Everyday Witches

Later that evening Jude stepped out of the shower, grabbing a fluffy towel from the rack, and walked from the bathroom to his room; drying himself as he went. James and Brandon were waiting in the living room in preparation for their excursion to wrangle up the Quepie. He stood in front of his dresser running the towel across his back, admiring the large wolf he’d recently had tattooed on his chest. It was supposed to represent Fenrir of Norse mythology, the wolf who would be present at Ragnarock and symbolized chaos and the unpredictability of nature. Jude had always loved wolves and with his own experience with the wilds of nature he figured it suited him well. His family hadn’t been overly excited about the tattoo but he loved it and he figured the girls would too. His friend Beth loved it anyway. He sighed at the thought, running the towel over his inky hair. Beth was the only woman he’d ever loved. They’d grown up near each other and had known each other since grade school. The only problem was that once he’d turned thirteen he’d found out that they were from different worlds entirely. Beth wasn’t a witch and so any hopes of a relationship with her had been forbidden.

There was just something about her though. They had both grown up on farms, about a half a mile apart, and so they both enjoyed the same types of things. And she had the most gentle, intuitive manner. She made him feel like he mattered. But it would never work. Oh, there had been rare instances where humans had been successfully initiated into the witches ranks, but oftentimes the magic refused to acknowledge them; and in some cases rejected them entirely. It could be disastrous and the risk was hardly considered worth it. And the idea of a witch living with a non-witch was even worse. Someone without any skin in the game of their own, walking around with knowledge about the other witches would be a huge danger to them all and would hardly be tolerated. And even if he tried to hide it, with Jude there was always the chance that he might be overcome in the field by a troop of magic smitten badgers, or even pixies. That had actually happened once, a few years ago. He hated to admit it but it just wasn’t going to happen.

His mother, Maria, had picked out a suitable match for him, as was common with the witch community. But Callie just didn’t move him in the same way that Beth did. He had hoped to find a match based on love rather than just convenience and had been dragging his feet on the issue for years now. Already he was twenty three and school was just a memory now. The long path of the rest of his life was unfolding in front of him and he hadn’t made any significant progress in his love life’s future. He didn’t want to spend the rest of his life alone but it could be hard to find a suitable witch companion. Although there were plenty, it wasn’t like it was for the humans. It bothered him sometimes; like right now, but he figured he would have time to work it out anyway. And this wasn’t the time to be worrying about it, actually. They had work to do.

Having dried himself sufficiently, he grabbed a set of clothes out of the drawers and pulled them on quickly. Then he picked up the ornately fashioned crystal bottle on the dresser top and uncorked the stopper, almost without thinking. Shaking his head at his stupidity he replaced the lid and set the bottle back on the counter top. It had been so long since he’d gone anywhere without Marge’s potion that it was just a habit now. He’d come home and showered it off on purpose though. Tonight he’d be leaving behind all the magical guards that he usually counted on, in hopes that his magical quirk would work to his advantage in this case and help to corral the Quepie.

He knew that Quepie would often reveal themselves to children and young women that they hoped to ensnare, but were also good at hiding when they didn’t want to be discovered. And once they had found an area to inhabit they probably wouldn’t be too happy about being forcibly removed. Jude had never encountered one in the wild before but he knew the lore well and figured that he was suitably prepared. In addition to his natural ability to draw out magical creatures he had gathered up a few supplies that should help them to get the job done. Jude wasn’t a huge collector of magical artifacts but he knew a witch who owned a second hand shop in town and had quite a collection. The place was amazing really. The main part of the shop held all the usual items you’d expect to find in a shop like Gage’s but the really cool stuff lay in a little hidden room in the attic. You could find just about anything you needed there, from spelling supplies to much rarer items. For their expedition he’d picked up some enhanced vision glasses that would highlight the magical signature given off by any creature attuned to the Gaia. He’d also found several pair of gloves that were impervious to Quepie secretions, among other things. They were a high quality leather made from shark skin and spelled to resist any number of magical ailments. Lastly, he’d picked up a silver chain that should help to gain control of the Quepie. Legend held that once they had been ensnared with a bridle or a suitable silver chain, their power would be broken and they would become completely docile.

