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Prologue

Siegfried Barnhopper slid off of his fat brown pony and knocked on the cottage door. The faces that looked back at him from behind the door were a mottled mess of white from fear and red from crying.

"Stonebridge Residence?" Siegfried asked in his most formal tone of voice. An older woman looked up from weeping into her apron and nodded. Siegfried stepped into the cottage and nodded to the young dwarven figure behind him. "I am Siegfried Barnhopper, Knight Detective of the Silvermoon Kingdom," Siegfried stated. "The young dwarf with me is my assistant, Cedric Barnstormer." At this, Cedric nodded to the grieving group.

"Thank you for coming, Sir Siegfried," said a heavy, middle-aged man with graying hair. "I am Doran Stonebridge. My daughter, Aurora" Doran trailed off, sighing, as the rest of the Stonebridges burst into fresh sobs.

"I understand," Siegfried said gently. "If you would, Mr. Stonebridge, please take me to her." With shoulders slumped, Doran led Siegfried and Cedric through the cottage's back door to a tree-lined field.

"This is where she liked to play," Doran said sadly. "The other children didn't like her much, since she came from a poor family and didn't have a lot to share, but she never paid them any mind. The trees and plants were always her friends." Doran looked wistfully over his little farm and said, "Our little garden never looked so good as when she tended it."

Doran led Siegfried and Cedric to a grove ringed with trees. Near the edge of the ring was a little withered corpse. A plain-faced young man stood guard over the body with a spear.

"We figured that we'd best leave her lay where she was, just in case there was anything here that could help you," stated Doran. "The missus weren't too happy about that, but she gave in when I told her that it would help bring the killer to justice. Besides, we've stood watch day and night to make sure that no beasties harmed her."

"There's not much left to harm," muttered Cedric under his breath. Siegfried turned and raised an eyebrow at Cedric, who abruptly closed his mouth and went back to looking for plants and rocks whose languages he spoke.

"Your friend speaks aright, I fear," said Doran. "She is not much more than dried out skin and hair stretched over bones" Doran abruptly turned to vomit in a set of bushes that Cedric had already addressed.

"These plants and rocks are either stupid or blind," grumbled Cedric. "All of those who care to speak to me say that they saw only trees. There are blasted

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