The Witching Hour: Part Two

     Ana had known from the beginning that she’d needed to do some soul searching. But it had never been something she had seen as important. Now, she was more confused than ever and everything she had once felt so sure about began to self-destruct around her.

     “I still don’t know,” she said, her voice trembling with fear. “I’ve hurt so many people in my life, taken dear ones from so many families that maybe I can’t stop.” Her voice broke at the end, and then the tears spilled out. The wet clung to her eyelashes and blurred her vision, but she could still feel it when the shopkeeper put her wings around her comfortingly.

     “You are wrong. Let me take you to a place where you will finally see your true self. I know just the one,” the shopkeeper murmured. What she said next was incoherent to Ana as she drifted to unconsciousness. But, with all she had been through, she knew that she could trust her.

     ***

     Rosaline arrived at the gypsy camp carrying the Shadow Usul in her wings. She was quite tired after the past events but put that behind her as she approached a caravan with patched pieces of fabric strewn across the door. She banged on it loudly, calling, “Lillian? Lillian? I know you’re in there!” After a minute or so of this, a Xweetok with eyes the colour of violets stepped from behind the door. Recognition flashed in her expression as she took in Rosaline and the unconscious Usul.

     “Why, it’s Rosaline from Neovia! Haven’t seen you around for a while, now! Come in, come in!” Lillian ushered them inside, and Rosaline took a moment to admire the inside of the caravan. A bright lamp glowed on a hook in a corner of the room, and a roughly made cupboard was stocked full of supplies for the winter. What looked to be Lillian’s most prized possession was a beautiful tea set, standing proudly on a low table in the centre of a worn rug. The caravan was a homely place.

     “Yes, that tea set was given to me three years ago,” the Xweetok said lovingly, walking over to the table and flicking off a speck of dust from a tea cup. “A lovely Pteri gave it to me, very nice fellow. Come to think of it, he didn’t even tell me his name...” Lillian gazed off into space wistfully, before snapping her eyes back into focus and turning to the patient shopkeeper. “So, what brings you back to the gypsy camp?”

     Rosaline hesitated briefly before replying. “This creature,” she began, gesturing to the Shadow Usul tucked under her wing, “needs help finding out who she really is. She believes all she is capable of is being a creature of the night, driven by instinct alone. It has something to do with the Witching hour. I believe you’ve had some experience with the subject...”

     At these last words, Lillian paled.

     “So that is why you have ventured here, to seek what I can do for this young one,” she muttered under her breath. Rosaline nodded, waiting for confirmation that she would offer help. For quite a long moment, silence stretched in the caravan, but at last after what seemed like hours had gone by, Lillian nodded in return. “I shall do what I can.” Then her face darkened to its normal complexion. “But for now, we must wait until she stirs, for neither of us is helpful to her now.”

     ***

     Ana awoke in the shopkeeper’s arms to the sound of a kettle whistling softly. She sat up cautiously, peering around. A caravan of some sort, no doubt. Rubbing her eyes, she asked, “Where am I?” It was an unfamiliar voice that answered.

     “You are at the gypsy camp of the Haunted Woods, child,” the soothing voice explained. “I am Lillian, one of the gypsies that reside here.” A pink Xweetok came into view. “I am here to help you find yourself, as Rosaline has so kindly asked of me.” She gestured with a jewelled finger to the shopkeeper, who still held Ana under one wing.

     “Perhaps you would like to explain your history. What happened when it all began, when you became like this?” Lillian asked gently. Again, Ana had to choose between the two voices of reason battling inside her mind, but it was easier to decide this time. After all, with so much of what she thought she knew collapsing around her, there really was no point lying or trying to escape anymore. Sighing, she decided to tell her sorry tale.

     “I was a normal Red Usul when the change happened exactly three years from now,” she started. “My owner, my siblings and I lived fairly high middle class in the heart of Brightvale and I had anything I could ever want. Friends, a loving family, a comfortable home and delicious meal to run to. And I was the helper of the family, not just within the house but also in the community. I was cherished by many.”

     “One day, my owner adopted a Lupe from the pound. He’d seemed very kind and strong-willed then, but oh, didn’t I know.” Ana’s voice turned bitter, as though she had swallowed something infused with too much ginger. “I’d later discovered that there was something strange about him, something that didn’t strike me as normal. Oddly enough, a few days after he was brought home to the family, my owner didn’t seem to want me anymore, and soon after that I found out that the Lupe had persuaded him to disown me.” At this, Rosaline’s wing flew to her mouth in astonishment.

     “Yes, and so I was sent to the pound with no warning. My owner didn’t even seem remotely sad that he had just dumped me there, with no feeling or coherent thought at all. And so a few days later, I slipped out in the dead of night and ran for hours, without knowing where I was going, and that was when I stumbled into Neovia. I didn’t know where I was at the time, and all I could feel was anger, distress and sadness.

     “It was midnight, yet of course I couldn’t tell,” Ana continued, feeling sentiment creep up on her. “I started to feel strange, like a transformation was taking place. I tried to shake it off, but the anger and sadness inside my heart tore me from the inside out, and when I next looked down, my paws had changed to the colour of night, and I was different. I was a creature of the Witching hour...” Ana found she couldn’t say anymore, and she curled in on herself as if by doing it she could hide from the past. Rosaline rubbed a wing down her back, whispering comforting words in her ear.

     “It is alright, my child,” Lillian said, stepping forward. “It is over now, and I am sure that with my help, we can help you find that Red Usul within you that you once were.” Ana reached out to her, raising a glossy, trembling paw. The Xweetok clasped the paw in her hands, and held it there for a few moments.

     “It will be a long journey of course, but to change you on the inside we must travel far across Neopia. You must see that across the land people can accept who you are. If you truly help them in some way, they will see you for who you really are, and will accept you with gracious arms.” With these words, Lillian let go of Ana’s paw and instead looked her dead in the eye. Her expression was one of a fierce determination, one that the Shadow Usul now trusted with the utmost confidence. “Shall we begin soul searching, my child?”

     The answer was clear to Ana now, and her heart blossomed with fresh hope. The gypsy’s plan seemed a solid one, and joy soared through her as she thought of being able to make friends, to help people again as she had done before so freely.

     “Yes,” she said, her voice strong and unconditional for the first time that night. “I am ready.”

     Ana looked to Rosaline and smiled at her. The smile was one of true friendship, and Rosaline took her paws in her wing as Lillian had done.

     “You never told me your name,” she said in her quiet voice, chuckling.

     “It’s Ana,” the Shadow Usul replied, and hope began to chime in her heart once more. She had a true friend, one that she had come to love, but although she wasn’t quite ready to embrace the world yet, there was a strong chance that she would soon.

     “I’m so proud of you, my Ana,” Rosaline whispered in her ear, and nothing could strip the joy from that moment. However, Lillian’s impatient voice cut through the tender scene, and Ana smiled as she turned to face the gypsy.

     “I suppose we’ve got to get ready for the journey sooner or later...”

To be continued...