8 August 2024, @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2458: Silver Haired Witch

This post was inspired by today's 5-minute writing prompt in the Freewriters Community - 8 August 2024, @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2458: silver haired

I thought I'd write something of a fable. Enjoy !

Image created by AI in NightCafe Studio - it gave the goat too many legs, so I worked with what it gave me....

The village had existed in the grasslands since time immemorial, sitting by the slow-flowing river with it's farmers working the rich black soil to feed their families.

Every few years a horde would ride by, stocky hard warriors on stockier ponies. They'd take the stored food, and maybe a girl or two, and move on.

But this time was different. Big men in big fur hats, moving from west to east instead of the usual other way. Their officer wore a strange three-cornered hat.

"You are part of our land now, and we will collect taxes every year," he declared to the assembled villagers, as he nailed a poster of laws to the door of the village hall.

None of the villagers could read, of course, so it meant nothing to them.

Until a farmer inadvertently broke one of the laws. The men in fur hats whipped him near to death in the village square.

All the villagers could do was pray that a horde would come and drive the strangers away.

No horde came.

What came instead was an old woman. Silver haired and riding a six-legged goat with golden wings.

"Please could you feed an old lady ?" she asked. But the men in fur hats had taken all the food and called it "tax".

Then the whipped farmer's daughter came to her. "We have nothing, it was all stolen. All I have is last year's corn doll, made for me by my father, with a single ear of corn left on it. It's all I can give you."

The old lady smiled. "You offer me something that means a lot to you, with the last food in your village. That's better than any meal, and I am grateful. The strangers won't trouble you any more."

The witch (for that is what she was) waved her wand, and nothing changed for the villagers. But their home faded from maps, and the memory and sight of those outside it.

Since then, life in the village has carried on in the same way it always has, and no-one will ever come to disturb them again. No hordes and no strangers in fur hats.