Megan’s Adventure

by Mr. David R. Dorrycott

Incomplete

Megan Silentstone watched quietly while her Grandmother moved through her laboratory, selecting a little of this, a touch of that and a drop of another. Clean scents soon filled the chamber, bringing memories of Spring, when flowers bloomed, then of late Summer and a harvest of scented herbs. Megan, suffering from a rather nasty sneeze, had come to visit in hopes of some small cure. Grandmother always seemed to know what to do, what to mix and how much. Her medicines almost always cured. Even when they didn't, they brought comfort where there had been none before. So the little girl watched as her favorite Grandmother stirred a soft buttery yellow mixture over a small flame.

Megan couldn't remember a time in her six short years when Grandmother hadn't been there. Hadn't been ready to help anyone who asked and never took payment. She'd heard rumors that once the older woman had been an adventuress. Had stood against the Great Dark with magics that could, and once did, fell mountains. Rumors that she'd once had great beauty, wealth and knowledge. Yet Megan had never seen her grandmothers face fully, only her always gloved hands and her gentle voice. Honey soft, in its soothing caress. It was a voice that brought peace to even the most violent. Megan’s own mother seldom spoke of the past. All Megan was certain of was that, after her husbands death, Megan’s father, two years ago her mother never laughed, rarely spoke, and almost never slept in the bed always waiting. No one in the village could remember Megan’s grandmother without her covering clothing. Most assumed she'd been horribly scarred. Those few who guessed the truth kept it to themselves.

"Drink" the spring breeze voice ordered, offering Megan a small mug of steaming tea. She blew at the rising steam, enjoying its warmth through the earthenware mug. She heard the soft sound of leather slipping over skin as she drank the sweet mixture, then the warm feel of her Grandmothers hand on the back of her neck. "Good girl. Go home..." A heavy banging on the buildings thick rowan wood door broke into the older woman’s words. "No wait. Stay here Megan." Megan obeyed, knowing it would be someone hurt, ill or maybe the moneylenders wife's time. Many people came here instead of to the cold Royal Doctor a few roads South when birthing time came. She settled down, enjoying the last of her drink. Her constantly itching nose had already calmed.

The older woman walked quickly to her door. Unlike Megan she already knew it wasn't one of the townspeople. She could feel.... "Not again" she whispered, lifting her doors oak locking bar. Pulling her door open allowed the cold Winter winds in, snow was in the air but none had fallen yet. Come sundown it would be a blizzard. She stared at the group waiting outside. "Warrior, Scout, Thief, Wizard, Scholar and Cleric" she labeled each in their turn. A simple, traditional ‘quest’ grouping. "Who leads?"

A small form stepped forward from its protected place in the center. Thin hands reached up, lifting a heavy woolen hood away from its head. "Snowy, Scholar to the Kings Court" the faerie answered. "May we enter?"

"My granddaughter is here. Remain in my storeroom until she departs. I do not wish her exposed to..." She grimaced in obvious distaste. "Your kind" she answered, a tone of extreme distaste in her normally soft voice. A stunned expression blossomed on the faerie’s face, for an instant she almost argued. Yet she bowed slightly as she turned towards a smaller building beside the home. Her group followed her, not without backward glances, but without a sound. Behind them the heavy Rowan door shut with a finality only the strongest of portals could impart.

"Someone sick?" Megan asked when her grandmother returned.

"No, some visitors” her grandmother explained. “They will return when you go home." Megan pushed away from the table, standing. "No" her grandmother ordered in her spring breeze voice. "We wait for your mother, you know that."

"But she'll be hours and your visitors..."

"Can wait" came the explanation. "If they can't, well then I don't need to see them anyway. Now tell me about your day and I’ll teach you another trick."

Sunlight was but a watery memory when the group finally entered. Quietly they stood, waiting. "Lady Amberleene" Snowy called, kneeling. "We have been sent..."

"Oh stop that rot" their hostess snapped, the softness of her earlier voice gone. "I quit that title thirty-six winters ago. Call me Amber, like my husband did. And cut the flowery stuff. Your on some stupid Quest. Get to the hard stuff. I'm old, I don't have much time to waste on such frivolities. I still haven’t found an intelligent apprentice for example."

Snowy blinked, Amber was.. a commoners name. Still... "Yes.. Amber. We..."

"And stand up. I'm not Royalty. Not any more."

Snowy stood, shifting slightly in confusion. This certainly wasn't what she'd expected. No, not at all what she'd expected. "We were sent to bring you to the Capital. There's a problem King Martin believes only you can deal with."

"Some idiot opened the Gate again, didn't they" Amber snapped. "I told Matty to melt that key. He wouldn't listen to me would he. Never did listen to people smarter than him. Now what problems are there?"

"Invaders from.. Otherwhere" the fairy admitted. "They have taken the Prince and his wife. Only their infant son was left behind."

"Intrigue?"

"No My.. No Amber. It was a cleaning boy. He found the key and, thinking that door was a chamber needing cleaning, he opened it."

"And was summarily changed of course. Into what this time?"

"I believe it was a slug" the girl admitted, some humor in her voice. "He lives."

"And will be the better for it. Close the portal. He’ll return to what he was. Then melt that key. At least you'll get a cleaning boy back."

"But.. The Prince?"

"Has the brains of a country bumkin and his wifes no prize in that department either. Your better off without them." That brought a smirk of humor from the background. Amber shook her head. "Thieves, no propriatary. No curtisy. All of you go home. Tell Matty he's down two, up one. Close the portal, he's even. Call it quits. I warn you, your little group isn’t ready for what’s waiting. It’ll eat you up like spring berries, and spit nothing out."

Abruptly she pushed back the covering over her head, exposing her face to the group. No soft skin greeted them, no sweet lips or cool green eyes. What faced them was crystal scales, each one throwing shattered fragments of firelight. “And the rest of my body as well” she warned at their shocked expressions. “All of it. There are costs for victory little ones. Be certain you are willing to pay the ferryman when his bill comes due. Now off with you, and tell that whelp I’ll send his next group back as rabbits. Understand?”

“Please Amber” the faerie whispered. “He has ordered...”

Amber reached for the faerie in a move not even that ones lightning reflexes could avoid. Pulling the young woman against her robe she waited. “No warmth. No cold. Not without effort. I am, but I am not. Is this what you want little one? For your mate to love you, yet him unable to feel your touch, your lips, your love. Do you? Get you out of here, marry a Baker, a Scholar. Hades girl, seduce a Priest for all I care. But get out of adventuring. There is no glory. Only hurt.” Pushing the stunned woman away Amber covered herself again. “You tell that snot nosed whelp, I bide no interference in my family. None. And you thief. Put that charm back. Its for women who desire a child yet cannot conceive. You’d look damn funny nine moons from now if you wore that for one night.”