Enchantress

Octavia appeared shortly and they proceeded, a book cradled tightly in her arms, it was done. Façade Incognito had committed the unthinkable; She took a book from the library without properly signing it out. {ok, it may only be unthinkable to a librarian, but it's unthinkable to someone} Soon the sad group entered Nick and Octavia's Book Store and its stark familiarity stabbed Octavia to the core. She and Nick both fell in love with this little redoubt the moment they entered it, it was their fortress of solitude, a place where they could hide from their fears and terrors. They could take a book from any shelf and find themselves transported to worlds of wonder and joy. Two comfortable chairs next to the little potbelly stove had promised a warm nest for reading this coming winter, all of that was gone.

Bruce Dinkum noticed the Thaumatin Velum in the out box waiting for him and he picked up the package and handed Octavia a pouch full of moolah coins. "No, I don't..." she said trying to avoid the money.

"You're going to need that darlin'," said Bruce as Bruce Bockschecker placed a stack of "raw" velum in the In Box earning him a glare from Bruce Dinkum.

Octavia unlocked the front door and stepped into the fresh mountain air and her daddy joined her, but Bruce stayed back a little and opened a drawer that Nick had shown him, "Missy!" he called, but Octavia was walking toward their cottage, ignoring him.

The two Bruce's were overwhelmed with the beauty of the countryside and the quaint, pleasant little village that was Creel Springs. Next to the bookstore was the blacksmith's shop which looked like every poem ever written of that metal worker's paradise right down to the broad, shady tree that cooled the men of the village as they watched the blacksmith work.

"Thank your man for those mutton ribs last night!" called Trei the blacksmith between blows of his hammer. "They were perfect."

"Crikey!" said Bruce, "were those the ribs I brought yesterday?"

"No, said Octavia. "Two weeks ago."

Bruce and Bruce looked at each other, two weeks ago? How is that possible? They drew up alongside Octavia but she wasn't talking, she was clutching the book tightly and muttered as she walked. The Librarian said "Ook" softly before they asked anything.

"Aye mate. But we're here if she needs us."

On the other side of Main Street was a large water mill whose wheel was powered by the brook that came down the mountain from Nick and Octavia's cottage. The brook that supplied the waterpower started high up on Bear Mountain, filled Nick and Octavia's pond then splashed through the forest until it filled the mill pond behind the mill. Ducks swam and quacked happily on the mill pond, but their joy only darkened Octavia's mood as the small party crossed Main Street and followed Octavia up Nana's driveway to the cottage.

At the cottage Octavia went straight upstairs, crawled onto the bed and clutching her book tightly she prayed that she would never wake up. Gaspode leapt up on the bed and curled up at Octavia's feet hoping that if she doesn't wake up she takes him with her. As they lay shuddering before sleep could take them, Bruce and Bruce explored the cottage and the outbuildings behind the cottage. They discovered a set of doors lying almost flat on the ground and opening them they found themselves under the house in a frigid basement kept cold by blocks of ice dragged down from Bear Mountain over the winter. This is where the meat they brought was kept frozen. In there were bottles of beer {Tallies} which called for a celebration.

That evening, Bruce, Bruce, and the Librarian sat out on the porch and drank the beer while telling the librarian stories of Nick in Four Ecks softly as fireflies danced at the edge of the pond.

The next morning, word of what happened got out, and the people of Creel Springs responded. It didn't matter that Nick and Octavia were only here for a short time before Nick disappeared after saving something. What mattered was that their neighbor, their new witch was gone, and Octavia was alone.

In ones and twos they showed up to the cabin where Bruce and Bruce met them and soon the porch was covered with jars of canned vegetables and fruit, loaves of bread and sections of meat. Bruce and Bruce put most of it in the cellar while Octavia lay on the bed and wept.

