Our farm was failing.
Our animals would seem to be fine one day and then they would get sick and die. Half of our breeding stock was gone, from both the cows and the chickens. It was getting to the point that we weren't sure if we could stay on the farm anymore.
Our four kids were a drain on our money, our food, and on our patience. Our youngest son was only two and he had spent more time sick in bed than he had moving around after he learned to crawl. We didn't really know what was wrong with him and we had tried several expensive healing potions to try and fix the problem. He would be fine for several weeks, then he would fall ill again.
It wasn't until our youngest daughter saw him drinking from the animal trough and told us about how stupid he was for doing it, that we realized what was wrong. The water we only used for the animals had something poisonous in it. We contacted someone that the man at the general store said could provide some help. What we didn't know, and he didn't tell us, was that she was a Hag.
A dirty old woman showed up on our doorstep, clearly a little drunk, and she swore at us for calling her in the middle of the day. She wore bundles of rags that looked like they had been sewn together by a child and her hair was a stringy and wild mass that seemed to follow its own rules for how it was supposed to move.
“Damn peasants.” The Hag said in what she thought was a whisper, when in reality was her normal speaking voice. “WHAT DO YOU WANT?” She yelled, thinking that was her normal voice.
“Can you please remove the poison from the water source we use for animals?” I asked her.
“CAN YOU PAY?” The Hag yelled.
“I have several silver pieces...” I started to say.
“BAH!” The Hag hit my hand and the six coins flew part way across the room and clattered to the floor. The three healthy children laughed and scrambled to pick up what was a fortune to them. “Silver. Just silver.” The Hag mumbled. “I need much more than silver for my needs.”
Both I and my wife stared at her and we didn't know what to do. If she didn't want what we had saved up, there was nothing that we could come up with to pay her.
“Momma!” Our youngest boy said loudly to get our attention, then promptly threw up on the floor at my wife's feet. Instead of picking him up like he wanted, my wife pushed him aside and started to clean up the mess.
“I can't go five minutes without having to clean up after you!” My wife exclaimed at the boy, who just gurgled and spit up a bit more for her to clean. She huffed in frustration and then sighed as he threw up again, only on her hand this time.
“HIM!” The Hag yelled and pointed a gnarled hand at my youngest son. “I'll fix your problems for free if you give me him.”
“WHAT?” I yelled in response. “You can't... he's just...”
“I've heard he's been sick a lot.” The Hag said. “A real burden on such a large family.”
“No, he...” I stopped talking, because I heard that it was bad to lie to a Hag.
“I'll buy him.” The Hag said and stepped forward. “A gold coin.”
I caught my breath, my wife gasped, and the other three children dropped the silver coins they had just finished gathering up. That's a hundred silver coins! I thought. “W-why would...”
“Do you agree?” The Hag asked. “It's a good deal, yes?”
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“I... well...”
“Yes, yes. Your son. Blabba blabba.” The Hag waved her hand. “I will fix your water problems... both of them... and take the boy to heal him.”
“But...”
The Hag let out a guttural growl. “Fine! You drive a hard bargain! Two gold coins for the boy, I'll fix your water problems, and I'll cast growth on your crops for a month.”
“A month!” My wife exclaimed, because that would mean we could harvest three months early.
“Do you agree?” The Hag asked and took out two gold coins.
I looked around myself at the run-down house. The three other children were still dumbstruck at the sight of actual gold coins and they stared at their little brother. Then there was my wife. She had a greedy expression on her face, which made me realize something. I knew then that our youngest son was seen as nothing but a burden by everyone.
Including me.
“We agree.” I said and suddenly felt the weight of two gold coins in my hand, as if they had appeared there by magic, and the Hag had my son swallowing a purple colored foul smelling potion. In the next moment, he was laughing and bundled up in some of her rags and she wore him like a pack on her back.
“Follow me.” The Hag said, suddenly sober, and left the house.
I ran out after her, surprised she could walk so fast, and saw her do something amazing after she asked me where my irrigation trench was. I pointed her in the right direction and we went there. She bent down and looked at the inch deep stagnant water, dipped her hand in it, then spat out some black substance.
The Hag shook her head and a wooden staff appeared in her hand and she stuck it into the muddy bottom of the trench. She mumbled and muttered some nonsensical sentences and phrases, I felt my skin crawl for several seconds, then I heard the sound of rushing water. To my surprise, a small wave of water came and pushed out all of the stagnant water.
She reached down and caught something and lifted it up, cackled at a large cracked clay container, then it disappeared. She flipped her staff over and jammed the end into the bottom of the trench again. She mumbled something else and my skin crawled again, then there was a cracking sound. It sounded like a rock breaking.
I turned around to see the trench go from where it was supposed to end, extend out across my field at a right angle, then it did it again and came all the way back to the water source. It made a moat around my house and the huge field, which was impossible to do in only a minute, and the water didn't stop flowing. It kept flowing through at a sedate pace, meaning it wouldn't stagnate, and I couldn't believe it.
The Hag made the staff disappear and she turned towards the field. “This is your main crop, yes?”
I nodded. My most expensive crops were grown right here in this field, because it always produced the best results. She held her hands out and spoke her magic again. I saw her hands glow green, which was something I had seen a magic user do to cast a spell, then my skin felt like it wanted to crawl off. The entire field started to shake, shoots of water were sucked out of the irrigation trenches, and seeped into the dirt. Before my eyes, the crops popped stalks up through the dirt and into the sunlight.
“I'll be back in a week to cast it again.” The Hag said. “Your crops will be grown by the end of the month.”
“Thank you!” I exclaimed. “Thank you!”
The Hag smiled crookedly at me and walked away at a slowed pace, as if she was exhausted, and left my farm. I waited until she was out of sight before I ran over to the house and went inside.
“You have got to see this!” I said and took my wife and three children outside to look at the large growing field and the flowing water. “Isn't this amazing?”
“It is.” My wife said with a huge smile as she took my hand. She felt the two gold coins there and her smile grew even wider. “It really is.”
Our lives improved significantly after that. The gold coins went a long way to make the house better, gave us all new clothes, and our crops after the month was over became the biggest and best crops anyone in the village had seen in years. A month after that, I, my wife, and my four children were the happiest we had ever been.
No, three children. I only have three children. I thought as we all sat down to dinner. I looked at the little chair we had used for the baby. It was tucked into the corner of the room and had a bunch of things hanging on it, as if it hadn't been used by a baby. We are all happy, right? I asked myself and looked at my wife. Her smile was a little strained and the wrinkles around her eyes were more pronounced. I looked at my children and saw they had happy faces, and yet, they also looked a little sad.
My youngest daughter wasn't trying to hide her feelings very much. She looked up from her plate and her smile turned even more fake as a tear appeared at the corners of her eyes. She looked back down at her plate and the tears dripped onto the great tasting food. She ate it as if she wasn't crying on it.
I looked down at my own plate and two large tear drops fell onto my food. I did what my daughter did and I ate the food.
It tasted salty.