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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rune" data-source="post: 5477293" data-attributes="member: 67">When Ugly Toad went looking for her Beautypart oneCome, gather round and hear the tale of what Ugly Toad found when she went looking for her long-lost Beauty.  It happened in the early Spring, when the chill of Winter had receded and the world was finally waking.  Dog was visiting with Turtle down by the Pond when they came upon Ugly Toad staring at her reflection in the serene water.“Oooooh!” she croaked.  “I was sooo beautiful once!”  As Dog and Turtle approached, she caught sight of them in the Pond and went on, as if she had been talking to them, all along.  “You miiiight not believe it, but I was once a beautiful princess!” she told them, “until a wicked witch cursed me with this ugly form you now see.”Turtle looked at Ugly Toad dubiously, but Dog let out an empathic whine and tilted his head to the side.  Ugly Toad took the cue and continued with her tale of woe.  This took the better part of the morning, and when all was said, Dog (and Turtle) found themselves obliged to seek out this witch in the Wilderness and somehow convince her to change Ugly Toad back into a beautiful princess.Turtle still was not quite sure either of the truth of Ugly Toad’s tale, or of the wisdom of their current course if, indeed, it was true.  Dog had no such compunctions.  He enthusiastically sniffed Ugly Toad to acquire her scent and then trotted along into the Wilderness.They went deep into the woods, farther than Dog had ever marked.  Ere they had reached their destination, the day waned and the shadows lengthened.  At about this time, Crow came along and began to taunt the interlopers.  “Kaaaw!  What brings Dog and Turtle and Uuugly Toad deep into the Wilderness?  Come to hide her away from the world?  Kaaaw haw ha ha!”Dog growled an uncivil response and Crow kept his distance, but continued to harass them for a time after that, until he seemed to loose interest and fly away.  By this time, night had fallen around them as they walked and Dog had begun to smell a new scent--that of a wood-fire.  Before Dog and Turtle could determine their next course of action, they were attacked.Their assailants struck from the shadows--at first indistinguishable from the surrounding terrain, they were soon spotted by the keen-sensed Dog.  There were four of them and they were…dolls?  Twisted bundles of twig and twine, crafted with wickedness and animated with malice.  The Twig-dolls' thorny claws raked painfully as they struck, but the constructs were very fragile--a single snap from Dog sundered one in an instant.As the Twig-dolls lurched forward to strike at Dog…Turtle…Ugly Toad, Dog circled around to ward Toad.  Turtle called upon the divinities to heal Toad and then readied herself to snap at any Twig-doll attempting to rush past her.  The dolls danced around, struck and withdrew.  Danced, struck, withdrew.  Each time, the leaves about them swirled in a gust of wind, and the night rushed by.The battle could not have taken more than a moment before the constructs had all been destroyed, but, by the end of it, dawn was peaking through the woods.  Ugly Toad wailed.  “Wicked and uuunatural events unfooooold!  The witch is cloooose!”Ahead of them, a cottage beckoned.  A hint of freshly-baked ginger-bread captured Dog’s attention and he rushed forward heedlessly.  As he neared, the door swung open to reveal a crooked Woman leaning on a cane.  From his perch upon her shoulder, Crow cackled madly.The Woman looked sharply at Dog, then held up a shiny thing, still attached to its severed cloth strap.  Reading from it, she called out Dog’s Truename and then commanded, “Come.”Dog obeyed.</blockquote>

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