Fate Orb: The Witch Sisters

Chapter 3
Brenda's Orphanage

Background: During a time of war and chaos in an age of knights and wizards, a group of priests used all their powers to create an object, which would control the chaos and create a balance between the good and evil in the world. It was called the Fate Orb. Its purpose was to control the fates of all the people in the world and make sure that no doer of goods deed goes unrewarded and no evil actions are left unpunished. But due to some unknown reasons, the methods of punishment and reward became a little peculiar. As the priests perished soon after its creation was complete, no one knew how it was created, where it is located or how to destroy it. The world was not the same after that.

Time: Morning, 205 years after the creation of the Fate Orb.

Location: Brenda’s orphanage at The Village of Mossy Rocks at the Western edge of the Great Forest in the Eastern Continent.

Vynnie looked around. From the height she was being held at, she could see most of the room. There were small kids all around. All of them were older than her. There was no adult around except Gyrina who was carrying Vynnie. All the kids were curiously looking at Gyrina and Vynnie. They were drawing attention because of the way Gyrina was dressed - in a long black robe with hood. The kids were probably thinking she was some kind of witch - they were not far from the truth.

Vynnie had been brought here, because she kept getting into fights with Cindy who was one year younger than her. The witch sisters kept warning them that they would send one of them to an orphanage if they don’t behave. Vynnie always hoped that Cindy got to be the one to go. During their last fight, they knocked some bottles off the table and damaged a lot of the experiments the witches were working on. The experiments involved water from the recently discovered Fountain of Youth and it had caused the two of them to regress by three more years. So, Vynnie was now two years old again. And what’s worse the witch sisters had finally decided to send her off to this orphanage. All the kids here are older than her. She was reluctant to come to begin with and was whining and pleading. Now that they were here, she was starting to get scared.

Gyrina carried Vynnie to the counter. After a while, a woman three times the size of Gyrina came out of the next room and greeted them with a irritation in her tone which was not hidden by her smile. "I’m Brenda, what do you want?"

"I’m here to put this baby into your orphanage." Gyrina said without any introduction.

Brenda looked at Vynnie with a glow in her eyes, which could be easily mistaken for a glare. She gets more funds for taking care of babies. Vynnie could not bear her intimidating stare. She turned away and hid her face in Gyrina’s shoulders. She was feeling embarrassed. She could not understand this one fact - she had been regressed so many times, but she still feels humiliated every time it is repeated. She whined in a very low voice, "I’m sowwy, pwease don’t leawe me heah." Gyrina just smiled and tapped Vynnie softly on her butt.

"Is she your daughter?" Brenda asked.

"No, she’s my little sister." Gyrina emphasized on the word ’little’.

"Sister huh? That young? Well, where’s her mother? She isn’t going to come for her, is she?"

"No, don’t worry about it, she is not coming back. She had enough of her children."

Vynnie noticed the sarcasm in Gyrina’s voice. She wanted to scream out that she was the mother, but she just hugged Gyrina more tightly and said in an even lower voice, "Pwease, I’m sowwy."

Brenda said in a slightly more excited tone, "I wouldn’t blame her. Children are a menace unless you know how to handle them. I’m the second most dangerous woman in these parts after Vynira the witch, but since she’s gone now..." A genuine smile came across Brenda’s lips. "And I know how to discipline kids, don’t I kids?"

"YES, MA’AM." The kids said in one voice.

Gyrina was trying to keep herself from laughing. She could guess how Vynnie was feeling being reminded of her former self. She would learn her lesson well if she stays with this woman for a while.

Satisfied with the kids’ responses, Brenda said to Gyrina, “Alright, just fill out this form and sign your name, and then leave the baby.”

Gyrina took the form and placed it on the table. Vynnie was put beside the form. She couldn’t understand what was written on it; she wasn’t paying attention to it either. She tugged Gyrina’s robes, while she filled out the form. Vynnie was slowly beginning to cry. Gyrina completely ignored her. After signing her name, Gyrina handed the form and Vynnie over to Brenda. Vynnie tried to hold on to Gyrina, but wasn’t strong enough. She was now being held firmly by the huge Brenda, who tried to calm her down in a voice that lacked sincerity. Vynnie watched Gyrina walk out of the door and began to cry loudly. The moment Gyrina was out of sight, Brenda’s voice became stern. She called out, “Miranda!”

A girl of about 25 came out of the back room. Vynnie was handed over to Miranda.

“Take this new nuisance and put her to sleep or something. I don’t want any noise in the morning today. Got that?”

“Yes, Ma’am.” Miranda said. She gently rocked Vynnie trying to calm her down while she carried her to the next room. “Shhh, it’s ok. Don’t cry anymore.”

Vynnie found Miranda’s way of holding her very comforting. She actually felt a little safe and relaxed and started to calm down. She instinctively buried her face in Miranda’s breast.

As the sound of the crying died down, Brenda beckoned the kids in the room to come closer. She took out a sack from behind the counter and asked, "Marcy, how much did this one have?"

An 10-year-old red-haired girl, the eldest amongst the kids, took out a pouch of coins and handed it over to Brenda. Brenda took a long time opening the pouch and then counted the money. She didn’t seem too happy with the amount, and that was causing the kids to get more and more frightened every second. Brenda put the pouch into the sack and growled, "What else?"

One boy took out a blue bottle filled with a clear liquid and a smaller boy produced a small container of what looked like seeds. They handed them over to Brenda who put them in the sack. She seemed annoyed. "Is that all?"

Marcy looked around at the other kids and said, "Y-Yes Ma’am."

"Tommy! Are you hiding anything?"

The smaller boy shook his head while his eyes became twice their original sizes. Brenda came over to Tommy and hung him upside down and started shaking him. After a while, seeing that nothing had come out of his clothes, Brenda put the sobbing Tommy back on the ground. Tommy ran over to Marcy and buried his face in her belly. Brenda tried to shake more things out of the other kids, but none of them had anything else. Frustrated she started mumbling, "Why can’t they keep something other than garbage on themselves? Why is it always the poor one who bring in their babies?"

After she was finished with the children, they moved to the corners of the room, while Brenda examined the contents of the sack. She opened the bottle and tried to identify the contents by their smell. There was none, so she assumed it was water. The seeds looked like something one can obtain from plants growing on the roadsides. Except for the money, everything looked totally useless to her. She was about to take out her anger on the children, but was interrupted by a knock on the door.

It was a very familiar knock, and realizing who it might be, Brenda quickly put the sack away. The door opened, and a 25-year-old girl walked in. A look of joy appeared on each of the children’s faces. Brenda tried to form another smile on her lips and said, "Miss Nina, what a surprise!"

Nina replied, "Hello children. Hello Brenda."

"HELLO MISS NINA" the children said all together with smiles on their faces.

"How is everyone today? What’s wrong Tommy?"

A smile has formed on Tommy’s tear stained face. He ran over to Nina. Brenda came over as quickly as she could, and gave Tommy a hug, which almost suffocated him. Before Tommy could say anything, Brenda said, "Oh the poor thing fell down while playing with the other kids."

Nina lowered herself while Brenda let Tommy go. Tommy put his arms around Nina and started crying. "Aww, Tommy. It’s ok. It’s going to be ok. I’m here." Nina tried to calm Tommy down.

Brenda suppressed her anger and started thinking of the different ways to punish Tommy after Nina leaves, but her face did not show that. As Tommy calmed down, Nina slowly handed him over to Marcy and got up. “Brenda how is everything? Any new child?”

“Yes Miss Nina, one of them was brought in just this morning by her sister. A lovely two year old girl.”

“Two year old! That’s a mere baby. Were they so poor that they can’t take care of a baby?”

Brenda tried to form a sad expression on her face. “I’m afraid they are, Miss Nina. The poor girl was dressed in rags only and was begging me to take her sister in. She also loves her baby sister a lot. It was heartbreaking to watch her tear herself away from the little thing. I don’t understand why fate has to be so cruel to these innocent souls.” Brenda pretended to wipe away tears from her eyes. The kids did not dare say anything.

“Where is she?”

“Miranda is putting her to sleep in the back room.”

Nina walked towards the back room. Brenda gave a stern glance at the children that meant, “do not make a sound”, and followed after Nina. Baby Vynnie had calmed down by then and was quietly sucking on her bottle on Miranda’s lap. She looked at Nina when she approached, but did not react. When her eyes caught the sight of the approaching Brenda behind Nina, Vynnie grabbed onto Miranda’s dress tightly and looked a little scared. It did not escape Nina’s eyes, but she did not say anything about it.

Miranda smiled at Nina. Nina sat down on the bed beside her and said, “She’s a pretty baby.” Miranda only smiled. Nina continued, “Could you give her to me for a moment?” Miranda handed Vynnie over to Nina. The baby did not protest, but started glancing now and then at Brenda who was standing nearby.

A moment of silence passed before Brenda said, “Yes, she is a very pretty baby. I’m sure she will grow up to be a wonderful child. I’m going to take care of her and make sure she does.” Brenda approached Nina and seeing that the baby got a little agitated and clung tightly to Nina’s dress. Nina said quickly, “Brenda, did you talk to the builders yet about fixing that roof?”

“Yes Miss Nina, of course I have. They’ll be coming around any day now. I’ve also talked about building that extra room for the children. But they want a lot of money for it. They just don’t seem to have any feelings for the poor unfortunate children.”

“Is the last fund all used up already? Did the children lose some money again by ?accident’?” Nina said with no surprise and a bit of sarcasm in her voice.

“I’m afraid the expenses were more this month Miss Nina. Since little Tommy was put in, I had to spend some extra. I want to keep the children as comfortable as possible. It breaks my heart to think why fate has been so cruel to them.”

Brenda was about to start crying again, so Nina quickly said, “Do you have the bills for last month? I’d like to see them.” Brenda started leaving the room. Just before she reached the door, Nina added, “And bring the ones for this month as well.” Brenda left the room trying to hide her irritation.

When Nina was sure that Brenda was out of hearing range, she asked, “Miranda, are the children really alright?”

“I don know what you mean, Miss Nina.” Miranda answered without looking at Nina.

“You know what I mean. A lot of money is sent here to improve the children’s health and lives, but the only person whose health seems to improve more than necessary is Brenda. And I’m certain that a part of the money goes to the local authorities as well. You’re not being kept well either, why can’t you help us, at least for the children’s sake?” Nina tried to watch Miranda as she spoke, but Miranda kept hiding her face.

She finally said still with her face turned away, “I don know what you’re talking about Miss Nina.”

This time Nina gave up more quickly than before. She did not ask any more questions to Miranda. Brenda came in a moment later with the bills, a lot of which were fakes.

When Nina had finished examining the bills and had left the room, Miranda began to think about what Nina said. She can’t make herself go against Brenda, not because she had lived with Brenda since she was seven, but because she was still afraid of the giant woman who could lift her up like a twig and beat her while she cried helplessly. The fact that Miranda was 25 years old did not reduce her fear one bit. She really wanted to help the children, but her fear did not allow her to be an adult. She felt like she was one of the children.

