Prologue: The Hybrid Who Made A Deal With The Witch
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Once the moon was full, the troll witch sent her girls, who gripped hands and danced around in circles. They danced at the gates of the village, luring the children from their homes. Their black short hair waved with every move, and jumped with every bounce and their tall black skirts touched the ground every time they landed.

 

The ground was slippery.

Humid cold wind wetted the ground and the smell of oak dissolved with the breeze. The girls would never identify those things, but the monster would.

 

This time, the monster waited for the moon to be full, and appeared from the forest. The monster glowed white, its hair thick and curled to its petite shoulders and its smooth skin illuminated smoothly.

 

The monster floated close to the ground. Its white glow felt many things, like how slippery the ground was or how cold it was at the end of the fall.

 

The monster floated closer to the girls, but the girls danced as if it wasn’t around. It didn’t look like they weren’t seeing it but seemed like they didn’t mind its existence.

 

The monster floated in a circle around the girls. Five in total, their eyes glowed like green dots in the night. Their hair waved up and down as they jumped. And even though it wasn’t lured by the smell of candy, the monster understood why the children of the village were lured. The smell was light and ambiguous. It was to be identified, as a sweet smell in fact. A smell anyone would identify as sweet, but… what it was. Was a question for the kids to come and discover.

 

The monster tried to speak. But the girls did not waiver.

 

Tried to touch them. But they continued on dancing.

 

Tried to shake one of them. They stopped for a second and then continued on dancing.

 

They ignored the monster for some time until the monster said: “I can give you candy.”

 

The circle of girls slowed to a stop. And the five of them moved their necks to stare at the monster. Their dot-like eyes glowed faintly in the night.

 

“But first, I want to see the troll witch”

 

The girls' hands loosened and they stood in line before the monster. They stared at it, then four of them stared at the one in the center. The girl in the center appeared a bit taller than the rest but was a child like them.

 

The ultimatum the monster offered seemed to have an effect. If they brought the monster to the troll witch the monster would hand them the candy.

 

The four girls seemed to wait as they stared at the taller one in the center. And after a minute, the eyes of the girl in the center glowed more. Then the girls bowed to the monster and walked ahead of it.

 

 

The monster was a part of the forest. It lived there since its birth. The forest was home. A beautiful and scary home.

The pine trees were tall and thin. When the snow fell, they worked as shields. Some trees were thick and wide and their bricks smelled a beautiful smell. The monster's mother had once told it that those were oak trees. Wide and beautiful in the winter.

 

The monster floated after the girls. Observed them dancing above the roots and bowing under the branches of little trees.

The vines green for the monster were like accessories to the trees. The vines were so alive they moved in front of them, like snakes on the ground.

And even though the girls didn’t notice. One of them stepped on a walking mushroom. A small mushroom looking for a tree to live under.

 

The monster stopped by the mushroom. Broken and squashed. And no longer moving…

 

The monster followed the girls uphill. The vines were like ropes that dangled between the trees. The monster avoided them, but to its surprise, the girls opened their mouths and cut their way through. Their sharp teeth sparkled by the light of the moon, two rows of teeth on each jaw… white and clean.

The monster wondered about many things in its life… one of them was how beautiful things could turn scary and dreadful, in a moment of time. Just like when those girls opened their mouths.

 

At the top of the hill, the sound of streaming water came to the monster. It looked down to see a few creeks meeting to make a stream of water, moving downhill.

 

The monster followed.

 

The trees got more inhabitants. Monkeys with glowing blue eyes. All of them were staring at the monster as it followed the girls.

 

And the forest became more spacious with enough space between the trees for the girls to dance in circles. The stream of water moved thinly under them. And the flowers under the trees emitted powders that glowed purple.

 

But with time the glow changed. At the end of the stream. A green light glowed.

 

The monster stood speechless at the scenery.

The girls stopped at the beginning of the luminous green line. Paved with stones and mud. The path was aligned on both sides with wood sticks, in which their heads were made of glass orbs. Inside each pearl, a fairy flushing vividly green.

A fairy the monster rarely would see.

The fairies were sleeping and floating aimlessly inside the orbs.

 

And at the end of the path was a wooden door. The door seemed implanted in a hill that covered it like a veil. And vines of different lengths dangled down the hill in front of the door.

 

The monster looked at the girls dancing toward the door. One of the girls pushed the door with her leg and entered. And the door was shut when he was left alone.

 

The monster approached.

 

And knocked twice. The monster was polite. And never entered before the voice of the witch came out.

“Enter.”

The voice was thick but quiet. Long and stretched. Rattled like an old lady. Heaving like a feverish child.

 

The monster entered.

 

The place was huge, its walls full of orbs with sleeping fairies and its shelves extended spirally to its peaking height.

 

On the shelves weren’t just fairies. There were books and jars of different things.

But most of them were jars filled with liquid, and inside them were the dead heads of children.

 

The monster floated closer to the witch. The witch was the size of a house of two. She was big and old enough for even her long troll nose to be wrinkled. Her skin was green. Her arms were fat and flabby. And even though she covered her head with a long pointy hat, the monster doubted she even had hair.

 

The witch arched her tall back to look at the monster from above. Their eyes stared at each other.

 

“What do you want?” the witch asked, her face cheeks flapping like wings as she talked, full of skin tags and freckles. “I don’t eat demons or hybrids. I love the taste of human children.”

 

The witch stared at it from above.

 

The monster looked up at her eyes. Dark with only a green dot as a pupil. Like a green star in a vast dark and clear sky.

 

“I want to be a human,” the monster said. “I see the children play in the forest. They laugh and touch each other. They eat together. They smile a lot… I want to play as well, to smile and laugh as well. I want to be a human… but humans hate hybrids. And I don’t want to be seen by them like this.”

 

The air became silent. The monster saw the girls jumping from one shelve to another, chasing one another silently. Just the steps of thein bare feet could be heard.

But the witch above the monster looked at its face.

Her mouth opened in a smile. A smile that showed all of her teeth. An ear-to-ear smile.

Her teeth were sharp, each one as big as an adult arm. Thick and pointy.

 

“Keh keh keh,” the witch laughed. “A hybrid can turn into a human or a demon whenever they want. But only when they reach twelve. You will lose a lot of your childhood by that time, won’t you?”

 

The witch laughed.

 

And the monster stayed silent. Its yellow glowing eyes looked at the witch with deep composure.

 

“No problem child. I will help you until then,” the witch said. “But.”

 

“B- but what?” the monster asked.

 

“I want a child now and then. A freshly killed child by you. A child you will hate and want dead. Preserve the ones you love. I will clean the village of bad children for you.”

 

The monster swallowed its saliva. And stayed silent for some time. Until the green dots of the witch doubled in size at him. Observing him like an animal in a cage.

 

“Hnn?” the witch said.

 

“I accept.”

 

The monster answered.

 

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