Esmeralda's Reign

Carrie had trudged through the dark purple forest since the change in leadership in her town, Chester Hill. The sky was a tainted green and the grass was a sharp black. She thought of when Chester Hill was normal; people would go around, weaving cloth, sharing biscuits with new neighbors, and thatched the straw roofs on the cottages. Then Esmeralda became Queen. Esmeralda was a witch. In Chester Hill, the townsfolk believed witches had cloaks and brooms, warts and green skin. They were said to come from far away lands where elves and fairies roamed. But Esmeralda grew up in Chester Hill. She was a beautiful maiden and was popular in school. But what made her a witch wasn't what was on the outside, it was what was on the inside. Esmeralda had four brothers, two older and two younger. She felt constantly neglected, ignored, and laughed at by her siblings. Her anger grew as her brothers accelerated in school, made livings, and left her at home to wash dishes and do her mother's chores. One day, Esmeralda was busy making a cross stitch pattern and let her mind wander. She thought of ruling Chester Hill; having fancy furs and unlimited pleasures. She looked down at the cross stitch and realized she had stitched a glass bottle teeming with a smoky green liquid. Running her fingertips over the smooth and seamless design, her hand suddenly pitched forwards into the tapestry. Esmeralda gasped and yanked her hand out. She stared at the cross stitch. The strings had ripped and frayed, and the bottle was no longer in the ruined pattern, but the cloth was intact. Then, Esmeralda felt something in her hand. She held up the vial, stinking oily green, and closed with a cork. She had made her tapestry real. Esmeralda quickly stitched a crown of iron spikes. She reached in, and pulled it out. It was the perfect size for her head, and the matte silver looked sinister and cruel in the shadows cast from the windows. The design on the cross stitch was destroyed again, with the cloth in one piece just like what happened with the vial. But now Esmeralda had a crown, and it matched her soul.

Esmeralda strode into town with the glass vial in her pocketbook suspended from her shoulder. She walked through Chester Hill until she reached the cluster of armed guards who guarded the King. Esmeralda smiled at them. Then, she reached into her bag and pulled out the vial. The worn label read, Every Queen Needs Servants. She uncorked the bottle and threw it into the horde of guards and ducked into a cottage as the vial shattered on the street and sent up a plume of green smoke which enveloped all of the guards and the King's palace. As the smoke cleared, the guards bowed to Esmeralda as she passed by. She knew now that she had Chester Hill all to herself. Not even the guards could stop her since the green spell in the bottle Esmeralda had thrown had made them all her servants. That night, in her cross stitch, Esmeralda wove another bottle with red liquid and pulled it out. She smashed it on the coarse dirt outside her cottage and watched the night sky turn darker, the grass dim to black, and the trees wrinkle to purple, and the leaves wither to ebony. When the townsfolk woke up the next morning, they would find out that Esmeralda, witch of Chester Hill, was in charge.

Carrie shuddered at the thought. Esmeralda had turned Chester Hill into a fantasy, with the witch lording over all. She ordered everyone to call her Lady Esmeralda, or Queen Esmeralda, and changed the houses from light birch wood to dark oak, and the roofs were tar black. The plants slowly changed to briars, and the market slowly went out of business because people were afraid to leave their houses. Thick fog engulfed the ground up to people’s ankles and dark clouds blotted out the sun. She had to stop her and change the town back. But the only way to do that was to find the legendary Midnight Grove deep in the forest. It had a small patch of sparkling magic fennel that was the only thing powerful enough to subdue Esmeralda. But Carrie had wrapped herself in a cloak and snuck away after the curfew the witch had enforced, and fled towards the woods. It wasn't long until she ran into another figure.

Carrie gasped and grabbed a branch from a nearby tree. She held it like a baseball bat, ready to fend off the person. The shadow stepped into the faint moonlight dribbling from the thin gaps the trees had not blocked out. Carrie was at a loss for words.

“Timothy?”

Timothy stared at the girl in front of him with long, wavy, chocolate brown hair, dark blue eyes, and cloaked in shadows. “Why are you here?” Carrie said. 

