You are a traveling tinker, leading your pack mule through the forest. Branches criss-cross the path so much that you walk continuously in shade. Ferns and moss carpet the forest floor. The day is peaceful.
You are half a day from Bobeck village. You've traveled this route many times, to Frankfurt and back to Dresden again.
2) Take the left path to a meadow.
3) Take the right path to a creek.
You enjoy your lunch in a meadow full of clover and chamomile. You can hear songbirds. They rise from a tree nearby and wheel around the meadow.
You notice their shadows join on the grass almost in the shape of a man. The shadowy form steadies. It is a man. It appears to leap across the meadow as the birds fly about.
The birds circle you, closer and closer. The shadow man capers around you, drawing nearer on each round. You've never seen anything like this.
4) Throw bread to the birds.
5) Dance with the shadow.
You dust yourself off and give the shadow a mock curtsy. As it spins around, you jump to keep up and go in rough circles around the meadow. The way the shadow's arms and legs caper makes you laugh. You sit down in the clover to catch your breath.
The birds circle you once more and then fly off over the forest, their shadows bursting apart into separate birds again.
You continue to Bobeck, stopping first at Mam Gudnar's house. You want to tell her about your odd and exhilarating encounter.
10) Sit inside.
11) Sit outside.
You tell her your tale while she rocks a wee babe. Mam Gudnar is smiling when you finish. "You sound like you enjoyed yourself, Tinker."
"I dare say I did," you laugh. "It's not everyday you can accept a dance from sparrows."
The babe gabbles and Mam resettles him in her arms. She nods towards the forest beyond her beet fields. "If you've a mind to, there's more lives in those woods than any of us know.
"What is it folk say? 'A branch of ash to find a friend, or carry elm and find your end.' There's more to it, but that's the bit that rhymed."
22) Cut an ash branch.
23) Cut an elm branch.
The next day, you cut a slender ash branch one ell long. It looks rather plain, so you decorate it with ribbons and bells from your packs. Jingling merrily, and taking only your essentials, you stride into the forest.
You walk several miles in the green shadows. You'll make camp wherever you find yourself this evening. It is a fair day for a walk. You toy with your ash branch, swinging and jingling it about you. The ribbons flash in the dappled light, red and blue and gold.
"Hey there, that's a fine wand!" a voice says from behind you. You turn around but nobody is there. "Here! I'm here!" they say. It seems to be coming from a mushroom.
"Oh," you say, "are you inside that large mushroom on the side of the tree? Or are you inside the tree?"
"I am the mushroom. I was transformed by a dreadful witch and left here to rot. Can you help me?"
Your brow furrows. "I don't know that I can. Maybe I could fetch help?"
"No, don't go! You're carrying a wand, aren't you? Give it a good swish, how about that?"
44) Swirl your wand in a circle.
45) Shake you wand over the mushroom.
You reach out your wand above the mushroom and give it several shakes, as if you were shaking water off it. Jangle, goes the wand.
The mushroom shivers, then it stretches, then it leaps into the air. With a pop it turns into a fairy.
"Hurray!" shouts the fairy. "You've freed me!" She has a dandelion-puff of cornsilk hair, fluttering dragonfly wings, and a linen romper. She'd stand six inches tall if she were to stand still. Instead, she is flitting about your head so you can hardly get a look at her.
"You're wonderful! Let's be friends!" says the fairy. "My name's Pansy," she says, pointing to the daisies embroidered over her chest. "And your name is 'Nutty Anne'."
"Alright," you agree amiably. "What shall we do now?"
"We can do anything! You decide! We could -
90) Visit the Vanishing Market.
91) Join the Golem Army.