As you bump along the dirt mountain path, the ravine you travel turns and opens onto a few small farms eking out a living on the slopes. Then you begin to see poor but uniform huts packed closely together and a town square with stables, an old church, a blacksmith's with a cooper's attached, and uniform buildings bearing the shovel and pick of the Sackbury Mining Corporation. One is particularly large and appears to be the main office. Others appear to serve various town functions, such as the company store and a company cobbler. Behind the stables, you see a small dock with a barge moored to it. Though it is getting close to sunset, you see that working hours haven't yet ended in this town. Burly men, humans, dwarves, half-orcs, and orcs, load large chunks of iron ore onto the barge. Carts are hauled out of the mine itself on the north side of town on a small tramway. Waste rock is dumped in a massive pile by the river while ore is transferred to the barge-loaders.
Ives' connection to and conversations with the trees are generally very calming influences. But not for the past few weeks. The trees near the river, in particular, have been worried and absent-minded. In addition, they have been feeling somewhat ill. You also notice that several dead fish float slowly, belly-up with the current.
You notice a slight yellowish tinge to the water in certain parts. Sniffing the water, you detect a faint smell of sulfur.
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Ives sits on a fallen oak and watches the water flow. This tree was one of his friends, who had served the forest for a hundred years as guardian and shade. A recent storm brought it down, but the tree had been sick, so Ives was expecting its time to end soon. Still, he does it honor by remembering its life.
As he sits in mediation, several fish are carried downstream, floating belly up. It is something Ives has been seeing more and more.
He looks over at a nearby pine tree. "Tell me, pine, how does the water taste today? I'm thirsty, but the dead fish... are making my stomach do somersaults."
The young pine's needles blow lightly in the wind. It is silent for a few moments then responds in a slow voice "This water has been my friend for years. But lately it has tasted more and more... sour... It is strange... I do not feel as well as I would... What are these somersaults you're talking about, Ives?
The common wagon, bearing a shipment of supplies and mail, attracts little notice beyond a few glances as its weary horse plods into Pentrefan.
"Oll right, Miss," the driver says as it pulls to a halt in front of the town's general store, backed up to the stoop for ease of unloading. "End of th' line."
His passenger stands, climbing somewhat awkwardly into the back of the wagon to retrieve her luggage. A casual observer might have noted that she was somewhat on the tall side for a woman, and possessed of the faintly pointed ears that suggest mixed elven and human blood. These are clearly visible, as her hair lies pulled back in a snood for travel.
She steps down from the back of the wagon to the store's porch, and accepts the enormous portmanteau the driver ably slings down to her with a slight oof. "Thank you, Mr. Gillie," she says to the driver in a cultured accent. "I am most grateful for the pleasant company during our journey. How fortunate that it's too early for much dust." She gamely ignores a few splatters of mud across her front from some of the wetter portions of the road, ruefully wishing that her funds had extended to a stage coach.
"Think nothin' ov it, Miss," says the driver. "And if you ever need a ride back the ovver way, jes' ask for Steven Gillie, an' I'll be 'appy to take you. I'm back an' forth twice a week, I am."
She smiles warmly at him. "I shall bear that in mind."
As Mr. Gillie turns his attention to unloading the rest of his cargo, Teleri ver Rhosyn takes off the thin muslin traveling cloak she had donned prior to the journey, designed not so much for warmth as to protect clothing from the insults of travel. Beneath it she wears a sensible dress in a dark brown -- long-sleeved, high-necked, with ankle-length skirts and a fashionable pair of black leather boots fastened up each side with a long line of tiny buttons.
She shakes the cloak gently over the edge of the porch to knock free the worst of the mud, folds it neatly, and tucks it under the handle of her portmanteau.
Finally, she looks about with a lively interest. "So," she says quietly to herself, "This is Pentrefan."
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"You know... maybe you don't... like this!"
But Ives tumbles over sideways and lands in a patch of prickers. Ives laughs, a light merry chuckle. "Something is wrong with the river, pine. You sense it too! It makes my stomach turn. Like that time I found those two goblins trying to cut down Uncle Spruce."
Ives spends some time pulling off his armor. "Now this is how you do a proper somersault, pine!"
With a bit of a running start, Ives plants his hands down, pushes off, and finds himself doing a full forward flip in the air!
"Whoa! That was fun!"