Nina spent some more time with the children. When it was time for her to leave, the spark in the children’s eyes started to loose its glow again. Some of them hugged her tightly and she tried to keep them from crying by reassuring them that she would come back very soon. When Marcy hugged her, Nina whispered into her ear, “Marcy, if you meet a little blue eyed girl, trust in what she says.” The confused Marcy stared into Nina’s blue pair of eyes and wondered what she meant, but she did not ask anything. Saying goodbye to the children and glancing at Brenda, Nina left the orphanage. She had decided to carry out the only method left for catching Brenda red-handed.

Some of the children stared at Nina through the windows as she went towards the center of the village. After Brenda was sure that Nina was out of hearing range, she walked over to the windows and shut them. Then she picked up Tommy and hit him hard on his backside. He started crying immediately. Brenda growled, “If you whine that much when she comes back again, I’ll hit you so hard that you won’t be able to sit or walk for weeks. Do you understand?” Tommy nodded. Brenda put him down, and he ran over to Marcy again. Brenda screamed at everyone, “All of you go inside your rooms. I don’t want to hear one single noise today. Whoever makes a sound will go into the box.”

Nina entered the small inn at the middle of the village. She smiled and nodded at the innkeeper before walking up the stairs towards the room she rented. A 28-year old wizard with blonde hair and brown eyes was waiting for her in the room with an open book in front of him. When Nina entered, the wizard closed the book and enquired in a light tone, “What did you find out?”

“No hard evidence yet.” Nina said as she sat on the bed, sounding slightly disappointed. The wizard sat beside her and put his arm around her shoulder.

“Don’t worry, you’ll find out soon enough. I’m sure you will.”

Nina put her head on his chest and wrapped her arms around him. “I’m glad it has turned out this way. Now I have an excuse to catch her red-handed. Luc, thanks for all your support.”

“It’s my pleasure Nina.” Luc said. As Nina looked up, he lowered his head and kissed her. “It really is my ?pleasure’.” Luc smiled.

“It’s all about that, isn’t it?” Nina said while trying to conceal her smile.

“C’mon, don’t tell me that you hate it. I’m sure you enjoy it as much as I do.”

“No, I don’t enjoy it as much as you do.” Nina looked away and blushed.

“You can’t hide it from me. I know you like it, maybe not as much as me, but you still like it. That’s why you chose to do things this way.” Luc insisted.

“This is only work, Luc.”

“Volunteer work.” Luc corrected.

Nina laughed, “We won’t get anything done if we argue all day.”

Luc smiled but did not say anything further. Nina started taking out magical items from a bag and placing them on a table. Luc arranged the items and prepared a blue liquid mixture. He poured some of the mixture from a flask into a vial. Nina took the vial and drank all of the content. A glow formed around Nina and slowly her body started changing. Luc smiled at her and shook the flask, “There’s still some left.”

Nina winked and said, “That’s for you after I come back.”

Luc smiled, “We’ll see who its really for.”

Nina giggled and moved towards a mirror. Her clothes felt loose already. She looked in the mirror to find her twenty-year-old-self staring back at her. Slowly she went passed her teenager hood and her clothes felt like a tent. When the changes stopped, Nina looked at the seven-year-old girl in the mirror and smiled and blushed at the same time. Luc noticed her expression and said, “Hmm, what were you saying about not liking it?”

“Oh stop it.” Nina said in her high pitched voice and blushed even more. “Give me those clothes.” She pointed at some old torn child’s clothes lying on the bed. Luc picked them up and walked over to little Nina. Nina looked at the tall figure of her boyfriend and blushed again. Luc took off Nina’s old clothes from her body. Nina gasped and tried to cover herself with her small arms. “What are you doing!”

Luc smiled, “Its ok, Nina, I’ve seen you naked lots of times.”

“This is different.” Nina said blushing even more.

“Don’t worry Nina, little girls don’t have anything to hide.” Luc said while trying to put the small clothes on Nina.

“Oh Luc, you’re impossible. We’ll do this sometime later, not now.”

“Ok ?baby’. Whenever you want. My God, you look so cute!”

Nina blushed again and sighed, “You’ll be in big trouble mister, when I do this to you.”

Luc smiled, “I just can’t wait.” The torn clothes were put on Nina and they fit well.

After a while, Luc and Nina were walking towards Brenda’s orphanage. Luc was covered with rags and a cloak with his face hidden from by-standers. Nina, dressed in rag-like clothing, was trying to look as miserable as possible. Luc’s hands were charmed to look as if he did not have anything to eat for days. He used those hands to knock on the door. It was answered by Miranda. Miranda was shocked when she looked at Luc and how his hands were shaking. Even Nina was surprised by how convincing Luc’s acting was. Luc pointed at Nina with his shriveled hand and begged, “Please take this child into your care. Soon she will have no one in this world. May the Lord bless you. Please give her some shelter.”

Luc kept begging until Miranda spoke, “Wait here. I’ll be back.” Miranda went towards the back rooms. Nina looked inside to see that the front room was empty. The children were nowhere to be seen. She could hear Brenda telling something to Miranda in a very loud voice, a voice she had never used in Nina’s presence before.

Luc said, “If anything happens, just send a signal. I’ll be watching from the inn.” Nina nodded.

Miranda came back looking a little shaken. She spoke in a low voice “You can leave her here. You just have to fill a form.” She paused. “Can you write?” Luc said nothing. Miranda did not wait long for an answer. “I can fill it for you.”

Luc thanked her and loudly prayed that all the people in the orphanage be blessed. Nina started crying and Miranda had to pull her away from Luc while trying to keep her from crying too loudly. Luc left and disappeared quickly. Miranda was getting afraid that the crying would disturb Brenda. She was disturbed once, and had only agreed to let this new child stay because she did not want anything to go wrong while Nina was in the village. If the crying woke her from her sleep, then she would probably not care about Nina’s presence anymore.

Miranda carried the new child to the next room, which had all the children in it. Nina slowly calmed down. Miranda was relieved. She put her next to the bed on which four children were sitting. “Don’t be sad anymore. See, you have so many friends here. Are you hungry?” Nina shook her head saying no. Miranda was a little surprised but was also relieved at the same time. “Alright, then you can lie on the bed with your new friends, but don’t cry anymore. Just let me know if you are hungry. I’ll be in that room over there.” Miranda pointed to one of the back rooms. Nina nodded and Miranda put her on the bed and hesitantly left the room.

Nina was sitting next to Tommy and another slightly older girl called Lulu. They were both looking at her. She could also see the other children around the room looking curiously at her with Marcy at the far corner. Tommy whispered, “What’s your name?”

Nina did not decide on a name yet, so she stuttered a bit and said, “I... Its... My name is Meena.” It did not come out as a whisper, so all the children gasped.

Tommy put his fingers to his lips and said, “Shhh. Don’t talk to loudly. Brenda will hear you.”

Nina was glad she was already making progress. “Who’s Brenda?”

Tommy looked too scared to talk. Lulu whispered, “She is scary and mean. She punishes us.”

“Why? Do you do bad things?” Nina asked in a low voice trying to sound scared.

“No. She punishes us because she gets angry. My father used to do the same thing to my mother. He would come back at night being very angry and beat my mother. He would beat me too.” Lulu stopped talking.

Tommy whispered, “She is angry today because the lady who came in the morning with the baby, did not have much money with her. Brenda makes us take things from people who come here, but today she did not get much. So she is angry.”

Nina was shocked.

A 9-year-old boy called Max sitting next to Lulu whispered, “No. She is angry because Miss Nina is here. She always has to act nice when Miss Nina is here.”

“Wh-Who is Miss Nina?” Nina asked.

Tommy answered, “She is a very nice person. She is very nice to us.”

Lulu said, “She also knows magic.”

Max said, “No she doesn’t. If she did she would know that Brenda is mean to us.”

Lulu protested, “She does know magic. Everyone at the city knows magic. That’s what my mommy used to tell me.”

Nina’s voice was quivering, “Why didn’t anyone tell Miss Nina that Brenda is mean?”

Tommy said, “If we do then Brenda will put us in the box. She puts someone in the box when she is very angry. Its dark and scary inside the box.” Tommy shivered a little.

Nina was shocked and afraid. She did not imagine the situation was so terrible. She was finding it hard to control her emotions at this age. Her face was pale and tears were rolling down her cheeks. By this time, Marcy had walked up to the bed from the far corner. She told the three kids, “Stop scaring her like that. She just came here.” Tommy, Lulu and Max became quiet. Marcy told Nina, “Don’t worry. If you stay quiet, it’s going to be alright.” Nina felt the urge to put her arms around Marcy. Marcy could sense it and so she reached out and hugged Nina. As Nina came close, Marcy noticed that she had blue eyes. Nina hugged Marcy and felt relaxed and safe. The intensity of her emotions started to decrease.

Cindy was having the time of her life. With Vynnie gone, she was getting more space and feeling more relaxed. There was no constant fear of being bullied. She would enjoy it even more after she had become older. Being only one year old, she couldn’t move that much. She hoped that Vynnie was going to stay away permanently. She also hoped that the witch sisters would continue quarrelling with each other like they were doing now. She heard them say that the quarrels might allow the Fate Orb to use them against each other. If that happened, Cindy might be freed from this life and might be lucky enough to grow up in a normal family away from all the black magic. However, she was also afraid that the witch sisters would destroy each other and she would be left all alone in the middle of the forest. Cindy stopped thinking about it. Thinking about complex things like these usually put a lot of pressure on her young mind.

The witch sisters were arguing about the recent loss of materials caused by the activities of Cindy and Vynnie. Gyrina had still not returned from the village. Katria was not supportive about sending Vynnie to the orphanage. She thought that it would be a cruel decision for which the Fate Orb might come after them. She was agreeable when it was decided that Vynnie would be kept there temporarily only to teach her a lesson. Katria was worried that the Fate Orb might have done something to Gyrina while she was at the village and it might come after them very soon.

The other three wanted to get rid of both the babies so that there were no more problems like this in the future. They had not carried that out because Katria thought it might draw the Fate Orb’s attention even more. Drusina thought that Katria was overreacting and that sending the babies off to some orphanage would not be such an unfair thing to do since both the babies were very cruel people as adults. Although there was no known method of measuring the magnitude of good or evil involved with a certain act, Drusina was quite confident about it.

To Lygine, it did not matter what decision was made about the babies. She did not think it would be a cruel act if the orphanage were a good one. Over the last three years she had noticed that they were following the same path that their mother did. They were trying to be very powerful. Although Lygine was interested in it at first, she had thought about it over the years and had understood that it was not worth it. The only powerful people who are still standing are on the good side. She tried to convince her sisters to stop trying to achieve power in this way, but it was no use. Now she was worried that the Fate Orb will strike them while they were quarrelling with each other. She supported the sending away of the babies because she thought it might help to decrease the tension between the sisters and give them a better chance of avoiding the Fate Orb. While Katria and Drusina argued, Lygine kept quiet trying to think of a way to stop the argument.

