Off to see the witch, the wonderful witch named Sarah

You decide you would rather visit a witch than the super sized arachnids from your childhood nightmares.

Thompson seems to shake his head in disagreement but begins walking anyway.

"Her name is Sarah?" you decide to change the subject.

"Indeed! Fancies herself a moon goddess or some such nonsense, but I reckon you'll see what I mean by that."

You have to wonder what he means by that, and for a while you allow your imagination to explore the possibilities.

After a short walk and Thompson's repeated cursing towards the sun both for moving downwards so quickly and for 'moving about so much' which means being difficult to follow through all the trees you two finally manage to make it.

"Is that it?" You say, gesturing towards a wood blob that looks oddly out of place for a tree.

Thompson looks at it and beams, "I reckon that is! Why Daniel I told you I'd get you there didn't I?"

You feel quite certain if you hadn't pointed it out Thompson probably would have walked right past it, but you decide saying as much wouldn't do any good and choose to remain silent.

You weren't quite sure what you were expecting from a witch's hut, but it actually didn't look too bad. A giant tree stump seemed to mark the main room, with editions, additions and expansions all around. Accounting for all that's unoriginal from the stump, it has a spherical shape with a few things poking out the sides. Odd symbols were drawn here and there with no appearant pattern, and a small windmill slowly turns to a light breeze, the sounds of wood creaking remind you of something long ago, but you can't quite remember.

A ring of what looks like salt surrounds the house, and Thompson steps up to it and stops outside of it, motioning that you do the same. "Sarah? Are you in there?" he calls out.

After a moment of silence he continues with what you hope is sarcasm, "Sarah? You haven't been mauled by a bloody bear have you?"

Still nothing, aside from what you think might have been movement past a window, but you can't say for sure.

"Blasted..wait right here," Thompson steps over the line and hurries over to the hut.

Knock knock knock

"Sarah, if you don't open this door I'm gonna kick it down, aight? We've come to stay for the night. I'm Thompson, do you remember me?" he winces at his own name. You hear an inaudible female grumble which Thompson presses his ear to the door to hear.

Once it ceases be steps back and retreats to you, smiling. "She's not particularly fond of our staying but she's not confident her door will turn my leg to ash if I try kicking it down so she's letting us stay the night!"

You nod, curiosity surpassing fear, you feel a strange nervous excitement filling you up at the prospect of meeting her. Once you're inside, you begin to survey everything in sight and you notice a few key features. Firstly, you're relieved to find that it's much bigger on the inside than it appears on the outside, even with all the editions and the massive circumference of the stump, you thought it might be a little claustrophobic. You're not sure if that's magic or effective architecture but either way you find it appealing.

Secondly, Sarah isn't the old woman with the oversized nose and crinkly skin you were expecting, she looks to be about your age with. She's wearing a dark robe over what looks to be average medieval clothing, a typical pointed hat covering long straight white hair. She seems to be pondering something on some complicated-looking charts she's looking over, too much symbolism to make out exactly what they mean but you have to imagine they're important if she hasn't looked up to see you yet.

There's a fire crackling lazily in the corner, contained in a fireplace but it almost seemed hungry...you notice a broom sweeping on it's own accord nearby as well.

Thompson speaks first, "Sarah, this is Daniel, Daniel this is Sarah, I've got to relieve myself so I trust you'll take care of yourselves, excuse me."

And with that he walks out the door and into the woods, leaving you alone with the witch he seemed so afraid of earlier.

Great, you think sarcastically, a real gentleman, him.

Sarah looks up at you with beautiful amber eyes and tries to reassure you, "don't worry, my squabbles lie with Thompson. I won't hurt you."

It does more to set you on edge than comfort you though, as you think for a moment she might have read your mind. "T-Thanks. It's..nice to meet you Sarah."

She smiles, but her eyes seem too tired to match the emotion as she replies, "greetings."

She waves her hand and a chair hops over to you, positioning itself behind you. "Please, sit." she says, the tired look now leaking into her voice.

You're still not used to normally inanimate objects moving on their own accord but you sit after only slight hesitation.

"Don't worry, they've got a conscience just like you and I."

