The night was growing darker, and you better believe that Wirt noticed it. She didn't say anything, but pretty soon, the woods were beginning to look the same: dark leafy shape after tall dark leafy shape. Her little sister, Greta, didn't seem to notice, however. She was too busy coming up with names not to call her frog. Wirt wasn't listening though. She was looking about and suddenly, the unfamiliarity of the woods became all-too real.
Greta kept droning, "But I think that the absolute worst name for this frog is-"
"W-wait a second," Wirt interrupted, halted, and stuck out her hand, accidentally hitting Greta. "Uh... Gret..." Wirt took a long look at the spooky silhouettes of trees and animal shapes in their branches before asking slowly, "Where are we?"
"In the woods," Gret offered and set her frog down gently on the ground.
"No, I mean... What are we doing out here?" Wirt asked, her voice unconsciously getting louder.
"We're walking home," Gret answered as if it weren't obvious. Was it even?
"Gret, I think we're lost!" Wirt exclaimed, beginning to panic. "W-we should've left a trail or something!"
"I can leave a trail of candy from my skirt," Gret offered and reached into one of the many of her overall-skirt's voluminous pockets. Her fist closed around a handful of candy and she enthusiastically tossed some into the air, like edible confetti.
Could've, would've, should've far too late... "No," Wirt sighed and got into an Edgar Allan Poe mood. "Though I am lost, my wounded heart resides back home- in pieces- strewn about the graveyard of my lost love." She was now in the zone and stood up straight with her hand up. "For only-"
A small noise interrupted her. "Do you hear that?" Wirt asked, following the small hacking sound.
"Yeah," Gret answered and followed her sister, stopping behind a tree.
They peered around the trunk, but couldn't locate the source of the noise. "Do you think it's some kind of deranged lunatic with an axe waiting out there in the dark for innocent victims?" Wirt asked hurriedly, her racing voice echoing her mind.
Gret decided to see if it was so, and ventured out from behind the tree trunk.
"Gret," Wirt hissed. "Gret!" Gret didn't come back and a screech made Wirt flinch, so she followed and caught up with her sister. "Gret, you're gonna get us into trouble again." A bright light caught the girls' eyes and they turned to see a humming figure, illuminated by a lantern. The figure turned, and the girls saw a middle-aged woman dressed in a ratty grey coat with matching pants. Her outfit was contrasted by shiny black boots and a battered, wide-brimmed hat. The woman put down her axe and gathered some branches that she had seemingly just cut off of an oozing, fallen tree.
"We should ask her for help," Gret said.
"No," Wirt contradicted, "We should not ask her for help."
Gret didn't see why not. "But-"
"Shh!"
"You shush!"
"You shush!"
"Shh!"
Wirt finally covered her sister's mouth. Well, their fix seemed even greater now that the voice and light were fading away. "Shoot," Wirt muttered. She turned to Gret. "You think we should've asked her for help?" Her younger sister shrugged.
"Maybe I can help you," a boyish voice from above offered. "I mean, you girls are lost, right?"
Wirt gasped and rubbed her eyes. It was an eastern bluebird! "What in the world is going on?" she squeaked.
"Well, you're rubbing your eyes," Gret replied. "And I'm answering your questions."
"No, no. Gret. I mean, a bird's brain isn't big enough for comprehension of words and speech," Wirt explained.
"Hey, what was that?" the bird asked, obviously offended.
"I mean, uh... You're weird. I mean, as in, not normal. Uh... Gah! Stop talking to it, Wirt," Wirt scolded herself.
Meanwhile a black turtle had crawled up the large tree root the girls were by and Gret popped a blue-wrapped candy onto its shell. Did turtles like candy? Only one way to find out!
"Excuse me, 'it'?!" the bird asked Wirt. He was getting pretty mad. Gret saw the turtle walking away and tossed it another candy.
"What are you kids doing here?!" a loud, gruff voice demanded. The girls and bird turned to see a bright light and the woodswoman from before, holding the light in a black lantern. "Explain yourselves."
"I'll see you later. Bye!" the bluebird chirped and flew off, leaving the girls.
"C-calm down ma'am," Wirt squeaked again, intimidated by the woman's grim face and spooked by the sudden light. "Whatever you do out here is your business." Her eyes darted to the axe. "We just wanna get home with all of our arms and legs attached."
