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0-yezi-0 · 3 years ago

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The Secret Hut

Once upon a time there was a girl named Anika, who lived in a small village between a river and a forest. She lived with her parents and her twin brother. They were farmers.

Anika loved nature and the thrill of an adventure. As their house was next to the forest Anika spent her time there after school. She usually helps her father take care of the farm too.

Meanwhile, Arnav, Anika's twin brother, spent most of his time reading books and running errands, for his father, in town. He helped his mother sell the crops after the harvest.

One day Anika went to the forest as usual. She decided that she would go to the part of the forest which had the river cutting through it. Once she reached the river she sat down under a mango tree. She was panting from all the running she'd done.

After regaining a bit of her energy she went closer to the river and drank some water after washing her face. The hot summer sun shone down on her as she left the shade of the tree. The river was glistening under the sun, as a shiny object passed by. At first Anika thought the object had been a fish, but then she realized it wasn't. She rushed to pick up the object, but It slipped out of her grasp. On her second try she got it.

"Wow!" Anika was awe struck at the necklace she was now holding. It had a shiny silver chain with a big blue stone on it. Anika noticed that there were hinges on the stone, she realized that it was a locket and tried to open it. Due to her wet hand she couldn't.

She thought out aloud, "I should show this to Mama. She'd be able to open it.", she slowly got up, putting the locket in her pocket, "Arnav is going to regret not coming with me after he sees this." she sprinted through the forest and back to her house.

"Mama, mama! Look at what I found!" She burst into the house, the locket now dangling right and left in her hand.

"I'm in the kitchen Anika, and what have I told you about shouting in the house." Her mother scolded, but Anika couldn't care for her mother's scoldings right now, and screamed an apology out of habit.

"Ma, look at what I found! It was in the river." Anika said as she sat next to her mother who was making chapatis.

Her mother was shocked at the sight of such a big stone, "Go with your brother to the jeweler in the village close by. Arnav!", her mother called out and continued after the annoyed brother arrived, "Don't sell it, just ask him what stone it is. By the time you reach the village, it will be late. So stay with your grandma, and don't show her or anyone other than the jeweler the locket.", their mother ordered.

They both nodded, "Yes ma." and then left for the jeweler.

They ran all the way to the next town taking breaks along the way. By the time they reached, a bit of the sun was covered by distant trees. They made their way to the jeweler, the locket being in Anika's pocket the entire time. Arnav offered to keep it claiming that Anika would lose or drop it, but in the end Anika was the one who kept it.

When they entered, the jeweler put down the bracelet he was examining. He looked up at them and said, " Good afternoon, how may I help you?"

"We need you to check what stone this is." Arnav said as Anika gave the jeweler the locket. The jeweler looked at it carefully again and again.

After carefully looking at it he finally said something, "It's a diamond locket, it should've been made by someone extremely skilled. The price on it must be huge." he was trying to get the twins to sell the locket.

"No thanks." Anika said snatching the locket back and putting it in her pocket. They then started to go to their grandmother's house. There was an orange hue, you could only see half of the sun.

They knocked on the door of their grandmother's house. A lady with black and grey hair tied in a braid opened the door.

"Grandma!" Anika rushed to hug her grandmother.

Their grandma hugged Anika back and then asked, "What may you two be doing here?"

Anika was about to blurt out the truth when Arnav cut her off, "We wanted to visit you since it's summer vacation, but we need to go back tomorrow." Arnav gave Anika a look which said, remember what ma said.

"Well then, what are you doing there, come on in." Their grandma made her way to the kitchen, Anika and Arnav followed her.

"Can you tell us a story?" Anika asked,

"Of course, but first let's finish dinner." The twins helped their grandma make dinner and set up the table. They sat down and started to eat. The twins told their grandmother about what they've been doing, Arnav told her about the new books he read, while Anika told her about the new spots she found in the jungle.

After dinner they went to the bedroom, the twins sat on the opposite side of their grandmother waiting for her to start the story.

After the anticipation their grandmother finally started, "Once upon a time, in a land far away, there lived two twins, a girl and a boy. Both of them were constantly fighting and competing against each other. They lived with their mother in a small hut. Their mother was a witch, a good witch, she taught both of them magic. Their hut had been hidden with magic, both of them had two lockets which allowed them to see it. The mother had warned them not to tell the villagers in the village nearby about them.

