HOUSE OF PAYNE INTERNATIONAL: Archive
The Witch's Child
by John David Payne
@ 2,950 words
Little Jayni was the first to see it. The children had been told not to go this far into the woods, that it was too dangerous. They weren’t bad children, and so they had all agreed not to go into the woods alone.
The five children were just coming into the glen where they liked to play when Jayni saw it. She shrieked in terror, dropped her baby doll, and ran screaming from the glen. Her brother Bertram, the oldest in the group, took his sling out of his vest pocket. “It must be a monster,” he declared to the other children. “Have no fear,” he cried out to his sister, “I’ll save you, sister!”
“Bertram,” said Timberlen quietly, “it is a monster.” Then Bertram saw it, too, and he nearly dropped his sling. “Devils!” he profaned. “Devils’ toes and All-Father Wodne’s hairy backside!” Ellspeth saw it, gasped, and ran after Jayni.
“A monster...” said Stuart slowly, seeing what the other children had seen. He did everything slowly. He was only eight, more than a year younger than his cousin Bertram, but he was head and shoulders taller. Whenever the boys played at fighting monsters, slow Stuart always had to be the giant. And he always got killed.
“You’re the monster, you big smelly ogre,” retorted Bertram. He put a strawberry-sized rock in his sling, and began to spin it in his hand.
By now, Ellspeth and Jayni had returned to the clearing, but both looked to be on the verge of bolting again at any moment. Timberlen, on the other hand, stood beside slow Stuart and regarded Bertram thoughtfully. “What are you doing?”
“I’m going to kill a monster, by Wodne’s teeth,” he said, and the sling continued spinning, but without releasing the rock it held inside.
“I don’t think you should do that,” said Timberlen. “If you do, I’ll tell Aunt Enna.”
“Go ahead,” Bertram breathed. “Tell her, I don’t care. She might get mad, but father will be proud of me for killing a monster.” With one last flick, the sling discharged its projectile and stopped spinning. There was a cry from the bushes where it lay, echoed by smaller cries from Jayni and Ellspeth, who had by now come to.
“You hurt it!” cried Jayni, amazed.
“Of course I hurt it,” said Bertram matter-of-factly, as he pulled another rock from his vest pocket and placed it in his sling. “It’s a monster.”
“Maybe . . .” Ellspeth began. “Maybe we should talk to someone first.” She looked from Bertram to the bushes and back again. “My brothers are back at your uncle’s farm. I could go get them,” she offered.
Bertram grinned cruelly and began to spin the sling again. “It’s okay. I can take care of this myself.”
“No,” said Timberlen, “I’m going to take care of this.” She stepped in front of Bertram and walked to the bushes where it lay.
“Looks like I’m going to take care of two monsters today,” said Bertram, his sling throwing a rock over Timberlen’s shoulder, narrowly missing her head.”
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