The situation got worse when Gyrina arrived. Gyrina did not seem to care much about the Fate Orb or the quarrels. She believed that she had received the worst treatment from her mother all her life, and for that reason the Fate Orb would not bother with her too much. She had already tried out some small evil acts on people she met in the forest, but received nothing from the Fate Orb. That had confirmed her belief. Now she just had to figure out the correct balance between her different actions to avoid the influence of the Fate Orb. If that was successful, she can roam around the whole world, doing small evil acts, and the Fate Orb would do nothing to stop her.

Gyrina walked into the house and headed towards her room ignoring the whole quarrel. She kept walking until Katria called out to her. “Gyrina! What took you so long? Where did you go?”

Gyrina turned around casually and answered, “Where else? I just put little Vynnie in the orphanage.”

Drusina asked, “Were they convinced?”

“Yes, why won’t they be?” Gyrina smirked, stroking the big blue jewel on her necklace.

Drusina said victoriously, “See? I told you. There’s nothing to worry about.”

Katria’s felt relieved for a moment, but Drusina’s comment did not reduce her anger. She was about to say something to Drusina, when she noticed Gyrina’s necklace. “Where did you get that?”

Gyrina smiled, “Oh this?” She paused just to annoy her sister, smiled again and said “Its an interesting story. A love story actually.”

Drusina had noticed the necklace by then. The volume of Katria’s voice went up with impatience and anger, “Where did you get it? Where did you even get the money for it?”

“Sister, you assume right away that I had bought such a pretty thing? Do you really think there’s a jeweler in this region capable of working with such a large jewel?” Gyrina said with a irritating calmness in her voice.

“Then where did you get it? What kind of jewel is that?” Katria was almost shouting.

Gyrina took a deep breath. “Well, it all started when I was about to enter the forest. I saw a young couple trying to be stealthier than I was. They were walking along the same path. Curiosity made me follow them deep into the forest. I was being very careful. They did not have any idea that they were being followed. Well, they were so very involved with each other, that they hardly noticed anything else. Oh, their young love was just overflowing into the surrounding. She had such a delicious toy to play with....”

“Get to the point! What does this have to do with anything?” Katria looked like she was about to burst with anger.

“Alright, alright. There’s no reason to be so impatient, sister.” Gyrina smiled again. “I found out soon that they were eloping. The boy had just sneaked the girl out of her father’s house. They were going ?far and away’. That’s what they said. Ah, such is the power of true love.” The sarcasm was very obvious in Gyrina’s voice. “The boy did not look like he was good enough for any real work and the girl was na?ve and innocent. I just could not let them make such a big mistake.” Gyrina smirked stroking the jewel again.

Katria became a little concerned at this point. “What did you do?”

“Oh, nothing much.” Gyrina’s tone sharply contrasted Katria’s. “I just turned the girl into a naked stone statue in a seductive pose and left her in the forest. And I changed the pretty boy into this pretty necklace.”

Katria was furious. “Do you realize what you have done? Have you forgotten about the Fate Orb? Are you going to get us all into trouble?”

Drusina found it hard to disagree with Katria this time. Gyrina had gone really far this time.

Gyrina was totally unconcerned. “Don’t worry, they’re only temporary. By tonight, both of them will turn back into human. Then she would run back to her father like a good girl and I will leave the boy at the village before he turns back. And he is not conscious right now, so you don’t have to worry about him knowing about our secret little home. Tell me this. Doesn’t he make a pretty necklace?”

Katria did not say anything. Drusina nodded after a while, “Well, if that’s the case, I don’t think there’s anything to worry about. I mean it wasn’t that evil a thing to do.”

“What’s wrong with you?” Katria shouted at Drusina. “How far does she have to go before you stop supporting her? I am not going to put up with this. Just because you don’t have the brains to understand that the Fate Orb may strike through things like these, doesn’t mean I have to suffer along with you as well.”

Drusina shot back, “Oh, now you’re the smarter one, just because you can do some more lousy spells than I can?”

“Its not about how many spells we can do...” Katria started.

Gyrina did not wait to hear the rest. She went to the next room. Cindy was lying in the crib. She looked at Gyrina as she entered the room. She was concerned again about the sisters fighting amongst each other. She wanted to express her fear about being left alone in case the Fate Orb acts on the sisters. Gyrina walked over to the crib. “Hello baby, I just left your playmate at the village orphanage. She has a big nasty woman taking care of her now. You should consider yourself the lucky one.”

Cindy wanted to tell Gyrina about her concerns, but only managed to babble.

“Aww, does wittle Cindy want to say something?” Gyrina tickled Cindy while the baby giggled and thrashed her limbs about helplessly. “Just wait another year or so, you’ll remember how to talk again.” After Gyrina stopped tickling, Cindy decided not to make any more efforts to communicate with Gyrina, as it might provoke her to tickle her more. Tickling is something Cindy hated since she was mercilessly tickled and regressed by her lover three years ago. Gyrina moved away from the crib. Cindy put her thumb in her mouth. To comfort herself, she had started thinking again that she will be freed rather than left alone, when the Fate Orb strikes the witch sisters.

Gyrina went to her room. She spent the next hour modifying her outfits and trying them on. She focused mainly on whatever seemed to go with her new necklace. Drusina called her after an hour. She reluctantly put on her robe again and went to the central room. She found Katria performing a mapping spell - a spell that would help them create a map of the region surrounding the Fountain of Youth. The map would point out the positions of the wizards and witches who are currently surveying the area. Katria planned to get more samples of the water from the Fountain of Youth. Katria was standing in the middle of a circle drawn onto the floor. She was chanting. As Gyrina approached the circle, Drusina asked her, “Give her the seeds now.”

Gyrina reached into her robes and searched for a while. Her expression of indifference changed into a look of concern momentarily, “They’re not here. I must have dropped them somewhere.”

Katria lost her concentration and looked at her suddenly. “What?” Katria’s sudden reaction created a disturbance in the spell. The circle became distorted and the ground shook violently for a few seconds. Katria and Drusina lost their balance and fell on the floor and some containers got knocked over from the tables. Katria did not seem to be bothered much by the fall. She glared at Gyrina and said, “What do you mean you dropped them?”

Gyrina looked through her robes again. “Actually, I think I lost my money and the bottle as well.”

Katria was furious. “How can you drop all three items?”

“I don’t know.” Gyrina was indifferent again. Then she frowned. “Hmm, maybe there was a pickpocket. I couldn’t have dropped all three items on the way.”

“You went into a crowded place! How many times have I told you to be careful?”

“Hmm, I didn’t go into a crowded place. The only people I came into contact with were the...” Gyrina’s voice trailed off making Katria become impatient again.

Brenda jumped up when the earthquake hit the orphanage. She heard some noise in the kitchen and a few things got knocked over all throughout the house. She was startled at first, but soon became irritated due to the disturbance. The baby started crying. She heard some of the children scream because of the quake and most of her anger became targeted towards them.

She came out of her room and entered the kitchen. She found Miranda hastily trying to fix the mess in the kitchen. She didn’t say anything. It was the second earthquake that had taken place recently and she did not find it very odd. Some wizards have been investigating something nearby and Brenda assumed they caused the earthquake. The baby was still crying. Brenda shouted at Miranda and told her to go silence the baby. There was still some sound coming from the children’s room. Brenda walked in that direction.

The children gasped once and then became dead silent when they saw Brenda. Nina saw Brenda for the first time after becoming a child. She had never seen Brenda’s anger before and she felt very intimidated by it. Brenda shouted at them, “Didn’t I say that I don’t want to hear ANY noise today?” The kids trembled a bit and stared at her with fear in their eyes. All of them were dreading the thought of being put in the box. Brenda looked around and spotted Nina. Nina found herself to be too scared to look at Brenda directly. She was wondering whether coming here like this was a good idea or not.

“Who’s this?” Brenda asked with the same annoyance in her voice.

Nina didn’t say anything. Marcy answered, “Um... she’s Meena. She was brought in this morning.”

“Another cursed stomach to feed!” Brenda growled. Nina had underestimated Brenda. She was having trouble deciding on what to do. She wanted to run off to Luc. She just managed to stay still while Brenda approached her. “Did she have anything on her?”

Marcy stuttered, “N-No she didn’t. W-we didn’t see her being brought in and...”

Brenda didn’t listen to her anymore. She picked up Nina and made her stand on the bed. Nina started sobbing. Brenda searched Nina’s clothes and found a small vial filled with a clear liquid. Nina realized in horror that it was the emergency antidote she had brought with her. She completely forgot about it till now. All she needed to do was to drink it and she would come back to her normal age again, but she could not make herself take it from Brenda. Brenda let go of Nina, and grumbling to herself walked away with the vial.

After Brenda left, Marcy came near Nina to check whether she was alright or not. Nina looked scared and confused. Marcy hugged her again to calm her down. After a while, Nina started to think clearly again. She came up with a plan. She had to get that vial away from Brenda and use it to restore her age. After that there would not be anything to worry about. However, she would not be able to do it alone. She would have to convince Miranda to help her.

By noon, Brenda’s mood improved and the children came out of their room. Brenda was walking around ignoring them completely. Nina kept watching her to find out where she had kept her vial. She figured that it would either be at the front desk, or inside Brenda’s room, but she did not manage to confirm it. The perfect opportunity arrived when Brenda decided to go into the kitchen to help with the cooking. She seemed to be very concerned to get it done properly. Nina heard from the kids that Brenda always made sure that the food was good enough for her taste and so she spent sometime in the kitchen before every meal. Nina could not take Miranda’s help, because she was with Brenda in the kitchen. So Nina decided to take Marcy’s help instead, as she was the eldest among the children. Nina took Marcy back to the bedroom and made sure that no one else was there. Marcy did not understand why the new girl was acting this way, but she went along.

Nina had trouble figuring out how to start. Finally, she started by surprising Marcy by mentioning about what her adult form had told Marcy in the morning. As Marcy got reminded it, she was not only shocked because the little girl knew about it, but also she was surprised that she had blue eyes resembling Nina’s. The questions that arose in her mind prepared her to some extent for the next surprise. As Nina slowly explained who she really was, how she did this and why she needs her help, Marcy’s initial shock died down.

After Marcy realized what was really going on, she was overjoyed. Someone had finally come to save them from Brenda. She had always wished that Nina would find the truth about Brenda, but never managed to tell her out of fear. Now that Nina knew about it and was trying to help them, she was completely sure that they would be saved. She agreed with Nina that it was the perfect chance to go into Brenda’s room, if that had to be done. She also began to tell Nina about all the places where Brenda hides her original papers to conceal the money she had been spending on herself. At the same time, Marcy pointed out that the vial might be hidden at one of those spots.

