A day later, Mau, Suvdaa, and Andy reconvened at the hag's chicken-legged, Baba Yaga ripoff, hut. It felt pretty nice to enter the door and have the muck and grime and swamp slime instantly cleaned from their bodies and clothes. And the cool temperature of the hut was much more preferable than the humid stink of the swamp outside.

"So." Mau said as she stared down the identical pair of old women. They were both hunched at the shoulders and even wearing the same tattered, sodden, black robes. They even both flashed her the same snaggletoothed smile. One of them, however, was gently stroking the gigantic moth that was perched and resting on her shoulder.

"One of you is Hag Spetti. One of you isn't." Mau said, point blank. "-- And I swear if you start up with the whole 'one of us only tells the truth and the other only tells lies' bit, someone is gonna die, because I already feel like I've been lied to."

Both hags chuckled in the same identical voice before the one without the moth shot her apparent twin a look. This silenced the moth-perched hag, an immediate sheepish look crossing her craggy features.

"I've been told everything." The moth-less hag said. "Every last little detail; from how hard you've been working to free me from my confinement down to the minute details of the little deal you made." She said.

"I know you're looking for a certain divine blade made by the gods. And I know my... Doppelganger here promised to tell you where to find if, if you rescued me from my little stint in an iron cage." The new hag said slowly.

"Yep." Mau confirmed. "Binding and contractual deals were made. Up to and including my death if we didn't come through on our end of the bargain. And we carried out our end of the bargain." She said dryly.

Both witches nodded in unison.

"So you did..." The hag with the pet moth said, giving her familiar one last stroke.

"And?" Mau prompted.

"And a deal is a deal." The mothless hag conceded for her twin. "But first my child should apologize for deceiving you." She said, prodding the other hag in the side with her finger.

A very un-hag-like squeak was the second witch's response, at first, as a sheepish look of embarrassment fluttered across her expression.

That was when the hag was no longer a hag. Crinkled features shifted, smoothing out, her wrinkles vanished and silvery-grey hair darkened, growing in length until it reached almost the floor. Though she remained clad in the same tattered black robes as the other witch, her figure slimmed down, significantly, face taking on much more androgynous features while their chest flattened. Their skin was as pale as the moon on a clear night and they stared at Mau with cool but dangerously sharp golden eyes.

"I'd like you all to meet my child, Penne." The true hag Spetti chortled.

"You mean we were haggling with a hagling?" Andy blurted.

"Apparently not just a hagling. But an impasta." Mau said, without so much as a twitch of her face.

Everyone grimaced.

Penne cleared their throat awkwardly before speaking in a soft tone.

"I really am sorry about deceiving you." They said, eyes turning downcast. "I was at the end of my wits and had no other options left. I couldn't rescue my mother on my own and needed your help, but... I didn't think you would help me if I didn't have a carrot to go with the stick."

"So you told us you knew where the sword was- when the real knowledge was with the true hag." Mau surmised.

Penne nodded, silent as their moth nuzzled at their pale cheek.

"Well," Mau said, stretching her arms lazily over her head, tail flicking behind her. "We handled the problem in the end and rescued someone, so we handled our side of the bargain." She pointed out.

Both the true hag Spetti and Penne nodded simultaneously in agreement.

"Yes, indeed." Spetti said. "Which is why we'll be keeping our end of the bargain."

Turning to the fireplace, Spetti snapped her fingers and a spark grew into a full force fire in the hearth in an instant, and she reached into the flames.

Pulling her hand free without so much as a burn on her gnarled skin, she lifted out a small flicker of fire that danced in her fingers. Then she tossed the flame into the air.

In a burst of warmth the fire changed colors, vivid greens and yellows and blues flickering in the air as the flames spread to form a rough map of the continent that Mau and her party were currently on.

Mau could make out the Giant's Steps mountains, the deadly frozen north beyond them. She could see the great tree of Dorn, the lush green fields where her hometown of Middleston was located, and the dire swamps that they were currently somewhere in the middle of on the map of fire.

"You're here right now, dearie." Spetti said as a point on the map in the middle of the swamps grew white hot. She watched as she felt the hut pick itself up on its chicken legs and start to move at a rapid clip; and the point on the map started to move in time with it.

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"The sword you seek is here..." Penne said, gesturing at the map and causing a second point of white hot fire to flicker to life, tucked nestled in the northeastern corner of the Giant's Steps, on the outer side of the mountain range, just on the border to the deadly wastes of the frozen north.

"A small town- the last one, in fact before the wastelands of the north. They're having a bit of a problem with monsters gathering in their local mines... You should look into it." The hag said with a creaky chuckle.

Mau cocked her brow.

"So you're saying the sword is somewhere in the mines."

It wasn't a question, the hag made an annoyed face, and Penne cringed.

"I'm saying you might find something nice there, yes."

"I get that." Mau replied tiredly. "I'm just tired of the whole cryptic song and dance."

"Oh you're no fun, dearie. Yes the sword is in the mines somewhere." Spetti confirmed. "And as you made the whole ordeal with the orcs so entertaining... We will even deliver you to the edge of the swamp closest to your destination. You can rest here for the day." The old witch said graciously.

Mau nodded.

"I can appreciate that, thanks." She said as she glanced over her shoulder.

Andy was already sticking his head out the moving hut's window, jaw slack and tongue lolled out excitedly...

It wasn't until around noon of the next day that the hut finally slowed to a halt.

