The twin witches lived in a hovel, deep in a dark valley. If you visited them, one would curse you & one would give you a gift. You could pick one of them, but had to take the other. Most people went to pick gifts, though some picked a curse & let the witch pick their gift. The witches didn't know what you picked, only how good or bad a curse or gift to give you.
An artist came & asked for a gift to be able to draw a perfectly straight line whenever he wanted. He was..
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..then cursed that every paper he touched would give him a cut. A minor gift, a minor curse.
A greedy man came & asked that women would swoon over him, wherever he went. He was turned to the cutest and most precious baby the world had seen.
A gambler came & picked a curse. He asked to be struck mute, never to speak again. His gift was the ability to create the greatest, most moving songs.
Day after day, travelers came and left with their curses & gifts from the twins.
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It took nearly all of her strength to curse the young girl & they both collapsed to the dirt floor.
The witch turned to her twin & asked her what the gift was to be cursed so terribly. A question she never asked of all the other people who came to their hovel.
'She asked for the power to remove curses when she lays hands on someone. What is her curse?'
'She has lost all her senses, & she is immortal.'
The twins looked at the girl laying there in pity. Stuck living an..
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..eternity, never able to see, to hear, to taste, to smell, to feel the breeze, the cold, the heat, or the touch of another.
The young lady got up from the floor & blindly groped around the room in a panic, banging her shins, knocking her head, and even scalding her hand on a stove until the witches grabbed her and forced her into a chair.
They didn't know what to do for the girl, trapped as she was inside herself.
Gradually, the girl relaxed, her breathing slowing.
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In a raspy voice, a voice now aged much greater than her young visage should have, she told the witches to come to her & give her their hands.
They knelt by the chair & held her hands. The first to receive her gift. The first to have their curses lifted.
The girl had watched them for days, had seen that the witches themselves were cursed. Twin sisters that could never look at each other, could never touch or hug. She had seen that & how it pained them to be so close..
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..but never close enough.
Word about the girl spread quickly. She stayed with the witches & soon the hovel was turned into a grand temple. It wouldn't have mattered though. The girl couldn't feel the wind or cold, or the rain or snow. Immortal as she was, none of that mattered.
Every day though, the girl asked for someone to bring her mother there. Her mother who had been cursed by an evil witch. Her mother who has suffered, and the real reason why she asked for..
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..her gift. Everyday she pleaded and begged someone to let her lift her mother's curse.
She didn't know though, her mother was there. She was there every day and her curse long since gone. But they couldn't tell the girl, she wouldn't hear. They couldn't bring her the familiar scents from home, she couldn't smell. And no matter how hard her mother hugged her, she couldn't feel it.
That was the true curse. She got the thing she wanted most, but she would never know.
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^^^^^
welp, that one got sad at the end. Not meaning to be a downer, but it's one of those stories that started and I had to see where it went, to write it out as it came.
Then came the day, a young girl arrived. Barely a teenager, she watched the witches for days before she had the courage to approach. She knew the consequences and the trade to be made. Most people left with a curse that made their gift useless. A consequence of their greed.
But she knew what she wanted & asked the one witch for her gift. When she approached the other twin for her curse, the witch looked on her with pity.
'Child, you have asked for too much.'
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