The Witch Queen part 7

Ogreme Swamp

                    

          Back at Elfalore Kira, Kirk and Erestor were getting ready to leave Elfalore for Ogreme Swamp to find Shaula. Erestor had gathered two maps to take along; one that led from Erestor to Ogreme Swamp and the other was a map of Ogreme Swamp. Kirk had gathered up a knife, a sword and a bow with some arrows just in case they would run into danger at Ogreme Swamp, and he gathered up some extra food. Kira was getting her bag of things ready and she was asking Princess Elasha to look after Anakin with Klunk, Benny, Flora and Skylar. Princess Elasha told Kira not to worry and Anakin would be safe from harm. “He will still be all right by the time you get back Kira” said Princess Elasha. Klunk, Benny, Flora and Skylar also promised Kira that they wouldn’t let anything happen to Anakin. “We may be small, but you can rely on us for looking after Anakin with Princess Elasha” said Klunk.  Kira trusted Princess Elasha and the brownies and fairies, and understood that she couldn’t leave Anakin in better hands. She gave Anakin a hug, who was fussing a bit because he knew that Kira was going to leave him. “You be a good boy Anakin, and I will come back as soon as I can” she said, giving him a kiss on the forehead, and gave Anakin to Princess Elasha.  

          Once Kira, Erestor and Kirk were finished with packing and making sure they were all prepared they left the castle and headed for the gates to leave Elfalore. King Finwë was with them. “There is no time to waste,” he said “I fear that Queen Morticia will be making a new move on finding Anakin. I understand that finding Shaula won’t be an easy task, but you three must find her and then come back here as soon as you can. And while you’re gone I will call up my friends from other kingdoms for help, and when you come back with Shaula we will all discuss about Queen Morticia. Now go you three and good luck. But watch out for the ogres at Ogreme Swamp, you can never be too careful with them”. Kira, Kirk and Erestor bowed to the king, went through the gates and over the bridge, and the gatekeeper closed the gates.

         “Will the unicorns be able to get us to Ogreme Swamp quickly?” Kira asked Erestor and Kirk, once they were out of Elfalore. “We won’t be taking unicorns to Ogreme Swamp,” said Erestor “we’ll be riding on creatures that are faster than unicorns”. Erestor had a gold colored conch shell in his hand and he blew into it. Kira was about to ask Erestor who he was calling, when she heard a sound of flapping coming from the sky. She looked up and to her surprise there were three white horses, but they had wings. They were flying horses known as Pegasus. The flying horses landed on the ground near Kira, Kirk and Erestor. Kira couldn’t believe that she was seeing some flying horses because she had never seen them for real before; only in books. “Are you elves friends with flying horses?” she asked Erestor and Kirk, in surprise. “Yes, just like we are friends with unicorns,” said Kirk “and they can fly fast, so they will get us to Ogreme Swamp in no time at all”. “I don’t suppose you are going to tell me that you are friends with dragons too?” asked Kira. “Oh no, no, no,” answered Kirk “dragons are far too fierce for us elves to befriend with”. Kira chuckled. “Come now you two,” said Erestor “it’s time for us to leave”.

          Kira, Kirk and Erestor mounted onto the flying horses; to Kira being on Pegasus felt different than being on a pony, since Pegasus was bigger than a pony. Then they took off into the sky. Flying on a flying horse for the first time was a frightening experience for Kira and she held on tight to Pegasus so she wouldn’t fall off. Kirk was right about the flying horses being able to fly fast; they were flying so fast, that they were soon far away from Elfalore. The flying horses flew over valleys and forests, until at last Erestor told the pegasuses to land. “We have arrived at Ogreme Swamp” he said.

          The flying horses landed on the ground just outside the swamp. “That was a fun ride” said Kirk; he enjoyed riding on the flying horses. Kira, who had not enjoyed riding Pegasus very much, was happy to be on the ground again; she felt her stomach had turned a bit while they were flying. “Here we are,” said Erestor “this is Ogreme Swamp”. Kira and Kirk looked at the entrance of Ogreme Swamp. “It looks so dark and big,” said Kira “how will we be able to find Shaula in there?” “I don’t know;” said Erestor “all we can do is search for her, until we do find her. So we better get going at once”. “Hold on a minute,” said Kira, cautiously, “apart from ogres, are there any other dangers in that swamp that we need to worry about?” “There is I’m afraid,” said Erestor “this swamp is home to some crocodiles, but it’s also home to some deadly snakes”. “What snakes are they?” asked Kirk. “The purple night shadow snake” answered Erestor. Kira and Kirk were not happy to hear that; a purple night shadow snake was a big black and purple marked snake, and it was very deadly. “Then it’s a good thing I came prepared” said Kira. She opened up her big bag and took out a vial that held a yellow-green liquid. “What’s that vial?” asked Kirk “a potion?” “This vial holds the antidote for curing a purple night shadow’s poison,” said Kira “my great-grand mother found this remedy when she was my age because she got bitten by a purple night shadow one time. And thanks to her a lot of witches and wizards learnt to make this remedy for years, and I know how to make it too”. Kirk and Erestor felt relieved to hear that; they didn’t know how to cure a purple night shadow snake’s poison. In fact most elves didn’t. Erestor told the flying horses to wait for them because they would need them again to get back to Elfalore. Then Erestor, Kirk and Kira started to walk into Ogreme Swamp.

