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11. Oh no! Your digging has unearthed an incredibly angry stoat! Best to scram--and spend the rest of the day nursing your gnawed-on ankles. Try again tomorrow.

"Aaaaaaah! Mud-sucking weasel attack!" Tipsy cried as she ran from the terrifyingly pissed off stoat. This was made more difficult by the fact that it was still stuck on to her back ankle. A dry, sturdy patch rose up in front of her and she braced her front legs, then snapped up her back ones. The stoat went flying, chattering its anger. Tipsy then stumbled over a ridge and right into the mud, drenching herself.

After that she considered it time to head home and drown her sorrows (and wounds) in something very strong.

28. Some of the trees in the Swamp produce leaves as large as an animal hide. You find one now, but climbing up the roots and standing on your hindlegs to procure the perfect specimen is exhausting, and you're out of energy for the day. Try again tomorrow. Success!

It was hard looking at so much, her head twisting this way and that, looking at everything. Luckily, she spotted a likely tree. Unluckily, it seemed that others had found it too, and all the bottom leaves were stripped. She wasted several minutes trying to scramble up the trunk, then fell in the mud again.

Swearing softly, she meandered around the tree. There! A slight tumble of rocks had fetched up against the side of the trunk. These proved much easier to climb. Stretching up to her longest from the very top, she managed to snag a leaf as big as one of her finest logs, with not a hole or tear in sight. Perfect!

"Now I have to get down..."

27. A Kin has died here, perhaps this past winter. Its carcass has long since decayed to merely bones, and on a tree above its resting place someone has scrawled the symbol for a name, and a shape like a ripple in a still pool. Strangely, they have accompanied the marker with the symbol for a safe place.

Still feeling sore over the bird, Tipsy meandered away to the stream, then up along it. She sometimes traveled in the water around hazards, and sometimes found dry patches along the banks. One such patch brought her to a small path, the dried mud showing old tracks of wolf paws. Curious, she trotted up it, into a very small, crowded clearing bracketed by heavy brush. A large tree formed one side, and she climbed the roots after spotting some writing.

She inspected it, feeling odd and tingly. The place was peaceful, but she was missing something. She looked out over the little clearing, the slants of thick sunshine swimming with bugs and dust, feeling very much alive. There were strawberries growing here, she realized with delight, though they were all still small green fruits, unripe. She looked down at the gap in the roots below the writing, into very black eyes like pits in a white face.

The presence of the skull startled her so badly she went falling flank over face, legs flailing. The bracken she landed on crackled and jerked, and she was dropped down into the root hollow, right next to the old carcass.

A shudder raced through her and she yipped, scrambling to her hooves. There was, surprisingly, enough room to do so. Realization washed over her and she peered around in the weak light. Most of the root gaps were well clogged, and the bones near the open one actually reflected a sunbeam inside. As creepy as that was, she was appreciative. The tree seemed to have grown over a cave entrance. She could hear the drips, and the far-off refreshing din of the river underground. She thought she might have even heard a few chitterings of bats.

13. You hear the sound of wings startled up when you enter this clearing, but there is no bird to be seen--only a strange shift in the light, as though a thin cloud had passed over the sun although the sky is clear.

Tipsy barely registered the bird, or lack of one, believing it to be an effect of her currently drunk state. Well, slightly drunk.

Tipsy ran off, telling every kin she saw that they would get a free small cask of her wine if they would help her move the boulder to Never Idle's lair.

She swayed a little, humming as she thought. "It goes to Never Idle. You know where his lair is?" She climbed back up on top of it, for no other reason than she wanted to.

Okay so maybe this guy was too tall and she didn't like it.

She pushed with him after stumbling down. "Woah! You don't beat around the bush!" She cackled as they got some momentum on it. "I'm Tipsy, by the way. I work over at Rise and Co. You are?"

"I bet," she said, somewhat distracted by the physical activity. "What kind would you prefer? I have some apricot wine that's been sitting a while, but it should still be a little fruity."