“Those homes are awfully close to the fields.” Said Robert. “Do you think the fires will eat them too?”

  “I cannot say. Let’s sweep low and offer to help put them out. If they have buckets, we can travel back and forth between the water and fire faster than they can run. That should minimize the damage. Let’s go!” The trio flew down to the closest home they could see and landed together just as the farmer came running back from the field.

  “What are you doing?!” yelled the man. “Why have you done this? Why are you burning our crops?!”

  “This has all been a big misunderstanding.” Ignatius tried to tell him. “We’ve come to-“

  “Misunderstanding?!” shouted the man. “I just witnessed your spellcasting in the middle of my wheat field! You started this!”

  “Yes, we did Sir, but there’s a very good reason,” Siouxsie tried to interject. “It was only because of a portal and we’d very much like to help you with-“

  “You insane witches!” the man ranted. “We had a deal; we leave you alone and you stay within your lands! Every time you show your faces a calamity appears alongside you! Begone you cursed vagabonds!”

  “Please, Sir.” Robert added. “We want to help.”

  “Begone!” shouted the older man as he raised his pitchfork in a menacing manner. “Get away from my fields or…or I’ll kill each of you! Shoo! Begone! Get away from us! Go!”

  “We want to help you for what we’ve done!” pleaded Siouxsie.

  “I SAID GO OR I’Ll gut you first you cursed little witch whore!” The man screamed. But just as soon as those words crossed the man’s lips, the glowing circles of Robert’s eyes beneath the shadows of his wide hat became angry little horizontal slits.

  “No one talks to my sister…” Robert started before Ignatius snatched him by the crook of the arm and sent him walking in the opposite direction.

  “Robert, get back. The man is hysterical with fear. Back off. Siouxsie, back away from the man. We’re leaving.” By now, the farmer’s wife was already out of their home and running to catch up and yelling for the man to leave the witches alone and come back to deal with the fire growing closer and closer to their home. The farmer ignored her and continued yelling as he followed the black clad figures off the property.

  “THAT’S right, you abominations!” The man screeched, following them, the tip of his pitchfork waving wildly. “Run away! YOU JUST DO AS YOU PLEASE TO DESTROY OTHER PEOPLE’S livelihood and vanish!”

  “You told us to leave.” Ignatius said over his shoulder as they walked. “We’re offering to aid in you in getting the fire out if you’ll allow us.”

  “You've done more than enough! get off of my land!” The man yelled. This might’ve been the end of the end of the encounter if not for the man going so far as to make a fatal mistake. What was supposed to be a threatening jab with his pitchfork turned deadly when he made the miscalculation of allowing the tines of the tool to strike Siouxsie in the back. The girl cried out and the sound of her yelp set free an emotion of rage within her twin that took hold hotter than the fire burning the field.

  “Filthy cuss!” Robert shouted, revealing the lyythium tip of his broom before swinging in an upward diagonal slice in the same motion.

  “Robert No!” Ignatius yelled, trying to stop him. But it was too late. The razor-sharp instrument had already cut through the air, slowing none as it sliced the man’s face open from chin to ear. Blood was already upon the wheat before Ignatius could wrangle the boy or step between them. The man screamed bloody murder, dropped the farm tool and staggered backwards, clutching his face as blood wept out between each of his fingers. Already his wife was upon him, pulling away and pressing a cloth against the wound to try and slow the bleeding.

  “Leave us alone, you animals!” She shouted at them in disgust. “You’re never satisfied until you’ve wrecked everything you touch, you unclean beasts, you!” In the distance, more farmers and villagers could be heard and seen approaching from behind.

  “Let’s be gone from here, hurry.” Ignatius said, pushing the twins ahead of him. “Siouxsie, are you hurt?” he asked.

  “No, he just poked. Me. It hurts but I don’t think I’m bleeding.”

  “Then mount your brooms. We have to get away from here as fast as we can.”