<><><><><>֎<><><><><>

Nick woke up coughing up sand, his chest hurt horribly, and his head throbbed like he had been stomped on by more sheep, but he was alive. He was naked, thirsty, and it looked like he was alone on a tiny island, but he was alive. Yesterday? Longer ago? Earlier today? He didn't know how long it has been since he crouched on the frigid rocks of Tähelepanek Point, cooling his burned hands on the cold stone and looking over the edge. He was one second from standing up and joining Octavia while Gaspode and her dad pulled her back from the edge, then he saw that giant maw of hell coming up at him, slicing off a huge chunk of the discworld as it roared upwards in its anger.

He changed into something as quick as he could and the only something that he had in his mind to change into was the beast he became during the lecture to illustrate the threat to the gathered men of pseudo-science, a Pétra Trógon Vasiliás. Nick became the beast of his nightmares, a baby brother to the hell spawned beast that was coming up at him. He changed as the beast was slicing off the rocks he was standing on and he dove outward into space. Enraged, the beast turned toward him trying to eat the interloper. In his terror Nick did what the baby turtles were doing, and he headed toward the nebula.

Nick swam as hard as he could toward the nearest column of gas and dust trying to figure out how to not breathe in the column of dust while he's in the body of a beast designed to eat everything but breathe almost nothing. The answer appeared to be as simple as holding his breath, and for him it worked, the much larger beast dove straight into the nebula, roaring in anger, and soon what passed for its respiratory systems was overwhelmed with dust and it slowly drowning itself. Nick had swum around that first column of dust, in its anger to kill Nick the planet eater swam through the column and sealed its fate.

As the planet eater's inertia carried it into the nebula ensuring its demise, Nick struggled back to discworld, he was only partially successful at not scooping up the dust of the nebula, it's hard to not breathe when your mouth is fixed wide open. To make matters worse, A'Tuin was turning away from the nebula, moving away from him. All of the baby world turtles were hiding in the nebula now and A'Tuin was complete with this reproductive cycle, it was time for her to go somewhere else and eat.

Nick swam through space as hard as he could and eventually, he crossed over the rimfall, the perfect and beautiful waterfall that carries the water from the circle sea over the circumference of the disc. Not only was the rimfall beautiful but the rainbow that circled the disk, the rimbow has only been seen by a handful of people who survived to describe it later. Passing over the rim Nick found himself over the Great Circle Sea looking for anything familiar, but he was nowhere near Krull. He spotted an island and changed from a Pétra Trógon Vasiliás to human form, unfortunately he was so exhausted that he didn't realize how far off the ground he was, the last thing he remembered was the sand rushing up to slap him in the face.

Nick awoke hungry and thirsty, and found himself on a tiny island where there was nothing to eat or drink, the only thing on the island with him was Death. And Death was reclining in a wood and canvas beach lounger wearing black shrouds and sandals and reading the Sunday Times. "THREE TIMES LUCKY, I'M IMPRESSED," said the Anthropomorphic Personification of Death.

Nick spit sand out of his mouth and tried to drag his aching body toward the water line to maybe rinse the sand out with salt water. He didn't need to do that, as the sun rose, the island was disappearing under the rising tide. "I'm not a wizard, why am I seeing you?" gasped Nick.

Without looking up from his paper, Death said, "YOU ARE A WITCH, A HEALER. WE WILL BE COMPETING AGAINST EACH OTHER FOR THE LIVES OF YOUR PATIENTS."

"I can't be a witch, I'm a male."

Death turned the page to the sports scores. "IT'S YOUR FATE, THAT'S NOT MY RESPONSIBILITY."

Nick weakly spit sand out of his mouth, "Gods am I thirsty."

"NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD OF A THIRSTY SHARK," said Death as he began to fold up his newspaper.

"That was very nice of you, thank you," said Nick as he dragged himself to the waterline. Why didn't he think of that?

"LET'S CALL IT PROFESSIONAL COURTESY." Death folded up his lounge and faded from sight as Nick slipped under the waves dreaming of the day that he will teach his son to swim.

<><><><><>֎<><><><><>

Octavia sent Bruce Dinkum, Bruce Bockschecker and her Dad home but she couldn't get Gaspode, Gula, and Mesquite to leave {as Gula said "I ai aw ik oo" which caused Gaspode to start howling in sorrow again} so she lived on the porch. Many folk come to see the witch but they had to walk away disappointed, they needed a witch, not an enchantress which added to Octavia's depression.

