The Witch's Want Ch. 07

She nodded, "Pretty much."

He looked dubious, "You can eat this?"

She nodded again, "Yeah."

The man frowned, "Then I would be overjoyed if I were a mouse. But I see that you would give it to me if I ask. It is enough. With this, I can make -" He swept his other hand out behind him.

The cavern changed its appearance, and a rough table appeared before them, covered in food, as though it was a banquet which beckoned them. Candles burned from several ledges and lit the chamber. The humans stared in disbelief.

"Come and eat," the man said as he walked to one of the benches, "there is much to tell, and you would not want to go farther anyway. You were summoned to the shop of a merchant until this day. Now you are summoned here. Since we are the summoners, how far do you think that you can go?"

"There is no danger to you here with us," the black-haired woman said, "but we have come to tell you why you were summoned, and we seek your aid if you would give it. It may mean little to you now, but you were chosen for many reasons, and the most important is that you share a little of the blood of two people who were friends to us once, long ago."

While Hunter tried with little success to comprehend what was before him, Savannah was already edging forward, her eyes on the table. She could smell the feast.

"So this," she said, "This is real food?"

The large man chuckled for a moment as he held up the empty wrapper of the granola bar, "You eat this and ask me if what is here is real. What I have put here is more real than what you gave to me, if this sticky grain is what people eat for food now. Come eat with us and listen."

"So you're real people," Hunter asked.

The dark haired woman shrugged. "Once we were," she said, "This place is the end of one of the dead roads. We have no wish to frighten you, but you are the only living ones here. The food is real -- or real enough to eat and taste. Everything else -- the benches, table and the candles are illusion, though we are not. In this place, we may hold shape and be solid with less trouble than if we were outside. But we are still shades, as hard as we may seem. There is another place where we are what is real and there, we live still. Please, sit with us and eat. No harm will come to you for it."

The three sat down and began to eat. "You did not know each other before, but you came, feeling the summons. You do not know how this is possible, though it is, quite plainly," the man said. "Now, we wish to tell you why. Surely you would seek to know how and why you were called, no?"

"No," Hunter said.

"Sure," Savannah answered, as she edged closer.

"Savannah!" Hunter said with growing alarm, "What are you doing?"

"I'm uh, I'm about to do lunch," she said, "I'm starving." She looked at the women, "What happens if I eat some of this?"

They laughed, "You will not be so hungry, of course, and there will be less for Hunter."

"Awesome," she grinned, and she moved to sit on one of the benches.

Hunter was having trouble being convinced. "Besides our first names, which you've heard, what do you know of us?"

The man recited their whole names, when and where they'd been born in terms that they could understand, the names of their parents and grandparents. By the time that he was done, their jaws hung open.

"Well," he said with a smile, "I had to know enough about you to be sure that you were the ones. I know more about your bloodline than you know yourselves, but to tell of it would take all the day and night. May we eat now? Have you no wish to know how you are tied to each other by blood? Surely any living man or woman would like to know something such as this, and the ones who were the sires of that bloodline were well-known to many at the time."

While Hunter tried to make up his mind, Savannah looked back at him. "This is good, Hunter, You couldn't get better food if you were in the kitchen of the hotel" she said around the mouthful of the roast that she was into at the moment.

"Which is," the man smirked, "where it came from."

Hunter sat down next to her.

The red-haired woman smiled and nodded, "First, I wish to say that my name is Anat. This is my husband -- "

"Wait a second," Savannah said, "I recognize your voices from before you showed yourselves." She indicated the other woman. "You called him your husband earlier."

"Yes," she nodded.

Savannah turned back to Anat. "And now you're calling him your husband, ..."

"He is our husband," she nodded.

The man grinned and held up two fingers, "Two wives."

"Lugalbanda is very brave," Anat nodded.

"Lugalbanda?"

"That is my name," he said, "and this is Nisi-ini-su."

Hunter groaned, "I should be taking notes. Ok, until a few days ago, we didn't know each other at all. Now you're telling us that we're related?"

"Far enough back, many many people are related," Nisi-ini-su replied, "but yes, over many lands and over thousands of years, you both come from the same pair. They were called Fox and Wolf. They were famous among our people."

"So have we done anything wrong?" Savannah asked, "if we're related and all."

Nisi-ini-su shook her head. "You mean because you have loved together? No. You are related, but over many generations, more than four hundred, each of you."

Savannah had asked in that way for a reason and she now had her answer. "You know that we've been together, don't you?"

Anat nodded, "We see. We know."

As they ate, she began to tell them tales of how the couple met and some of the things that they'd done in their time. When she was done, the food was mostly gone. Lugalbanda moved his hand, and a pitcher of wine appeared, along with some goblets.

"How do you do that?" Savannah asked.

He shrugged. "In a place where wine is sold, there now stands an empty bottle."

"I knew Fox well," Anat said, "She was one of my fighters, and we were friends for a long time. You were a fighter once. You know the sort of friendship that I mean to say. You look different from my memory of her, but your body is much like hers was and you are the same in your temperament. The one that you love -- "

She indicated Hunter with her hand and his jaw dropped. "I meant to say that Hunter looks like Wolf, though he is a little smaller in his chest, and he speaks a bit more often."

