As she sat there, she began to wonder how long she should wait, and if perhaps she would end up feeling ridiculous when a tourist came by taking pictures of the reproduction of a mediaeval castle and village. She almost laughed at the thought, but instead froze when she heard a soft sound just behind her. She whirled around in time to see a man step out into a clearing not twenty feet away. Now she knew she had somehow travelled to the past. This was no twenty-first century Scot (if this did indeed prove to be Scotland). His clothes alone gave him away: tight leather leggings and a loose linen tunic. But more than that, his very way of standing there, his way of being in the world, the way he was looking at her, all instinctively spoke to her of something beyond the realm of what was familiar. He belonged here, to this place, and here was not anywhere close to where she had just come from.
Her heart began to pound erratically in her chest, and for a moment she just stared at him, uncertain whether she should run or hold her ground. But then he smiled at her, a genuine and friendly smile, and she relaxed a little. His expression slowly changed as she looked at him, and he seemed…smug? No, that didn’t make sense. She had always been very good at reading people’s faces, but perhaps that didn’t include people from…here.
“Hello, lass”, he said with a nod, when he had stopped only a few yards away.
“Hello?” What did one say when meeting a person from another time? If she was assuming she was in another time, which she wasn’t just yet. Her head was spinning, logic tryingto make sense of what was happening, panic just behind it, threatening to take over again at any moment. Wonder and excitement pushing to the fore-front, only to be threatened once more by rising panic. She could only look at him mutely, waiting to see what he would say.
He was older, perhaps fifty, she thought, as his hair was graying, but still quite handsome in a dignified sort of way. Her eyes swept over him. He didn’t look like he was armed, showed no signs of wanting to harm her… He moved closer, speaking to her as he walked, one hand held out slightly in front of him in a posture of harmlessness, as one would do when approaching a skittish animal.
“What is your name, Lass?”
She took a single step back from him, just in case. That was a Scottish accent he spoke with, wasn’t it?
“Faith. My name is Faith.”
The man stared at her for a second, smiled broadly, then laughed out loud. “Perfect. Faith. I hope ye have your fair share, lass. Ye’ll need it.”
He offered her his hand, and she took it willingly and without thought, surprising herself as she did so. He brought her fingers to his mouth and kissed them chivalrously before letting her hand go.
“I’m Dirc. I’ve been expecting ye for some time now; gods, it took ye a rather long while to arrive.”
“What?” Her heart sped up again, and little shocks of surprise raced to her fingertips. “Did you say you were expecting me?”
He didn’t bother to answer her, but only looked her over curiously, as if she was something he had never seen before. If her hunch was right, then she was probably just that.
“Ye found the ring, aye?”
He could only mean the dragon ring, which was still in her pocket. Her hand automatically felt for it there, and his eyes followed, not missing a thing.Damn, she needed to be more careful.
“Yes, but how did you…” He cut her off abruptly with a terse and commanding wave of his hand.
“Time enough for that later. There is much to do, and we’d best get started. Come.”
He turned and began to walk away into the woods. Faith, not knowing what else to do, followed. If he knew about the ring, she reasoned, she wasn’t crazy, and she might actually find out what happened… and why. Perhaps he was some sort of psychic and had foreseen her arrival. If so, maybe he could also tell her whether she would ever get back home again, and how.
He led her along a faint trail which wound through a grove of huge moss covered oak trees. They were ancient, misshapen and gnarled, flowing beautifully up from the earth like twisted rivers to the sky. In their midst, in a small clearing, was a little cottage. It was whitewashed with a lovely roof of thatch, and the thatch was made of heather, from what she could tell. Faith barely had time to marvel at it before she was urged inside through the open door with a gentle hand at her back.
The interior was dim, and it took a moment for her eyes to adjust from the bright daylight outside. The hearth took up most of one end of the one room, and it was otherwise empty of furniture except for a table and a cot. It certainly didn’t look like anyone was actually living in it. On the cot was a small pile of clothing, which the man called Dirc was now rummaging through while humming a tune under his breath. She cleared her throat, which was suddenly tight.
“Is this your home?” Should she have even have entered the cottage with a man who was a complete stranger to her? Probably not, but it was too late now. And she didn’t get thefeeling that he meant her any harm. Surely she would sense that on some level and feel uneasy if he had any bad intentions. He didn’t answer her, but turned around, holding up a dress.
“This one should do. Try it on, I think it will be a good fit.”
She stared at him for a second, confused. “You want me to change my clothes?”
“Aye lass, ye canna verra well go around dressed like that, now can ye?” He gestured to her clothing before handing her the dress, wrinkling his nose a little in obvious distaste at her plain white blouse and denim skirt. “What century have ye come from, anyway?”
He knew that she had… apparently… just come from somewhere else in time. Something almost like relief washed over her. She might not understand what was happening here, but at least someone else did. That was something, and for right now she clung to it.
“The… the twenty-first.”
Dirc let out a low whistle. “Aye, I ken ye would have come far.” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Farther than I would have guessed, even.” He held up a finger, pointing it at her as if giving a lecture. “A good example to show one how verra random it all can be. Just when ye think things are all in an order of sorts, it turns out they never were at all.” He shook himself, turning his attention back to the task at hand. “Well now, put that clothing on, and I’ll be waiting outside for ye.”
Faith had just turned around to reach for the clothes when the door opened again. Dirc handed her a thin leather cord.
“For the ring. Tie it around yer neck for safekeeping. Make the knot tight, mind! Keep it with ye at all times and dinna lose it.”
In her current state of shock and disbelief, Faith had nearly forgotten all about the ring. Her hand slipped into her pocket, and her fingers slowly wrapped around it.
