«Intruders in your house? Is that right? And you not find your father? Right?»
"Barbarian intrudes... father not coming."
«Ma'am,» whispers Rollon to Taliha, «it is possible that he will say more if you leave the cave for a while. Not sure if it helps if you take human form. Is it OK to try?»
He turns to the ghost again, «will father come if fox leaves?»
Taliha reverts to human form and she begins to move down the passage.
Rollon asks uncertainly, «will father come now?»
The room grows colder as the voice early wails "father... not coming... ever"
Rollon shivers from the cold. «What happened to father?»
At this a long monologue entails. You understand little of it, apparently his father went to war when he was an infant, the war lasted a long while, he got lost on the way home, the son went looking for him, tracked him, here you think, before returning home and something about his mother and suitors. He left home again, his father died, he came here to wait. Or something along those lines.
«Where did you live? And when?»
"Long ago ... Ithica"
«Why do you stay here?»
"waiting … father"
«Is your father trapped? Or killed?»
"dead"
Rollon is getting increasingly annoyed with the circular questions, but tries not to show it. «I am sorry. It must be awful for you. Why do you wait for a dead man?»
"Bring … father... home"
«Oh. His body, you mean? The fox can probably help. Is that ok?»
there is no response
«Hello? Are you still here?» asks Rollon nervously. If he hears no reply, he goes to fetch Taliha, giving her a review of what has been said. «This gives me the creeps,» he says. «The voice seems to have tracked his father here, and now the father is dead. I am not familiar with his dialect, so I understand only bits and pieces, but he did, at last, say `bring - father - home'. That seems to be the big issue which upsets him. What do you want to do?»
"Do you think he might know where his father is or has something that might lead us to his father's body? I have no idea where we might begin without that."