Chapter 2

Naomi giggled with a touch of hysteria at the old woman holding the frying pan, AKA her savior. She smacked her hands over her mouth to hold in her panicked mirth.

“Are you okay, girl?”

Naomi nodded still covering her mouth.

The old woman looked down at the sword. “You gonna pick that up?”

Naomi thought about shaking her head. The sword had dried blood on it. But she could hear distant, angry, male shouts, indicating more Hammonds in the area. She picked it up. With the sword in her hands, Naomi’s panic dropped a few degrees. She took a deep breath and asked the skillet-wielding woman, “Do you know anyplace we can go that’s safe?”

The old woman nodded. She grabbed the sleeve of Naomi’s sweatshirt and pulled her down the street. “Why didn’t you leave with the others?” she asked.

“What?” Naomi stumbled as she struggled to fall in step with the old woman.

Agatha steadied her and peeked around a corner. “Dammit, they’ve probably blocked every road,” the old woman muttered. Naomi took a quick peek too. There was a barricade blocking the street. A couple of men stood sentry at it.

“Where am I? I just want to go home.”

“You can’t go home. You have to escape, but the ways are blocked.”

“What? Where is this? What’s going on?”

Agatha turned to her with wide eyes. “What do you mean, ‘what’s going on’? The town’s being pillaged by Lord Tavik and his hoard! If you don’t get out of here, you’ll become a spoil of war. I’ve managed to get all the other women and children out. Where have you been?”

“I just got here! One minute, I was in my kitchen, and then I was in some burning building. I don’t know how I got here. Or where here is.”

The old woman’s eyebrows rose. “You got here by magic?”

Naomi threw up her hands, the sword waggling in the air. “Yeah, it was magic. Poof! I’m here. Where is here?”

“So you’re a witch?” the old woman asked.

“What?”

“You’re a witch?”

Naomi began to think that the old woman had not been joking about the magic. “No, I’m not a witch.”

“Did a witch send you?” Naomi really did not like how seriously the old woman was interrogating her about this.

“No, and there’s no such thing as magic or witches.”

The old woman crossed her arms and drew back to coolly look down her nose at Naomi. “Then how did you get here?”

“I don’t know!”

“Then it could’ve been magic.”

“There’s no such thing!”

“Then how did you get here?”

Naomi felt like she’d gotten stuck in some strange comedy sketch conversation. “All right! If it makes you happy, it might have been magic.”

“Believe me dear, I am not happy about this at all. You are in grave danger.”

Naomi slumped. “How are we going to get out of this?”

“I have an idea. Come on.” The old woman plucked Naomi’s sleeve again and began marching. Naomi followed but only because she had no better options. Staying with the crazy old woman was still better than being on her own.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“To the castle.” The old woman pointed up the slope. Naomi followed her finger. What formed in Naomi’s head when she heard the term castle was the Disney trademark. What was on top of the hill was a cluster of stone towers with a wall around it.

“Do you think we’ll be safe there?”

The old woman just kept trekking up the path. Looking at the back of the old woman, Naomi didn't venture any more questions. She still had a ton of them, but so far, she hadn't gotten any answers from the strange old woman. Witches and magic, indeed.

The old woman glanced back at Naomi. “What’s your name?”

“Naomi.”

The old woman nodded. “I’m Agatha. Where are you from, Naomi?”

“Atlanta, Georgia.”

“Hmm.”

Naomi decided to venture a question on the off chance of an answer. “Where are we?”

“Harold’s Pass.” Sigh, that didn't tell her anything.

“How far’s that from Atlanta?”

The old woman shrugged her shoulders.

“What’s near here?”

“The Akron Mountains, the road to Ravant.”

“What?” Naomi began to suspect the old woman was just making stuff up now.

“Do you really not know how you came here?”

Naomi started thinking about what she could remember right before arriving in this place. There’d been so many immediate things to worry about, mainly Hammond, that she hadn’t had a chance to really think. Here she was on a footpath headed to a castle; being led by an old woman who was most likely suffering from delusions but swung a mean frying pan; dragging a sword with someone else's blood on it, but Naomi quickly steered her thoughts away from that; with no clue how she got into this mess or how she was going to get out of it.

And to think, her day had started out so normal.

Continue to Chapter 3.