Erik seeks information from the Gossip:

Erik and Benton followed a winding path through the dense forest to a clearing with a small house smack-dab in the center.

Erik knocked on the door. An old woman leaning on a crooked stick, with a shawl over her head, answered the door. Erik said, “Are you…”

Before he could say anything else, the old woman grabbed his arm with one of her bony hands and pulled him inside. Benton followed, since there didn’t seem to be anything else to do. The old woman said in a screechy, scratchy voice, “It’s about time someone showed up. I have news to impart, and no-one to tell it to.”

Smiling with relief, Erik said, “Oh good! We’re searching for…”

Again he was interrupted. “Do you know the old widow two forest glades over? I’ve heard tell that…”

It was Erik’s turn to interrupt. “That’s not the information I’m seeking. Have you seen a…”

“I know just what you’re talking about. I’ve seen that cow, too, and I’m positive that Yeoman Joseph was the one to take her,” the old woman said.

“We’re not here about a cow. We’re here about a…”

“Oh! It must be the farmer’s dog you’re looking for. Well, I saw someone sneak by at midnight last night, with a dog on a rope, and …”

“NO! It’s not a cow or a dog or anything like that. We’re looking for a black…”

“The wrinkled woman in the black cape. Aha. There’s many a lad looks for her. Tis said she knows the secret of youth, but I say, if she knows the secret of youth, why is she so wrinkled? Eh? I ask you! Nay, if you want the secret of youth, I can tell you where to find it. No one knows but me, and, er, the thousands I’ve told since first I learned it…”

“That’s not it either,” Erik exclaimed. “If you would just stop talking and listen for a minute…”

“Stop talking? You’d ask Greta, the Greatest Gossip in the Great Forest Grove to stop talking? How could I ever tell you the answer you seek if I stop talking? I know stories upon stories. I know more gossip than you could ever hold in your head. But if I stop talking, you’ll never hear one of those stories, no, not one. No, I can never stop talking… why, the idea is preposterous! Now let me tell you…”

Erik tugged on Benton’s reins and led him out of Greta’s house. “She’s never going to help us! She won’t even let me get a word in edgewise to ask about the black horse, or Josie, or my present. We might as well go back to the road to the mountain.”

To go back and choose to attempt to pass through the pods, click HERE