"If I decide to kill myself, right here and right now, I will haunt you until your watery ass is dead and buried."

"I thought...you were a lady..."

Gertrude wanted to hurl something. She wanted to stab said hurled thing, and tear it into pieces as an added result. In short, she wanted to hurl her companion. Gertrude was angry.

"I still don't see how you expect me to return you to that bog, creature."

She hissed at it, her skirt nearly above her knees as she sloughed her way through the mud. What a terrible, terrible place. How anyone could bare to live here? Were they brain dead? Did they have no brain at all?

That thing, 'Boots', was straddling her back like a child, nearly choking her to death from it's vice grip around her throat. Gertrude had misjudged how fast it could be. One moment, it was dead on the ground. The next, it was leaping through the air after her like a kangaroo. A very ugly kangaroo. A very ugly, naked kangaroo that made Gertrude very uncomfortable. 

"My mother and father will take care of you." She threatened, and Boots replied by spitting a wad of who knows what over her shoulder, barely missing her cheek. 

"Oi." 

Gertrude let out a sigh. A sigh that made her muscles droop in exhaustion. A sigh to end all sighs, for Gertrude was about to collapse and bury the damned thing six feet under.

"What?" She breathed, nearly biting her tongue straight off as her foot slipped on a particularly knotty root and she skid a few feet down the slope. Her heart beat quite fast, and Gertrude worried that perhaps it might kill her before she would tear Boot's eyes out, but Gertrude was a lady of high standing. Which meant her pride made her practically immune to such things.

"Go to.....the Swamp....Mother...."

"Oh, is that where you're taking me?" Gertrude spat with faulty courtesy, having made up her mind.

With one giant heave, one quite distasteful for a young lady, Gertrude reached back and dug her nails into the creature's mop of hair, wrenching it over her golden curls and throwing it down the slope. A dead Boots was a good Boots, in Gertrude's mind. Goodbye Boots. 

What Gertrude did not think of at the time, however, was Boots' ability to keep it's hold.

Boots' hands dug into the front of her dress, fingers twining with the silk ribbons, and Gertrude was toppling down as well. 

"LET....GO..YOU-"

Gertrude screeched, digging her nails even deeper into it's head, but flinched away as teeth dug into her shoulder. 

The decline was very steep, steeper than she had previously thought, and Gertrude winced as her shoulder cracked against several stones as they rolled. Boots grip loosened as she rammed it into the ground, and Gertrude grabbed a sturdy root, crying out as her arm wrenched around before Boots let go.

Limp arm hanging at her side, Gertrude peered down below, where Boots was still rolling. It would have been quite humorous, if Gertrude wasn't so full of anger. The enchantment on her hair was gone, her clothing ripped. 

"Good riddance." She growled, spitting at it for good measure. Except, the wad didn't fly too far from her lips, and dribbled down her chin instead.

Gertrude took a very deep breath. 

"Calm down now, Gertrude." She whispered to herself, flinching as her arm twinged when she lifted it. She managed to grab the root with both hands, though, and scrabble at the ground to get to a standing position. She almost fell again, and Gertrude thought it best to just crawl her way back up.

Once she moved, however, there was a terrific groan, and her ankles were grabbed in a vice like grip.

Gertrude spun her head around, about to give the creature the tongue lashing of it's life, but stopped short, her voice stuck in her throat. 

Whatever was holding her ankles, it was not Boots. 

It was like the forest itself had grabbed hold. Giant, mossy claws gripped her skin like that creature's teeth in her shoulder. Their talons pricked her, almost drawing blood, and Gertrude couldn't find the strength to scream.

It was a gargantuan mess of tangled weeds and fuzz. The mammoth head was covered in it, and when it lifted it's head, two glowing orbs of blue stared straight into hers. They were at least as big as her head. However dainty said head may be, it was still frightening.

Gertrude was mistaken. It was indeed Boots. 

She supposed she had to be wrong at some points in her life.

A throaty growl rumbled her to her very core, and Gertrude gripped the moss beneath her palms, sweating as the head loomed closer, until Boots' entire body was hovering over her, it's mouth splitting into a huge, cavernous maw. Gertrude looked up into the razor sharp teeth lining it.

At that moment, Gertrude found her strength.

She screamed so loud, her vocal chords stung. So loud, in fact, that Boots shut it's mouth in surprise. When Gertrude's scream finally faded away, the two lay in silence. Tears now streamed very embarrassingly down Gertrude's face, and she gave a pathetic little sniff, her body shaking so much so that she could barely keep her hold on anything.

Boots' large eyes drew closer, and Gertrude let out another shriek as it's nose hit hers. It was slimy and disgusting, and smelled of earth. Her tears flowed stronger, and Gertrude was now a sniveling mess. Her face red and mottled, her dress nearly rags by then.

Boots' mouth curled into a smile, and it began to laugh. Very frightening, indeed. Yes, Gertrude would be a happy, beautiful young lady if she wouldn't have to hear that sound ever again.

She gasped as Boots suddenly rolled away from her, letting her go, and curled her knees up to her chest as it shed it's titan form, coming to a stop as it grabbed hold of the mossy ground. When it lifted it's face, energy seemed to have returned, and Boots....Boots stood up.

Gertrude, if she were being perfectly honest, didn't know what shocked her more.

"How....how d-d-d-dare y-y-y-" She stammered, hurriedly wiping at her eyes as she got to her feet. However, she simply forgot how steep the slope still was, and promptly began to tumble forward.

An arm wrapped around her waist. It was Boots, holding her up, supporting her against it's body as it too almost fell. 

"Please put me down, you are still naked. They are swinging right in my face, you stupid creature-" Gertrude wheezed out, chest aching from shock, and Boots swung her up onto it's back, waiting until she reluctantly wrapped her arms around it's neck.

"I will carry you now. To the Swamp Mother we go." It chirped, it's energy suddenly returning in full force, as opposed to Gertrude's now empty supply. She was but a corpse now. Simply a shell of her glorious self. She was still gorgeous, though. Gertrude was always gorgeous. 

Boots clambered onto a cliff, away from the slope, and began to trot through the forest.

Gertrude gave a cry as it suddenly dove forward, and she tumbled forward over it's head, shaken as she landed hard on her behind. 

"Carry....me...." It mumbled, raising a trembling arm toward Gertrude and grabbing her wrist. Gertrude closed her eyes and rested her head on her knees, giving another sigh. A mother sigh, parent to all previous sighs. Perhaps it was her greatest one yet. 

Gertrude was tired. Woe was Gertrude.