Niles Nilton

[Caspian]

The Interns

"'Holy crazy!' I yelled. 'You all just gave me the heebee jeebees! All sneakin' out of the woods up on me like that.'"

"You didn't know 'em, laddy?" Farmer O'Briend asked, his head just reaching up over the table.

"Afraid not, friend. Never seen 'em before in my life! So I asked 'em, 'Say friends, I'm Niles Nilton. Who are ya'll?' I looked 'em over right then, too. They we all pretty young, and right skinny, but I couldn't make out any other features because they were all bark-like. They said, rather unassuringly, 'Us? We're, ah, the new interns here at the Grove of Chauntea, right guys?' Then he looked to his right and left. The other two fellas nodded quickly. He turned to me again and said, 'You got a problem with that?'

"'Interns?' I asked. 'Since when did the grove hire interns? Where are the other druids?'"

Farmer O'Brien continued to listen patiently.

"The three young-skinny-bark-like druids kinda looked at each other again, not knowin' what to say for a moment. Then one of them piped up, 'They were let go, actually,' one of the druids said. 'Downsizing.'

"'Downsizing!' I said, and my jaw dropped."

[Caspian]

Niles' Request

Niles got up from the table with their dishes, continuing his story as he took them to the washtub. Farmer O'Brien stood up for a moment and stretched.

"'Yes,' one of those skinny lil' guys said. 'Downsizing. The grove has, ah, been having to cut corners since Neverwinter upped our property taxes.' His voice cracked a bit there at the end, see."

Farmer O'brien chuckled. Niles continued, "'Well that ain't right! This is just as crazy as can be, friend. Say, is Radger still the head of the druid grove? I'd suuuuure like to see him!'

"Then all three of those skinny lil' interns took a quick jump back and gasped at the same time, 'Radger! You know of him?!' I nodded. 'Sure do, friends. Suuuure do!'

"But then they got all scared-lookin', like they didn't know what to do. They got into a lil' huddle and started whisperin' and all, but they really weren't that good at it. I could hear what they were sayin', especially when that one intern's voice kept crackin'. Anyway, after a minute or two of they jaw-jabbin' they stood up straight and faced me.

"'Follow us,' one of them said, and they turned and headed deep into the woods."