Glancing around the small and busy town, Teleri soon determines with disappointment that there is no inn. She deems it likely that what very few visitors there are to Pentrefan arrange payment to stay with a local resident. Of the two hundred or so residents, nearly all are here full-time and have little extra money to spend. She does spy several people clustered around one of the small huts and, after watching for a moment, concludes that at least one of the local women runs a home business cooking for other employees. The local office of the SMC is easily found on the western side of town. Teleri notes a middle-aged man and a teen boy at the side of the building repairing several damaged boards.
The tree hears Ives' cry of surprised pain, laugh, then triumphant shout. It responds in some confusion "Ives... we've told you many times... we can't see what you're doing... I just feel you running around and falling a lot... What's going on?"
After Ives explanation, the young pine returns to serious matters. "Yes things are not well with the river. This scares me, Ives. How can I move away or find new water? What are we going to do?"
"Hmm," Teleri says, tapping the her thumbnail against her lips.
"Mr. Gillie," she says, as the man finishes unloading his wagon.
"Yes, Miss?" he asks, eyebrows raised.
"It seems that there is no inn here, which I had rather counted on. I will need a place to stay while I'm here. Perhaps you would be so good as to tell me where I might inquire to find respectable lodgings?"
As this is a reasonable request and Teleri has been a polite, paying customer, Gillie answers happily. "Well, Miss, there is a bit of housin' provided by SMC in that buildin' over there." He points out one of the uniform, gray wooden structures. "They charge 5 silver frenhines a night and that includes meals. But if you want to save some coin, I'd recommend you see Molly over there." He points to the older woman serving food from her hut. "She's trustworthy and she'll let you stay with her for 2. Food's better too!"
"Thank you kindly," Teleri says, dipping her head with a smile. Two frenhine the night? she thinks. My, things are much less expensive here!
Taking a breath, Teleri hoists her portmanteau off the ground and struggles across the street with it. Her boots leave deep impressions in the road, still damp and soft from the previous evening's rain.
Reaching the far side, she sets the bag down again and waits until Molly has a spare moment before addressing her: "Good afternoon, Mistress," she says. "I'm told that you occasionally rent space to travelers. Do you have any openings at the moment?"
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Ives, flushes with excitement from pulling off a full flip, starts to pull his armor back on. He stares upstream, well aware of what lies that direction, miles away. "The water is coming from town, pine. You know, where I came from, a long time ago. Bad things come from town, and now they send us bad water. The woods are where it is safe, pine...."
Ives waves goodbye, forgetting for the umpteenth time that plants can't see him, and he walks upstream along the bank, curving back and forth along the meanders. He smells the water along the way.
I am glad the Mother Tree does not live along the river. She is old, and I do not want her hurt by this.
Ives stops and continues to stare upstream. At town. His old home. It has been eight winters since he left, and he still has no desire to go back. The woods, the mountains. These are his home know. Pine, Uncle Spruce, and the Mother Tree... these are his family.
With Mother Tree in his thoughts, he turns back downstream and starts heading the mile toward her grove.
Molly, a neatly dressed woman in her late forties, turns to the stranger with a slight chuckle. "It's nothin' do formal ad that, Miss, but you're welcome to stay on an extra straw bed. I'd ask two frenhines of you. It's a fair price as I'll include a good meal as well." From the scent of wild spices coming from her one-room hut, you conclude she knows what she's talking about.
"Please be careful, Ives. But surely the town doesn't send out only bad things? You came from there."
"That will be fine," Teleri says. She opens her belt pouch and produces the two silver frenhines, handing them over willingly.
"My name is Teleri ver Rhosyn," she says, extending a gloved hand. "May I have the pleasure of your acquaintance?"
The matron accepts the two silver coins and places them in a pocket in her apron. She smiles somewhat uncertainly and accepts the hand. "Molly is good enough for me. Pleased to meet you. If I might ask, what's a lady like yourself doing in these parts all alone?" She eyes Teleri with a mixture of friendly curiosity and hesitancy.
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Ives makes his way back downstream and yells out a greeting as he passes to Pine, who can't hear properly understand him at the moment anyway because his spell had worn out a good time ago.
By the large moss covered boulder on the east side of the river, Ives cuts a right hand turn and heads straight on his own packed trail to the Mother Tree's grove.
The Mother Tree is a huge white fir, ancient and wide. 10 feet in diameter at the base and a natural hole in the base of the trunk that Ives blindly crawled into eight years ago to save his life. It was here that the Tree first reached out to him. A strange fey magic permeates the grove, radiating from the Tree and touching the other closest trees, making these plants smarter, stronger, and more self-aware than any other place in the forest.