Without letting anyone know, Marcy and Nina, sneaked into Brenda’s room. They thought that involving more of the children into this would make it look suspicious. They just wanted to find the vial, keeping their actions as less conspicuous as possible. . They removed their shoes and tiptoed into the room. They went directly for Brenda’s main hiding spots. Nina found a lot of papers there, which were hard evidences supporting all of Brenda’s thefts. Nina was shocked to find the papers, but was glad at the same time because she would be able to use them as evidence now.

They searched for ten minutes, but could not find it. They were getting very anxious. They knew they would not be able to stay in that room for long, but Nina kept insisting that they continue, because without that vial, she would not be able to do anything. When Nina was trying to convince Marcy to keep looking, the door opened suddenly. Brenda was standing in the doorway with the vial in her hand. She had a look of astonishment in her eyes, which seemed to change into anger as she looked around the room. The girls stared at her with fear and were unable to move from their spots. Anger took control of Brenda, and she put the vial onto the table and walked towards the two children. She grabbed each one of them around their necks and dragged them out of the room.

Marcy started whimpering, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

Nina tried reaching out for the vial, but she was taken out of the room too quickly. Brenda did not even notice her futile effort. They were brought into the front room and Brenda expressed her anger on Marcy first. “What were you doing in my room?”

Marcy shook with fear and stuttered, “N-N-Nothing. I - I am sorry.”

“How many times have I told all of you not to go into my room?” Brenda shouted. All the children were scared speechless.

“Please don’t put me in the box.” Marcy begged.

“No, you’re too big for the box. I’ll give you another lesson which you won’t forget in a lifetime.” Brenda quickly sat down on a chair and with a sudden motion put Marcy on her lap, face down. Before Marcy could scream, Brenda tore part of her clothes to expose her butt. Marcy screamed and the scream turned into a cry of humiliation. Before Marcy could finish her first cry, Brenda started spanking her exposed bottom. It hurt a lot. Marcy felt humiliated to be spanked in front of so many children who were younger than her. She squirmed and kicked and cried, but that did not help. Each slap landed exactly where Brenda wanted it to land and Marcy could do nothing to change that.

Recovering from the initial shock of seeing all this sudden events, Nina walked towards Brenda. She had to find a way to stop this without the vial. She screamed at Brenda, “Stop this right now.”

The intense astonishment Brenda got from seeing the seven-year-old girl’s actions stopped her from spanking Marcy. She stared at Nina for several seconds, unable to make herself realize that this small girl just dared to shout at her. Nina tried to appear fearless. “You’re surprised? Can’t you guess who I am?”

Brenda didn’t hear properly what Nina said. She just stared at her.

“Brenda, its me. Nina. I regressed myself so that I can see your true nature. Now I have caught you red-handed. Let Marcy go right now.”

Miranda was looking from near the door. Looks of confusion were filling up all the faces of the children in the room so far. They slowly began to change into happiness as they realized what was happening. Lulu whispered, “See? Didn’t I say that she knows magic?”

Brenda took a few seconds to recover from the surprise. She let Marcy go, but she wasn’t giving up. She knew logically that she was defeated and that she won’t be able to do anything at the end. But her mind could not accept the fact that a child had just shouted at her and was actually threatening her. Overcome by that emotion, she decided that she’s not going to take this attitude from a child no matter who that was. She got up from the chair and walked over to Nina. She looked more intimidating when she was standing right in front of Nina. Nina was getting scared again and Brenda noticed it. Nina felt that she was in big trouble. “B-Brenda, just s-s-sit down on the chair.”

Brenda did not move. Nina ran towards the window. She only had to send a signal to Luc. Brenda ran after her. Nina could feel the giant chasing her. She desperately increased her running speed. It was not enough. Just before Nina could reach the window, she felt a giant arm grab her around her chest and lift her off the ground. She screamed and reached out towards the window. Brenda just swung her around and closed the window with her other arm. Nina saw the window close and screamed louder. The next moment an enormous hand slapped tight on her lips. She felt like a doll being carried away from the only chance she had of escaping.

Brenda muttered, “Now there’s nothing you can do to stop me. You made a mistake coming here in this form. You’ll regret it for the rest of your life.” Nina tried screaming, but it wasn’t loud enough anymore. Tears were flowing down her cheeks. She could not believe she was being defeated, but she could not fight anymore. She did not have the body or the attitude to fight against a gigantic woman. She just kicked and cried while Brenda carried her over to the back of the orphanage and put her in a box. Before Nina realized what was happening, Brenda closed the lid shut. Nina found herself in darkness. She screamed and hit the box lid with her hands, but it did not budge. She started crying loudly. The last thing she heard was Brenda telling her that she would be kept locked in this for a long time. After that the only sound she heard was her own screams and cries.

Brenda went back to the front room and shouted at the children, “Because of hiding that girl and planning against me, none of you brats are going to have any food today. Some of them started weeping. Brenda looked at Marcy. She was standing at the corner of the room rubbing her backside. She did not look at Brenda. Satisfied for the moment, Brenda went back to the kitchen.

Brenda shouted at Miranda to serve lunch. Miranda hastily started getting the food to Brenda. Brenda went over to the pitcher and got a glass of water. She was exhausted from all commotion. As she drank her water, she noticed that Miranda had not fixed the spot around the pitcher after the earthquake. She scolded her for it and Miranda started working on it after Brenda started eating. She had not noticed this part so far because she was too busy with the food. She saw several bottles knocked over with their contents spilled. One particular bottle has spilled its contents into the pitcher. A little bit was left inside the bottle. Miranda tried smelling it, but did not get any smells. She tasted it and it tasted like water, so she ignored the whole thing and put the bottles in order. She was relieved that it was just water and Brenda did not complain about it. She was looking for a chance to go to the back of the orphanage to see how Nina was. She felt very guilty about it. If she only had been a little courageous in the morning, Nina would not have got into this. She never thought that Nina would go this far to catch Brenda. She wished she had this much courage to face Brenda, but she got the feeling that the wish would never come true, no matter how much she tried.

Seeing that Brenda was paying all her attention to food, Miranda sneaked into the backroom. She approached the box and whispered, “Miss Nina, are you alright?”

Nina cried, “Miranda, please get me out of here. I’m scared.”

“Don’t worry, as soon as Brenda calms down a little, she will let you go.”

“Miranda, please. You have to stop being scared of her. No one can help us but you right now. Open the box.”

Miranda hesitated for a while, trying to figure out whether Brenda will hear her opening the box from the kitchen or not. Then she slowly opened the box. The trembling Nina got out of the box and hugged Miranda. Miranda tried to calm her down. “Its ok now. Don’t worry.”

After a few seconds, Nina said, “Miranda, you have to get me that vial Brenda is carrying. It’s the only thing that will restore me. You have to do this.” She was having trouble talking properly, because her throat was dry from fear and screaming.

Miranda hesitated. She looked confused and a little scared. “I will try to get it later. She’s too angry right now.”

Nina coughed a bit and said, “Please Miranda, you have to have a little bit more courage. Think of all the children. Think of me.” She coughed again.

Miranda said, “Wait here, I’ll get you some water. And I’ll try to get the vial at night when Brenda goes to sleep.”

Nina was losing all hope in Miranda, but she did not say anything else. Miranda left the room and Nina quietly sat on the box. She had decided to make a run for the door after she managed to calm herself down a bit. Miranda came back after a while with a glass of water. Nina took the glass from her and did not say anything. Miranda looked like she wanted to say something, but could not decide what it was.

Miranda watched Nina slowly drink the water. She felt at the back of her mind that she should be helping, but was too scared to do anything against Brenda. She remembered Brenda spanking her even when she was a teenager. After she saw Marcy getting spanked, her old memories were making her even more scared of Brenda.

She came out of her thoughts when she noticed Nina looking at her in a strange way. She asked, “What’s wrong, Miss Nina?”

“Miranda, you look different.”

Miranda reached for her face and tried to understand what Nina meant. Her face did feel a little different, but she could not tell why. Nina was staring at her with a confused look as well. Miranda got up. She felt that her clothes were a little loose and there was an odd sensation in her body. She went out of the room to find a mirror. As she passed through the kitchen, Brenda called her.

“What were you doing in that room?”

“I - um - nothing.”

“What happened to you? Are those your clothes?”

“Y - Yes, they are. I don’t know what happened. I think I have a fever or...”

“No! You’re not getting any time off. Not at a time like this.” Brenda growled.

“No - No, I don’t want time off. I don’t know what’s...” Her voice trailed off as she noticed the room getting bigger. Brenda noticed the changes Miranda was going through and it drove her attention away from the food. Miranda felt her clothes getting even looser. Soon she realized that she was shrinking. She got scared and desperately looked around in vain for the cause. Her breathing increased as she started panicking. Brenda left the table and came near her to understand what was going on. Her much larger figure reminded Miranda of her terrifying childhood and she got even more scared. Then she made another horrifying discovery. Her breasts were becoming flat. Her fear reached a peak when she finally realized that she was not shrinking but getting younger. She was becoming the child Brenda had spanked and punished for long periods of time. Looking at Brenda’s gigantic form, Miranda started crying, “What’s happening to me?”

Brenda looked a bit alarmed, “Magic! How can it be? Could it be her?” She asked Miranda, “Did you release that brat from the box?”

Miranda was not thinking about what she was saying, “Yes, I did, but...”

Brenda did not wait to hear anything else. She left the sobbing Miranda, ignored the children who were peeping through the door and went to the back room where Nina was. Nina shook and almost dropped the glass when Brenda stormed into the room. Brenda glared at her and approached her. Nina shook with every step Brenda took. Brenda picked Nina up from the box. The sudden movement made Nina drop the glass. Brenda shook her vigorously. “What did you do to Miranda?”

Nina trembled, “I - I didn’t d - do anything.”

“You lying brat!” Brenda shouted as she carried Nina to the kitchen. “Tell me the truth. What is happening to her?”

Nina looked at the crying Miranda. She looked as young as Marcy. Nina was shocked. She had no idea how it happened. She looked at Brenda, who still did not seem to believe her.

“Don’t give me that look. I know you are behind this. You are the only magic-user here.”

“Brenda, I don’t know how... AAAAAH!”

Brenda turned Nina upside down and hit her backside with her right hand. “Make it stop right now, or else I’ll keep spanking you.”

Nina cried, “I’m not doing it!”

“Liar! (slap) Liar! (slap)”

“Waaaah” Nina started bawling. She felt helpless. The hope she had of escaping a few minutes ago evaporated. She could see the other kids staring at Brenda with cowering eyes through the doorway. Miranda was the one who looked most scared. She was so scared that she had stopped crying and was staring with horror at Brenda.

Brenda was full of rage. She was breathing heavily and sweating at the same time. She did not consider the fact that Nina had no reason to do this to Miranda. She did not want to consider it. Her mind only wanted an excuse to punish Nina for interfering with her luxury.

