It surprised Pali when he heard a knock on his door. He had just finished napping and was thinking of something to do for the rest of the day. He hoped that it was welcome news. Something about the whereabouts of a certain child or even the child herself.

When Pali opened the door, he saw a young man in red robes, probably in his early twenties. He was slightly shorter than Pali and had the brown hair and eyes common in Flaern. His red robes also probably meant he was a priest for Sorris. He was smiling, a smile that Pali thought said he knew something good.

"Welcome, Priest of Sorris," Pali said. "What can I do for you?"

"Are you Pali Candrar Bo?"

"That I am."

"I have come with news regarding a child that seems to cause you a bit of grief."

"A bit…" Pali sighed. "What news?"

"She is eating at the Temple as we speak. I even made her promise not to run and to meet you for the food."

"I see, this is good news. This will also be a good way to relieve my boredom."

The priest laughed. "Oh, yes. I do not see getting bored easily when that girl is in a mood."

Pali sighed again. "Lead the way."

With that, Pali and the priest left the inn. Fortunately, Stutra was small, and it did not take long to get to the temple by carriage. Upon arriving he noticed the plain, yet fortress-like appearance thanks to the six buttresses evenly spaced on the outside. While it was one of the biggest buildings in the city, it was not large compared to some other temples dedicated to Sorris.

Upon entering the temple, Pali noted it decorated much the same as the others he had visited on rare occasion. Even the suits of leather and metal armor were much the same, and the portraits depicting Sorris protecting innocents.

Pali shortly entered what was the kitchen. He looked around but did not see the dirty Terran child that had brought him such annoyances. All Pali saw were some well used but well maintained wooden tables and chairs, all in a modest kitchen with a stove and some assorted pots, pans, and cooking utensils. Aside from a few priests, there were a few haggard people quietly eating bread and some kind of soup.

Pali walked up to a priest wearing a dark robe covered in flour and asked, “Do you know where the Terran child that was eating here went?”

The flower-covered priest looked at the young priest that had been escorting Pali, who was standing behind him, then back to Pali and said, “She was looking through the door you came through but suddenly ran through that door.” The flower-covered priest pointed towards the door opposite the one Pali had come through.

“She was watching for us apparently,” said the priest.

Pali sighed. She was not making this easy for him. He almost wanted to just leave her but there was no way he would miss the opportunity to study a real live Terran. So he went through the door the cook had pointed out. He just hoped that all this chasing was worth it.

“This should be interesting.” the young priest said to the flower-covered priest with a slight smile on his face.

The flower-covered priest shrugged.

The child was not making this easy and Pali had to quell his growing annoyance. In his pursuit, he had talked to several priests who told him they had seen her pass by only a few minutes earlier. This in of itself was not what was annoying him. It was the fact that she was going around the circumference of the temple as if she were playing with him.

Fortunately, the chase did not go on for much longer. Pali was soon directed towards a room that led to one of the six buttresses. He was certain that the door was the only way in or out. This meant that she was giving up or Sorris only knew what, if Sorris could even know what went on in the child's mind.

Hoping that the chase would end soon, Pali entered the room. As soon as he walked in he noticed movement above him. The child was looking down at him from a hole in the ceiling. Immediately he noticed that the ladder was missing. She had pulled it up behind her so they could not follow her.

“Oh, this is great!” said the priest who had still been following Pali, laughing. “What are you going to do now?” He said looking at Pali then at the child who was staring down at them.

***

The final chase was on. While I had finally decided to go with the recruiter from the school I forgot the name of, I had decided that I would not let it finish that easily for him. I also wanted to see if I could exploit the situation since he wanted me to go with him badly enough to follow me this far.

When I had finished eating I had stood by the door to the kitchen. There I waited for the priest and Mr. Recruiter to come back. While I was watching, I noticed many people stop and stare at me. Since I had taken off my nasty head wrapping my white hair was as noticeable as ever.

I tried to ignore them, and to my relief, the two men I had been waiting for had come. As soon as I saw them I ran through the door on the opposite side of the kitchen. Since I had no intention of getting away from my pursuers, I merely ran around the temple hoping he would get frustrated.

When I began to tire, I decided it was time to confront Mr. Recruiter. Since I didn't want him to get close to me yet, I opted to run inside one tower that dotted the circumference of the temple. Once inside one of these, I saw that there was a wooden ladder leading through a hole in the ceiling. When I had climbed into the room above I found that the ladder not attached to anything so I pulled it up. Luckily things were lighter on Calorin so I pulled it up without too much trouble.

Not long after I had pulled the ladder up I saw the door to the room below me open. Through it came Mr. Recruiter and the priest. As planned, Mr. Recruiter did not look too happy. The priest looked as if he were thoroughly enjoying the situation which was soon confirmed because when he saw me he laughed and said something not worth noting to Mr. Recruiter.

