Nora covered his tiny toddler hands with hers. Older, weathered, they had seen a lot of heavy labor. She moved his in a stirring motion, teaching him how to wield the big wooden spoon through the caramel colored liquid in the iron skillet.
“Stir, stir and stir.”
“Stir and stir,” he repeated after her in a tiny lisp.
“In a few hours we’ll have our candy.”
At that moment Cecilia whisked in, banging the door in the flurry. Rain pelted down outside and a brisk wind flew in behind her. A crack of thunder and bright flash of lightning lit up the inside of the cottage before she closed and locked the door.
“Where is Martha? I need to tell you both something.”
Martha, ever the eccentric one, twirled into the room, dancing with an imaginary partner to music only she heard. She wore a beautiful black lace dress with a train that floated behind her. “What is all the noise about?”
“She knows. The queen knows we’re hiding her baby and she wants him back. She sent all of the palace guards on a hunt throughout the countryside. She convinced them that any orphaned children under the age of three were kobolds who would wake up in the middle of the night and wreak havoc on any household. They are rounding all the children up and taking them back to the palace.”
“Well let’s put up the invisibility spell and hide the cottage,” Nora suggested.
“There’s no time for that, they were on my heels,” said Cecilia. “They had just stopped at the Tally’s farm.”
“We could leave through the forest and take him to the other side of the mountain where the ocean meets the land, the Queen’s magic won’t work there,” said Martha.
“Let’s do it then, we need to be quick about it.”
At that moment they heard the hooves of the horses galloping through the mud, beating out the sounds of the thunder and rain.
“Quickly, I said! I’ll distract them. Pack up our things and out through the roof.” Cecilia grabbed a bag of spices and spells from the cupboard.
Nora whisked William away, up the stairs, Martha following her. William began wailing at the top of his lungs, wanting to go back to the candy.
A heavy KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK on the door, the brass knocker made the tiny cottage shake.
“We’re here to free you of the kobold in your home.”
Cecilia quickly mixed a handful of each of the powders from her bag into a small mixing bowl that she carried to the door. She opened it a crack.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I live here alone.”
“That’s not what your neighbors said. Let us in or we’ll break down the door.” The snout of a large, mean dog poked through, barking into the gap.
Cecilia took a pinch of her powder into her hand and blew it onto the dog. He began to chirp like a bird. With that, Cecilia opened the door, five big, burly palace guards stumbled in. She blew the rest of the powder on them.
One man got down on his hands and knees snorting like a pig, two more began to chew as a cow does with cud and the other two neighed like horses.
She peeked out to see fifteen other men gathered around the cottage in the storm. A rickety cart with wooden bars and a tarp thrown over it, held captive ten or so children scooped up from the countryside by the guards.
“This can’t be, those horrible beasts.” She ran upstairs to hurry her sisters along.
“Let’s move, before the spell wears off.” Nora was just buttoning up William’s coat while Martha grabbed two bags full of their things.
The three sisters, Nora carrying Henry, opened the attic door and ran up the stairs, locking it behind them.
The wind howled around the house as Martha opened the secret hatch in the roof. She peered out carefully and saw five more of the men rush into the house.
“There’s more than we can handle outside and they’ve taken so many children. I can’t just leave them like that,” said Cecilia.
“We’re barely going to be able to escape, ourselves,” said Martha.
William’s cries were lost in the wind as the three women scrambled out on the roof risking their lives to protect him. Nora inched her way along, following Martha who was shimmying down the rain gutter in the back of the cottage.
Without warning, Nora slipped, still holding William tightly to her chest. Cecilia lunged to grip her sister’s hand, but too late. They both began to fall from the roof to the ground, twenty feet below. Martha screamed in horror.
But before they landed, a warm orb surrounded them and cushioned them to safety. Nora looked at William’s glowing eyes as they went back to normal.
“The prophecy was right. He’s move powerful than all of us.”
“No wonder the queen wants him back,” said Martha. “She wants his power, before he’s old enough to control it.”
Cecilia dropped to the ground. “They’ll be here any second, we need to run. Go on without me.”
Nora and Martha hesitated.
“Go, now. I’ll find you.” They turned and ran into the forest, clutching William between them.
Cecilia peered around the cottage. All of the men but two had entered.
“Barami molika paranama.” With that the chains from the makeshift jail broke free. The two men looked around wondering what happened.
“I can’t leave you children out in the cold like this,” she said to herself.
“Parakut mitsui palambo. Take them back right now!” With that the two men hooked the cart up to the horses and drove it away to return the children back to their homes.
Cecilia turned to follow her family back into the forest, faint with exhaustion. But before she took a step she was captured by three of the palace guards.