But the girl didn't listen, she had fallen in love with a farmer boy and told him about them, both of them planned to run away. The twin brother overheard her and knew that their mother would punish her terribly if she were to find out. So the brother begged and pleaded for his sister not to go, terrified of losing her, but he didn't succeed.

The sister packed her bags and left the hut, but their mother had noticed and went after her. She found out about her and the farmer boy, growing red with rage she started to cast a curse on the boy. The curse was one where once put under it, their soul would leave their body.

But her son got in the way, the sister let out a screech as she processed what had happened. She picked up the necklace from her brother's body and put her brother's soul in it. Her brother's soul, because of the magic still in it, had burst out of the girl's hands and into the river nearby. The sister tried to take it out but failed.

A sister and mother mourned that day. The loss of the boy's soul." the grandmother concluded.

"Do they ever find the necklace again?" Anika asked,

"No" Her grandmother replied,

Arnav asked a question next, "What happened to them afterwards?"

"The mother and daughter reconcile. The daughter marries the farmer boy while the mother moves to the village nearby."

"What about the hut?" The twins asked together.

"The sister had merged her necklace with her brother's to keep his soul in it. Because of this she wasn't able to find the hut. The mother lost her magical powers after performing the curse as she broke her oath to never use her powers for evil, because of this she couldn't see the hut either. Both of them considered this for the best though. Now it's time to sleep you two, go on." the grandmother shooed both of them into bed and blew out the lamp and left the room.

"Do you think this locket is the necklace from the story?" Anika asked,

"And that mom and dad were the sister and farmer while grandma is the witch?" Arnav continued,

It was silent for a bit until Anika said, "We could try looking for the hut tomorrow." Arnav agreed and they both fell asleep instantly. The fatigue caught up to them after the day's events.

The next day they woke up early and had breakfast. They said goodbye to their grandmother and started their journey back, planning for their adventure.

Once they reached home they told their mother about the locket being made out of a diamond. After a lot of convincing she had let Anika keep it. They also decided to not tell their mother about the story their grandmother told them, or the reason they were going to the forest. Their mother gave them a tiffen before they left in case they got hungry.

Both of them then went to the forest, Anika was wearing the locket so that she would be able to spot the hut. While Arnav made sure she didn't drop it, and that she didn't trip, which she almost did eight times now.

After wandering around for what felt like forever, Anika suddenly stopped. Arnav didn't notice and continued walking. "Wait!" Anika shouted, grabbing Arnav's shoulder.

"Why?" Arnav asked, his eye twitching,

"Don't you see it!" Anika shouted, pointing at an opening. She looked like she'd gone mad.

"See what?"

"The hut!"

Arnav realized what Anika was trying to say and held the necklace, which was now in Anika's hand. Now that both of them were touching the necklace he could see it too.

"The magical hut!" Arnav corrected Anika.

"Let's go in." Anika ignored him and started to walk towards it, she and Arnav walking side-by-side now. It took some time for them to figure out how to get in but they did it. After going in, Arnav let go of the necklace.

The hut had collected dust over the years.

“We should clean this place up.” Arnav said.

“If we do, we could use this as our hangout place. But we need to make another necklace first.”

“How about we promise not to tell anyone about this place unless both of us agree?”

“Promise,” Anika help up her pinky finger,

“Seriously. Fine, promise.” Arnav interlocked his pinky finger with her’s, “Now let’s start cleaning.”

They found a few cleaning supplies and got to work. They expected them to clean by themselves, by magic, like in the books. But they didn’t. It took some time, but not too long since the hut was pretty small. There was a table there so they ate their tiffin before looking around the place.

Once you entered the hut there was a table with four chairs in the middle with a red carpet under it, there was a bookshelf on the left and a fireplace on the right. If you turn right after entering there was a door leading to the kitchen, opposite of that door there was another door leading to the bedroom. The bedroom had three beds all pushed apart. There was another door in the bedroom leading to the bathroom.

