Book 2: Dirt Diver’s Dance
Ragdoll Ch: 32
Gandree sat at the bow, hands idly working his crafts while his mind wandered to the far horizon, across the endless, sparkling expanse of the sea. It was quiet, just a few yards from his companions, only the slap of waves against the sharp prow of the little ship and the wind in the rigging disturbed his aimless thoughts.
‘The sea, it seems so… familiar?’ He wondered, drawing in another deep, salt scented breath of cool, ocean air. It had been terrifying, for a brief moment as they steered into the place where the world seemed to end. In his young life, living in the caverns and mines of Dwarfhold and the mountain fastness all around, he’d never seen such a thing.
Only the eternal dome of the sky should or could be so unendingly vast, he’d believed, until they left the mangroves and headed away from the only speck of land around.
Daisybelle and her ‘uncle’ were at the helm, conversing and chattering together, surrounded by sleepy looking wargs. Gandree had figured out where their conversation was headed and decided to excuse himself, when things got into realms of ‘girl talk’ that made him deeply uncomfortable. The unfortunate lad tried to stop replaying i his mind, the part of their conversation he’d overheard; with little success.
“...so about once a month you humans have to put up with that? Huh.” Daisybelle muttered, with a wink at Gandree. “I’ll teach you the tummy-time charms… There’s a way to dispel them too, if you find a nice boy and decide to get babyfull…”
Her follow up wink was even saucier and drove her boy to the front of the boat, lest his face burn up from the ever increasing heat in his cheeks.
Even reflecting on the situation gave him prickly heat on the nape of his neck. He shut his brain off with a firm scolding and let himself become absorbed in his work. His needle flashed in the sun, dipping in and out of the wad of cloth on his lap, almost without his direction.
Once fully immersed in a task, without a distinct plan or design, even the lad himself was never sure what the final result would be.
Whatever strange gift or madness haunted his restless dreams and possessed his eternally moving hands could be; when he fell into this state, wonders often resulted. Wonders that entranced and terrified his elders in the hold… Like his flute, crafted from stolen scrap metal, in secret in an unlit workshop, one deep in the mountain and long forgotten by the living residents of Dwarfhold.
The dead had remembered… and led him there; whispering songs, music and stories in the dark, filling his ears with forgotten secrets for as long as he could remember.
Here on the open, daylit sea it was truly quiet, though he could feel them even here. They were always around, fragments and figments of long departed lives, waiting for night to cluster around and gently remind him that he was not truly alone, ever.
#
“...yeah, your boy is pretty much a normal dwarf, with a little extra life force and some memories from another world.” Sarah Ward murmured softly, once their ‘girl talk’ had banished the lad to the far end of the ship.
“He’s pretty haunted, too. Most of us are, to one degree or another.” She shrugged and smiled, displaying one little dimple that was simply devastating at close range.
“Hmph, don’t you go seducing my boy, now. He’s mine.” Daisybelle grumbled angrily at the tall, slender woman.
“Sweetie, you have nothing to worry about there. He’s so mad for you I don’t think I could if I wanted to try…” She sighed, her pale bosoms heaving in the open collar of her robe. “Also, I’m a dude and he’s my… brother? Half cousin? It’s too weird to think about and I am definitely not ‘seducing’ him.”
“You are mighty sexy, now.” Daisybelle mumbled. “Your last body was ugly and mean looking.”
“He was an ugly and mean guy, until I took him over.” She sighed wistfully. “I’ve never been a woman before… She was so pretty, I feel kinda bad for killing her.”
“She was bad, though… right?” The little goblin asked softly. “She was awfully pretty.”
“She was a stone cold murderer and a necromancer, Daze. I’m digesting her brain and getting her memories… It’s pretty awful.” The beautiful woman smiled grimly out at the open sea for a short time, steering the ship in silence.
“She was awful. Human and beastfolk sacrifice, child murder, torture, you don’t wanna know how deep her crimes went. Her beauty was a weapon she used to get what she wanted, nothing more.”
Sarah clapped her hands loudly, in a very unfeminine manner and chuckled.
“I’m stuck with her for now… Just wish I had some clothes. None of Ace’s stuff will fit.”
“Well, uncle… auntie Sarah, you are double lucky then! My boy is a fine tailor and I put him to making you some clothes already! Praise my smartness!” She crowed at her new auntie. “He is very freshly out of his dwarf hole… be gentle with him.”
