-Tranquil-

                                                        (continued)

“Off the way of a warmly colored welcome, a path to this place lays,” Jaiden recited to himself as he filled up a bulky water bottle. He thought about that line in particular, even though it apparently was already solved. Jaiden recalled the ‘Welcome to Ollen’ sign being green, which he guessed was more of a neutral color.

“Maybe I’m thinking too much into it,” He thought as he left his house, “ I guess any type of welcome could be considered warm.” He walked to his car, all his things already set inside, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was forgetting something. It was a reoccurring uneasy feeling he got before going on a long trip. Usually, when he figured out what the missing thing was, it turned out not being so important. He brushed it off as he got in his car, Marsh was already buckled in the passenger seat.

“Got everything?” Marsh asked. Jaiden nodded ‘yes.’ For the first couple of minutes, they were silent until Marsh started to shuffle in his seat, not doing well with the lack of conversation,

“So…” Marsh began, “tell me more about the witch. Did she leave a message that was like,” Marsh cleared his throat to make a croaky impression, “‘Come and find me if you dare!’ or, ‘You have until the clock strikes twelve to find me passed the falls!’”

“Well, the only message we got was the one sewn into the cloth that had the berries and that didn’t have any… information about where she is…” Jaiden explained.

“So how do you know where to look?”

Jaiden went blank, he wasn’t even sure if this was the right thing to do, “I don't know… Why would she have a cloth with that symbol on it and then not be in that other world?”

“Hold on, have you checked if she’s at her house?” Marsh asked with an eyebrow raised. Jaiden made an awkward expression to his brother.

“I- Well, no,” Jaiden stuttered, rethinking his plans.

“Holy cannoli, why not!?”

“I was caught up in the moment!” He explained. Jaiden thought of himself as the type to think things through but he kept proving to himself that he doesn’t do well under pressure.

“Ok so let's go!” Marsh said.

“What?”

“Let's go check her freaking house!”

“I- We can’t just-”

“It’s on the way there isn’t it? Let’s just stop by!”

“I… Okay- you make a good point,” Jaiden continued to reconsider his own head.

They drove a little passed her empty fruit stand to see her house. It used to be a familiar checkpoint by the fruit stand but now that they knew what the owner of it truly was, it loomed in an ominous way. It was gray and short with windchimes decorating all around the porch. It was quite small compared to the other houses in the area and was much older too. Most believed that this odd old lady didn’t need a big house because she didn’t have any family. In this new reality, this small, worn-down house could have corridors of rooms, hidden away with some kind of magic.

Jaiden leaned forward to get a better look but Marsh was already leaving the car, hastily trecking to her front door.

“Wh- Hey! Get back here!” Jaiden demanded, in a whispered tone. He ran out to drag his brother away from the witch’s yard.

“Hey, witch!” Marsh yelled.

“Marshall! Are you crazy!?” Marsh knocked loudly on the splintered wooden door before Jaiden could even get near him. The wind chimes that hung about her creaky porch sang mischievously in the wind. Jaiden held his breath, thinking any moment the witch would come out and curse the two of them. Marsh turned to the window but he could barely see anything through the grimy layers of dirt. No one was home. It was a house just right for a ghost.

“Hm… Let's break in,” Marsh concluded.

“Marsh! We are not breaking into a witch's house,” Jaiden protested furiously.

“We can pretend like she isn't a witch. Would that soothe your conscience?”

“We aren’t breaking in anywhere! Look, We’re wasting time,” Jaiden started back towards his car, more than ready to move on. The windchimes began to rattle intensely behind him and he turned, thinking the witch had come out. He was dismayed to see Marsh peering over to her backyard, propping himself up on the porch fence and yard gate. He was staring at something on the other side.

“Marsh I swear-”

“Come look at this!” Marsh swatted his hand for Jaiden to go see but he stalled, very much afraid of what he might see. He quickly stepped beside his brother.

“Look at that,” Marsh was pointing to a little pond in the center of her yard. It was surrounded by mushrooms and tall grass. The water itself was clear but seemed to be glowing blue. The sight of it was hypnotizing.

“Hey!” Jaiden turned to see an old lady, a neighbor of Ms. Crodsfer pointing her cane at the two of them. Marsh fell off the porch fence and scrambled up trying to look unsuspicious.

“What are you two doing over there? Don’t make me call the cops!” The old lady waved her cane to the sky.

“S-Sorry ma’am! My brother and I… wanted to buy some fruit but uh… She wasn’t there. We- We’ll just be leaving now, sorry to uh… worry you,” Jaiden said, starting to sweat. He scooted Marsh back to the car, both of them smiling awkwardly. The old lady looked on, dissatisfied with the response.

“Don’t let me catch you hooligans peepin’ over Ol’ Priscilla's fence a second time, or else!”

“Won’t happen again,” Marsh said giving the old lady a friendly thumbs up. They both stumbled into the blue Seville, Jaiden started the car, sweating much more than before, and drove off.

“Well that was fun,” Marsh said. Looking behind the car to see if the old lady was still swearing them away with her cane.

“I hope we never have to go back there,” Jaiden groaned, “That was so embarrassing, we probably looked like a couple of creeps.”

“Yeah, you’re a mess.” Jaiden furrowed his brows at his brother’s response. Marsh rolled down the window and pretended like he was catching the passing wind. “I wonder what was up with that pool. Think she has some fancy fish in it?” Marsh pondered allowed. Jaiden was too busy revaluating what had just happened to reply. Marshall took Jaiden’s thinking as ignoring him and rested his head to the side. He looked out the window and saw a murder of crows gathering on the roof of a single house. Marsh watched as the scene passed by and didn’t give it another thought.

                                                              ◈◈◈

Coming up to their destination, Jaiden turned off the road to park behind the sign. It was made from Timberwood and it sat proudly on a boulder covered in algae.

“Jeez, why do we need such a big sign for Ollen? Nothing ever happens here,” Marsh circled it as he nitpicked the sign. It had occurred to them both that they hadn’t actually stood next to it before and only ever saw it when driving out of town.

“The sign is older than Ollen and this general area was pretty important,” Jaiden said thoughtfully. He found that the history of boring places was usually much more interesting than the present.

“Why do you know that?”

“Extra credit assignment. Ollen used to be named Deckard but it was changed when the founder…” Jaiden realized he was talking to himself when Marsh walked off to get a better look at the sign. It was more than twice his height.

“Woah… This is actually pretty cool,” Marsh climbed onto the boulder and looked over the lettering, “What do we do now that we’re here?”

“Now… I believe we look for a path…” Jaiden examined the area. On the other side of the road, there was a convenience store and a gas station. Everywhere else was plastered with trees and the beginnings of a rocky hill. He went to the trunk of his car and rummaged through the girthy backpack.

He took out the pile of notes he wrote, took out the passage, and cleared his throat, “Okay, ‘Off the way of a warmly colored welcome, a path to this place lays. So close to the closest river can be found by the end of day.’ This still doesn’t make any sense.”

“What doesn’t make any sense?” Marsh hopped down from the boulder and stood beside the open trunk.

“Well, for starters, there aren’t any rivers in this area.”