Witches of Mellgrah

She found herself in a forest. It was unfamiliar. No matter how far she ran or in which direction, there was nothing but dead blackened trees. She heard a deafening sound of the sky screaming. Something was coming after her, swooping from above like a predator catching prey. Out of pure terror, she couldn't bring herself to look up. She could feel it. It was just about to grab her.

Maya woke up with a hammering headache. This must be what a hangover feels like. Her whole body was tense, and it seemed like she slept with her head in an uncomfortable position. Her memory of how she got to sleep was hazy and it seems she slept like a dead since.

Now, slowly opening her eyes to face reality, only to almost shit her pants seeing Elena right in front of her face, watching her.

"Crap!" Maya shot up and the headache caught her right away. "What are you doing?" She massaged her neck to ease the tension she felt there.

Elena lingered before answering: "You know, you mumble in your sleep. It's a bit freaky."

"That's freaky!? What about watching someone sleep this closely? Or at all?"

Elena seemed completely hangover-free. Maya thought that was unfair considering the vast difference in the amount of alcohol consumed between them.

"Well, I hoped to make something out of it. And, I wanted to take my turn in rude awakening."

"You didn't wake me," Maya was confused.

"Um-hm" Elena was acting suspiciously. "C'mon, let's go."

"It's Sunday. The only day we aren't forced to go anywhere. Where do you think we are going?" Maya hoped Elena had just forgotten which day it was.

"We're going to take a stroll through the woods. Hurry. They'll leave without us."

"What? It's too early for your tricks and games."

"It's almost eleven," Elena stated, flatly.

Maya jumped. Did she sleep that long? "How are you not hangover?"

"I don't do hangovers."

Maya knew this either meant she drank again, or she just got good at managing living with a killing headache. She groaned. "Can you take mine away, too?"

"Stop being a wuss. You barely took a couple of sips last night. You really must be determined to pull a hangover out of your ass." Elena was grumbling. "Welcome to the 'cool kids' table. Now get over it and get your ass ready or you'll be going in your pyjamas."

"But where are we going?"

"I told you already."

"Sure, take a stroll through the woods. You can't be serious. What for?"

"We're going to pick mushrooms," Elena said casually.

"Mushrooms!? I'm so confused." Maya rubbed her bleary eyes.

"What's so hard to understand? We're going out into the woods, we'll take a little walk, catch some air, and the best part is — it counts as work. They'll pay us for it."

"Wait. Outside? Like, outside the Walls??" Maya was alarmed.

"Yeah."

"No. I can't. Are you insane?"

"It's the middle of a day…" Elena rolled her eyes at Maya's irrational fear. "There's nothing scary there. You even got a warrior trainee on your side," she pointed at herself proudly. "Besides, you'll have to get out there eventually."

In the end, Elena won the argument and Maya was dragged out of bed. They joined a group of ten or so students, supervised by a Biology and Forest Ecosystem teacher and two guards. It seemed this was a part of senior extracurricular activity but juniors were welcomed as well.

'For a girl who regularly skips class, she sure does find strange activities to be interested in,' Maya thought. Since Elena was such a slacker, it did track that she would be well-versed in easy ways to make money around here.

After overcoming intense nervousness about going outside, realizing it was just a regular forest that hardly had anything magical or unusual about it, Maya also learned she was an absolute anti-talent for searching and even just walking through a forest. She hated it. It seemed like every step she took she would get tangled in another spider web. It didn't help that she was afraid of spiders, resulting in her annoying the rest of the group with screaming every five seconds.

Furthermore, she would also annoy Elena by calling her over to check every mushroom she sees, because, as a complete amateur, Maya didn't know which ones were good to pick. And, because of her hangover, they were slower than the rest lingering at the back of the group.

"I've told you already, no green mushroom is good. It's not a freaking plant. Edible mushrooms aren't green. If it looks funky or has vivid colours, just leave it."

"What colours are supposed to be good then?"

"Brownish… and white… mostly."

"This one's brown," Maya pointed at one.

"If you look underneath the cap, it's mottled," Elena somehow knew even without looking underneath.

"Am I supposed to look under them as well?!"

Elena rolled her eyes. She had enough of Maya's false alarms. "Why don't you just relax and enjoy the nature? You'll still be paid if you don't find any."

It was her subtly suggesting she stop trying. Maya wasn't too happy about it. It made her feel useless. She continued to sulking for some time, before running into a bouquet of small brown mushrooms. Elena arrived reluctantly after being called over, ready to tell her off but stopped when she saw what Maya had found.

"No," Elena said.

"But—"

Maya was feeling hopeful after Elena's initial reaction, but her dismissal surprised her.

"I told you, just to pretend you're looking."

Even though Elena was talking to her, she didn't pay attention to Maya. Her gaze tracked away until it met with another guy from the group and they exchanged looks and subtle nods.

"You know him?" Maya asked.

"Who?" Elena seemed oblivious now and Maya was questioning if she really saw that exchange or if was it her imagination. "Let's go. They'll leave us behind."

They continued. Maya paid attention to the guy who circled back and fell behind. He crouched down at the spot where Maya found those mushrooms and put them in his backpack. It stood out to her because they were given baskets for carrying picked mushrooms. She didn't know what that was all about, or why Elena pretended not to know him, so instead of losing days on fruitlessly wondering, she decided to ignore it.

Spider webs were still a problem and Maya came up with an idea of combating them. It involved grabbing a stick and swirling it in front of her face as she walked to catch the webs before she got tangled in them.

"You know, we aren't that type of witches," a voice from behind surprised her.