Visual: A mythical book with a foxtail logo on its cover rests in its spotlighted stand. A figure walks up to the book from behind and reaches over to unlock the book. He opens the book and starts thumbing through the pages, running through written text, newspaper clippings, and sketches of various people, places and things.

Announcer: The Book of FoxFire is the compilation of the thousands of stories and tales that Internet Cartoonist Davey-Kins FoxFire has written, reported, and collected along the adventures of his life. This is one such story.

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The Book of FoxFire Series

By Davey-Kins FoxFire http://foxfire.twu.net

Night Soldiers: The Reading

Chapter 1

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Visual: The page turning stops at a clipping of a Victoria Texas newspaper. A full color picture of a young man about 17 years of age holding a man 20 years his senior over his shoulder by the neck and quickly dropping to the floor. The picture must've been taken at the exact moment of impact by the look of the crowd's faces. The figure moves to the book's right and sits down, revealing himself as the book's owner.

Davey-Kins: Richard Kronos was s'pposed t' be a young up and commin' High School football star that had two bad things happen t' him. The first was a leg injury in his first and only football game. It would have put him out for a only few weeks with proper care and he'd be back good as new, if it weren't fer th' second thing t' go south. Instead of th' hospital, he was taken to a Faith healer who threw him on that bum leg and told him to rise and be healed.

He didn't. Poor guy ended up permanently crippled in that leg. They fixed it so that he could walk with a brace on, but all athletics were out. His school was disappointed, his parents were disgusted, and the people who were supposed to support him have been railing away at him like Job's so-called 'friends.'

Richard Kronos didn't take out the offending minister with Stone Cold Stunner. It was some other kook that saw what happened to Richard as the proverbial straw on the camel's back. He left the discraced preacher paralyzed from the neck down, and from what Ah heard, he's still in seclusion and still in a wheelchair. The kook was promptly arrested and sent to justice, so don't worry about him, but the man he alledgedly did it for, Richard Kronos, denied the connection, but he also said that he can no longer be a Christian with a good conscious after this. I'm certain the major loser in this debacle is God.

It's Funny. Ah used t' remember a time when Religion was real an' Professional Wrestling was fake. Hey, wasn't that how this hear story began?

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That is what rang in Susie Winters' ears the moment she first heard of Richard Kronos. Her long skirt and flowing hair of two shades of brown flowed silently behind her as she almost glided behind him, with only the clacking of her shoes announcing her presence. Her large rimmed eyeglasses all but hid her face by the glare from the sunlight.

"Not that I blame you." The clerk said as he reached back to grab a bottle of Barq's from the refrigerators. "You won a lot of money in that lawsuit you filed, as well as the admiration of several groups of--"

Richard's 'feh' which hissed out his teeth carried enough bitterness to sting Susie ears.

The clerk set the bottle on the counter and took the money Richard laid out for him. "What the hell are you going to do with all that money?"

"What the hell am I going to do, hobbling all through my life?" Richard didn't expect an answer as he said that while he swiped the bottle. He gave a rather disgusted expression as he hobbled his way to the door. Everyone could hear a clack at every other step, the result of a leg brace wrapped around his leg. He finally reached the door, turned around, and gave a loud outburst.

"Do you know Ah used to run the 100 meter dash in the same time it took me to get to this God Damned door?!"

"I'm . . . . sorry," Susie said, her voice slightly over a whisper.

"Ma'am," Richard replied, "Ah'm the one who's sorry." He then swung around the doorway and limped his way down the sidewalk. He stopped to give a passing glance at someone, who immediately made a beeline to the other side of the street.

"Nobody blames Richard for that attitude of his, ma'am." The clerk told Susie as she went up to the counter with her purchases. "If nobody wanted to make a scene out of him, and took his butt to the Hospital like he was supposed to, He'd be playing in the XFL by now."

"Is he the one in the papers?" She asked with a timid voice, while the clerk rang up her items.

"Yes, he is. Went and repaid the favor on Prime Time TV because of it. Pretty tragic story, really. By the way, you're new here."