A couple showed up with their crying daughter, the tiny thing had been bitten by something and her little arm was red and swollen and it hurt. Octavia lit the candle next to the rocking chair and Nana Partridge appeared, but she apologized and said, "I'm sorry dearie, but I'm retired now, after all, I died ten years ago, I need my rest. When Nick gets back, he can help you, but until then, Octavia darling, can you make up a salve for them? It's in my cookbook, page eighty three."

"Nana wait! When is he coming back? Nana?" but the ghost of Nana Partridge had blown out her own candle and disappeared leaving Octavia to make the salve herself.

It gets chilly in the mountains so one evening Octavia piled up some wood in the fireplace, pointed her finger at the wood, and nothing happened. She tried several different spells to light the fire but none of them worked, in fact none of her spells worked, so she lit Nana Partridge's candle with a match and when Nana appeared Octavia was angry. "Why isn't my magic working?"

"For that you need to speak to the wizard, Nick will answer "why" when he gets back, but it was Besingger Floyd who took your magic away."

"What do you mean when you said, "when he gets back?" demanded Octavia.

Nana whooped as if Octavia had told the greatest joke ever written. She finally said, "If Nick had died, that book which you hid under me would be a bunch of blank pages, wouldn't it..." she smiled that little smile that angers Octavia the most, but she realized it was an older experienced witch trying to enlighten a young, grieving wizard. "What does your book say little one?" Nana asked.

<><><><><>֎<><><><><>

Young Octavia Worblehat lived moving from one foster family to another, then on to another as she moved from one library to another through the scientific magic of L-Space. She lived happily devouring any book she could reach. Her foster mothers and fathers didn't mind her presence at all, she was a sweet, polite young girl completely dedicated to her first love: library science. To Octavia, books were living things to be loved, protected, and nurtured. She happily returned stacks of books to their shelves for her librarian foster parents, and she learned to repair bindings and dry out wet books. As she learned to move through time, she loved to see how some of her favorite books aged. The majority of the political discourses failed to age more than a year or two, but her favorites were in the Young Readers category where some remained popular for ages, and some crossed over from universe to universe. {Many publishers are keenly aware of L-Space and realize that they had a pool of reader tested material whose copyright laws didn't apply in their universe}

"Here's one you may like," said Marly, the round world librarian who she recently met for the first time and found a kindred spirit. Twelve year old Octavia gave the book a quick glance and saw that it was a discworld story which immediately interested her. Regardless of the advances in newspapers and post offices back home, literacy rates on discworld were far below 50% and in most places on the disc the literacy rate was in single digits. Reading for leisure was for the monied classes and there were very few young readers who had time for leisurely reading, so there was little need for books geared toward young readers on discworld. But outside of discworld, stories of the discworld were sold as fantasy and did quite well garnering millions of readers, legions of followers, and mountains of moolah. On the discworld those same books are filed under "Biography."

Her very favorite book was a story of a young boy who lived in abject poverty in some ruins next to a big castle filled with funny wizards. The boy's only friend was a small talking dog who lived in the ruins with him. The book was a chronical of their adventures in the slums of a big city, turning the boy's life of loneliness and despair into one of joy and laughter. Sadly, a bad man who wanted to make money with a talking dog grabbed the boy's only friend and the boy had to learn to live on his own in the shadow of a big spooky castle filled with wizards and strange magic. Years passed but the boy remained near the castle, soaking up magic from the radiation emitted by the castle but that's where he and the dog lived before the dog disappeared. The boy spent every day there hoping the dog would return, but he never did and one day the boy met a girl and moved on in life. Later in the book the boy, now a man, and the dog were reunited in a strange far away land filled with strange animals, and they vowed to stay together forever and they toured discworld and saw all of its mystical sights.

The man and the dog added a wife to their happy family and eventually they were blessed with children, and the call of the road grew fainter and fainter for the dog as the dog relived the joy of having a child to play with. In the end the talking dog passed away surrounded by his family and his two legged brothers and sisters, a scene that always brought bittersweet tears to Octavia's eyes.