All the items they’d need for tonight were stashed in a knapsack beside the bedroom door and Jude leaned down to pick it up, simultaneously motioning for Kojack to hop down from his perch on the bed. The large dog padded over to him as he shouldered the pack and he gave him a pat on the head as he pulled the door open. Then he headed down the hall to the living room where James and Brandon were waiting, Kojack following close behind. Hiking the pack higher up on his shoulder, Jude rounded the corner into the living room and greeted the men, who were sitting at either end of a large leather couch. He walked over to a little table beside the door and fished the keys to his truck out of the key bowl. The final part of tonight’s plan included a horse trailer he had fitted to the back of the truck. Once they had the Quepie in hand, they would load it onto the trailer and relocate it, with the help of a witch James knew.

While the other two men made their way towards the door Jude knelt down and put his hands on either side of Kojack’s head. The dog had been his constant companion for nearly ten years now and wasn’t used to being left at home when Jude went out. After his failed binding, Jude had faked a case of terrible anxiety which would allow him to register Kojack as his service dog. They usually traveled everywhere together because a large dog was a very good deterrent for the types of things Jude often attracted otherwise. This would be the first time leaving the house without him in a very long time. “Okay boy,” he said softly, ruffling the coarse fur around the dog’s face. “I’m going to leave for a little bit and you’ll have to stay here, but I’ll be back.” The dog gave him a knowing look that appeared almost human. He whined softly and Jude stroked his head comfortingly. The bond between a witch and his familiar was always strong and allowed for a deeper sense of communication than with other animals; but in their case it was almost uncanny. He leaned forward and gave the dog a little hug around the neck. It was a little bit embarrassing, with the other two men standing over him but they knew about the tight bond Jude had with his dog and hopefully they wouldn’t judge him for it. Finally, Jude stood, holding up a hand, palm out, to signal to Kojack that he wasn’t to follow. The dog whined again, uneasily, but he stayed put and the men slipped quietly outside.

The sun had recently set and although it was dark out, the cool night air had yet to quench the day’s heat. A stray breeze wafted through, momentarily cooling his skin, but the muggy heat persisted. The three quickly made their way to the truck, hoping to avoid any unwarranted attention for the time being. As Jude put the truck in gear and began navigating down the narrow farm road, Brandon asked from the backseat, “What do you think would cause the Quepie to come this far inland? Don’t they usually stick closer to the coasts and to more rural areas?”

Jude had no idea and he glanced at James in the passenger seat before turning back to the road ahead. James raised his eyebrows thoughtfully. It was a good question. “Well,” he began, “I’m really not sure; but I would think that it would have to be either some kind of disturbance in the area they’re from that forced them out, or a disturbance here that drew them here. I don’t think that they move around very often, so there’s got to be something going on with the Gaia.” He rubbed the black stubble that seemed to be ever present on his chin, no matter how much he shaved. Staring blankly out the window, he thought it over. Finally he said, “Let’s hope that it was something that drove it here and not something that lured it, but I really don’t know for sure. We’ll have to do some reconnaissance and see if we come across any nearby disturbances that could account for it.” He pulled out his phone and began scrolling through the contacts as he continued. “I haven’t noticed anything around recently but there are a few possibilities we could check out anyway. I’ll text Cade and have him look into it, see if he knows about anything going on lately.”

The men were silent for several minutes, watching the shadowed farmland around them slowly disappear and be replaced by suburban areas and the occasional shopping center. Still on the outskirts of the city there was plenty of greenery, with long grassy medians in between the sections of road and small, sculpted, wooded areas separating the subdivisions and businesses. It was a far cry from what Jude was used to, having grown up on a farm, but Brandon’s home was just a few blocks away from where Sue lived, and not far away from where they were now.

Suddenly remembering, Brandon asked, “Do you think that this could have anything to do with the Mayhew family? Chad is a senior this year but he hasn’t been to school in at least a week. And I know that his brother gets up to some weird stuff sometimes.”

Jude and James both scowled at the mention of the Mayhew family. They had become a nuisance lately and it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if they were at the center of all this. The Mayhew clan had been headed by a witch couple in their early sixties who weren’t intricately involved in the local witch community, but had been nonetheless respected. They had both died suddenly, in a car accident about a year ago now, leaving their adult son to care for his younger brother and sister. Scott had always been quite a handful but ever since the accident, he had been operating unchecked and his name had come up quite a few times, in questionable ways. Back in high school, Scott had been suspected of spiking the punch at his senior prom with a love potion. It had been an utter fiasco and eventually the cops had been called in to handle the situation. Since his parents had died though, he’d been suspected by the witch community in several robbery cases. In each case there was no evidence that could be used in a human arrest, but they each had each reeked of magic and Jeff had suspected that Scott had been involved. There were also rumors that he might’ve taken a human woman in with him. The Johnsons had gone out to the house once to visit and to see if there was any truth to the matter, but Scott had denied it and the Johnsons had let it be for the moment.

