"Knock knock," (Patreon)

I blurted in alarm, instinctively repeating the ancient formula for calming one's nerves when faced with the uncanny & unexpected.  "Who's there?  Adler.  Adler who?  Adler Young."

Having reassured myself of my own name and objective existence, I took a deep breath and began walking cautiously toward the creepy dead tree which I could see silhouetted on the horizon.

I had to stop and shake off a feeling of vertigo as my sense of perspective changed.  The tree, it turned out, was neither as big nor as far away as it had first appeared.  In fact, it wasn't even a tree at all, but a big crack in the invisible wall which apparently enclosed this scryspace.

I leaned against the wall and peered into the crack.

I could see below me, far away and yet strangely near, the two lowfolk I had met earlier.  They were standing in the circle of stones outside the Gate.

"I'm having misgivings," the femme complained.  "What makes you think he'll do it again?"

"He did it once already," the male replied.  "Obviously he was hungry, and we all know hunger is a thing that comes back again, so it stands to reason if he was hungry before, then he's probably hungry now.  It's been two days."

Had it been that long?  Now that I thought about it, I was feeling hungry again.

"But we're prepared this time," the male lowfolk continued.  "We didn't ask for anything before, so he gave us elf-gold."

"Are you sure about that?" the femme inquired.  "It seemed real enough when we were rolling around and having venery on it."

"Heat of the moment," he shook his head.  "I wasn't thinking.  It had to be elf-gold because the next day our hiding place was full of pebbles and twigs."

"It could have been Hoppity.  He has always been jealous of you.  Maybe he followed us, and .. saw what we did, and then took the gold for himself."

"I doubt it, but then again it wouldn't hurt to go ahead and beat him up anyway.  No, this time we've got a plan, and we've asked for something that can't turn into dirt, and will be tremendously profitable for us too."

"Are you SURE he'll do it?"

"All of the old tales are clear on this," he insisted, as he carefully placed his picnic basket in front of the entrance to the dolmen.  "Come on now; we already know he's shy, so let's go away - and our trade items should be here in the morning."

With that, they turned and left.

I was feeling VERY hungry and thirsty now.  I needed to get out of this scryspace and go fetch that basket .. but how?  I had no idea how to shut this thing off and exit the scryspace when I was done.  I tried walking through the tree-shaped hole, but somehow ended up stepping back into the area I had just left.

After floundering around for several agonizing minutes, I tried visualizing the scrying orb while composing a Gramarye ordering it to release me.

Instantly I was standing in the tower chamber.  I grabbed one of the heaviest books and carefully opened the door.

I dashed across the porch, swatting at crows with the book.  I dove and slid towards the trap-door, leaving the book behind as I slithered nimbly into the opening and closed the hatch behind me.

The picnic basket was right where I had seen the lowfolk put it.  AMAZING!  So that scry-vision was real, and not just a dream!

The basket contained a chicken leg, a hunk of bread, a small wheel of cheese and a small bottle of wine.  Underneath the food were several pieces of folded leather, and a note.

"THREE PAIRS, SIZE 9 1/2 WIDE" the note read.

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