I’ll bring your treasures back, if I’m able.”
“I expected it to take longer,” the goddess said, cradling an enchanted sword delightedly. “Only three days! You are truly an excellent choice.”
“It would have been two,” the young woman said, as calm as ever, unloading the second cart and carefully setting the treasures in the places pointed out to her. “But the donkeys were… a bit nervous.”
“Yes.” The goddess laid a hand on one donkey’s neck, and though its trembling had eased, she could still feel its lingering fear. Her power soothed it, though, and it was comforted. “The poor things.”
“They’re nice beasts. Might keep them.” The young woman placed a shield that could turn any blade neatly on a hook. “I liked the look of that clearing not far away. I thought I might build a cabin there, if you have no objection.”
“None… and there are magical tools here that can help you do it, now. You may use anything in this cavern whenever you wish it.” The goddess glanced at the knitting needles stuck into the worn leather belt beside a dagger. “I have magical weapons, too, suitable for a hero.”
“I won’t turn them down, weapons or tools,” the young woman said, and she tapped the needles with a calloused fingertip. “But I like these. Can I keep them?”
“For as long as you are my champion.” The goddess had watched from afar. She’d been impressed when the woman used the magical needles to knit a cloak out of dust and dry leaves, in which she was almost invisible on the dry, dusty road.
She’d been very impressed when the woman had knitted up the water of a river, trapping the thieves in the middle of a ford and traumatizing the donkeys more than a little.
And then…. She glanced at the door of the cavern. The strange, ragged thing that the young woman had knitted up out of the thieves was sitting outside, weapons in each of its many hands. It moaned a little, now and then, but it stood watch, as it had been made to do. If thieves came again, they would regret it.
“What changed your mind?” she asked curiously, still stroking one of the donkeys. “I thought you would let them go, until they began to speak.”
“Until they began to speak, I intended to,” the young woman said, her voice hard.
The goddess watched her, glancing sidelong through long lashes. “What did they say?”
The young woman looked at her for a long moment without speaking. “Let us just say,” she said slowly, after a time, “that I believed implicitly that they would do what they said they would do… and I didn’t care for the thought.”
The goddess nodded. She was, after all, a woman. She knew, really, what they must have said. “A very good choice of a champion,” she murmured. “A very good choice indeed.”
kaledo-art
romaincrisis
dededos
origamiaround
turnnoffyourmind
kianamaiart