She spoke softly, watching Gandree’s unsteady approach with a neatly tied bundle of cloth in his hands.
He staggered with the slow itch and roll of the little ship, as they glided over calm seas. He paused a few steps away and cleared his throat awkwardly at the two giggling women.
“Daze asked me to make you some… some things.” He muttered and blushed, holding the tidy, square bundle of gray cloth, printed with bright white, stylized clouds. “I had a bunch of cloth and stuff already…”
“Good lad. Thank you, I’ll go below and get dressed now… Gandree, was it?” Her voice had a sensual timbre, warm and soothing to the ear. “Just remember… inside, I’m a tiny blue ringed octopus… and in many ways, your brother.”
“Hmph.” Daisybell sniffed at her with just a hint of indignation. “Gandree boy is mine, all mine I’m not worried about him. If you meet king papa in this form, he’s gonna get super confused… and by confused, I mean his babystick might explode.”
The strangled grunt of near fatal embarrassment that Gandree choked out went unnoticed, as Daisibelle put his numb hands on the little ship’s wheel as Sarah ducked through the hatch, vanishing below decks with her bundle.
“Steer straight on, Gandree. We’ll be back soon.” The beautiful green girl cooed, before following the blonde human woman into the cabin.
“Oh, sweet goddess Joy…” He whispered softly to the sun so high above. “Send me aid and guidance in this, my most desperate hour.”
#
“It will be safe to camp here, Audrey says a small pack of wargs and a pair of humanoids passed through here a day or two ago, otherwise there’s no one around for miles.” Liam announced in the clearing below the triangular peak, just above the treeline. “Set up here, Shai. Keep it low key please.” His floral familiar was already rooted in the rich, loamy circle of soil Dannyl had described. About thirty yards across and perfectly circular, the patch of magically active and utterly harmless soil strongly resembled the traces Gary and his family left behind wherever they went…
The site was smaller by far than any of them had ever created. Even when Gary had been newly ‘landed’ on the world, he’d left a circle of fertile earth nearly twice that size, wherever he planted his house. Audrey liked it though, whispering her satisfaction and happiness across their bond.
Liam settled on a boulder near the site Shai had her eye on, she would be engulfing that mysterious trace in her own gift, once she began… Liam grinned wolfishly, eager to learn more about the strange patch of earth and even more eager to explore what Audrey’s senses would tell him about Shai’s mysterious casting, as it surrounded the familiar plant monster.
Ever since he’d first witnessed Gary conjure his home, Liam had been fascinated by the act. Neither he, nor any of the talented and skilled mages that had encountered the process, had ever been able to perceive how it worked.
In utter defiance of all magical laws and principles; somehow, the mad fool managed to draw light, shadow, magic and something else, stranger than any of those mysterious elements into physical reality at will. Where the structure came from, or even what it was really made from remained an enduring conundrum that defied any logical explanation.
Liam settled back on his stone seat and opened his senses to the vegetal creature rooted in the soil, as Shai’s spells and borrowed magic rolled out in waves.
Music showered from her dancing, swaying hips and violin, joined by Ivy and Tallum’s tight drum and bass combo, adding their own Mana and Will to the mix, but entirely under the command of the musician, mage, dancer who led the performance spell with a firm hand and unshakeable confidence.
“I wonder if that’s all it is… just confidence and Will.” He murmured, lost in a spectacle of magic and illusion made substance, before his ‘eyes’. In truth, Audrey’s root system and magical senses told him more about what was really going on inside the spell-working than any human organs could.
Each footfall, whether a delicate step or thudding stomp was a vital piece of the ritual, just as each individual note formed a chord, then a melody and each rising harmony shifted another piece of the creation from the void. It poured out of the place where shadows and light intermingled, slowly and steadily, like honey from a cracked hive.
In a few short minutes the song drew to a close, as her magical haze, fog and distracting shadows drifted away; revealing a cluster of low, dun colored tents gathered around a small, natural hot spring pool.
“Fie, I hae not made a camp before… Gary did always create those, tis tricksey!” She sighed with satisfaction at her creation and nodded.
“A bath and an early night is what’s needed. Ivy and I shall crack that seal tomorrow and we’ll be away ‘ere evening.” Shai declared firmly.
“I’d have mine children and husband under these eyes sooner, rather than later.”
