Which witch?

She had done a poor job of hiding the damage, so naturally she kept futzing with it in a vain attempt to make the skin look normal again. Katrina exhaled, “Worst. Witch. Ever.”

Which isn’t technically accurate, as this was her first spell, and she had far more natural power than she knew. So much so, that a coven of witches, clear in another county, was knocked clear flat onto their backs by the shockwave of energy sent out by that one small spell.

Katrina pulled on her grandmother’s hand-knitted cardigan to cover up the mangled flesh on her upper arm. She gathered up the witch accoutrements that led to the disastrous spell and chucked it into a canvas bag with the shattered sense that she would never have the power her grandmother had.

Just prior, the coven of witches were standing up in the middle of farmer Gorgon’s sheep field. He always fancied Minerva and cleared his sheep away every month for their full moon ritual. He was bound by the coven to not peek at their rituals, which he supposed included naked lady orgies writhing in pleasure before a sacrificial altar. Such a man thing to imagine. Nakedness does not immediately mean sex, any proper witch will tell you that. It is, however, an excellent way to ensure you’re directly connected with the divine spirit and can channel the elements of Mother Nature more powerfully. So, yes, there was nakedness, but no, there were no orgies. And sacrifice is a harsh word. Is it sacrificing when you eat chicken nuggets? No, it’s eating, so leave the coven in peace when they bleed a chicken and turn it into soup later.

Minerva pushed herself up from her prostrate position on the soft grass. “What in the name of the Goddess was that?!” she yelled. “Juliette, were the runes properly placed?”

The young, naked brunette had fallen beside Minerva. She nodded.

“Then what could possibly have gone wrong?” Minerva was getting to her feet when she saw a glowing orb of light floating above their altar. She joined the other women who had seen it with gaping mouths.

Katrina wanted nothing more than to curl up and sleep away this failure, but her body was restless and rejected that idea, so decided to go for a midnight stroll. It was a warm summer’s eve, the summer solstice in fact. The day her grandmother gave her specific instructions for what to do after her passing.

“I failed you, g-g.” she said to the bright moon above. Being outside under that moon was comforting. The full moon always reminded her of G-G. Even as a small child her grandmother would take her into the woods on the full moon to do magic. As a child it was so real, the possibilities of magic, but as she grew older she knew it was just an old hippie reliving some acid trip from her youth. That was the only logical explanation. And then G-G died, and left Katrina her grimoire and a cottage no one in the family knew about. Yes, laugh all you want, she had a witch’s cottage, and not in a highly desirable area, no, in fact, it was literally in the middle of nowhere in Wales of all places. WALES? Who but sheep want to be in Wales for goodness’ sake?? Though as she spent more time there trying to understand this witchy stuff, it was rather beautiful. The moonlit strolls in nature were oddly peaceful, and not creepy. Not once did she imagine Jason Vorhees or Cujo waiting behind a tree. That’s not strictly correct, she did imagine it more than once, but that was in the beginning.

The glowing orb began to move. The witches gasped collectively as it slowly floated away from the altar. Minerva grabbed the hands of nearby witches and they all started clasping hands together, encircling the floating and moving orb. “Grant, oh great Goddess, thy protection,” Minerva began and all the ladies joined in. The orb approached a witch with mocha colored skin. They spoke their prayer louder “And in protection, strength.” The orb nearly touched the witch, but rose higher above her head and out of the circle continuing on an unseen path. The witches abandoned their chanting prayer and scrambled to follow it.

Katrina came to the small creek not far from G-G’s magical house and crouched beside it to touch the cool clear water. It always felt like a restorative spring to Katrina and she quickly wondered if it had magical properties. She pulled her left arm from the cardigan, scooped up a handful of the creek water saying a healing prayer she found in the grimoire “Deep peace I breathe into you, O weariness, here:
O ache, here.” while slowly pouring the creek waters onto the distorted flesh. Katrina’s eyes widened as the flesh began to smooth with each droplet of water.

The orb passed over farmer Gorgon’s fence. The witches, still naked, looked at each other to see if they were going to pursue in their current undress.

“CLOAKS!” Minerva barked. “CECILY, THE VAN!” she shrieked.

The coven moved quickly, throwing cloaks over their naked forms, a large van raced towards the fence, stopped and the coven piled in, though not everyone had a seat.

“Follow that orb.” Minerva instructed. And the van broke through the fence and followed the orb crushing crops and grass on its impossibly slow journey.