Winnifred the Wise Woman
No one alive remembers Winnifred’s youth–not even her! It is said that she’s no older than the mountains. She must be younger than that, they admit, but how much so? No one has an answer.
Winnifred has lived in a house by the Four Rivers for as long as the towns about have stood. She spends much of her time gathering stones to prepare the walls, catching fish for herself and for visitors, and dispensing odd advice–which often proves useful at even odder moments. “Don’t be a badger, be a stoat.” “The moonlight won’t burn you, but ’twill get you drunk.” “The milk curdles, the wine sours, but the rain is ever new.” Are these oracular proclamations, or the ravings of a feeble old woman? No one can say for certain.
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