Chapter 3
Meeting with Mothers
Despite the extreme amounts of pain the creature's words echoed inside of my skull like a hammer, each word containing not only the word's meanings but also the creature's feelings. A dreadful mix of anger, outrage, shock, and sad kind of hurt.
Despite the pain and pressure, I press hatenna to my chest as I curl over them shielding them from whatever wrath I have unleashed. Unfortunately, this merely made the pressure increase and I was moments from my body ceasing to work pumping blood under it when Hatenna unleashed the loudest noise I have heard it make yet combined with an unbearable amount of anguish and sadness.
Then it all stopped.
To me the world was frozen, the aftershocks of the experience making it seem minutes as silence once again laid itself, smothering, on this small berry grove. Each second is another chance for whatever has assaulted us to start its attack anew.
Then it speaks again in a much more muted tone yet still it is filled with loathing.
**” Speaketh human, wherefore doth thee has't mine own daught'r in thy arms”**
Shock is all I could feel before I looked up from where my face was pressed into the dirt and saw the creature that had been speaking to me this entire time. It is an elegant thing with the same cotton candy colors as Hatenna. Of course, it is much larger, a little over 7 feet, it looks like a witch with a cloak wrapped around her and their classic hat. It also permeates the area with a palpable aura of power and magic that shapes the world around it. To have its focus on me felt like a weight on my neck despite the fact that its fury has lessened even if a little.
“She came to me, on her own, I do not know why.”
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It stares at me for a moment before glancing at Hatenna who I is holding me tightly with her feelers from within my arms, almost as if despite being but a foot tall she could protect me from her “mother’s?” gaze. The two converse for a few moments before she snaps back to me.
The larger hatenna composes herself and speaks in a much more polite manner.
**” I seeth. I wilt apologizeth f'r being so malapert with a guest mine own daught'r hast hath brought”**
**” Is th're anything thee might wanteth in recompense f'r such a fo pah”**
This is this the last straw, I was flabbergasted. Gone was every ounce of hostility and replacing was the image of hospitality. Even the aura surrounding the individual has become more pleasant as if the forest around us cheered up along with Mother’s mood.
“Why”
**” Mine own daught'r wast in the hands of a human”**
“ What should I call you”
**” Thee wisheth f'r mine own nameth”**
“Yes?”
**” Very well. Mine own nameth is Elder Hatterene, she who waits under the moonlight, witch of the forbidden grove, and the greatest mind in all of the tangle. few who is't speaketh to me, especially amoung humankind, ev'r get to leaveth.”**
She floats towards me and puts the arm on the end of her hat under my chin to lift my face towards her.
**” Now who art thee”**
“Well, my name is Reed O’Hearly. If I have to say what I do, it might be done now. Well, I used to be an assistant lawyer, the people who speak for or against criminals in human courts of law.”
**” Hmm”** she floats a step back and gives a contemplative look.
“I was most of the way through my education to a full position.”
**” This is an hon'rable position, of course mine own daught'r hath found h'rself a weav'r of w'rds”**
Hatenna perks up at this before giggling. At which the witch gives a loving and sad glare.
**”thee knoweth the woods art nay lodging f'r humans, thee shall has't to leaveth me. I already feeleth the beginnings of a suitable aura: thee already hath felt t though didn't thee.”**
Hatenna gives a small smile and nods.
**“'twill beest done then, I shall marketh thee and thee shall traveleth unmolest'd towards the human homes. th're thee shall findeth shelt'r. But, I shall not alloweth mine own daught'r traveleth unprotect'd. I shalt doth two things to repay mine own slight. I shall useth a fav'r and sendeth a guardian f'r thee and mine own daught'r. thee doth not knoweth wh're thou art, i knoweth this. I shall giveth thee some counsel then. The w'rld is dark and full of t'rr'rs, seeketh strength tis the only truth. Now SLEEP”**
As soon as she speaks her last words I am confronted by an insurmountable drowsyness. As my eyes start to drift closed I speak one last thing.
“Am I safe”
**”thee has't mine own w'rd”**