Chapter One.
 

The school was there, still, and they knew it was there, even though no one could find it.  Especially not those in his party.  He looked at his two guards, then groaned and walked off, going to the middle of a field.  "You invited me," he called.  "You invited Xahar the Great to dance for you and yet you hide from us?"  He pushed his waist-length braid back over his shoulder, looking around the clearing.  He wasn't dressed as a dancer, it was too risky for him to do so on these roads.  That's why he had the two bodyguards with him, not that they were of much help at the moment.  He looked down at his simple mercenary's leathers they had him put on.  They were tight against his muscles and he looks like he was a fighter.  He could fight and he did it very well, but that wasn't why the wizards had called him.  He was one of the best dancers of his art, a style of storytelling dancing.  He was known throughout their world for charming men with his movements and making women envy his grace.

The wizards had paid for him to dance for them.  He knew a bit about the school, having done some research before he took the contract. They were mages who created things.  They were the ones who build amulets, urns, boxes; anything that needed or could be charmed to hold spells, capture creatures, or even to enchant the one you wanted came from this hidden tower. If only he could find it.  "I'm still here," he called impatiently.  He went back to where his guards and their horses were waiting, walking up to his horse to grab his bag and change.  Maybe if they saw who he was they might let him in faster.

"You shouldn't do that until you're safely inside," one of his guards said, looking around.   "We don't want someone to try to steal you again, boss."

"It would be the fifth time this trip," the other one agreed grimly, pushing back her hair.  "I don't know why they keep trying to steal you, boss.  You're very cute and you dance very well, but I'd never steal you."

He smiled at his guards.  "Thank you, Liset.  I'll keep that in mind.  I think they may need proof of who I am though, so I'm going to change and stretch.  If that's all right?" he asked his male guard, who shook his head.  "Why not?"

"Because someone will come by and try to steal you again," he said with certainty.  "It seems to keep happening.  We can't protect you if you get stolen again."

An older man walked out, leaning on a heavily carved walking stick.  "You were looking for the tower, boy?"

"Well, they did invite me," he said with a small smirk for him.  "I'm Xahar."

"Are you a mage?"

"No, I'm a dancer that was hired to come give inspiration to a few of the Masters."  He flipped his braid back again.  "Are you a mage, sir?"

He smirked back.  "I may be."

"As amusing as these games are," Liset interrupted, stepping forward, "our employer should not be out in the open.  It really is for the best, sir.  Are you one of the ones who hired him or not?"

"No, I'm not," he said, sounding rather fond.  "My assistant did actually.  Come, I will lead you inside.  There's a few guest rooms for you and your guards.  Why do you travel with two?"

"Because on the twelve day trek from my home city of Garanths, I've nearly been kidnaped five different times, even wearing fighter's leathers and my sword.  Liset is calm and rational and Ballor is paranoid, it works for us," he said with a fond smile back at his guards.  He walked his horse after the older man, letting his guards follow.  "I didn't bring much in the way of outfits, but I did bring the standard six or seven and the ones I like to improvise to.  Where will I be dancing?"

"In the serving hall.  It's the only place that's not crowded with inventions," he offered.  "Got a good floor and it's smooth and big.  You should be fine there and your guards can stay in your room if it'll make you feel more comfortable.  They can even follow you about some."

"That would be fine," Liset agreed.  "We've slept on many a floor covering the doorway for Xahar.  There always seems to be people after him."

"I was wondering if it was a spell," Ballor offered.

The old man looked at Xahar, fingering his braid of hair.  "Not that I can tell immediately.  What caused the white streaks, boy?"

"Um," he sighed, shaking his head.  "Technically an accident.  I used to have an assistant of my own but he wanted to be an alchemist.  I had him mixing up some conditioning treatments for my hair and it went a bit...wrong," he finished flatly.  "It stripped the color out of a few strands.  It won't hold even natural dyes.  It makes me look much older than I am, which is nice in a way.  Less people try to steal me since I got them."

"I still don't see why anyone would want to steal you, boss," Liset said honestly.  "You're pretty, you dance and make men and women want you, but you're expensive to keep as a lover.  Your last one bankrupted himself."

The mage looked back at her.  "Bankrupted?  Was he royalty?"

"A knight who I said no to over and over and he still sent things," Xahar said firmly, glaring back at Liset.  "I did not encourage him."

