Bolverk buried his face into his palms. The young man was overfilled with exasperation. The reason? His sworn lady had shown up dirty in the doorway of his quiet cottage with a pair of small children in both hands. He asked his lady, "For what purpose were you by these woods, Lady Anise? And in that outfit no less. Wait! I never told you where I resided. Morg! Mel! You two told her where I lived! Furthermore, why are you two with her?"

"Go on," Anise said to Morg. "Explain to Boo why you two were in the forest."

"Oh, fine. I shall question Mel and Morg first—however, Lady Anise, it is unbecoming of you to point, among other things, and we will return to your reason for being in the forest so early in the morning." He sighed as he placed his hands on his hips in surrender. He turned to the young twins who were both in tears as well as bruises and cuts on their little bodies. "Now what were you two young ones doing in the forest? Lady Arushi's Chalice has barely begun painting the sky anew. Do you two not fear the unpainted black sky?"

Morg shifted her eyes down as she fiddled with the hem of her dress. The autumn dawn drifting into Bolverk's cottage made the twins' faces appear porcelain.

Morg spoke first, "Um...Mel an' me wannit watch the sun rise. Please don't be mad."

"Mm," Mel nodded furiously. "We ain't doin' none bad things to no one! Morg an' me ver' wannit see Lady Arushi's first light. We swear on the Eight that all we wannit!"

The two hastily brought up their left hands. Before the two could speak the sacred oath, Bolverk conked the top of the children's heads.

"So that is what this entire affair is about," he sighed wryly. He crouched down, an awkward sight due to his lanky frame. He pinched the children's noses. "It is but a fairy tale. The light from Lady Arushi will not guide you to your mother's soul; for your mother has already gone to the Circle once more by now. The living should not journey into the Circle, especially not young children. Do you understand?"

The fairy tale was a common tale often told to young children. It was to give them hope. However, for those who have lost loved ones at a young age, it was only cruel to trick them with a tale indistinguishable from the actual achievements of the gods. Lady Arushi may use Her heart as a Chalice to fill the world with light and bring about a new day, but even with such qualities associated with rebirth, the goddess has little authority in the domain of death. Lady Arushi's title as the Maiden of the Circle was an honorary one; the duties of death were eternally of Lone T'han's, and he was a cold insufferable bastard.

The children grimaced and clenched their fists on the hems of their tunics.

"But, we just wannit see our mama," Morg said with tear forming in her eyes. Bolverk scrunched his eyebrows; it was not often that he saw Morg cry.

"Do you two know of the vampire invasion ten winters ago?" Bolverk asked. The two shook their heads. Anise glanced at Bolverk in annoyance and puffed her cheeks out cutely. Soon she looked away and resumed scrubbing filth off her body. "Lady Anise lost her father, brother of Baron Din'ae, and the prior captain of the entire Ardinian forces. And I lost my own father who was second-in-command. They were both great men who gave all they possessed to allow time for everyone to take refuge in the castle. Lady Anise cried for weeks, a complete mess of a flower."

"I was only five; Boo, however, was nine. And he cried far more than I did," Anise remarked with a musing smile. She poked Bolverk's thin cheeks as she knelt beside him. "And we both heard the same tale you two did. So, I did what you two did: I dragged Boo to the forest. We were starved and exhausted, but we waited. We huddled together in the deepest part of the forest even as the colors faded and died."

Bolverk nodded with a smirk. "Though we were starved, Lady Anise tried to hunt rabbits with her hands." He made short, swift pounces with his hands .

Anise slapped Bolverk's shoulder with puckered lips similar to a pair of cherries, "Oh, just go mix your herbs!"

Bolverk chuckled and sauntered over to his workstation nestled in the top-left corner of the room. It was a neat and large workstation with many drawers and many boxes and many shelves overflowed of many bottles and many jars. Soon the heavy bitter odor of herbs choked the room, and the room filled with the clacking of wood. The twins wrinkled their nose like shrews.

Anise turned back to her story and continued in a low voice. The incessant clacking seemed like tribal drums in the backdrop. "And even babies know that as soon as the darkness covers the sky, monsters come out to roam. Though, some beasts are not bound to the same laws as you two surely know."