#
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It was a strangely long night for the combined Ragamuffin and Clown-shoes encampment, restless and queer. The stars themselves seemed to wheel and spin in irrational ways, until finally, both moons slipped below the horizon, plunging the world into dim, starlit silence for a long time…
Even Gary slept until dawn’s first light cracked the star speckled shell of night over the sky. He awoke, bleary eyed and feeling absolutely weird in his middle, like his guts had been gently stirred, with a pitchfork.
“Ugh… I feel gross.” He moaned into Shai’s soft shoulder and tickly red hair. As if that were all that was needed, his guts settled down and started behaving properly, bringing an almost giddy sensation of well-being into his body.
“Aye lad? Let me get a look at thee… Wait? What?” She asked softly, her hands gently cupping his face in their familiar bed. “How?”
“Babe, am I dreaming right now? My whole thing is kinda messed up lately…” He mumbled awkwardly, struggling to remain calm in the face of yet another weird, inexplicable happening.
“Fool of a man!” She sighed wearily, as she sagged into his very real and almost certainly not dreaming arms.
When the pale, red haired beauty in flannel pajamas reached down and delivered a stinging slap to her mad husband’s ass, reality came crashing down on the couple like a landslide.
“Ow! And, nice one!” He gasped, hugging his wife close and giggling madly for a few minutes, while her handprint bloomed on his buttcheek. “Let’s see what the hell is going on here.” He mumbled into her shoulder at last.
Together they dressed, linked hands and slipped through the corridor to check on the kids… Who were not in their rooms down the hall.
The pair could sense that already, through their innate connection to the home and the bonds the family shared, but they just had to check anyway. They sighed over the empty beds and clutter of long forgotten toys and smiled, reflecting on good times, as parents must, by a law older than any other.
The kids and their teammates were in their own homes, scattered around the compound; just as Liam, Ivy and Tallum were in their own tents, where they had gone to sleep.
They located Becky and Kermal as well, the two were still asleep, snugly nestled in Becky’s victorian gingerbread cottage, painted in all the shades of purple and lilac.
“So how did you guys get here?” Gary asked, once they had everyone accounted for, including Mariah and the familiars, all of whom were still blissfully asleep.
“I would ask the same… If I knew fer certain where ‘here’ is…” She murmured quietly in the kitchen, as they worked at the familiar breakfast tasks together. “I am nae certain where we might be.”
“Good point, love… Let’s put these biscuits in the oven and see what’s what.” He shrugged carelessly, his old mad, silly smile plastered on his face again after so long. “I haven’t felt this good in years…”
They watched from the front porch, as dawn slowly crept down the mountain peaks, revealing the distant white city with its tall towers and sun disk pennants.
“Fie.” Shai muttered, while Gary looked up at the triangular peak behind them and the rolling expanse of forest, heavily cultivated flat land and the gleaming city of splendors in stunned wonder.
“Did we… travel worlds?” He whispered softly, once his brain started working again.
“Aye, it seems so… but nae to a good one.” She sighed. “Glad I am to hae thee all under our roof again, but that city be a wicked place, so Dannyl says.”
She stroked her throat slowly, the way she did when thinking deeply on something… That always made it difficult for Gary to think too deeply about anything but her smooth skin for a few moments.
“We should strike the inn and other houses, mayhap we hae not been seen, lying in the mountain’s shadow yet..”
“Babe, I have breakfast cooking…” He whined weakly.
“Fie on your biscuits! Do it, lad. I’ll wake the bairns and hae them strike the camp. We can rough it for a morning, ‘til we leave this place.” She gave him a gentle swat to the rump and a tushie squeeze to get the job started.
“So bossy!” He grumbled as Shai left to wake the kids. “I get to be the strict one tonight, lover!”
Foolishness and playful grabass aside, the structures vanished into wherever they came from, before full daylight slid down the mountain in a slow moving tide of summer’s warmth. Only the tents and the small hotspring remained, rendering the camp all but invisible from a score of yards away.
It was a very subdued and confused reunion, especially for Lindsey and Flash, who were still struggling with a whole load of fresh crazy already. The family and friends, new and old mixed and mingled in the little clearing, far from anywhere any of them knew and had as fine a time as one could hope for.
“...a different world, but it’s the same mountain, just a little bit skewed and changed.” Dannyl paused, looking all around suspiciously, before he continued.
“Think of it like a reflection in a distorted mirror.” He explained gently, once more. “Then break that mirror into almost infinite pieces, each one showing the same view, but from different angles and in different shapes, sizes and orientations.” He stopped again, once more peering about with a nervous expression on his handsome face.
