On his return journey to the mountain, indistinct memories began to surface. He recollected standing at the edge of the water, fearful yet determined. People milled around him, familiar yet outlandish. He remembered looking across to where the girl stood. He recalled her eyes, desperate, staring into his own. And then he had been seized and thrown into the pool. The shock of the icy water had been terrifying. He had plunged down, down, down until he had lost all awareness of himself.

    He had woken by the side of the pool. But the landscape had changed, and the people had gone. He had believed himself to be dead. Like an unsettled soul, he had wandered amongst the hills until the tinkers had found him. They had taken him to the doctor and then unofficially adopted him. And as he had ceased to use...

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