Noctisardor Bypass 1 "They're not as big as I thought they'd be."

Once the child was squared away, Grandmother would make a retreat of her own. She managed a few steps with the aid of her holly, then stopped.

There was no sign of the rabbit anywhere. The young man had hightailed it away from her and now the old woman was alone. How frustrating! It was not such a shock though, given the proclivities of rabbits.

After a pause to sniff the air and gauge her next move, she decides to leave something behind. The young thing was too small to recognize a gift, but perhaps their parent would see it.

Grandmother carefully plucked some green triangles of rigid holly from her branch, assembled them in a neat pile out of the way of the den mouth, and then sank back with a hand on her hip, not quite pleased.

A better gift would have been that foolish rabbit, she thought with a cruel huff. Then as Grandmother began to amble away, she thought better of the pile, and of her stick. What use was the holly to her? It would be hard to carry it and climb high to her bed.

So she turned back again and carefully laid it down too, by the pile, then hurried off in to the dark. Somewhere among the trees of Rivenwood the old woman would find a suitable place to hide, to sleep, and to plot her next foray.

And from time to time she might sneak by, to see if the child had found what had been left behind.