Trine stared around her in amazement, her eyes huge, her mouth open, and she could not come up with words to express what she was feeling.

“Keeper of the Crystal?” The words flew out of her mouth, and she was immediately aware of several pairs of eyes upon her, each looking at her face as though she was the next best thing to sliced bread, and she realized stupidly that she was praying feverishly that these creatures would not eat her.

‘Creatures’ was hardly an appropriate word. These people looked as human as her, although they were dressed rather strangely for people wandering about a forest. Most of them wore long, belted tunics in a floaty material and leggings or tights that seemed to be made of suede. They wore ankle-high or knee-high boots, various jewelry or hair ornaments, and every last one of them sported a small, jeweled dagger clipped to their belts. One or two of the girls seemed very comfortable in v-waisted, flowing dresses in rich, foresty tones, and one young man was clad in baggy linen trousers and a tunic cut up over the bottom of his ribcage. They looked as if they had fallen straight off the pages of Robin Hood or the Arthurian Legends, and they were all looking at her as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

“Where am I?” she asked, trying to keep the fear from her voice. “Who are you people?”

“You have entered – ”

“Yes, yes, the realm of Lady Juliette, I know,” she interrupted impatiently, “but where is that? Is it in England? France? Juliette doesn’t sound like a German name to me. And how did I get here?”

“My apologies,” came a new voice, and all the people around her took several steps back, murmuring and hushing each other as a new person entered the clearing. This person could make even the most crotchety person smile, the most verbose person speechless, and the most intelligent person struck dumb. As it was, all Trine could think about was how beautifully the green shade of this woman’s hair complimented her easily tanned skin tone.
The owner of the voice was, of course, Lady Juliette, and as she glided forward over the grass, her feet not even seeming to touch the ground, Trine felt she had never seen anything as perfect in the entire world. This lady looked as if she had been born to do everything.

She stopped in front of Trine and offered a half-curtsey, and then held out her hand. “Pleased to meet you, Trine. I am Lady Juliette.”

Trine accepted Juliette’s hand clumsily, not even thinking to ask how Juliette had known her name. “The…the pleasure’s mine, madam,” she stammered, feeling rather overwhelmed by everything. She felt the sharp edge of something bite into her hand, and she looked down to find that the green disc was still gripped tightly in her fingers and had begun to cut into her palm.

Juliette released her right hand and seized her left, prying the disc loose from Trine’s numb fingers. “Oh dear, you must be very much in shock from all of this,” she offered soothingly. She slid a gentle arm around Trine’s shoulders and began ushering her out of the clearing. Trine noticed only halfheartedly that all the other people seemed to have disappeared, and then she noticed nothing more.