"The woods are no place for children," the woodswoman continued, her voice softening a bit. Then it grew scary again when she added, "Don't you know the Beast is afoot?"
"Beast?!" Wirt repeated. This place kept getting weirder and weirder and creepier and creepier. "We don't know about any Beast. We're just two lost kids trying to get home."
"Well, welcome to the Unknown, ladies. You're more lost than you realize," the woodswoman stated. Gret and Wirt shared a glance and then looked at the oozing tree. A grim mask of death seemed to be carved into it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Despite the woodswoman's gruff voice and terrifying first impression, she actually offered to help the sisters and took them to an old mill. "I found this homestead abandoned," she explained after leading Gret and Wirt inside. "I re-purposed its mill for my... needs." She took a flint and stone to make sparks. "You and your sister should be safe here while I work." The sparks grew into a flame and soon a bright fire lit the cozy-looking parlor with a soft, warm glow.
"Candy trail, candy trail, can-dee trail," Gret sang and crawled backwards, placing a trail of brightly-wrapped candies in her wake.
"So... What exactly is your work?" Wirt asked. It seemed odd to her that someone would be living alone in the woods and that a woodswoman would need a mill for work, but she didn't add that out loud.
The woodswoman sighed. "Everyone has a torch to burn," she explained. "This one is mine." She patted the lantern at her side. "I grind the horrid Edelwood trees into oil to keep this lantern lit." She took a stick from the faggot strapped to her back, snapped it, and tossed it aside. "This is my lot in life. This is my burden."
"This lady sounds loony," Wirt whispered to Gret. "Maybe we should make a break for it. Except, she must know the woods really well, so we may need to knock her out first." Gret nodded. "Except... that may turn out really bad. Yeah. Bad plan. Forget it."
"Okay," Gret replied casually.
"What are you whispering about?" the woodswoman growled and turned around to face them.
Wirt was about to say, "Nothi-"
"We're talking about running away out of here," Gret said.
"Shh!" Wirt hissed.
"Shh!" Gret retorted.
The woodswoman gave a tired groan and stood up. "Leave if you wish. But remember: the Beast haunts these woods. Ever sings this mournful melody." The woodswoman lifted her lantern and it cast eerie shadows about the room. "In search of lost souls such as yourself," she said menacingly.
"To help us?" Gret asked hopefully.
"No! Not to help you," the woodswoman answered dryly and began to leave. "I have work to do in the mill." She turned to face the sisters as she reached the door. "When I'm finished I will do what I can to guide you. If you two are still here when I return." The door closed and the sisters were alone again.
"Huh. I guess we could just leave," Wirt stated. Then she sighed. "I dunno. Hey, Gret?"
"What?" Gret asked. She had walked to a corner and picked up a stout log. She gave it a swing before tossing it back into the log pile.
"Do you think that there's really a beast out there?" Wirt asked, watching her sister cross to the other side of the room. "Or is that woman just messing with us?"
"Uh huh," Gret absent-mindedly answered, picked up a branch and bird sculpture, gave it a swing, and set it down on the floor.
"I guess she could've done away with us by now if that was her plan," Wirt reasoned. "And she lit that fire. That's kinda nice." The fire's warmth and light was a great comfort compared to the spooky darkness of the woods outside.
"Yeah!" Gret agreed enthusiastically.
Wirt sat down on the red chaise. "I guess it's possible that there's a beast," she continued, "Since there was a talking bluebird."
"Yeah!" Gret called again and kept mingling around.
Wirt sighed and lay down. "Oh... I don't know. Sometimes I feel like I'm just like a boat, on a winding river, twisting towards an endless black sea." In her poetic rambling, Wirt was oblivious to her sister picking up a bellow and giving it an experimental swing. "Further and further," she continued, "Drifting away from where I want to be. From who I want to be."
"Oh, I didn't know that," Gret said. "Did you know that if you soak a raisin in grape juice, it turns into a grape? It's a Rock Fact!" Gret whipped something from her little purse and held it up triumphantly. It was a round rock with slightly-crossed bug eyes and tongue sticking out from between yellow lips painted on it.
Wirt groaned. "You're not helping at all," she mumbled. "Go play with your frog or something."
"Aw beans!" Gret exclaimed. She had forgotten about her frog in the excitement. "Where's that frog o' mine?" She began to crawl towards the door leading outside. "Hold on there, elder sister o' mine. I'll be back for your plan." Gret stood up, reached into her pockets, tossed out two handfuls of candy, and exited. Wirt turned up to face the ceiling and meditated on everything that had happened tonight.