"Was he the guy with the white hair?" Ballor asked, looking at Liset.  "I lost track last year sometime."

"He was the one with the perpetually shiny armor and the stupid grin that never went away, even when the boss slammed a door in his face and caught his nose."

"Oh, yeah, he sighed about that and said it must be love if Xahar would hurt him."

The mage leaned closer to Xahar.  "What did you do to that one, boy?" he asked quietly.

"He saw me at a public exhibition and got obsessed," he said sadly.   "Ruined a noble house and I implored his father to stop him, but he wouldn't.  Even his mother only cooed and tried to play with my hair."  They walked up to the front of the tower and he looked up.  "Well, that's impressive."  It was overgrown with plants but it had a lot of little rooms sticking haphazardly off the main tower, a few with smoke coming from the windows. The windows were mostly open and mostly just wooden and iron shutters instead of that expensive leaded glass like was used in castles and temples.  The main tower looked very old under the plants, the white color fairly dingy but with a hint of a glow around it.

Liset looked up.  "Looks like every other building made by man's hands, a statement of manliness.  Women create curves and beauty.  Men create themselves over."  She walked the horses inside, finding the stables easily enough.  It had some horses staring out at them.  "Mind if they join you?" she asked, just in case the mages had charmed them too.  She sniffed and groaned, letting all the horses out and going to clean the stables.  Mages never did practical things, it went against their code or something, but she wasn't risking her horse in that stench of filth.

Xahar came to get his bag, looking inside.  "Want some help?  That's pitiful."

"If you weren't due to dance tonight, I'd accept, but they'll never let you do it again if you stink this badly, boss."

"Point.  Want Ballor?"

"No, I want him guarding you," she said firmly.  "Just in case."  She pulled him aside.  "Boss, can we maybe not pick up any mages as boyfriends?" she asked quietly, glancing around.  "They're nice and they make pretty things, but they'd be really hard to steal you back from."  He gave her a dirty look.  "I know you don't try, I know that you have no control over any of that, but please?  Tone it down a bit?"

"I can't be true to the stories if I tone it down," he protested.  "You know I don't try."

"I know," she soothed, patting him on the arm.  "I know it's nothing you can control, boss, but we can't really do much if we're battling wizards and then our pay would have to go up."

"I told you two to take the jade bracelet," he reminded her.

"We did.  If we have to face wizards, our contract states a pretty gem each month, each."  He shuddered.  "So please?  Try?  Send out 'I'm taken' vibes or something? Please?"

"Dear, we don't want him," one of the mages called from the tower.  "Just the inspiration he can give."

She snorted, looking up at the older woman hanging out the window.  "Others have said the same thing and we still had to rescue him from dragons, elves, sorcerers and their trunks, and all manner of people, ma'am."

"I'm a man, dear."

"Sorry, sir.  It was the hair."  She winced and went back inside the stables. "I'm making myself useful.  I'll rinse off and come unpack things in a few minutes if Ballor doesn't."

"He's already taken the packs," Xahar assured her, heading that way.  He ran into one of the mages staring at the stables.  "She tries very hard but she refuses to let her horse live in a place that needs cleaned.  She calls it being useful but most of the rest of us call it fussing over her horse."   He squeezed past him, heading to where he could hear his guard singing.  Ballor was an odd man, bronzed, muscled, wore a mighty axe, and a paranoid man who refused to do anything that would attract attention.  He had lost his wife just months before Xahar had hired him from an inn.  Ballor had been drunk and surly when Xahar had been attacked by a few patrons for being pretty and not selling himself.  Ballor had taken offense at the men interrupting his grief and had basically taken their heads off with his mighty axe, then broke down in tears.  He had hired the man on the spot.

It had been about two months later when he had met Liset, the fit, shorthaired, muscled warrior female who everyone said was a myth because she had that thing about cleaning.  From what he understood, female warriors never cleaned anything.  Except for her.  She cleaned nearly anything and everything.  She even did dishes at inns sometimes because they offended her with their dirt.  She was also one of the best sword fighters he had ever seen.  That's why he had hired her.  The problems she had with his laundry being sweaty were just an added bonus.  Now all he needed to do was to teach them to play an instrument and he'd be all set.  He found Ballor laying out the device he had found the last time he had managed to travel across realms after being taken by a sorcerer and his many trunks.  He had managed to find a mage to enchant it to work, but it was all that he could do most of the time to get Ballor to touch it.  "Thank you."  He looked down at himself.  "The blue silk?"

