Beginning VI
The hook caught fast.
I saw the fish leap and dart beneath the crystal waters. But it was to no avail. The silvery morsel was caught.
"So you want to go to the land of the fairies, then?", said the fisherman suddenly.
"What?", I replied, surprised by his utterance. For he had been silent up until that moment, though for some time I had been standing idly by and watching his slow work from a few paces away - this after discovering him fishing there near the bridge of the great walled villa. I had greeted him when I arrived at the riverside, and he had nodded subtly in reply, but otherwise had not engaged me.
He was silent for a while, ignoring the line reeling out as the fish darted away, still skewered with the fisherman's hook. He shifted on his makeshift bench - it was apparent he suffered from the pains of an old leg injury
Suddenly he turned and looked me straight in the eyes, his thick white bushy eyebrows a mad tangle above his piercing glance. I felt somehow guilty, though I knew not why.
"The land of the fae, you seek. That much is clear."
"I beg your pardon, sir?"
"If it be fairyland you desire, then of that grave matter some say that it be not a place, but a thing. Indeed, some tell that the Holy Grail be that which you seek, and fairyland but a riddling puzzle upon the path. But he that seeks the Grail finds it not, this they say also. Pray tell, what is the Question that brought thee here and now?".
[...]
The crickets chirp loudly. The fisherman's line continues to reel out as the fish heads downstream.
1. "Uh... you confuse me, sir."
2. "I am not quite sure what you mean."