Challenge #04708-L324: From Menace to Midwife

Trudy the Goose-Girl has become obsessed with travelling to a mountain lake and will not take no for an answer. Alas, there is a terrible danger around the lake, one Henkar and Molys feel ill equipped to face on their own. So they seek out Wraithvine, begging hir to aid them in reaching this place of strange magic. -- Deathshead419

[AN: Most recent previous installation of Trudy the Goose is https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04636-l252-girl-goose ]

Trudy the Goose did not remain in an adult body. She needed to learn, and Wraithvine gave her the time. When she became Henkar and Molys' daughter, she was equivalent to a four-year old. And the twin mages' first question was, "Who's papa and who's uncle?"

They adapted well enough, all things considered. Raising a young lady who had once been a bird... but certainly proved never to have been bird-brained. Madrigal taught her music and dance, and every word and its purpose. Henkar taught her to read and Molys taught her spellwork.

And despite all that, the once-goose girl became a Druid.

She began as a creature of nature. It made sense that Nature would want part of her devoted to it. And with the gift of Druidry came the visions gifted by the Will o' the Wild. Some called it the Leyflow. Some called it The Green. Only the devout and devoted referred to the ancient god by name - Tapio.

Trudy was in the middle of her teens when the vision first came to her. "I dreamed of a mountain," she told her Papa and her Uncle. "A lake is on it, and cloud of yellow smoke comes from it. There's something there that I must do."

"Not yet," begged her Papa. "We must see what dangers wait you."

"Don't go," begged her Uncle. "You're still very young and not strong in your power."

But when she told Madrigal, he said, "I'll send a message to Wraithvine. Wait that long, if you please."

She was full grown by the time Wraithvine was able to get there, and the visions plagued her every dream. Her Papa and her Uncle and Madrigal begged the Eternal Wizard to keep her safe.

"I can only try my best," ze promised.

Time as a human had made Trudy a lot more understanding, but only a little less savage. Her family need not have worried. She was able to best most challenges on the journey, with only a little help from Wraithvine.

On the very last leg, though, she needed a lot of it, because it was almost too late.

The disturbance under the lake was almost ready to hatch.

Wraithvine sensed it, too. One of the last of the Great Dragon's eggs had lain under this mountain for eons. Waiting for circumstances to be just right for the world to bear the hatchling inside. And those circumstances were mere days away. If it hatched in the sulfurous clouds, it would choke, and perish. And the world would face calamity.

Trudy moved the air to sweep the sulphur away while Wraithvine shaped the very earth to allow the Great Dragonling egress into fresh air. Trudy found the source with her senses and stoppered it, holding it clenched as the ancient egg cracked, and a new legend took its first breath.

Welcomed to the world by the kindest heart, and a living embodiment of change and determination, the new Great Dragonling would take that first impression to heart. It had a lot to learn, as all babies do, but that primary lesson would last.

[Photo by Mario La Pergola on Unsplash]

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