Chapter 6: The Witch's Message

America had brought England to the clearing in the woods and was now looking for the blue apparition. "Hello? Freaky ghost? Lead me to the witch's shop." England looked at him with confusion. When nothing happened, America muttered, "Fine, don't show up now that England's here."

But just as he said this, the blue apparition appeared, floating in front of him. England's eyes grew wide and he gave a small smile. He prodded America, and with his claw, he pointed to the apparition and wrote "WISP" in the dirt.

"C'mon, dude! Let's go after it!" said America.

And so, they followed the wisp through the woods until they came to the witch's shop. (England was surprised to see that America was telling the truth.)

America quickly opened the door, but there was hardly anything inside. No potions. No crystals. No talking asparagus. No Lydia. Just a cauldron in the middle of an empty room.

"What? But-But she was right here!" America tried to tell an unamused England. He opened the door wider and the bell above it clanged. And when it did, the cauldron came to life, bubbling and full of blue steam, even though there was no fire lit underneath. America and England approached the cauldron. As they came close, they noticed a couple of vials all in a row on a stand.

Suddenly, a picture of Lydia appeared in the steam. "Hello and welcome to Amazing Albums!" the picture said with a smile. "I am completely out of stock at the moment. But if you would like to request a sample of a song, pour in vial one. If you would like to see a list of artists, vial two. If you're that blonde guy with glasses, vial three-"

America quickly poured the contents of the third vial into the cauldron.

"Hello, sir!" said Lydia. "I've gone out of town to visit a couple relatives and I won't be back until Friday."

"That'll be days before I can see her again!" America thought.

"There's something I need to tell you about the spell," Lydia continued, the tone of her voice growing serious. "...I never should have given you that spell."

America was surprised to hear this.

"I found out that this spell has a bad history with grave consequences."

The steam swirled around, and a picture of a great castle appeared with Lydia talking in the background.

"Remember the prince I told you about?" she said. "The one who wanted the strength of ten men? When he got the spell, he used it to defeat his younger brothers in a war so he could rule their kingdom for himself."

The picture in a steam changed to a stone with four brothers engraved in it. The stone was split between the three younger brothers and the one eldest. "Split," America thought. "like the tapestry in the conference room." Standing in front of the stone was a tall, muscular man with a full beard and head of hair. America looked closely at his hand and saw the ring he was wearing, a ring with two axes crossed carved into it.

In a split second, the prince's face changed into the face of a monstrous black bear, and America and England jumped back in horror.

"His actions brought the great kingdom to ruins," said Lydia. "And he became the bear Mordu."

The next picture showed the bear slaying many men and the castle crumbling in the background.

"Oldest prince….great kingdom….war, chaos, ruin….this is the story you told me!" said America to England. England nodded.

"Some time later," Lydia continued. "A princess named Merida asked for a spell to change her mother so she can avoid an arranged marriage."

This picture showed a girl with red, curly hair slashing a sword through a tapestry of her family, creating a tear between her and her mother.

"The difference between these two tales," said Lydia. "is that the prince was trapped in Mordu's scarred and tormented body, a bear forever until he died. But Merida was able to change her mother back to her human self with a spell breaker."

Lydia's face appeared in the steam again. "To break the spell, you must remember these words:

Fate be changed.

Look inside.

Mend the bond

Torn by pride."

America was confused. "What kind of spell is that? 'Fate be changed'? 'Mend the bond'? What does that mean?"

Lydia didn't explain the meaning of the words; she just repeated them.

"Fate be changed.

Look inside.

Mend the bond

Torn by pride.

Oh, and one more thing," said Lydia. "Unless you mend the bond torn by pride, by the second sunrise, your spell will be permanent."

America and England were horrified by those words.

"So, that's it," said Lydia. "I wish the best of luck to you." She smiled. "Oh, and thank you for shopping at Amazing Albums!" And with that, the steam evaporated from the cauldron and Lydia was gone.

America and England were left in the darkness of the room. America saw the look on England's face that said, "I can't believe you did this to me." and regret flooded his heart.

It had began raining, so America decided it would be best to spend the night in Lydia's shop. It wouldn't have been safe to go to the World Conference building or America's house or England's house, because someone would've seen England's lion form. So the two of them laid down on the floor of the shop, neither one saying a word to each other. America let Lydia's words replay over and over again in his head, trying to find the meaning, trying to think of a way to get England back to normal.

He looked at the lion. "Hey. We'll figure this out tomorrow."

The lion lifted its head and nodded. His face wasn't showing anger or concern, but it was just blank. Then he laid his head back down and closed his eyes.

There was the sound of thunder in the distance. The thunder made America remember all the times when he got scared by these thunderstorms….

One night in England's big house, it was raining hard and thunder could be heard outside. England was sitting in his chair with a book while a little America was on the floor, playing with his little toy soldiers.

There was a crash of thunder and a flash of lightning that made America scream with fright and scurry into England's lap. England looked down at America's scared, tear-filled, blue eyes looking up at him and he smiled at him comfortingly.

"Don't be scared, America, I'm here. I'll always be right here."

He held America in his arms, talking and singing softly to him all throughout the storm.

Note: After reading this chapter, I guess you saw I didn't want America and England going to some ruined castle and having a battle with Mordu. So I just decided to add half of the movie "Brave" into Lydia's message.