“Why are you here?” He quizzed back. “I’m only here because-” he paused. “Because Lady Esmeralda had me exiled when I was out past curfew.” Carrie sat down and explained why she was in the woods, too. “I was coming home from school.” she began. “And it was really windy. The school had changed so all that was taught was about Esmeralda, and I was furious that we wouldn’t get to have our typical end of year project. Then a piece of old paper flew into my face. It was so old that it was yellow. It was a recipe from a seer who died in the forest. The seer must have seen that Esmeralda would become a terrible queen, so he had written the recipe in hopes he could stop her. The recipe will remove her from power and restore Chester Hill. I have all the ingredients except one. The magic fennel from the Midnight Grove.” 

“I’ll help you find it.”

Carrie stumbled over a violet log across a roaring dark green river. Timothy followed her. “I have terrible balance,” he admitted. Foam from the river splashed the log and made it slippery. Timothy pitched forwards, falling off the log and into the river. Carrie caught his hand and pulled him up before he disappeared into the muck. They stepped off the log, dripping green water. A pair of red eyes glinted hungrily. It was joined by four more pairs. Five wolves as black as soot stalked out of the underbrush. Their mouths watered at their next victims. The alpha howled, revealing yellow teeth as jagged as daggers. Timothy jumped back, almost falling into the river again, but Carrie knelt down. Back in Chester Hill, she had a talent with animals. She carefully laid out three salmon she had caught in a lake. The wolves sniffed it, and then devoured the salmon quickly. They made a soft rumbling sound, almost like a purr, and crept away. Timothy gaped. “How?” 

“Animals just understand me.” Carrie said quietly. Then she froze. The grass had turned from black to navy, and the trees grew thick and silver. “We made it to the Midnight Grove,” Carrie said, breathless. They quietly stepped inside.

Carrie bent down over the fennel. She yanked out the bulb and saw even the dirt stuck to the roots sparkled. A small shack made of silver wood was nestled in between two silver trees. The door was open, and there was a cauldron inside. Carrie stepped over to the cauldron and poured in some silver water from the stream by a patch of silver tulips. Slowly adding amethyst juice, twenty six red and yellow chrysanthemum petals, and shredded leather, Carrie stoked a fire under the cauldron and brought the mixture to a boil. The muddy steam blew into her eyes and made them water. Her face glistened with heat. Then slowly, she chopped up the fennel and slid it into the cauldron. She let it simmer and then squelched the fire, poured the potion into a canteen and raced outside to find Timothy. He was kneeling near the tulips where Carrie had collected the silver water. “Wish flowers,” he announced. “One wish to go back to Chester Hill and whoosh! We’ll be there and stop Esmeralda.” Both kids picked a flower. 

“I wish to go to the town square in Chester Hill.” they chorused. In a flash of silver, they were gone.

Carrie and Timothy appeared in the town square. They slowly tiptoed past the guards who protected the palace. Once in royal blue suits, now they wore black on black with gold badges. “Hey!” One barked. “Intruders!” 

“I’ll lead them off.” Timothy whispered and ran off with guards chasing. Some still stayed, and suddenly, the five wolves Carrie had fed in the forest jumped from the trees to help cause pandemonium. Carrie sprinted to the palace. Inside, the walls were decorated with murals of Esmeralda. Carrie slipped into the chef’s halls and heard yelling. Chef Yvonne strode up to her. “Betsy, honey, take Lady Esmeralda’s soup to her for dinner.” Carrie took the bowl, in a daze, and started to the throne room. The smell of the tomato and sour cream wafted from the soup and Carrie couldn’t help taking a few small sips out of hunger. Halfway there, she opened the canteen of silver liquid and poured it all into the soup. Then, she walked into the throne room and put the bowl in front of Queen Esmeralda. “Late again.” Esmeralda clicked her tongue. She lifted the gold spoon and put the soup in her mouth. After four bites, Carrie watched impatiently. Why isn’t it working! She wanted to scream. Did I do it wrong? Oh no! Then Esmeralda’s eyes widened and she screamed.

The sound of the scream echoed over Chester Hill. Esmeralda began to shrink and melt until she dissolved into nothing. All the spells reversed and a blast of silver light engulfed the town, changing the sky to blue, grass to green, and guards back to serving the King. Carrie and Timothy were heroes and saved the day.