"Boss," he complained.  "They'll lunge and attack and then I'll have to kill them for touching you.  Wear the red one."

"The red one's too tight in the thighs.  I gained more muscles," he complained, grabbing the green set.  It was a good compromise and these pants did well for the dances he planned on starting off with tonight.  He walked over to the water basin and found not a pitcher with water, just a set of taps. He carefully turned one and smiled when warm water came out.  "Sunwarmed.  Genius," he praised.  He cupped his hands so he could rinse the sweat off his face and arms, then took off his vest to do his chest and sides.  "Ballor, bring me a cloth?" he asked.  "I have one in my bag."

"I saw, boss, and it's dirty.  Liset hasn't seen it yet?" he taunted.

"She's cleaning the stables.  Said they were in bad shape."  He shrugged and looked back at his back.  "I need to be cleaner."

"Young one, if you step behind the curtain and turn the taps on there, you can take a full bath, like under a warm waterfall," someone called from the doorway.  "That way you can do your hair too."

"Thank you."  He closed the taps and found the curtain the mage had spoken of, moving it to see the bathing area behind it.  He turned on the water in there, getting in once he had stripped.  He pulled down his hair while he worked the knots out, finally freeing the heavy mass so it could be rinsed clean too.  By the time he was done he was very clean and Liset was back.  He stepped out and held the curtain, nodding her inside.  She smiled and stripped right there, getting in after him.  He went out to dry off with his towel, sitting on the edge of the sleeping pad so he could brush his hair out then rebraid it.  It was heavier but it'd curl nicely when dried.  He slid into the green silk pants, tying the front laces so they hung properly and wouldn't fall down when he spun, then slid into his sandals.  "I'm ready."

"They're not," Ballor told him.  He looked up from his present scroll.  "What music were you using tonight?"

"The blue one.  I planned on doing the first three of the main series of stories."

"The slave ones?" he asked, looking at him. "Is that wise?"

"Yes, I'm in the mood to do those," he said firmly.  "They're less provocative. I need the workout after the last twelve days riding, and they're compact in case the space isn't that big."  He moved down to the floor to stretch out.  He didn't need to pull a muscle this week.  He stretched in the other direction, moaning a bit.  Ballor stared at him.  "Saddle sore, Ballor.  I haven't been able to sneak away for months."

"I'd hope not," Liset said as she came out of the cleaning area, grabbing some clean clothes to put on and heading back to do so privately.  She came out and sat down in front of Xahar, grabbing his arms to help him stretch forward.  "Which ones tonight?"

"The first three of the main series."

"Sure.  I'll bring all the knives."

Ballor nodded, patting his old axe.  "Me too."

"Guys, stop it," Xahar commanded.  "Nothing will happen."

"Of course not, boss.  After all, it's not like you have a history of mages and sorcerers stealing you," she joked.  He frowned at her but she helped him stretch in a new direction and he moaned instead.  "Sore from riding?"

"Very sore from riding," he admitted.  "It's been a long time since I had to ride that long."  He stood up and stretched backward, touching the floor eventually, groaning again when he did so.  "I need to practice more often," he complained.

"You probably do," Ballor agreed, watching him work his stomach muscles while bent over backwards. "How did you learn to do that?"

"All part of the training," Xahar admitted, snapping up and stretching up.  "The dances were taught as a method of fighting in one of the places that I was kidnaped to.  The dances made the fighters more limber and they learned the basics of self defense from them.  I learned the dance portion and the fighting portion while I was at that castle."

"You mean you got stolen before you learned to dance?" Ballor asked, looking confused.  Xahar nodded, smirking at him.  "Why?"

"He thought I was pretty.  He was right of course," he added with a smirk.

"Boss, not to be rude, but how many times were you kidnaped before you learned to dance?" Liset asked patiently.  "You never told us about those when you hired us."

"Oops," he muttered.  "Just a few.  Five or six I think.  Once when I was six as a hostage by some thugs.  Then just after my manhood ceremony by someone wanting to keep me as theirs.  They were highly disappointed when I snuck away in the middle of the night.  Then two more times as a hostage during a raid or some other sort of thing.  Then the last one of those I was kidnaped by someone who thought I was pretty and taken over the seas to the castle where I learned how to dance.  They said it only made me a better lover so it was more than useful for me to learn."  He shrugged.