Outside, Greta was calling, "Kitty, Kitty! Herekittykittykitty! Now where did that frog named Kitty go? Whoa!" She was on the floor. "I tripped over my own candy trail."
Gret heard a scuffle and a long, low noise coming from the woods. Thinking that it was her frog, Gret began to follow the noise. Then she heard a loud croak behind her. "That frog's giving me the run-arounds," she giggled and headed back, tossing candy from her pockets. She climbed up some rocks and a barrel to peer in through the mill window. "Kitty!" she called.
She didn't see Kitty, but she saw the woodswoman humming. The mill's grinding devices hummed and creaked along, as the woodswoman fed an Edelwood twig into a chute and oil finally emerged from a spout. She kept replacing fresh vials to catch the familiar-looking black ooze.
"Gross," Gret gagged. Croak. "Kitty?" Gret turned and didn't see her frog. She heard the long loud noise from earlier. "Is that y- Whoa!" she fell into the barrel and landed on something squishy.
Croak!
"Oh there you are!"
Croak!
The noise came again, louder than before. Gret nervously looked up. "Wirt?" she asked. Then doubtfully, "Kitty?"
Nope!
The barrel's opening was illuminated by a pair of huge, glowing, multicolored eyes. "You have beautiful eyes," Gret squeaked. The beast growled loudly and opened its maw wide.
Meanwhile, back in the house, Wirt was entertaining herself with a kendama she had found lying around. She made the ball fly up, but it unsuccessfully bounced off the spike and hung from its string. Wirt clicked her tongue. Then she heard a loud roar. "Gret?" she asked softly. Crash!
The woodswoman burst into the room. "What's happening?" she demanded. "Where is your sister?"
Wirt shrugged and made that "I unno" sound.
"Holy guacamole," Gret said in a dazed voice and wobbled in. "Hot dog!" The door burst off its hinges and Gret was flung across the room into the stairs. A huge, black, wolf-like beast stood in the doorway and crept in, growling.
"It's the Beast!" Wirt shrieked.
"Stay back, girls!" the woodswoman yelled and brandished her axe. Gret crept up the stairs behind her, holding a slab of broken wood. She gave it a swing and it knocked off the woodswoman's hat.
"Huh?" the woman asked and pivoted around in surprise. She slipped on the bird sculpture, fell, and hit her head on a log. She moaned and was silent.
"Gret! Why did you do that?!" Wirt yelled.
"That was the plan, right? Knock her out!"
"No!" Wirt babbled and took the fire mesh and put it in front of her protectively. "I told you to forget that plan." The beast was getting closer and opened its jaws. Wirt screamed.
"Spank," Gret said and hit the beast's rump with the axe handle. "Spank. Spank!" The last one was hard enough to make the beast whirl around to face her. Gret set her face grimly.
"Run, run, run, run, run, run, run!" Wirt yelled and scrambled out of the room.
"Caaaandy Camouflage!" Gret yelled and threw another handful of candy. Then she picked up her frog and followed her sister repeating, "Run-run-run-run-run-run-run!"
The beast followed the sisters into the mill and lunged, crashing into the wall and getting squished under a fallen mill part.
"Gret!" Wirt yelled and jumped onto a higher ledge.
"This is amazing, huh?" Gret asked and rushed to her sister's side. The beast roared and freed itself. Glancing around, desperately, Wirt saw a sack of potatoes and proceeded to bean the beast with them.
"Am I supposed to throw something?" Gret asked, looking uselessly from the frog in her left hand and the axe in the other. The beast roared and got its front paws onto the ledge, tipping Gret over. Then she remembered her candy and tossed some. To everyone's surprise, the beast stopped growling and began to lick up the treats.
"He's eating your candy," Wirt marveled.
"I wonder if he ate my entire candy trail that led to this mill," Gret said.
Wirt's eyes widened and she socked the upside-down pot on Gret's head. "Greta! You led the beast right to us with your candy!" she scolded angrily. The platform began to give, as the beast tried to pull itself up. It lurched and the sisters were thrown off backwards and the beast just tipped it over.
Wirt and Gret sat up and rubbed their heads. "Give me the axe," Wirt ordered. "You're too little to have it anyways." The beast gave another loud growl and tried to climb over the barricade between itself and its victims.
