Amandil sipped in her third cup of coffee that day, struggling to keep herself awake after the moon had already set. As it was, her eyes already felt salty from the accidental nap she'd taken in her hammock. The bright sunlight only stung them even more, causing her sort of yellowish color signaling the transition from silver to amber to face into regular white eyes with yellow irises in the absence of dark.

While shifted into panther form, she'd scouted the area multiple times, trying to get a feel for the little glade she was supposed to meet her host at. Although the local guards all appeared a bit bored and unfocused, she still didn't want any prying eyes to notice where she was going. Especially not after Lilith's bizarre reaction at the huntress lodge.

So Amandil had prowled, going for a walk outside of the village without her backpack, disappearing into the woods and then shifting. Although someone paying especially close attention might notice that the panther stalking around the village was purple with emerald spots, it was actually unlikely near a night elf village; prowling cats knew not to threaten the defenders of nature, and the sound of her creeping beneath the underbrush was as unlikely to arouse suspicion as the sound of an owl hooting.

Of course, once the moon had set, the need for stealth had mostly disappeared. Since there weren't any outlanders at the Oaken Glade, the village basically shut down at day. With only her coffee to keep her company, Amandil was able to swing through drowsiness to jitteriness unobserved.

An egret landed on a jutting root across from the spot she'd tucked herself into, observing her with great curiosity. Sitting against a tree trunk and partially concealed by large toadstools nearby, she was unseen by those outside, but the egret appeared content to sit down on the dirt next to the root, watching her sip her coffee.

"You wouldn't like this," she told the bird while taking another sip. All the local grocer had been able to provide was grinds for very strong, bitter espresso that had been imported to Ashenvale from Feralas and had somehow made its way to that little podunk village.

The egret didn't appear disappointed, simply watching her inquisitively. The thin white bird was quite cute, pleasant in the sense that it didn't seem to desire anything other than company.

"So is this the part where I break down and start to engage in a one sided conversation with a cute animal?" she asked jokingly. When the egret didn't answer, she nodded her head. "Well, that's also the scene in some of the novels I've read where the heroine confesses everything to an animal and doesn't realize that the villainess is listening in. So instead, I'll talk to you about my notes from my previous lessons."

Pulling out a poster of a stylized goblin hand holding a glass of ale full of pineapples, Amandil unfolded what had become her temporary notepad during the last course she'd taken before the holiday break.

"Basically, I know three spells as it stands: I can shapeshift into a panther, I can cure rot in organic matter, and I can heal vegetable matter but not flesh. My teacher for my class on diseases claims that novices often jump right to shifting into animal forms before learning anything else, which is to be expected but..."

Noticing the odd silence, Amandil looked up to find herself alone again. The egret had already flown toward the natural ceiling formed by the canopy in an attempt to escape the conversation.

Her shoulders slumped. "You were only my friend because you wanted coffee," she chortled, unable to stay mad at a bored bird.

For a good few minutes she nursed her coffee while reviewing her notes, her mind occasionally being distracted by daydreams of the time when she'd know four spells, and then maybe even five one day. She still had a lot of time ahead of her; she wasn't a child, but since she'd been born before immortality had ended, she'd largely remained at about the same biological age as a twenty year old. Her case wasn't as dire as those night elves who'd been born five or ten thousand years ago, and who were now ageing rapidly.

Ouch...like her mother. That thought wasn't pleasant. Quick, change of subject!

"Curation of tetanus," she murmured out loud while reading off the title of a book she'd left herself a reminder to buy. Yes, that was a good, neutral topic...

"Amandil of Serenity?"

"Hey! What! Oh! Yes, hello!" Amandil stammered, embarrassed that she'd literally caught no inkling that anybody was approaching at all.

Slopping a bit of her coffee on her thumb, she placed the borrowed cup down in the dirt and rose to greet Lilith, who was approaching from behind her. The blue haired archer was wearing a clashing cloak and cowl that bore the same dark green color of the underbrush, as if she was trying to hide.

"Did anybody follow you?" the archer asked quietly.

"What...I arrived here first, I should be asking you!" Amandil replied, more amused than offended by the question. "I've been alone for more than an hour; nobody came by except a really bored bird."

"What?"

"Nothing. Anyway, would you mind if we sat down? I'm a little bit tired." Amandil pointed toward two smooth rocks she'd pushed next to each other in the glade.

"Yes, that's a good idea...maybe it's better to sit down," Lilith replied while taking a seat on one of the stones. Amandil sat down across from her, and the two shared an awkward laugh. "So...you're here."

"That's right!"

"And you're also from Serenity."

Raising an emerald eyebrow suspiciously, Amandil felt her confusion rise again. "You say 'also' as if it's a strange thing. You also implied, back at the lodge, that somebody else from my village has been here recently."

"Yes," Lilith replied, uneasy as if they were being watched.

