"I will return with the gifting sword fast enough," replied the headstrong princess. She instructed her servants to wait at the border of the gloomy woods while she continued, unaided and alone in her foreign foray as though trapped in a dream. Inside the shadow world of unreadable wood lived all manner of howling beasts that ran, swam, and flew. The trees seemed to take mysterious shapes as if aware of the young royal clambering over sharp stones and through bramble bushes. Somewhere in the understory a strange noise made the hair stand up on the back of her neck. She turned to see a frightful goblin emerging through eerie mist seeping from a poisonous swamp. The youth ducked into the hollow trunk of a great cottonwood, and there she crouched still as death until the gruesome demon lurked away. As day turned to night, Ababuo plucked a mushroom to eat then drifted off to sleep on a carpet of soft, deep moss.

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