Arnav started to read books that were there. There were story books and books about magic. Anika searched the bedroom and found another necklace, which would have belonged to the mother. She also found a small pocket spell book. Or at least it looked small; in reality it had a thousand spells.

Before they knew it the sun was almost set. So they quickly rushed home. Luckily their mother was at the bazaar and their father had gone to fetch some water. They washed up and hid the stuff they found in a chest filled with their toys. Anika hid the other necklace she found there and the mini spell book while Arnav hid the potions book he found. They covered the items with toys.

As time went by, they confirmed their theory about their mother and father being the sister and the farmer boy, while their grandmother was the witch. They also found out that their mother was just like Arnav while their Uncle, the brother, was just like Anika. They figured this out because of a diary their uncle had written and left there. They also found out that their uncle’s name was Ravi.

It had been a week since they found the diary and they decided to go to the hut. They told their mother that they would eat lunch in the forest and asked for a tiffin. Their mother was suspicious of them going to the forest together, she knew Anika was like that but Arnav usually stayed home. But she didn’t say anything since they seemed to be getting along better.

They were checking out spells and potions as usual when they stumbled upon a spell which would allow them to speak to the souls which were still on Earth without their bodies. They decided to try it with their uncle. Lucky for them their grandmother had stored many things for spells and potions, so they didn’t need to find anything. It took around an hour for them to set up everything and make sure it was perfect.

They started the spell.

The necklace started to glow, and as they continued it glowed brighter and brighter. The necklace was in the middle of the circle they had made, while they were outside the circle.

After they finished the spell a big cloud of grey smoke spread across the room. The necklace had popped open. The twins coughed as the smoke cleared out, leaving a boy that resembled their mother when she was a child.

“You must be Anika and Arnav right?” The boy, Ravi, asked,

“Yes, I’m Arnav and she’s Anika. You must be Ravi, our mother’s brother.” Arnav responded,

“I am. I have been watching both of you through the necklaces ever since you found it.” Ravi said.

“Is there a way to put you back in your body?” Anika asked,

“No. Speaking of which, I need you to release me from this necklace.” Ravi said,

“But wouldn’t you die?” Arnav said,

“I would, but I don’t want to be trapped in a necklace for the rest of eternity. A spell can only be undone by the person who cast it or one of their descendants. Since you are your mother’s descendant, you should be able to release me.” Ravi explained,

“We’ll do it, but what do we need?” Anika said, Arnav thinking about what Ravi had said and wondering how it might’ve been just floating along a river all these years,

“It is in the pocket spell book you found. Just tell the book what spell you need. In this case it would be a soul trapping spell. Hold the book and just say soul trapping spell. It will show you the spell.” Ravi guided Anika through it. She had almost dropped the book as it started to turn on its own.

Anika read what it said, while Arnav was reading it over her shoulder. At the end of the page it said;

For spell reversal: You need the paste of a tadpole's tail and a frog’s eye. Apply it on the object and then recite the words of the spell backwards.

Ravi had also read what was on the page and said, “When it says words of the spell backwards it means for example, the duck was sitting. So you need to say sitting was a duck then. If it said letters of the spell backwards you need to say gnittis saw kcud eht. If it says the sentence of the spell backwards then the example would be, John sat down on the bed. He felt extremely tired. You’d need to say, he felt extremely tired. John sat down on the bed.” Anika listened attentively while Arnav went to make the tadpole tail and frog’s eye paste.

Anika practiced saying the spell a few times until Arnav came back. By now the spell that allowed them to speak to souls had worn off, and their uncle was now back in the locket. Arnav spread the paste on the locket and gave it to Anika. She started to recite the spell. The locket started to glow along the hinges Anika had first noticed when she found it. The locket popped into two necklaces after Anika recited the spell. They saw a blue ball float upwards into the sky. As it was about to go through the roof they whispered their goodbyes and thank yous.

They ate their lunch in silence thinking about what had happened. About whether they should have done it or not? About whether they should tell their mother everything? About whether their mother knew that their uncle was trapped in it and if she did, why she had told them not to show the necklace to their grandmother?

But the answers to those questions aren’t meant to be in this story. For this is where the tale of the Secret Hut ends.

#story #original story #short story #fantasy #witch #magic #twins #secret #family #mystery

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