"In all this time, no one ever figured out *why* someone keeps stealing you?" Liset demanded, standing up to make him stop moving.  "No one at all?"

He shook his head.  "It's been pretty good this year.  There's only been two real kidnapings and a few near misses.  The year before I hired you I was eternally saving myself.  I think I had six that year that managed to get away with me and another ten or so who tried but I fought them off."  He grinned at her.  "Now you see why I have you two?"

"Oh, we did before, boss," Ballor admitted sarcastically.  "Did he tell you how he met me?" he asked his coworker.  She shook her head.  "I was grieving for my lost wife and child at the village's inn where he was overnighting.  Some people got upset that he wasn't for sale with the bowls of stew and watered down ale and wine.  They tried to force the issue.  He was beating them but then the innkeeper decided to try to keep him as well.  He had a few of the village's thugs come in to grab the tired man."  He looked at his boss.  "This one tripped over one of the bodies and the guy trying to grab him fell into my drink.  I ended up defending him and taking off their heads.  Then he sat down next to me and said 'I'm tired of defending myself'.  I told him to get a bodyguard and he wanted to know who would follow a dancer around.  I guessed who he was then."

Liset snickered, swatting him on the his huge arm muscle.  "I just found him because he was moaning about his hair and some woman who tried to cut it off. I thought he was a courtesan or someone's personal concubine, which would have started an inter-family war where I was.  This one was out without any weapons, even his usual hair daggers.  Only his dance pants and his hair tied back.  Not even any jewelry or oiled down.  Still, the woman decided to get snide and try to hurt him.  He couldn't hit her, being the gentleman he is, and so I stepped in to backhand her for him.  Then I went back to cleaning my tack.  He just looked at me and asked if wanted a job.  I didn't know he had you at that time."

"Why did you go out like that without waking me?" Ballor demanded.  "I was only next door!"

"I was going to get the pants patched and buy some new ones at the market," he admitted with a small shrug.  "I had some coins stuffed down the front of my pants for safety reasons.  Besides, everyone else there was wandering around without a shirt on.  I thought I'd blend in better if I wasn't wearing one too."

"I remember the day you showed up," Ballor told her.  "How you yelled for hours, but I didn't understand much of what you were saying.  Thank you for learning our language."

"Welcome," she said gruffly.  She looked her boss over.  "Are you oiling yourself down this time?"

"I should.  Just a light coating," he decided, going to pick out the small sealed vial from his pack.  He carefully spread a light coating all over himself, sniffing the manly smells that now coated his chest and arms.  If his hair were down, he'd wipe his fingers through it too but it was too much trouble to take down again.  He settled on doing as much of his back as he could with his fingers.  Ballor came over to do it for him.  "Thank you.  I wish you liked boys," he joked.

"Boss, I love you like a brother, but I like girls.  I tried a few boys back in my training days and they just were too different for me. You're pretty but I like women too much."

"You should start to see Liset since you're together all the time," he quipped, turning and giving him a gentle hug.  "You need to move on, Ballor."  He walked off, going to find the wrist chains he preferred to wear while dancing.  Some of the instructors had worn ankle ones.  Some had preferred not to wear any jewelry.  He liked to have his wrist chains, just simple little chains without bells.  It added a bit of sparkle to draw eyes to where he wanted them.   He sat down to put on his sandals, then stood up again.  "We should go see if they're ready."

"They're having dinner then you'll be going on, boss," Ballor offered.  Xahar sighed and sat down, grabbing the scroll Ballor had been reading to have something to do.  He and Liset got ready until someone knocked on the door.  The guy on the other side was a young man, with hair the shade of cornhusks and about as rough as those tough leaves.  "Ready?" he asked.  The boy nodded.  "Xahar?"  Their leader got up smoothly, showing how well trained his body was.  "Weapons, boss?" he suggested.

"They're mages.  Having a few knives in my hair won't make a lot of a difference," he noted, following the young man down the stairs.  He admired the way the floor was put together, it looked very solid, but you could feel it was magic holding it together. He walked into the dining area, bowing to the head table.  "You had me appear?  Are you ready for me?" he asked with a small smile.

