Crossing the Vale

There were two... People, strange people, who felt strange, and two strange animals. The animals had no connection to the flow of magic, and the people had only the faintest. The looked very strange, unlike anything he had seen before, yet oddly familiar. They were wearing stranger clothes, and one of them had a weapon, that didn't kill the animal.

He decided to approach the group, trying to touch their minds to gauge a reaction, only one of them had seen him before he started moving, the younger looking one. He breathed deeply and allowed magic to flow through him incase they weren't very friendly. He raised his hand in greeting. "Hello. Are you lost?"

Andrea’s eyes were trained on the Puma concolor in front of her until her intern said something.  Immediately her eyes and her gun trained towards the person.  Human…no immediately her body screamed at her that he wasn’t normal, that he could be dangerous.  A corner of her mind said Faerie, they don’t exist she told that part, but it was persistent saying you believed when you were younger, you saw when you were younger.  You were there when you were younger, it cried.  I was lost in the woods, I was a child, I just imagined it, she reasoned with herself, but everything about the man seemed, screamed familiar.

She lowered the gun filled with tranquilizers but didn’t put it away.

“No we aren-“ Andrea turned to see the path she and Beatrice walked down on was gone.
“What?” she whispered before cursing silently.  She turned to the man.  Don’t tell your real name, a part of her whispered, names are powerful.

“My name is Marie, this is my student Elizabeth,”  Andrea introduced the two of them, hopefully Betty will go with it, Andrea prayed.

Elizabeth?

"Daawwwwwc! pleeeeeease call me lizzy!"

Full length nicknames are strange when there longer then your original!

By now the man had gotten closer, but was still wary. Something scratched at the back of her mind when she saw him but wasn't sure.

But now that he was closer she saw that he was even taller then she expected, a little frightened she stuttered, "S-so uh...hello! What brings you to these neck of the woods? C-cause er uh...there have been reports of some kind of dangerous animal out here! A-an-and uh..."

Now officially losing her cool she shrunk back farther behind her teacher. "and...uh...how do you do?"

He bowed for them. Not sensing any danger, only fear, and his own curiosity. These were people he had never seen before. People who didn't belong, their magical connection, or a mostly lack thereof alerted him to that. "Greetings, Marie, greetings Elizabeth. I am Elandiil, pleased to meet you." He raised back up and looked at the two. "Where do you come from?"

He also noticed the grove itself, the plants had full awareness again, like all the others. The anomaly was gone. Outside of the strange people. He briefly wondered if that was the point. 'Maybe it was a natural teleportation' he thought to himself. He decided he would try to convince them to return with him to the academy.

"Daawwwwwc! pleeeeeease call me lizzy!" Betty whined.

Andrea held back a sigh of relief, at least Betty went with it. Betty was trying to get the person, fae? to talk. Fae, her mind supplied somewhere in the back. Betty started to shrink behind her and Andrea stood up a little straighter.

The man bowed and introduced himself as Elandiil, fae, her mind once supplied.

“Where do you come from?” he asked and once again her mind supplied, do not say the truth.

“We come from beyond the vale, Suncopper Vale to be exact,” her mouth just ran as if on autopilot.

“We were studying the animals and plants that lived their. Apparently we have become lost. Krypto, my dog, sensed something over here and ran off, I followed as well as Lizzy. May I ask where you come from, Sir Elandiil?” Hopefully he would by her story as it was mostly the truth and hopefully he would give her some information in return.

"Oh, you study plants and animals. Are you scholars?" He asked them, his curiosity now higher, he had never heard of where they claimed to be from, which he assumed meant it didn't exist here. He couldn't overtly sense any lying from them. But only mistrust, which was to be understandable.

"I'm from a tower, only a few miles from here." He told them. "if you're scholars then you're in luck, as it's the kind of place intellectuals gather to learn, and others to teach." He looked at the dog and smiled. "A fine animal you've got there, they're very rare here." They most likely came here the same way you both did, he thought to himself. Wondering what his teachers would think of that.

Betty was now hopelessly lost in the lies but when she heard of a new place she got excited, "There are people out this far? Who study Stuff?! Oh please doc we gotta check it out!"

Now happy she walked right up to him, "Come on, he seems nice! Although..." she scratched her head, "I didn't know dogs were rare anywhere."

Andrea wanted to grab Betty and run back but Betty had already started walking towards the fae. Krypto started hunched down and his ears lay flat against his head. Andrea quickly patted his head. She couldn’t leave Betty here.

“Alright, we’ll go and check out the tower.” Once again the words felt familiar in her mouth. She walked up to Betty and whispered in her ears quietly, “do not eat anything.” Before walking towards Elandiil, “Lead the way my good sir.” She bowed her head slightly towards the fae.

Quietly watching and making notes of this familiar world.