“Witch,” they called her.

“Crone! Sorceress! Hag!

All and sundry was thrown at her. Turnips, carrots, potatoes, even a leek - who knew they could hurt so bad! Once she was driven out of the village, she thought that things might calm down. She was on her own. There was no one for miles. _It’ll be a hard life, but I’ll manage, _she thought._ _Then the trees had started talking to her.

Winters in Salem were bitterly cold. Snow covered the ground, and firewood was essential. While traipsing through the woods on just such an errand, her name came to her on a soft breeze.

“Elizabeth….”

Stooped over, with a branch in her hand, she halted. When no further words could be heard, she stood up. Silence. The kind that only snow could produce. An enveloping stillness. As she turned to look the other way, her feet made small crumpling noises. _Did I imagine it?_

The rest of the day passed away unremarked. Weeks later, and she had quite forgotten the episode in the forest. There was much to do. When first ousted from the village she had despaired at the thought of shelter. After enduring nights so cold that her teeth chattered violently and hope for warmth seemed lost, she, by a stroke of luck, discovered a cluster of boulders twenty miles down the River Twine. Moss, wood, and dried out animal carcasses turned the rocky enclosure into something resembling a home.

Now, she just needed to find food. The river was close by, but Elizabeth was no fishermen. Thomas was the one with that talent. So that left deer, rabbits and vegetables. The ground was too hard to go digging for roots. She would have to trap something. She could not make a bow. _A snare would do, like my father used to make._

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A day and a half later, her belly rumbling, things had proceeded apace. The snare she made from a sapling. She found rabbit droppings in a clearing not far from her make shift home. Using leaves and twigs she concealed it. Now she lay in wait. An hour ticked by, then another. Finally, a rustling sound, as though something small was making progress. It moved into her eyeline then, a rabbit.

Soft paws brushed against the snare’s loop. In that split second the animal’s weight shifted and the trap was set into motion. The loop, designed to cinch at the slightest disturbance, constricted around the rabbit’s leg. Startled, the animal bucked and twisted its body, trying to break free. Elizabeth’s tired, hungry belly rejoiced. Then, with one final violent movement, the rabbit broke free of the snare, and landed on the snow with a small thump. _You can’t be serious_, she thought.

Immediately, running pell mell, the rabbit made for the nearby trees. In a moment, Elizabeth was to her feet and sprinting after it.

_If I don’t catch you, I’m dead, _she cried internally. Bounding now, almost faster than the eye could track, the rabbit darted behind a tree, and vanished from sight. Tired, hungry and demoralised, Elizabeth’s knees collapsed below her. _Now what? That’s it. It’s over. I’m done for. _She started to cry.

Sobbing, she did not at first notice the nearby sound. Then, as it grew louder and more insistent, a grunt followed by a squeak cut through her despair. What was that? Ahead of her the ground rose up. Again, a grunt. Something was in pain. Gingerly, she rose to her feet and crept forward. What she was so horrifying, so macabre, that for a moment her waking mind failed to process it….

If I get 3 likes I will continue this story :)

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