Asa laughs. “I didn’t take you for a naughty goddess. I didn’t need a second voice besides my mother’s scolding me for spending me more time with my sheep than with the village boys. ‘You can’t have sex with a sheep’ she’d say.”
Asa nods. “Well yeah. You have to remember, if I was normal I’d be dead a long time ago. In my lifetime that’s the only way girls survived, through their children. I died before I could have any, but that survival instinct still drives me.”
Jono stumbles back with a soft gasp when the child hugs her neck. She blinks at the offering and frowns. “I can’t take that. Besides I have cooks.” She shrugs with a faint grin. “And don’t worry about that army. We won’t be hearing from them. Ever,” she winks.
“But the fairy saw that she was wrong, and made up for it. I find it disheartening how human writers like to antagonize and victimize women, make them weak so a man must swoop in and save them. Perhaps that’s another thing I’m meant to change.”