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Where are we going?” asked Robert as they mounted their brooms and took to the sky.

  “I think if we head north, we can get back to Oldvale. Maybe the others are there.”

  “Wasn’t it morning just a moment ago?” asked Siouxsie. “This is too strange.” The other two looked around them to see that she was correct in her observation. It was the middle of the day.

  “Strange indeed.” Said Ignatius. “Not only has the spell displaced us in a different place, but hours into the next day.”

  “This makes no sense.” Said Robert shaking his head. “I wish Hoxley were here to help.”

  “As do I, brother.” Agreed Ignatius. “Let’s hope we can find her and the others soon.” Due North they traveled for hours. Siouxsie felt a bit naked without her hat and cloak to keep the wind off. In her favor, the day was warm and bright as she and the others slalomed amongst the treetops. Further and further the traveled until the land began to look more familiar. “We’re getting close.” said Ignatius. “Stay close to me.” The twins followed in formation nice and close like migrating birds. Ignatius kept them far enough away from the edge of the treetops of the tree line as not to be spotted. But as they flew, he noticed something very strange. Something about the ground had changed. Where he'd expected to see dusty and barren ground, lush landscapes sprawled as far as the eye could see. “Down.” He said, pointing toward the ground. The twins followed, each pair of winklepickers touching down to lush grass on the edge of a wood without a sound.

  “What do you see?” asked Robert.

  “I’m not sure.” Said Ignatius. “I believe we may have drifted of course.”

  “What makes you say that?” asked Siouxsie.

  “We’ve come to the edge of a village I don’t remember passing before.”

  “Could we have drifted further west and found Woodford again? Robert asked. “it’s not like you to veer off course.”

  “Indeed.” Ignatius nodded. “To the best of my knowledge we’d only needed to travel north to get back to the ruins.

  “Look again.” Said Siouxsie. “Perhaps it is Woodford. If you look upon where Faustacon mountain lies,” she pointed far into the distance. “We’re too far north and west to be near Sweetwater or Spellvale.”

  “And there’s no one in Spellvale.” Said Robert. “Remember? They all fled to the caves far to the south.”

  “Perhaps we should have gone that way instead.” Added Ignatius. Just as he was about to suggest they travel there, when multiple whooshing sounds could be heard overhead. The three each craned their necks to discover what made the noise as half a dozen shadows flashed past so fast they couldn’t see what it was.

  “Other witches?” asked Siouxsie. “Scouts?”

  “None of them should be here.” Said Ignatius. “But it does sound like them.” He reached down his shirt and pulled out the witchle before giving it too sharp puffs.” The flitting shadows vanished for a few seconds before five unfamiliar witches instantly came falling from the sky on their brooms. They landed next to the trio in a concaved line, shoulder to shoulder. Each of the witches had lean faces, cheekbones high enough to hang laundry to dry on. Their hands were long and angular with spidery fingers cut from ivory, gripping hickory the wood in their brooms. Most of them seemed to be Ignatius' age save for the one on the far right who was about the age of the twins and the one in the center who looked to be of the age of forty to forty-five summers. The youngest smiled at Siouxsie and shot her a wink. They looked like witches to be sure. Long brooms, pointed hats. But the aspect that Siouxsie found unsettling as that instead of wearing black cloaks and garments, each of their guests wore the most magnificent hues of blue she’d ever seen. Their clothes were the color of upended ice when it froze on the lake and hadn’t turned clear.

  “Merry meet, travelers.” Said the oldest one in the middle that towered so tall he made Ignatius look short. “How do you come?”

  “Merry meet.” said Ignatius. “We come in peace and are only travelling.”

  “Then welcome, travelling witches.” Said the towering one. “I am Vickiri. Who might you be?”

  “Ignatius Hex.” He said “These are my siblings, Siouxsie and Robert Hex.”

  “And where might you be travelling?” he asked. The others didn’t speak but each one eyed the twins with cautious gazes like those of owls.