An intriguing encounter (summer 1222)

"I promise I will do you no harm, and that you may return at journey's end if you desire."

"I don't know," Anastasia says, looking back at the covenant buildings. "I'm not supposed to go wandering about. How long will it take? Will I be back before the covenant's morning meal tomorrow? I don't want to get in trouble."

"It's not wandering, I'll lead you."

"But will you get me back by breakfast? No one will miss me overnight. But if I'm not at breakfast, someone will notice."

"I cannot say, it is not solely my decision. You could be back by breakfast, if you don't dawdle."

"My," Anastasia says. "You're a cagey one." She smiles. "Will you promise that you'll lead me back here when I ask you to?"

"I don't make promises I'm not sure I can keep, there are too many things along this path, too many possibilities. Again, if you walk off a cliff and ask to be led back, what am I to do?"

"You're a literal one, aren't you?" Anastasia says. "Well then, I suppose I'll just have to not fall off a cliff or anything like that. I have to admit I am curious about this place you talk about. And I don't suppose it can be too dangerous. Besides, you said you'd lead me back. So okay, I'll take a look at this place you're talking about, that is, as long as it doesn't take too long to get there."

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You know, I was going to have Anastasia be a bit more suspicious and worried. Then I remembered that she has a major flaw Optimistic. She'd trust that everything will work out in the end. :slight_smile:

She is also 14 not 10...

The faun leads Anastasia through the woods and along a twisted trail. She notices as the go along that the moon is getting brighter and brighter as she progresses, until she reaches a clearing where she spots a boy near her own age apparently engaged in a serious discussion with a squirrel.

The squirrel looks up and nods it's head toward the faun and Anastasia. In squirrel he says "look, it has brought your mate."

"You're the missing boy," Anastasia exclaims when she sees Petre. "People at the covenant have been wondering where you went."

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Yea, I think I'd originally made her ten, but upped her age to account for having to wait for a tribunal.

"Hello Anastasia. And hello to you too" he says turning to the faun. He looks back and forth between the two, waiting.

Anastasia looks a little shocked when the boy addresses her by name. How did he know it? Neither of them had been at the covenant for long - really no one had been at the covenant for long. And it was faintly disturbing to have the feral boy know things about her without her knowing anything about him.

"Did he bring you here too?" she asks. "Or did you find you own way here?"

"For some reason he offered to free me. Was I a prisoner? And then I was here." Turning to the faun "where is here, anyway?"

"This," says the faun grandly,"is The Glade" you can hear the capital letters. "Whenever you decide to leave, it will be before the moon sets, no matter how long you stay. So long as you are here," he plucks a pair of apples from a tree and tosses them to you "your needs will be seen to and you will not age, no need to grow up here, lie back, enjoy your childhood, enjoy the birds." birdsong erupts on cue, "for you are our special guests."

FYI The Glade has a tinted aura, which means that everyone who is in it has a temporary personality trait of carefree at +3.

"Well, I suppose it couldn't hurt to stay here a little while," Anastasia says, kicking off her shoes and walking across the Glade. "And it is beautiful here." She sits down on the grass. For the moment she avoids eating the apple. She'd heard that if you ate food in faerie lands you might get stuck there. Or was that the underworld? She couldn't quite remember.

"So they say you were raised by animals," she says to Petre. "Is that true?"

Petr looks at the faun "it is nice here. Do you have a name we can use to talk to you?"

He then turns to Anastasia, and in his somewhat fractured Romaic says "As far as I know, I always lived in the woods. I grew up with the creatures of the woods, and talk with them all the time." He looks at the squirrel, than back. "Some talk more than others of course. Just like the people I have met."

"It must be wonderful to be able to talk to the animals," Anastasia replies. "Maybe someday I'll be able to do that with magic. But here you can do it without even trying." She smiles at Petre. "So, do they have interesting things to say?"

"You may call me Paidi." The faun replies, juggling 3 apples.

"Interesting? They talk mostly about things that matter. For example, that squirrel is mostly worried about making sure no one takes his nuts. But then, I don't understand half the things the shepherds talk about when I am helping them."

"Adults talk about adult things," Anastasia replies. "I'm starting to understand some of what they say. But things like politics still confuse me."

"So you're Petre, right? You say you live with the shepherds. Do you like being around sheep all day? Have you ever had to fight off a wolf?"