Witch's Marsh Don't you remember when you were young, and you wanted to set the world on fire?

He should go back. He should go back and make his case to Druid. No, why? What would be the point of that? She hated him. Anselm and Etienne had so easily turned her against him. It didn't matter that Etienne was going to leave when she needed him, and Glaukos had been the one to make certain he stayed. It didn't matter that Anselm had intruded upon Rivenwood; Glaukos had defended their home and somehow that had been the wrong move. It didn't even matter that, after being told off for it, he had left Etienne alone.

Then the girls went missing—and what was Glaukos supposed to do then? Leave Rivenwood to hunt them down himself, for a woman he didn't have any connection to? He had tried to send Anselm, and he should have known better—no, he did know better. The little shit had probably gone running straight to the sisters. Glaukos had wanted to instill the fear of god in that boy (it had worked for Glaukos once) and instead—

On and on it went, endlessly. Every wound collected over the past months surfacing now as he raged within the marsh, revived to be studied. Glaukos still saw nothing wrong with what he'd done to them. He hadn't been perfect either—obviously he was too heavy-handed for these soft-hearted women, or the healer boy...

He raged. His bear-like figure caught in the mud and weighed down by his storming thoughts and the physical limitations of all the water and the mud physically grabbing at him. He didn't notice the shadow until he'd ploughed quite a gash through the marsh, and as he saw the girl he spun to glare at her, breathing heavily from all the exertion.

At first glance he thought it was Fiona and he shouted, What, not far enough for you?

He pivoted with a few squelching steps so that he was facing the shape, and only then did he recognize it was someone smaller than Fiona—likely younger—and not someone he knew at all. You'd think that would earn a quick apology but it wasn't like Glaukos to apologize for anything.