The spanking continued and Nina struggled to get free. She felt that she was slipping from Brenda’s grip, but the spanking was not stopping. She suddenly noticed that the expressions on the children’s faces including Miranda’s were changing, but Nina did not care to try and find out why. Nina saw the floor approaching her. She felt that if she slipped a bit more, she would fall to the floor and may have a chance to run for the door. She squirmed with all her might.

Brenda, on the other hand, was finding it difficult to hold on to Nina. She did not know why it was getting harder. She was concentrating on spanking her as much as possible before she can slip away. Soon the arm she used for holding Nina got tired. Her grip loosened. Nina squirmed out of her grip and fell to the floor. Sobbing, Nina quickly backed away from Brenda. Nina cursed herself for it the next moment. She wanted to run towards the door, but while backing away she just managed to go towards the back wall of the kitchen, making her escape route even harder than it should have been. Then she noticed what the children were staring at all this while - Brenda had shrunk to half her original size.

Brenda finally noticed that the room had grown bigger. Her clothes felt loose. She realized at once what was happening. She was now even more certain that Nina had something to do with it. She decided to grab the child and put her in the box. The younger Brenda still looked very scary. Nina tried to control her sobs and quickly got to her feet. As she saw Brenda rush towards her, she dashed towards the doorway. Brenda grabbed her arm, but the grip wasn’t strong enough. She struggled free within a second and rushed past the children standing near the doorway. Brenda ran after her, struggling with her oversized clothes.

Nina reached the front door. She was shocked to find the doorknob higher than she remembered. Without thinking about it, she reached up and tried turning it. It did not budge. She heard the gigantic Brenda coming up from behind her and she dashed away from the door seconds before Brenda reached it. She looked almost the same age as Marcy now, but still quite threatening. She was a chubby 10-year-old girl - a typical bully from grade school. She was struggling a lot with her oversized clothes. Her shoes have come off and were lying scattered on the floor of the front room. Brenda took a few seconds to regain her composure. Then she rushed towards Nina again. The children watched a regressed Brenda chasing Nina around the room. If they were not so scared of Brenda, they would have been laughing right now.

As Nina ran she felt her clothes become loose as well. A new fear crept into her mind as she thought that she might be regressing as well. She could not understand why it was happening. She wished it were just her imagination. Suddenly she heard a sound from behind her - a sound of something huge falling onto the floor. She turned around to find a seven-year-old Brenda lying face down on the ground, entangled in a huge heap of her clothes. As Brenda struggled and screamed with anger, a shiny object came out of her clothes and rolled towards the kitchen door. It was Nina’s vial.

Miranda was standing in the doorway with her clothes wrapped around her like a blanket and dried tears on her cheeks. The vial rolled towards her. Miranda picked it up. Nina shouted, “Miranda, give it to me!” Nina ran towards the kitchen.

Brenda screamed in her new high pitch voice, “No, you’re not getting it!” She reached out with her arm and grabbed Nina’s leg. Nina tripped and fell. Brenda crawled towards her.

Nina saw her approach and screamed, “Miranda, drink it!”

Brenda screamed, “Miranda, don’t you dare!” and got on Nina’s back. Nina struggled to free herself.

“Miranda, please! Drink it. You’ll be older again and we can stop Brenda. Its the only chance we have.” Nina shouted. Then she felt the fat hand of Brenda slap her lips shut. She struggled to free herself from Brenda while looking pleadingly at Miranda. Miranda looked at the two children struggling and gathered all the will and courage she had inside her. She opened the vial and gulped down half of the contents.

Seeing this, Brenda jumped up and ran towards Miranda with a savage look on her face. Miranda froze at her spot. The next second, Brenda tripped on her clothes again and fell face down onto the floor. This time some of the children almost laughed. Brenda did not look all that scary anymore. Nina found her chance. She ran up to Brenda and sat on her back. Brenda screamed, “Get off me you brat!” Nina ignored her and grabbed her arms. She used all the strength she had to lock those chubby arms together. Brenda screamed, “Let me go. You’ll pay for this!” Nina fought her fears and struggled with Brenda with all her might. She had to give Miranda time to grow into an adult again.

Nina screamed out, “Marcy, Lulu, help me. We can do it together. We can defeat her.”

The children hesitated for a moment and then ran to help her. The first to approach were Lulu and Max. They helped Nina hold Brenda’s arms together. Brenda was trying to sound as threatening as possible with her squeaky voice, but it did not scare the children. Her legs were kicking while she struggled and shouted. Marcy was the third to gather enough courage. She took sometime because she was the last to be spanked by Brenda. After overcoming her fear, she quickly approached the kicking legs and pinned them to the floor. Now Brenda was calling out the names of the children who were holding her down. She threatened them one at a time, but Nina kept telling them to ignore her. Brenda resumed screaming when the threats didn’t work. She was getting tired from all the struggling and Nina felt that the three children would be able to hold her down by themselves. But just for safety, she made Tommy sit on Brenda when she got up.

Miranda had grown into a teenager by then. Nina took the vial from her. It still had some potion left in it. Nina gulped it all down. Brenda screamed harder when she saw it. “Noooo. Don’t do that. I’m going to kill you. I’m going to spank you so hard, you’ll never be able to sit. You can’t grow into an adult now. Its not fair!”

Nina smiled at Brenda realizing how childish she sounded. She kept watching Brenda struggle under the three children, while the room seemed to get smaller. She looked at Miranda and asked, “Are you alright?”

“Yes.” Miranda said. “Miss Nina, can you get yours and my ages back to the way it was?”

“Yes, don’t worry about that. It’ll be alright.” Nina assured her.

Miranda lowered her eyes a bit. “I’m sorry I have been such a coward Miss Nina.”

Nina smiled. “That’s ok. I know you have overcome your fears now. That’s all that matters.”

Miranda smiled at Brenda. “I will not let that brat scare me again.”

Brenda screamed, “Who’re you calling a brat? I’m... I’m going to...” Brenda could not finish her sentence. The anger and astonishment was overwhelming her.

Soon Nina had the body of a 17 year old. Her dress felt very tight. The cloth was farther torn to accommodate Nina’s growing body. It ended up exposing a lot of her legs. Miranda had become a girl of 18 by then, and her clothes fit her loosely. Seemed like she had not grown much bigger after that age. Brenda’s screams were loosing their power as she stared at the two older girls in front of her. She was beginning to get scared, but tried her best not to show it.

Nina gestured the children to get off Brenda. They hesitated for a moment and slowly got off. Finding freedom Brenda jumped up, leaving most of her clothes on the floor. She was now a six-year-old girl wearing oversized panties and bra. She was about to charge at Nina and Miranda, when she suddenly noticed how big they are compared to her. Nina laughed when she saw Brenda’s expression. Some of the children giggled from behind Brenda. Brenda instantly turned around to threaten them. No words came out of her gaping mouth when she noticed that all the children were either of her height or taller. The giggling children were starting to laugh. Brenda screwed up her face and said, “Stop laughing.”

It increased the laughter. “Stop. Stop. Stop!” Brenda kept saying. Looking at all the big children around her she was hesitant to approach any of them. Instead, she stood at her spot and flung her chubby arms towards them one at a time while screaming. “Stop! Don’t laugh! I’m going to put you in the box!”

Nina approached Brenda from the back and grabbed her arms. Brenda struggled with Nina and tried hitting her with her fists. “Don’t you dare touch me, or else I’ll...”

“Or else you’ll what?” Nina asked in a stern voice. Looking at Nina’s eyes, Brenda could not say anything. Nina smirked. The laughter increased. Brenda weakly struggled to free her arms.

Lulu said, “Let’s put her in the box.” Some of the children shouted with joy.

Marcy said, “No let’s spank her.” Her face was full of anger.

Max said with enthusiasm, “No, let’s make her younger.”

Brenda stared at them. They did not look like helpless children anymore. They looked more like an angry mob. She was seeing anger and happiness in their faces for the first time and she felt scared by it. She had even stopped struggling.

Nina spoke after the children became silent. “No, children. We are not as mean as Brenda. We are not going to put her in the box. Instead we will give her a normal punishment.”

Brenda felt relieved for a second and then started wondering what Nina had meant by normal punishment. Nina let go of Brenda’s arms and grabbed her ear. Brenda screamed with pain. The children laughed. Nina pulled Brenda with her ears and dragged her towards a chair near the wall. Brenda was trying in vain to loosen Nina’s grip, but also found herself walking along with Nina like an obedient girl. “Aaaaah, that hurts. Let go. Let go. Aaaah!”

Nina pushed Brenda across her lap with her legs on the left and her head on the right. Brenda was shocked for a few seconds. Then she sprang from that position and tried to escape. Nina held her down and struggled with the fat six year old. Her weight was making it harder to hold her down. Brenda focused all her strength on this. She was never going to let Nina spank her. She screamed and struggled with all her might. Nina called out to Miranda, “Miranda could you help me with this?”

“Gladly” came the answer. Brenda had almost forgotten about Miranda, because she was quiet all this time. Brenda screamed at her to stay away while she approached them. Miranda pulled up another chair to the right of Nina and put Brenda’s struggling upper body on to her lap. She easily overpowered the child and held her arms together firmly. Nina took off Brenda’s panties. As her bottom was exposed Brenda screamed with humiliation while the children laughed. Nina held Brenda’s thighs with her left arm and placed her right hand on Brenda’s butt so that she could feel where the slaps are going to land on. All of Brenda’s strength was useless now. She felt helpless.

Nina said, “Brenda, this is what really happens to naughty girls like you.”

Nina hit Brenda’s butt with her right hand. Brenda screamed and the room echoed with the children’s laughter. Nina kept spanking her.

Brenda kept screaming. All her strength was useless. She was kicking and squirming, but Nina was not missing her target. She suddenly heard Marcy’s voice. “Can I do it?”

Nina laughed. “Sure Marcy.”

Brenda felt a different smaller hand slap her bottom. Realizing that one of the children was spanking her, Brenda burst into tears with humiliation. The girl, who she spanked a while ago, was now spanking her. It was too much for Brenda to handle. “Noooo... (spank)....don’t do.... (spank)... aaaaaahh.... (spank)... waaaahaahaa...(spank)... nooohoohoo.”

It got even worse when the other kids started joining in. They started taking turns at spanking Brenda. Brenda felt a different hand at every five or six slaps. Soon, children as young as Tommy joined in. Brenda’s bottom was as red as an apple by then. She lay there helplessly crying while the children spanked her.