"Child, please come down from there." Mr. Recruiter asked.

I said nothing.

Seeing this, he went on. "I promise that nothing bad will happen to you. Life at the school is akin to life as some wealthier merchants. You will get good meals, clean bedding, and the best education Flaern offers."

"She does not seem to want to talk to you." The priest said to Mr. Recruiter.

"Can you at least tell me why you ran?" Mr. Recruiter asked. "At least say something."

I still said nothing, but things would probably get annoying if I stayed quiet too much longer.

"If I do not know what is bothering you, I cannot help you."

"Fine," I said.

"She speaks!" said the priest.

"All right, I will listen to what you have to say." Mr. Recruiter said, ignoring the priest.

"I can only think of two reasons it would interest someone in a girl adopted by poor peasants out by a small mine in the middle of the mountains. One: I've heard that Terrans like me are better at magic than most Calorins and that they are highly sought after by the military. Two: You want to get as much information about Terra as possible, especially anything that I know how to make that doesn't exist here on Calorin. Saying that, I want to let you know that I absolutely do not want to be used by the military or the government."

Pali looked up at me thoughtfully and after a few moments said, “Those things may be true, but is it not worth getting away from your poor background, getting an education, and having a better place in the world?”

“I'd rather risk living off of the forests and mountains and live freely than be used by whoever gets to me first. I even caught a fish myself yesterday.”

“Then why are you here getting food when you could get it yourself?”

Mr. Recruiter had a point. “I'm still a beginner,” I said.

“I will not stop you then. I will even tell the local hunters to keep a lookout for you to bury you if you stay a beginner.” He looked at me smugly while saying this. “You know. If you come with me I promise that we will not make you do anything you do not want to do, but before you answer could you please consider anything you would share to us about Terra?”

Since I had already decided to go with him, none of what he said about me staying in the forest mattered so I only answered his last question. "Even if I go, I don't think I should say anything about Terra, but I might change my mind…"

Mr. Recruiter looked like he was thinking when his face suddenly lit up. He then shuffled through a bulging cloth sack he was carrying. When he noticed me watching him, he smiled and pulled out some cloth. "I bought some clothes for you to use if you come with me. I guarantee it will be much better than anything your family in Porra-Kel could afford."

"Bribing me won't work."

“I was not trying to bribe you. I just thought you were interested in what I had here.”

I knew he had looked through the bag intentionally hoping that I would take an interest in it and bringing him the opportunity to bring the contents into the conversation innocently. I was about to restate that bribes wouldn't work on me when I saw him pull something out of the bag that I had thought I would never see again. It was a pineapple. A delicious pineapple.

“I also bought you some food.” He continued. “I thought you might find this fruit interesting, as it does not grow around here. I find these fruits…”

My full attention was now on what he was holding in his hand. The citrus fruit was one of the most beautiful things I had seen in a long time, but the laughing of the priest that was still standing by the door brought me out of my trance. It was then that I noticed Mr. Recruiter wiping something from his forehead. It was my drool.

Mr. Recruiter was looking back up at me and now had a grin on his face. He then reached to his belt and pulled out a small knife. I watched as he started cutting the pineapple. Soon he held a large piece of pineapple in front of him then slowly and methodically put it into his mouth. I watched as he slowly chewed the pineapple with a euphoric, but fake look, on his face.

I knew he was doing it on purpose but I was suddenly hungry again. The food I had been eating these past eight years was never good and had gotten boring after the first week they began feeding it to me. I then began thinking about what kinds of food they would serve at the school, and how it would likely be worth joining just for that.

Deep in thought about food and with more drool dripping down towards him, I did not notice that in my desire to eat the pineapple I had been leaning forward farther and farther until I fell from my perch in the tower and landed on my butt in front of a startled Mr. Recruiter and priest. Still, ignoring the pain in my butt, I reached towards the pineapple. Mr. Recruiter handed me the knife and pineapple, which I grabbed from him and greedily started eating.

“Does this mean you will come with me?” Mr. Recruiter said after recovering from the shock caused by my fall.

I said nothing but continued to eat the pineapple.

“I will take that as a yes,” he said somewhat triumphantly and then turned to the priest who looked like he was still enjoying himself, and asked, “Could you call a carriage for me?”

The priest nodded and then as he was leaving laughed again as he noticed Mr. Recruiter drag me out of the room as I ate the pineapple.

“You will not run away now?” Mr. Recruiter asked as he dragged me out of the temple entrance.

Now, mostly having had my fill of pineapple I replied, “If you promise that I can leave whenever I want and you won't make me do anything I don't want to.”

“Yes, that is what we had planned from the beginning. If you had only listened to me instead of jumping into the river…”

“I know,” I said cutting him off before adding, “The pineapple was worth it though.”