Children

"Huh?"

Azalyn gestured towards the children. "Did you not hear them?"

He turned to regard the laughing and shrieking children a bit more cautiously. "Well, from what I can tell, they’re shrieking in that annoying kid way. Hardly anything to be alarmed about."

She glared at him. "Did you not hear them mention a witch?"

"No."

"Honestly Lubic, it’s your job to pay attention to these things!" She stared at him expectantly; he stared blankly back. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"Aren’t you going to go and do something?"

"Umm, should I?"

She sighed in exasperation. "At least go and ask them about it."

He turned to regard the children a bit uncertainly, then glanced back at Azalyn. Her midnight eyes were flashing a mixture of impatience and annoyance as she stood, hands on hips, waiting.

"Alright already!" he turned and trudged towards the children. There were at least five of them, both boys and girls, playing some version of tag. He approached the nearest one, a boy of about eight. "Hey kid! Wait up a second!"

The boy turned, peering up at him with big innocent brown eyes from under a mop of brown hair. "My mom told me not to talk to strangers."

"Don’t worry, child," Azalyn came to Lubic’s rescue. "We just wanted to ask you about the game you’re playing. It sounded very interesting. Did it involve a witch?"

The boy peered up at Azalyn, deciding at once that she was more trustworthy than Lubic. "Yes! Sky over there’s the witch!" he pointed at a little girl who was chasing down one of her friends. "If she catches you, then she eats you and then you’re the witch!"

"Wow. What an imaginative game! Did you come up with it?" Azalyn asked as she knelt down to the boy’s height.

"No ma’am. We all did. We were all dreaming about it. About the witch, I mean. So we thought it would be a fun game to play."

"All of you were dreaming about witches?"

"Well, not Frankie over there. He never dreams. But all the rest of us, we all had the same dream!"

"Well, thank you. Have fun playing!" Azalyn straightened up as the boy ran off to rejoin his friends. She turned to Lubic. "Well now. Looks like you have a witch to catch."

"Wait a minute! Just because some kids were dreaming about some witch, now I have to do something about it?"

Azalyn’s glance flicked upwards; she looked like she was uttering a silent prayer or curse. "Lubic, has no one told you anything? The children are more in tune with what’s going on in your world, with what’s threatening it. They’re your best source of information!"

"But . . . a witch?"

"What, have you never dealt with a witch before?"

"Well, no."

She sighed once again. "Alright, I will help you then. Witches are usually straightforward. Unless they have made a bargain with you, or hold some other power over you."