Scott was also the kind of man who didn’t have much moral compunction in the use of magic, and everyone knew that he used it to his advantage at every opportunity. It wasn’t exactly illegal, being that there were no actual laws on the books governing the use of magic, but the law abiding magical community weren’t too happy about it. It might bring down scrutiny on them all; and that wasn’t anything any one of them wanted to face. The witch community had lived more or less peaceably with the humans ever since the end of the Salem witch trials in the 1600’s. It had been a hard time for their people and many good witches were either lost or chose to unbind their connection with the Gaia, causing devastating losses to their community and its link to their rich past. It had been a time of terror and covert warfare between the magical and non-magical communities; as well as between the magical community and the wilder magics and creatures. Although no one alive had experienced it themselves, the stories passed down through the generations were enough to keep most witches in line. Scott, however, was one of the few who could not, or would not, see the benefit of their living under the radar. He seemed to believe that anything that was possible should be done with impunity, even if it risked discovery. Up to now, he hadn’t done anything that had brought suspicion from the humans, but the witch community were definitely getting worried.

In rare cases, there had been rogue witches who had risked the lives of the witch community, or had done things so terrible that the other witches had needed to step in and deliver justice. There was a ceremony that could be performed to forcibly unbind a witch from the Gaia, instantly severing their ability to accomplish anything other than the most mundane of potions. It was almost unheard of though, being that it was such a drastic and final solution and was viewed in the witch community as something akin to genital mutilation or the like. A witch who had been awakened and then had their tie to the Gaia severed would forever feel the lack, and it was only used as a last resort. Although many witches had voluntarily undergone the process during the witch trials, to avoid the horrors of being caught, it was very rarely used nowadays.

Jude hoped that whatever Scott might be up to, it wouldn’t be anything bad enough to warrant the intrusion of the local witch elders. They had gone to high school together and while they weren’t exactly friends, he would hate to see anyone he knew end up like that. It made his stomach uneasy just thinking about it.

Having reached their destination, Jude parked the truck and trailer and turned around in his seat so that he could see both James and Brandon. “I really don’t know whether Scott would be involved or not, but I hope not,” he said slowly. It was certainly a possibility, but not one that he really wanted to consider. “I know that guy gets into stuff here and there, but I honestly don’t think he could be into anything big enough to attract Quepie here out of their own territory. It would have to be some seriously heavy magic to cause that sort of disturbance in the Gaia anyway.”

Brandon nodded solemnly and James idly spun his phone around in his lap, still thinking it over. They were going to have to investigate this quite thoroughly. The interior of the car was dark but the glow of a streetlamp a few houses away reached the car, making his Irish white skin appear to glow in an unearthly manner. After a moment of silence he stopped the phone spinning and set it in the drink console between the seats. “I don’t know exactly what those guys are up to,” he said finally, “But we will certainly look into it. I know that Scott has been completely unmoored since his parents passed and it’s quite possible that he could be up to something. I really wouldn’t think that he’d have the ability to be up to anything big enough to draw a Quepie here, but I could be wrong. I’ve heard the rumors just as much as anybody, and I definitely don’t trust him.” He reached up to scratch at his beard and then ran his hand across the top of his shiny head. “Hopefully it’s nothing but we’ll look into it anyway. Thanks for the suggestion Brandon.” James looked at the younger man in the back seat and he nodded faintly, hoping that he hadn’t made things unnecessarily more difficult for Scott’s younger brother Chad. They weren’t the best of friends, but he was a pretty decent guy, and Brandon knew that he had been having a hard time since his parents deaths.

