"Yep! See the dragon head symbol on the side? That's the Black Dragon Box, alright!" 

"The Black Dragon Box, huh? Well, sorry, but this box is now the rightful property of Robina the Hood and the Merry Women," she says brightly. "You saw me get it from that sneevil fair and square!" 

(The sneevil, still dangling upside-down, wails, "Nooo...my box....")

Aw man!

"… Can we please have it anyway?" he tries. "As a present to your good friend Twilly? Or we could trade for it. I don't have much to trade with yet but I could do you a favor, maybe?"

He's not sure what kind of favor she'll ask for, but… he can always say no if it's something bad. That leaves the box with Robina, though, but probably that's better than Elan doing something bad?

Twilly's eyes get really big and shiny.

"Pleeeeaase, Robina?" 

"Hmm...well, alright, if Twilly vouches for you, I suppose I can make you a deal. Come with me on one of my missions and help me make the forest a better place, and you can have the box. Agreed?" 

Elan's about to agree, but…

"Just checking—what does making the forest a better place mean? Is it, like, picking up litter or helping sick animals?"

He doesn't even know if enough people come in here to litter but he's pretty sure that if there is any litter, that's bad.

"Wait, have you not heard of the Merry Women? They're famous all the way from Doomwood to Swordhaven!" Ash interjects. "Um, Miss Robina the Hood I think you're really really awesome by the way!!" 

"I haven't, actually! I'm from pretty far away."

He'll definitely explain the full context to Ash later; he just doesn't want to derail the conversation. But if she's Twilly's friend and Ash thinks she's awesome, she probably doesn't want to do anything bad, which makes Elan feel a lot better.

"Oh, well, in that case, allow me to introduce myself properly!"

She sets the box down on the pile next to her so she can give him a proper courtly bow.

"Robina the Hood at your service, leader of the group known as the Merry Women! We steal from the rich, and give to the cuddly wuddly little forest creatures!" 

He bows back, because that seems fun.

"It's nice to properly meet you! Do you mostly redistribute… food and medicine, then?"

The alternative has him entertaining a mental image of various sylvan critters going to the market with bags full of gold, which is of course adorable.

"Sometimes we do! But even gold they can't spend is better off in the hands of a boveox than in the hands of swindlers, embezzlers, and corrupt businessmen!" 

"What's a boveox?"

Possibly a relation of the updog, but you can never be sure.

"...uh, big green animal with horns? Where did you say you were from, again?" 

"Uh, we call it the northern continent buuuut I think you don't have it on this planet."

"Whoa! You didn't tell me you were from another planet!"

(Elan was already the coolest person Ash has ever met, but this really cinches it.) 

Robina...raises one eyebrow at Twilly in a request for confirmation, and gets a nod. Her eyes go very wide for a moment. 

She recovers quickly, toning her expression down from shocked to politely intrigued.

"I don't think I've ever met someone from another planet before. How did you get here, if I might ask?" 

"I don't actually know," he admits. "A few nights ago, I was with my adventuring party. Then I went to sleep and woke up in a forest near Oaklore Keep! And then I met Twilly and Lady Celestia."

He doesn't even know if this was something that somebody did, or if it just… happened. Like a randomly appearing Gate.

"Wow, that sounds super scary!"

Ash pulls a horrified face. "You could have landed anywhere, like the Northlands, or Doomwood, or the middle of the ocean!"

"Aw, man, that would have been pretty scary! I feel like I would only have landed in those places if it would make for a better story than this one, though… like I don't know what the Northlands are like but if they're like the far north part of my planet they'd be really snowy, so I'd probably be found really quickly by someone nice who gave me warm clothes or took me to their house. Probably the same with the Doomwood, or I would have only had to fight like one of those spooky evil trees. And if I was in the middle of the ocean there would probably be an island nearby."

He remembers the many islands he visited while on Hinjo's ship. The one with the orcs was fun! He hopes they're doing okay.

Twilly nods. "I thinks you was meant to land near me and Lady Celestia, because of the prophecy." 

"What prophecy?" Robina's eyes narrow. 

"Oh, ummmm, Twillies doesn't know anything! It's just something Lady C said..." 

Elan nods. "She seems super secrety. And also super… umm, I dunno the word for it but when that box first got stolen by a sneevil she was really chill like she was expecting it to happen, or at least like she was pretty sure that things would turn out okay in the end."

Or like she was secretly a bad guy, but Elan does not have enough evidence for that and he doesn't even really think it's true.

"I have heard that powerful magic-users can be a bit, um, strange," Robina says. "But there are plenty of stories where knowing the contents of a prophecy does more harm than good, so I suppose that might be a reason for her to keep it a secret..."

Elan nods.

"Yeah, especially when they sound scary so you do a bunch of impulsive stuff to try and protect yourself except, oops, turns out you accidentally made the scary thing happen. Anyway…"

Elan doesn't want to get too sidetracked.

"So you mostly focus on rich and powerful people who hurt people and take away the money they're using to hurt people? I think that sounds like something I'm okay helping with."

He wonders if any of the people she Robinas would be played by the jerks Haley grew up with, if this was printed in a comic.