fae-ted

Avey

"Tell is a story Hazel!" It was getting late and Hazel was exhausted. Her head still swam with the conversation she had had with her mother, despite the distraction of two energeric twins, still too excited to sleep, bounced from bed to bed, giggling. Hazel reached and grabbed but it was like trying to catch rainfall in a sieve. "If I do, will you please sit still and go to bed?" She sighed, sitting back down and attempting to help Sophie push her leg through her one piece pajama suit.

As if by magic the twins fluttered down onto their respective beds, suddenly stationary as two little stones. Hazel shook her head, smiling. She moved over and sat next to Rose, brushing her fingers through her jet black heir and beginning to braid it. Rose looked up, her astoundingly pale blue eyes like stars against a velvety black sky. "Tell the one about the Arvey."

Hazel paused, brow furrowed. "I'm not sure we should do that one tonight."

"Pleaaaasee Hazel!" Quick as a flash, Charlotte had appeared beside them. "We asked mum like you said to but she said she wouldn't tell it to us, she said it wasn't for kids."

"Yeah but we already heard it through." Rose scoffed. "We can't just forget now, can we?"

Hazel thought for a second. She had already told the story, it was true. Although her mother had told her the tale originally, she had not been pleased when the twins had told her that Hazel had passed it on. "I didn't know it was a big deal." Hazel remembered shrugging at the time, annoyed. "You told me at their age."

"Yes but you're different." Her mother had snapped, putting away a washed dish a little too forcefully.

"How?" Hazel had felt her anger mounting. "They're not weak mum, they..."

"They don't need to know!" Hazel's mother hand throw her rag down into the sink forcefully, sending a cluster of bubbles up into the air. Hazel had felt one land on the tip of her nose. At the time, she had simply turned and left.

Although generally happy and caring, Hazel's mother did have episodes every once in a while, during which she appeared to not be quite herself. Hazel knew when this was happening because her mother's eyes would darken, seeming, in the right light, to become almost black. She also knew there was no reasoning with her during these times. They had not spoken about it since.

Hazel shook her head, tiredly. The twins were right though, they had, already heard the story. It was late, she was tired, how could it hurt? She patted the bed, giving Sophie time to climb up beside them all. "Alright, as a treat for doing so well with the moving." She smiled down at the little faces beside her. "I'm very proud of all of you." She took a deep breath and began...

"Once upon a time there was a boy called Arvey. Arvey lived in a little village of mostly farmers, along with his two younger brothers, Greville and Bo. Arvey was asked to be responsible for his brothers while his parents were working and to never, ever, under any circumstances, let them into the deep dark woods." Sophie shivered, squealing slightly. The twins watched her, unblinking.

"Well, as I surely know, it is a lot of work looking after little brothers and sisters and unfortunately one day, Arvey's youngest brother, Greville, made his way into the woods while he was collecting fuel for the hearth. Arvey locked Bo in the house and set off after him as fast as he could. He ran through the darkness, calling for Greville, feeling increasingly less hope until...he got an answer back!

He raced in the direction of the sound until he came to a deep, dark, disused well. He looked into the depths of the well, straining to see Greville but he couldn't see a single thing."

"How did he know it wasn't a trick?" Rose c****d her head slightly. "Well I suppose he didn't," Hazel shrugged, "although it would be a pretty mean trick, wouldn't it?"

"Arvey sat and thought but he couldn't decide what to do. As tears began to gather in his eyes, a light appeared, emanating from the other side of the well. He could not see who or what was generating the light, as they were obscured by the well wall but the voice that spoke was deep and seemed to come from a long way away."

"'I can save your brother,' it said 'for a price.'"

"No! Sophie pulled the covers to her chin. "Don't do it."

"I'm sure he didn't want to." Hazel nodded sagely. "But Greville was trapped, and he would do anything for his brother, so he agreed. Once Greville was at his side again, he asked what he owed.

'A life for a life, a soul for a soul, fair for fair and foul for foul.' The deep voice faded after it had finished the rhyme and left Arvey confused. By the time they were in sight of the village, he had almost convinced himself it was a dream, until he smelled..."

"Burning!" the little girls gasped together, pulling at Hazel's sleeves. She nodded. "Burning. For while they were away, their house, with Bo inside, had caught fire. They returned too late, just as the last of Bo's screams stopped. From then on Arvey was never the same. Shunned by the entire village, with a hatred for himself that knew no bounds, he wandered aimlessly through life." Hazel shook her head sadly.

"Greville had changed too, for he had become naughty and conniving since leaving the forest. And so the sorry family continued for many years. If the village folk had cared to, which they did not, they could catch Avey entering the forest most nights, searching again for the well and the voice and a way to make things right. Some time around his eighteenth birthday, Avey made one final trip into the forest, never to return."

Rose stifled a sniffle. Keen to be regarded as tough, she was naturally empathetic. Charlotte watched her without judgement but did not move to comfort her. Hazle tied off her plait and stroked the top of her head. MyBd their mother was right about this story.

"Still, although, there was much sadness, there is still a happy ending for the family. For they say that after Avery disappeared, Greville grew to become a respectable man, who married well, took care of their ailing parents and commissioned a small well in the back of their farm, in memory of his brother's, which, from the day it was completed, never gave anything but the purest and sweetest drinking water."