“Since you don’t know the way back why don’t you tell me your story on how you got lost. Perhaps we can figure some of the directions out.” I suggested.

Kasidy had moved over to the chair in the Thicket and sat down. She had a pitcher of water and a mug which I had never seen before, and filled up her cup. She coughed a few times and then looked off into space for a second. She then turned her eyes toward me and cleared her throat once more.

“So… I was traveling from Mathewburg to the capital. I kind of wandered off one morning from the caravan and was picking flowers. It is something that I do… pick flowers. I wanted to be a florist for a while. I apprenticed to do that when we were living in Cornish. The Florist lived right behind my parents’ tavern. She was a kind old lady who could make the simplest flowers look great. She even had an Active Skill that let her make the flowers live longer. Her shop had big glass windows where she would make new flowers every day. It always smelled nice in there. I love the smell of fresh flowers. She even taught me somehow to grow flowers inside. It was fun, and I loved learning from her!

I miss living in Cornish. It was lovely; the people were nice, and everyone liked my folks. It was a good place until it was conquered. The new ruler wanted us to buy back our tavern from him. My dad said the price was too much and so we fled. The Florist wasn’t so lucky her son was in the guard, and they killed him, and when she went to see his body, she died. It was a sad day for a bunch of people….”

Blink came over to where Kasidy was sitting and put her head on Kasidy’s lap. It was kind of funny looking at this big six-foot-long lizard with these little stubby legs laying her head in someone’s lap. Blink kind of made this weird lizard S going to the ground since her front legs could not reach the ground. She then started to change colors and made her head into flowers. Kasidy looked down at Blink and smiled.

“Wow, you’re talented! Those shapes on your head sure do look like flowers and some of the prettiest that I have ever seen. I bet that you like getting your head scratched don’t you?” Kasidy started to ramble on and coo at Blink.

I coughed and looked at Kasidy, “you said that you were picking flowers with the caravan?”

She sighed and looked at me like she had forgotten what she was talking about for a moment. “Right, how I got here,” she said, smiling. “Well, I was picking flowers and I saw one that I liked a lot. It was this red and yellow lily.”

At that time, Blink turned her whole body into lilies, all red and yellow. She then purred a little more and bumped Kasidy’s hand with her head.

“Yes! Just like those you’re so sweet those are my favorite,” Laughed Kasidy!

Kasidy paused and looked out the window for a few moments. I thought that she was gathering her thoughts as she started to hum. Her shoulders relaxed a little as she hummed her light tune. While I didn’t know the song, I felt like it was one that I could listen to for days, almost like a Celtic folk song, just airy and full of emotion.

She stopped humming and said. “So I went to pick it when I heard some shouts. I turned around and the caravan was being attacked by orcs and goblins. Orcs are so scary, there was this time that they attacked the city that we were living in and some of them got through the wall. Dad had to fight one in the tavern he was working in. It was almost as big as he was and all he had was a cleaver. Dad got the drop on him though and chopped off his arm first thing and so the fight was kind of one sided.”

She smiled and laughed. “Oh that was funny. I didn’t mean for it to be.”

I looked at her and cocked my head to the side. I wasn’t sure what she meant was funny.

She giggled, “Dad chopped his arm off so the fight was one sided. I never thought of it that way until just now.”

Blink nuzzled her hand a moment until Kasidy started to slowly pet her.

I coughed slightly. I was hoping she would get on with her story.

Kasidy smiled and picked back up the story. “The guards came in right after that, so it wasn’t too bad. So when I saw the orcs got scared, and I kind of ran. When I ran, I slipped and fell down the side of a hill. On my way down, I hit my head and passed out.

When I woke up, it was dark. I was scared, and so I started to hum. Not that the dark itself makes me scared, but rather the things in the dark. I hummed a nice tune that I had been taught by a priest of Bartholomew. The priest was named Frank, and he was anything but. He would come into the tavern that I worked in almost every night, trying to get a girl to follow him home. Us barmaids knew better and so didn’t even let him get started most of the time. Since I was a follower of Bartholomew, he would talk with me. He was a kind guy, just kind of full of mischief. This is kind of the way many of the followers of the god of the bards come to think about it. I’m not; I just like summer beer and grew up in taverns. I never liked bards and all their frills, but they do make good for singing, and when they sing, people buy more, so that is always good.