          Ogreme Swamp was a dark and damp place; full of trees, broken logs and sticks, bushes, moss, fungus, ditches, ponds, and mud and there was a foul stench in the air. “I don’t like this swamp,” said Kira, in disgust, “it’s dark, creepy and disgusting”. “Swamps are always like that;” said Kirk “because I visited some other swamps before. But I agree with you Kira, this place is terrible. The swamps I visited before were not as terrible as this swamp”. “You can’t always expect places to be the same as the other Kirk” said Erestor. Kira was happy that she didn’t bring Anakin to Ogreme Swamp with her; Ogreme Swamp was defiantly no place for children. Kirk, Kira and Erestor took great care to not run into any crocodiles or purple night shadow snakes or anything else that could be dangerous. So far they had seen toads, frogs, fish, birds, squirrels, mice, boars, beavers, lizards, turtles and insects. Kira felt very scared while walking through Ogreme Swamp; she feared that they would run into trouble any minute now. She also hoped that they would find Shaula soon so that they could leave Ogreme Swamp as soon as possible.

          So far so good, Erestor, Kirk and Kira were making good progress; they hadn’t found Shaula yet, but they had not run into any danger yet. Suddenly a wooden cage drooped on them and they were trapped. “What on earth happened?” gasped Kira. “I think we walked into a booby trap,” said Kirk “and I bet that this trap belongs to the ogres. They actually like to play tricks like this”. Kira was not happy with this, and decided to use a spell to get rid of the cage. But then ten ogres, carrying spears, turned up and they surrounded the cage. These ogres were all male and they looked very ugly. Their skin was bogey color green, they had black-grey hair and they were wearing navy-blue loin cloths. Kira thought these ogres were the ugliest things she had ever seen in life. “Our trap worked, we caught something!” cheered an ogre. The ogres could talk. The ogres stared at Kirk, Kira and Erestor. “Well, well, well, what have we here?” asked another ogre. “It looks like we’ve caught some elves and a pretty woman” answered another ogre. “How interesting” said another ogre. “What shall we do with these three?” asked another ogre. “I suggest we feed the elves to the crocodiles,” said another ogre “and we keep the pretty lady and she can be our slave”. “I wouldn’t do anything if I were you,” said Kira, who was not happy with meeting up with the ogres, “I am a witch and I know how to use magic spells”. The ogres laughed; they didn’t believe that Kira was a witch. “You ogres are asking for it,” said Kira “sawdusterous, chippenus”. The wooden cage turned into sawdust and Kira, Kirk and Erestor were free. “Wow, Kira,” said Kirk “your magic is amazing”. “Never underestimate a half-witch” said Kira. Erestor was impressed by Kira’s magic too. The ogres couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw what Kira did. “That girl is a witch!” gasped an ogre. “Seize them” said another ogre. “Throw them all to the crocodiles!” shouted another ogre. Kirk quickly took out his sword to fight and Kira got ready to cast any spells on the ogres. Erestor didn’t have any weapons with him, but he braced himself to get ready to fight.

          Suddenly there was a scream that stopped the fight from happening. A female ogre ran up to the male ogres. The female ogre was the same colour as the male ogres and had the same coloured hair, but she wore a long tattered skirt and she wore a cloth to cover her breasts. “Something terrible has happened” she said. “What’s happened?” asked a male ogre. “An ogre child has been bitten by a purple night shadow and now it’s sick!” said the female ogre. The male ogres gasped in horror and began to panic, forgetting all about feeding Kira, Kirk and Erestor to the crocodiles. Kira bravely stepped forward. “Take me to that ogre child,” she said “I can cure it”. Three ogres surrounded her with their spears. “Why should we trust our own ogre child to a witch?” asked one of them. “Simple,” said Kira “because you ogres don’t know how to heal a purple night shadow’s poison. But I do”. The female ogre told the male ogres to step aside. “If this human says she can cure the child, I believe her” she said. The male ogres released Kira and the female ogre led Kira the way to the ogre child, with Kirk, Erestor and the male ogres following them.

