He had been there all along, quiet but peaceful under the layer of cloth. There had been stress and fear for sure, especially back in the town square where the girl had accused Astrid of being a monster. For a moment there Calden had been petrified of fear, he imagined the worst when it came to strange villagers discovering him on her shoulder. Would they be like barbarian tribes in the stories or old evil hags that eat others or would they just have cut her arm off in order to try and safe her? The thoughts would have turned his stomach upside down if he still had had one.<br/><br/>It all turned alright in the end and even without participating in the conversation, Calden had felt like he was part of it. They had not often played with the other kids back in the village, she had been teased a little because of her inability to do magic like the others. Hence, just seeing or rather hearing her get along with someone else like that had been a peaceful experience; almost as lulling as the last few nights in that magical forest. He would have liked to give some sort of sign that there was nothing to worry when her hand blackened his vision, though he did not really mind the touch. "I'm alright," he thought to himself, realizing only a few moments later that it had been out loud.<br/><br/>Kate gasped. Up till then she'd been looking at Astrid in a thrilled trance, just absorbing every little nugget of information that the mysterious traveler dared to spare. The 'we' had left a brief puzzlement in form of a raised thick brown eyebrow on her face, but that had soon dissipated as Astrid had went on. Travelers were rare in these parts, and mostly they were older people, men and women who had seen much and carried that experience with them in an aura of unapproachable mystery. Kate saw some of that in Astrid too, she had been sure that the older kid was hiding things and was determined to seek out the truth. She had many theories of Astrid forming. Maybe she was a member of some long lost race, an elf; but she did not have long ears. Maybe she was just disguised? Maybe she was a thief even better than her and simply moved her belongings around under her clothes, that's why she could not be pickpocketed! Or perhaps, just maybe she was a traveling witch?! Not even the wildest of her guesses came close to the strange combination that her guest was in reality.<br/><br/>The noise had not immediately registered as speech to Kate. She blinked and looked at Astrid with her mouth half open in a dumbfounded expression, leaning backwards with hands as a support. Then, as parts of the moment passed and the memory of the noise became more of a blurry whisper, just before that whisper turned into incomprehensible blather, Kate realized that it had been words. "What?" She asked in genuine surprise. Who is alright, she wondered. The surprise was beginning to look a bit like more worried, on its way to turning to that fearful face that Kate had first shown to Astrid when she first doubted her humanity.