Amber was strolling through the forest, playing her pipes to herself, and watching all the small flowers on the forest floor, usually starved of light or nutrients by the larger trees, grow healthy and larger from the effects of her melody. She stopped. Being a creature of the forest, and understanding its ecosystem, she could sense whenever a presence was approaching who was higher up in the food chain. She hid, and listened. Sure enough, there was a humani confidently strolling through the woods, yet he still looked like his eyes and ears were everywhere. Amber watched him pass out of sight from her hiding place, and then followed his trail. The humani looked like a criminal. Somebody who had been up to know good. Maybe he needed a taste of his own medicine, and Amber was in a playful mood. She even skipped across the ground as she followed the path paved from his footsteps.

She heard the man's gruff voice shout out as she carried on approaching. "Who's there?!" It bellowed. "Don't come any closer or I'll skin ye alive! You hear me?!"

Amber once again, hid, actually shaking from the effect of the man's threats. Had he seen her? How did he know she was following him? That's when she sensed another, more dangerous predator, and realized that the man hadn't been addressing her. Knowing what course nature usually took in these situations, she curled up in a ball at the base of a tree and covered her ears.

When she could no longer hear the screams of humani pain, she listened out for the sound of ripping, chewing and devouring. But it didn't come. That was strange. Maybe the humani had achieved victory despite his cries, and if that was the case, she wouldn't feel safe sleeping or relaxing in this forest with that foul man. She hovered over the ground until she reached the scene of the battle. No sign of either of them. Just a trail of blood. She swallowed, and followed it.

A few hours past of Amber following the trail, making sure not to get close enough to risk being spotted. Humani had better vision. Beasts had better smell. Being far back enough to avoid both but close enough to know, to sense that they were ahead, was the fine line she walked for all this time. At least she knew from the trail that the beast has been the victor. This set her mind at ease. At least she could outsmart a beast. Humani were crafty...

She eventually reached the boundaries of a large city, that she had never seen or known about! She'd never traveled so far in this direction, away from the mountains. She could see that it was rife with humani. Maybe she'd get to have a little fun after all. However, the moment she hovered through the runes, her wings stopped working, and she fell to the floor. She tried to fly again. Nothing. She played her pan pipes, but felt no magic coarse through her. Panicked, she left he city, and tried her wings and pipes there, relieved to find that they still worked. It was only in the city that they did not.

She folded her wings flat against her back, and walked into the city. The outskirts were quiet, but once she started to get past the houses, it got a lot busier. Humani would push and barge past her as if she was not there. At one point she even saw a man turn and glare at her. "Watch where you're going, little girl," he spat at her. This gave her an idea. She could pass for human in this city now that she wasn't using her wings, and she didn't need magic to play some mischief.

She had witnessed enough of humani society in villages to know that you needed money to buy things, and she recalled that she was once given a coin while she played once in a small village east of here, so she tried the same tactic here, standing in place and just playing the pipes. After ten minutes she had received a few more coins. She took these to a very disgruntled looking vendor. "I'd like an onion, please!" she exclaimed innocently.

"That will be ten gold pieces." the vendor replied, shaking his head. "It's good to finally make a sale today, I can tell you."

"I'm afraid I don't have ten coins. I just have these..." she replied, holding out her hand and displaying four coins, adding up to 45 gp. The vendor chuckled and tussled her hair, taking the ten coin, and giving her an onion. Amber just looked confused, but she had an onion now. She sniffed it. It smelled nice and potent. Perfect.

Finding a quiet alley, she peeled the onion, and then bit her own finger enough to draw blood and bled on the onion. The red and white blended to make it look like an apple. Perfect. She licked her finger clean, and wiped in on the cloth of a nearby stall. It should heal soon. Now to find a mark...

Sh spotted a serious-looking, grizzled grey-haired man, which wasn't overly remarkable, but there was, however, something familiar about him. She felt drawn to him. Not knowing what she would later know, this choice would turn out to be both the best and the worse of her entire life. She reached the man, offered the blood-soaked onion to him and innocently smiled and said "Care for an apple, mister?"