As Daphne spoke, she noticed the old woman’s eyes narrowing.  The girl slowed her speech and finally stopped talking as the wizened crone rose from her seat at the hearth, where she had led Daphne after she entered the cottage.  The old woman stood over her and said, through tightened lips, “My girl, you have no idea how easy your life has been.  You’ve wanted for nothing.  I have lived, and suffered, through centuries.”

Confused, Daphne looked at the woman scowling before her.  She pondered what she might have done to change the crone’s demeanor so quickly. “I’m so sorry,” she said.  “I suppose I’ve been quite rude–”

“And selfish. You always have been.  I’ve spied on you through the years, from my little corner of the woods. I’ve watched you play and grow and turn into the deserved girl I see before me. Thinking only of yourself, acting as though you were the only person in the world whose wants and needs mattered.  You lack empathy, my child.  I’ve long thought that someone should teach you a lesson… now it seems that someone will be me.”