Originally Posted by
Tawmis
“Alek, do not go far,” he heard his mother call out as he ran up the hill to gather wood to light the fire for tonight’s dinner.
“Yes mother,” he rolled his eyes. She’d always been concerned about him going too far into the woods. His mother was fearful of the things that dwelled in the dark shadows of the woods and had gone as far as creating a ward around their home. At one time, his mother, according to the stories Alek’s father had told him, had been a great and powerful wizard for a nearby king and had given up her lavish life to be with her father, who was nothing more than a simple guard of the kingdom.
Alek had always enjoyed hearing the tales his father spoke of; most of which his mother would discourage and claim to not be true; one of them being that she had been such a powerful wizard who worked for a nearby king. Alek admittedly had never seen his mother use magic in the five years he’d been alive; but then she always said that there were things in the shadows that fed upon magic and perhaps that’d been why she’d never used it.
“Well,” a woman’s voice said from the shadows of the tree line. “Aren’t you a strong boy? Helping your mother collect wood for the fire?”
Alek looked up and the shadows from the trees seemed to cover her face in complete darkness; but somehow the glow of her eyes shined through the dark. “Who are you?” he asked. “Do you live nearby?”
“I live very close,” she replied, “very close indeed. My name is Kavi’lana. And I could use your help.”
“I don’t know,” Alek said gripping the wood he’d gathered more tightly. “My mother does not approve of me entering the woods. Perhaps you could come down the hill with me and speak with my mother and father and they can help you?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “They are too large. You see, I have a rabbit that has gotten beneath several rocks not far from here and I fear she may be stuck. Someone your size can easily crawl into the hole she went in and get her out for me.”
“How far is it from here?” Alek asked.
“Not far,” Kavi’lana replied, “not far at all. Just over this small hill here. Come to me and you will be able to see it clearly – a mound of rocks.”
Alek set the wood down and approached the woman; and just as he got in arm’s length the woman reached out with lightning speed reflexes and pulled him into the shadow of the trees.
Inside the cabin, Alek’s mother suddenly screamed out. She sensed that her son had gone past the protective ring she’d put around their land. She quickly dropped the plates that crashed and shattered on the ground and ran up the hill. She saw a collection of small logs and next to them the amulet she’d given her son to always know if he’d stepped outside the ring. She glared into the shadows of the tree and began to weep madly.
Alek’s mother had, at one time, been a wizard for the king and used her resources to have the woods searched for two weeks; but as she suspected there’d been no sign. Even when she was a wizard for the king, there’d been reports of children missing and when she used her magic she could detect dark fey magic, just as she’d done at the edge of the woods when Alek went missing, and suspected a coven of hags was operating somewhere in the area.
None of the missing children were ever found.
Alek included.
As a prisoner of the hags, there’d been three hags – each distinctly different that Alek came to know. Kavi’lana was what his mother would have called a ‘green hag’ – and by the looks of things, Kavi’lana led this Coven. Kavi’lana’s true form was that of green skin, long, black fingernails and as a stark contrast, she had purple eyes and long, white, flowing hair, with the skulls of various animals woven in as braids.
The second hag had purple skin, no pupils (her eyes were simply green – an Alek supposed, in his later years, this had been the sign of envy). Her hair was also jet black; but she had horns near her forehead and wore necklaces full of various sized skulls – none of which were animal – they were all human or humanoid in nature. She’d gone by the name of Va’lana.
The third was one who looked sickly; her skin was light blue, as if she were already dead. Her hair always looked as if it were wet and woven with seaweed. Her face was distorted as if she’d been drowned and someone how returned to life. She only wore a bottom dress, composed of seaweed; leaving her bare top exposed, her sickly ribs jaunting from her flesh. Her eyes were large, bloated, and green in color. This, though seemingly the weakest of the three, had been the one that frightened Alek the most. She’d gone by the name of Nela’lana.
