"Those sound like excuses. This isn't very complicated. You don't have to worry about my parents noticing that I'm gone, or anything." Davide replied. "How come you didn't stay at the castle if that's where your daughter is?" He asked. "That castle," He said, looking in admiration at Cnoch na Niall, "Seems far nicer than that inn. And you said the inn was bad."

"I meant the inn was bad as in 'the inn is crap,' not as in 'the inn is dangerous,'" she replied, then gave a deep sigh. "Look, lad. You are under an enchantment. I suspect I know what's happened but I'm not sure yet, and there's ways of findin' out. I don't expect you to believe me but I do expect some cooperation."

Davide gave her a sour look. "How am I not cooperating?" He asked testily. "I didn't scream at you when I found you naked in my bed, and I got dressed and followed you all the way out here," He waved his arm to indicate the road, "Although I've probably been kidnapped, and I've been listening and being polite and everything while you grumble about each and every thing! Augh!" He moaned frustratedly, and kept trudging up the road toward the castle.

"Oh, will you come back here?" she snapped irritably. "Boys!" She stormed after him. "You have not been kidnapped! Although that may change here in a minute!"

Davide stopped, just as irritably and waited for her, arms crossed. "I wasn't walking that fast!" He snapped. "It's not my fault you've got short legs." Then something clicked and he stared at her again. "You said I got enchanted? What's that mean? Am I going to die or something?" He asked, more curious than distraught. "Or is that just a fake reason to keep me from doing anything interesting?"

"No-o-o," said Judith, for once being careful. "It's means that up until some point last night, you were a grown man round about forty. And now you are sixteen. And someone has made you forget all the years in between. I should be very pissed off about that, an I were you."

"I'm seventeen." Davide corrected her sharply. Then what she said sunk in, and he looked down at his clothes, and then at her, and then down at his clothes again. Then he turned an exceptional shade of red. "Er. Um. But we... you..." He drawled off, and then looked up at Judith again. "Are we... married?"

"Oh god no," Judith replied, amused. "We're old friends. You're a Navy man. You used to work for my old Grand Commandeur--back before he lost his damn mind and got married."

Davide shook his head. "I think you've got me mixed up with someone else, Missus ni Dowd. For one, I'd never be naked in a bed with a woman I wasn't married to." He said firmly. "Secondly, I'm going to university. My younger brother Julian is going to join the Navy, not me. I'd never do that in a million years. Maybe you're friends with Julian? He's got red hair like me. I'm Davide." He said and shrugged. "Everyone gets us mixed up now, so I wouldn't be surprised if they did as we got older."

"Even if I did have you mixed up, which I do not, the fact remains that you are here and you are yourself and whatever else, that needs to be set right," she replied.