When Astrid still had some distance between her and the crone, Calden did not wait to seize the moment. The pent up frustration in his voice was as palpable as the stench of the elderly feet that were being displayed some steps away. The boy hissed in a whisper. "Astrid! It's really time to go. I've been telling you that woman is not human! Not a normal one anyway. I can see it! She is coated in something strange. Just please, we need to get away, it's going to be night soon. Please don't spend the night with that thing..."<br/><br/>Even if his voice had been just maybe a little bit on the louder side, July did not seem to recognize it under the background noises of the forest and more importantly her own ridiculous demands. She listened to Astrid with a smile, but at the end of the girl's explanation, the old woman's face twisted into a hideous expression of both surprise and frown. "Really now?" She snorted disapprovingly. Her eyes shifted away from Astrid for a moment. Her tone was radiated disappointment. "And here little old me was already thinking you were an upstanding young lady who understood the plight of an elderly crone. It's fine. I will do it myself!"<br/><br/>Fueled by a strange burst of childish and uppity attitude, July tried to bend her knee while she reached forward to try and grasp her own soles. She wobbled wildly while doing so and barely stayed on her seat. Maintaining balance while performing such acrobatics was clearly no longer possible for the old woman. In the end she her finger tips did not even reach her foot, no matter how painful an expression she summoned up to steel her grit and help the old back bend just that one extra inch further.<br/><br/>The old lady gave up and threw her hands in the air to exaggerate her bafflement at how impossible the task was for her to achieve alone. "I suppose I won't be walking tomorrow then. Nor the day after. Nor the on the next. You really got me there little thief. I thought you were a kind child, but in fact you just wanted to exhaust me by leading me around the forest, then rob me in cover of the night and leave my crippled old self crawling helplessly for aid. I really don't understand how you can have the heart to refuse. Sometimes I just wish that young hooligans like yourself would get to feel what it is like to be old." Her tone was condescending, but the face she wore showed pity and grief.