It isn't late at night, but it is late in the year, and the sun went about its business quickly ere it departed.
Jacqueline Somer walks beside a busy road, with her back to oncoming traffic, which she's read you aren't supposed to do but it makes the stupid LED headlights somewhat less unbearable.
She flinches every time a car passes her.
Cars are loud, and she has enhanced hearing.
She'd be much happier, she thinks, in a world without automobiles.
Owl's passive perception of 40 passes the check. She hears a small quadrupedal creature take off in a leap over the wall and turns to catch it soar through the air and land about 15 feet away from her
Owl is actually crouched on top of the smithy-wagon and pointing her new spear at the encroaching alien.
Does anyone else seem alarmed by today's latest quadruped?
"That's a scripe. We get those a lot, they love mushrooms."
He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a mushroom which he throws on the ground.
They get a lot of "scripes", specifically? With consistent traits?
"Can they reproduce?"
"Far as we can tell. They're cute enough that the adults tolerate them and the kids love them so they come around at night to get food and for the fire."
The scripe having finished its meal begins slinking toward the bonfire. Wait, is that another scripe? It is! There's two! Hold on! there's more! Brief count of 20 scripes are in the camp. Wait, 21. Did that one just walk into the fire?!? It did! Another one walked in!!!
"What powers do scripes have? Do you know where the first one came from?"
Scripes absorb heat for food! They are very heat resistant. They live about 11 years on average. We're not sure, they've been around as long as recorded history.
So, on the one hand, that's really short.
And on the other, it's way too long.
"We do know that the first intelligent life existed somewhere around 12 elf generations ago, but wood kineticists are a recent discovery which has allowed us to begin recording our history at scale."
Asking about powers is impolite, but he's the one who brought it up, so.
Etymology suggests that "wood kineticists" move matter rather than produce it.
"Where does the wood come from?"
"Kineticists act as gates to the elemental planes, they move the wood from the elemental plane of wood into this reality."
She knows those words in isolation but not in conjunction.
"Define 'gates' 'elemental' 'planes' and 'reality'?"
"Umm, gates as in a connection between two points? Elemental planes are infinite planes composed of the various most basic elements. Reality as in this plane of existence."
The most basic elements like... wood.
An infinite expanse of... basic... wood.
"What are the other basic elements?"
"Our Ebru, you just met him, is actually a metal kineticist."
Owl feels pretty sure that this man is deeply confused about a great many things.
"Are these portals two-way?"
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