Lieforged Gale

64: Folk Tale

The next day, I set out on a mission to find some copper. Guides from other Rellithesh players said that if you wanted piped water in a custom made structure, copper was the best and easiest to acquire material. The region we were in might have a few nodes that spawned—it was a relatively low tier metal so it could be found in most places.

I considered trying to fly everywhere in small mode, but unfortunately my wings were actually still just Juvenile Wings, and therefore there was a limit on how far I could go before they began to tire. Now, being in small mode might’ve helped make such an endurance test easier, since it buffed my Strength and Athletics, but since I’d never actually used an Ascension Point to fully unlock Wee One, I wasn’t getting the full benefits of the ability. So, walking it was.

The Galloping Willow was still near the entrance to the large valley, and she didn't move particularly fast, so I wasn't in danger of being left behind if I decided to wander further afield.

When I had my feet on solid ground, I began to follow a side road that led into a glen. The far end of the glen led way up to one of the ridgelines that defined the massive vale we were in. A small stream burbled away happily as it carved a deep path through the glen on its way to join the river. Near the stream and a little up the sides of the narrow valley were copses of low, scraggly trees and dense, thorny bushes.

Anything that wasn't covered by tree or water was covered in tall grass until it began to reach higher up the sides of the glen. There, the grasses and shrubs were forced to cling to whatever scraps of dirt they could find amongst the sharp boulders and abundant gravel scree.

I was grateful for my hakamashita with its nice warm sleeves, because gosh was there a chill around here. The air felt so… heavy with a damp cold—The weight of which seemed almost to dampen sound. The smells of the glen were kinda heavenly, though. Wet, rich soil, evaporating dew, and a hint of grass. It was a good, wholesome, natural smell, and I breathed deep. Funny how even with a digital brain, I still got a little rush of endorphins when I took a deep breath of sweet, natural smelling air.

I didn't have a map orb for this area, so I wasn't getting much from the little magical device that Paisley had gifted me, besides the general lay of the land. The road looked fairly well maintained though, so I might find a village if I kept walking? Deciding that idea was my best bet, I set out in earnest.

Pretty soon I spotted a bend— a meander in the stream that had several sheep grazing on the lush grasses there. A young boy sat nearby, fishing in the stream while his shepherd's crook sat against a boulder.

Taking a detour, I left the road and approached him. He looked like he was maybe fifteen years old but I got the impression he might have a little elf in his ancestry, so I could be wrong.

“Hey there,” I said as I got near.

He startled and dropped his fishing pole, tried to grab it, then when he saw me and his eyes widened, decided against going after it. The pole thankfully got wedged against a rock, so I gestured wordlessly that he should retrieve it.

He hesitated, still staring at me with wide, terrified eyes, so I gestured again and he finally retrieved it. As soon as he got it, he rushed back over and knelt down at my feet, babbling, “I'm so sorry Lady Faerie. I'm so sorry. I didn't think the stories ‘bout the bend was true. I'll take me goats and return to the usual pastures. I'm so sorry, a hundred pardons, Lady Fae.”

Looking out over the bend produced zero insight into what the kid was talking about, so I poked my Faerym Tracking passive with a metaphorical stick. There weren't any shimmers, so I turned my attention back to the kid.

“This isn't my bend, kid,” I said, bemused. “I was just coming to ask if there's a village further up the glen, or at last someone who knows where I can get a bunch of copper.”

He stared at me for almost five seconds while I watched his NPC brain reboot in real time. “You… want some copper, milady? You ain't the fae from the story?”

“I'm a wayfarer,” I said, feeling very weirded out by the whole interaction. “I haven't existed in this world long enough for folk stories to be told about me.”

“Oh,” he said, and most of the tension left him in a flood. “Oh, that's… phew! I was so scared you was gonna drag me off like the stories about me great great great grandpa!”

“What does the story say happened to him?” I asked curiously.

Suddenly, the shepherd boy was puffing out his chest a little and he said, “Well, my great great great grandpa used to herd goats in these parts, same’s me. He got married to a turnip grower’s daughter, and apparently she was a right beastly woman. Anyways, one day he’s herdin’ the flock along the river, looking for some sweet grass for the animals, when he comes across a bend like this one. He settles in and lets his flock graze while he gets to carving a statue of the good goddess Marve, ‘cause he and his girl were three summers married and still without a babe of their own.”

