“You’re certain this will work?” The charm, clasped in Anna’s smooth young hand, was redolent of rose hips, cinnamon, and sweet basil…and something exotic from the far southern lands. Eyes shining with hopeful, as yet unshed tears, she clasped the woven bag to her breast.

“Do your part, with an open heart. Your prayer will be answered, anon.”

Molly accepted the girl’s hug; then shooed her away with a smile. It was a gig—keen observation and a little theater kept ‘em coming back. She’d seen the two to-be-lovers together; why did women always doubt their own power?

Mollie twisted, spine crackling, momentarily blocking the voices that had been whispering to her all evening. Taking up a candle of fine beeswax in its clay holder and grabbing her warmest cape from its peg, she stepped outside the hut and pulled the door closed behind her.

A couple dozen paces past the natural basin full with moonlight and mountain water, then up the steep incline alongside the tumbling falls, and she’d reached the entrance to the subterranean chambers. The opening wasn’t so much hidden, as needing the right attitude to become visible. She sighed, thinking of Anna. So much of life was just like that.

“Yes, I’m coming,” she grumbled as the voices became much more insistent, tightening to a pitch that pinched her between her shoulder blades. They had serious business with her tonight. She dared not tarry.

She stepped behind the waterfall and disappeared.

© Liz Husebye Hartmann (2019)

Carrot Ranch Prompt (08/22/2019): In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story about old world charm. It can be nostalgic or irreverent. You can invent an “old world,” return to migrant roots or recall ancient times. Go where the prompt leads you!