"Indeed we are. We need more inspiration," the woman at the top of the head table noted.  "As you can see, we've even cleaned up a little bit for you.  There used to be a siege engine there."

Xahar grinned.  "Thank you, my lady.  I had planned on doing the first three or four numbers in the main storyline if that suits you?"

"It would.  At a later time we may ask you do to one of the ones with weapons if possible.  A few of us are working on assisted weapons."

He nodded.  "I can do that.  My sword is upstairs."  He put down the device he had carried and started it, frowning.  "Wrong disc."  Ballor blushed and hurried back to get it, bringing it back.  He changed them out, then moved into position while Liset started everything going.

"Where did that device come from?" one older man with a very long white beard asked.

"Later," the head woman chided gently.  "I'm sure he'll discuss it with you after he's danced."  Xahar nodded, moving into the first form, which had him looking over his right shoulder, his arms like they were chained together at the wrist and to his left, and his right leg back.  He spun slowly, getting lost in the music and the dance itself.

Ballor and Liset stood against the wall and watched their boss move and flow.  He was like smooth water.  Even the youngest of the young children could see what the dance was about and where the story broke and paused.  He had worked out a few of those side- stories but they were not for this crowd.  Those were severely inflammatory.  They covered the time when the main character, the one Xahar was portraying, was being trained as a slave.  They saw a mage shift in his seat but he was only pulling out some paper to sketch on.  One was staring intently at him, then suddenly got up and ran out.

Xahar finished just after the music ended, not panting or breathing heavily.  He bowed to the group and looked around.  "Did I offend?"

"No, we're crafters, we're an odd lot who must follow when our muses scream at us," the head woman said kindly.  "Those were wonderful."  Everyone not drawing clapped and hooted politely.  "Could you stay for a few weeks?"

"If you wish," he agreed.  It was part of the contract after all.   "Should I come back each night?"

"Possibly.  Sometimes we'll have you outside in the gardens in the afternoon if you wouldn't mind.  Nature has much for creators."  He nodded at that.  "Then please, enjoy yourself.  If you wish to shop or anything while you're here, there's a good market in the nearest town and some of us could always use something."  He smiled and nodded at that as well.  "Then please, anyone need anything?"

"I want to see the device," one man noted.

"Of course, Master Mage," Xahar said regally, going to pick it up and carry it over.  "One of the times I was taken early last year was by a sorcerer.  He and his Trunks of Many Outcomes actually," he admitted with a small grin.  "He stuffed me into one and it sent me across realms to a world where gadgets and gizmos ran everything.  This is a music playing device.  The person I got it from said it was called a compact disc player.  The things inside with the music are called compact discs or CD's."  He opened the top to show him.  "They're easily scratched, but hold sound faithfully without going out of tune."  He pulled out the CD and let him look it over in the dim light.  "From what the person who gave it to me said, the music is somehow inscribed on the shiny parts.  He gave me a great number of his collection before I left him.  I've even used some to fill in some of the gaps in the stories, like his training as both a sex slave and as a warrior.  I have some things that are very soft, like earlier, and some very loud things," he admitted with a shy smile.  "It's one of my greatest treasures."

"I can tell."  He carefully handed it back, watching as the strange device was put back into the machine.  "How does it play?"

"He explained it as a laser, which is a beam of light, senses the music and tells the rest of the machine how to play it.  They had many gadgets there. There are things like this that play movies, basically recorded plays, over and over again.  They're the same size as this disc, but they play in a different sort of machine."

"Interesting.  Meet me tomorrow afternoon by where the magically drawn carriage is.  I wish to see some of those other dances, young man."

"If you will it," he agreed. "They are more energetic and more leaping and lunging sort."  He backed up and bowed.  "As it pleases the group."

"Thank you, Xahar.  You have already sparked a great many ideas," another mage said quietly.  "The one who ran out works on capturing devices."

Xahar winked.  "As long as he doesn't try to capture me."  That got some laughs and Xahar walked out, his guards following him.  "That went well," he decided once they were in the upper reaches of the tower, nearer to their room.  "No one tried to capture me on the floor."  He led the way into their room, letting Ballor get the person out of their bed while he held open the door and Liset went for a weapon.  The young man from earlier ran out without much prompting and Xahar closed the door, smiling at his companions.  "Dinner?"

