Ravish Me, Oh Great Wizard King!!!

"You there! Halt!" a voice called out in the darkness.

For a moment, Mira's hand whipped to her hip, her fingers grabbing the pink Victoria Glock with a practiced grip. She turned towards the sound.

A figure stood a few yards from her, holding a lantern in front of him. Mira had been walking in the darkness for so long that the light blinded her. She raised her head and squinted her eyes.

"Oh. Hello." she called out. "Have I reached Tourmaline?"

The lantern lowered and she was finally able to see the person behind the lantern. It was an old dwarf holding a shovel in his other hand as if he was brandishing a weapon.

Mira slid the Glock back into its holster. She was not going to pull a weapon on an unarmed man.

"Pardon me, young woman. I wasn't sure who you were, seeing you're carrying that bogwarg puppy on your shoulder."

"Oh this guy. She nuzzled his head with her chin. "I got caught out in the bog and had to fight off his mother."

"You killed the mother?" He chortled.

"No choice. If I didn't kill her, I'd be dead already. But I couldn't just leave him out there by myself so I carried him with me."

For a moment, the old dwarf said nothing, then he clucked his tongue. "It was a good thing you did, young lady. The other bogwarg packs out there left you alone because they could smell the puppy on you. If you hadn't brought him along, you'd have been mobbed and torn apart in no time."

Mira said nothing. Her mother always told her that sometimes, we have to make our own luck. She couldn't agree more.

"The body, where is it?"

"I'm sorry?"

"The puppy's mother. Where is her body?"

Mira turned back in the direction she had been traveling. "It's two hours north of here, in that direction."

The old dwarf nodded. "Well, you must be exhausted. Come with me and my wife will scrounge up something for you to eat. I imagine that puppy probably needs some milk as well."

"Thank you. I really appreciate your kindness." She exhaled, suddenly feeling a deep exhaustion that reached towards the brink of her endurance.

He led her back half a dozen steps, towards the mushroom-shaped house that she had bypassed earlier.

The interior was a single round shaped room, with a circular rug on the floor. There was a thick slice of a large round tree stump that was stuck on top of a smaller tree trunk. It was the only piece of furniture in the room other than the handful of chairs that surrounded it.

The old dwarf placed the lantern in the center of the table and pulled a chair out. "Have a seat. You look exhausted. Let me go call the wife." He walked to the back of the room and opened the door.

From where she sat, she could see him moving out of the house and into another mushroom house. It looked as if they lived in a collection of mushrooms, each one, its own room.

Mira set the carry-on down and sank into the chair with a groan. The baby curled into a tight ball and hid its face into her nape. She wanted to bring him down so she could take his weight off her, but there was nowhere to put him down, so she left him on her shoulder.

Her arms and shoulders were aching so badly that she could cry. The interior of the mushroom was warm, but that only exacerbated her pain. She leaned against the backrest, closing her eyes.

"Oh you poor child!" A voice broke into her consciousness, jolting her awake. Mira opened her eyes. It had only been a few minutes, but it was enough for Mira to drift off to sleep.

A pair of concerned eyes stared at her from above. It was an old female dwarf, most likely the man's wife. "I heard my husband telling me he found you wandering around out in the bog in the dark all by yourself, holding onto that bogwarg puppy." She clucked her tongue. "Now, I don't know what kind of trouble you're in, but there's nothing that can be solved this time of night."

"Thank you for your concern m'Lady---."

"Oh I'm just an old dwarf, not a noble of any sort. You can call me Nonna Pearla, 'cause I'm old enough to be your grandma." She patted Mira on the head. "You're dead on your feet. Here, let me take the puppy from your shoulder so you can eat something first, and then you can crash in one of our spare beds."

She reached out to pick up the baby, but it refused to let go of Mira's neck. Its arms reached out, grabbing onto her with a strength that was surprising.

nnnn...ooooeeee...gaaa...gaaarrooooo… it mewled in distress.

Mira put a hand out. "It's fine, Nonna Pearla. He's a little scared. I'll just hold onto him for a bit until he's more comfortable with the place."

"But you have to eat. Will you be able to eat with him stuck on you like that?"

"Yes Nonna Pearla. Thank you for your concern."

The old woman clucked her tongue, and shook her head. She placed a bowl of some type of gruel that was steaming hot, and a wooden spoon in front of Mira. "Well, try to eat a little while I warm up some milk for the puppy."

She wandered out of the room, muttering to herself, "...lordy, I hope I have some kind of a bottle. I don't think that puppy can drink out of a mug quite just yet..."

Mira smiled with gratefulness and picked up the wooden spoon. In truth, she was too tired to eat, but given their kindness, she needed to try to swallow a bit of the hot gruel.

The old woman wandered back into the room with a baby bottle, topped off with a rubber nipple.

"Guess what I found. I thought I had one of these tucked away in one of my larder rooms. My little Bessie had a baby a few years back and she left one of these behind. Since the baby's now four years old, I guess we can pass this one onto that poor little puppy." Her eyes crinkled into a wrinkled smile and she handed the bottle to Mira. "Here you go. Give this to him and see if he'll take it."

"Thank you." Mira took the bottle and waved it in front of the child.

He was unresponsive for a moment, but then grabbed the bottle with both hands, holding it for a moment, not knowing what to do. She tilted the nipple towards his mouth and he opened his lips reflexively. Within seconds, he was sucking on the bottle by himself.

Mira breathed a sigh of relief and went back to the bowl of gruel. She was surprised to find that it had been sweetened with brown sugar and cinnamon, and was surprisingly good. It took no time at all before both Mira and the baby had finished eating.

The old woman came back with a mug of water and placed it in front of Mira. "What's your name, child?"

"My name is Mira Lee."

"Well, it's nice you meet you Mira Lee. Now go on and drink this and then I'll find you a bed so you can get some sleep. And don't you worry about anything. There's nothing that cannot wait till tomorrow to be solved."

"Thank you Nonna." Mira gulped the water down in a couple of swallows. She hefted the infant onto her shoulder, picked up the carry-on, and trudged after the old woman into an adjoining mushroom chamber.

For a moment, Mira felt like a young runaway mom, taking refuge with a kind family somewhere on Earth.

Except this wasn't Earth, the baby was an orphaned bogwarg, and the kind family were dwarves from the kingdom of Jade.

"Here you go." The old woman pushed open the door to one of the other adjacent mushrooms.

The bright moon peeked through the single-paned window, casting a pale glow inside the room revealing a bed on one side, and a tiny table with a single chair on the other.

"I put some blankets on the bed for you. Get some sleep and tomorrow we can figure out how to get you to where you need to go."

"No need for that child. You're so weighted down, I don't want you falling over. Now get some sleep. You look like you're going to keel over from exhaustion." The woman retreated and closed the door behind her.

Alone in the mushroom chamber, Mira placed the carry-on on the table and then released the baby onto the bed. He sat there watching as she pulled off her grimy clothes and threw them on the floor. Then she shoved the holster band with the guns inside the carry-on. There was no need to arm herself in this safe environment.

She spread out the blanket and rolled in next to the baby. It wiggled around, rooting under the blankets for a bit, and then it snuggled up into her arms.

And in the blink of an eye, the night turned into day.