The twins nodded.

"Boo and I embraced each other. And," she laughed, "though he may not look much with his twig-like frame, I thought he was quite warm and reliable then."

Bolverk felt his face warm and, without facing them, said, "Lady Anise, perhaps upon my tunic were your tears which you felt warm."

Anise frowned at Bolverk's back and rolled her eyes. "Can you take a compliment at all?"

Laughing, he replied, "My lady, I felt that was more of an insult."

With a simple exchange, the tense atmosphere which Anise built up was gone. The twins' pale faces were replaced with rosy blushes as the two laughed. Both Anise and Bolverk smiled at one another when they saw that colors has returned to the twins' faces.

"Though I often tease Boo, he was very-," Anise tried to find the words, face twisting about like a confused child's and hands adrift in the air like scattered petals. Bolverk listened intently, but soon grew annoyed at her inability to find a word to describe him.

"Ver' wha?" Mel finally asked. "Charmin'?"

Anise tilted her head at that statement with her round eyes opened wide as if she was unable to fully digest that statement.

"By the gods, no!" Anise laughed clutching her stomach, the chorale of bells filling the cozy cottage. "I wager no one has seen his face in the last three winters. How can a man with such unruly hair be charming?"

Anise laughed even harder, though a bit painfully, when Bolverk snuck behind her and tickled her sides.

"I am surely Prince Charming in the flesh, Lady Anise! Pray tell me what under the heavens are you talking about?" Bolverk exclaimed with a wry smile.

Anise tried to elbow Bolverk, but he had already leapt backwards, and soon he was back to crushing his herbs. Anise clucked her tongue in annoyance.

"Despite being a fool and a weakling and a klutz and-"

"Can you please proceed, my lady? I would love to find that the numerous tutors hired by your mother improved your vernacular and speech by even a little bit."Anise rolled her eyes and said, "Despite being all that and more, Boo was very strong during that moment. Happy?"

Bolverk resisted an urge to hide his face into his cowl, and with a controlled voice he answered yes. Anise seemed surprise that he answered honestly, but she soon laughed gaily in child-like joy before returning to her story.

"Anyways, he held me tightly, even as the creature approached. I buried my face deeper into his tunic. And soon I felt Boo shiver; next, I felt a gust of hot air batter my body." Anise breathed the last words out as if to imitate the gust of hot air, her face only inches in front of the children's.

Smack! Without warning, she smacked her hands in front of the children, causing the two to tumble backwards. Before even a second passed, the twins bursted into laughter.

"Lady Anise!" Bolverk screamed as he clumsily caught his mortar and pestle.Anise's large, round eyes blinked like stars, "Boo, did that frighten you?"

Bolverk scoffed at that notion nervously and immediately turned his head back to his herbs. Anise winked at the children. She stealthily got up and was soon behind Bolverk.

"Boo!" She shouted as she slung her arms around his neck.

"Anise!" He screamed, nearly dropping his mortar and pestle again. He glanced at her and said with an unreadable expression, "Can you please just finish your story, so that we may send the twins to their father before he wakes and go mad from worry. Then, we will return to why you were in the forest in the first place."

Anise shrugged and removed herself from Bolverk. Bolverk returned to mixing his herbs. Again, Anise winked at the twins who could barely contain their giggles even with hands over each other's mouths. As soon as Bolverk's back was turned, Anise jabbed the sides of his waist causing him to screech like a child on Yule Eve. Then she dashed away with a stuck-out tongue. Bolverk could only hold his violated sides as he shook his head.

Anise sat in front of the children, legs crossed. Smack! She clapped her hands once more causing everyone to hop a little.

"That was the sound of a human struck by the arm of a gnoll. Yes—a gnoll: a hulking mass of muscle fixed to the head of a mutt. A crazed mutt with unfocused eyes and foam gathered round his fangs; an abomination with ragged skin which peeled back down the spine to reveal sharp obsidian spikes. And their talons were so clean and so sharp—clean and sharp because they leave no flesh uneaten on their claws. They would gnaw upon their tools till not a stain could be found. The sound made by a single slash disturbed no air—their claws only needed to cleanly separate bone from flash."