Alek believed, when he’d first been captured that the hags would devour his soul; it’s what he’d always heard – they devour souls, and the greater the innocence the more powerful they became, which is why hags abducted children so frequently. Nela’lana seemed the most eager to devour Alek, and perhaps that’d been why, even after years of servitude to the hags, he’d always feared her the most – aside from her appearance had also been the most ghastly to behold.
The hags began discussing how they could use Alek to lure children towards the hags; as the years had pressed on, parents had become increasingly more cautious – they’d never suspect a child that worked for the hags. Kavi’lana, the green hag, then approached Alek, and spoke in the Common tongue, explaining, “We are not like other hags,” she lied. “We have foreseen the future and a great epidemic is on the rise. Soon the dead will outnumber the living. We are trying to gather the children and pull them into the Feyworld where they – like you – will never have to fear the coming epidemic. We need you to gather the children, Alek. We need you to save the world.”
This seemed to be a rather large burden to throw on a child’s shoulder, but they knew Alek possessed a heart of pureness and that sure a dire situation would certainly call to him to take action. For the next five years, he helped the hags lure the children to them and once he did so, he never saw them again.
When he was ten, he finally asked, “Where are the other children? All of those children I’ve helped save?”
“We have teleported them to the Feyworld,” Kavi’lana lied. “They have new homes now. They are happy and free.”
By this time, Alek was listening to the Hags when they spoke in their Dark Fey tongue; and he began to understand more and more of what they said, but he never let them know. For example, he learned that the “lana” after their names, was the mark of their Coven which translated to (quite loosely) as “Sisters of the Darkwood.” One night, the three hags debated in their native tongue over leaving Alek alone while they tended to Coven matters. Nela’lana had wanted to kill Alek, which was no surprise, since she’d been the hag that seemed the cruelest of the three. But she had been outvoted and Alek was left in their cavern home alone. This was the first time he’d tried to run away, but every direction he ran always led him back to the cave, and he realized that the Hags undoubtedly protected their home – and prevented him from escaping – similar to how his own mother had supposedly protected their home. So lost in desperation, Alek even tried to take his own life to be free; and found that the hags had created a spell that prevented him from inflicting self-harm. In one of the tomes, he’d learned the truth about the children as well – they were never taken away to a better life – the hags devoured their life essences, just as he’d always heard about.
Still, he kept that secret that he knew the truth since the hags trusted him when they left to tend to their Coven business. On one such occasion when he was left alone again, while the hags left to attend to Coven business, he now took the time to read through their tomes of spellbooks now that he knew how to both understand the words they spoke and read them (though he’d been far better at understanding what they said rather than reading their written word). But again, years of being left alone at times, he had taken the opportunity to read through their tomes time and time again. As Alek grew older, the hags knew they could use him to help hunt for food while they tended to their dark magic; knowing he could not leave the distance defined by the hags’ vile magic. He had become proficient at using a crossbow, but naturally learned, the spell that prevented him from harming himself, also prevented him from inflicting harm on the hags as well.
One night, he found what he had needed; a spell that was called ‘Twisting the Veil.’ It would allow him to bypass any protective barrier. While the hags slept, he grabbed a strand of each of theirs, wove it tightly together and managed to brush against the corner of a table enough to cut his skin and draw his own blood. He dropped his blood upon the knot and spoke the words:
Bound and tied, woven inside
Blood drawn, barriers gone
Allow me, to walk free
With that, he ran outside – and for the first time, ran further than he’d ever managed to run before, without being returned to the hags’ home. Behind him, he heard the howling fury of the three hags and could swear he could feel Nela’lana’s frigid breath on his neck. He closed his eyes and pushed himself harder than he ever had – and suddenly felt the warmth of light. He opened his eyes, too late, to see he was running for a cliff, and before he knew it, had stepped over the edge. He screamed as he fell, to what he’d assumed was his death, but instead landed in a river that washed him down stream.
He was recovered and brought back to health.
He vowed he would one day find the three hags and put an end to them and get justice for all the children they’d devoured.