Prompt Word: Bush
Minervie and Chip 21
Fresh from being caught in the magic security trap, Chip clung to Minervie. In turn, Minervie held onto him until he stopped shaking, then whispered in his ear, “Are you up for seeing your friend, Peter, and having breakfast now?”
Feeling better, Chip replied, “Yes’m.”
So Minervie and Chip came back in through the back door, where Peter was sitting at the table, and Mindy was plating anything that looked like it was about to burn.
After breakfast, Chip and Peter ran off to play in Chip’s room. Minervie said, “Thank you so much Mindy. I’ll be in the Gathering Wood for two hours at most, I just have to do a bit of a survey of the central wood, to make sure everything is well.”
“Going to fix up Greandle, are you?” Mindy saw right through Minervie’s excuse.
Minervie harumphed, “Fine, yes, that too. But I’ve also been putting off checking that no more giant spiders are out there.”
Minervie quietly headed back out toward the Gathering Wood. She reset the gate post, and went around the gate. That is, the gate was in the back of the yard, but wasn’t attached to a fence anymore. She first walked a quarter into the center of the wood, and then started walking a circle around the center of the wood. Throwing chants about along the way. Several creatures approached, but a few fled, and those, if they were monsters, she chased them down.
After a bit more than an hour, her survey was complete. She also held a rather large blood soaked sack full of potion materials from the creatures that didn’t want to accept her as leader of the wood.
At this point, she headed toward the center, and came upon Greandle, the elder treant, and the only named monster in the wood.
Minervie came into the clearing where the scars of her past fight with the giant spider were still present.
“A little bush climbed my back steps to tell me a tale,” she said in the direction of Greandle. “I figure he wouldn’t try to lie to me, and I’m here to apologize to you.”
Greandle merely creaked, like an old tree in a strong wind.
“I have a proposal, and if you accept, I will fix your damage,” Minervie continued.
Greandle groaned, “Proposal? You should fix the damage you caused, then we can proposal.”
Minervie just stared, “Did you root while I wasn’t seeing? Are these not your very tracks from you coming back from the spring no more than a day ago? Are you going to pretend you didn’t know Chip was in the spider’s bag? You knew I’d be coming, and you certainly weren’t on your way to me. I never asked that you intervene, but you MUST have the sense to get away when you KNOW I’m coming. Now, you listen, or I go home?”
“Tell me,” the treant replied, backing down.
Link to first post: https://wandering.shop/@vollink/115665047916351589