Ravenwood

She smiled. It was not a pretty smile. It did not make her weather worn face light up. The bones of the earth were her teeth, her breath was the wind, the fires of the earth were alight in her eyes, and her blood pumped with the strength of the sea.

The kids danced around in excitement and started a sing song chant of “poopin’ in the straw, poopin’ in the straw.

She looked around the small house and smiled. “You keep things so neat.” Tanyth snorted. “It’s just me here and I don’t have that much to spread around.” She nodded with her head in the direction of Sadie’s house. “You’ve got your two, Thomas, all your things, all their things, and then visitors and hangers on.” She shook her head with a warm smile. “Your house is full of joy, Sadie. Joy isn’t neat.

It rolled its head as if settling skull to spine and then shifted its head from left to right

Just at the moment, she felt a bit like an impostor on the wrong side of reverence

Fever is the body burning out its poison. If it gets too high, it’ll kill as fast as anything. Normally, it doesn’t and gets just hot enough to cook the poison out of the blood without cooking the person from the inside out. But you want the fever to run its course so you know the poison is gone. The tea will reduce the fever a bit, but it’s all to the good.

Your home is full of joy, Sadie. And joy isn’t neat.