Chapter 5: Pleased to Meet You

The urgency to return to Hara gets everyone moving at a brisk pace. Within an hour of waking and searching the remainder of the encampment, the party is headed back through the brambles that hide this place and on the road to Hara.

The first day's dawning promise is fulfilled with a lovely, quiet day along the road. The sun shines, the wind is light and fragrant with early spring scents, and -- perhaps surprisingly -- no one encountered along the road. The second day is similar, pleasant traveling weather and few obstacles along the way. For those who haven't yet traveled this way, the approach to a large city that suffered the effects of the War brings with it sights both new and old: the now-familiar environmental oddities (trees growing together unnaturally, once in a while an animal with a misshapen leg or curiously warped features) but also the signs of wrecked civilization (farms lying fallow around houses flattened into so much kindling, roadside inns obliterated by raging fire). There are a few people you pass, most so frightened or suspicious that they run away as soon as your large, relatively well-equipped group appears. One group of five hapless travelers with little more than the threadbare clothes on their backs is bolder than the rest, and ask you where you're headed. When they learn you're headed for Hara, one of them makes a sign to ward off evil.

"Can't recommend it," their apparent leader says shortly. "Rumor 'as it they's been overrun by ghosts what steal people at night outta their wery own beds. May not be much out 'ere," he says, waving a hand tiredly at the landscape around. "But at least as we won't be stolen off by ghosts, eh?"

He looks at his companions, two other men and two women, all of middle-age, dirty and poor, judging by the poor quality of their clothing and the lack of many visible possessions. "I... hate as t'ask, but... have y'any food y'might be willing as to spare?"

You can see it pains him to ask, the way his features tighten and the hesitant way he speaks. "Just... a little somefin as to get us on down the road a little ways? Jaken there's cousin," he says, nodding toward one of the men, "'ad a farm near here, 'e says. We're hopin' to get there and see if we can maybe make somefin of it again."

The man answers the questions in turn.

To Verrian, he says with a faintly befuddled expression, "Naucans? Er... no'm. We ha'n't seen none like you on the road."

To Swan, he says, "No sir... we come from farther on down the road. A village. Called... Penthar." There's just a faint pause before he gives the name.

The response to the outpouring of generosity is heartwarming. There's such a push forward to collect the bounty offered that it seems as though these poor people haven't eaten in days. Eyes wide, they collect everything as best they can. One of the women, either hungrier than the others or less able to control her excitement, doesn't wait. She simply starts eating: whatever goes into her hands goes into her mouth.

"Earth and sky, we're well met indeed!" says the man who has done all the talking so far. "We've been so hungry. So wery hungry."

The way his eyes dart back and forth to the food makes you think that he's waiting to dig in simply out of politeness.