The first night after Eddie adopted a 12-week old Daisy she slept by her crate in the kitchen, getting up every 2 hours to check on her. At around 3 o’clock in the morning, an exhausted and overwhelmed Eddie crashed onto the airbed and as soon as her eyelids closed, she found herself dreaming the strangest of dreams.

Eddie stood with Daisy in a dense forest at night. The trees were silhouettes in the darkness and the only light came from the moon almost completely hidden by the canopy. She shivered as a cool breeze blew over her, ruffling her honey-blonde curls. Daisy looked up at her intently, then after a heartbeat took off along a deer path.

“Come back!” She yelled, breaking the silence of the night. But the puppy didn’t so much a s slow down. Eddie followed in pursuit, but despite breaking out into a jog, and then a run, Daisy remained out of reach. She ran through the dark forest, branches raking her arms and tearing her pyjamas, until eventually Daisy slowed to let her catch up. Eddie was out of breath now, and sucked in huge lungfuls of crisp air. She really needed to exercise more. The pair crested the bank of a wide hollow, clear of trees. Here the moonlight reached the forest floor easily, illuminating the space below in a soft, silvery glow. An ancient, twisted blackthorn tree grew in the centre, covered in white blossoms, but that’s not what drew her eyes.

Standing in in the hollow were women of all ages, each wearing similar midnight-blue robes, the hoods pulled back to reveal their faces. They stood with the comfortable familiarity of old friends, an older lady with white puffy hair and glasses on a beaded chain cackled at something a young red-headed woman had said, the two grinning conspiratorially. A pair of identical twins not much older than Eddie’s mum rolled their eyes, unimpressed by the joke. What were they doing here? Eddie wondered. One of the women looked to the sky and then at a watch, her foot tapping impatiently. They must be waiting for something. The red-headed woman looked up, spotting Eddie, and tapped her friend on the arm nodding her head towards the hill. The talk died down instantly and everyone turned to look up at her in silence. Eddie stared back, feeling as though she was intruding on something private.

Before she could turn away however, a tall woman with long dark hair and deep brown eyes stepped forward from the group and beckoned to her with her hand. She wore a diadem of spun silver cobwebs interspersed with glittering diamonds, giving an impression of dewdrops glittering in the moonlight. She held herself with an air of authority and stood slightly apart from the group. She must be their leader, Eddie thought.

“Come Edina, no need to be afraid.”

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Eddie jolted at the use of her name, then reminded herself that it was just a dream, so of course the people in it would know who she was. A nagging voice whispered in her head that it felt almost too true to life to be a dream, down to her racing heartbeat and aching legs. She made her way carefully down the slope to the group, Daisy no longer by her side but running around the ankles of the strangers, her tail wagging a mile a minute. Any caution she may have had disappeared as Eddie watched the women happily fussing the puppy, some even crouching down and getting their face licked, breaking the silence with laughter.

“You have chosen a familiar.” The one who called to her earlier spoke, admiring Daisy approvingly. Now that Eddie was a lot closer, she had to look up to talk to her. At only 5 foot 2, she was used to it, but in that moment she felt like a child talking to a queen.

“A what, sorry?”

“Your familiar. Every witch has one.”

”I’m not a witch.”

The robed woman raised an eyebrow, the corner of her mouth twitching down. Eddie wasn’t sure what to say, so she asked politely, “Do you have one? A familiar, I mean.”

“Of course girl, we all do.”

By her own logic, that made everyone here a witch then.

“And who are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”

The witch smiled at her, brown eyes crinkling. “My name is Hecate.“

Eddie vaguely remembered reading about a goddess of witchcraft called Hecate when she went through her greek-mythology phase. Why her mind was conjuring the character up now, she had no idea.

Hecate turned away from the group, facing Eddie with a stare that looked right through her. Eddie felt as though she was seeing far more than a short, slightly chubby blonde girl in mismatched pyjamas. She tried hard not to fidget, and stared back into her large brown eyes. Despite her commanding tone, they remained bright and warm.

“Hear me. You are one of us, Edina. Your familiar has led you here so that we might know of each other. I see now that you are not yet ready to claim your place among us, but one day you will be.”

This dream was becoming increasingly more confusing, Eddie thought. “I don’t understand, are you saying that I’m a witch? Magic isn’t real where I come from.”

Hecate merely smiled sadly, as if disappointed in Eddie’s response. Then she reached into her cloak and pulled out a handful of dark, twinkling powder.

“Sleep Edina, you will not remember this until you are ready to claim your heritage.” The powder trickled from her palm like water, snaking through the leaves towards Eddie. By the time it reached her, Eddie had fallen back into a deep sleep.

***

In the kitchen, slightly tipsy and trying hard not to freak out, Eddie stared down at the leather book and the brass talons had been clasped together only a moment ago. For the first time since that night, she recalled the moonlit hollow, the robed women and witch-queen with her intense stare. Eddie had always felt as though there was something missing from her life, something more out there that would fill a void she couldn’t quite put into words. Looking down at the book, she knew deep in her bones, that it was this. Magic was real. Perhaps the dream had been too.