Teagan took a deep breath, then she cupped her hands around her mouth and howled as loud as she could. "Aaawwooooooo!" The sound was melodic and mournful as she held it as long as she could.
When she finally ran out of air, Teagan was grinning. It was plain fun to be loud out in the wild. From her vantage point up in the hills, she had an excellent view of the setting sun as it illuminated the valley in shades of deep orange. She crouched down and used a stick to poke at her campfire, where several skewers of food were slowly grilling.
Teagan then turned around to the tent she'd set up, reached into a triangular case, and took out her violin—a small, humble musical instrument made of wood, accompanied by a simple bow. She plucked at the steel strings and hummed softly to herself, then with a smooth motion she placed the violin against her shoulder and started drawing the bow back and forth.
Standing beside the campfire, alone out in the wild, Teagan played her violin. The music had a quivering, haunting nature as the woody harmonics of the instrument filled the forest clearing. There was a deep flow to the music, and Teagan let herself get swept up in the melody as she played a smooth, elegant tune from memory.
Minutes later, the song was done but she wasn't. Teagan lowered her violin and bow, then she raised her head to the sky and howled again. "Ooowwwwooo!!"
She paused for a long while to listen for any response, but there was nothing but a faint chirp from a bird and the rustle of the wind in the trees. With a shrug, Teagan raised her violin and played again. This time she made it almost halfway through the song before there was a
crack
of a twig being stepped on. Teagan's gaze snapped to a series of large bushes at one side of the clearing, but she kept up the smooth motions of her arm as she played her violin.
Five more seconds of music, then ten, and then finally the new arrival showed. Stepping carefully between the bushes came a young man, skinny with a dishevelled appearance. He had sharp, dark brown eyes and a striking face that could have been handsome were it not for the thin, undernourished look he had, and the short but unkempt beard that clung to his cheeks and chin. His hair was a deep brown, almost black, but it was overlong and untrimmed, and just as messy as his clothing. He stood about a half head taller than Teagan, and wore a simple tunic and pants under a grey outdoors coat which looked dirty and torn in a few places.
All that dirt slightly hindered a guess at age, but he looked around mid-twenties. He didn't have a backpack or hiking staff, just empty hands as he stopped at the edge of the clearing and stared at Teagan with a disbelieving expression.
Teagan had been managing to keep in the flow of the music, but the shocked look on the young man's face made her laugh and lose the tune. "Haha. Oh, dang it." She strummed a few more discordant notes, but then she let her bow go still. "No, that's the wrong stanza."
There was a nervous, uncertain energy around the young man, as if he were about to bolt back into the woods, but then he spoke. "Are you... are you a witch?"
That
made Teagan laugh again, and for longer this time. "Hahahaha. Me? A witch? Why would you think that?"
The man blinked. He raised a hand and gestured at her. "Because... you're... you're a young woman all alone out in the forest, playing a violin around a campfire as night falls. And were you
howling
earlier?"
Teagan grinned. "When you put it that way, it does sound like something a witch would do." She put her violin down into its case, then she stepped over and extended her hand. "I'm Teagan. And who are you?"
"Oliver." Oliver hesitantly took her hand and shook it. He had a firm grip, but Teagan could see that his arm was thin and lean, just like the rest of him. His speech was easily understandable but had a subtle regional accent to it—some sounds pronounced differently, with an even cadence to the words. In contrast, Teagan's speech was snappy, clipped, and quick, bearing the impatient tonal intonations of someone coming from the urbanized central regions of the Marlander Empire.
"So you...
are
a witch?" Oliver asked.
"That depends on your definition." Teagan sat down on a fallen log, and she again used a branch to poke at the campfire. Satisfied that her meat was done cooking, she lifted the skewers off the fire. Several small potatoes were also wrapped in foil and had been baking, and now she rolled them out from the heat. She gestured beside her. "I have some spare food. Care to join a stranger for dinner?"
Oliver's eyes lit up, though after a split second he tried not to look quite as desperately hungry as he evidently was. "I don't have any coin to pay you."
"Then it's charity." Teagan passed over one of the meat skewers.
"Thank you. You're most kind." Oliver took the food, and then he immediately took several ravenous bites, pulling chunks of meat from the wooden skewer. He immediately winced from the heat and was more cautious as he ate, but he was clearly hungry. "Mhhm... Thank you. Thanks..." He sat down on the log, not right beside her, but with a decent distance between them.
"No problem." Teagan cautiously ate some of the food too, but she watched Oliver closely. "What brings you out here? Do you live on one of the nearby farms?" she casually asked, with a friendly smile.
