Tears and Rain

© Ayr/Gray

First step? Draw the chalk outline.

Berta sat back on her heels, trying to remember the next step from Baba’s grimoire. She was sure she’d gotten all the right ingredients: white chalk, pint jar of honey, ten pound sack of dirt from Janeesa’s grave. There were words she needed to say, herbs to sprinkle as she said them.    Continue reading

Tectonic Shift

Thunk!

Baba peeked through her shutters, to see Billy’s hind end bouncing its way back to town. That night, sucking on her pipe, she considered the moon overhead. Why did he throw rocks at her cottage? No hello, no jeers, no partner in crime. Was he lonely? Her rocking chair creaked in assent. Continue reading

Prayer For a New Year

Red sunrise over ocean horizon

Source: Matt Fraser

I meant well, sending her off on an impossible quest for the Silverword Cascade, hoping she’d find distraction and joy during the painful waiting time until her childhood friends return to her; No Baba Yaga am I — my magic is limited to perception only of magic’s heady limerance, and I hadn’t felt her subtle glow. Continue reading

Old World Charm

Kittelson mountain and sea

Solveig had gathered nearly everything Old Baba had asked her to bring for their midnight meeting on the strand and underneath the clear-night crescent of the new moon; the girl had yet to find the final potion ingredient, water scooped in a wooden cup, from the Silverword Cascade, a waterfall rumored to be located in the third chamber of one of the many caves on the far side of Hidden Cove.  Continue reading