"I have some leftover bread and cheese," Liset offered.

"We could ask," Ballor pointed out.

"I don't remember if food was in the contract or not," Xahar offered, sitting down to look it over again.  Liset took it from him, handing him her remaining bread and cheese.  He'd need it, he was already too skinny.  He took it back so he could nibble while he read, then nodded. "It is included."  He handed it to Ballor, who sighed but went to get them some food and something to drink besides water. He came back a few minutes later with a large tray and a jug tied to his belt, and Liset took everything to put it out for them.  It was only fair since he had fetched.

Xahar picked up Ballor's scroll, getting comfortable on the sleeping pads so he could read and entertain himself.  His guards would be playing cards or something similar soon.  Ballor came over and took the scroll, handing him a bowl of meat and some fried potatoes, so he ate instead, then took Ballor's scroll back.  Ballor sighed.  "You've already read it," he pointed out.

"No I haven't.  That's the one I picked up in the last village.  Read the other three."  He took it back and settled in to read while Xahar looked at the other three, handing Liset the two he didn't want.

"So we're having a quiet night in?" she asked.  Both men groaned and one looked at the door.  The other looked at the window, and both were holding their weapons. "Nothing will happen.  The door's locked."

Ballor groaned and stood up and Xahar backed himself into a corner so he could see both entrances.  Nothing happened for nearly five minutes but then someone did tap on the door and it was unlocked from the outside, and the mage did stick her head in and smile.  "Can I borrow Xahar to look at some new jewelry I'm working on?  He seems like he has very good taste."

"You can bring it up here if you'd like," Liset offered.  "Mercenaries often buy jewelry because it's universal cash."

She smiled and nodded, hurrying away and coming back with a large basket of trinkets.   "I'm an apprentice crafter so I'm still doing small things, like earrings for illusions and things like that.  I'm trying some of my new designs and they seem off to me somehow."  She let Xahar have the basket and sat down in front of the sleeping pads, hands in clear sight of both the guards.  "You know we won't try to steal him.  The others would get mad if they didn't have any inspiration this month," she offered.

"So the usual kidnaping will take place at the end of the assignment?" Ballor asked.
She smiled.  "If there were to be one, it would be more likely then," she agreed.  "My master alone would kill the rest if they got rid of his source of inspiration."

"Good to know," Liset agreed.

Xahar held up a piece.  "I like this but the metal's not an even thickness.  I know that's a problem in swords.  I was taught a bit about fixing my own," he admitted, letting her see what he was talking about.  "See how it's uneven?  Is it supposed to be that way?"

"No," she admitted, frowning a bit.  "I was working on that earlier. I was hoping to put a gem in the middle o fit."  She took it to look over, nodding. "It's uneven," she agreed, turning it to the side to look at the profile.  She put that one aside and pulled out the next one, letting him see it.  "I know that's uneven but it fits with the nature of the stone in it."

He looked it over, then smiled. "It's fairly plain.  Were you thinking about decorating it further?"

"You mean like carvings or filigree?"  He nodded.  "I hadn't.  You think?"

"Most people think that the more decorated a thing is the more it's worth, even the worthless and ugly things," Liset told her.  "Most people seem to like that instead of the simple things."  She took it to look over.  "If you did, it'd make a good cloak broach.  As a pendant, only a great lady would wear it and that's too simple of a stone for most of their tastes."

"I hadn't thought about that," she admitted. "It'd be pretty easy to remove the top hoop and put on a pin.  That would be the right size as well.  Noticeable but not too large or bad."  She looked at her basket.  "Maybe I'm planning them for the wrong things."

"I find most designers of clothes tend to spend a great deal of time watching people," Ballor told her.  "Maybe you should go watch in the nearest village."

"We make them nervous," she said sadly.  "They think we're going to sneeze and turn the town to frogs again."  She got up, taking her basket. "Thank you, all.  I'll let you eat and rest in peace."  She walked out, closing and locking the door behind her.

Ballor looked at Liset.  "Well, it was better than the usual attempt."

"Now we have information," she agreed.  "It does make more sense. They need him able to function for now.  We'll have to see who pays the most attention to him."

"Nothing will happen here.  These are nice mages who craft pretty things," Xahar said patiently.  We'll go home in a few weeks and be kidnaped on the way."  They laughed and shook their heads.  Sometimes he was so naive.

 

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