"Yes, I am," Susie smiled widely, completing her transaction. "I'm Susie Winters. Just moved in at the old house in the forest."

"That Forest?" the clerk asked with a crooked eyebrow, but then dismissed it. "You know, Richard lives in a mobile home at the other side of that forest. He mostly stays there taping some rather strange shows."

"What kind of shows?"

"Weird cartoons from Japan. I don't blame him much, since most of the good shows we get on Saturdays come from there, but Richard wants to get them straight from the source with this satellite disk." The clerk scratched his head. "I guess everyone needs a hobby. You ask me, he needs something more than just Japanimation Shows. A bit of cheering up for starters."

"Cheering up, you'd say?" Susie replied as she lowered her glasses to look down the street after leaving the store. She wasn't anyone to be noticed in the sidewalk, but as she gazed down the street toward the woods, she showed her amber eyes, which seemed to glow with an inner fire. It matched the smile that stretched her lips.

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"Someone actually moved into that house?" Richard wondered to himself as he saw the old colonial-style house in the woods. He knew very well the history behind that house. It was built around the Post-Civil War era for a local witch--The Old Woman, they called her--who came from Ireland. After working off her ticket to the Divided Country, she lived in peace with the woods and surprised all who came along with her kindness. People visited often for charms, blessings, and fortune tellings. Despite her not requiring much from them, she had the cottage built out of their gratitude. After The Old Woman finally passed away during the turn of the century, they tried to re-inhabit the house, and even tried modernizing it, but both the house and the woods were considered haunted by The Old Woman's spirit. Everyone who had moved in had something that made him or her move out. A death in the family, bankruptcy, serious illness, and what not. It had remained vacant most of Richard's life, even as he himself walked into the forest--one of the few kids brave enough to do so--and explored the area.

It was the first time he had seen someone actually move into the home. He could tell because the porch was swept. By looking inside the windows, he found that the inside had been cleaned and furnished. However, he didn't bother to stay, and just hobbled along the path to his own house, not knowing that Susie noticed him as he left and she arrived.

Susie watched him intently as she followed him with her amber eyes until he disappeared from view. She then moved to the house and went through the door.

She quickly removed all her clothes, pausing only when removing her glasses to take a breath and smile. She bathed in a bubbly caress of white suds and potpourri scents. Indeed, this whole lot seemed to smell like flowers and trees for the past week. Any passersby would have noticed, especially the neighbor to this woman, the same man who occupied her thoughts.

"He is knee-deep in bad karma, and none of it is his own," she said as she rose from her tub and padded herself dry with a terry cloth towel. Her nude body was shapely and yet still natural. She never allowed herself to have any cosmetic surgery, as if she ever needed it. "What Richard Kronos felt and said was completely understandable, there is definitely the need to have him purged of all that negativity before he does something he'll regret. But first things first."

It took her all the past week to purify this entire house, with only one spirit left to deal with. But it was the spirit of the Old Woman of the Legend behind this house and these woods. The one she had come here for. The one she would commune with that night.

She put on a purple gown that clung to her body, showing her shapely body from her neck to her hips, tapering out to her bare feet and hanging down from her arms. A sash around her waist and a wide brimmed pointed hat with two ribbons that drifted down behind her back was all that she added to this gown. Susie didn't have to look in the mirror to see if she looked all right. It was very natural for her to only have a thin cloth draping over her nude figure, for she was indeed what she looked like: a Wiccan Princess; a child of The Craft, and she has come for her guiding spirit, to be one with her.

And she had come for that very night for that very act.

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I call upon the past

Ancient voices take me back.

Help me to see

Who I have been.

Help me to know what I have lived.

I call upon the past

Make the memories last.

She chanted that over and over, square sitting over a black felt blanket with an arcane circle. A single candle shone in front of her as she let her mind reach out into the darkness, made thick with the scent of burning sage and incense. She called for the one she had taken all this trouble to find. She knew of the legend of the Old Woman that she had come here to live in peace with Mother Earth and Father Sky. The Old Women had gone to be with them in the spirit world long before this town had been settled, waiting for one like her to come. The Old Woman had waited to be called back to the world of the living, to grant the girl before her the wisdom and knowledge she acquired.

