Rake Grassbeard

Once you are friends

I hadn't made my mind up about you when I first saw you. Thought your poops smelled sweeter than most, perhaps. You had a funny way of walking, as though you had on an invisible pair of underpants that would protect you from the world.

Folk around here like things simple, including themselves. Tales of Fae dealings and all that energy, running around from pillar to post, well, it can just rub up the slower folk the wrong way.

It's fair to say I liked you from the start, though.

Once they like you

Why do I dye my beard? It's my natural colour!

But, seriously, when I first came here, I couldn't quite fit in. I had spent all my childhood in the Shoe.

Came here without a brass penny or a stick of gum to my name.

Started selling wildflowers and bits and bobs I found lying around. People were not keen on me due to my cheeriness. So to annoy them more, I dyed my beard green, as if to say, You can't change me to be who you want me to be.

I think they respected that, and in time, they grew to like me and even liked my beard. It was a mark of defiance but then acceptance.

Asking for help

We are best friends now, aren't we?

Am getting old and have been in my shop for many years. At first, you hate the walls, and then you get used to them. Finally, you rely on them.

I wish I was back on my first market stall. Summer was one fine season to be working outdoors.

I suppose I should stick with tradition and give you some kind of task to seal our friendship?

Well, let's make it easy for you. Just a couple of Hag's eyeballs will do.

Hags killed my parents, apparently. The sisters took a liking to them, and that was that.

So you can be my revenge. I know you can take them.

It's as the saying goes, 'Get busy killin' or get busy dyin'.

Doing a deed like that for a friend would prove you have what it takes. I am sure you can shank a Forest Hag easily.

When it is done

You did it. I wouldn't have dared make it across the Simplewood border. Not a day goes by that I don't regret I didn't kill them myself.

I like to think the last thing that went through their heads, other than your sword, is that Rake Grassbeard was laughing at them.

Thank you so much, friend.