Brenda finally started pleading. “Pleeheeheese... (spank).... Pleeeheeheese... (spank).... No mohohoooore... (spank)... I’m sooorryy....(spank).... Waaaaaahaaahaa.... (spank)... pleeeheeheese...(spank)... I beg of you aaaaaaaaahaahaa.... (spank)”

It went on for another minute. At that point, Nina decided that Brenda had enough for now. She waved the children to stop. “Alright everyone, I think that’s enough punishment.” Brenda felt relieved. The children stopped. Some of them looked a little disappointed. Nina added, “for now.” Some of the children giggled at this while Brenda whimpered. Nina let the child stand up. She was still six years old. Brenda was sobbing and wincing while she pulled her panties up and rubbed her backside. The children were still giggling at her.

Suddenly they all heard a baby’s cry from the next room. Miranda said, “Oh, I almost forgot to feed the baby.” She went out of the room quickly.

Nina got up from the chair and said to Brenda in a stern voice, “I hope you have learnt your lesson. You are not in charge of the orphanage anymore. I’m going to collect all your papers now. I’ll decide later what to do with you. It would depend on how you behave now. Understand? Behave!”

Brenda just nodded at the teenager. She did not think that she could take any more spankings. Nina went off to Brenda’s room to gather the forged papers. Brenda walked over to her now oversized clothes, which were lying on the ground and covered herself with them. The children were giggling and circling around her watching her every movement. Her face was burning with humiliation, but she did not say anything to the kids. She sat down on the floor trying to hide herself in her clothes and thinking that the children would go away. Miranda appeared at the doorway leading to the kitchen. She was holding the baby, which was admitted in the morning. The baby was staring at Brenda, as if she understood who she really was. Miranda was finding it amusing. She was also very thirsty from all the excitement. She was drinking water.

Nina was going through the papers. She was also very thirsty and was drinking water, which she picked up from the kitchen.

After a while, Miranda noticed that Brenda was silently crying while the children were making fun of her. She finally felt sorry for her. She got reminded of how lonely she felt during her childhood after Brenda’s punishments. Even if the six year old was once the person who she had hated most, she was feeling pity for the younger version of Brenda. Miranda announced, “Alright, that’s enough fun for today. All of you come into the kitchen. Its time for lunch.”

One by one, the children entered the kitchen and gathered around the table. Miranda noticed that Brenda looked a little relieved. She walked over to her. Brenda stared at her as she approached. Brenda looked exhausted with dried tears on her cheek. Miranda offered her the glass of water. Brenda took it immediately and drank the whole thing. Miranda extended her hand towards Brenda and helped her up. For a moment Brenda felt a warm feeling flood her heart. But the next moment, she shrugged it off and let go of Miranda’s hand. Her face took on a cold expression and she walked towards the kitchen.

Miranda put away the meal Brenda was having and brought out the usual meal for the children. Brenda did not say anything. She quietly climbed up onto her own seat that seemed very big to her now. Miranda and Marcy put the food in each of the children’s bowls. Brenda stared at the mixture that had been provided to her and felt disgusted, but did not dare complain. She was also feeling something she had not felt for a long time - guilt. She was feeling sorry for making the children eat this all the time. The tears started flowing again for a whole different reason. Miranda ignored it for a while. Then she walked up to Brenda and wiped the tears off her cheeks. Brenda felt the warm feeling again, this time it was more intense than before. She felt like putting her arms around Miranda and crying loudly. However, she forced the feeling out of her mind again and brushed Miranda’s hand away. She vigorously started gulping down the food, ignoring the taste.

Gyrina was once again passing through the forest. This time Lygine was accompanying her. Katria had told Lygine to go with Gyrina so that everything got done properly this time. Katria was furious after realizing that the earthquake caused by the spell had gone as far as the Mossy Rocks. She was so angry that both Lygine and Gyrina decided it would be best not to argue. They passed by the petrified form of the girl. Gyrina considered putting the necklace around the statue’s neck, but then decided against it. Lygine whispered in the girl’s ear, “Don’t worry, it will wear off soon. Go back home after that.” Gyrina did not care to hear what Lygine was saying, and continued on her way. Lygine caught up with her without any complaints about being left behind.

Luc was becoming impatient and tired while he watched the orphanage. The doors and windows were closed for a long time. He was getting worried about Nina. He had not done anything because he promised Nina he would give her a lot of time. He was going to wait the whole day before making his move. He wanted this to get over soon. He had recently got offered a special job, and he had not told Nina about it yet. He was planning to tell her about it at night in bed as a surprise after she finished the orphanage job. Luc was planning to propose to her right after she recovers from the first surprise. It would be the perfect moment. He could only imagine the happiness on her face.

Luc’s thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. He looked one more time at the orphanage to make sure nothing was happening and then opened the door. He recognized the man standing at the door. It was the village Chief. He looked tired and lost. The woman standing behind him had a similar expression on her face, but fear was also evident in her eyes. Behind her stood the innkeeper.

Luc spoke first, “Is there something wrong, Chief?”

“Master Luc, I beg for your help.” the Chief started in a concerned voice. “My daughter, Mary, has been kidnapped by a rogue.”

The woman standing behind the Chief started weeping, “Please sir, my son is not a kidnapper.”

The Chief’s face showed fury, “Silence woman! Your son had his vile eyes on my daughter for a long time. Now I regret not banishing him from the village when I had the chance.”

Luc raised his hands to stop the quarrel. “Chief, please calm down. Come inside and explain to me what has happened.”

The concern returned to the Chief’s face as they entered the room. Chief turned towards Luc. “Master Luc, my daughter disappeared in the morning. Her room was quiet, so I wondered whether she was ill or not. I did not get any response from her. Worried, I broke down the door to find that the room was empty and the window was open. I sent men to search the village. Hearing nothing, I went to this woman’s house myself because I suspected that her son had something to do with it. He had been after my daughter for a long time. My daughter is young and did not understand what was good for her. I should not have ignored this for so long. This woman could not explain why her son was not at home. Now I am sure that he has taken my daughter away.”

Luc asked, “If that is true, where can he be gone to with her? Have you sent men to search the nearby villages?”

The Chief answered, “Yes, I have. They were not seen anywhere. I am certain that she knows where her son is hiding. I don’t have the methods to make her talk. And... I trust Master wizards like you more than the local authorities. Please help me find my daughter.”

Luc glanced at the orphanage one more time. He wanted to stay in the room so that he can keep an eye on the orphanage. He decided that the least he can do is to try and find out whether the woman knew where the couple had gone. He could do that from inside the room. The woman was nervously looking at the Chief and Luc. Luc told the Chief, “Let me talk to the woman in private.”

Chief’s anger began to show again, “This woman is a stubborn liar. She will not confess anything, please use your magic.”

Luc urged the Chief towards the door telling him that he could use a Truth potion to make her tell the truth. He finally managed to persuade the Chief and the Innkeeper to leave the room. The woman was still looking at him nervously. Luc tried to calm her down telling her that he was only trying to help the couple and it would be safer for her son if Luc found them before the Chief’s men did. Luc also told her that taking the potion would help her remember things, which might help in finding the couple. Finally the woman agreed to take the Truth potion and tell him all that she knew.

After half an hour, Luc came out of the room and told the Chief that the woman was as lost and shocked as the Chief was. She did not know which village the couple might have gone to, but she was sure that her son would not be foolish enough to go somewhere other than the villages. The Chief was not totally convinced. He looked like he was losing all hope. Luc told him, “Chief, do not worry so much. They could not have gone too far. Your men probably reached the other villages before they did. I am certain they will be found soon.”

The chief was still anxious. Luc could not think of anyway to help him at this point. He could do a Locator Spell if he had the ingredients, but he is also sure that by the time he obtained the ingredients, the Chief’s men would succeed in finding the couple. At this point, the excited Innkeeper, who was running up the stairs leading to Luc’s room, saved Luc from saying anything else. The Innkeeper informed Luc that several wizards had just walked into the Inn and had inquired about Luc and Nina. All of them went downstairs.

Luc recognized two of the three wizards to be his colleagues, Mallock and Kimbley. They were accompanying Luc’s old teacher, Grand Master Ushar. Luc greeted them with a surprised smile on his face. “This is a pleasant surprise! What are you doing here?”

Brenda was sitting on a chair in the corner of her own room wearing a set of clothes that belonged to Lulu. With every movement she was noticing how silly the oversized clothes looked on her. So now she sat still watching Nina go through all the papers and sort them out. With every passing moment, Brenda felt her life being stripped away from her. She felt that from now on she would have to live the life of the children of the orphanage. And for the first time, she began to see how horrible that life was. She was trying to force the thought out of her head, but it kept coming back. She wanted to run up to Nina and beg her to return everything back the way it was. At the same time, she was also struck with fear as she remembered Nina’s hand hitting her behind and her stern voice shouting out “Behave!” The latter fear was winning every time.

After sometime, Nina finished arranging all the papers she needed. She gave a stern look at Brenda and walked to the front room. Brenda heard Nina talking with the children. Her name was not even mentioned. Nina said something about coming back after a while. Brenda was feeling a little relieved that Nina would go away, but at the same time she was scared thinking what the children might do to her in Nina’s absence. She heard Nina trying to open the door and Brenda suddenly remembered that she had locked it in the morning and had hid the key. The next moment she heard several footsteps coming towards her room. She began to get anxious again, but gathered enough courage to take the key out of its hiding spot and put it in her pocket.

Luc was sitting in his room with Grand Master Ushar. It appeared that the three wizards had come to this region on a business regarding the Fountain of Youth and Ushar had come to this village to visit Luc and Nina. Mallock and Kimbley had gone off to collect ingredients for the Locator Spell. Grand Master Ushar seemed to take special interest in the Chief’s problem. Luc could tell that it was because Ushar’s daughter had run away with someone when she was a teenager.

Ushar asked, “So, where is your new fianc??”

Luc was a little startled for a moment. Then he replied, “Nina is not my fianc? yet.”

“You haven’t proposed yet?”

“No Master. I am going to wait till her work is done.”

“What work is she doing here?”

“Its for the kids at the orphanage. She is sure that the owner misuses the funds, and she is determined to obtain proof from the inside. I am supposed to wait here till she is done.”

Ushar became lost in thoughts for a while. Then he said, “She is a rare gem. You don’t find compassionate women like her easily. In my life, I’ve met only one other woman with such compassion.”

Luc’s voice softened, “Your wife?”

“Yes.”

“Master, I am sorry for bringing sad memories back.”

“Don’t worry Luc. The memories are not sad. Those were the happiest days of my life.” Ushar paused for a while. “You are a lucky young man, Luc.”

Mary guessed that the sun was setting. She could not see the sky and so could not be sure. After the last ray of the sun penetrating the leaves had left her sight, she had slowly started losing hope again. Now, she could not tell whether she was more worried about Trevor or herself. In the morning when they were passing through this forest, this dimly lit spot under the dense trees seemed like a magical place. Now it felt more like a prison.

She reminded herself that the real prison was her own body. For a long time since the morning, she had thought that it was going to keep her bound forever, but her hope for freedom was aroused in the afternoon by an unknown woman who seemed to be aware of her condition. The voice of the woman was not deceptive. Her words warmed Mary’s mind, which was the only part of her that was alive right now. Concentrating on that dwindling hope, Mary tried to focus on remembering the quickest way back to the village. She would have to rely on her memory if she gets her freedom at night.