"Savannah, ..." he said.

She blushed furiously. "I didn't say that," she said, beginning to shake her head.

"He feels the same," Nisi-ini-su smiled, "though neither one has told the other. We see. We know. It is not full yet in either one, but it is there."

"Thanks a lot," Savannah muttered under her breath.

The woman smiled and nodded, "Anat has always said what is plain. She is the best one to ask a question of, because then, one will hear the truth."

Savannah didn't know if she was ready for the truth just yet.

Hunter looked as though he was going to say something, but as soon as he opened his mouth, Savannah shoved a grape in. "For Pete's sake, Hunter, don't wreck it now. She's at least a little right, but now is not the time. I don't want to hear it, ok?"

He chewed on the grape and nodded.

She couldn't help herself. Savannah had to look.

He looked down with an expression which showed a lot of his sudden uncertainty. Savannah had a slightly different reason to wish that Anat hadn't said what she'd said. She took pity on him and reached for his hand. He looked at her, allowing his arm to follow her motion.

"I guess you didn't hear me earlier," she said as she pulled his arm over her shoulder. "I did say that you have me. It's only been a couple of days, Hunter," she smiled, "Give me a chance to screw this up, and I'll probably do it."

Not wanting to stay on the subject, she looked at the trio. "This is all very pleasant," she said, "but I'm sure that you didn't come from wherever you're from all this way to drag us together and tell us stories.

Anyway," she said, "It's a little hard to sit here and listen since we're prisoners here. You blocked the opening, so we're trapped."

"Ah," Lugalbanda said, "of course." The glow of the afternoon sun shone into the cave again.

"Our son's woman requires your protection for a time," Nisi-ini-su said earnestly.

"Your son, ..." Hunter said, catching the look.

"Yes," Anat said with the same earnestness.

"Hold on," he said, "I'm already lost."

"Me too," Savannah nodded, "If you're all ghosts or whatever you are, wouldn't he be dead too?"

"We three had many children," Anat said, "This one, Ur-Nammu was the first, born, of Lugalbanda and Nisi-ini-su, but we have always loved all of our children. Each one had two mothers, not only the one who birthed them. He was dead from a necromancer's casting, but his spirit did not pass and he only wandered. Now he has a body, and so he has the chance to finish his life."

"He has a woman here," Lugalbanda said, "and the woman has property, such as this land and the shop where you were drawn. One day, she will need to leave it behind, but she does not know this yet and is not ready anyway. The way that people live now requires that they be apart at least some of the time."

"There is one who wishes her harm," Nisi-ini-su said, "and there are others who wish that she leave here out of their interpretations of their faith. We can see that she would be beset, and though she does not know of everything that she carries with him yet, she could cause much harm without knowing it. We seek to avoid this by having you protect her and what she owns here."

"And we worry," Anat said, "Sometimes not all is plain to our eyes."

"Why don't you protect her yourselves?" Hunter asked, "You seem to be able to do quite a lot."

"In the first place, it is not right," Lugalbanda said, "and it is not our place. To do this requires much power, since it would be outside of this place. We need three things from you -- if you would do them. In exchange, we can reward you both richly."

"Oh shit," Hunter muttered under his breath, "Here it comes."

"We don't need to be rewarded richly," Savannah said.

"With all the respect I can muster, Savannah, speak for yourself," Hunter said, "I need to be rewarded richly. I need that a lot. Unless I manage to scarf up some business within the next month, ...

I just don't think that I want to know what it's gonna cost me."

"No you don't, Hunter," she said with the full measure of her conviction.

"If you want to help, then I'm with you. If you don't, I'm with you there too and we can try to leave. Just tell me that you need a partner, and I'll help you. C'mon Hunter," she said, "You and me."

He looked at her and, other than how she seemed to be telling him that she was in his corner, he wasn't getting it, and he knew that. He didn't understand what was meant.

"Look," she said, "I'm telling you that you can do whatever you want here, and not worry about scratching up some business anywhere else. I think that we ought to at least hear them out and then decide, but I'll do what ever you think is best and I'll back you up."

Hunter sighed, "Thanks Savannah, but I need some money to even go on past the end of the month. I'm not doubting you. I just don't see how I -"

"I'm telling you that you don't need to worry about money. I'll cover you. Let's find out what they're trying to tell us."

Hunter was out of his field of reference - or he thought that she must be out of hers. He opened his mouth to object, but her smile stopped him as she put her arm around him.

"I dunno what it is, Hunter," she said, "I mean, I know that I'm from Texas and all, but I just know that my accent can't be leaving you in the dust this bad. I trust you ,don't I? Now you just trust me too. You don't need money all that bad right here because, Sugar, you've got me. I'm sure that I can help. I just really want to know what all of this is about."

"You'd do that for me? Why?"

"Sure enough would," Savannah smirked, "It's like I said before. Sometimes you gotta make an investment."

It still didn't make sense, but Hunter knew that he'd never met anyone like Savannah, and if she wanted him to listen to this bunch of animated special effects that badly, well then that's what he'd do.

"Alright," he said, "What so you need for us to do?"