"They are! You're getting better at talking, too."

"Talking good. Talking is good?"

"Mmhmm."

    "Huh - plant was a good guess but it's not looking like that to me. They don't learn that fast."

"Oh, hm. Do you think they can stay anyway?"

    "Let's see what Leaf thinks, and we can talk about it."

Curious trill.

"I'm running a druid circle, not a home for Raafi's foundlings."

Sad noise. It curls around Raafi a bit.

..."Druid?"

"It's all right, sweetheart." Pet pet. "If this isn't the right place we'll find something else. And druids are - they take care of wild places, and the creatures that belong there. It's hard for my kind of person to live near natural places without damaging them, and sometimes people don't even try to be careful, so the gods of nature have druids to protect them, like my god has clerics like me to help people travel." (Everia nods.)

The tendrils bob around, and the being trills, sounding happy.

They're very cute.

    "You want to stay and see what we're about? I can't promise we'll have a spot for you, but we can see what you can do."

Happy chirp.

She nods. "You stay with Raafi, though, unless he finds someone else to stay with you. Don't go wandering off on your own."

"Stay with Raafi!"

"Good. I'm going to go see what Leaf's gotten up to, I think, I'll be right back." She attempts to disentangle herself.

The being lets go.

Everia steps away, and walks up to and then into a tree.

"So that's Everia. I know she's not the most friendly - her work is important, and she thinks if she's too nice to people it'll make her worse at it. But she's fair; if she says she'll give you a chance, she will."

Contemplative noise. "But nice is good?"

"It is, but it's not the most important thing, sometimes. One of the things she's in charge of here is guarding something dangerous - I don't know if she'll say I can tell you what it is - and if she's too nice to the wrong person, and lets them get close to it when they shouldn't, a lot of people could get hurt."

The tendrils bob thoughtfully. "I want to be nice."

"That's good. There are lots of things you can do where you don't have to worry about being too nice; I don't."

Happy noise. "You are nice!"

"Well, I try." Pet pet. "Part of it is that this is my job, helping people explore new places, but I wouldn't've taken it if I didn't think it was good to do."

Happy rustling. "I want to be helping people."

"That's good. Do you have an idea of how? - I guess you probably don't have enough words yet."

"Words!"

"All right. I think we'll be staying a while, so we can ask people here to tell us about what they do, that should help. What I do - I travel a lot, I've never been happy staying in one place for very long, and I like being out in the countryside, I don't like cities as much. So a lot of the people I see don't get to see clerics very much, and might have the kinds of problems we can help with - being sick, or hurt, I can help with that with my magic, or having an argument with other people around, that I can help with by talking to them and figuring out what they can do so they're all okay. And sometimes they need to leave where they are, and I help them figure out where they should go and how they can get there - if something bad is happening where they are, or they want to do something they can't do where they are, or they just aren't happy, that's usually a good idea. And sometimes there are other problems, and I just kind of do the best I can to figure out how to help, or if I have any friends who could come help. And sometimes I hear about a problem - a disaster, or a war, or something like that, that I know people are going to need help getting away from, and I go help with that."

"Other clerics of Fharlanghn help with building roads and things, sometimes, or write about different places so people can figure out if they want to go there, or travel with trading caravans to help them out and keep them safe, or spend their time talking to important people to make sure they don't do anything that makes it too hard for people to travel."