Option One

"Maybe not," remarked the old crone behind him. "But it is a pretty good way to run a magical forest!" Actually we only have her own word for what she was saying, because Tad was too busy jumping and screaming in shock to listen. "Don't scare me like that!" he yelled.

"Oh, beg your pardon then," she replied. "How do you want to be scared then?"

"Old joke!" he snapped.

"Old woman," she pointed out calmly. "You are in no position to criticise people anyway. I'm not the one who killed two innocent people before lunch."

Tad blanched. "News sure travel fast here!"

"Not really, it's just the usual reason people get sent here."

The bad archer decided to change the subject. "Are you the Seventh Crone?" he asked curiously.

"Think, boy. How many crones have you met here before me?"

"None. You are the first."

"The First Crone. That answers your question then. I am the First, the there is the Second..."

"Then the Third. Yes, yes, i get the picture!"

"Not yet." She pulled a parchment scroll out of her sleeve and handed it to him. "Now you got the picture!"

Tad unrolled the scroll and looked at it. It was indeed a picture, of himself and seven crones in a forest. Only...

"This has you in the middle," he pointed out. "Doesn't that make you the Fourth Crone?"

She shrugged. "We take turns."

"So either of you has been the Seventh at some point and will be so again?"

"Well..."

"Then you are the one I am looking for, or will be some time."

At this point the discourse was interrupted by...

1. The Second Crone
2. The Third Crone
3. The Fourth Crone
4. The Fifth Crone
5. The Sixth Crone
6. The Sith Clone
7. Lord Fred's ghost
8. the Dragon
9. the Story Police
10. (You did notice the Seventh Crone is missing from the list didn't you?)

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