Once upon a time there was a cave near the village of Paramour, and in this cave lived a sea witch. Paramour was situated on the waterfront of the Milagro Sea, below the hills of Vigar. It was a fishing town with a great population of sheep farmers who sold their wool to the textile factories in Hoxton, the famous city.
Yuga and Cyril were out looking for urchins to collect for their mother, who was planning to serve them in a special that evening in her dining hall. The two children were great adventurers and good at getting around in the wild, especially for their ages. Due to the low tide and a new sense of daring, they went farther than they ever had before, and that’s how they found the opening to the sea cave. Excited about exploring such a find, Yuga screamed to her younger brother to hurry up, but he got a bad feeling when he saw it, the yawning opening to the cave seemed like a hungry mouth with sharp teeth, and the strange echos of the crashing waves sounded ominous. He was not in a position to balk, as he couldn’t get back on his own safely, so forward he went.
Once inside the mouth of the cave, they saw that there were tunnels leading back from where they stood. Yuga insisted that they go down some of the tunnels, which made Cyril swallow hard, this terrified him. Still, he was in no position to refuse, so in they went. It wasn’t long before they found evidence of someone having been there recently, there were footprints in the damp sand. Yuga insisted that they follow the footprints, especially as there was light up ahead, it had to lead to the open - maybe there was a secret passage to the upper hill.
Turning the corner, they met her, Vïlgara, the sea witch. She blew what felt like sand into their eyes, but it was a knockout powder. Yuga awoke to find herself held tight by two octopi to a rotting metal post from a shipwreck. Their strong arms gripped her fast, she could feel the suction of each sucker puckering her skin. Her next vision was of her younger brother, already dead and bled out, roasting on a spit over a fire, turned slowly by the witch, who saw that Yuga had opened her eyes and glared at her, then let loose a wet, phlegmy cackle. Yuga began to scream, but the witch just threw a starfish at her and the octopus arms held that in place over her mouth. Then she had to watch the witch finish cooking her brother, haul his body onto a mat and carve it up. She ate the meat with a condiment of sea urchin and a salad of kelp and vinegar. The witch told Yuga that girl flesh didn’t taste as good to her, she preferred boy meat, and that she would be sending her home with no memory of what happened.
Most visitors were sent away like that, so that she kept her openly hidden home. Yuga noticed things in the cave that were probably stolen from boats or homes, or things collected from those she killed. After crying herself to exhaustion and then numbing out in shock watching her brother be devoured by this witch, Yuga found herself staring in the woman’s deep green eyes as a draught was poured out in a glass and tipped into Yuga’s mouth. She considered spitting it out, but preferred to live.
When she was found on the rocks at dusk as the tide was coming in by a frenzied group of villagers, she had no clue of what had happened or where her brother was. Her mother treated Yuga horribly from that day forward, blaming her for her brother’s death, and it was her fault, in part, but Yuga knew somewhere inside her that there was something else, some memory she couldn’t access, and she never did.
October 18, 2022