The Witch of Thornvale Chapter 5: Drake's Tale

The Witch of Thornvale is an allegory of Ludwig von Mises’ lesson on capitalism, one of the Six Lessons. Dive into Chapter 5.

In case you missed them, make sure you check out Chapters 1-4 of The Witch of Thornvale. Catch them below, and then dive into Chapter 5.

Chapter 5: Drake’s Tale

Eirwyn’s body coiled tight, her eyes fixed in the sound’s direction.

The spark bloomed in her palm. It was small before threading up her fingers in pulsing lines of pale blue. The glow lit the damp air around her, dancing across the slick bark and stirring the mist at her feet into swirls.

Branches brushed each other high above, and the echo rolled down like something bigger moved between them.

Eirwyn pointed to a fallen log ahead, then dropped low. Her cloak pooled around her legs as she crouched. Drake followed, his eyes darting all over the terrain.

The log felt damp beneath his fingers and the bark peeled away in patches. Beneath it, insects shifted inside the hollow. He grabbed a rock slick with mud, his fingers tightening around it like he had back in the cave.

Eirwyn’s breath slowed. Her body remained stone-still, eyes narrow slits under the blue flicker. The light cast thin shadows across her cheekbones. She pressed her other hand to the edge of the log, listening with every inch of skin.

Another crunch, closer this time.

Drake leaned forward enough to see a stretch of trail through the undergrowth. He adjusted his grip on the rock. It felt too light to matter, and too real to drop. The tension in his legs begged to break into motion, but Eirwyn stayed crouched, watching.

The blue glow in her palms dimmed to a whisper of light as she relaxed her fingers, but she had yet to move.

Something shifted in the air, and Drake caught the vibe these woods were watching.

A low rustle stirred the brush ahead. Branches flexed, and a patch of leaves shifted just beyond a bend in the trail, maybe twenty yards out.

Eirwyn raised a hand. Energy glimmered from her palm and across her knuckles in a thin web of blue.

Something padded through the undergrowth. It was slow, moving without urgency. Dry leaves crackled, a bush trembled, and a black shape slinked through the mist.

It had four legs, a sloped back, and a thick tail.

Drake tightened his grip on the rock, and his breath hitched as the creature stepped into view.

It was a long-bodied animal, maybe the size of a large dog, covered in dark, matted fur. Two curved tusks jutted from its lower jaw, and its wide eyes locked onto Drake for half a breath.

Then it snorted, twitched its ear, and bounded off into the deeper woods, vanishing into the mist.

Drake released the rock.

Eirwyn eased herself upward, her palm dimming as the charge faded. She stepped back against a thick tree trunk and leaned her full weight into the bark.

One breath rattled out of her, then another.

Drake rose from behind the log, brushing dirt and residual blood off his knee, his eyes still fixed on the place the creature disappeared. “You good?”

Eirwyn pressed a hand to her ribs and curled her fingers against them. “Too close to the ridge last night. No sleep.” Her voice edged with grit.

One more second of silence passed between them, thick with everything that hadn’t been said since the cave.

They started walking again, the sound of sneakers and bare feet pressing deeper into the forest.

Mist thinned as the trees opened just enough to let shafts of pale light cut through the canopy. The trail wound between clusters of ferns and stones carved with time and moss. A bird shrieked in the distance, and then the forest pulled the sound back into silence.

Eirwyn pulled ahead, her steps precise, cloak skimming the downed leaves like drifting smoke.

Drake kept a half-step behind, watching the way her shoulder blades moved with each breath, as if her whole body mapped the terrain in real time.

She glanced back. “What’s your world like?”

His eyes scanned the crooked trees around them. “Loud and fast. Everyone stares at glowing screens all day. They sit in metal boxes for hours, working in jobs they hate. Then they post about it, like complaining makes it better even if it never does.”

Eirwyn stared and gestured for him to keep talking.

“We have cities full of lights, even at night. You look up and barely see the stars because the city’s so blinding. And you never get a minute of peace because there’s too much noise.”

She fidgeted with the front of her cloak, brow low over her eyes. “Sounds like a kingdom that drowned itself.”

Drake kicked a loose root from the path, and stepped around it. “Pretty much. Stadiums packed with fans screaming over a game that doesn’t even matter.” He flicked the Penguins logo on his shirt. “And the rest of the world burns around them. But don’t worry, we’ve got podcasts about fixing it, even if they fix nothing.”

Eirwyn tilted her head, one corner of her mouth curling into a puzzled scowl. “What’s a podcast?”

“Think of it as people having a conversation, but there’s an audience listening to them.”

“Sounds boring. You have magic?”

“Technology. We use it like magic. Phones, satellites, cars, and smart devices. You can talk to someone across the world in seconds and even see them, but most people use it to argue with strangers. No one does anything and nothing gets better.”

Eirwyn’s pace slowed enough to walk beside him now as her voice dropped lower. “Words without courage are hollow.”

“Plenty of that back home.”

They moved forward through the trees, side by side now, the rhythm of their footsteps matched, the forest folding in around them like it finally believed, for now, that they weren’t enemies.

Catch Chapter 6 and see what Drake and Eirwyn stumble upon