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Characters: The Witch of the Candy House
Open? Yep
Where: Two Faced Forest
When: RH4 [or really, any other day if you wanna backdate]
What: In the Forest is a candy house, and a cranky old witch who wants these dang heroes to get the hell off her lawn!

Deep in the Two Faced Forest, next to a lake of impossible clarity sits a small candy house. Walls made of gingerbread, decorated with hard candy that magically stays unmelted in the sun, it's picturesque and inviting. Care to knock on the door? Or just have a nibble of the gingerbread? Either way, take great care. The witch is not known for her good nature...

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What?

Sif gapes, openly. Half holds out an arm towards Thor, with the aim to stop him if he charges. She is no coward, but there is no sense charging a foe that can kill them easily when said foe is not seeking a battle.

“The whole time,” she says, finding her voice. “Could you have put an end to the thorns the entire time?”

"Do I look like a damned fool who'd risk going up against the forces of Chaos to save the likes of this kingdom?" the witch retorted with a snort. "There is no magic from within this realm that can win that battle. Only those from without can hope to affect it. That's where you idiots come in, eh? Or does that grand high windbag and his pet mage not tell you that when you arrive?"

"I think you will understand that I hesitate to take anything the King says at face value."

She stands in front of Thor -- a barrier, as experience has taught her well enough that when his power is depleted, it is rarely replaced by common sense.　A change, from their earlier roles.

"Are the thorns a threat to you as well, then?"

It is well enough that Sif holds him off: when the lightning was diverted, he let out a roar, and would likely have charged the witch outright had not Sif's arm stayed him. Now, he holds back, but bristles and glares over Sif's shoulder.

But-- a king listens, a king considers. A king reins in his anger when needed. He takes a deep breath, then puts a hand on Sif's shoulder to belay her intervention.

The witch snorts with amusement. "Hardly. The battle between Order and Chaos will never be so simply ended. When this Kingdom falls, I'll simply move to another as I have many a time before."

Many a time before. Those words would have urged Sif to attack, had they not just been witness to how fruitless that endeavor would be. Still, she stands her ground.

“You have said your magic is of no use against the threats born from here. Thus, I am not asking for your help. But do you wish to move on – would you prefer to remain in this world?”

"The world is far wider than this petty kingdom, girl. Even your eyes should know that."

Edited (Having an end quote helps.) 2012-06-27 03:26 (UTC)

"How many kingdoms can one world hold?"

Asgard held Asgard, and the Aesir within. It was one kingdom, one people -- that seemed the most sensible way to run a world, to her. One needed only look at Midgard to see where fractured rulers led a people.

"As many as half the amount of people within it."

"Yet all will be gone, if the thorns are not stopped, is that not so?" Thor chimes in, brow creasing. "This is what I was told when I arrived."

"As was I."

Is the witch speaking in riddles? Sif hates riddles. She wishes, abstractly, that Loki were with them. He is much better at talking to people she would rather behead.

"Only if these thorns are able to cross water, climb into the sky and burrow into the Earth. It's only this kingdom that fear them. The others care not."

"What?" Again, he bristles. "Do the people know this? The king? That there is safety to be found outside this place?"

She is furious, and not at the witch. Again, her anger is directed back at the king.

All this time – villages swallowed whole by the thorns, when amnesty might be found beyond borders.

"Why flee your home for another when you can call others to do the dirty work for you?" came the flippant reply. "Those with short lives protect their homes, stay stubborn for them and will stand before them as the wave crashes down over them and sends them off to their graves."

“And those with long lives have no interest abiding by the petty patience of mortals.”

It is not the best side of her, and one that has been tempered during her stay here. But it is the most maddening trait of humanity – planning for the next ten years instead of the next hundred.

She turns to Thor.

“If they would be safer elsewhere, should we not simply move them elsewhere?”

Thor's eyes bore into the witch's, cold as a Jotunheim winter... But she has a point in there, and he can see it. "From what I know of Midgardians, they will not take kindly to being asked to abandon their homes," he admits begrudgingly. Jane certainly would not. Stark would not. Nor Rogers. These are not Midgardians here, but they seem largely the same, to him.

"Not permanently, at least. Perhaps if we can find a temporary relocation, while we eliminate the enemy..."

Edited 2012-06-29 12:25 (UTC)

His eyes were met without flinching, and with something bordering amusement before she turned away to resume hobbling back to her home.

"If you truly claim not to harm children," Sif called out, after the witch. "Then stop selling your houses to others who might."

She could not match the hag's power. Could not charge her. Could not even stop her from leaving. All Sif could think to do was use the old woman's own protests against her. That, for the moment, was the topic again on her mind.

He growled at her back, but did not make a move to attack her again. This, he saw, was going to be a problem: a force of chaos in the Kingdom with more power than the Prince of Asgard was nothing to be taken lightly. And truly, he wanted nothing more than to rush into battle anyway, reason be damned -- but if he could not even touch her, what battle would there be?

Still, he was not happy to turn away. "Come," he snarled, his mood gone black. "We have what we came for."

"We have more," she said, eyes trailing the old woman before turning to Thor. She paid his mood no mind. She was not an attendant, under compulsion to clean up his flipped tables.

"Thor -- you destroyed the thorns." A light, in her eyes. This was wonderful news, regardless of the circumstances.

"I would destroy a forest full of them right now," he glowers, still angered; the importance of it has not yet occurred to him, and he is still too stuck on his rage at the witch to think it through.

"And I would ride with you to do so!"

She reaches out an arm. Truly, he does not understand what this means.

"Thor Odinson. Put your foul mood aside and listen to me."

He whips around as she touches him, baring his teeth. "What?"

...And then, because it's Sif, and he's not suicidal, he takes a deep breath and tries again, more calmly: "What?"

Were he not the crown prince of Asgard, her expression screams. Even for Loki, she likely would not have checked her anger, now.

"Are you quite finished?"