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((Triple Monday -- Page 3 of 3))
“Is there some way that I might be able to improve your dour mood?” said Ettol, smiling now.

Parson took a step back unconsciously. ‘Overra...’

‘Ask him why his own mood appears to have improved so suddenly.’

It sounded like as good a question as any. “Why do you seem so different from how you were a moment ago?” said Parson. “You were acting very confused before, yet now you’re behaving rather cheerfully.”

Ettol looked up at the sky as the wind from earlier was beginning to return. “Hmm. You may be right. Perhaps I was lost in more ways than one.”

“But now you are not? What changed in so short a time?”

The man gave him another smile. “I met you.”

That did little to provide Parson with comfort. “So what? You don’t know anything about me.”

“That is not true, Parson Miles. I know your name. You told it to me yourself.”

“You are beginning to annoy me.”

“Am I? Oh dear. I apologize. And here I thought we were getting along quite well. Hmm. I think I will blame the weather. I am not feeling myself with all this fog around.”

Parson didn’t need to check. “There is no fog here.”

“Oh? Curious. That does not bode very well for me, then. I suppose I should get to the point.”

“Point? What point would that be?”

“I cannot be quite certain, but I believe that I have come here because of you, Parson Miles.”

Somehow, Parson already felt prepared for this conversation to get even stranger. “Is that so?”

“I would have liked to befriend you, but it seems that the best I will be able to manage is an introduction. If I had but more time, perhaps you would not be thinking so poorly of me already. ‘Tis a shame.”

Parson merely eyed the man dubiously.

Ettol slowly extended a hand, palm up. “I know this may seem odd, but would you mind holding my hand?”

Parson eyed the hand even more dubiously.

‘Don’t you dare touch that thing,’ said Overra privately.

He absolutely agreed, but he would’ve liked an explanation. ‘Why? Do you know who this man is?’

‘I haven’t the faintest idea, but I do not trust him.’

‘That makes two of us, then.’

“Please,” said Ettol, extending his hand a little further now. “I will not harm you. And it will only take a moment.”

Parson’s mind went to his earlier concerns, which had quickly vanished but now would make a suitable justification for this reticence that he was currently feeling. “I mean no offense,” said Parson, “but I know nothing about you. You could be contagiously ill.”

“Ah...” Ettol frowned. “I see. Would you perhaps change your mind if I told you that touching my hand would allow you a benign glimpse into Chaos itself?”