Sarah was eating a french fry, it had the perfect amount of crunch to it. When the creature appeared it took her a moment to realize that it wasn't someone in a costume.

She waved at him "Hello, can I help you?" 

"I am looking for Luke. the Chosen one."

She pointed at the appropriate house. He entered and shortly returned. "Welp, no such luck. Farewell."

what?

"Okey dokey, thank you for your time and have a great life."

"That's it?"

"well yes, we have a few alternatives in place in case the original one chooses not to do it."

"usually isn't it only one person?"

"only a complete moron would design something with one failsafe in place. nah, we have it happen every once in a while that someone doesn't want to do it. so we always have a backup."

"oh, well good luck."

the creature waved a leisurely hand "all good, take care."

sarah stood up and followed him "where are you going now?"

"to the hinterlands, there are twins there that are my next option. i am hoping it is them. from my notes they are smart, sweet and knowlwdgeable."

Sarah grabbed her backpack "I want to go with you."

the creature looked at her suspiciously "I'm not going to grant you any wishes or anything like that. Or give you treasures untold if you trap me in a snare. Spoiler alert, i am uncatcheable. it's part of my magic that makes me good for finding chosen ones."

"Wishes are just short cuts. And I'm ten, so i don't particularly want a lot of money. Now can I go with you?"

he pondered the question, then finally said "If your parents say 'yes' then you can go."

Sarah saw the gleam of victory in his eye "My parents will probably say 'yes' be right back."

The creature's face fell for a moment as the girl ran towards her house, he called out "You have to really ask them, I can tell if your lying!"

Sarah found her parents weaving together the branches of trees together to build a living fence in the backyard. Her father was a botanist and her mother was an architect "I found a creature that can take me to the Hinterlands, he is searching for heroes."

The parents met each other's eyes and quickly finished what they were doing, her mother spoke first as she pulled off her work gloves "What is two times four?"

"Eight,' Sarah answered 'i don't have a concussion, he is right on the street if you want to see him."

Her parents stepped around the back of the house to see the creature on the sidewalk, sitting at a tall writing desk, jotting down notes on a scroll while blue wispy creatures floated around him.  

"Quantum mechanics?" Her mother asked.

"Most likely." Her father muttered as he approached the creature. 

The creature peered down at the man "Hello, it was her request. not mine."

"What?" her father asked.

"to travel with me, she said she wanted to go, i told her that she could join me but only with your permission."

"awfully decent of you.' her father noted 'anything dangerous or permanently impacting her if she goes with you?"

"I can guarantee one person's safety when they travel with me, since she is my only travel companion i can guarantee her safety."

"no other travel companions then while she is with you." her mother ordered.

The creature looked at all three "You are all taking my appearance rather well."

her father tapped on the black wood of the tall desk "Probably quantum mechanics of some type, i studied a bit of that when i was bored one summer in high school, bit of a hobby. And you seem like a decent chap. Can you have her home before dinner?"

The creature looked at the sun "that would be three handspans? then yes."

"Right have a good trip dear, do mind your manners. And listen to mister what was it?"

"The Herald."

"Listen to Mister Harold."

Her parents gave her a hug as the swirl of magic vanished the writing desk and all of the items on top, the creature floated to the ground gracefully "Let us be off then.' he extended his hand and a large rectangular shield appeared. He extended his other hand and a staff appeared. 'shall we?"

Sarah stepped beside him, he spun the staff and it unfurled as if it was parchment hanging in the air, black ink started to appear on it until there was a beautiful mountain landscape. Herald stepped into the parchment like it was a door extended his hand to the girl. She took it and stepped over the lip of the parchment into the Hinterlands.

She waved goodbye to her parents as The Herald rerolled the parchment into a staff "That is pretty cool, not very flashy though."

The Herald looked down at his staff "I try to avoid doing flashy, my job is to covertly find chosen heroes and get them to their destination before the bad guys find out and try to stop me. So, the less attention i draw to myself the better it is all around."

They started to walk through the icy cold, though Sarah noticed it was more of a cool breeze than frigid even though sleet was covering her face "How am I not cold?"

"My magic, keeps you and I safe."

he shifted his shield to his other arm so that he could compress the staff into the size of a scroll and then unfurled it to read from a list of names "The twins, like I said, i think they will be most excellent for this task. So, we just pop in, get their permission and then pop-out to take em to start getting trained for their epic mission."