(A/N: I wrote this story because I was suddenly inspired, and because I wanted to. It took three days. It won't likely make much sense unless you've read my other story, "Do You Believe in Faeries?", but it doesn't really fit in with that story either. ;) In other words, don't take it too seriously, okay?)

This particular story begins with my aunt and uncle, who moved recently -- to a small house a few blocks from where I live. It's nice and cozy and has a lovely backyard, which is nice for them because my aunt loves gardening. She bought the plants, he built the planter boxes for them, and together they created a beautiful garden.

A quaint little picture, right? But you may be wondering where I (Juniper Bennet, for the uninformed; I'm not famous or anything but you may have heard of a little experience I had involving faeries) come in. Well...that garden's fate is in my hopefully capable hands at the moment. You see, said relatives went on vacation shortly after creating said garden, and they're paying me to go over and water it.

This does not mean an occasional ten-minute visit where I sprinkle some water over the plants and are done with it. Oh, no. I go over every day, even when it rains, as some plants aren't rain-accessible. That in itself is not a big deal, but the job is pretty serious. I enter the house, write down my time of arrival (as Auntie and Uncle want to make this as much like a real job as possible) then start. By the time I've done the backyard, side yard, the planters along the road, the back deck, the front deck, the planters in front of the house, the planters in front of the shed, and the hanging planters, over an hour will have passed.

I'm not complaining about the amount of work, mind you. It's all I have in the way of a summer job and an hour or so a day is far from a big deal. It's just that I'm worried I might be killing off the garden as a result of over-watering. Some plants keel over after I've gotten them with the hose. Not a pretty sight.

Anyway, now that I've set up the scenario, we can get on with the story.

It starts at about 8:30 pm on an early-summer Sunday night. I'm walking along a fairly picturesque road buried in the suburbs of Vancouver, on my way to do the watering job. Being alone, I give my way over to thought. Nothing exciting, mind you -- just random musings on the job ahead.

Time for another hour of watering. Whee.

"Caw! Caw!"

All I can say is, there'd better not be any bees around.

"Caw! Caw!"

I wonder what I'm going to do to occupy my mind tonight...

"Caw! Caw!"

It wasn't until then that I became fully aware of the "caw"-ing and the sound of wings flapping that accompanied it. I looked up, and - lo and behold - a crow was flying overhead.

I kept my eye on the sky while walking down the street, being just that bored, and realized after a short while that this particular crow was behaving quite strangely. It flew over me as I walked, landing on a house or a telephone wire, then started "caw caw"-ing again. After I walked past, it flew to another point slightly father down the path and continued. Conclusion: this bird was following me!

I'd had some problems with crows before, but not quite like this. There was no particular reason I could think that would explain my having a bird stalker. Intrigued over the whole situation, I stopped and tried to call the bird down, although I didn't believe it would actually respond -- and I was right.

So with nothing else to do, I kept walking. The crow, for it's part, kept following me...a situation I loved. Every time it flew over me and I heard the rustle of its wings as it passed, I felt, well, powerful. As if something inside me was stirring, you know? Not the most original way to express myself, but really the only way to describe it. Images of witches - not the "modern" sort like the ones on television, but the traditional type - came to mind. Flying on brooms under the light of a full moon, familiars, etcetera.

This continued until I noticed an older couple walking down the same path, towards me. Not wanting to look strange, I took my gaze back to the ground...and when I looked back up, the crow was gone. I thought I heard one more distant "Caw, caw," and then nothing else.

Anyway, I arrived at my destination a few minutes later, and started the watering. Usually it's a slightly annoying chore; there's a beehive in the garden and the hose leaks. Tonight, however, it didn't seem quite as bad. The plants did not need as much water due to a cloudy day, and I found myself doing the plants that did need water a little slower, with a little more care.

All in all, it was a quiet, peaceful time. So peaceful, in fact, that a sudden tap on my shoulder startled me much more than it would normally have had.

I yelped quietly and whirled around, hose in hand...to find my best friend Trevor standing in front of me. He looked about as surprised at my reaction as I was to see him. This was possibly because of the large quantity of water that, unfortunately, I'd gotten him in the face with. The leaky hose is more powerful than I'd thought; Trevor was soaking wet.

"Um...sorry." I did not say this without a tiny laugh.

He blinked and brushed the wet hair from his eyes, then sighed. "Okaaaay. Remind me why I wanted to come over?"

"You tell me."

"Well, there wasn't anything to do at home, so..."

"...you opted to come over here and get drowned."

"That's not exactly how I'd put it, but never mind. As I was about to say, before you drenched me...hi, what's up?"

"Oh, well..." I dropped the hose (without turning it off: result, I'd now gotten his shoes wet too), and stretched. "Not much, as usual. You must've been really bored to come over here. You've been over before, you know what it's like..."

He shrugged, and I retrieved my hose. The next few minutes proceeded in silence until I decided to make some conversation.

"I saw a crow on the way over here."

"Uh-huh...that's not uncommon."

I laughed, unembarrassed despite how stupid the comment must have sounded. "This particular encounter was." I described the situation to him as I have to you, then ventured to find out how crazy he thought I was. "So, what do you think?"

"I think I'm ready to believe anything after meeting Thorn." (I won't go into explaining Thorn; it would take too long. And I'm sure there's no need.)

"Besides that."

He paused, then looked at me and smiled. "Are you saying you want to become a witch?"

"I dunno...it seems like anything's possible where we came from. Could be fun. Come on...with a world like the one we've seen, what would you want to do in it?"

"I don't know. Haven't really thought it over much." He grinned. "Now, shouldn't you be working instead of standing here talking taling to me? You're on the clock, right?"

I rolled my eyes. "Don't make me spray you again."

Trevor, to his credit, stayed throughout the entire job. He came with me tomorrow, too, but no crow appeared. Nor did one the day after, when I went alone, and by that time I gave up on ever seeing one following me around again.

The encounter stayed on my mind, though...it was the second time in recent history that I'd come across something so strange. Witches...they must have neat lives. It was something to think about, anyway.

The End