Nimue gently arranged the last apple on the pile in her basket. She had grown warm with picking and the cape had relentlessly snagged on small branches of the trees, so she had furled it out for a resting place. The soft linen of her gown was stained with tree sap where she had hugged the largest of the fruit bearers in spontaneous adoration. Nimue frowned as she ran her hand down her thigh. The stain would not come cleanly from the butternut color. Why had she not changed into a rough serge garment for gardening? A clopping of hooves from a bit farther south caught her ears and she pressed up against the rough bark of a tree.<br/><br/>Goddess! She thought with a nip of panic. Why was she not like Viviane who possessed power to call up the wind or to coax the Lady of the Lake to give up Excalibur? She was nothing but a daydreaming wench who was fit for nothing but meditation and lighting of incense. Looking around for cover, she thought of diving headlong into the ferns but knew the color of her gown would be easily seen in the bracken. Why  had she not taken the dragon as had been suggested?<br/>The sound of heavy objects falling to the earth thudded and the clinking of armour as it also fell. Who was that? Brigands didn’t wear armour. Nimue, clinging to the shadows, crept closer until she saw a magnificent black horse with hooves the size of the plates she had her evening meals upon. The horse paused in his drinking from the sacred well and looked straight at her. Her breath caught in her throat.<br/><br/>A man knelt at the pool, clad only in leggings and a long shirt, both gray in color. His golden hair was tousled as if he had only rolled out of bed and the growth of beard on his face suggested he was recently awakened as well. He ran his hands over his hair in attempts to tame its wayward tendency. Nimue covered her mouth with her hand. His face was that of one of the Tuatha De Danann, so beautiful and fair to her eye.<br/><br/>His sword lay close at hand as did a pile of shiny armour. Nimue did not wish to startle him but felt she should find out who this stranger was so that she could report to Viviane about intruders in Avalon. Creeping backwards, she went back to her basket and cape. She wrapped the warm garment around herself, hugging it to her as if it would grant her invincibility and invisibility but knowing it did not.<br/><br/>With a deep breath, she took her basket of apples and headed back to the Twin Springs with as much aplomb and abandon as she could muster.At the clearing she stopped and cleared her throat,<br/><br/>“Ah, a traveler come to our valley.” She said, stepping out into the full sun. “Welcome to Avalon. May the Goddess bless you and the birth waters of the Mother revive you and your beast.” Nimue plucked an apple from the basket and held it out. “I offer you and the beast a treat from the heart of the Mother.”<br/><br/>She curtsied deeply as she had been taught at court.