There was this one time that we had two guys playing music and signing. They said they were bards, and so we were paying them to make people happy. The thing was, the music was bad, and people weren’t happy with the music. It was all bad. It turned out that they weren’t bards but two kids with lutes that wanted to try to become bards. What they didn’t know was it takes more than just a lute and a pretty face to make people happy or to become a bard. They just practiced in one of their parents’ stables and thought they were good. Well, a real bard was across the street, and he came in and saw people unhappy and talking bad about bards in general. Well, he went up to the stage and took one of the guy’s lutes and played a real song. For the next two hours, people bought and drank and were happy. After that, we always hired real bards until they were made illegal, then we didn’t.”

Kasidy then poured herself some more water and started to pet Blink more. It was a few moments before she started up again. She looked kind of sad about the tavern and bards.

“Oh yeah, so Frank taught me some of the songs of the priests because I was a follower and I was a fan of beer more then songs. So when I get scared I sometimes hum the songs that I was taught because they are nice and peaceful. So I was humming this song for a while and before long there was a light in front of me showing me where to go. I knew that it had to be Bartholomew so I just went wherever it showed me to go. One time it was through a cave and another time I slide down another hill and into the river. That brought me here several days ago. Then I showed up in here and knew that I was guided here for a reason”

She drank the water from her mug and then looked down at Blink. “Your such a good little boy you know that! Just sitting there and letting me pet you!”

Blink nipped at Kasidy’s fingers, and her spikes stood straight up. “Blink is a girl, and so she holds grudges. You might want to apologize to her.” I chuckled.

Kasidy was smiling and laughing while petting Blink as she threw me under the bus. “Oh I’m so sorry Blink! Please forgive me Arn was just too mean to not tell me you were a girl! If he had introduced us better I never would have made that mistake!”

“So Kasidy, let me get this straight, you don’t have a clue how you got here. You just followed a light, and it brought you here?” I asked her.

“Yeah thats right,” Kasidy sheepishly replied.

“Well there are things that we need to figure out then since you’re here. I know that you say that you were brought here from Bartholomew and I’m mostly inclined to agree with you. That said I still need to know how you can be helpful if you can’t get me to people. I have been out here for a while now and so was wanting to get back to a town.”

“I don’t know. I know that most of my skills are needed with people and so it is kind of odd for me to be out where there is only you. I was starting to question everything until you showed up,” She rattled out.

“Okay so maybe you can help me out. You know how to read so could you teach me? That must be why you were sent here if you can’t help me on my way,” I asked.

“Nope! Can’t do that, I can read but I’m only level 7 so I can’t teach you,” She said to me with kind of a duh expression.

“Why not? You have the skill you should be able to just show me what to do.”

“Everyone knows you have to be level 10 to teach a skill otherwise it just doesn’t work,” she said to me with a slight laugh.

I stood up at that point. I was NOT happy. I was told that I was getting sent a gift, and I was alright, almost as if it had been the beer, but now I knew that it was help in the form of this woman. I was losing it. She was an extra mouth and the two things that I needed most from someone she could give me neither! I was raising my voice, “So you mean to tell me that not only can you not find your way back to people, but you can’t even teach me to read?”

“Yeah, that’s about right,” She happily said while giving me this goofy little grin.

“So the things I need help with you can’t help with.” I angrily said as I paced back and forth. “He sent me someone useless! I get attacked and the help that he can send can’t even help me at all! What type of stupid god would send her here!” I stared at her, “I bet you can’t even care for yourself either? I’m going to end up having to watch out for you too!”

Kasidy was at this point crying and hugging Blink. “I’m not useless and I can take care of myself! Just you see! Bartholomew is a great god and he sent me here for a good reason I just don’t know what it is and you’re going to see that you need me! Get out of my home!”

“Your home? I built this and if this is anyone’s it is mine! This whole area is mine I work it and I tend it! I build the things here! Don’t you come in here and say that this is yours! You don’t have a clue what this place is!” I yelled back at her.

Blink looked at me and gave me a slow blink, and then sighed. She then walked over to the window and climbed out and up.

Kasidy had stood up now and was angry. Her eyes picked up a piercing stare that was just rage burning. “YOU! YOU! YOU! Mean Mean man!” She stomped and glared at me and then yelled, “Weather you like it or not this treehouse is where I’m living because this is where I was brought so I know that even if you built it that it was meant for me! I’ll prove to you that I don’t need you and that you need me! Also this area is not yours I checked it is not claimed so don’t try to make yourself more important then you’re!” Kasidy started to tap her hands on her leg in a rhythm when she all but sang. “Now get out and go home!”

I felt a pressure build in my chest and a desire to leave. I felt like everything that needed to be said had been said, and she was right. It was time that I went home. I needed to just go and relax for a bit because this lady was crazy. So I went over to the trap door and headed down. I didn’t even think about checking anything up top on my way down. I just went into my tunnel and closed up as I went just all the way back into my Yurt.

* * *