By the time the night sky dimmed of all other light and all she could see was her own reflections in the many mirrors and windows, Susie could see one of those faces change into someone older. Her heart lifted, because the one she had been looking for had finally arrived.

The younger girl in the circle could easily see the Old Woman's spirit, even though she could be barely seen by anyone else. Susie sensed the spirit float over to her, stopping just over the candle in front of the circle Susie was sitting in. The light of the candle made the ethereal form glow from inside.

Susie cooed like a schoolgirl. "Hiiiiii, Great-Grandma"

"Ah, so ye be my descendant!" The Old Woman beamed.

Susie nodded with pride.

"Ay've seen ye doin' the purification rites, child. Your methods. they be different, although very effective, and these clothes ye wrear, they not be from this region. Let me guess: You're a Yank."

"Well, I do come from the Midweast. We don't use the term anymore."

"Could everything be so changed by the passage of time?"

"Is has, Great-Grandma. Even The Craft, which went through a transformation in my time, and has even gotten acceptance in some parts of this modern world. But I've came here to return to the past. I want to learn from you, Great-Grandma. I want to continue our traditions."

There was a tear in The Old Woman's eyes.

"I know you don't write in English, Great-Grandma, but I have learned your ancient language. There is just one secret that I haven't learned."

"Aye, my child. I'm sure you'd be wantin' to look at my Grimoire... It's back in that room... Shall we go take a look, honey?"

"What room? I scoured the whole house and--"

The Old Woman laughed. "Oh, what was I thinking? I put it in a sealed passageway and took the secret with me to the spirit world, so I could have this test for ya. Now that ye have passed with ease, one thing remains. Do not be afraid, my child."

Susie leaned forward.

"We must commune our souls, my child. My spirit shall be yours; your body shall be mine. Together, we shall become a single entity, more powerful then both of us combined, and we will forever be changed. . . ."

If there were any warnings in The Old Woman's lips, Susie wouldn't have cared for them. She merely smiled and held out her arms to The Old Woman, welcoming her inside the circle, and herself. "I am ready, Great-Grandma. Come."

Susie felt The Old Woman grasp her hands with her own, than moved them across her chest, as if making Susie try to hug something unseen. Then she felt the spirit enter her body, starting at her stomach and spreading over her body to all four of her limbs, as if the Old Woman was occupying the same position in the same space as her own body. Susie's head rolled back as she let out a sensual moan.

Her mind was at once ancient and wise as well as youthful and vigorous. The child saw herself as the Old Woman who in turn felt as alive as a young woman. Shared tears fell down a single hot face. She had gained the knowledge she needed as well as the youthfulness she wanted.

The two witches in a single body mouthed a silent oath; words whispered in a tongue unknown. A bonding pact which was sealed by a drink of thick dark wine from a golden chalice. By the time the warmth hit her stomach and fuzzied her mind, her schizoid mind snapped back whole. The Witch was a single being once more, a greater whole then the two beings that were the sum of the parts.

The Witch knew exactly what to do when she fetched an ornamented dagger and headed for the part of the house that was still original: The basement. It wasn't out of the ordinary, with plaster and paint over the stone. But she knew where on the wall to stab that dagger and chip away what would be a pentacle--a five pointed star you can make by drawing one without lifting your pencil off the paper--pointing up with a hole in the middle.

A hole a dagger could easily fit into, as she eagerly demonstrated.

When she did, a whole chunk of wall fell in, breaking through all the gunk coating the walls. It revealed another room, a secret chamber.

The Witch smiled when she entered it. Everything was just where she left it before she died back then. Rows upon Rows of herbs, seeds, oils, and ingredients lined the shelves; each preserved in mason jars so that they were as fresh now as they had been when harvested centuries ago. Also in the room were a ceremonial mixing bowl and grinder, an ancient Tarot Deck, countless candles, gems, incense, and an encrusted dagger that she took in place of the one that remained in the stones. Finally, as if presented to a bridegroom was a book covered in black velvet. Lying atop the book was a pewter pentagram strung with a silver chain. Also on the book was an eye mask, which matched the gown she was wearing perfectly.

