Speaker 1: When magic calls, it never leaves a message. It just
shows up, glowing and expects emotional availability, popular saying among
underprepared witches. The next day, unfolded gently, the way soft
chapters of life often do before everything changes, Silver spent
the morning tending the garden, humming to the herbs as
though they were dear friends. Henry sat nearby on a
mossy stone, supervising with the air of someone deeply invested
in the quality of her weeding technique.
Speaker 2: You're pulling the mint too close to the time, he
noted casually.
Speaker 1: Silver paused mid tug. How close is too close? Henry
gave her a long stare, the kind reserved for creatures
who should know better.
Speaker 2: Let me put it this way, he said. Mint spreads
like gossip. Time prefers boundaries.
Speaker 1: Silver gasped, like Missus Abernathy at the market in my time.
Speaker 2: Henry blinked, assuming Missus Abernathy smells vaguely medicinal and takes
over every conversation.
Speaker 1: Yes, Silver snorted, nearly choking on her own laughter. It
was a peaceful day. The kind fernwood Hollow seemed to
gift sparingly, as if testing whether they knew how to
appreciate calm before inevitable chaos. But as the sun dipped
low and shadows stretched across the village green, something shifted.
The air grew still, the light changed sharper, edged in gold,
like the world was holding its breath. Silver noticed first Henry.
She whispered, straightening slowly. Henry's ears lifted, his tail went still.
The breeze that had been soft and playful moments ago
suddenly carried a strange scent, unfamiliar yet old, pine, iron
and roses. Someone's here, Silver breathed. Henry didn't answer, his
eyes fixed on the narrow path beyond the bendunch, past
the glowing lamp post, deeper into the old forest, the
part even the magic avoided. Then a sound, a bell, soft, clear, beautiful.
It rang from nowhere and everywhere, all at once, echoing
across the hollow, with a tone that felt more remembered
than heard. Silver shivered.
Speaker 2: What was that?
Speaker 1: Henry's voice was low, not frightened, but certain, an arrival,
arrival of what she asked? Henry turned to her gaze,
ancient and steady.
Speaker 2: Something that remembers fern wood, something that hasn't walked here
in a very long time.
Speaker 1: Silver stepped closer to him. Is it dangerous, Henry considered.
Speaker 2: Not necessarily, he said at last, But old magic rarely
returns Quietly.
Speaker 1: The bell chimed again, softer, this time almost beckoning. Silver's
hand rose in stickctively to her bare neck, where her
pendant used to hang. Henry noticed, his voice gentled, just barely.
Magic does not take without reason. It trades, and it
returns when the time is right. Silver nodded, though she
didn't fully understand. The light continued to shift. The sky
now deep lavender shimmered faintly at the edges, as if
a thin veil were being tugged aside, then movement at
the tree line. Something pale flickered fabric or light or
fog shaped into a figure. Silver's breath caught. It wasn't
fully there, more suggestion than substance, but unmistakable, a silhouette, tall, graceful,
glowing faintly with soft silver luminescence. Silver whispered, voice trembling.
Is that a spirit, Henry didn't blink.
Speaker 2: No spirit that has purpose.
Speaker 1: The figure turned. There was no face, but Silver felt
the weight of its attention, like eyes meeting hers across lifetimes.
Warmth unfurled in her chest, recognition, longing memory she never lived.
Then a soft whisper brushed through her mind, not a voice,
a feeling welcome home, not yet ready, but seene. Silver staggered.
Henry pressed gently against her leg, steadying her. It knows you.
She whispered, It knew you first.
Speaker 2: Henry murmured.
Speaker 1: The bell chimed one final time. The figure faded, with
the light dissolving into dusk as the forest swallowed it
once more. Silver stood long after the shadows reclaimed the
edge of the trees. Finally, she exhaled, that wasn't a dream.
Speaker 2: No, Henry agreed, as he recognized that shape and the
scent of that magic she swallowed.
Speaker 1: What do we do now? Henry lifted his tail and
stretched with regal grace, as though the universe had mildly
inconvenienced him.
Speaker 2: Now, he said, turning toward the cottage.
Speaker 1: You have tea, Silver blinked tea.
Speaker 2: Yes, Henry flicked an ear. One must face destiny properly hydrated.
Speaker 1: Silver stared at him, then laughed softly, shaken but smiling,
as she followed the warm glow of the cottage windows.
