Changeling Hysteria
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_The few tragic deaths and one or three changelings actually found sends wild stories swelling through the commoners. Otherwise level-headed people accuse their neighbors, their friends, their own children of being impostors. Even with only a handful of the accusations being true Fear and distrust brews just under the surface.
After rumors rise of one woman who supposedly killed her own baby fearing it was not really her own child. The story goes that it was her own infant and she was struck down with grief. This cautionary rumor a alack of any new true changelings discovered put a lid on the hysteria, if not quash it. The seed is planted in the back of many a commoner's mind. The whispers continue amongst closest friends only, but no one says anything in public. Are their worries mostly assuaged or[ will one more incident with a real changeling spark something worse?[/color:b168196f72]_
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Telli's happy to hear the tree's have returned to their previous form despite the rough treetop looking one not being a dwarf as she had anticipated.
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_After a small incident dispatching the changelings who were left in the place of Norwick farmers, Paul and Reyline, settle back onto their farm to try and reclaim their lives. They adopt the little girl, Minnie who for all anyone could tell is an orphan. Their shared experience in Avalon creating an instant bond and brand new family.
The two hins rescued both return to the Silver Valley.
The elf and last two humans rescued, all call the realm of Norwick home and all do their best to put their time in Avalon behind them as best they can.
The extra woman whose body was returned with all the others who had been brought back in the form of trees, proves to be unknown to anyone in Norwick and openly claims to be a princess from Deepingdale.
On top of it all, a mysterious dryad is now in the care of Tristina and Kia._
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With all the anxiety and danger arising with dire animals rampaging the Rawlins and strange storms in the skies, many are alarmed when three more children go missing along with the hunters, few think more of the matter than misfortune and tragedy resulting from recent turn in events.
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_The hysteria among the general populations of Narfell mellows further. Only a minority remain in the hysteria's full grasp. The longer most people go without direct contact, the more nebulous and dreamy their recollections of run-ins with Fey or changelings. Some do not even remember at all.
The crazies who still insist the source of the widespread hysteria is/was in fact real and not some haox coked up by local magelings or the product of too much ale and wine around the taverns or overimaginative children, quite a few of them find solace in superstitious precautions.
With other very real and more tangible threats hanging over the heads and everyday lives of common folk and noble alike, it is easy for most to dismiss those crazies._
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_As time passes, the general hysteria has settled down. People exchange old wives tales and stories of different ways to keep the Fey at bay or to appease them or ways to test if someone is a changeling or not. There is not end to the endless variety in stories. Do they really work or do they just give the Fey reason to laugh. No really knows, but the masses in general take hope and peace of mind that there is something they can do. The important thing is the stories help them to no longer feel so helpless and settle their hysteria.
Many among the masses make regular rituals of the superstitions going around the grapevine..knocking on wood, throwing a pinch of salt over their shoulder, keeping their chosen deity's symbol near their bed and at hte ready. Incidence involving changelings decline.
As time passes, all but the most paranoid grow lax in their rituals. Are there really fewer changelings? Or have they just gone unnoticed…depends on who you talk to._