"How did you learn to do all this?" you ventured towards learning more about your hostess' abilities.

She sits in a chair across the room from yours, "It's not so much learning this as unlearning..that," she gestures in the general direction that Thompson took into the forest.

"And what is that?"

"Negative knowledge, things people learn in the world that set them back, usually by making future knowledge harder to accept." She shakes her head while looking out the window. "For Thompson, the issue stems from refusing to let go of the past. Letting go of that means letting a part of himself die. He isn't willing to do that, and so he refuses to grow."

She got up from her chair and took off her hat, setting it on the table with all those complicated charts. "You should come with me, I'll show you something." She got up and walked to the door.

You begin to follow her out when you remember something, "what about Thompson?"

She looks back, her tired gaze becoming lively for a moment, "don't worry! I'll leave him a note." and with that she snaps her fingers and a paper appears in her hands. She swiped her finger across it once and threw it back towards the door. The paper flew past you, and you caught a glimpse of words burned into it.

You shake your head as you start following her, "remind me to stay on your good side."

Sarah lead the way to a small sparkling lake surrounded by grass for 10 meters or so in all directions until giving way to the forest. A little waterfall roared near the edge, making the whole surface ripple slightly, it was a magnificent sight.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" She said with a huge smile, this one reaching her eyes completely. While you were looking at the scenery she had taken off her robe and hung it on a nearby tree limb, leaving the task of clothing to her medieval outfit, which covered pretty much everything besides her body shape. The robe had covered enough to hide just how beautiful her body was, slim overall but curvy in all the right places. You nod, not sure if you're nodding at her beauty or nature's. The details you couldn't fully make out before were now fully realized as well, long flowing white hair which danced slightly in the breeze, a brilliant smile, wide eyes which seemed to shine with imagination, and something else...

She looks away with a grin and a slight blush when you finally catch yourself staring. That was it, her expression, her personality showcased in an orchestra of conveyed emotions which began to make you feel strange.

"Come on!" She says excitedly, interrupting your thoughts, and starts running towards the water.

"Wait!" You call out, to which she gave you a mock tilted-head wide-eyed curious look for a moment before laughing to herself. "What is it?"

You had to pry your mind away from how beautiful the little things she did were. "Wait for me!" And with that you ran towards the rippling blue sheet and leaped in. You surfaced just fast enough to see her falling into the water, and in cannonball form! Soon after she collided a wave washed over you, and after you both resurfaced you looked at one another for a moment and laughed.

For the first time in so long, you felt like a child again. Not in the sense of being immature or reason-less, but in being able to enjoy life in it's pure, uninterrupted form. An endless joy experienced by the beauty of it all.

...

It was nearly pitch black when you remembered there was life outside the lake and Sarah.

"We should probably head back before something comes out and eats us" You say half jokingly.

She nods in agreement, "I wouldn't want you to get eaten."

You laugh at that, "I guess I wouldn't want you to get eaten either."

She swims closer to where you're floating, "It's..." she hesitates, like she's not sure how much she should say, "It's been a very long time since I've had a friend, and never one like you, so...thank you."

"Thank you for showing me this place, it's almost..." you search for the right word to describe it.

"Magical?" she gives you a wink which you barely see in the moonlight and swims a little closer.

"Yeah..It's magical. You're magical. I mean-" you realize how silly it is to call a witch magical. "You're..magical in a different way. You know, nice, friendly, kind-"

She hugs you.

"You're magical too, Daniel."

You're not sure what to say to that, and a million thoughts make it impossible to say anything even if you did know. Eventually, once they slowed down, you realized she had awkwardly let go when you didn't hug her back.

You both get out soon after that, she mutters a spell and you're both dried instantly. You're still not sure what to say.

"Sarah, I-"

"No! No it's fine, I'm sorry."

"I didn't mean-"

"Really, it's ok, I understand."

Now you wish she could read your mind, perhaps she could make sense of the tsunami of incomprehensible thoughts.

You stumble around and eventually come across your shirt, pulling it on. She gathers her robe and carries it as you both begin making your way back to her home.

"Sarah..."