She always replaced the book on the shelf, and she knew she would read it again on a different world in a different time and even now, whenever she enters a library she looks for her favorite book, a book which was dedicated to the author's "True and only love, the mother of my children, Façade Incognito."

Gaspode and Me

by

Porter de la Montesquieu

When she met Nick, she had just re-read the book and the thought of Gaspode and Me was forefront in her mind. When she needed a pseudonym to start taking classes at the Unseen University, she chose the name of a woman so loved that someone dedicated a book to her - Façade Incognito. However, when she asked a laborer who was hauling bricks away what his name was, and he said "Pommeraie de la Montesquieu" she was sure that he was using the author's name as his own pseudonym. But he couldn't read and Gaspode and Me was written in the future, she had to use L-Space to travel forward in time to find that book, there's no way he would have heard of it.

When Nick discovered she was using a false name in school, he insisted that he wanted one too, so she named him Porter Strongback because he wanted to carry everything she owned in a backpack for her as they traveled and she wasn't thinking of the author of the book consciously. However, it turns out that a young female wizard with an emotional crush on the first man that treated her kindly, unintentionally created a paradox in the time|space continuum. {It's not the first paradox in the time|space continuum, and it won't be the last, but as paradoxes go, it's one of the nicer ones}

Octavia gave herself and the young man pseudonyms taken from a book that he will write years in the future, there was no way he would have known of those names before he wrote them because he was completely illiterate at the time they met. {You know, when you read it like that, it doesn't sound so confusing}

<><><><><>֎<><><><><>

"What does the book say?" repeated Nana Partridge as she disappeared.

There's a small hidey hole underneath Nana's rocking chair that contains interesting possessions that Nana had accumulated and wanted to store {The hidey hole is part of the chair, not part of the cottage. No matter where you place the rocking chair, the hidey hole is there in the floor between the runners.} Nick also started accumulating items in the hidey hole also. One was a small round rock that Nick claimed that Gula gave him and said it was an egg.

Octavia held that book tight to her chest for three days and she never opened it because she was terrified that the pages would be blank, or worse, she would find that it's the boy who dies, not the dog. Eventually she hid the book in Nana's hidey hole and tried to forget about it. Driven by Nana's insistence Octavia knelt down and reached under the rocker as a new terror struck - if Nick was dead, the book would no longer exist. She lifted the cover and reached into the hole and it was there! "Thank the Gods, Thank the Gods, Thank the Gods..." she muttered over and over even though she's a quadratheist {A quadratheist only believes in four of the 37 gods in the Discworld pantheon}

Slowly she sat in Nana's rocking chair and placed the book in her lap, and the leather bound cover looked perfect. She looked in the pocket in the back of the book and pulled out the card, the last date marked was 02/15/2018 what a weird date annotation! How can you tell what year it is? Is it Animal? Vegetable? Mineral? Like this year, the Year of the Impacted Cabbage. So much easier.

She flipped back to the title page and there was the dedication, "To my true and only love, the mother of my children, Façade Incognito" There was a change! Her breath became short and she turned to the table of contents and there was a new chapter! Between Chapter 14 Mission Complete and Chapter 16 Our Little Man was Chapter 15, a Royal Reunion!

"He's coming back," she muttered over and over, and she frantically cleaned up the cabin. People had tried feeding her, but she rebuffed most efforts, now she was starving and she gnawed on the heel of a stale loaf of bread while she cleaned up plates and other dishes. She piled them in the sink and pumped water over the dishes then pointed her finger at the sink and - still nothing. She needs her fire back! She plopped down in a chair and started to pull her boots on. "GASPODE!" she yelled, "LET'S GO FOR A RUN!"

Upstairs Gaspode hung his head over the side of the bed and groaned, "I'm not going anywhere."

"Ok, you stay here and protect the cottage, I'll be back eventually."

"Protect?" He's a watch dog, his job is to watch something not protect anything. This is Bear Mountain, there's got to be bears. "Be right wit 'cha!" and he dove off the bed and followed Octavia out the door and down Nana's driveway to the bookstore.