As you enter the clearing, you hear Evelyn ask someone, “Isn’t the frog here yet? I thought you said you were bringing one.” The woman to her right replies, through a yawn, “I brought him, he’s coming.”
An old woman on the far side of the stump spots you approaching and calls in a trembling voice, “There you are! At last! Come, sit!”
You find an opening to Evelyn’s immediate left. (Three of the four already present are kneeling; would you prefer to kneel or sit?)
The tall man kneeling to your left has a well-trimed black mustache and bushy silver eyebrows. His hair is straight, starting out black near the roots and turning to silver by the time it ends partway down his back. He is dressed in a dark-colored robe with a popped collar and his spine is perfectly straight. He looks down his narrow nose at you as you arrive, a supercillious sniff his only greeting.
To his left, and thus somewhat across the stump from you, is the fat old crone who called out to you. Her build reminds you of the dwarf you saw on the mountain side yesterday, but with less muscle and more liver spots. Her scraggly white hair is tied up in arbitrary bunches with what looks like twine, or maybe cat gut. Her leer is mildly upsetting, and she keeps clenching and unclenching her fingers.
To her left, and thus to Eveyln’s right, there is a young woman in long pajamas, aged perhaps nineteen to twenty-eight. She sits a little back from the stump so her legs have room to splay out in front of her while she leans back on her palms. She’s wearing a nightcap – the conical kind, with the little poofy ball on the tip – and her hair is held in a loose ponytail by means of a green scrunchie.
Once you’re settled, Evelyn introduces you. “Everyone, this is James, like I told you. James, these are Babo, Magda, and Imogen,” indicating the other three in order from left to right.
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I’m assuming “until either A or B” means whichever comes first. Let me know if should interpret that otherwise in the future.
