How Wood Princesses Dine

They sit upon the table top with a pound of chanterelles. The chanterelles have been sauteed in browned butter, with slivered garlic, sea salt, ground cloves, and cinnamon added partway through cooking, and a good woodsy drizzle of maple syrup just before the pan was pulled from the heat.

Some wood princesses have a glass of wine in hand and perhaps a handrolled cigarette laced with fragrant desert sage. Desert sage smells like cougar tracks in the snow. Smells like cats scratching at the cabin door and the wood princess telling them, "No, darlings, if the coyotes don't get you, the cougars will!" as she forks into a bowlful of butter-tender golden mushrooms.