The child nods.



She shakes her head.



She smiles, and holds out her arms again.

"I don't do hugs, unfortunately," Felix laughs. "Not really the fatherly type. We're cooking some food, would you like some?"

Enthusiastic nodding.

Does not climb out of tree.

Holds out arms.

"You need help out of the tree, then?" Felix asks. He holds out his arms. "Want me to catch you?"

The little girl jumps into Felix's arms.

He might not do hugs, but it's immediately made clear that she has no qualms about giving hugs to strangers.

"Alright kiddo, Uncle Felix doesn't do hugs," Felix laughs as he sets the child down. "Let's go get you some food okay?"

The little girl keeps hold of Felix's hand and follows where he leads.

Felix leads her back to camp, raising his hand in a wave when he gets within distance of the group. "Hey guys, found a child. This place is weird."

Nate raises an eyebrow as Felix returns.

"As far as the rest of the planet is concerned, we're weird. And kids are drawn to weird like it was candy."

"A Styric child?" asks Sir Ulath. "Out here? Alone?"

The little girl lets go of Felix' hand in order to give a hug to the nearest person (Sir Ulath, as it happens)

"Yeah, she's not talking to me. I don't know if she's incapable or if she just won't. She didn't seem to be with anyone. Is that a normal thing around here, for kids to be alone in the woods?"

Felix moves over to the fire to see if any of the roast beast is done cooking yet while he talks.

Nate carves off a piece of beast for Felix before going back to his own meal.

"Well, she seems friendly enough. Why don't we bring her with us when we go to the village tomorrow? See if anyone knows her?"

Sir Ulath shakes his head. "Unlikely," he says. "She's Styric, the villagers are Elene. Our two races - well, we knights get along fine, but to your average Elene peasant, Styrics are dangerous and deadly and probably cursed your crops once."

The little girl moves on to hug Nathan.

"We'll have to learn more about the history of this world whenever we get the chance", Felix thinks out loud, more to himself than anyone else. "Are Styric children normally like that? Mute? And why is she by herself? Is she lost or has something happened to her parents?"

He takes the meat and gives as much to the child as she wants, keeping whatever is left for himself and going back to get more as needed. He's still pretty hungry, after all. He'll drink what's left of the wine, too. Some time has passed and there isn't much left, so hopefully there isn't any danger of making himself too intoxicated to work. He'll eat a large portion of meat before drinking to mitigate the effects. They'll need to make a run sometime soon to get large quantities of water to bring aboard the ship and store.

"Hello." Says Nate as the little girl comes up to hug him. "My name is Nate. Do you have a name?"