Oliver froze mid-bite, and it took him a few seconds too long to respond to such a simple question. "It's complicated. My family runs the farm on the north side of the valley, but I've been staying in town. Or I was staying in town until... well, things are complicated." He nodded towards Teagan. "The town of Ridgewood is barely half a league to the southeast. If you were a normal traveller, I imagine you would rest the night in the inn there, not stay out into the forest and set up camp?"
Teagan's smile became genuine. She offered a couple more skewers of meat to Oliver, which he took with a thankful nod. "Very deductive. Or perhaps I have other reasons for being out here in the wild?"
"What reason would that be?" Oliver's gaze darted up and down her form. "Are you a witch? But your cloak doesn't have the Magician's Guild logo. And you're not wearing a wand holster."
"I'm not a witch, not in that sense. But I am a traveller, yes. I was travelling through the valley and passing through Ridgewood when I heard some interesting news." Teagan reached down to her violin case—which had space for the instrument itself, the bow that came with it, and also several other compartments—and she tried to remove something, but it was hard to do while still holding onto her skewer of grilled meat. Teagan pushed her long, tawny hair behind her ears, then she put the skewer sideway into her mouth and held it with her teeth. Using both hands now, she opened the compartment of her violin case and pulled out a folded, crumpled piece of paper.
Teagan unfolded and smoothed out the paper, which was a leaflet with a simple message. "A wolf has been spotted lurking near the town at night, rummaging through garbage bins for scraps and prowling around the outskirts. There's a reward of twenty gold coins offered by the town guard for hunting down the beast. Now that the wild creature has shown itself willing to enter the town, they worry it'll be eating children or livestock next."
Oliver didn't visibly react to this information, but again he took a bit too long to think it through. His eyes were sharp, and thoughts were running quickly through his head, yet he stayed quiet. Finally he glanced at Teagan again, looking a tad more wary of her. "So you're a hunter looking to collect a bounty? Or an adventurer on a quest?"
Teagan grinned again. "Something like that. Or maybe I am just a witch?" She gestured with a finger, as if jabbing something through the air. "Pew, pew. Spells, magic. Poof, you're now a toad. Haha."
Oliver chuckled too, but slightly nervously. "Heh. I... don't know what to make of this. If you were a magician, you ought to be wearing the guild insignia and have a wand or a staff. But if you were a hunter or adventurer, then you should have a sword or a spear or even a bow."
Teagan waved her violin bow. "I do have a bow." Abruptly she stood up and dropped her bow back into the violin case, before snapping off the last bits of meat and tossing the wooden skewer into the campfire. Then she closed the distance towards Oliver.
Oliver tensed up as he approached—he put a hand down on the log and leaned forward, as if about to leap to his feet and flee, but he held his nerve as Teagan approached. "What are you doing...?"
Teagan put her hand on his shoulder and leaned slightly closer, then she stepped back and folded her arms. "Hmm. Look at you. What's a boy like you doing out here in the woods?"
"I... boy like me? What's that mean?" Oliver shook his head, but he remained stiff, like a wild animal about to bolt. "What are
you
doing out here in the woods?" he countered.
Teagan let out a chuckle. "Hah! I told you already. I'm a traveller passing through the valley, taking a little detour to try hunting for a wolf. You can drop the act. I know what you are."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Oliver instantly replied, but he wouldn't meet her eyes.
Teagan folded her arms again. The awkwardness was contagious, and now it made her doubt her own assumptions. "Hmm. Well I... I just thought you... I assumed... but... fine." She sat back down on the log with her arms still crossed. "But you... hmfh."
After some thought, she took out her canteen. Teagan removed the cup that covered the metal bottle and poured water into it. She took a long swig to quench her thirst, then she reached into her violin case and took out a tea bag, which she tossed into the cup before leaving it beside the fire for some warmth.
Then she picked up a baked potato. Peeling back the foil, she blew at the steaming hot food to cool it down before taking a bite. She picked up a second baked potato and offered it towards Oliver—he raised his hand, then caught the potato deftly when she tossed it towards him.
For a moment both of them ate in silence, watching each other with a mutual sense of suspicious curiosity. Oliver had an
intensity
to his gaze, which made Teagan grin faintly, and that appeared to make him even more suspicious.
After another few minutes had passed, Teagan took her cup from the fire and sniffed at it—she could smell the fresh, herbal scent of the tea as it quickly infused from the teabag. She raised the cup to her mouth and pretended to drink, but the liquid never touched her lips. Then she offered the cup to the young man sitting on the log beside her. "Want a drink? It's tea."
Oliver took the cup. "Oh, sure. Thanks. Tea from Teagan. Haha."
Teagan tried and failed to hold back a laugh. "Hah. You silly... Just drink it."
Oliver cautiously took a sip, then held back a cough. "Ahk. Huh. Spicy. What sort of tea is this?"
"Just a blend of some things. Dried leaves of pepper, mango, parsley. You know...?"
