He seems to be outside. It's warm and the wind blows against him. The air, and his body under him, feels... Different. It's hard to quantify exactly. There's a strange, otherworldly smell in the air. Some kind of unfamiliar plant, maybe? There's also the smell of grass and dirt. No sounds except the rustling of grass and the non-linguistic tweeting of some bird.

That's nice.

He stays right where he is. Whatever is happening if it isn't going to free him he doesn't care.

Well, soon he hears someone walking around and picking fruit and watering plants. After a while it stops and then there are some scraping sounds which also eventually stop.

And then he's poked with a stick. "What're you doing on my island, gix?"

He opens his eyes and looks at the person poking him.

"I'm trespassing."

It's a 40-something human man with a long beard and simple but well-made clothes. "Damn right you are. Why?"

He doesn't have to say anything at all. So he doesn't.

"Kid, you're far from home. You're on my island. I don't like visitors. So I'd suggest acting a little friendlier."

...The connotations of that word he suddenly knows are weird, but it's convenient how he knows what they all are.

"I could be friendlier but I don't feel like it."

For some reason this makes him look amused.

"Fine. You landed here somehow, you don't feel like explaining yourself. Fair enough. But I ain't feeding you or letting you inside the house or nothin' unless you do some work, you got that?"

"I don't want your food, I'm starving myself to death."

".....Why?"

"Because I object to slavery and I refuse to make myself useful."

"Oh, you're from one of them slavery places. My sympathies. Well, I don't own you and whoever did ain't here."

"There's places without it? I guess I could maybe do something for you if you're offering food. What did you have in mind?"

"Yep. And my home's one. Food, place to sleep out of the open air, coin for passage next time a ship shows. Farm chores. And other chores. You ever done farm work?"

"No but I could maybe learn. What needs to be done on a farm?"

"Picking fruit. Watering. Feedin' the pigs... Maybe leave that one to me, you look like they could knock ya over by breathin' hard. Carryin' things, I suppose. Weeding. Any of that sound doable, city girl?"

"I think I can pick fruit. You'd have to show me how much water things need and which things are weeds and which aren't."

"Of course. You work until dinnertime and I'll feed you and house you for the night. If you work as long as I do tomorrow you'll earn food and housing and coin, too. C'mon, let's get you up." He holds out a hand.

Valanda takes his hand and stands. If it wasn't obvious when he was curled in on himself, it's obvious now that he has nothing but his bracelets. Convenient places to hide things are for people who aren't him.

"What do you want me to do first?"

"Let's get you a basket and pick berries. An' something to wear. Follow me. Name's Kar, what's yours?"

There's a crude little house with a couple of outbuildings, which Kar walks towards. He tosses a crude baggy tunic-thing at Valanda.

.....This island appears to be an island in the sky. There are clouds and open air all around.

Kar must be a force mage or have one or several in his employ.

"I'm Valanda." He follows Kar buildingsward.

Kar gets a basket out of a shed, sorting through piles of wooden tools manually. "Here we are. Basket. Fill it up with those berry bushes and then come find me... Red ones are ripe. Sorry if I'm bein' gruff. Don't talk to people much."

"Thanks!"

He heads for the bush and tries berry-picking. It doesn't sound too hard.

It's not too hard to pick these weird berries! Well, he squishes a few by accident, and he has to press aside leaves and thin branches to get to some of them, but other than that, it's mostly just tedious. The kind of task you'd give to a child.

Kar goes over to an adjacent plot containing... Some plant stuck into the ground, and shows him. "These ones are onions. Anything else is a weed. For when you get to weedin'."

And then he wanders off somewhere. Probably to that thing that looks like an animal pen.