It had been a long night in the North Carolina woods. I had just completed a ten-Kilometer night movement observing one of my platoons. The move had taken me through swamps and a chest deep stream. I was not in a great mood. I checked with the other OC and got the unit we were grading settled in. I told him I was heading back up to the Objective. "See you later Sergeant Major," the Lt said as I moved as quietly as possible back the way we'd come.
The move had started out miserably. A horrendous thunderstorm had hit just as we had stepped off the Helicopters. Then the platoon I had been following began its move before moonrise, meaning we were walking through the forest, in a thunderstorm, with Zero illumination so even our Night Vision devices were not a whole lot of help.
Now it was 0200 in the morning and I was trying to move the 900 meters to the Objective that the Scout Platoon would be observing and reporting on for the next day or so. The area I was in was close to a stream, and I was not taking another dunking in the dark and alone tonight. I could smell the damp swamp smells, loam and sand, mixed with the smells of the wet pines. I crashed through a few meters of wait a minute vines and brambles, bulling through with a few scratches on the back of my hands. I could hear frogs croaking and other night creatures serenading me as I popped out into a clearing.
Heat lightning flickered in the distance and I kept moving along a piece of open high ground. Soft pine needles slid under my feet. It was getting towards the moon's zenith and I wanted to be back at my base camp before dawn. I saw another flicker of light in a bit of low ground, sheltered by a copes of trees. Probably the Opposition forces guys staying dry with a fire. I could smell the wood smoke from the fire, they were burning the lighter knot from the pine so there was a slight turpentine smell to the Pine smoke, and something else I could not quite put my finger on. Brimstone? Sulfur?
Even though it was warm and I'd worked up a sweat I decided to go down and check on the guys, let them know the Boss was out here in the SUCK with them and could still move silently. Who knows maybe they would be asleep and I could scare the shit out of them. I lowered into a crouch and began to pay attention to where I put my feet. Moving slowly and fluidly, my hands pushing the odd branch from out of my path and letting it quietly go back into place.
As I got closer to the fire, it began to wash out the monocle of my NVG. I could hear voices or at least one voice. I thought it sounded female but it was muffled. What the hell? There are not supposed to be any Civilians out here. Curious and more curious. I slowed my move so that I could take in whatever it was that was going on. I could smell the dark loam and sand, the wet smells of the woods. I gently parted a bush. What I saw astounded me and sent a shiver down my spine.
A fire with an iron cauldron hanging over it was centered in the clearing. There was a woman with her back to me. I assumed it was a woman because she wore the tall pointed hat of a witch, she wore a dark cloak, but the lining was red silk, shining in the fire light, and an alabaster leg protruded from it. Her hair was wine dark with silver streaks. It hung below her shoulders and seemed to fall in waves with a shimmering life of its own. She was stirring the black cauldron in front of here and speaking in a tongue I did not recognize right away, Greek mixed with Latin and possibly some Gaelic.
The storm was coming back and I could see the streaks of lightning coming closer. They seemed to be responding to her spell, or whatever the hell she was doing. Damn! I was just getting dry, and with the humidity, I was going to stay damp and sweaty for a while.
"Come to me." She said in a voice that was soft and husky. I looked around to see whom she was talking. "I am talking to you Pancrack, who sneaks through woods and spies on innocent maidens." Then she cackled, like a crazy old woman, not like the young woman I was looking at. What a blow to my ego too! I thought I was being stealthy.
I stepped into her circle, "Mind you don't step on the circle. Lift your feet," she said, back still to me, still stirring her dark iron cauldron. This was getting very weird and I was battling fear and curiosity. A black bag and a headless turkey lay on the other side of the pot. With a final gut wrenching howl, she threw a handful of crap into the pot causing it to boil and steam. It smelled like crap too. I stopped a few paces away and waited. '"What's going on here?" I demanded after a few minutes.