"Ah! We gotta get out of here!" Wirt exclaimed and frantically began to look for an exit. Gret tugged on Wirt's cape and pointed to a ladder leading to a trapdoor in the ceiling. The sisters rapidly ascended the stair and came out on top of the roof. No sooner had the girls caught their breath than the beast burst through the roof and faced them.
"Gret, give him the rest of your candy," Wirt said. Gret fingered all of her pockets, but they were all empty. The last piece of candy was stuck to Wirt's cape.
The little girl plucked it off and tossed it towards the mill's large wheel with an, "Oops!" Sure enough, the beast followed and got wedged between the building and wheel. The whole building began to creak and the beast looked uncomfortably sick. It spit out a black hunk just as the mill came crashing down and threw all of them into a nearby stream.
Wirt came out of the water and saw the black hunk grow legs and a head and walk away. It was a small black turtle with a blue candy perched on its shell. Softly, Wirt muttered, "What in the..."
"Wirt, Wirt!" Gret called. She was riding a brown and white dog. "He spit out that turtle and now he's my new best friend." The dog shook himself, sending Gret and water flying. Then he himself began to trot away. "Hey, where are you going?" Gret called after the canine. "Ain't that just the way."
"The mill is destroyed," the recovered woodswoman wailed. She stooped and picked up broken vials of glass. "All the oil is gone!" It was spilled onto the grass and was quickly being absorbed. The woodswoman looked like she was about to cry as she picked up the broken glass shards.
"But look, we solved the beast problem," Wirt offered and pointed to the dog lying asleep nearby.
"The DOG!" the woodswoman screamed furiously. "That is not the Beast! The Beast cannot be nullified like some farmer's pet." She snatched the axe from Wirt. "She stalks like the night," she growled and hacked off the top of a rock with her axe. "She sings like the four winds." A chilling breeze blew a dancing leaf by. "She is the death of hope. She steals the children and... and- she'll..." The woodswoman deflated and sat down with her head in her hands, fighting back sobs.
"You're always messing up, Gret," Wirt told her sister and slapped the pot again.
"Young lady, you've got it backwards," the woodswoman corrected and stood up. "You are the elder child. You are responsible for you and your sister's actions." She pointed an accusing finger towards the pile of debris that was once a working mill.
"Sorry," Wirt apologized. "Maybe I can... fix it? No. Sorry, I can't fix it."
"No," the woodsman said softly. "You must go. Take your sister north." She pointed to a path through the wood. "Look for a town. And leave these woods."
"Yeah, okay. Thanks. Come on Gret," Wirt said and took her sister's hand. They stepped onto a series of stones to cross the stream.
"One last thing," the woodswoman said in a haunting voice. "Beware the Unknown. Fear the Beast! Leave these woods... If you can."
"Yeah," Wirt repeated and rung her hands.
"And little one," the woodswoman said to Gret, "You have that frog. Give it a proper name."
"Okay," Gret chirped and gave a thumbs-up. The sister and the frog continued their way into the woods.
"Hey, Wirt," Gret said after a while, "I think I have a new name for our frog. I'ma call her Wirt."
"That's going to be really confusing," Wirt commented.
"No," Gret replied nonchalantly. "I'ma call you Kitty."
"What? Maybe I'll start calling you Candy Pants."
"Whoa, cool!"
Croak!
"Good one, Wirt," Gret giggled.
"Thanks."
"I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to Wirt."
The stars made the darkness bright, but a shadow of malice rested in the back of the Wirt's mind. Fear of the Unknown.
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Hello, fair folk. How are you all doing? Happy Thanksgiving! I've been publishing a lot more lately because I've been writing throughout my break. So basically, I decided to do this because over the summer my friend, introduced me to this show Over the Garden Wall and I absolutely L-O-V-E , love it! Around Halloween, my little sister and I were going to dress up as Greg and Wirt gender-bended, but I never finished my costume. :'( So, while we wait for next Halloween, I gender-bended the story and for my sister and for my amusement. This chapter is dedicated to her. For Esmeralda, my Gret. She even helped me color some story art. (I am a terrible artist, so I trace, modify, and color. No shame.)
Shout-out to my friend, @sarahmarinara3791. Please read her stories 'Daughter of the Highest' and 'The Shadows of the Sun'. Also, shout-out to my sister, @SkrillQueen who has written so many stories that I can't even remember them all.