It was with extreme reverence that she put the necklace around her neck and donned the eye mask, which instantly clouded her facial features into a mystical, Goddess-like expression that showed power as well as gentleness. Finally, she took the book into her arms. It was the Old Woman's Grimoire. All of her recipes, rituals, and magicks are written there. It was the precursor to a Wiccan's Book of Shadows.

There was a name on that book: Shazell. It was her book now, and her name as well, because she was The Witch in the Woods.

And she was back in her craft.

And as she read the pages of the book, part learning and part remembering, her thoughts went to the Leg Lamed and Lonely young man on the other side of the woods from her home. He would be the first she wove her craft over. She would sweep him over his half functioning feet, claim his heart as her own, and take him to a place where the healing in spirit, if not in body, could finally be received.

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The Witch sat down with a sheet of homemade paper, deep brown ink with a quill pen, a lemon in a golden chalice from downstairs, the new dagger, and more of the inexhaustible supply of potpourri.

She took down the quill in hand and began to write:

Through the trials, Handsome

You think you all alone.

Through all the trials,

You feel you've been disowned.

Through the trials,

You feel no one cares.

Well I'm here to say, Handsome:

I am here to care.

When you talk, I'll listen;

When you weep I'll give you a shoulder;

When you scream I'll take it in.

I'm here to love you, Handsome,

Never let you alone.

The troubles are not your own

But now become outs.

Listen to me, Handsome, my friend,

I'm here in time of need,

Lean on me and the one

Above and you will be relieved.

Blessed Be, Handsome.

Shazell of the Woods.

She then took the lemon in one hand and thrust the dagger in it with the other hand, letting the juices drip into the chalice. It was not rare for The Witch to sacrifice a piece of fruit or an egg for the spirits, for it is really all that they required from her. She filled the chalice with the Lemon Juices and put the pulpy remains of the lemon in the potpourri burner. After rinsing her hands with bottled water, she began to write again. Finding that the ink had dried, she turned the page over, to write more words with the lemon juice:

But first, she placed nearby the following: The rest of the bottled water, an incense stick, a white candle, and a pinch of dry dirt.

She then found a brush and drew a circle over the paper in the lemon juice. She did it three times, adding more juice at the bottom of each circle and allowing it to dry each time.

At the top of this circle, she dripped some of the water on the paper.

At the bottom, she lowered the flame of the candle just enough to brown the extra lemon juice.

At the left, she lit the incense stick, and let it burn over the paper until some of its ash fell on it. It was promptly smudged into the fibers as the stick was thrust into the paper, snuffing it out.

To the right, she smudged the dirt into the fibers of the paper as well.

Her circle cast, she returned to the pen and the lemon juice, and began to invisibly write inside the circle, amidst the four captured elements:

Here before you, my Handsome,

I gather the elements of life, Earth, Air, Fire, Water,

to remove all negative energies from within your soul.

The Earth shall ground you from harm

The Air shall blow away any fear

Fire will burn away all your negativity

And Water shall bring freshness back into your soul

With harm to none but for your Healing,

may this spell I cast release all of your negativity

and cleanse thy emotions, and fill thyself full of good intention.

So mote it be for thy blessing, Handsome.

After those words dried to nothingness, she turned the paper over and sprinkled the inked side with potpourri. She folded it into a brown envelope and wax sealed it by letting a candle drip on the flap and stamping a pentagram in it.

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The night sky provided perfect cover for The Witch to creep silently through the forest to Richard's home. Her bare steps were soft and cat-like as her gown swirled around her body. She resembled part of the shadows before she broke free and approached the door.

She knelt before his door and placed the envelope on the doorstep, weighing it down with a satchel she kissed before leaving it.

Her task done, she got up and left as silently as she arrived, with nobody noticing her presence except for a trail of flowers and trees.

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----End of Chapter One---

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