I nodded along, recognising the human deity of fertility’s name. So far, so normal. This felt like… maybe not a quest, but a hint towards one.

“He's there just minding his own business, like I was, when this real pretty maiden… uh, like yourself,” he said, stammering and going red when he gestured to me.

I couldn't help but laugh a little. “Kid, by your definition of a maiden, I'm far, far from being one.”

His cheeks flared with further crimson, and he had to take a big gulp of air. Oh gosh, poor kid.

“Calm down a little,” I said, trying to be soothing. “I get it. When I was your age, I thought girls were incredible and mystical beings, too.”

He frowned, confusion winning out over his flustered thoughts. “But, lady wayfarer… you are a girl… aren't you?”

“I am,” I nodded, letting him get even more confused. Finally, I relented and added, “I wasn't always one. Us wayfarers remember our previous lives, remember?”

Suddenly he was nodding as if it all made sense. “So… you was a boy, but then a girl? Do you still think girls are… ya’ know…”

“Beautiful, amazing, mysterious?” I finished for him, thinking wistfully back to this morning. “The first two, definitely… as for the last— well, sometimes. Anyway, you were telling me about your grandpa?”

“Right, right,” the boy nodded, visibly changing his train of thought. “Yeah, so this pretty… actually she probably wasn't a maiden, given— anyway, she was small like you, and prettier than the first sun of spring. She said she liked to come to this bend, ‘cause it was peaceful. Said it helped her think. Then she asked him his name and what the carving was. He greeted her kindly-like, telling her who he was, what the statue was and why he was carving it. She listened, and when he was done, she did some magic to look at him all deeplike. She saw something, ‘cause she said she knew how to help.”

Oh no. Accepting help from the fae? God, I hoped the game's version of faeries wasn't as ruthlessly chaotic as the stories from Earth said they were.

“He was real happy to hear that, but how could this fae lady even help? She ‘splained that he was impotent, and that he needed magic help, which she could give…” He paused, going red again. “But he had to go back over the mountains with her and, uh… serve her for a year. Now, he considered her offer as hard as he could, but seeing as she was a pretty lady, and he was… well…”

“Ah,” I said, feeling my own face begin a blush.

“He said yes, assuming he could go talk to his wife and all that, but then she just pop turned him into a little pendant and flew away with him,” the boy said, puffing his cheeks out to make a pop sound with his tongue. “She turned him back when they got to her big tower, and for a year he was a… ya’ know… her servant. Ah, and when the year was up, she took him back to the village just like that. It worked, too— once his wife was done punishing him for his absence, they got themselves ten children over the next dozen years. There was just a small problem, though. All the children came out a little different. They all looked like me—they looked like they had just the tiniest drop of fae to them.”

“Oh.” I said abruptly. “I thought you might've had a little elf to you, not fae.”

“Yup,” he agreed. “Most outsiders think that, and we let ‘em think that most times. Over half of Geilig’s Hook has a bit o’ fae to them now.”

“Well… that's a fun story,” I said, remembering that I had actually gone looking for copper and not a quest. “I guess that explains why you were startled. Sorry, though. You're too young, and I'm not interested in boys or men.”

“Right, ‘cause you was lookin’ at girls, like me, when you was a small fae,” he agreed, completely unperturbed by the complicated history of gender that was in my past.

The sound of goats munching away at grass and other, less obviously palatable things filled the silence for a second, before I asked, “So anyway, you mentioned a village. I'm looking for someone to point me to some copper veins, will someone there know?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, pointing further up the glen with his fishing pole. “Just keep following the road. Old Byrnfolfe is the man you want. He runs the village smithy. I gotta warn you though, it ain't a big fancy place like in the town. Just a shed in his yard where he makes a few odds and ends.”

“I just need information, so that's fine,” I said with a nod. Before I left, I flipped the kid a silver for the story and the directions. His eyes bulged at the simple silver coin, but he took it gratefully.