A free meal and bed is better then one you have to pay for, especially when you don't have any money to pay for it in the first place. So you follow the woman to a smallish house near the edge of town. She opens the door and beckons you inside, and you comply. You hear the door close and latch behind you. You sit yourself a chair near a wooden table.
The woman takes her hood off of her head and reveals her features. She has a thin face, pale complexion and dark red hair cut close to her head. The feature that surprises you most though, are the pointed ears. You double take when you see them. She sees your reaction and sighs. "Let me get you some of that stew." she says.
"You're...you..." you stammer.
"Yes, I have pointed ears, like the fey." she says dishing some stew into a bowl. "Truth be told, I'm several generations removed from them. I woke up too quickly the change form." With that she seems to shift slightly. Her face suddenly looks fuller and her ears round. She places the stew in front of you. "Eat." she says. You pause a moment, but your hunger asserts itself and you delve in.
While you're eating she tells you a bit about herself and where you've ended up. The town is mostly comprised of humans with some relation, distant or otherwise, to the fey. It's far enough removed from regular society that no one usually comes asking questions when folks end up missing. It's for this reason that the rare visitor to the village will end up being someone's experimental subject for a dozen or so years, perhaps longer.
The woman herself calls herself Tamara, though she confesses it's not her true name. She has mastered a magical discipline that allows her to alter her own form. She describes the basics of it.
"I don't think I could ever learn something like that." you say.
"You'd better hope you can." she says with a sly smile. "Sleep." she says to you, and abruptly, you do. You're unconscious body falls backward with the chair.