James reached down to pull Jude’s knapsack from the foot well of the truck and set it on the console with a loud thunk. “Well guys,” he said, “We’ll worry about the cause behind this later. For now, let’s get this party started and get this thing rounded up.” He unzipped the side of the bag and pulled out the three pair of gloves and the glasses, handing one of each to Jude and Brandon. Then he set the bag back on the floorboard, and his own glasses and gloves on his lap. The other two looked at him in anticipation. Like his son, James was powerfully attuned with the Gaia. Luckily for him, his own binding ceremony had been more successful, and he wasn’t the object of unwarranted magical attention. He was incredibly adept at spells and the casting of runes because of it though. It made him invaluable in operations involving risky magical ventures. He steepled his hands together in front of himself, closing his eyes in concentration and becoming very still. Then slowly he began to move his hands apart from one another and opened his eyes. They appeared like two dark holes against the white of his skin and his face seemed almost skeletal. Brandon shivered but Jude had seen this so many times before that he wasn’t phased. The older man began to move his hands around slowly and with a practiced grace, sketching the form of a protection rune in the air. As the movements went on the air inside the car became heavy with magic and the temperature dropped. Brandon shivered again and rubbed at the goosebumps forming on his arms. The tension in the air continued to grow until suddenly James preformed the final circle and a small flash of light and a puff of smoke appeared in the air where his hands had been. The smoke radiated from the origin point and dispersed quickly throughout the car.

The team was silent for a moment, letting the connection to the Gaia and the protection of the rune sink in. The night outside was eerily quiet and the silence in the truck even more so. “Okay, guys, let’s do this,” James said, finally, pulling on his gloves and his glasses. He flipped the glasses up to the top of his head so that he could see without the overwhelming aura enhancement that would surround the other two men. “Just remember that the protection rune isn’t infallible.” He looked sternly at his son and then over at Brandon. “It will help to protect us, but we have to choose to operate safely as well. No stupid mistakes. We don’t want to give the Quepie a chance to attack us, so we need to be in and out quickly and as quietly as possible.” The other two nodded in response, each one pulling on their own pair of gloves and glasses as James spoke. Satisfied, the older man opened his car door and slipped out into the cool night air.

Jude waited in the car while Brandon followed James around the side of Sue’s house, to the creek that ran alongside the neighborhood. They walked silently over to the water’s edge, each one pulling the spelled glasses down over their eyes as they went. When they had found a suitable spot near a copse of blackberry bushes they ducked down behind it, effectively hiding themselves from view of the creek. Once they were in place James whistled quietly and Jude quickly grabbed the knapsack and opened his own door, stepping down carefully from the truck. He began to walk slowly across the darkened yard towards the creek where the others waited. An owl hooted in a nearby tree, eliciting a response from somewhere far off. Before he had gone more than a few steps, a house cat flitted out from the shadows of a neighboring yard and angled toward him. He tsked at it softly, trying to get it to leave him alone, but it continued its way to where Jude stood and fell into step beside him. Reaching the side of the large stone and wood house, the owl he had alerted appeared suddenly above the roof. Attracted by the magical resonance that emanated from the man, it dove sharply, nearly clipping the gutters on the roof’s edge. It landed on Jude’s shoulder, digging its thorny talons into his shirt and cocking its head as he continued his trek across the yard. Getting a little worried now, Jude hurried his stride and made it quickly to the place where James and Brandon sat hidden. Already, he was joined by two more house cats by the time he had reached the place where his friends stood.

Instead of crouching behind the bush like his friends, Jude walked right up to the water’s edge, fitting the glasses over his eyes. The rocky dirt bank surrounding the creek was crisscrossed with faintly iridescent trails in varying thicknesses, almost like snail trails. Curious, he pushed the glasses up onto his forehead and then back down over his eyes. The trails were only visible with the spelled glasses. He had figured that would be the case but he had never seen this in person so he hadn’t been sure. He gazed out over the creek for any sign of the Quepie itself. They weren’t usually active at night unless there was prey nearby so he wasn’t sure how long it would take for it to show up. Considering how quickly he had been joined by the owl and the house cats though, he figured that it wouldn’t be long. Already, a group of opossums had emerged from among the bushes and gathered near the water line where Jude stood. However, the surface of the water remained placid and there was no sign of the Quepie other than the trails it had left in the dirt. One of the cats reached its front paws up to Jude’s knee, kneading at it blissfully. The other two wound their way around Jude’s legs, one of them stopping to bump its head up against a leg every so often. Jude scowled and shook his leg absently, freeing its grip from the kneading cat. He held the knapsack up in front of himself and unzipped it once again. All that remained of its contents was a mixture that Marge had concocted to counter the Quepie secretion, and the sterling silver chain that would be used as a bridle to capture the creature. Pocketing the chain, he pulled out a large Tupperware container and set it on the ground, then he knelt beside one of the bushes and snapped off a long branch, leaves and all.

