(Baine writing for the NPC Becuma, mother of Sean, wife of Nion)

"Dare you look at me so fire-eyed, fairy whore! Y'weren't with us when we all got cursed by that monster Moriath. The good for naught so called healer Baine and you ran off to where - only the great goddess knows - while our run of bad luck was just off to a fresh gallop.

Where's yer man indeed, Mist of Winter? Where's my only son, who should be here in his rightful place as chieftain of Magh Croimor? While you were off swappin' babies - as if we need another precious mouth to feed - we was at war, fightin' for our lives!

"Little do ya know what's become of us. Easily we overtook the thing we thought was a princess, along with that Labraid, who might be a man or might be a woman, or might be somethin' else altogether, see? But whatever it is, its pure evil. We chased 'em up the hill at Slieve na Caillighe and they ran into the barrows. Sean called a halt before we followed 'em in, to make a plan to surround the place and maybe smoke 'em out. Nobody wanted to go in, not that we was scared but we'd be easy prey with all the chambers and twisty hallways in that cave.

"We could hear the ol' princess howling like a beansidhe the whole time, getting fainter fainter though as if she was going underground or somesuch. Then it got all quiet. We sat there on our horses, weapons drawn, ready for anything.

"We wasn't ready for what came out. First I thought it was a swarm of bats flying out, since sometimes they take to the skies at sunset and it was about that time. A black cloud flittered out, so dark and thick nobody could see each other, and there was stingers and teeth and a thousand tiny bites, all with a buzz that went right through yer skull! I could hear the flesh being sucked off bones, both of horses and of men, and the screamin' made me near deaf.

"I hollered out 'Spare me! Spare my life! Anything you want, just spare me from this horrible death!' and a voice comes out of the buzz to ask me what's the best thing I have and name it quickly or else I'm a corpse.

"Just then the swarm of black thinned out a bit and I seen Sean fighting 'em. It was a swarm of black beetles, the kind you see on the dead, only hanging like a cloud around his head. He'd put his hood up and was flingin' his arms about, and I cried out, MY SON!

"Just like that, he was gone and just like that, I was back here at Magh Croimor, in a flash like lightnin'. Some of the other ones got back too, because as soon as they saw the swarm come out, they turned tail and fled. But I fear Sean's been taken by the Hag or whate'er it was guarded the place, and the rest of 'em are lyin' dead at the door to the barrows.

"Not enough to have lost him but since that day there's been no deer or boar or even so much as a wee hare to be found here on Magh Croimor. Even the fish and fowl have vanished now."

"So blame me, if you dare. It was a mistake what came out of my mouth, but it's done now, and nothing can take it back! Wolves, you say? Wolves must we be now? Well then, wolves we are, for surely there are worse things in this world."

Drained, Becuma shudders and her head droops with exhaustion.