The dwarf was practically giggling as he raced outside and Kaitlyn followed, frowning. Dwarves were usually more dower, so this one’s chipper attitude was unusual. His clothing was slightly unusual as well, a shirt and trowsers which were blue and red respectively. He wasn’t wearing boots, instead just some kind of sandal tying a shoe’s sole to his feet.
He went outside and hurried over to the dragonkin and brownie. He showed his drawing to Cilvic, who frowned and then slowly began nodding. By the time Kaitlyn came over, Cilvic was directing Fapallo to pull over two of the beams Cilvic had sanded down recently for his latest project – a garden shed.
Kaitlyn shrugged, going back inside. She looked at the ogre and frowned, realizing that she had grown accustomed to such odd customers. Human merchants however… might not feel the same way. She carefully began rearranging the tables and chairs to create a separate section with a wide path between where she might seat the humans and those who were inhuman. The ogre was sitting at the long trestle table in the back of the hut, but she wanted to make sure the humans got the tables at the front and had plenty of separation.
While she was working she heard noises regularly outside. Banging mostly. Once there was a tremendous THUMP and the wall rattled, dust shaking loose and three chairs toppling over, most of the rest of the chairs in the room rocking violently.
Kaitlyn ran outside and saw something she could barely understand. In the yard it looked like a giant saw horse, nearly as tall as the two-story house. Hanging from the “tail” of the sawhorse was a massive rock, with Fapallo perched on it and examining some ropes. He whistled, “They are all sharp here!”
The “head” of the horse was holding a twelve-foot long section of tree, leaning on the side of Kaitlyn’s house. She gaped at the travesty and for a moment wanted nothing more than to rush over and reassure her house that this was NOT her fault. She took a deep breath and said, “What are you doing?”
“I call it the builder!” the dwarf said. “I mean, this is only a quick iteration, the next version will having moving parts so it can carry the log from place to place. Cilvic said you were in a hurry.”
“Yes!” Kaitlyn snapped, “We only have about two hours until sundown which is when these merchants are likely to arrive…”
She trailed off as she saw bodies moving through the trees, several dark-skinned elves. She took a breath and said, “Do not hit my house again.”
“Sorry,” Cilvic at least looked properly contrite. He tugged on his beard and all-but disappeared as he ran up the trunk of the tree leaning on her house.
The elves were walking with someone in between them. When they entered her clearing Kaitlyn had to stare a bit. Walking between the five elves was a creature unlike any she had seen before. It stood at least eight feet tall, with a gaunt almost skeletal frame of body. The arms were too long, the knees bending backwards to human knees. Its head was not human at all, but instead looked like the skull of a deer with at least ten points on its antlers.
The elves had vines as well as ropes wrapped around its upper arms, two of them leading the strange creature. It didn’t appear to resist, but swung its head towards Kaitlyn and she saw the holes where its eyes should be were only dark pits. She couldn’t suppress the shudder when it gazed at her.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“I apologize Mistress, we need to stay the night and we have this wendigo as our prisoner,” the elf in the lead said. She didn’t recognize him, but generally she had only met the scouts, and these elves were clearly warriors instead. The were both taller and stouter than the scout elves had been.
“I don’t think…” Kaitlyn began.
“Mistress, we cannot be under the leaves of the trees after dark with this wendigo, they can travel through those shadows,” the elf interrupted her. “The scouts have told us you have a cellar, we will all remain there through the night.”
“All?” Kaitlyn was surprised.
“If you do not wish us to remain elsewhere,” the elf said.
“Come inside, I haven’t heard of Wendigos before,” Kaitlyn said, “Are they very common?”
“Fortunately they are not, they are a soul of human dead consumed by greed and gluttony,” the elf said.
Kaitlyn looked sharply at the creature, which kept its head towards her at her gaze. The skull of the creature had no flesh, but she would almost swear it grinned at her. For a long moment Kaitlyn feared it knew who she was, who she had been before she came here. She shuddered, but led them all inside the inn.
The ogre looked up when they entered and let out a low growl. Kaitlyn glared at him and said, “Do not break my peace.”
“That is a bad,” the ogre said.
“Aye,” the elf leader said, “and could thou destroy it?”
The ogre growled again and then said, “No.”
The ogre slowly settled back against the wall again, glaring at the wendigo. Kaitlyn looked at him in concern. He met her gaze and nodded a moment. She noticed that his nostrils flared, but he didn’t rise to his feet again.
Kaitlyn led the elves to the hallway and into the kitchen. Kaitlyn led them down into her cellar, surprised that the wendigo walked down the ladder like it was merely steep stairs. Titami had followed them and said, “I will cast my magic on it and hold it.”
The wendigo suddenly appeared inside a jar on a shelf, the cork stopper then sealing with a band of multi-colored light. Titami nodded firmly and said, “Moonlight thread will hold him in place. I don’t have another elves and it isn’t strong enough to move. Make sure you don’t touch it until morning.”
“I’m sorry, where did you get a thread of moonlight?” Kaitlyn asked when the elves went up.
Titami grinned and said, “I used to work for Master Garthis’s father. The fae king gave it to me when I made his first born pasties the first time. Got the kidlet to eat for the first time doncha know.”
Kaitlyn could only nod and follow the brownie up into the kitchen. The leader of the elves bowed to Kaitlyn and said, “Thy servant has done us great favor in binding the wendigo for the night. We thank thee and shall petition our queen to send thee favor in turn.”
Titami made a gesture when Kaitlyn looked offended. This was another one of those things she had to force herself to remember. Brownies hated taking credit for their magic. They were most powerful when they were in a support role. As the “master,” Titami would actually accumulate more magic when Kaitlyn took credit for the boon. Kaitlyn hated taking credit when she didn’t deserve it.
“Your magic is weird,” Kaitlyn muttered in the same tone Master Garthis used about the hut. Titami giggled and replied, “So is yours.”
“Alright, it’s a full house, so let’s make sure there is plenty of stew,” Kaitlyn said, “Do we have enough vegetables?”
“I think so,” Titami said, “We might need to add some extra potatoes to the stew, but Fapallo brought us a whole swan and we’ve got most of it in the stew, so it’s beautiful and rich.”
“Where did he get a swan?”
“I’m not sure, you’d need to ask him,” Titami said, “he’s been ranging further lately and bringing back more variety.”
“I will have to ask him,” Kaitlyn mused. Fapallo made it home every night, so how far could he go in single day? It might allow her to access more villages if he could go further and bring her back goods she couldn’t get from the satyrs or elves.
Kaitlyn followed the elves back into the tavern room. And stopped. Near the fireplace sat what looked like a man. She knew immediately he wasn’t, because this was the second kitsune she had seen.