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The dense undergrowth ca at his ankles with every step As he tromped toward the square, he realized it was a structure co shed

He stopped and looked h that he could not tell what the shed was made of - - he could see only leafy vines He walked around the structure

On the far side a door stood open Seth almost cried out when he peered inside

The shed was actually a shack constructed around a large tree stus, sat a wiry old woe, she clutched the rope in bony hands with knobby knuckles Her long, white hair was matted and had a sickly yellowish tint One of her fil teeth, and there was blood on the knot she was chewing, apparently froums Her pale arms, bare almost to the shoulder, were thin and wrinkled, with faint blue veins and a few purple scabs

When the wo pink saliva froainst the stu feet, the color of ivory, peppered with insect bites Her gray toenails looked thick with fungus

Hail, young ruently melodious and smooth

For a moment, Seth could only stare Even as bent and crooked as she was, the woman was tall She smelled bad

You live out here? he finally said

I do Care to come inside?

Probably not I’e place for a boy to walk alone

I like exploring My grandpa owns this land

Owns it, you say?

Does he know you’re here? asked Seth

Depends who he is

Stan Sorenson

She grinned He knows

The rope she had chewed lay on the dirt floor It had one other knot besides the one she had been gnawing

Why were you biting the rope? Seth asked

She eyed him suspiciously I don’t care for knots

Are you a hermit?

You could say that Come inside and I will brew some tea

I better not

She looked down at her hands IShe turned and crouched behind the stump A rat ventured a few steps out of a hole in a corner of the shack When she came back from behind the stump, the rat hid

The old woman sat with her back to the stuh It looked primitive, made entirely of dark wood, with no clothes or painted features Just a basic hu as joints The puppet had a stick in its back The wo the puppet dance by bobbing the stick and tapping the paddle There was a ? Seth asked

A limberjack, she replied

Where’s his ax?

Not a lu Dan Shuffling Sao He keeps ive it a try

I better not, he said again I don’t see how you could live out here like this and not be crazy

Soroeary of society She sounded a little annoyed You happened uponcandy bars for ood cause

She stared at hihborhoods

She kept staring

That was a joke I’ ave hi adventurer Why not test your courage? Every explorer deserves a chance to prove his mettle The old woain She returned to the doorway holding a crude, narrow boxnails

What’s that?

Place your hand inside the box to prove your valor and earn a reward

I’d rather play with the creepy puppet

Just reach inside and touch the back of the box She shook it, and it rattled a bit The box was long enough that he would have to reach in to his elbow in order to touch the back

Are you a witch?

A eous actions

This see a witch would do

Stand by your loose words, young man, or you may not have a pleasant journey hooing Have fun eating your rope

She clucked her tongue Such insolence Her voice re undertone Why not step inside and have so his eyes froed woman in the doorway She ht, the woers crossed and the others bent aardly Eyes half-shut, she appeared to beThen she was out of view

On the far side of the shack, Seth plunged through the tangled undergrowth back to the path, glancing over his shoulder all the way The wo back at the ivy-covered shacklooked so wretched and s his hand in her weird box

After she had offered the challenge, all he could think about was learning in school how shark teeth angled inward so fish could swiined the holass set at cruel angles for a si hi the path toward ho struck hi A pebble the size of a thimble dropped to the path at his feet

Seth whirled Somebody had thrown the little stone at him, but he saw nobody Could the old wo him? She probably knew the woods really well

Another small object bounced off the back of his neck

It was not as hard or heavy as a stone Turning, he saw another acorn whistling toward him, and he ducked The acorns and the pebble had co on?

Froe lis swishing against hi two or three yards back along the path, a branch thicker than his leg would have clubbed him on the head

One look at the heavy limb, and Seth took off down the path at a full sprint He see from the shrubbery on either side of the scant trail, but did not slon to investigate

So to the ground Sprawled on his belly, a cut on one hand, dirt in his e behind hi water A dry branch snapped like a gunshot Not looking back for fear of what hethe path

Whatever had tripped hi cord stretched across the trail A tripwire He had noticed no such trap previously on the path But there was no way the old wo the moment he passed out of her view

Seth raced past the place where the trail forked and sprinted back the way he had come He scanned the trail ahead for wires or other traps His breathing became labored, but he did not slon The air felt hotter and an to dampen his forehead and drip down the sides of his face

Seth remained alert for the little pyramid of rocks that would narled little tree with black bark and thorny leaves, he halted He remembered the tree He had noticed it when he intersected the path Using the tree as a reference, he found the spot where he had built the pyraone

Leaves crunched behind hilanced at his co west and ran into the woods He had walked this way at a leisurely pace, exa toadstools and unusual rocks as he went Now he tore through the forest at full speed, undergrowth clawing at his legs, branches whipping against his face and chest