"I'm good at that," Emilo said. "I can bring down a bird with a stone. Once I brought down two birds with one stone. And I can fish. I love to fish. And I can trap rabbits. That's almost too easy. If you want to know what berries are good to eat, you can't always rely on the birds because birds can eat poisonous berries, but people can usually eat what the bears eat. Bears also know how to dig for roots. If you're not sure about eating something, you should find a bear. But be sure the bear doesn't find you."
Jas laughed. "Well, we're lucky to have your wisdom because Joel and I are both city folk and haven't a clue about trapping or what berries are safe to eat. And I certainly don't want to find any bears."
"I can create food with a spell," Joel reminded her.
"Bread. You can create bread with a spell," Jas corrected.
"It's good bread," Joel countered.
"When you can create stew and custard and berry pie, then you'll be creating food," Jas retorted.
Joel harrumphed.
"I like bread," Emilo said. "Especially herb bread. Though I'm also very fond of sweet rolls with raisins. Herb bread is good with little bits of cheese baked into it. Though not necessarily with stew. With stew, you want a plain bread you can use to sop up the gravy. One with a lot of bite to the crust, but soft inside. Of course, berry pie is always good. I know some people who won't eat raspberries because of the little seeds, but that's as silly as not eating fish because of the bones. The really good foods always have little annoying things like seeds and bones. Like life, I guess. Of course, bread doesn't have seeds or bones. But I do like bread."
"Well, it won't really matter if we reach Finder's for breakfast," Jas said. "Which way?"
"There should be a road leading from the Gilded Hall to the town of Brightwater. There's a path that heads away from the road that leads to Fermata."
"Fermata?" Jas asked.
"That's the name of Finder's realm," Joel said. "It's a musical term for a hold over a note or a rest."
"So which is it?" Jas asked. "A hold over a note or a rest?"
"Well, either one… both, really," Joel explained. "Finder's life and his music are sustained in his realm, and it's also a place where he can rest."
"There's a road leading off in that direction," Jas said, pointing along the ridge above the river valley. "I saw it from the air."
They made their way along the ridge until they reached a hard-packed dirt road. In one direction, it wound down into the valley to a bridge supported by seven graceful stone arches, then wound back up the valley toward the Gilded Hall. In the opposite direction, it led along the ridgeline into a dark forest.
"How about a light?" Emilo asked.
"I don't have the power to cast another one tonight," Joel said.
"Not to worry," the kender said. He pulled a small torch from his backpack and flint and steel from one of the pockets of his vest. With expert ease, he lit the torch from sparks in a matter of moments. Jas applauded his skill. Emilo bowed and handed the torch to the winged woman.
They plunged into the forest, moving at a quick pace down the road. The ground was dry, but not dusty. The canopy of leaves overhead blocked their view of the stars and moon, but the forest itself twinkled with fireflies.
They'd traveled for some time when Emilo reported he heard someone coming toward them from up ahead. A few minutes later, they saw lights and heard shouts and laughter. Despite Joel's protests that there could be no harm in greeting the natives, Jas was loath to encounter strangers. She insisted they put out their torch in the dirt and take cover. Once Emilo smothered the torch in the dirt, Jas flew the kender and the bard to a branch high overhead, then settled beside them.
The strangers, dozens of them, moved as one, not like a troop of soldiers but more like a mob of revelers. Occasionally one stumbled but was kept from falling by a companion. There were both men and women in the group, all shabbily dressed and dirty. They passed about wineskins from which they drank as if they were dying of thirst. Arguments broke out whenever one failed to pass a wineskin quickly enough to suit his or her companions. One of the women carried an enormous rat in her arms, which she stroked as if it were a pet cat. As the mob passed below the trees where Joel, Jas, and Emilo hid, the stench of wine and unwashed human bodies assaulted the adventurers' noses.
When the last of the strangers' torches had disappeared behind a bend in the road, Jas turned to Joel. "Not the sort of natives we really needed to greet, were they?" she asked with an air of the worldly wise.
"I take my hat off to your superior distrust," Joel replied.
Jas harrumphed. When they'd relit their torch and were once again safely on the ground, they continued through the forest more warily. Emilo traveled in the front since he had the best hearing of the three.
By the time they finally came out of the forest, the moon had set. Some distance ahead of them, the sky was noticeably lighter, as if from a well-lit city. The road now passed through meadows and fields planted with grain and grapes.
The road led through a grove of ancient oaks, and Jas tripped over a huge tree root.
"That's it," the winged woman said. "Time to make camp."
"But it can't be far now," Joel protested.
"Joel, I'm dead on my feet, and I'm willing to bet you've been overly optimistic about the distance we have to travel. Besides, in the dark we might miss the path to Fermata. I think we should rest here until dawn."
"I think she's right," Emilo said. "I'm beginning to feel stretched a bit thin."
Joel sighed. He was eager to see Finder again and excited about the prospect of visiting Fermata, but he knew Jas and the kender were right. It was too late to continue, He nodded in agreement.
Nestled between the roots of the largest oak tree in the grove and wrapped in their capes, Jas and Emilo were soon asleep. Joel, less tired than the others, sat up and kept watch. A trio of raccoons, a mother and her young, trundled past and climbed into their lair in a hole in a nearby tree, but otherwise the grove was peaceful save for Emilo's soft snoring.
As the sky began to lighten, Joel softly hummed a song to greet the dawn. Songbirds began to stir and chirp in the trees. Teasingly Joel began whistling back replies. He felt a gentle hand touch his shoulder.
"Good morning," he said, turning about, expecting to see Jas.
The hand did not belong to Jas, however, but to another woman. An elf maiden was Joel's first guess, until he saw that her curly hair was as deep green as the leaves on the oak trees that surrounded them. Still, she was very, very lovely, slender and graceful, with dark amber-colored eyes and skin as smooth as satin. She wore a gown pieced together of light, shimmering bits of fabric in a variety of colors, but mostly green, gray, brown, and pink.
"Greetings," the woman said in Elvish. Her voice was soft and deep, but there was a slight hint of disapproval in her tone.
"Soft light, sweet lady," Joel replied in the same tongue.
The woman drew back a step and giggled.
Joel stood and bowed. "My name is Joel. These are my companions, Jas and Emilo. If you make your home here, lady, please forgive our intrusion," he said. His words came slowly, since he was taxing his knowledge of the elves' language to its limit.
"I am Ada," the woman said. "Your Elvish is not very good," she chided.
"I have very little practice," Joel admitted. "But so sweet a voice as yours could teach me well."
Ada giggled again, lowering her eyes to the compliment. Then she slipped behind the tree and disappeared from view.
Joel circled about the tree, but the woman had vanished.
"Ada?" Joel called softly.
Jas moaned and rolled over in her sleep. Emilo snored on.
Something tugged away the strip of leather that held back his hair. The bard spun about. Ada stood behind him, appearing as if out of nowhere. Joel grinned. "How did you do that?" he asked.