"Mother? Uncle Spruce? Aunt Hickory? I am back again."
Uncle Spruce creaks and groans in complaint. ”Ives! You rascal! Why are you always moving about like that? When I was a sapling, we grew in one place and STAYED there. That’s the way things outta be done! Didn’t matter how hot and dry it was or cold and wet. Same place. Every day, all day. No good is gonna come of all this traipsin’ you’ve been doin’!!”
A few of Aunt Hickory’s branches wave in the wind, almost as if she is shaking a wagging finger at the old spruce. ”Oh be quiet, Sprucey. You’re just jealous. You have been ever since Ives started comin’ back here and tellin’ us about all the new places and things he’s seen. You miss bein’ the main storyteller in this grove. Well no one wants to hear the story of your fifty-eighth root and the rock it had to break through anymore! That’s old news!”
Mother Tree stands very still in the grove but her voice permeates all present, bringing calm and stillness. ”Hush. Just greet him. Ives, it is good to see you return. The sun is warm today. The soil is good. How are you?”
"Molly, then," Teleri agrees. At Molly's direction, she starts hauling her portmanteau into the cottage, setting it atop a small chest at the foot of the promised straw bed.
"As for what I'm doing here ... my position is ... well, suffice it to say that I must make my own way in the world, on my own wit and little else. I heard that the Sackbury Mining Corporation had suffered a series of vandalisms and other mischief here in Pentrefan, and was seeking independent investigators to determine the cause. And so, I decided to come here and try my hand at investigation."
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"Yes, Uncle. Yes, I will try to move more slowly, Uncle." Ives remembers that Uncle Spruce can't see him and give a huge eye roll.
"The water isn't good, Mother. In the river over by young Pine. He said it tastes sour, and it smells bad. I think it is coming from the town of men. Pine is worried. How shall he and the others drink? I am worried too. And my stomach hurts."
Molly furrows her brow and purses her lips. "Careful, Miss Teleri. You're new to these parts and you might not understand what is going on here." She looks concerned for a little bit. "Not that I'm sure I know myslef either."
Molly knows something about the vandalism, or at least thinks she does, but isn't going to speak up about it too freely.
To Ives, mother responds "That is worrying, Ives. Please see what you can find out about this. But be careful. And don't look for a fight."
Mel notes Molly's hesitation. "My, that seems ominous," she says, using a damp kerchief to wipe her hands. She smiles winningly at Molly. "Is there something you think I should know before I go speak with the local SMC head?"
Molly is won over by Teleri's direct and honest manner. She sighs. "Now Miss, know that I don't want to get no one in trouble. And I don't know nothing specific. But there's been a lot of grumbling in camp about those orc children. Ever since those two-bit wizards came to town, they can do more work in less space than a grown man." She shrugs. "A lot say it ain't right or natural for them to do that or us to associate with them. I know their pain. My husband died in a raid by those orcs some ten years ago." Her eyes mist up and her voice grows horse. "But I'd rather work with and feed those green people than have them killing us in the night to fill their larders from ours. Everyone's got to eat."
From what you've seen and Molly's described, it seems that marginly able spellcasters are hired to cast ant haul on children working the mine.
"I'm so sorry to hear about your husband," Teleri says sympathetically. "It's uncommonly good of you not to hold a grudge over something so terrible. That must be hard."
"As for the wizards -- I had no idea there were any in town. I gather they're using the orc children as cheap labor? That must sit poorly with the grown workers, who have families of their own to feed."
Molly nods matter of factly with a sad smile. "No sense keeping a grudge. I don't think any of the same orcs are here, to be true. And they're good, hard-working neighbors. Pay good coin for good food. Keep to themselves mostly." She gestures to the south as if to indicate a region of the huts.
When Teleri speaks of the wizards Molly nods then shrugs. "It does anger some who say they're losing jobs to little 'greenlings.' But there's always enough work for those who earn it, I say. 'sides, those children are working for their families too. It's not just orc children. My nephew heads into the mines too. Strong young lad. Comes home dead tired but proud as can be to turn his frenhines over to my little sis."
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"I don't look for a fight, Mother Tree. That one time, against the goblins, I was protecting Uncle Spruce. And then that other time, against the wolves, I had to. They were angry and saw me as an easy target. And then the other time, against that man... I didn't mean to. He shouldn't have grabbed me."
