I decided to write a short story based on this prompt. Let me know what you think. I could probably do a bit more on the atmosphere, but I just wanted to get something down and this is what came out.
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The shire reeve trampled through the forest, sword in hand,
he came upon his quarry after 3 long days of hunting. The last of 6 men that
set out, he had finally found the hut of the witch who had killed his men, and
5 children as well. Oh, she would claim innocence, as they always did. But it
was clear from the unholy nature of the murders that it must have been
witchcraft at hand.
Lights shown in the window of the small hut, and smoke from
the chimney showed that someone was preparing a meal. The man approached the
hut and kicked in the door, with less effort than he would have thought, almost
as though the door opened of its own accord.
Standing over the fire was a young lady fixing some kind of
soup. She pulled out a spoonful, blew on the spoon, and put it to her lips. She
let out a sound of approval at her handiwork and put the spoon on a hook by
fire.
She took a look at the shire reeve, smirked at the sword in
his hand, and said to him, “Do you think that will do anything against me?”
The door to the hut closed by itself.
