The Curse of The Blight Witch

A Terrifying Tremulous Trees story

Belladona stomped her foot on the ground to make her point clear. She should be in charge.

“No, Belladona Nightshade, you cannot lead this coven. I am the high priestess, and what I say is final,” Ravenna Darkwood said.

“Why not me?” Belladona asked and gritted her teeth.

“Because I founded this coven. It’s mine to protect the forest with,” Ravenna said.

“I say we put it to a vote. There’s four of us, after all. I should be in charge of protecting the forest. I’m young, you’re old. I’m fast, you’re slow. I’m smart, you’re dumb,” Belladonna said.

“You ingrate. Who do you think taught you magic? Who took you in when you were abandoned by society? Who showed you the one true path to happiness and immortality?” Ravenna asked.

“You did. But you’re old and tired now, so I still think we should put it to a vote,” Belladona said.

“Why? What would you do differently?” Ravenna asked.

“You have us selling ‘enchanted’ baskets. We make a few hundred dollars a month, barley enough to get by. We could use our magic to make our own money,” Belladonna said.

“That would corrupt the economy. Money becomes worthless when it’s overprinted. We’d need to keep creating more and more just to keep up with inflation. Inflation that we would create, mind you,” Ravenna said.

“Then we should sell our potions,” Belladonna said.

“We do sell potions, you annoying twit,” Ravenna shouted.

“Only love potions. Those are the hardest kinds to sell. Most people can find their own love. That’s why we’ve been selling baskets. They’re not even really enchanted, we just say that to sell them. We should sell freezing potions, immortality elixirs and hair growth tonics,” Belladonna said.

“Freezing potions are used for robbery or murder by humans. Witches like us only use them to escape danger, that’s why only we’re allowed to use them. So no. And too many people living forever isn’t good, especially when the people living forever are the morons who usually buy immortality potions. The world is already overpopulated, the last thing it needs is indestructible idiots running around, poking each other with sticks and cutting down more trees. Idiots like that caused the Salem witch trials. I mean, we could sell the immortality potions to a few geniuses like Einstein I suppose, but people like that don’t come around to often. And we tried selling hair growth potions. People only want them if they see them advertised on television nowadays. We can’t afford a commercial,” Ravenna said.

“I say we sell them anyway. We could advertise in the newspaper. Somebody local needs more hair and would buy our potions if we sold them for cheap enough. Let’s have a vote to decide who’s high priestess,” Belladonna said.

“Fine. Seraphine Moonstone, Luna Laveau, who do you vote for as coven leader?” Ravenna asked.

“You, my liege, Ravenna,” Seraphine said.

“You have my loyalty, as always, Ravenna,” Luna said.

“You’ve been outvoted, Belladonna. Even if this was a democracy, you’d lose,” Ravenna said.

“You’ll regret this. You’ll all regret this,” Belladonna said and scowled.

“What are you going to do about it? Leave the coven?” Ravenna asked, pretended to cry, then laughed.

“So much more then that. I’ll curse this forest. Then you’ll have nothing left to protect, and all your magical herbs will wither, rot and die. No more powers or immortality for you” Belladonna said and cackled.

“You wouldn’t dare. You’d you lose your powers, too,” Ravenna said.

“That doesn’t matter. I’ll find another coven,” Belladonna said and growled.

“How do you know we won’t just reverse the curse?” Ravenna asked.

“You’d need six witches for that. Or a Galgangreoids potion with genuine bat phallus and two sets of lizard balls. And even if you had those things, it takes twelve months to age before its effective. By that time, your forest will be long gone. And good luck getting one of the other covens to talk to you. Everyone knows covens don’t talk to other covens, let alone reverse curses together,” Belladona said and cackled.

Then Belladonna used a binding spell to keep the other witches in place so they couldn’t stop her, then began her curse.

“To the forest dwelling demons that lurk deep in these woods that are so gloomy and thick, I summon rot, black and slick.

From roots below to branches high, let life be drained, make this forest die.

I command that the land shall rot, forgotten by the sun, the blight will be a lot, and it will be fun.

In the deathly grip of the fungus kings hand, the vibrant woods will no longer stand.