“Is something wrong?” Lindsey asked, sensing the tension in the young Adventure veteran and explorer. “You seem jittery…”
“Yeah… it’s Gary.” He confided softly. “Everyone else knows, so we don’t really think about it much… He has a problem…” He mulled and considered what seemed to be a thorny topic for a moment, before looking around once again with great care.
“Mirrors. When Gary is around, you can’t let him see a mirror.” He confided with serious gravitas, for such a silly demand. “You can’t even talk about mirrors, or reflections.”
“What?” She asked, just a little too loudly. “Why?”
“Noone knows. If he sees a mirror or thinks too hard about reflections or similar topics he gets a little… weird.” Dannyl smiled sadly and shrugged. “He always has. Did you notice there’s no mirrors in the house, except the ones behind cabinet doors or hidden in closets or the stable?”
“I did wonder about that…” She murmured.
“The kids and Shai hide all their mirrors when he’s around, just to be safe. It’s super weird and uncomfortable, whenever it happens, so be careful please.” Dannyl was usually a cheerful man, his serious mein and no nonsense attitude in this case hammered his point home firmly.
“I understand, but does he? I get the sense that this phenomenon is something he is unaware of…”
“Very perceptive of you. Keep it secret, please… and don’t experiment with him, Shai takes his condition very seriously” Dannyl smiled at last, as she nodded firmly.
“When I explain this multiple worlds thing to him, I’ll use a broken crystal metaphor or something… I don’t know.” He sighed at last, as someone started playing a sprightly dancing tune on a guitar.
“Life is pretty complicated in the Ward family. You won’t regret joining, though.”
Dannyl took her by the hand and pulled her into a wild, whirling dance across the lawn, before passing her hand off to Barry with a smile and bow.
Gary was on a garden bench, playing and smiling, with clear, bright eyes, rather than the drugged, glassy gaze he usually had, while handling a musical instrument. His tiny insect familiar was perched atop his head, grinning just as widely as her bonded companion.
“This is amazing!” He gasped. “I can play here… without ruining my pants!”
#
Up at the void maw… a few hard rocking tracks later, Gary peered at the inscribed tablet carved from the living rock of the mountain with arcane arts. “Uh huh. Yeah.” He muttered crossly at the stubborn wall.
“That’s really complex and confusing!” He complained at Ivy, Shai and Harry, the three most competent mages in the family.
“That’s why we wanted you to look at it, pops.” Harry murmured softly, as if speaking to a frightened child. “Don’t exert yourself or anything… It’s giving us some trouble. We don’t want to brute force it and leave this passage open.”
“Yeah, no sense breaking a perfectly good lock. Just need a key.” He mumbled crossly, while scribbling fiercely in a notepad. “Ghah! It’s making my brain spin!” He tore his page out from the little book and folded it again and again, until it was a tiny, flat square. “There’s just too many variables and random factors…”
He reached in his pocket and pulled out his sewing and mending kit, a tiny packet of waxed leather with a few needles and a spool of spidersilk thread.
Furiously, the musician plucked one of his homemade bronze needles out and sewed the little square of paper to his own collar, with deft and sure fingers. Gary released an exasperated grunt when he finished his odd task and glanced over at the family mages.
“Ok, we can leave whenever. I made us a key.”
“Take it easy, Gary.” Shai soothed him gently. “We can open this lock with a bit more study. Take your ease back in camp.”
“Nah, really. We can go whenever…” He grumbled sourly. “I was feeling so good too… Now I have a headache.”
“Papa… you’re making mom and auntie Ivy upset.” Harry snapped just a little sharply. “Focus up, dad.”
“Oh, yeah, sorry… It’s just, that’s one of my seals… Written in a strange language and using unfamiliar runes, but my translation gift still works.” He sighed wearily and sank to the stone floor of the cave.
“I made that seal; in a language I’ve never seen before, using runes and ciphers I don’t know. It’s even in my handwriting.” He glared out at the sunlit world, beyond the cave mouth and sighed again. “This shit’s crazy.”
“While you guys break your brains over that bit of weirdness; I’m gonna go get the family moving.” Ivy declared, as she slipped out into the sunshine. “Be right back.”
“I know it’s jarring, dad.” Harry mumbled quietly. “It happens to us all the time. We forget who made what and can’t even figure it out, because we’re all so similar. Don’t get me started on the underwear complications.”
Both men smiled and giggled like idiots, while Shai sighed and patted them both on the head. “I’ll hae no end of worries, with these boys of mine.”