He pried the lid off of the Tupperware container and grabbed a handful of the contents, which consisted mostly of baking soda and Vitamin C powder. There was something else she had picked up at Cade’s shop and tossed in there but he wasn’t sure exactly what it was. She had assured him that it would be safe and Eco-friendly though. He shook his hand, letting the contents sift out onto the ground below, moving along the bank and dispersing the mixture everywhere the trail was visible. He used the branch like a broom to spread it into the dirt. Luckily, the Quepie had favored the section of bank directly facing Sue’s house and he didn’t have to travel far to cover the trail. If the Quepie had been here longer it might’ve been a very different story. The Quepie itself was still nowhere to be seen and so James, getting antsy, came out from behind the bush to help Jude. First he held a gloved finger up to Brandon, warning him to stay put, then he grabbed a branch of his own and began to sweep over the top of the dirt, mixing Marge’s creation in with the soil layer. As the layers mixed, the faint glow emanating from the Quepie trail began to dim.

While the two older men were occupied with the Quepie trail, Brandon kept an eye on the creek, watching intently for the arrival of the Quepie. The water remained placid, but all along the bank, woodland creatures had begun to gather. The family of opossums had been joined by a group of red foxes and further down the bank Brandon could see a few squirrels racing in and out of the branches of a low tree. In a taller oak, a group of bats had gathered and were flitting around the leaves and hanging from the branches. He even saw a couple of pixies hiding in a bunch of flowers near the road side, staring intently at Jude. No wonder the man never went anywhere without the protection of Marge’s potion, Brandon thought wonderingly. His appeal hadn’t been understated.

The sound of a rock plinking into the water caught his attention and Brandon turned quickly back towards the creek, peering through the cover of the blackberry bush towards the water. The creek dropped off steeply from the bank here and there wasn’t much space in between the bush and the creek itself. As he watched, a human head emerged from the depths of the water. It was a woman, and a beautiful one at that. Her skin was so white that it was almost translucent and her hair wasn’t much darker. As Brandon watched, dumbfounded, she reached up and smoothed a dainty hand over her hair and face, shaking her head so that water droplets flew from her skin in every direction. Lightheaded now, Brandon continued to stare as she emerged from the water, her pale skin glowing softly with reflected moonlight. She wore no clothes, and her shapely figure caused a tightening sensation in his body. He had a vague and momentary idea that he should call out to the others but for some reason he didn’t, feeling foggy and far away and almost as if he were floating on air.

When the woman had risen to her full height in the water she began to move towards the bank, closing the distance in seconds. The water sluiced off of her ivory skin and rippled around her shapely calves in a way that was absolutely mesmerizing. Brandon had never seem someone so gorgeous or felt so overcome with raw emotion. It was like everything he was had taken a back seat to a sudden, overpowering sense of need. The entire world fell away and his vision pinpointed on the woman as she grabbed hold of the rocky bank with both hands and began to pull herself up onto land. The urge to reach out and touch her pale skin seized him, and although a tiny piece of himself told him not to he began to pull off one of his gloves. He had gotten it most of the way off of his hand when he heard a shout sound out behind him.

Noticing that Brandon had moved from his hiding spot and was currently circling around the bush towards the creek, James made a dash towards the spot; the foxes and other wildlife scattering as he scrambled across the ground. When he got around the bush he skidded to a stop as he noticed the woman emerging from the creek. He knew exactly what it was and he shouted a warning to Jude. The other man dropped the branch he had been sweeping the dirt with and practically leaped across the ground. He was beside James in a heartbeat. “There it is,” Jude shouted at James, slapping at his chest in excitement and pulling the silver chain from his pocket. Brandon had his glove off now and had crept up to the water’s edge, one of his hands outstretched towards the woman. He didn’t even look up at Jude’s cry, and he looked almost as if he were a trance. The woman, who was most certainly the Quepie in disguise, was almost completely out of the water.

