Enchantress

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The newlyweds found that living in Creel Springs was the most wonderful experience either of them ever had. Their fearful mission was still ahead of them, but there was another delay. Their only source for velum, Bruce Bockschecker, went on a walkabout, and when he gets back some other Bruce will bring them the Velum. That gave Nick and Octavia the chance to fall in love with a life that neither one of them wanted nor expected.

As the days went by many of the villagers stopped in to wish the young couple well and quite often, they would ask Nick about a pain or have a question about one of their farm animals. Octavia didn't have to say, "I'm sorry but I'm not a witch," they all seemed to know that Nick would be able to come up with the right solution for them. The guys would ask Octavia a question about enchanted farm implements and Octavia could fix a plow and fix the spell that allowed the plow to scour like no other. The townsfolk just knew the roles were reversed and it was amazing for Nick and Octavia to experience.

Meanwhile, the more that Nick and Octavia inventoried their bookstore the more they realized that they have an inventory of amazingly powerful books. Octavia asked herself again, why were only a very few of them chained down?

"Because there's no wizards here to drive them crazy," said Nick.

"We're both wizards," Octavia reminded Nick.

"Yeah, but we're not crazy."

"Crazy for sex," she whispered then licked his ear. The entire week has been a sex drenched celebration of love, they were more than ready to enchant some velum.

"I'm trying to make us some money," he reminded Octavia but he still pulled her into his lap and tickled her until she squealed.

"G'day mates!" called a familiar voice from the stacks.

"G'day Bruce!" called Nick and Octavia Stein as the Ecksan librarian Bruce Dinkum stepped into their shop. "How ya doin' mate?" asked Nick.

"Oi have one hundred sixty six sheets of velum here for a little magic if you can find the time," grinned Bruce as he laid a package on a countertop. "One hundred fifty for the cause, fifteen for you, and one to make the magic."

"It will be ready tomorrow morning," said Octavia and she got up from Nick's lap and counted fifteen sheets of velum from the package and handed them to Nick then took the package and waving goodbye she left the shop. As she walked up Main Street she had a smile on her face, a spring in her step and a swivel in her hips that was telling the world, "I'm getting some Dick tonight."

"Good afternoon Octavia," said the first resident of Creel Springs that she met, Ophilia d'Mahrk. "Hamlette and I heard that you and that nice fella of yours got married."

Octavia decided to be honest and see what Ophilia's reaction would be. "Yes Miss d'Mahrk. Not one hour after meeting you we walked up to Nana Partridge's cottage and she performed the ceremony for us."

Ophilia smiled and nodded happily. "What a dear, you know, Nana has been dead for more'n ten years and she's still doing everything she can for Creel Springs. I don't know what we'll do if we ever lose her." She smiled remembering sweet Nana Partridge. "And how are you two love birds getting on? I'm sure this is a change from what you're used to."

"We are loving life here in Creel Springs. Nick was born and raised in Ankh-Morpork; I was born there too but I was a foster child, so I moved from place to place, mostly academic families donchaknow. But I think this is where Nick and I will stay and raise our children."

Nick watched Octavia through the window and his heart swelled with love and happiness. This is life in small town Kingdom of Lancre and it's better than anything he could have dreamed of. "She's a little anti-social t'day, wouldn't ya say?" Bruce interrupted Nick's reverie. "I show up and she runs away."

"She's taking the sheets up to the house where we will prepare them this afternoon, or maybe tonight. If this works properly, we probably won't be here tomorrow. The finished velum will be in that box, just leave the money on the counter."

"You gonna be off monster hunting?"

"In a manner of speaking." Nick shrugged off that line of conversation, there's something Out There that has Octavia nervous, she rarely mentioned it before but as this mission has finally become real, she sounded worried when she talked about what they are going to do in Krull. To clear his mind, Nick showed Bruce around the bookshop and the scriptorium that he was so proud of. "I'm doing some calligraphy for the royal family's return from Zamphis, that's what the extra velum is for."

"You have some mighty powerful books here, but they don't seem so anxious as the ones in our library."

"We were just talking about that; my guess is that we don't have so many wizards here making them crazy."