He looks down, thinking about that moment. A hunter in the woods surprised him, grabbed him... probably wondering why a child was in the woods. Ives slashed him across the face as a reflex.
Ives runs his sharp fingers in the dirt next to Mother Tree. He looks up.
"I will be careful, Mother. No one will see me. And I will go. To protect Pine and the other river trees like Silver Maple. It is the right thing to do. Maybe there was an accident. Maybe someone dropped a poison. I will be right back."
Ives hugs the Mother Tree, his arms not even making it around one-fourth of it. He then walks by Uncle Spruce and swats him as he goes by.
"Come get me, Uncle! Ha ha ha!" Ives runs away, back to the river, and once again heads upstream.
Mother tree bends slightly in the wind in what seems mixed gesture of acceptance and concern. "Alright, Ives. Just be careful."
Uncle Spruce creaks and groans in complaint. "Get back here you whipper-sapling!!!"
You head upstream for a ways and encounter some more dead fish. Then you see something far more troubling. On the west bank of the river (the side you are on), there is a humanoid shape lying on its face in the mud. The skin is very blue. You believe this is a naiad. You've caught glimpses of them every now and then as they live in these parts but keep to themselves.
You hear commotion coming from outside the huts. Poking your head out, you see a knot of concerned villagers around a teenage boy who has just come back. Getting closer, you hear that he is telling them about something he found on the riverbank a ways downstream. "It's a dead blue person or something! I don't know what it is but I ran back right away!"
"True enough," Teleri agrees.
She takes a moment to unpack a bit, hanging several dresses and blouses on a short rope that Molly strings up along the wall, using collapsible traveling hangers. Two of them are sensible traveling or working clothes, similar to the dress she's wearing, though in different colors. One, however, is an elaborate gown, clearly intended for formal occasions attended by the cream of Society.
Most of the rest of her gear she packs tidily away in her portmanteau, tucking it neatly beside the bed. She packs her scrivener's tools into her belt pouch, along with her funds. Finally, she undoes her traveling snood, revealing bright, golden hair, currently curled up in a tight bun. She leaves it that way, and dons a demure bonnet, trimmed in brown matching her dress (though the trim is silk and the gown is a sturdy, light wool), and secured under her chin with a black ribbon.
"There," she remarks in satisfaction. "Much better. I must confess, I'm glad to have someplace to put all that -- it was much heavier than I thought it would be!"
The entire collection clearly could not weigh much more than thirty pounds, including the portmanteau.
"Mistress Molly," she says, "I'm off to SMC headquarters, now. Unfortunately, I'm not sure exactly who is in charge over there. The advertisement did not give a name; all it says is ..." she consults a piece of paper, "'Report to SMC local office in Pentrefan for further information.' Do you happen to know whom I should speak with over there?"
She coughs a bit at the end of this. "Ach ... and could I trouble you for a glass of water?"
Before Molly can respond, the commotion outside draws their attention. Teleri listens to the boy's declaration. Oh dear, she thinks. It seems as if things have become quite serious! And here I haven't even begun my investigation.
"Never mind that water, then, I should get to the SMC headquarters as quickly as possible! It sounds like that's something that I may need to look at, but since I have not yet spoken with SMC, I have no grounds for doing so. I hope no one disturbs the scene before I can finish the necessary formalities."
And so saying, she moves off towards the SMC building at a brisk -- but never unladylike -- pace.
Molly calls after Teleri, hoping to save the polite young woman some time "Ask for Silas Trenton! He's in charge!" Molly points to the largest of the SMC buildings.
Upon entering the building, a secretary in her early thirties working a small front room asks Teleri her business.
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Ives runs up to the naiad and flips her over.
"No! What... happened? The water? Are you alive? Are you alive?"
Ives listens to her breath and heart.
Ives knows a naiad is a water creature. Alive or dead, a naiad belongs in the water! Being a strong lad, he picks her up and gently lowers her back into the stream, supporting her under her armpits so she doesn't wash away.
Teleri waves an acknowledgment back at Molly as she rushes off.
Entering the SMC building, she nods politely to the secretary. "Good afternoon, my name is Teleri ver Rhosyn. I have come to respond to your advertisement for investigators looking into the recent disturbances. Is Mr. Silas Trenton the correct person to speak with? And if so, is he available?"