"This is your stop, dearies." The hag said gently.

Mau's ears twitched as she slowly cracked open an eye from where she had been resting her head on Suvdaa's lap, on a tattered sofa. She felt a warmth around her ankles and glanced down to where she could see Andy curled up at her and Suvdaa's feet.

The hut had come to a stop sometime while they had drifted off, and the trio had been so exhausted that they slept well past the morning.

Mau slowly sat herself up and stretched her arms over her head, tail giving a lazy flick as she popped her spine.

"Already?" Mau asked amid a mighty yawn as she lightly pawed at Suvdaa to wake her up and tickled Andy's nose with the tip of her tail.

"Yes, we've reached the edge of the swamp." Penne said, peeking in from the hut's other room where they had retreated to rest with Spetti for the evening, the night before.

Suvdaa made a noise not to dissimilar from a bear as Mau gently palmed her cheek repeatedly to rouse the other girl.

Mau ducked under the haymaker that would have knocked her jaw askew as Suvdaa woke up.

"I'm up." The raider girl said grumpily, while Mau continued tickling Andy's nose with her tail.

With a sneeze, the dog-boy sat himself up and rubbed his eyes.

"Are we there yet?" Andy mumbled blearily with a yawn.

"Yep. We're there." Mau replied as she stood up from the sofa and dusted off her butt. She reached down to help Andy off the floor and Suvdaa followed suit. They had already marked their next location on their map so they didn't need the hag duo to repeat giving them directions as they headed for the hut door.

"So yeah. Thanks for the help, I guess." Mau said, pausing by the door. "You made fighting the Demon Lord General a lot easier with that vorpal enchant, so."

Spetti offered Mau a snaggletoothed smile.

"Think nothing of it, dearie." She said, "But... I do have one request, if you're willing to hear out an old woman."

Mau could feel the hairs on the back of her neck raising. She had a feeling she might not like what the hag was about to ask of her, as the old witch made a sweeping gesture with her arm towards Penne.

"Please take my darling Penne with you~."

Mau knew better than to refuse after being in the witch's good graces for so long.

❧

"So." Suvdaa said as the party marched through the midday woods at the edge of the swamp. Mau was ahead of the group, scouting the forest for paths and potential threats, leaving her alone to babysit Andy and get to know Penne a little better.

"What's it like?" She asked.

Penne blinked, remaining quiet for a beat before they replied.

"What is what like?"

"Being the child of a weaver of magics." Suvdaa clarified.

"Oh." Penne said, pursing their lips. "It's a lot of work, honestly. How to brew this, where to find that, what I need to hex someone... It's a lot more studying than you'd expect. Mother wanted to make sure to pass all her knowledge to me before she goes so I could take over watching the swamp. I never thought I'd actually leave it. I'm surprised she asked you all to take me."

Suvdaa nodded solemnly.

"I never thought I would leave my people until Mau joined us and we hunted a wendigo together. She told me she needed me and the next thing I knew I was saying my goodbyes to the clan."

Andy knotted his brow.

"You know," he began, "Before I met Mau I thought I'd be cloistered in the temple for forever. Then Mau came along and the bishop told me to join her."

Penne frowned gently as they nodded.

"She has the scent of destiny all around her. Fate and circumstance roil off her very soul." The hagling said ominously. "It's as though she draws people she needs to her through sheer force of presence... I think my mother saw that too."

"Well now you're stuck with us!" Andy said brightly.

"And the cat." Suvdaa pointed out. "Stuck with us and the cat."

There was a beat of pause as Penne considered their new situation.

"Well." They said, petting the huge moth perched on their shoulder lightly, "I'll try and make myself as useful as possible."

"That's all we ask." Suvdaa said, "You just pull your weight and work with us instead of against us. For all Mau seems to bumble about, she usually has a plan hidden somewhere up her sleeve at any given time."

"Yep. She always knows what to do when it comes down to it." Andy confirmed with a nod.

Penne crossed their eyes thoughtfully. "There's something about her..." The hagling said, "Something I can't quite put my finger on."

"You're overthinking things." Suvdaa said a little too quickly. "There's nothing out of the ordinary about her, she's just stupidly lucky. It's like she has nine lives, I swear." The raider girl said with a huff.

This was about when Mau returned from scouting ahead of the group. The remnants of the Demon Lord's swamp incursion force were scattered throughout the forest in small headless bands that etched out their own little fiefdoms in the untamed wilds.

"So if we ditch the path coming up we should be able to avoid the bulk of the remaining orcs bands." Mau said as she wiped someone's blood off her short blade.

"Whose blood is that?" Penne asked.

"Don't worry about it." Mau replied sweetly. "So whatcha all talking about?" She asked.

"Nothing," Suvdaa said, "We were just discussing what it was like to live with a hag in a swamp."

"I thought we were talking about Mau's destiny or something?" Andy said scratching the back of his neck.

Mau eyed the pair dubiously while Penne offered her a weak shrug.

"Huh..." Mau mused, narrowing her eyes, specifically at Andy. "Well we should get moving, the next town isn't for another day and half away once we clear the forest, and I don't really feel like dealing with any orcs anymore for at least a month."

"I thought you enjoyed 'playing Predator'?" Penne asked, "It's all you did while you were in the swamp."

"Eh. It was fun for a while, but making the clicking noise is murder on my throat." Mau sighed as the four walked on through the brush, heading towards the light at the end of the tree line.