Slowly, as it got darker, something other than the hope warmed her body. It started from in between her legs and spread inside her. If she were capable of sweating, she would have. Before this, the last thing she remembered feeling was Trevor’s lips on her lips, just before he collapsed in front of her and was taken away by an evil hand. She could not see where he was being taken away, because her mind was distracted by the deep voice of the Fate Orb and filled with the childhood memory of the time she tricked a smaller boy into standing perfectly still for an hour while she ran away with his clothes and toys. As the warmth spread through her, she somehow knew that freedom was coming.

Brenda could not hide the nervousness on her face when Nina entered the room. Nina asked “Where is the key to the front door?”

Brenda’s eyes shifted as she said that she didn’t know where it was.

“Stop this Brenda. I can see that you are lying.”

Brenda tried to pretend to be innocent like all the times she did when Nina came to the orphanage. She shook her head again and tried to bring tears to her eyes. “I forgot where I kept it.”

Nina believed her this time. With what Brenda had gone through in the afternoon, Nina thought that it was very likely that she forgot where she kept the key. Nina sighed and started searching the room again. Some of the children were peeking into the room. Some of them were still scared of entering Brenda’s room. Marcy pointed out from the door “She sometimes kept stuff under her pillow.”

Lulu added “Sometimes its under the covers.”

Brenda was about to glare at the children. The memories of Lulu and Marcy spanking her in the afternoon stopped her just in time. She tried to avoid eye contact with anyone and stared at the ground. The two girls snickered as they looked at Brenda. Brenda started blushing again. The children were slowly coming into her room to help Nina, and Brenda could not gather any courage to protest. At one point, Brenda slowly walked towards the door and got out of the room. Some of the children followed giggling. Brenda went to a corner in the front room trying in vain to hide from the children.

After sometime, Nina and the children came to the front room breathing heavily. They had been moving all the furniture to look for the key. Nina sat down on the chair where they had spanked Brenda in the afternoon. She called out “Brenda, where is the key? Try to remember!”

Brenda tried to sound convincing “I don’t remember, M- Miss Nina.”

Lulu shook her head “I think she’s lying Miss Nina”

Marcy giggled, “I think she will tell the truth after a little more spanking.”

They heard a whimper coming from Brenda’s corner.

Nina was beginning to feel sorry for Brenda. She was about to ask the children to not torture Brenda anymore, when she suddenly noticed Miranda looking at Nina and the two girls with a concerned expression. “What’s wrong Miranda?”

The same concern was in Miranda’s voice as well, “Miss Nina, the three of you are looking slightly younger.”

Nina suddenly realized that she was right. Her clothes did not feel as tight anymore and Marcy and Lulu had become a bit shorter. They looked slightly alarmed. Nina stood up and asked “Miranda, was there something in the food?”

Miranda was confused “I don’t know Miss Nina. We all ate it.”

“We have to get out of here. There is something very wrong in this place. We should have got out when everyone started regressing at the beginning.” Nina said as she looked around the room.

There was a pause when all the children were looking at themselves and each other. No one seemed to be affected other than Nina, Marcy and Lulu. Brenda stood up and checked whether she has gotten shorter or not. She could not be sure and was getting anxious. Nina called out, “Brenda come here.”

Brenda shook her head and backed away towards the counter away from Nina. Nina looked like she was a 14 year old now.

“Brenda, we need to find the key or we may all become babies.”

Brenda’s heart gave a small jump with fear, but the next moment it was filled with a slight feeling of power. She felt the cold metallic key in her pocket against her skin and it gave her a small hope that all the children might regress before she does. All she said was “I don’t care.”

Marcy glared at her. Brenda looked away, trying to hold on to that weak hope. Marcy approached her, “Come here little girl.”

Brenda turned around and ran towards the corner with Marcy after her. All the children screamed and cheered at once. Brenda ran among them like a chubby little rabbit. Everyone else joined in the chase. It went on through the whole orphanage. Brenda felt the children grabbing her clothes and arms several times. She kept struggling and running whichever way she could. Nina watched Miranda and the children chase Brenda out of the room. After a lot of crashing and screaming in the other rooms the crowed was once again in the front room. Everyone, including Miranda, looked a bit younger than when they left the room a few seconds ago. A look of realization passed over Nina’s face. As some of the children grabbed onto Brenda and struggled with her, Nina shouted out “Everyone, stop moving.”

The children stared at her blankly. Nina said quickly, “You will become younger faster if you run.”

The children’s grip on Brenda loosened a bit. Brenda backed away from them immediately. The children all looked at themselves. They were at least a year younger than they were before the chase. Brenda was five years old. She sobbed softly but was still not willing to give up the key. She saw that Miranda had become a 10 year old. It gave her hope again.

Everyone was starting to panic. Brenda continued to sob lightly to show that she was feeling the same thing. Nina started looking around for something to break the door or window. The children were trying to stand as still as possible. Among all this chaos Tommy who was standing behind Brenda suddenly noticed a glint of silver light coming from her pocket. He realized what it was and using the skills that Brenda had thought them he picked it out of her pocket.

“Miss Nina! I found the key!” Tommy cried out. Everyone turned towards him. Brenda spun around to face him with a look of anger and astonishment. “It was in her pocket” Tommy said as he threw it at Nina.

Brenda tried to catch the key in the air but it was too late. A moment later it was in Nina’s hand. Brenda felt lost. She turned around and tried to hit Tommy on the face, but Tommy grabbed her arm just in time. It led to a struggle which some of the other children joined in. Brenda was pinned down onto the floor just as Nina opened the door. Lying helpless on the floor with the children looking down on her, she watched Nina walk out of the orphanage. She started crying for real this time. All her hopes were gone. She struggled feebly. The worst part was that she was still getting younger.

Miranda said, “Don’t let her get away. All of you stay here.” She followed Nina out of the orphanage.

Brenda stared at the children’s faces. All she could see was vengeance in their eyes. Her little heart was beating fast and she kept getting younger. She squirmed with all her strength while sobbing loudly.

“Aww what a cute wittle baby.” Marcy teased.

“She’s like a wittle scared bunny.” Lulu said.

“She’s squirming like a chubby little worm.” Max laughed.

Tommy put his hands on her two cheeks to keep her head from moving side to side. She cried, “Lemme go.” As his fingers touched her neck, she let out a giggle all of a sudden.

Tommy laughed out, “Brenda’s ticklish!”

Brenda saw several wicked smiles coming from above her. She realized what was coming. The next moment she felt Lulu’s fingers tickle her feet. Laughter replaced her sobbing instantly. She heard Marcy’s voice, “Lulu, hold her legs.”

As she felt Lulu grab her legs, the others’ hands let her go and in one pull her oversized dress came off her. She was lying totally naked on the floor. She screamed. The next moment, all the hands were on her again. This time there were moving all over her neck, armpits, belly, sides and feet. All she could say was “Please no...” before breaking out into a fit of hysterical laughter. The children were tickling her mercilessly.

Luc saw the orphanage door burst open and Nina stepping out shortly followed by Miranda. She was looking slightly older than he left her to be. Without hesitation, Luc excused himself quickly from Master Ushar and ran down the stairs of the inn. He rushed towards the orphanage knowing that something went wrong and Nina had to use the emergency antidote. Halfway towards the orphanage, Luc suddenly realized that he should have brought the potions and ingredients with him, but instead of going back he decided to find out first what was happening.

Nina saw Luc approaching and she rushed towards him. By the time they were within hearing range, Nina was panting and she had lost another year. She shouted out, “Luc! Everyone at the orphanage is getting younger. I don’t know why. You have to do something. Get some antidotes quickly!” Nina finished by falling into Luc’s arms. She took two deep breaths and rushed Luc again. “Hurry! The children may not last too long.”

Luc turned around to go towards the inn and saw Master Ushar standing behind him. Nina’s mind was too busy to be surprised by Master Ushar’s presence. Master Ushar inquired what had happened while Luc ran towards the Inn. Nina breathed heavily while she described the nature of the transformation that was taking place in the orphanage. By the time Luc came back with the ingredients for the antidotes, Master Ushar had a look of concern on his face. Looking at Luc he said, “A regular antidote will not work. Let me show you what to do. Just follow my instructions, there is no time to explain.”

In half an hour Nina, Miranda, Luc and Master Ushar were walking towards the orphanage with two large bottles of potions, each of a different shade of blue. Half the village was following them. Nina was now 10 years old and Miranda was 7. Master Ushar offered the antidote to Nina, but she refused to take it to make sure that there was enough for the children first. After they reached the orphanage they found the front room full of children less than 7 years of age. Some of them could not walk anymore. Brenda was a crying 6-month-old baby. The children had tickled her till she was reduced to this age and had wet herself. The tickling stopped because the children started panicking as they kept regressing.

They applied the antidote starting with the youngest, which was now Brenda. One potion stopped the regression and the other grew them back to their original age. For Brenda, the second potion was not applicable according to Nina’s instructions. Master Ushar urged everyone to hurry because there is a time limit on the spell after which the change will become permanent. He did not explain anything further. As the children turned back to their original self, they came out of the orphanage into the crowd of confused villagers. The crowd, which was concentrated around the orphanage door, was dispersing a bit as they looked at the children happily dancing about.

Kimbley and Mallock were almost done with the spell for locating Mary and Trevor. The Chief stood anxiously nearby. They were at the Chief’s house because they needed to use Mary’s personal possessions in the spell. The Chief noticed a crowd near the orphanage but was not even curious to know what they were doing. Kimbley suddenly called the Chief and informed him that the spell is done. Mallock pointed out on the map that they created that Trevor is moving towards the orphanage of the village and Mary was somewhere in the nearby forest and was also moving towards the village. The Chief did not wait to hear more. He immediately rushed out and ran towards the orphanage.

Gyrina and Lygine avoided the crowd and created an opening at the back of the orphanage for them to sneak in through. They found themselves in the kitchen with the sounds of a baby coming from the next room. Lygine went to check if that was Vynnie while Gyrina looked around for the items stolen from her in the morning. She found the box of seeds on a desk along with a lot of papers in a bedroom that had been searched thoroughly by someone. She could hear Vynnie in the next room apologizing to Lygine and begging to be taken back. After searching a bit more, she found the empty bottle on a shelf in the kitchen. She concluded that Katria would just have to work with whatever little water was left in the bottle. By that time, Lygine had picked up Vynnie and was already making her way out of the orphanage with Vynnie in her arms. Gyrina looked around a bit for anything of interest. Finding nothing, she sighed and casually dropped her necklace that was Trevor into the pitcher on her way out. Gyrina started walking towards the forest, leaving Lygine to seal the opening they created behind the orphanage.