She breathed. "Boo was struck and flew into a tree."

Crack! Anise snapped a twig which had been tangled in Morg's scraggly hair. She stared into both of the twins' eyes and lingered. "And that was the sound of ribs being snapped into pieces. Of bones shattering like a glass mirror. Do you two understand? Good.

"Boo fainted, and my lilac dress became dyed in scarlet. The gnoll continued to advance on us, and all I can was close my eyes." Anise laid a hand on her beating heart. She whispered, "And to tell the truth, I was not ready for death. In fact, I was scared. Exceptionally scared.

"Thankfully, one of the journeying Heroes who saved our province found us," she smiled.

"Did he use a swor' an' dagga like ya's?" Mel asked.

Anise blushed and replied, "No. He wielded a broadsword in one hand and a sabre in the other. It was as if the moon and sun yielded to him—and only him—as he danced with the beast."

Bolverk walked over with a raised brow and a mortar of green ointment. As he crouched next to Anise to apply the ointment to the children, he said sharply, "Hmph, well I may have a conjecture on what you were doing this early in the forest."

Anise played with her hair and muttered, "You should praise me. Else, these two would have been devoured by an inanis."

"An inanis?" Bolverk said wryly as he rubbed the paste onto the twins' cuts and bruises. "Did you kill it?"

Anise paled slightly, though only Bolverk noticed. The young lady shook her head. "I pierced one of its faces. It should not be a big issue if the baron puts a price on it. I recall there were fewer than twenty faces; it is not that strong nor old."

"Ane, ya strong ain't ya?" The twins said with admiration.

Anise puffed her flat chest out and nodded proudly.

"Call her Lady Anise," Bolverk chided the children who winced from the cold ointment.

The twins tilted their heads, "Why? Ane tol' us to call 'er Ane."

"Let us not go into etiquette lessons now. I had enough of them these last few months." Anise groaned. Anise gave a wistful glance towards Bolverk. "Boo, you always called me Ane before you came of age as well.

"As I was saying: a hero came. However, were it not for him, both Boo and I would be in the scary gnoll's stomachs. We would never have seen snow again, run across the wild grass bare-foot, or be able to give hugs and kisses to people we love. So do you understand why you should not go do dangerous things anymore? A hero do not always appear to save you."

The twins nodded.

Bolverk finished his treatment of the children's minor injuries and said, "Let's go home now." He took the twins' hands into his own. Bolverk turned to Anise, "Do not think of running. I will tell Lady Tan'ae of your training if you do, and Lady Tan'ae never wakes before at least two hours after the first light, so we have time. Please, rest. Oh, do not peek into the other room."

Bolverk gestured towards the only door in the cottage, other than the one leading out. The room they currently were in held only the essentials: a stove in one corner, a workstation in the other, a bed in the third, and a table at the center with a single chair. Outside the cottage was a separate facility for cleansing. It was a bare cottage out in the outskirts of the village, Aetoc, closest to the forest. This made the singular door appear particularly tempting despite it being just a door.

"Of course, you will most likely peek regardless of my warning, but I did warn you," Bolverk said with a sigh and an exasperated roll of his eyes one last time before closing the door shut.

Anise being a trained and poised lady of the upper echelon of society that she belonged to ruled that it was at this time that the unspoken motto of the rich was most applicable, "The ramblings and copper of the poor matters not in the face of lilac and gold!"; rather than the etiquette appropriate of a lady to "obey the commands of her host and idle like a peony awaiting rain".

And so she got up and opened the closed door with a polite, "Pardon the intrusion."

Author's Note: Yeah, I told a story within a story. It's only chapter 3 too; or more appropriately, it's already chapter 3! I was not kidding when I mentioned the pace would be slow. I also feel like it's important for you, the grand audience, to understand some of the characters first. If I was a better writer, I would be able to write from an inciting event and not have so much set up. I hope I will become one in the near future. If you are still here with me, then you are just great -- or really bored and has run out of things to do. And I promise you that once we hit a certain chapter, everything will be like fire. Hopefully. Either way, thanks for reading.