Bruce thought about it and said, "Ya might have a point there mate, you only have two wizards here."

"One actually," Nick shrugged. "I'm not really a wizard, I'm more like an honorary member of the team. I'm more like a witch. The locals are coming to me for all their medical needs and problems with their livestock. Octavia is a much better wizard than most I've met and I'm getting compliments on my witchcraft. I'm actually getting pretty good at potions; there's an anti-fungal brewing over the fire right now."

Bruce didn't argue with him, the lad is right, the blokes conferred the title of Bush Witch on him after that row in the bush, and Bush Witch is also called Medicine Man and in other parts of the disc it is also called Witch. To change the subject he said, "I thought I smelled sheep on the barbie."

"There's some ribs on the smoker. The locals pay in food, which we love. We're planning on canning fruit and veggies for winter already." Nick wasn't quite sure what that was all about, winter is cold and rainy, he's not sure what the locals were so upset about when anyone mentions winter.

The two friends shared one last tallie before Bruce headed back, and just before he left, Nick pulled his master key out from under his shirt. It hangs from a red ribbon around his neck. "Octavia and I both have one of these, it's the key to the front door, I have a silver one, hers is gold. If you need us and the shop's not open, light that purple candle in that window," and he pointed to the window that overlooked the blacksmith's yard. "That's a messenger candle, I have one in our cottage that will light the moment you light this one and one of us will come get you."

"That is totally bonzer!" gushed Bruce.

"If something happens to one or both of us, the keys end up right here," and he showed Bruce the desk drawer where he first found the keys. "Always check here first, if you don't mind."

Bruce's blood ran cold, he understood exactly what Nick was telling him. "I'm sure I won't see any keys in there mate. G'day!"

After Bruce left, Nick locked up one piece of velum in the scriptoria with the original parchment framed up next to the blank sheet of sheepskin then he sat down to copy the spell that would turn other sheets of sheepskin into Thaumatin Velum. According to Octavia the ink didn't matter nor did the pen nib or even the font Nick chose to write in, he could copy it over in cursive if he was in a hurry. But Nick wanted to make an exact duplicate, if for no other reason than to give him practice and it didn't take long. He copied two other spells on normal velum after getting that first spell complete.

Selling and buying books didn't make them much money, but potions and calligraphy made them good money in the long run. Also, a form of magic that he brought back from XXXX was making them incredible money. Bruce {one of the Bruces, Nick forgot which one} taught him about the magic that happens when the smoke from a hickory or mesquite fire is allowed to enchant a brisket or rack of ribs. {In the hands of the right wizard it turns that cut of meat into money} Right now, three racks of ribs were just coming to perfection, two for Trei, the village blacksmith, and one for him and Octavia. Davis paid Trei three racks of ribs for some work on a wagon, Nick cooks the meat for Trei which Trei pays Nick a rack of ribs for smoking the two racks for him. You can't beat an economy like that.

As for velum - they were selling Thaumatin Velum to Bruce for half an Ecksan moolah each (10 sheet minimum) and for every 10 sheets enchanted Nick required an extra blank sheet for shop stock. He knew that Bruce was selling each sheet to the Unseen University for a moolah each and to Brazeneck College for two moolah each and their agreement allowed Nick to sell Thaumatin Velum to unaffiliated wizards for whatever price he could get. To meet this and the need of velum for calligraphy jobs, Bruce Bockschecker has already promised Nick and Octavia five hundred sheets, but they're not holding their breath waiting for Bruce.

Nick copied the spell that makes the conversion from sheepskin that can hold ink to velum that can hold magic happen. It's a circumstantial spell meaning that it doesn't have to be read or spoken, just as long as the circumstances are met the spell will activate, in this case a wizard or a witch having sex on a bed just above where the velum is stored, and that's why there's no Thaumatin velum available, there's no sexually active wizards available and no one asked a witch. Nick finished copying the spell for the Rite of Prose Mino which read little better than bad poetry, followed by one more spell, then rolled up the scrolls, and changed the sign on the door. Before he left he lit a small candle, then he turned around and took one of the scrolls out of his robe and set it on a pot belly stove in the corner.

When he turned back to his desk and there sitting at the desk was the shade of Besingger Floyd, wizard. "Doctor Floyd? Could you do me a favor?"