James made a quick decision and barreled forward to grab at the back of Brandon’s shirt, hoping to pull him away from the creek’s edge. Somehow Brandon managed to sidestep and avoid it though, swaying to one side almost as if he were dancing. As he did, his fingers grazed the soft skin of the woman’s arm. He clasped his fingers gently around the white skin, wondering at its silky texture. A tremor ran through him, radiating from his arm down the length of his body. He tried to run his hand across the woman’s arm but found that it was stuck in place. A shadow of fear flitted across his face but quickly disappeared beneath the sedate surface. In response, the woman’s face, which had been so lovely a moment before twisted in fevered glee. A slim, toned leg rose from beneath the surface of the water and made contact with the bank; but instead of a woman’s foot, the leg ended in a hoof like that of a horse. Her muscles tensed as she made to push off the bank, Brandon in tow; but James managed to get a hold of the back of Brandon’s shirt this time and he held fast. “Let go,” he cried as loudly as he dared. “She’ll drag you back under the water and that’ll be the end of you!” His own face twisted in fear as he thought of the possibility.

Jude came up beside Brandon and grabbed hold of his arm, which appeared to be holding tightly to the woman’s. He pulled but it didn’t budge. “It’s no use,” he cried, “He’s stuck fast.” The silver chain was still in his other hand and he fumbled at it, trying to get it open so that he might get it over the Quepie’s head. The Quepie continued to push against the bank with it’s strong legs, pulling hard on Brandon, who was still held in James’s grip. The two fought fiercely from either end, but Brandon’s shoes were slipping perilously close to the edge of the bank. Reaching into a shirt pocket with one hand, while still holding tightly to Brandon with the other, James pulled a worn piece of alabaster stone from its depths. While witches didn’t commonly use wands like in the old stories, many of them did have a favorite focusing object that was imbued with magic and would assist in magical endeavors. He held the stone tightly in his fist and retraced the protection rune in the air. It wouldn’t work as well with only one hand but since he was reinforcing a rune he had already placed, it might help. There was a flare of light from the stone enclosed in his grasp and Brandon shook as the trance was broken. The rune wasn’t enough to free him from the sticky substance that held him tightly to the Quepie’s skin, but at least he was himself again.

Finally, Jude managed to open the circle of the silver chain and he leaped forward in an attempt to sling it around the thing’s head. He almost lost his footing, in danger of falling into the water himself; but James grabbed hold of Jude just in time, the piece of alabaster falling from his hand and to the ground. James dug his heels into the dirt, struggling to hold onto both men, one shirt gripped in each hand. The silver chain continued its forward momentum and slipped over the Quepie’s head, settling onto its chest. As soon as the chain made contact with the Quepie’s skin, it froze immediately. Brandon’s hand was freed and the Quepie’s arms fell to its sides. All the strength that James had been putting into holding onto the other men was suddenly unmatched and with the absence of counter pressure they toppled to the ground together.

Jude tried to keep hold of the silver chain as they fell backward onto the bank and the Quepie began slipping back into the water, but it slipped from his grasp as he fell to the ground. The Quepie fell back into the water, surfacing again almost immediately. It’s beautiful human face wavered and shifted, the fine features fading and the face elongating. The three men lay on the bank while it lost it’s human form completely and transformed into the shape of a pale horse. At the bottom of the pile up, James struggled to catch his breath, pushing feebly at the other two, to roll off of him. Jude was the first to recover and he pushed himself up from the ground and moved to the edge of the bank where he knelt and gazed down into the water. The Quepie, in its horse form stood just below them in the creek, unmoving and calm. It looked just like a standard palomino, with its pale golden body and incredibly white hair; except for the fact that its head and forelegs were larger and thicker than normal. They eyes were also so dark that they appeared to be completely black.

A hand landed on Jude’s shoulder and he looked up to see Brandon standing over him, gazing down into the creek as well, his expression one of horror. Certainly he must’ve known that the creature who had approached him wasn’t actually a woman, Jude thought; but the wild magics could be strange and deceiving at times. From the look on his face, he must’ve been under its spell and unaware of its true nature. Marge was going to kill him.

Still kneeling on the bank’s edge, Jude placed a hand on the ground and pushed himself up. He looked worriedly at Brandon as he held a hand out to James. The older man had caught his breath but he looked embarrassed as he allowed Jude to help him to his feet. He peered down at the creature in the water and his eyes widened. He looked back at Brandon and laid a hand on either side of his face, shaking his head slightly. “Not a word of this to anyone,” he said slowly, chuckling softly. “Marge and Jeff especially.” He dusted off the back of his pants and then began to take off his shoes and socks, laying them on the bank beside him. “Come on guys,” he said, “What are you waiting for? Let’s get this thing out of here and get home.”

