The Wishing Well Pt. 1

The Wishing Well

Part 1 of 4

Part One :: Part Two :: Part Three :: Part Four

We've all heard of the wishing well even if not all of us believe in its magic but in another world, a heartbroken magic-user makes one in hopes of having the hardships that the world had thrown at him undone.

Note: This story is taking too long for me to complete so I'm going to begin posting it in parts. As always, feedback is appreciated! Let me know what you think, either here or on my writer's page on facebook.

The sandy-blonde man looked down into the depths of the well. In the night, the water looked as if it had been filled with the distilled essence of a starless night. Once again, he found himself in too much turmoil of mind and spirit to properly tune the well to his heart's desire.

"Look at me," the man's despairing voice fell into the depths, "all that I've accomplished and I can't even perform this simple magic. See what your absence has done to me dearest?"

The water in the well remained still and impassive to his agony. The stones that held it were unmoved by his repressed sobs. The magic did not shift, refusing to give him the cure to his misery. Even as he screamed at the heavens, resenting the cruelty of the fates, the magic slept on and paid him no mind.

The man left then, abandoned the creation he had labored for centuries to bring about, and did not return. The sky lightened with the sun's warm strokes but the water in the well remained chilly and cast in shadow, even when the sun gazed directly into the well.

The well water was crisp, always cool, and though the inhabitants of the village that had sprung up around it did not know it, magic sweetened the water they put to their lips. It clung to their blood and when it found root, if it found root, within their minds and spirit, they began to change though the pace was achingly slow.

Over time, some families began to feel ill at ease around their neighbors. It seemed to them, that no lie could pass their lips undetected and eventually this built such animosity between them that only those whose blood ran with the magic of the well remained.

It is a curious thing magic. It has a tendency to seek itself over distances unfathomable by the human mind. So, it came to pass that those with magical tendencies of their own came to inhabit the town and the area around the well. You see, in that world even, there are few places where magic can grow strong enough to banish those that would see it destroyed.

Many strange creatures grew to inhabit the wood but their lives before finding the well made them very shy of their human neighbors. The humans of the village were happily oblivious to the fact that they were not alone but such was not always the case with their children.

One such child, by the name of Gwen, had jet black hair with a single lock of translucent colorless hair growing from the hairline at her nape on the left side. Her mother found that no matter how many times she took a blade to it, the following morning it would be the same length as the rest of her hair. The woman found it as perplexing as she found it unsightly and resolved that Gwen should always wear her hair down and long to hide it.

Much to her mother's fright, Gwen went to play in the wood each day and returned with her hair done in plaits or braids and held together by fine beads and ribbons, the like of which the woman had never seen crafted by human hands. Still, the girl returned from the wood each day unharmed and the woman was wary of forbidding her from going for fear that whoever was doing her daughter's hair would miss the girl and come looking. So, each time Gwen returned, her mother undid her hair before anyone else saw and found that the finery was prone to disappearing once it left the girl's hair.

However, it was a small community and someone eventually saw Gwen before her mother could undo her hair. The rumor spread and travelled to surrounding towns and villages. The humans of the village were peaceful folk who were content enough to leave whatever dwelt in the forest be if it brought them no harm but the rumors drew the greedy as a corpse draws flies. These newcomers, saw no problem with hunting down and killing the creatures of the wood for the treasure they thought was there.

With the arrival of strangers, the village saw no choice but to keep Gwen from the forest lest she should be followed and come to harm. The girl simply nodded gravely, as if it had not been the first time that this had been explained to her.

Instead of going to the wood, she spent her time looking into the dark water of the well in the company of her youngest brother. He would play in the tall grasses and she would listen to the whisper of the water against the stone of the well.

Her hair hung down into the mouth of the well as she leaned in to watch the water and see if today it would show her if her friends in the woods were safe. It did not, instead she saw a man reflected in the water. His sandy hair was plastered to his face. Tears ran from his eyes and made the water ripple as they fell from the other side and struck the surface. When the water settled again, the image was gone. Only her own face looked up at her with wide eyes.

The reflection mouthed something that she couldn't understand. She watched her own face change from desperation and scream down or up at her.

"Fire," the word was a gurgle in the water but she understood.

Gwen backed away from the darkness of the well into the bright noon. The light made her feel safer, although she was not sure what the threat was, but deep in her heart she still stood looking down at her own face in the well.