The Green Witch

Chapter 2 - Raul

A whole year has passed, and Flora has slowly moved on, caring for herself and continuing her mother's work. Her mother used to help some of the villagers in exchange for money, but since Flora was not helping people from the village, she had to find another way to get by. For now she continued work in the garden, growing her food, and cultivating her way of life off the grid. Soon she found peace in this way of life. Her days were her own, and she lived contently on the food that she grew in her gardens.

Flora has been on her own for a year, and spent her last birthday walking along the lake. As she was walking, she came across what seemed like a dead wolf pup. Feeling very sad, she walked up to it, picking it up to give it a proper burial, but it was then that she realized it was still alive when she saw that it was still breathing. She quickly took the pup home to care for it, and as she walked through the forest back to her cottage, she saw its mother…..dead. It seems that there are some hunters in the forest, but she couldn’t find any of his other litter mates. She carried him back to her cottage.

Deep in the enchanted forest, small and made of stone and wood, with a thatched roof, was her cottage. As mentioned before, her cottage was magically hidden and protected from unwanted strangers, more specifically evil that would harm Flora. She has a cobblestone path that leads from her surrounding wood fence to the house. It’s lined with tulips - her favorite flower. The left of the stone path has a small herb garden, the back of the house has her large vegetable garden and chicken coop. Flora is a pescatarian, eating eggs and fish in addition to her vegetables. To the right of her path is her flower garden - also along the right side of her fence. She loves dalias, zinnias, sweet peas, marigolds, and roses, but tulips were her favorite. Second to tulips were sunflowers as her favored flower. She had the entire left corner of her garden in various shades and heights of sunflowers. Medicinally, sunflowers were needed since they had healing powers. Her flower garden is her hobby and passion. She loves flowers. Flowers were always beautiful. And not filled with hate.

On the door of Flora’s cottage there is an ornate door knocker that actually works as a protective ward. It held the magic protection that the cottage had. It kept strangers and villagers away that were not welcome. The knocker makes them change their course. Her mother got it from a friend years ago, when she decided to make her home in the forest. The knocker held very ancient magic, good magic. Passed down from good witch to good witch, coven to coven. To help hide magic and witches from the prejudices of this world, and to protect them from the hate and fear of people. Not all people hate, but enough of them do. Hate creates tragedy. Tragedy creates sadness, and sadness creates anger. Anger creates hate. It’s a vicious cycle. So witches were forced to hide and do their work in secret. Usually living in fear most days. But doing good for the world. The balance and the greater good were more important than all the fear and hate.

Flora bought the wolf pup inside where it was nice and cozy. In Flora’s cottage, there is an herb area - a work table - with kitchen basin, pantry, and utensils. There is also a charming fireplace with a sitting area and rug. To the right, her bed is in a nook, with a window, and a shelf full of books she and her mother have collected. Her supplies and sack had its place by the door. A chest full of clothes sits at the foot of the bed, belonging to both her mom and herself.

Once home, she realized that the pup was breathing, but he was badly wounded, and quickly she saw that he had a long gash under his belly. She got to work and quickly cleaned the gash, and put herbs in and around the area to stop infection. She wrapped him up and put him in her bed, on her softest blanket by the fire.

In the morning, his eyes were open, but he was still lying on his side, too sore to roll over. She fed him some fresh goat's milk from the goat in her garden that she befriended, and who never left. The goat was a grumpy thing, gray, with white spots. She named her Gertrude, and she provides her with fresh goat's milk, which Flora made into cheese frequently. There was also a male goat that was a companion to Gertrude and his name was Gunther. Gunther was a sort of guardian of the cottage and it’s grounds. He made sure no intruder, animal or otherwise, entered without permission from Flora. Gertrude and Gunther were welcomed tenants of her garden and helped to keep the grass around the cottage nice and short. In turn, they had a warm, protected place to sleep, and all the grass and hay that Flora could provide.

Back in the cottage, the pup lifted his head to take in the fresh milk, and went back to sleep. In the days following, she tended his wounds, fed him milk every couple of hours, cleaned him, and sang to him in the evenings. She still had to do her daily chores, and go on her daily walk around the forest, so in the evenings, it was always a comforting sight to see him still alive, getting stronger, and lying on the bed waiting for her. He was a tiny thing, but there was a strength to him, and she named her wolf Raul. She felt like her mother gave her a birthday gift from the beyond, and she quickly fell in love with her little wolf pup. Raul became her most loyal friend, who never left her side. Her protector, her companion, and her family.

When Raul was with her for the next 6 months, she kept him indoors as she left to go on her walk, only letting him out into the garden when she was home, doing her chores. One day as she was getting ready to leave, he was at the door, waiting to go with her.

“Raul, I’m not sure you’re quite old enough yet to come with me.” Flora said. Raul just sat staring at her, letting her know that he had every intention of following her on her walk, and that she was not leaving the house without him. Flora stared back at him, wondering if she was going to win this one.

Accepting that she lost, because frankly, she had to get going before the sun went down, she spoke to Raul, “Fine, you big lout, hurry along.” Jumping up excitedly, he followed her outside, and out of the gate. To be quite honest, Flora could really use the company, and the help. At 6 months old, Raul was the size of a small horse, and it would be nice to have him cart things around instead of Flora carrying everything on her back.

Once out of the gate she turned toward him, “Look Raul, I cannot lose you, and I don’t want to chase you around, so you stay close by, understand?” Raul looked at her to let her know that he understood. They had a way of understanding each other.

She realized that Raul was a great companion to have around, and doing her daily walk through the forest was more enjoyable with him coming along.