The shade of the old wizard looked at him like he was just interrupted from a dream, bright pink cheeks, white whiskers and flowing locks, his robe was bright orange trimmed with black fur. "Yes my boy, just ask."

"If I don't come back from this mission, let her know this scroll is here for her. Tell her to read it anywhere she wants but it would be better alone. Could you do that?"

"Hmm? Yes of course. And what if she doesn't come back?"

"If she doesn't come back, I won't be coming back either. Make sure that Bruce Dinkum gets the keys, he's a wizard from Four Ecks, can you do that?"

"Of course, but son, her death doesn't mean..."

"Her death means that I failed. I don't know if you could live with me if that happened, but I couldn't." Nick blew out the candle and the image of Besingger Floyd, wizard, faded away.

At the same time, Octavia was wrapped in a towel talking to Nana Partridge. "Darling," Nana was saying, "women everywhere face the same situation, you wouldn't believe how many young women will tell you that they're not going to survive childbirth."

"This isn't childbirth Nana, this is big and I have a very bad feeling about it. Just tell me you'll take care of him, please?"

"Calm yourself, I'll watch over him."

"Gotta go!" Octavia blew out the candle and Nana faded from sight.

Nick walked up the path from the pond with the smoked ribs wrapped in paper and he saw that Octavia was standing in the cabin's doorway, totally naked. Nick was so in love with this woman that he almost cried whenever he headed off to the bookstore in the morning without her. She is going to want to set out as soon as possible so this may be their last night together.

As is now becoming their daily ritual she undressed him and led him to the pond where the couple splashed and played and sometimes made love. That day they kissed gently, waist deep in the warm pond water, Gula spraying them from the waterfall, Gaspode pretending he's much too mature for this country living routine until a squirrel wandered past and the chase was on.

Nick tried to put on a brave face but it was getting more difficult as the days went by, she needed to perform the rite of Prose Mino months ago, a spell that would release the baby world turtles so they could take cover in the passing nebula before the world eating leviathan attacked them, but the report from Krull is that the leviathan has been spotted and it has been feeding on asteroids, and it's getting big.

The look on her face told him that she heard the reports too.

After washing each other gently and kissing away the poorly hidden tears, Nick led his wife back to the cottage by the hand and up the stairs. Up there the heat of the day still reigned, and Octavia slid a small wooden box out from under the bed, it contained the blank velum pages that Bruce delivered earlier that afternoon, now he placed the page that contained the spell he copied on top of the stack of blank velum along with the spell for the Rite of Prose Mino and slid the box back under the bed.

Octavia pushed him down on the bed and lay down next to him, she began trying to get life into his limp cock by stroking in gently, but he was not responding, normally his cock would be so hard it ached. The fear of this mission was getting to him too, so Instead of teasing him, Octavia started kissing him, giving him reassurance, kissing her way from his lips to his nipple. She tongued and suckled on his small teat and she began to be rewarded by signs of life in his cock. She grew even more aggressive when suckling his nipple and felt life in his cock, little pulses that she felt in her fingertips as she gently stroked him.

Octavia changed her mind and tried a different approach, something she disliked in the past. Her first "lover" an ancient wizard who used her like a cheap Ankh-Morpork Peal Street whore. He raped her mouth over and over and when the wizard librarian who she was studying under at the time found out, he tortured her rapist, then threw her out. She laid her head on his flat stomach and began kissing the head of his poor limp cock. Her tongue gently swirled around its head, and she started to realize that this wasn't the enemy that attacked her years ago, this is her husband, her lover. "I'm sorry," she whispered to his cock, sorry for not doing this earlier. How many times in the past week did she ride Nicks face as he sucked her pussy, swallowing her juices? It's time to return the favor.

She moved between his legs and began licking his balls, and sure enough his cock twitched with life as she sucked one of his balls into her mouth and she began to swirl her tongue around it, faster and faster. She heard a groan, what did he say? She stroked his now hard cock while sucking on his other ball. "Façade!" he whispered.

