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The
Child of a Cunning and a Hawthorn Tree
Aileana hefted a bucket of water into the house to explain her absence
to the twelve men she lived with as a simple visit to the well just
after the cock crowed a second time. In truth she’d been been
in
the forest all night with the spirit of the Hawthorn Tree speaking of
love and learning the secrets of the cunning, the witches art.
The men were already up and eating the breakfast the house fairy
Aileana had secretly called to do her chores for her had prepared for
them. The little house fairy was hiding now behind the hearth.
He’d been the first gift she’d received from the
Hawthorn
Tree. A few moments later the men were heading out into the fields.
Thinking she was alone at last Aileana got ready to sleep so she could
be up all night again with the Hawthorn Tree when she heard a cough
from the men’s bedroom. She knocked on the door but instead
of a
voice she was greeted by a horrible hacking sound.
“Hello?” Aileana whispered as she peeked into the
room to
see her youngest brother hacking away, looking as grey as the slate
colored river and covered in sweat. Aileana sucked in her breath as she
recognized the plague which had nearly wiped out the neighboring town.
She pressed a wet rag to his head and tended to him through the day so
by evening fall she was so exhausted she could barely stand. But he
only got worse wilting like a soft flower in the hot sun. Aileana felt
her heart sinking as she began to give into dispiar when the the other
men returned home coughing and grey, too ill to eat anything they went
straight to bed. Aileana worried they would not wake again; so she
rushed out to the the edge of the village, than to the edge of the
trees and into the forest until at last she collapsed sobbing before
the Hawthorn Tree.
“Why are you crying/” the Hawthorn Tree asked as he
stroked
her head.
“Those I live with are dying of the plague,” she
told him
with a sob.
“Don’t be afraid,” the Hawthorn tree told
her as he
laid her head in his lap and comforted her. “For I promised
you
many secrets, have given them freely to you, and here’s
another.
Wrap a piece of fresh pork in my leaves and soak it for an hour in a
bucket of water with a few drops of your blood. Feed this to anyone
with this plague and they will be healed.”
“Thank you,” Aileana told the fairy before she
plucked
twelve leaves from his branches.
As the Hawthorn tree promised by morning the twelve men were well again
but the plague had already spread to the rest of the village so Aileana
spent another sleepless day healing the village.
At first the village was greatfull for Aileana’s powers. And
all
was well as spring turned to summer the crops grew high and people
asked the plants to bless the sky so it would rain. When the leaves
started to show red Aileana smelled the scent of the ripening fruit
which grew heavy on the Hawthorn Tree’s branches and hungered
for
it. So she plucked the bright red berries and devoured them and as she
ate her stomach swelled.
Whispers began to follow behind her as people wondered how
she’d
come to gain the powers she suddenly had now that the crisis had
passed. The leaves began to fall from the trees and wonder turned to
fear as people saw her growing stomach and whispered of the devils she
might bare forth into their village. For surely it was not a human
child that the cunning witch carried.
The first snow was falling and Aileana was vomiting when the twelve men
she lived with returned home in a rush and started packing.
The village is afraid of that which grows inside you the men told her,
so we’re going to flee with you to find a new home.
Aileana, however, wished to be alone with the child’s father
so
she thanked them each in turn for their concern but fled to
the
Hawthorn Tree alone and told him what was happening. To get her and
their child safely away from the village the Hawthorn Tree carried her
deep into the forest.
The snow fell thick in across the branches and the animals came out of
the mountains for the winter. In a grove of muttering willows Aileana
screamed and breathed as she gave birth to a young hawthorn tree named
Ddraenen Wen.
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