Ouroboros Spine we would skate when the ice would freeze

Evil spirits.

She wondered if she had cursed him. Spoke of a home she had long left behind, cursed woods she was born into. Maybe it had been the woods they had met in full of rotten things that he had ushered her away from.

No, her mind whispered.

The cat. Remember.

Or maybe selfishly she refused to believe that she had cursed him. Otherwise all this work was for hatred and surely he did not hate her if this woman's words were true. That he wanted to come back to the plateau — to her side, as this kin had said.

I understand. Hushed and weak, creaky like wind through old trees.

Even if she understood, she still did not like it.

Yet she could not yank him away from family that healed him.

I'll come back to him too. A promise between the two (or three) of them.

A pause, a considering of her next words.

What can I do to. . . help? Prepare?

She thought of gifts she might bring the woman when she returned.