Amanita Sporewell's Arc

Chapter 3 of 14

Amanita pushed through the ferns until her legs burned. The goblin's tracks were easy to follow: bent stems, a scrap of torn vest, a smear of green water where the bottle had sloshed. She caught up at a fallen log where he had stopped to catch his breath. He held the bottle to his chest like a baby. "Give it back," Amanita said. "No." Griznak Bitterfinger did not look up. "Go away." "I can trade." "You have nothing I want." Amanita opened her mouth, then closed it. He was right. Two copper bits would not move him. She sat down on the log a careful arm's length away and tried to think of what a tired goblin might want more than water. A branch cracked behind them. Both heads turned. A small figure stood in the ferns, half hidden, watching. She was a goblin too, no taller than Amanita. Her vest hung in strips. Leaves stuck in her black hair. One yellow eye peeked out; the other was covered by a tangle. She saw them looking and bared little teeth, but her hands were shaking. Griznak went very still. The bottle slipped down to his lap. "Grizak?" he said. His voice cracked on the word. The small goblin did not answer. She crouched lower, ready to bolt. Amanita understood before she thought it through. The girl he was chasing. The daughter he would not name to anyone. Standing in the ferns, scared of them both. Amanita kept her voice soft. "Are you hungry?" Grizak Ironhide nodded once, tight. Amanita reached into her pouch, slow, and pulled out the honey biscuit Myrtle had wrapped for her that morning. She set it on the log and slid back. Grizak crept forward, snatched it, and darted three steps away to eat. She watched them the whole time she chewed. Griznak had not moved. His shoulders shook. He wiped his face with the back of his wrist and pretended he had not. "She's yours," Amanita said. "Mine." He did not deny it. He could not, now. He looked at the bottle in his lap and then at his daughter, and the sneer he wore like a coat fell off him. He held the bottle out to Amanita. "Take it. I do not need it anymore." Amanita's fingers closed around the cool glass. The gold bracing was warm from his chest. Inside, the tiny sprout drifted in green light. Grizak swallowed the last of the biscuit and eyed her. "More?" the girl asked. "At my house," Amanita said. "Both of you. There's soup." Griznak stood. He did not thank her. He walked to his daughter and stopped an arm's length short, afraid to spook her. Grizak did not run. She did not step closer either. She fell in behind Amanita instead, keeping the girl between herself and her father. Amanita started for home with the bottle in her arms and two goblins trailing her through the ferns.