When the archer didn't elaborate, Amandil became impatient. "Please, you agreed to meet me out here. Don't hold back now; I'm here to learn about my family history."

"I know who you are," Lilith replied quickly. "I didn't know your name, but I know who you are."

"Could you qualify...I mean, what do you mean?"

Lilith scooted her rock a bit closer. "I'm not sure where I should start. I feel like the beginning isn't as important right now."

"Then what's more important?"

"First of all, that if you're here for the reason I think you are, then you need to be very careful. There are some people who would...be unfriendly if they knew why. People from your village."

Taken aback, Amandil crooked her head to the side and wondered if the woman was some sort of a con artist or really meant what she was saying. "You're saying that some of the brave women whom I spent hundreds of years with bear I'll will toward me? Where are you coming up with this?"

Pursing her lips as if she felt afraid to say, Lilith waited for a few seconds. "Those women you saw at the lodge...they're members of a guild whose charter hasn't been approved yet. So they literally have something to prove, and the brazen behavior that goes along with it. Do you know...were you friends with Gwynneth?"

A pause ensued as Amandil remembered the hazing she'd been subjected to when the commander at Serenity Grove hadn't been watching. A bitter, lemony taste stung her tongue as she remembered the biggest gossip and backstabber of the inhabitants of her small village. But Gwynneth was still one of the twenty five original women of Serenity, and Lilith was an outsider; honor bound her not to show disunity.

"I knew her well; she's definitely from my village."

"Well, the guild is hers. It's hers and they're out for blood, since their sole purpose is combat. They're currently doing a sweep of this area of the province, running through every bounty that the area sentinel captain is posting for known outlaws."

"Well, good for her; Gwynn was always quite fierce, and I'm happy to hear that she's finally found a proper calling-"

"Your dad is one of them."

A few leaves fell to the ground as the two women stared at each other, one in utter shock and the other contrite. A frog and a squirrel actually stopped long enough to engage in a mock conversation before they both hopped or scurried away, punctuating the long, awkward silence.

Eventually, Amandil found the force of will to make her lips move again.

"How do you...how do you know who my dad is?" she asked angrily.

"Well, it all started-"

"How do you know I'm looking for him?"

"That's because-"

"How in the bloody fel do you know who I am?"

"If you'd just let me-"

"And if so, then why don't you know my name?!"

Suspicious and no longer trusting the archer, Amandil grabbed the shorter woman by the collar of her cloak. Lilith flailed, unaggressive and almost pleasing, as the spoken druidess nearly lifted her off of the ground.

"I walk in here anonymously, and you just so happen to flag me down, claiming that you know who I am, why I'm here, my dad is an outlaw, one of my former neighbors will be unhappy if she knows why I'm here-"

Clearly intimidated, Lilith wiggled her legs in an attempt to keep both feet on the ground as she spilled the proverbial beans.

"Your mom was stationed here so she could have an affair with your dad whose a bad person and is also a distant relative of mine but he's still bad but Gwynn is worse and she's running a clean sweep of kill only quests for all criminals and she harasses the locals for information but she has no right to do that and you look so much like your mom and I guess we're distant cousins but Gwynn doesn't know that because nobody knows that except for me and your parents and if this guild finds out then they'll shake you down for info and if the local sentinels find out then they'll detain you for questioning and if I'm implicated in any way then I'll lose my job and I can't lose my job but I'm out of breath!"

Amandil dropped Lilith, more because her arms were getting tired than anything, but also because she was trying to sort out all of the information in her head.

"Holy Hajiri in the heavens, this is...a lot of information to take in," she said while leaning against the tree trunk.

Crumpled in a heap at her feet, Lilith panted, her previously pleasant demeanor shattered after having been womanhandled so roughly. "I'm...I'm sorry, maybe I didn't tell everything in the right order," she gasped.

Reaching down to help the smaller woman sit, Amandil knelt down across from her and examined the person who was, apparently, a distant cousin.

"Start by telling me about my relation to you."

Contrite like a scolded child, Lilith acquiesced with no protest. It was no wonder that she was so afraid of the rowdy guild members staying at the lodge. "Your dad was from Harmony; he's a cousin of my mom, which makes him like my second uncle or twice removed uncle or something like that. So you and me are distant cousins."

"How do you know that?"

"Come on, look at your hair, your skin...your features are all your dad's, but your color is your mom's. Nobody else has that exact shade of purple skin with emerald hair. It took me a minute because your face isn't like hers, but I got it. And when I saw you here, after what happened...well, I knew what this was."

Blinking and trying not to let the information overwhelm her, Amandil scooted closer again. Her heart was thumping so fast that her fingertips almost felt numb. "What happened?" she asked intently, nearly grabbing Lilith's hand before she stopped herself.