Ives knows a LOT about naiads and how they should normally look. This one is definitely dead and has been for about a day. She seems like she was ill for a while before dying of some internal illness. Her skin is discolored and she is very frail and thin. Ives knows naiads can leave the water for a while but are loathe to leave it for long. It seems this one succumbed to whatever is going on with the water.
You see small human footprints leading toward and then away from this area. It doesn't seem they approached all the way to the naiad. They seem to lead back to Pentrefan.
The secretary raises her eyebrow, somewhat surprised by Teleri's combination of age and gender. She shrugs and nods with acceptance as she rises to her feet. "This way, please." She knocks on a wooden office door down a short hall. "Mr. Trenton? An investigator has answered the ad." A somewhat nasal male voice responds "Good! Send him in." But when the secretary show Teleri in, the paunchy man behind the desk also looks surprised. "Oh uh hello, miss. Apologies. I didn't expect a young lady to answer the advertisement. You are welcome to investigate, of course, but unless you yield results I'm afraid I cannot pay you." He shakes his head somewhat apologetically.
"Quite understandable, Mr. Trenton. I must confess I too am somewhat surprised to find myself here. Nevertheless, I intend to do my best. I take it the position is a contract job, then, payable upon successful completion. Are there any formal hiring procedures that need to be taken care of? If so, let us get them under way; if not, I gather a blue corpse has just been discovered in one of the streams at the edge of the town, and I should very much like to examine the scene before it gets too muddled." Teleri smiles sweetly at him.
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After holding the body underwater for some time, Ives whispers in Druidic.
"Chun an tuisce a fhilleann tú; faigh an tsíocháin a theastaíonn uait." Translation: To the water you return; may you find the peace you deserve.
Ives lets go and watches the naiad disappear deeper and start moving downstream.
It is then Ives sees the footprints. He has tracked many animals in his time in the forest, and he can track this. The tracks are small... did a child do this, or just walk past here.
Ives starts to follow him.
Trenton nods "Of course. Straight to business is best. No hiring practices needed as this is essentially a bounty job. All you need to do is demonstrate that you have provided information or ended a problem." His eyebrows shoot up at the mention of a blue corpse. "What?! A corpse isn't good and I don't think a blue one's any better!" He jumps up and throws open the door "Sarah! Get two off-duty guards to check out that blue corpse the laborers are talking about!" He then runs his hands through his thinning hair. He turns back to you. "They'll check it out. Of course, if you find out something they don't, you're contribution will be recognized with compensation."
"Then we have an arrangement. Thank you for your time, sir. I'll just accompany the two guards and see what I can learn." She gives a brief curtsy, then waits while the guards are summoned. Once they arrive, she tells them what she overheard, and moves quickly with them to reach the boy she'd seen earlier.
She finds him still standing in the center of a knot of interested people. "Excuse me, young sir," she calls out to him. "Could you please show us where you found this blue person? My name is Teleri ver Rhys. Mr. Trenton sent these two guards and I to take look at the scene. Why don't you tell us about it on the way?"
The lad seems about to lead several of the adults off to see the body. When the guards arrive, the concerned workers disperse somewhat, as if this is no longer their business. The boy nods "Aye, ma'am." He begins leading you and the guards into the woods. You walk along a rough hunting trail that leads up and down, winding through the heavily-wooded, rocky ridges of these mountains. As he walks, he explains "I was fishing a ways downstream. My normal spot was no good so I moved a ways farther. Then I saw a weird lump on the bank. When I was closer, I saw it was a person, or at leat person-shaped! Had blueish-greenish skin and no clothes. She didn't move at all. I think she was dead! I didn't get too close but ran all the way back!" You continue along, your knees and ankles growing particularly tired as your lack of appropriate footwear takes its toll. After about two miles, however, you enter a clearing just as someone enters it from the other side about 50 ft away. A strange, greenish lad of 15 looks very surprised to see you!
You follow the trail toward Pentrefan, your feet tasting the moss and stone of these mountains that you know so well. As you near the town, the calls of birds grow a bit less frequent. Animal droppings are less common. And even the sound of the river seems less harmonious! But maybe it's all in your head... You enter a clearing and see four people enter it from the other side at the same time! They seem to have noticed you and stand 50 ft away! There are two beefy fellows with clubs wearing the SMC yellow, a young boy, and a young woman with blonde hair and pointed ears dressed in a businesslike fashion who looks very out of her element here in the woods. But the set look of her face makes you think she's somehoe in charge of this off crew.
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Ives stops in his tracks. People! I came too close to town!