          The female ogre took Kira, Kirk and Erestor to some wooden huts, where the ogres lived. Then they entered a wooden hut where a boy ogre child was lying sick in bed with a very high fever and with the mother and father ogres looking so worried. “This witch told me that she knows how to heal a poison night shadow’s poison,” said the female ogre “so I brought her here to help your child”. At first the mother and father ogres weren’t sure if they could trust Kira since she was a witch, but since they wanted to save their son they agreed to let her take care of him. Kira took a look at the ogre child’s right leg which was where he had been bitten by the snake. “Okay,” she said “Kirk I need your knife please and I need a clean cloth and some water”. “What do you need a knife for?” asked the father ogre. “I must cut out the poison from your son’s leg before I give him the antidote;” said Kira “you must never leave the poison inside your skin or you would never heal properly from the poison”. Kirk, Erestor and the ogres watched quietly and worriedly as Kira began her work. With Kirk’s knife she carefully cut out the poison from the ogre child’s leg. After cutting out the poison she cleaned the wound with water and wrapped a clean white cloth, that Erestor gave her, around the wound to stop the bleeding. Next Kira took out her vial from her bag and had the ogre child drink all the liquid that was in the vial. “Okay now that I’ve cut out the poison and given him an antidote for a purple night shadow’s poison, all we can do now is wait” said Kira.

          So all the ogres waited and hoped that the sick ogre child would be alright. Kira stayed with the ogre child and the mother ogre, while Kirk, Erestor and the father ogre waited outside the hut. Right now Kira was wiping the ogre child’s forehead with water to help the fever go down. “Isn’t there anything else you can do for my child?” asked the mother ogre, worriedly. “You have to give it time,” said Kira “it always takes time for medicines and antidotes to do their work of healing the sick”. Kira understood that the mother ogre was worried about her child, but she didn’t like it when anyone got impatient. “There is something that you can do for me though”. She asked the mother ogre to gather some catnip flowers and make tea with it. Tea made with catnip flowers was good at helping those with a fever. The mother ogre did as she was told, so Kira was able to care for the ogre child with no disturbance.

          The father ogre was feeling no better either; he kept on pacing around in a circle, waiting for his son to get better. Erestor and Kirk, who were with him, had to try and calm him down and keep on reassuring him that everything was going to be all right. “You can rely on Kira to save your son;” said Kirk “she may be a witch, but she isn’t the type of witch who would let anyone die”. The father ogre still wouldn’t stop worrying like his wife.    

          It took the rest of the day and all night long for the ogre child to recover from the fever. Kira stayed with the ogre child to make sure he was all right. She kept dampening his forehead with a wet cloth to cool it down and she gave him some tea made from catnip flowers to help bring down the fever. By the next day he was better and safe again. The mother and father ogres were grateful to Kira and they thanked her at once. “We have never asked for help from a witch or elf before,” said the father ogre “so we thank you for helping us save our son”. “I must ask,” said the mother ogre “how did you cure that purple night shadow’s poison?” Kira explained that to make an antidote for the purple night shadow’s bite you needed leaves from the lungwort plant, roots of the burdock plant, ripe seeds of a milk thistle and the actual poison from the teeth of a poison night shadow snake. After hearing that the ogres agreed they needed to start making this medicine themselves in case another ogre got bitten by a purple night shadow. Erestor and Kirk also agreed that this would be useful for the elves back in Elfalore, just in case any elf would get bitten by a purple night shadow snake in the future.

          “If there is anything that we can offer you as thanks for saving my child, please say it” said the mother ogre. “There is something we need actually,” said Kira “we are searching for a sorceress named Shaula. Do you ogres know where we can find her?” The ogres stared at each other, and then a male ogre spoke up. “We haven’t seen any humans named Shaula,” he said “but there is a white talking crane not far from here, so you should ask it that question”. “A talking crane?” said Erestor. This was weird because cranes weren’t supposed to talk. “That’s right,” said the ogre “and I bet that crane will know where this sorceress is”. This was puzzling but Kira decided that they should find this crane just in case it knew where Shaula was. “Where do we find this crane?” she asked. The ogre explained that if they walked straight on from where they were standing now, they would find a huge white cedar tree and the crane lived there. Kira, Kirk and Erestor thanked the ogres for their help and left the ogres to continue their search for Shaula.