Silence sat. It felt like an eternity, but Addison knew her impatience only lasted a few moments in most situations.

“Whatever.” She shrugged a shoulder and forced her eyes away from the woman. Her relationship with the village had been tenuous her whole life no thanks to the witch and Addison's constant disappearing act. But Lori being near meant that the Village couldn’t be that far off, and she could get there and start her journey.

She doubted Matilda would be too upset by her sudden appearance, given extra hands meant extra chores. “Can you just point me towards the road? Or do I have to pay for that too?”

Lori tilted her head. “What?” Her face contorted even more than it had been, brow furrowed as deep as it would go. “Did you hit your head when you fell?”

“No.” Addison clipped the rest of the sentence which would have been an explanation she didn’t owe anyone. “But I am turned around. I could just follow you around if that was better.”

She had already spent too much time digging around in forests to last her a lifetime and didn’t have any interest in another day of wandering just to appease someone who looked at her sideways every given chance.

Lori shook her head. “Okay, fine.” The exasperation filled words preceded several steps, and the two women stood side by side. “You are weird, but I guess you were raised by the hag.”

Addison snorted. There wasn’t any way she could argue with, well, any of that.

Lori pointed directly in front of the pair. “A couple of minutes straight, and then there will be a break to your right. That's the fastest way out of this area. I figured you were a kid or something, you know.” With that, she turned so that they were face to face again. “How do you grow up here and get lose like 10 feet in?”

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I didn’t grow up here, Addison thought. I also didn’t walk. Maybe if you fell from the sky into yet another maze of trees and vines you would ask for help too. She shrugged her shoulders. “Its been a day.”

The other woman let out a heavy breath and twisted her mouth slightly to the side. “Yeah.” Her eyes swept over Addison before she rolled her shoulders in a mirror to the previous actions. “Well, go on. I have things to do, and none of then involved standing here looking like an idiot with the old hag's eyes and ears.”

The insult dug deep, and Addison didn’t need another one to be hurled in order to get the hint. She wasn’t wanted, and any moments — perceived or otherwise— were gone. She shook her head with one annoyed glance at the woman who apparently was unwilling to give anyone else an inch, and begged her feet to move.

Luckily, they did exactly what she asked them to. None of the people she had been cursed to meet in her few years on every realm would do a damn thing for her, but now it didn’t matter. She walked in the direction that Lori had pointed, and forced her eyes to remain forward. She would find the dirt path on the other side of the trees, and she would find her way to Matildas.

There was only one path ahead of her. She would find the object as fast as it was humanly possible for her to find, and she would get on with it. There was nothing worse in her mind than spending a single minute longer than she had to under the thumb of folks like this. Any folk, anywhere. Her exhausted mind knew that when she had said yes to the Queen of tricks, and her focused mind knew it now.

Watching more carefully than she had when searching for a way up the tree, she watched the twigs and bushes and vines. There was not going to be any injuries or extra time spent here. She was in control now, and no idiotic clumsiness would take it back away. With determination sitting in front of every thought, she made her way between the foliage and onto the path. It was an even shorter distance than Lori had made it out to be.

There was something about the thought that filled her with annoyance. It was better than the other way — the woman could have gotten her lost and running in circles, but that didn’t matter. Nothing really mattered, and as her feet sent loose dirt up into the air, nothing but her own frustration ran through her body.

She mattered.

Addison mattered.

It was time for everyone else to finally learn that lesson.