The other two men dutifully began to remove their shoes and socks and then the three of them walked down the bank, looking for a shallower entrance to the creek. Brandon still looked a bit stunned and he kept bringing a hand up to scratch his head as they walked. Finding a suitable place to embark, the men rolled their pants up to their knees and waded into the water. “I still can’t believe that it wasn’t actually a woman,” Brandon said softly. “I mean, I should have known… I’ve heard the legends. But it was like I just couldn’t see it at the time.” He tugged at the collar of his shirt as if it were choking him. “What if it had dragged me into the water too and eaten me?” Although he was seventeen and almost an adult, he looked pale and frightened and very young. His eyes were wide and his mouth hung open a bit.

Jude clapped a hand on his friend’s back and leaned in for a half hug. “It’s okay,” he said gently. “We all make mistakes sometimes. I thought that you would be old enough to resist the Quepie’s spell, but obviously I was wrong too. I wouldn’t have let it drag you into the water and eat you though. And James wouldn’t have either.” The older man nodded assent and patted Brandon’s other shoulder.

“He’s right,” James added. “Working with the wild magics can be tricky and we all make mistakes sometimes. And some of them are really good at deception. We made it through in one piece though and we’ll be more careful next time.”

Brandon nodded almost imperceptibly, still looking a bit frightened. They had reached the place where the Quepie stood and although it seemed quite tame now he was afraid to touch it, even with the help of the spelled gloves. He hung back as the other two came up to it, one on either side. Looking at his father over the top of the horses back, Jude raised an eyebrow questioningly and James nodded. As one, they each grabbed onto the horse’s mane and began to propel it forward and out of the water. Then they led it across the dry land towards the horse trailer that was parked in front of Sue’s house. James had a witch friend who was a marine biologist and lived near the coast. He had offered to find an out of the way place to house the Quepie; where it wouldn’t pose any more problems. He just had a long drive ahead of him.

Reaching the trailer, Jude went around to the back and unlatched the gate, holding the door open. James kept hold of the Quepie and steered it towards the trailer. “Are you sure this is such a good idea,” Brandon asked, his arms wrapped tightly around himself as if he were cold. “What if that thing attacks someone else. Children even? He already made all the children on this street sick. What if it had been even worse and someone had been killed? Maybe we should just put it down.” His face had lost its stricken look and now just looked angry instead.

“Brandon, you know we can’t do that,” Jude replied wearily. He always hated having to have discussions like these. But considering that he was one of the ones who was counted on to teach the younger witches after their initiations, he was used to it. The wild magics could be frightening but the greater majority of witches lived by a certain moral code. “You learned all about magical responsibility after your initiation, just like the rest of us,” he continued. “We have a moral obligation not to harm any magical creatures unless there is no other choice. Life tends to life and we have no right to interfere unless we absolutely have to. This Quepie hasn’t done anything as of yet, other than choose the wrong place to live, and we can fix that problem. We can’t just go around killing everything that gets in our way though.” He paused, pulling the door to the trailer open wider so that James could lead the creature into it. The house cats who had been trailing him earlier had reappeared and one of them put its forepaws up onto the floor of the trailer as if it would climb in. Jude swatted it back from the open door and waved a hand at the other two as well. “It’s wrong,” he continued, “And it would only cause greater problems in the end anyway. I’m sure you remember your history and that there were periods of time when the greater magics were at war with one another. We don’t want to cause something like that if we can help it.” By now, James had loaded the Quepie successfully onto the truck and Jude closed the door carefully, securing the latch and thumping a hand onto the closed door to be sure that it was latched properly. “Everything that exists in this world has a place,” he continued, “as long as it doesn’t purposefully and negatively impact other parts of civilization in a way that requires intervention. And we always choose the way that works best for everyone involved, whenever possible. Of course, we don’t want to have anyone sickened or eaten if we can help it, but we’ll have to try this first. I think that it will do just fine as long as we can get it to an out of the way river where it won’t be tempted to attack another human.”

He circled around to the front of the truck and the others followed suit. He would drive Brandon back home and then he and his father would meetup with his friend by the coast, who had volunteered to re-home the Quepie. Things should be fine then. He hoped.