So mote it be, the curse is cast. The forest's doom has come at last. Ha-Ha-Ha, this will be a blast!”

Belladonna danced and contorted her body in unnatural ways, then created a puff of black and green smoke around her.

“What have you done, Belladona?” Ravenna asked. But it was to late, the curse was cast. The black and green cloud engulfed Belladonna, and she was gone in her puff of smoke.

Ravenna started coughing and fanning the smoke away.

“At least we can move again,” Seraphine said to Ravenna.

“We must tell Twigly of this betrayal and the curse. He might be able to help us,” Ravenna said.

“Yes, maybe Twigly knows where one of the other covens is. If there’s six of us, even if our curse reverse fails, we can do a summoning spell and force Belladonna back here,” Luna said.

“Good idea, Luna,” Ravenna said.

“I’ve got a bat willy if you want to make that potion,” Seraphine said.

“And I have no problem catching a couple lizards and hacking off their balls,” Luna said.

“No, Belladona is right. We don’t have time. The blight will set in quickly. We must find… wait, where on earth did you get a bat penis?” Ravenna asked Seraphine.

“I turned my ex into a bat because I thought it would make me feel better after I caught him cheating on me with two of my younger cousins. But it didn’t, so I cut off his shlaung, pickled it, and put it in a jar,” Seraphine said.

“Oh my Hecate, that’s what’s in the jar that’s in the basement? I thought it was a shriveled carrot,” Ravenna said.

“Are you serious? I just drank the water out of that jar yesterday. I think I’m going to be sick,” Luna said and started gagging.

Luna's face paled and her stomach lurched as she processed the revelation. 'Gurgling,' noises came out of Lunas mouth, the hideous sounds escaping her lips as she fought to keep her lunch down.

After Luna felt better, she showered to feel clean again and they left their small wooden cabin to search for Twigly.

“Due to a recent sickness, I forgot what we are doing. Remind me,” Luna said.

“Finding Twigly,” Ravenna said.

“Why?” Luna asked.

“So he can help us find one of the other covens. He travels fast,” Ravenna said.

“Oh, yes. Of course. Let’s continue,” Luna said.

********

“The witches approach, Charlie,” I said.

“Up top, big guy,” Charlie said I lifted him up to my head.

“Thanks Twigly,” Charlie said and smiled.

The coven of three approached me.

“What happened to your fourth?” I asked the leader, Ravenna.

“Oh, great Twigly, king of the trees. There’s been trouble, and I’ll beg for your help on my knees. This coven will do anything that you please, even bring your friend Charlie a plate of fresh cheese,” Ravenna said.

“I love your theatrics. What trouble is that of which you speak? Trouble that has caused you to be so meek? It’s a good thing I don’t have to run off to take a leak,” I said, trying to match her poetic hyperbole.

“Belladona, the young lady we had been training, turned out to be a spoiled brat. She wanted to mutiny against me, the treacherous traitor. She was outvoted. She was stupid to think Seraphine and Luna, my best friends for the last three centuries now, would turn against me. She ran off into the woods like a child,” Ravenna explained.

“I’m sorry that happened. But that sounds like it’s not a huge problem. And it’s a you problem,” I said.

“Well, normally yes. Normally we’d just let her go. But she’s made it a you problem as well, great Twigly. She cast a blight spell to condemn the forest to death,” Ravenna said

“Well, that would explain the rot that’s growing on some of the other trees. But we can’t reverse the curse, can we? Not without a Galgangreoids potion. And those take a long time to make,” I said. They had taught me a lot about witchcraft over the centuries in exchange for favors.

“Oh please. Let’s not talk about Galgangreoids potion again,” Luna said and gagged.

“We can reverse the curse with another coven. Then we can summon Belladonna and you can lock her in your dungeon. Can you walk us through the forest like you do Charlie?” Ravenna asked.

“What good would that do? She would teleport out of our dungeon, possibly bringing a few dangerous prisoners with her. If she helps Timber Tom escape and the two team up, she could revive his treacherous robots, again and again and again. Could you imagine? They’d be like mechanical White Walkers. We also have several of your witch hunters down there. She could release them out of pure spite. And don’t even get me started on what happens if Lady Larceny escapes and tracks down her boyfriend, The Gaseous Giggler,” I said.