Ives jumps back into the underbrush and sprints the other direction.
He tries to hide.
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Even from the distance of 50 ft though, Teleri can see this is no ordinary boy. He is tall and slender, but quite graceful. His hair is green with spots of bright color that can't be identified at a distance. His skin is quite dark... darker that other humans in the region. There is something unusual about his skin certainly. Once again, a closer inspection would be needed.
Teleri halts in surprise at the sudden appearance of a strange young man, lanky and oddly colored. Then he turns and bolts. "Hey, wait!" Teleri calls after him, moving forward.
She turns helplessly back to the guards and the fisher boy. "Did you see that?" she asks. "How very odd."
The other three look very surprised but then one of the fuards scratches his chin. "You know, I think that might have been the forest boy Olaf told me about last winter... Said he saw him in the woods. Little bits of plants groeing on him! Olaf said he ran off when Olaf called hullo." The lad looks to Teleri, uncertain if they should continue.
"I see," says Teleri, thoughtfully. "Well, I don't see any particular reason to go chasing after him. He doesn't seem to be harming anyone. If he wants to lurk in the bushes, let him." She shrugs.
"Come on, then. We still need to have a look at this mysterious blue corpse, see if we can figure out who she is and what happened."
And, so saying, she resumes walking in the direction indicated by the fisher boy.
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Ives hides for a minute, until it becomes obvious they aren't following him. I wonder if those people killed the naiad. They are wearing town clothes, which means they are from town, and things from the town are bad. I should see where they are going. Back to the river to find and kill more of them?
Ives returns carefully to the clearing where he saw the people, and tries to pick up their trail and follow quietly.
When Ives reaches earshot again, he finds the blond woman crouched down by the riverside, examining the spot where he found the naiad.
"... honest, ma'am, she was here!" the boy is saying.
"I believe you, Rhys," Teleri says. "See, here's where the body was lying." She indicates a depression on the ground.
"But it looks like someone came along and moved her. Dumped her in the river. See the drag marks? And these tracks all about -- they must be fairly fresh. I'm no hunter by any means, but whoever it was came here after you first found the body. So ... let's see ... sometime in the last 90 minutes? Two hours, maybe? It's a ways to town and back."
She stands and puts her hands on her hips, a frown crossing her face. "Blast. Could this have been the murderer, hiding the body?" But she immediately discounts the notion. "No ... that doesn't make sense. If they wanted to hide the body, dumping her in the river is a poor way to do it. This river's too shallow for her to really sink. Why, then?"
She sighs. "Rhys, you're a fisher. Do you know where she might fetch up downstream from here? I want to examine the body -- see if she was bludgeoned or stabbed or ..." She shudders a bit. "Well anyway, we have no way of telling what killed her if we can't look at the body," she finishes up.
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Ah! They are confused as I am. So they aren't the killers. And the boy saw the body too; those must have been his footprints. So what did kill that naiad anyway?
Ives looks around... he is hiding behind a dogwood bush. Ives leans forward and speaks very very quietly.
"Psst. Hey. Hey you, doggy. Did you hear what happened? Do you know where the naiad came from, and why it died? Tell me and I give you a treat."
The tree replies in a whisper "Hey Ives... I heard a splashing sound and some dragging in the mud. I think it crawled out of the water to die. Muttered something about 'sour water.'"
Teleri looks about the scene and can clearly see that there was, indeed, a body here that was moved into the river. As she considers investigating more, one of the men and the boy call out in alarm "Hey! There's something in the water!" A big slimy shape rises up out of the water! An extraordinarily large frog leaps forward and bites one of the guards hard on the leg. Bleeding hard, the man cries out in pain! The two guards look panicked but the boy begins scrambling around for rocks to throw from a safe distance.
Teleri takes a step back and gives a short yelp. Then the magic in her blood stirs and -- almost involuntarily -- she reaches out to quell the threat.
Rising to strike again, the frog's eyelids suddenly flutter and then close. It lies dreamily on the riverbank. The guards look at it confusedly. "Oh um... Do we kill it now?"
"It'll be asleep for about a minute. We could kill it, but I think I'd rather just leave."
She eyes the frog warily, curiosity mixed with caution.
"I had hoped to go find this mysterious blue dead woman, but we don't know how far she might have floated downstream, we're not prepared for a long overland journey, and now we have an injured man. So let's just head back to town. Madog, we can stop and tend your wound in a minute or two, once we've put some distance between us and the frog." She sighs.