She glanced once more toward the forest. The air still
hummed with wild, old magic. Something had awakened, something had
come looking, And somewhere deeper in the shadows, Colt stood
frozen pendant glowing against his chest, breath shaky, heart pounding, knowing,
without understanding, this was only the beginning. The morning after,
Silver didn't sleep that night, not really. She tried. She
curled beneath her quilt, listened to the soft ticking of
the hearth embers, even attempted one of Henry's breathing exercises,
which he had described as try inhaling without panicking, then
exhale without sounding like a startled goose. It went poorly.
Every time she closed her eyes, the silver figure lingered
behind them, soft warm, impossibly familiar. By dawn, she gave up.
She slipped from bed, wrapped herself in her wool cloak,
and stepped outside fernwood hollow lay wrapped in early morning,
hush dew glistened like stardust on the grass, Mist hovered
low across the green, and sunrise painted the edges of
the world with sleepy gold. Henry sat by the door
as if he'd been waiting. Silver blinked, did you even sleep.
Speaker 2: Henry lifted a paw to wash his face. Sleep is
optional when destiny is being dramatic.
Speaker 1: Silver rolled her eyes but smiled. Together. They walked, not
toward the bench, not toward the path leading to the
modern village, but toward the forest's edge where the apparition
had stood. Silver's heart thumped harder with every step, part fear,
part curiosity, part something she didn't yet have a name for.
Henry patted silently beside her ears, forward, posture alert, not fearful,
just calculating. When they reached the place where the light
had shimmered, Silver stopped. Nothing looked different, no footprints, no
scorched earth, no bent grass, no sign anyone or anything
had been there at all. Silver exhaled, disappointment, curling quietly
in her chest. Maybe I imagined it, she whispered.
Speaker 2: Henry snorted, you imagined the moving necklace, centuries old spells
and meat talking too. If so, congratulations, you are hallucinating
with excellent consistency.
Speaker 1: Silver huffed, but the corners of her mouth tugged upward.
She took one more step forward, and her boot brushed
something half buried beneath moss and pine needles. Henry froze.
Silver crouched and gently brushed the debris aside. A small
old book lay beneath, a leather bound journal, softened by time,
its edges worn, its clasp shaped like a crescent moon.
Silver swallowed her fingers trembled as she picked it up.
A symbol had been burned into the cover, one she
knew before she consciously recognized it. A cottage, two pine trees,
a small window, a single figure standing inside. Silver whispered,
my pendant. Henry's gaze sharpened.
Speaker 2: It wasn't there yesterday.
Speaker 1: She nodded, barely, breathing carefully. She lifted the clasp. It
popped open, as if it had only been waiting for
her touch. Inside the front cover, written in looping, familiar handwriting,
were four words for when you return. Silver's breath hitched
below it, her mother's signature. Henry spoke softly, almost gentle,
For once read the letter, Silver turned the page. There
wasn't a spell, there wasn't a warning. There was a letter,
My dearest Silver. If you are reading this, then the
hollow has opened to you, and the worlds have begun
to shift again. You may feel lost, you may feel frightened,
You may doubt the path before you, but hear this.
You are not here by accident. Your gift is older
than fear, older than suspicion, older than the men who
tried to silence it. You come from a blood line
who guarded the space between where time folds, where fate waits,
where magic chooses who may stand upon its threshold. The
necklace was never meant to protect you from the world.
It was meant to guide you to the part of
yourself you had not yet grown into. When you feel unready,
remember this. You are fernwood, and fernwood does not break.
We will meet again. Silver wiped a tear from her
cheek before it had time to fall. Henry pressed against
her knee, not soft, not sentimental, but steady. She closed
the journal carefully, reverently, and exhaled shakily. I don't know
if I'm ready for any of this. Henry looked up
at her.
Speaker 2: No one ever is. That's why magic reveals itself slowly.
If it dropped everything on you at once, you'd faint,
cry or attempt interpretive dance again.
Speaker 1: Silver gasped that happened one time, and the forest still
holds grudges. Before she could retort. A soft pulse of
warm energy radiated from the journal, like a heartbeat. Silver
and Henry both turned toward the trees at the same moment.
Far away, barely visible between the trunks, stood Colt. Silver
didn't see him, She only felt it, the subtle shift
in the air, like someone had made a decision. Colt
lifted a hand to his pendant. It glowed slow and steady,
matching the gentle pulse from the journal in Silver's hands.
His voice was barely a whisper, but the hollow heard
soon then he stepped back into the trees, not running,
not hiding, just waiting the way a door waits for
the hand meant to open it. Silver clutched the journal
to her chest and whispered, Henry, everything is changing. Henry's
tail curled around her ankle yes.
Speaker 2: He murmured, voice low and certain.
Speaker 1: And now, Silver asked. Henry glanced toward the cottage, then
back at the forest. After a thoughtful pause, us he answered,
now we prepare