The Midnight Moon [ONC 2024]

Introducing...The Midnight Moon

Title: The Midnight Moon...or according to Hereward Slaine's case files: The Case of The Missing Witch

Starring: Hereward Slaine as The Puzzlesolver - think golden age gumshoe in a fantasy world heavily influenced by most things magical and Medieval...

Written for: Open Novella Contest 2024, using the following prompt:

Prompt #81: The town's witch has gone missing and no one is looking for her but her two familiars - a crow and a black cat, plus the teen who has always been scared of her.

How does this prompt apply to my story: a witch is missing, her familiars (a cat and a crow) are looking for her, and there is a teenager too, but is she more scared of the witch or the familiars, only time will tell...

Front Cover: Made using Canva

Genres: Fantasy and Mystery for definite. Paranormal maybe...

Story summary: Hereward Slaine is a puzzlesolver in the town of Morteton. When the town witch, Mistaria Heath, disappears, it seems he isn't going to be given a moment's peace until he takes the case...which he doesn't really want to do...

About Morteton: Name comes from the ancient spelling Morte Ton. Yep, sounds like a fun place. Three quarters of the population are human, the remaining quarter are magical (witches, werewolves, fortune tellers, etc). They all get along fine. Morteton is a little isolated from the rest of the kingdom. It's supposed to fall under the care of the Castle and its sheriff at Duskford, but the reality is somewhat different.

Geography-wise, a river loops around the town, there is a very big forest to the west, and to the northeast you will find the foothills to some mountains which include a dormant volcano. Much of the empty land beyond the town walls is farmland.

A Little More about Hereward: If this was set in the real world, then Hereward might have been named after the folk hero Hereward the Wake, also known as Hereward of Bourne, but it isn't, and he's not. If you were after some more irrelevant information, the author has driven through Bourne, but only once, if her memory serves her right...

If you actually wanted to hear more about our Hereward, it might interest you to learn that he works alone. He claims that is out of choice. He did once have a clerk to do his paperwork. He also used to have a girlfriend. Those two things are related.

He lives in a fairly well-to-do part of Morteton but his agency is based in a less well-to-do area because he thinks that helps his business. Does it? At this point, your guess is as good as mine...Speaking of his business, Hereward prefers what he calls "traditional cases", which means that although he uses the help of some of the magical residents of the town if the case calls for it, he tries to keep away from "magical cases" themselves, them being beyond his realm of expertise. He doesn't like to feel out of his depth.

Excerpt from Chapter 1: 

Mother May eyed me suspiciously, no doubt wondering if I was mocking her in turn. But the power of the gossip could not be denied, and she eventually said, "It's Mistaria Heath."

'What about her?'

'The witch won't open her door. Her cottage is all shut up too.'

'So she's gone away,' I shrugged dismissively.

'And not told a soul? You don't know Mistaria, do you?'

I did not. I had no use for witches in my line of work, but I could understand their appeal to others.

'Anyway, someone's got to go in and sort it out.'

'Why?'

'Who knows what will befall the people of The Green with a decaying witch in our midst!' Mother May exclaimed. 'Bad times ahead, Slaine. Very bad times. I don't know if we'll all come through it.'

'You're not even certain she's dead!' I countered with a pointed look.

The Midnight Moon Mood Board: Made using Canva