They reach a clearing in the rocks. Lucy puts him down and turns back human and pulls her dress back on. Then she offers him a hand to help him to his feet. 

Leareth is still watching with mage-sight, so notices her reaching for him, and opens his eyes. He's able to get himself to move, though he's a bit unsteady on his feet and stumbles into Lucy; being tired and shaken does that. 

He looks around. 

They are standing in a clearing in the jagged stone, surrounding a three-story-tall house. Lucy leads him up to the door and knocks. 

An older woman opens the door. "Lucy! And..."

"I will explain later. His name is Leareth and he needs a room." 

"Alright. Pleased to meet you, Leareth."

Those are words he knows! Leareth nods to the woman. Doesn't quite manage a smile. "Pleased to meet you. I should call you...?" He would like an actual NAME to slot in place of "Lucy's mother". 

"Lavinia Whitman. The erstwhile Pale Adventuress, but I don't adventure much anymore."

Leareth has no idea what that means so he just nods, trying not to sway on his feet. 

"--Yes, you definitely need to get in off your feet, come in, come in. I'll put you in a ground floor room for now so you don't have to deal with stairs, you can switch later if you prefer."

“Thank you.” Leareth will follow her. Mostly keeping his eyes on the ground; he’s too frazzled and worn-out to muster much curiosity about the house right now.

She shows him to a bedroom. 

"If I'm not available when you come out, the pantry is just that way," she says, pointing. 

"Thank you. I - appreciate - welcome." 

Leareth closes the door of his room behind him and heads for the bed and lies down. He's very tempted to just - stay there - until something else happens. Sometimes back in Arda he would stay in bed for a week straight, just to confirm that Maitimo and Vanyel would keep coming and bringing him food and singing to him even when he was incredibly useless. 

He's not quite tired enough to sleep, though, and after a few hours he's incredibly bored. He starts hunting for more paper, or really anything that he can write on. 

The room has a shelf full of books in the local script. If he investigates the bedside table, there are a couple of blank journals in there. 

Leareth gratefully grabs one of the notebooks, and tucks his paper with the alphabet between the pages.

He tracks down something to write with, and starts trying to take notes on everything that's happened so far. After a while he notices that he's thirsty, but the room feels - not quite safe but closer than anywhere else - and he can't bring himself to get up to do anything about his thirst. 

He keeps struggling through writing out a timeline, and eventually falls asleep in the middle of writing out a sentence, the notebook still open under his hand. 

Lavinia goes about her ordinary business, including talking to her daughter, taking care of the ex-Cantigaster, writing letters to her son, taking care of her little garden, and so on. 

Eventually she notices that nothing in the pantry has been disturbed, makes up a tray and sets it down outside Leareth's door. 

Leareth is curled up on the bed being inexplicably miserable, after failing to stay asleep for more than a few restless minutes of half-dozing; he's trying very hard not to fall deeply asleep because he might have dreams.

Or maybe he's explicably miserable. He's in an unfamiliar place and he still can't quite fully relax and he misses Vanyel and Maitimo and his safe familiar room with the wards on it... Also he hasn't had anything to eat or drink in a while, which could well explain misery. Usually Maitimo would catch it earlier than this, if he was failing to get himself food or water. 

Hiding under the covers and feeling sorry for himself isn't going to accomplish any of his goals, though. 

When he hears footsteps outside the door, he manages to sit up, wait for the footsteps to recede, and then stumble over and collect the tray. 

Eating and drinking does, in fact, help a little with the MISERY. Also he's very drowsy. But sleeping is a bad idea. He'll probably just ruin Lucy's day again. 

Lucy had a plan, or at least a short-term solution - he could go find her... 

Once he's consumed everything on the tray, Leareth manages to haul himself to his feet again, and heads out into the hallway, extending his Thoughtsensing to find either Lucy or the closest person he can ask about Lucy's whereabouts.