Octavia squealed in excitement, he called out her false name, the name they use when it's prudent that their real names remain secret. "Façade..." he groaned as her tongue slowly slid up the length of his cock and she began to swallow his length. His cock was too big to violate her throat, but he groaned in delight as her lips covered more and more of his shaft. "This is for you Porter," she whispered in reply and plunged her mouth down on his phallus taking more than half of his throbbing length into her mouth and entering her throat.

She pulled her mouth off of his cock pulling hard making a nasty slurping sound. "Watch me Porter," she whispered to her make believe lover. Sucking his cock some more, plunging her mouth over it, over and over, her tongue slavering on the sensitive underside.

"Ohhh Façade!" he groaned, "... so good..."

Then she crawled over him, "I want you in me Porter, I want your cock in me," she rose up and lined his cock up with her pussy then began to slowly lower herself down on his hard dick. She groaned deep in her throat as she felt her pussy being stretched wide open. Her brown eyes locked onto his remaining eye, "Fuck me Porter," she demanded as she began rising and falling.

As her excitement built, she leaned forward and propped herself up on her arms, her big, full breasts were swinging back and forth as she drove herself back on his cock, her clit rubbing against his groin. "I want your cum in me Porter Strongback!"

"Yessss," he groaned through gritted teeth. He gripped her ass and drove himself into her deeper and deeper. They were out of control, fucking each other almost violently. "Fuck me Façade Incognito," he gasped.

As they both came there was a brilliant flash of octarine light from under the bed, her orgasm rattled her mind and his cock pumped what felt like a pint of sperm into her womb.

"I love you Octavia Stein," Nick said as he kissed the sweaty brow of the passionate lover that lay sprawled on his chest.

When his breathing became soft and regular and Octavia was certain that he was asleep she whispered, "I love you Pommeraie de la Montesquieu Stein... I wanted to have your baby..." stifling a sob she eased her way out of the bed and pulled on her traveling robes. She gathered the velum from under the bed and slipped out of the room.

"Where ya goin'?" asked Gaspode as he watched Octavia pull on her hiking boots.

"I've got some work to do," she said. She had to keep her words as vague as possible but completely honest because no one can spot a lie like Gaspode.

"Work you don't want Nick to see you doing?"

Octavia chose not to answer that question. Gaspode will see her subterfuge, but it's better than letting him figure it out. "I need you to stay with Nick, he needs your friendship." And with that she slipped out the door and into the night.

Gaspode was in shock, she left! "Whimper..." was all he could say. He stood on the porch and watched her walk down Nana's driveway, the moonlight illuminating her path.

"Did she say where she was going?" asked Nick as he stepped onto the porch next to Gaspode.

"No, but you know where."

"I was hoping she wouldn't do that..." He held the porch door open for Mesquite who stepped out without a word. Nick locked the door with his Master key then said, "You two up for a bit of a run?"

"Let's do it," snarled Gaspode and crouched in a starting position.

"I'm your broom, Sir Witch," said Mesquite.

"Let's do it," agreed Nick. He stepped off the porch and allowed the power from that ancient and very grateful book Vanemate Rasside Jõud loose in his veins. Power like that would ruin any other wizard because power is what they craved, but Vanemate Rasside Jõud realized that Nick was not that kind of wizard. He was on the money more than he suspected when he told Bruce that he was a witch now. Wizards crave and covet power, witches distain power, they think it's "showy" and "boorish" to be flashing power around like that. But when a witch needs power and she has access to power like Vanemate Rasside Jõud, she uses it.

The transformation only took a moment, but it gave Gaspode a head start. As soon as Nick had transformed, he took off after his friend, running and laughing like they did as a boy and his dog but this time Nick is on even footing with his four legged friend. They dashed toward the pond then roared around the hubward end, coming out of the banked turn they took off like a pair of rockets being trailed by a very fast stick toward the forest. Leaping over the brook that babbled out of the pond they entered the forest where Gaspode's lead over Nick began to fade and soon Nick was in the lead.

Laughing and whooping the trio raced, dodging trees, leaping over logs, running through the woods with a purpose but loving every step for the sheer joy of running. Being a dog Gaspode could run all day long, dogs were built for speed and distance, but once they reached the forest it was Nick that had the advantage, because in the woods, nothing runs like a deer.