Lilith opened her mouth to speak, thought twice, and then reconsidered her words. "Your mom didn't want to be here, you know. She's quite domesticated, unlike the rest of our women. Somehow a deal was worked out because we really needed extra help, and she was sent here. And...well, she didn't really understand that it wasn't safe to wander in these parts. People like my uncle would often hang out alone, away from people."

"Your uncle...my dad...is a bad guy?"

"He's made bad choices. And I guess he was just so...different, that your mom fell for him. He'd originally been stationed here with me when this settlement was founded - it was much smaller than Harmony back then. It was after we arrived that he fell in with the wrong people. And that's...I guess that's where you came from." Lilith frowned, a far off look in her eyes. "It was very dramatic. He left so your mom could give you a normal life, without him. She disagreed. Strongly. But he left, and she returned to Serenity early when they discovered she was pregnant. He's been hiding out since then."

Memories of being treated differently pricked at the back of Amandil's mind, but she shut them out. "And Gwynn? How does she fit in?"

"Random chance; pure, completely random chance," Lilith replied confidently. "She didn't start here, and she won't end here; the Oaken Glade just happened to be in the middle. She was something to prove, and she's trying to boost her guild's chances for acceptance by clearing as many bounties as possible. She'll have a hard time, because she's racist as hell and won't allow outlanders membership, but she's trying. She's clearing out some bounties that have been posted for over a millennium, and she's been jumping back and forth along the various towns and villages along the highway nearby for months."

"And we're here at the same time..."

"I'm telling you, it's chance. Nobody, but nobody, knows about your background except your parents and me. I was shocked too, but I've done nothing but ruminate in the issue over the past few hours. If you really insist on learning who he is, you'd be better off waiting-"

"For her to catch him?"

Lilith paused, chastised and defeated. "No...to kill him...no, you're correct then, you can't wait. If anything, it would have been better had you come earlier."

"That's neither here nor there, at this point. I have to find him. Please...Lilith, I'm sorry I yelled at you. I was just worried. But I need more...a name, a location, anything."

Glancing around again, Lilith waited until her paranoia subsided. "Faraldor. Do not speak his name out here, not even to travelers you pass. Even if this wannabe guild wasn't harassing random people like they run the place, the sentinels still have a warrant for his arrest; he's wanted for murder, and will most likely face the gallows."

"Murder!" Amandil gasped, her spirit falling and her heart hurting. "My dad killed somebody?"

"One person, yes; but for beings who live as long as we do, such warrants remain outstanding. He can't simply wait out the police search. He's not a bad person; he just made bad choices...he knew he'd have to pay for it eventually, but he didn't want that kind of a life for you." A sappy yet sad look spread across Lilith's face. "Even if he never met you, he loved you very much."

Whoa, feels overload, abort! Retry! Fail! Amandil bristled at the opening of a veritable Pandora's box of emotions in front of a stranger. Even if Lilith was her long lost cousin, she still didn't really know the woman. "Yes, right, good to know. Faraldor...my dad's name is Faraldor. Where...do you know where he's hiding? He is definitely hiding somewhere, right?"

"Of course...for a very long time. But don't go yet...I'll tell you the rough area where I know he is, but wait. Come back to the lodge, stay for a few days, pretend that you were traveling and need to rest up since you have no mount. If either this guild or the authorities see you too close to that area, then you could get in trouble. I'll leave a map in your backpack...a mustard stain will mark his location."

"A mustard stain?" Amandil asked in disbelief.

But Lilith gave a very serious nod. "It's the most surreptitious way I can think of; this is a small town, and people stick their noses where they don't belong. So just act natural and I'll help you to see him. He's...he's not a bad person. And times have changed now...you're obviously an adult, so it's your choice to seek him out or not. And if you do find him, and show him you grew up alright, I'm sure he'll be delighted. Just make sure you're never being followed."

Feeling contrite herself, Amandil reached forward and clasped Lilith's hands in her own. "I don't know how I could repay you...and I'm sorry about earlier. Thank you so, so much," she said while helping her father's niece to stand.

"You can thank me by keeping him and yourself safe. And...come back and visit me, some time? I've been posted here for so long, and I'm not comfortable leaving yet. But it gets boring."

"I will; I promise. I came here to find out about my roots, and I consider you a part of that." Amandil reached foreword and gave the archer a brief hug. "Now, go. If the situation is as delicate as you claim, then we shouldn't return together."

"Definitely not. I'll go back and handle the map...it's best if we don't speak again this time. I'll figure out a solution as to how we can help him hide from this guild...I'm worried, but we have to try. He's survived this long living alone on the lam."

"I won't let anything happen to him; not now," the druidess replied as she watched the archer disappear through the underbrush. Once she woman had left the glade, Amandil sat down again, feeling the full brunt of her exhaustion. For another good hour she fought off sleep, knowing she'd have a full night and day to rest before she'd make her stealthy exit from the town.

"I'm coming to see you, dad," she whispered as she tried to sort all the questions floating through her mind.