John

Annabelle had been walking since the sun set, getting to see a beautiful orange-pink sunset, and then a full moon.

"S***." Stumbling she fell, her foot had gotten caught in a hole. Gently pulling it out, she got up and tried to put weight on it. Almost crumpling when the ankle refused to bear any weight.

'I guess that means I'm sleeping out in the open tonight.' Sitting down, she stretched out on her back, facing the night sky.

'Their stars are smaller than Pasef's… But there are so many.' She fell asleep while watching the stars.

'What the hell.' Something was sniffling her hair, drool dropping onto her face, an occasional lick to her cheek being the main reason she woke up. Looking up she saw a long muzzle with white and black fur. A big wet nose, and pink tongue were accentuated with teeth. Whatever the thing was its ears were straight up and looked like little triangles.

'Most animals will get aggressive if you make any sudden moves or noises…' She tried to think the situation through without reacting. The thing kept licking her face and using its nose to push her.

********************************

"Daisy! What are you messing with now dog!" A rough voice called out; from the way it rose Annabelle could tell the being was getting closer.

*************************************

'What made all that noise? It sounded like a foreign language, but I've never heard anything like it before.' She had heard a garbled mess, not understanding a word that was said. Though she was relieved when the animal stopped licking her face.

'I wonder if I could learn the language by using telepathy. All I would need is to touch him. Though I couldn't heal my ankle yesterday... Hopefully he just leaves, I'm not even sure that copying will work right now. If I'd known that someone was going to show up, I'd have saved some power…'

As she thought the footsteps belonging to the voice got closer. The being was still talking to the animal, but it sounded like gibberish.

********************************************

"Daisy get over here!" John tried to get his dog to come back, they still needed to herd the sheep back into the pasture. However, when she stayed where she was, he started walking towards her. Getting ready to drag her back over if need be. As John got closer, he realized that Daisy was sitting near a prone human body.

"What's a human doing all the way out here Daisy?" As he got closer, he could make out that it was a young girl laying in the grass.

"Hey kid, are you alright? How did you end up out here?" He had seen her move, and from how much Daisy had been bothering her he didn't believe she could still be asleep. "Did you run away from home or something? Do you need help?"

When he got close enough to reach her, he sat down and gently shook her shoulder. "Hey kid I know you're awake. Come on, open your eyes, you need to answer my questions, or I'll call the cops. You're on private property."

**********************************************************

When she realized the man wasn't leaving, she opened her eyes and looked up at him. She still had no clue what he was saying, but from the fact that he wasn't just leaving her alone he must be expecting an answer.

'Screw it, if I pass out at least I won't have to pretend to be mute or something.' Grabbing his hand, she sent a small string of energy up his arm into his brain. Finally getting the information she needed, there was a large jolt, not even five seconds after she grabbed him the man pushed her away.

"The hell kid, don't grab people, just tell me who you are, why you're here, and if you need help." He moved a little further away so that she couldn't grab him.

"My name's Annabelle, I'm not exactly sure where 'here' is, and I don't know how I got here." She sat up to look at him. "Could you tell me where I can find the closest big city?

"That's a few hundred miles away, all we've got is a small town, one grocery, a market and a home goods store." He offered his hand as he got up. "My name's John Caperd."

Looking at his hand she grabbed it, there were some old calluses on his hands, his eyes were a kind blue and he had a few crow's feet around the corners of his eyes when he smiled.

"Do you have anyone you can call?"

"No. I'm really sorry I'm on your property, I'll get off as soon as I can."

"Don't worry about it, this is just the flower meadow I planted last year for my wife. It has at least five flowers that bloom in different seasons. Right now, it's the Pansies. Shelly loves pink Pansies. Shelly's my wife by the way. I'll ask her to get you some food. Can you walk on that foot?" He glanced down at how she was hopping, trying to balance on one foot.

"Yeah, it's not that bad once you get used to it." She gingerly put her foot down, testing how much weight it would support. When it didn't give out automatically, she did a silent cheer. Nodding to the tall man beside her she motioned towards her ankle. "See, it's not that bad, there's barely any swelling." She smiled up at him when she revealed that fact.

"Alright, let me know if you need help walking, I want to get you to the house before dark. Come on Daisy, home!"

The dog immediately took off in the direction she knew food to be at, happy her owner had forgotten about the animals she was supposed to be herding back to the house.

"Thanks." She hobbled along beside him as he deliberately shortened his strides in order for her to keep up.