The Chief reached the orphanage and immediately ordered some men to go around and search the surrounding area. He then inquired about what was happening there and caught bits of information from the crowd. Trevor’s mother was standing in the crowd as well. She watched the men go on the search around the orphanage, but she did not try to interfere. She was keeping her eyes and ears open so that if the men find Trevor, she would know immediately.

Lygine finished sealing the opening while cursing Gyrina for leaving her. Then she noticed some men searching the area. She thought the best thing to do would be to try to blend into the crowd. She hid herself in the dark and walked along the wall of the orphanage into the crowd. Two of the chief’s men have gone into the orphanage and were running their search in it. By that time, Luc and Master Ushar were done with the children and were trying to disperse the crowd. Nina and Miranda followed them out of the orphanage once they were sure that none of the children were left out.

While Master Ushar was trying to control the crowd, he bumped into a young woman in her twenties holding a baby girl in her arms. Master Ushar was about to look away when he suddenly noticed the glint from a necklace around the woman’s neck. Even in the darkness of the evening, the necklace seemed to have a strange familiarity to it. Even stranger was the look of shock and slight recognition in the baby’s eyes.

A cry of joy from the Chief distracted Master Ushar for a second. Lygine took this chance to slip out of Master Ushar’s sight. Master Ushar did not see which way she went, nor did he hear what the baby girl mumbled after she saw him. Since Vynnie’s face was close to Lygine’s ears, she could clearly hear Vynnie say “Daddy...?” Lygine did not let the surprise slow her down. She made her way towards the forest after coming out from the other side of the crowd away from the Chief’s men.

The Chief had cried out when he saw Mary making her way through the crowd towards the orphanage. She had reached the village a few minutes ago and had rushed towards the crowd when she heard from one of the Chief’s men that the Chief was looking for Trevor around the orphanage. The Chief ran upto her and hugged her. Trevor’s mother walked up to Mary as well. Mary glanced at her and looked into the Chief’s eyes and asked whether he found Trevor yet. The Chief pushed her away furiously. He started shouting at her in front of the whole crowd about how she should not listen to Trevor’s lies and deceit. Mary started feeling embarrassed with the whole situation, but she kept telling her father that she ran away with him willingly and she insisted that Trevor’s intentions are true.

While the argument continued, the Chief’s men started to help with controlling the crowd. Soon the crowd got thinner. A few curious people still lingered around. Luc and Master Ushar turned their attention to Nina and Miranda who were both 6-year-olds by that time. As it turned out, there was only a little bit of the aging potion left. Luc said in a concerned voice, “Master Ushar, this would be good enough for just one person. We can stop both their regressions, but we can make only one of them as old as they used to be.”

Miranda and Nina looked at each other’s little faces, but could not say anything. Luc was concerned, “There must be some other way to reverse it.”

Master Ushar shook his head slowly, “I don’t think there is enough time for it. You can still try, but it will be in vain. This is a very powerful spell.”

“Which spell was it?” Luc was getting impatient.

“There is no time to explain. Make up your mind.”

Luc glanced at Miranda and then looked at Nina. He asked in a hesitant voice, “Nina...?”

Nina sighed, “Let Miranda have it.”

Miranda did not answer. Luc felt lost but he knew that there was nothing he can do. It was all upto Nina. Once she made a decision, she would stick to it. He let them drink the potion for stopping the regression and approached Miranda with the aging potion. Miranda looked one more time at Nina before taking the vial from Luc. She glanced at the children standing nearby. Brenda was being carried by Marcy. She looked tired and sleepy and was peacefully lying in Marcy’s arms. Miranda thought for a moment and then approached Nina with the vial.

Miranda offered the vial over to Nina who looked at her with a surprised expression. Miranda said, “You can have it, Miss Nina. I do not want to be my previous self.”

“What are you saying Miranda? Do you want to stay this way?”

Miranda took a deep breath and said “Yes, Miss Nina. I want to relive my childhood free of Brenda.”

Nina felt tears in her eyes as she hugged Miranda. Then she reached for the vial. Miranda stopped her. “On one condition Miss Nina.”

Nina looked at Miranda and tried to guess what it might be that Miranda wanted.

Miranda smiled and said, “Only if you promise to take care of the children and me in Brenda’s place.”

All of the children’s attention became directed at Nina. If the Chief were not still arguing with Mary, there would have been total silence in the area at that moment. Nina smiled back and said, “I promise.”

In the midst of cheers from the children, Nina drank the potion and grew back into her previous self. Luc gave her a cloak to cover herself as the clothes she was wearing had become too small for her. Now the children were dancing around her along with Nina. Marcy handed Brenda over to Miranda.

Miranda looked into the baby’s eyes and tweaked her cheeks saying, “Aww, wittle Brenda is so cute.”

Brenda became a little anxious and squirmed around to look for someone else to take her. Miranda patted Brenda’s belly and kissed her on the forehead saying, “Don’t worry baby. I won’t be as mean to you as you were to me.”

Miranda heard Brenda let out a little whimper and strangely it felt as if Brenda was expressing guilt rather than fear. The next second Brenda quit squirming and gave in to Miranda.

By that time, Mary and the Chief were getting tired of arguing. On top of that, Mary was also upset about Trevor still being missing. The Chief was about to call his men off when one of them came running out of the orphanage and cried out, “Sir, there is some strange sorcery in there! There’s a pitcher in the kitchen that is shaking as if possessed by an evil spirit.”

The Chief was about to say something when Master Ushar interrupted saying, “Quickly! Bring it out here. There is no time to waste.”

The man hesitated for a moment and then ran back into the orphanage and along with another man carried the vibrating pitcher out to the grounds infront of Master Ushar. They dropped it on the ground and the shaking seemed to increase. A crowd was forming again around it, but they kept their distance from the pitcher.

Master Ushar warned, “Get back everyone!”

The crowd panicked and moved further back. The pitcher swayed a bit from side to side and then suddenly broke apart. The crowd cried out. The pieces were thrown apart and the water flowed out. In the place of the pitcher was sitting a naked man who seemed to have burst out of the pitcher. The local people recognized him to be Trevor.

Trevor stayed a grown man for just one second. The crowd gasped as he started shrinking. They backed away further. They had never seen anything like this before. Wherever the water touched the ground, it would turn brown as the grass leaves shrunk and disappeared into the soil. The flowers became buds and the plants retreated into the ground. As Trevor regressed beyond the twenties, he looked up at the crowd and spotted Mary who looked shocked, happy and scared at the same time.

Mary took a step towards Trevor and the Chief tried to grab onto her hand. The grip wasn’t as strong as the Chief hoped it would be. In two seconds, Mary struggled free and ran at the 12 year old Trevor. As she stepped onto the warm water, she started shrinking as the crowd gasped again. The Chief felt too afraid to follow her but he kept yelling at her to come back. By the time Mary reached Trevor, she had become 12 and Trevor was 6 years old. He stretched out his arms towards Mary. She grabbed them and pulled his warm body up from the ground into her arms.

Mary and Trevor were exactly in the center of the puddle of magical water. Mary pulled Trevor towards the crowd to get away from the water. Soon Trevor was only 3 and Mary had become 9. Mary’s clothes were getting in the way now and were slowing them down. They were only a few steps away from the edge of the puddle when Mary tripped and fell face down onto the mud. She felt the warm water soak into her clothes.

The Chief cried out “Somebody help her! You men, get her out of there.” but he did not make any efforts himself. The Chief’s men were too scared to go in as well.

Mary’s regression rate seemed to increase. By the time she got up from the ground, she had become 6 years old and Trevor was 2 years old. She picked him up from the ground and took a few more steps. As her height decreased, the edge of the water appeared to move further way.

Finally, Trevor’s mother could not bear to wait anymore and ran into the puddle. She put her arms around the two regressing children as her own age started to decrease. As she pulled them away from the water, the magic users and the Chief ran towards them. Master Ushar shouted out that the children need to be dried off as quickly as possible. Trevor’s mother was already using the loose ends of her clothes as towels for the 1-year-old baby Trevor. Nina reached the 4-year-old Mary and pulled her baggy clothes off her. Mary blushed as she became naked infront of the crowd and she grabbed onto Nina and tried hiding herself. Nina took off her own cloak and dried Mary off with that. After Trevor and Mary were dry, his mother turned her attention to herself and dried off her arms and legs using the cloak.

Meanwhile, Luc had poured different quantities of the potion for stopping the regression into three vials. He used them on the three victims. When the regression finally stopped, Trevor’s mother was 28, Trevor was a 6-month-old baby and Mary was a two-year-old toddler. There was no way to turn them back. Trevor and Mary started crying when Master Ushar made that announcement. Nina and Trevor’s mother tried to console them.

After everyone calmed down a bit, the Chief approached Trevor’s mother who was carrying both Mary and Trevor. Mary seeing her father hid her face in Tervor’s mother’s breast. The Chief tried to take Mary, but she wouldn’t even look at him and cried out, “Me no wanna go to daddy. Me neva wanna go to daddy.”

The Chief tried ignoring what Mary said and tried to take her again forcefully. Mary started crying. Nina interrupted, “Please Chief. Stop bothering her now. She has been through a lot.”

The Chief did nothing to hide his anger. “She is my daughter. She needs me right now, not the mother of a kidnapper. I am the only one capable of taking care of her.”

Nina stayed quiet for a moment thinking about something. Then she spoke up again, “Actually, the papers I found at Brenda’s orphanage indicate otherwise. Someone who can turn a blind eye to children’s sufferings in exchange for bribes is not capable of taking care of anyone.”

The Chief was shocked. “This is absurd! That lying wench made things up to frame me. Where is that fat cow?”

Some of the children noticed Brenda hide her face in Miranda’s chest, but they did not say anything.

Master Ushar intervened. “Chief please lets take this inside. There is no need to disturb the peace further.”

The three magic users, the two babies and their parents moved towards the Chief’s house. Slowly the Chief’s men drove the people away to their homes. Mallock and Kimbley put up a protection barrier around the magical puddle of water.

By that time, Lygine and Vynnie were halfway towards their house. They had not talked at all till then. Vynnie had been softly sobbing all that time and was stroking the necklace around Lygine neck with her tiny hands. Lygine patted Vynnie on her head and spoke softly, “Mother.”

Vynnie looked up in surprise. It felt like it had been forever since she had been called that.

Lygine paused for a second and then continued, “Would you tell me what had happened with grandmother and grandfather?”

Vynnie’s sobbing did not stop easily. Lygine tried to calm her down slowly. Eventually, Vynnie stopped sobbing and took some deep breaths. Then she slowly started telling Lygine things she had never talked to anyone about before. The topic was so serious that after a while Lygine did not even notice that it was a baby talking to her.

Back at the witch sisters’ house, Cindy had woken up by the sounds of quarrels coming from the next room. It sounded a lot worse than before. She felt a bit scared again realizing that soon any bonds the sisters may have had with each other would fall apart.

End of Part 3

 

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