Ten minutes later, the whole posse was crammed into the narrow cave, roped together with Dannyl’s knotted cord.
“Are you sure you don’t wanna be put out first, Gary?” The young Adventurer asked gently. “One zap from Kree and you’ll wake up safe and sound on the other side. It can be startling, or even frightening, the first few times.”
“Buddy, this is definitely not my first time.” Gary answered with little of his usual flippancy and foolishness. “I feel it, like a cool wind at my back and from the inside of me, as well. Out here I’m… I’m not whole, but my curses don’t seem to have any bite… And I haven't stepped in horse crap all day!”
“Uh, great job dodging doo-doo?” Dannyl muttered quietly. “That kinda thing makes me more worried about you, not less.”
“That’s one of his curses…” Becky explained softly. “Eponna marked him with her greatest blessing and her most minor curse. No equine will refuse to help him in any matter, but they also can’t resist crapping where he will inevitably step in it.”
“Really?” Dannyl gasped excitedly. “That’s hilariously awesome!” Down the line, Lindsey and Flash giggled their agreement, sputtering together with Barry and the boys.
“You too, Wilf?” Gary sighed at his firstborn son.
“Sorry, dad… It’s legitimately funny.” Wilf pronounced in his Voice Of Judgement, the declaration ringing out with utter finality. “That is the Truth.”
“My own son…” The musician sighed, as he joined his family in walking toward the edge of the world and endless darkness, whistling the ‘Colonel Bogey March’. He’d always loved the merry, marching tune from ‘The Bridge On The River Kwai’.
“Is he gonna be ok?” Liam whispered in Shai’s ear as they marched along beside him down the passageway.
“I hae not seen him this fit and healthy since… Well, just since. An there’s trouble, we hae him tied to us well and true.” She muttered back. “We shall trust him.”
Together, the odd caravan slipped into the cave and vanished from the world, into nowhere at all.
#
Sarah Ward crossed her arms under her plump and bouncy boobs with a grunt of displeasure. Standing nude in the little cabin of Wanderlust, she glared at Daisybelle, who was holding up a tiny scrap of something red.
“A red silk thong?” She demanded hotly. “The bra is just as bad! There’s nothing to it at all, just lace, satin ribbons and fond wishes!”
“The clothes are lovely though…” Daze urged her new auntie gently. “He made you underthings like mine. Trust me, you don’t want dwarf lady undies.” She pulled a sour grimace and giggled.
“Your splendid boobies and booty in those scratchy potato sacks… The thought is a crime against sexiness!”
“Maybe I’ll go commando…” Sarah muttered crossly, fingering a set of soft, smooth trousers and a fine shirt to match.
“No no! Gotta wear the bra and panties! Otherwise it ruins the whole fit!” She whined piteously. “And your boobs will fall out of your shirt! That counts as seducing, so no fair!”
“Gods above and below…” She muttered at last. “These things are rune marked and enchanted… Lifting, firming, enhanced jiggle physics! What the hell? You said he was a babe in the woods! These are some dangerous undies! In the wrong hands…”
“Yes yes… Let sweet Daisybelle help you, auntie…” She cooed and purred, while her hands made grabby motions, almost involuntarily. Almost.
#
Sarah climbed up from the cabin a few minutes later, dressed in the well fitted warm weather garments he’d fashioned for her, while he was contemplating the world. Fortunately, everything seemed quite sensible and appropriate, no weirdness or awkward stuff at all.
Her gray linen pants were snug at the hips, held up with a sash of burgundy silk and flowed loosely to her ankles. A loose wrap-around shirt of pale pink silk set off her complexion and perfect, rose petal lips. It also displayed just the right amount of smooth skin and the contours of her bosoms.
He sighed with relief, deeply pleased that his gifts hadn’t gotten all weird again. A sweet rush of cooling and soothing energy poured over him as he admired his handiwork. Sarah was a beauty… but Gandree’s mind was fixated on an idea; contemplating playing dress up with Daisybell and smiling wickedly.
#
“I really thought the goblin king would be my first completed Contract outside this world…” Thirp muttered to Eponna and Marduk, over afternoon tea. “Enchanted lingerie right out of the gate… He’s full of surprises!” She sighed happily. “I feel like a whole new spider!”
“I’m also pleasantly surprised by that dwarf boy.” Marduk answered with a smile. “And he really knows his smutty undies.”
#