In the middle of the forest, once they are ready, she has silently pulled person by person out of her shawl and set them on the ground. Some of them are shivering and without clothes, so she sets them down wrapped in a length of the shawl that tears off with them. It's silvery-blue and doesn''t seem to be made out of any threads or anything.

If Lórien does not think it'll be particularly healing for Nienna to be there when they get their bearings, she'll be out of sight by the time they look around.

There are about five hundred humans huddled in the forest. They are uninjured but mostly incapable of taking actions. Most of them are standing or squatting where they were let out, holding themselves, or else have fallen asleep in exhaustion. Several are bathing in a nearby stream. A few dozen of them are together enough to make plans, and have taken to gathering food and attempting to feed the humans who look like they might come around to taking actions after being fed and led to water. They have built a fire. A few of those who share a language are sitting around it talking about plans for exploration and continued survival.

The road ends and the cart bumps along through conveniently clear forest instead. And then there are people. 

Hi? We got you food.

Some of the previously nonfunctional people either understand this or smell the food and come rushing forward. A few go for the cart immediately in an attempt to secure enough food for themselves, then run away to escape retaliation. Most of them keep huddling. Even most of the ones who react don't go all the way to the cart. They line up and assume a posture somewhere between a bow and a defeated slump, waiting to be given food. Many of them seem to be under the impression that they are still enslaved, but are being taken to work somewhere else. A few of them dare to hold out their hands. None of them talk, except the group by the campfire, where people whisper to each other and do not approach the cart.

They have trauma. He doesn't know very much about trauma but he knows it makes people act weird and you should not be surprising. He hands out food with his very best attempt at slow even movements. 

Do you know any of these people?

I don't think so. She scans the group for Azalea but doesn't see her. Nobody else she knows, either, except -

- oh wait, I think that one's a paralegal? I don't actually know her at all but - maybe a bunch of these are Wolfram & Hart people. Uh. Former Wolfram & Hart people.

Huh.

Probably we should get something from Lórien for the people who aren't moving and not try to give them pastries.

That sounds right to me. Something nutritious and hydrating that they can't choke on and that tastes nice. 

They can start picking leaves!

Do leaves - uh, most leaves are inedible on Earth. So I'm not very sure they'll recognize them as food.

She's not even actually sure they are food. She picks a leaf without telling it to be anything in particular and takes a bite of it to see if it tastes more or less edible than lettuce.

It tastes like it's probably some kind of vegetable. 

Well that's better than just a leaf. Eating regular leaves sounds really unappealing.

(She finishes her leaf because the idea of wasting aliens' food sounds really uncomfortable.) 

Is it possible for her to suggest to the forest that some kind of obviously edible fruit might be a little better for these people. Does thinking that have any apparent affects at all.

The plants directly in front of her don't suddenly grow fruits but if she moves them out of the way or walks a little further, look at that, fruits.

Good job, forest. 

She picks some and taste tests them. She then finds a random person who's trembling but looking around sometimes, bites the fruit again to demonstrate its edibility, and gives the other person the rest. They cautiously bite it and now the person is eating. She says encouraging things in a soft encouraging voice, hopes that this isn't making anything worse, and then goes back for more fruit.

She can just keep coaxing people to eat for a while here. She doesn't have anything particularly better to do, besides maybe talking to Nienna about getting Connor and Zana back. Which she should admittedly maybe do soon, since Connor and Zana are probably experiencing a little more time than she is. But right this second she can do this.

That looks like it is working well so they can imitate it despite being inherently a bit less reassuring than Karen.

And slowly people get fed. Eventually some of the people by the fire determine them nonhostile and approach the cart. A few of them speak English and have a lot of questions about where they are and what happened to them and where the food came from and who these people are and why they are giving them food.

You're in Valinor. Some of our people were summoned to Wolfram and Hart for experiments, and some of them were subsequently killed. Nienna -- the crying woman -- went to get them back. I think she also took everyone else who'd consent to come. I am Curufinwë Fëanáro, crown prince of the Noldor; this is my wife and our son and Karen, who assisted him when he was summoned to Wolfram and Hart.

Hi!

Awkward wave.

The humans think that's all pretty suspicious, but it's a clear step up from the demon work camps, so they're willing to extend a little bit of benefit of the doubt here. None of them feel the need to introduce themselves because all of them have forgotten their names.

They want to know why he's helping them and what's going to happen to them after this.

I want to learn all your languages! I like languages and there are only a few spoken here.

Nothing's....particularly going to happen to you? You can stay here until you want to leave, and then you can go to our kingdom or to Valmar or to Alqualondë or down south where if any places have names they don't tell outsiders about them or to the mountains or to the edge of the world or something if you really want to.

The campfire humans talk about this and sort of collectively decide that that means it's just this one prince person helping them and that there is not actually a plan in place for what to do with them, which means that they're going to figure out how to fend for themselves. This is better than being enslaved by demons, but it's not great.

They have about a dozen languages between them. They will teach him some French right now, if he wants, and help him learn more languages if they can have carts and more clothing and nonperishable food and some metal tools and cookware and pens and paper and maps. If there are dangerous animals anywhere around here they want spears. (There was some internal discussion about guns, but it was decided that asking for guns immediately probably come off as more concerning; if they exist here they can presumably buy them later.) They want a few of their people to go back to his kingdom now so they can report back on it, and if possible they want directions to the other places. Eventually they want to learn his language so that they can talk to other people, but they expect this to take a really long time.

"We can get you those things - what does 'nonperishable' mean -"