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[quote=Simon]" Excuse me ... Miss Yurei, do you know how we can get back to safe civilization. I am not completely fond being in the middle
of a forest not knowing which way to get out of here"[/quote]

The woman burst out laughing even before the young man could finish speaking. She smacked a knee, bent over, had trouble breathing. Finally, after a good bout of chortling, she straightened and wiped tears from her dull eyes. "Oh -- safe civilization! You're a riot, my boy!" She chuckled and shook her head -- but when she lifted her head again, she didn't sense the joviality she expected. Her eyebrows crinkled. This boy didn't seem to get his own joke. Was he [i]serious?[/i]

"What is your name, boy?" She squinted at all those present and turned her ear to each in turn -- and her focus rested on the girl in the back. "And you, Miss --" she waved an impatient hand. "You're not Miss Rine, are you? [i]None[/i] of you are with the Rebel Sanctuary, [i]are[/i] you? I --"

A sudden realization dawned on her, and her blind eyes widened like saucers. Her hands began to tremble. She steadied herself, and she cleared her throat.

"You're . . . new here, aren't you?" She paused for a long while, shifting back and forth on her heels. Finally she screwed up her face and turned around, gesturing violently with a hand. "Come with me. Especially you, boy. And the girl!" Without turning around she pointed at Simon and Annabel, and she shuffled off toward the edge of the woods. "Come, come, hurry up! You're probably confused little muffins with no idea where you are, aren't you, but you'd best hurry up before the blood-rats get you, too."

Indeed, there was rustling in the weeds -- and the trees themselves creaked in threat.