Shadewood chaos lives in everything

set before she moves to the coast
@Hemlocke

It would take a few days of travel to reach anywhere but these woods. She roams in a half-circle, retreating back to the Shadewood for want of watching her altar. Since the meeting with the bloody man, she looks to the old fertility rite. The altar remains the same - blood smears the sticks that were propped up, feathers on the ground in a circle with a singular crow talon on the peak.

She sniffs, but does not touch. True, if someone knocks the altar over... well, it would no longer work. But if the weather makes it move, it is just mother nature. It only has a small radius anyway. A larger one requires a sacrifice with more bodies and bones and blood. It is ghastly to behold, yet serves a purpose. All the women within the radius would experience a bountiful spring.

Full of bouncing baby burdens. She laughs quietly, recalling the man in that instant. His insistance that children were nothing but that. The spook saw opportunity, she supposed. A feeble mind to easily mold into her likeness. She turns sharply, hearing movement. But she does not call out in fear. No, the woman stands tall and almost defiant. She waits.