[imgleft]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgleft]

Very good, he had thought, efficiently gathering up key herbs and bark, the lot, a fair exchange.

He was feeling it less fair when he had waded into her completely inaccessible little den, what with the marsh and the mud. As he finally lifted his sticky hooves into her overgrown abode, he tactlessly stated his demands with some annoyance, "an offering. Your blessing. Let's make it quick."

[imgleft]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgleft]Wow, rude.

Bitter End had also told her to expect this, and she'd probably had worse when she was just pretending to be an normal Swamp Witch dealing with curses, not blessings, but still.

She looked him up and down. An ordinarily handsome buck. Nothing much to care for.

She closed her eyes.

Dear Motherfather, she thought, please help these buck's poor children. Please let them be happy and healthy and safe and have more manners than their father. And I guess it would be good for them to either have the forbearance to deal with him, or not have to deal with him at all. Thank you.

She opened her eyes.

"Okay."

And then she picked up his bundle and waded back into her sanctum.

"Thanks," he called into the woods after her, but not too loud to be desperate, but also conveying enough offence and doubt at her ostensible blessing.

Despite himself, he wondered what she told the Motherfather.

END