“Oh yes, I remember them. The things they did were terrible. They were so horrible and wretched, let’s never mention their crimes again. It’s to terrible to talk about. We’ll magically enchant the dungeon first to make sure she doesn’t escape or help others escape,” Ravenna said.

“Fine,” I mumbled.

I grabbed the three witches and placed them on a branch just opposite Charlie.

“This is awesome,” Seraphine said. Luna clapped in excitement as I thundered through the forest, leaving giant root marks where my root feet crushed the ground.

“Thank you, Twigly, for your help. You’ve been helping us for the last three hundred years we’ve lived here. You’re very much appreciated,” Ravenna said.

I walked on in silence, though I appriciated them too. Another way they’d repay me is by making me special potions that stimulated me and tingled my roots. ‘Energy drinks for trees,’ they called their concoctions.

“Can you teach me magic?” Charlie said to Luna. When she looked at him, he winked at her.

“You’re sweet. Your also to young for me. But yes, I’ll teach you magic. Anything for a fellow protector of the forest,” Luna said and blew Charlie a kiss. Charlie blushed.

“There’s an old cabin. The door is marked with a pentagram,” I said.

“Let’s check it out,” Ravenna said.

I put the three witches on the ground. Ravenna knocked on the cabin door.

The door squeaked open and an old lady in a pointy hat answered.

“Come in for some tea,” the old lady said and cackled.

“Yah, yah, yah, we’re witches too. We know the routine,” Ravenna said.

“Oh, I see,” the old lady said, snapped her fingers and a puff of smoke surrounded her. She was young again.

“We need your help. Are you a coven of at least three?” Ravenna asked.

“Yes, but we’re very busy. Why should we help you?” The witch asked.

“You live in the woods selling enchanted baskets like the rest of us. You’re not busy. And you need to help us because we had a defector curse the forest. If the forest dies, that’s bad for all of us. We all lose our powers. The forests magical herbs gives us our magic,” Ravenna said.

“Is the defectors name Belladonna, by chance?” The witch said.

“Yes. How did you know?”

“That twit. She stole all my potions and ran off a while back. I was wondering what happened to her. Let me get my lucky hat,” the witch said and came back out with two other coven members.

“So, are we doing a reverse curse,” the witch said.

“Yes. And a summoning spell. We’re going to lock Belladonna in Twiglys dungeon to make sure she doesn’t do this again,” Ravenna said.

“Oh, goody. Can I watch her scream as Twigly drags her across the forest floor?” The witch asked.

“Sure,” I said to the witches amusement.

“I’m Rena, by the way,” the witch said.

“Ravenna,” Ravenna said and smiled.

The six witches walked to a small clearing and started chanting. Ravenna began the reverse curse.

"Fae folk deep in this forest wide, we call upon you to turn the tide.

Undo the blight the demons have caused, reverse the curse that caused the forest to look mawed.

Let life return, let nature regrow. The blight really does blow.

By the power of our combined coven's might, we restore the balance and we bring back the light.

Break the spell, let nature rise!

So mote it be, beneath our beautiful skies.”

Ravenna started humming with the other witches. Clouds filled the air and it started raining. The rain cleared the cursed blight away.

The witches hummed louder.

“Belladonna, we summon you. The curse we broke we shall make you rue,” Ravenna chanted. The other witches repeated what Ravenna said until Belladonna appeared in the same puff of green and black smoke she disappeared onto.

“Oh, hello ladies. I see you met Rena and the two idiots who work for her,” Belladona said.

“Hey,” one of the witches said.

“I’m sure they’d be more offended if you weren’t going to be locked in a dungeon,” Rena said and cackled.

“I don’t think so,” Belladona said and started to run away while attempting to whisper a spell.

Ravenna threw a freezing potion on Belladonna.

“Not… fair… you were supposed to… sell those,” Belladonna said before completly freezing.

“Let’s get her to the dungeon and enchant the place before the potion wears off,” Ravenna said.

I wrapped my roots around Belladonna, tipped her over and dragged her across the forest floor. Rena watched Belladona intently, and every time Belladonas head bounced off a rock, Rena pointed at Belladonna and cackled.