by one thing. She whirled around as a herd of steers headed right toward her at a fast pace. The running was as loud and treacherous as the clap of thunder mixed with bolts of lightning. Before she knew it, the stampede was upon her. She could barely make out what else was happening because of the deafening of their hooves causing clouds of thick dust entering her eyes. Covering her face, she had at least expected one of the steers to knock her down with the others trampling her to death; but it never happened. She stood still in the blinding dust waiting for them to pass over. Not only did she hear the steers bellowing, but the crack of a whip and a few cowboy cries following. She listened closely as the thundering of the hooves fell silent by the minute.

Panting, her eyes squinted through the dust clouds as the thickness decreased. At last, Grace could see the desert again, yet even so she sees as there are no hoof prints on the ground left behind from those steers who passed by.

"I must have seen the ghosts of steers and riders then," she said in a panicked tone. Grace knew she needed to move forward before more phantom trouble would be riding here and mistake her for a trespasser disturbing their place of death. "Well let me just hope that I don't run into any more…huh!" she paused as she set her eyes on two familiar figures standing atop a sand mound; a round pudgy faced bovine and a Holstein with a purple bonnet on her head.

"Maggie, Mrs. Calloway, you're okay!" Grace felt so happy to see them, she could almost cry. Perhaps it was possible to just ask the witch to send them back home now that her friends are alright. When she ran over to them, they still stood there staring emotionless without blinking their eyes for once; but Grace was too excited to even notice this. "I'm glad you're both here, now I don't have to travel alone anymore. We can all go together. How did you get here?" The two of them did not answer.

"Did you wake up and follow me here?" still no answer.

"Any chance I might be able to make up for leaving you behind?" still no answer. Grace felt her excitement slip away. Something about her friends didn't seem right. Whenever they were angry or upset, they would tell her. But this time they were in a silent treatment. Could they be under another kind of evil spell she doesn't know about? Without answering, they turned away and ran down the hills without explanation.

"Wait, where are you going?" she called out as she followed where they were going. Up till now, they were standing before a dark cavern carved into a red plateau with rocks shaped like coyotes. "You want me to go in there?" Grace was starting to have a bad feeling about this. It's not like her friends to dare her to enter a place where they should never be. And why were they not talking to her? Could it be that they angry with her for being left behind in the pumpkin patch? She couldn't blame them for that, but she followed anyway. Inside it was dark and twisted with the echoes of dripping water.

"Is this the right way to go?" She stared blankly inside as the two friends behind her suddenly began to transform into ghostly hideous cloaked figures uttering a shrill cry. Grace turned around thunderstruck from what she saw that made her stomach twist. Their arms were skeletal and their cloaks were like something dead in the water. Whatever else was under the hoods began to suck something more than air from its surroundings. Grace felt her own breath catch in her chest as the cold air began to fill inside her body. The creatures were sucking out her soul!