Enchantress 4 - Turtle Eclipse

Annabelle stared wide eyed at the basket full of fruit as Octavia worked her way out of the cellar. "That was stupid. I could have levitated my way out of the basement."

"Why didn't you?"

"I didn't use magic while I was pregnant because we didn't know what would happen to the baby, so I'm out of practice. And the fruit is for dad's breakfast. We picked it for him yesterday." As they arranged the packages under the tiny tree, a few of the fairies lit up so they could see what they were doing, then when Preston returned after settling Billy down Octavia said, "I'm going to bed, we'll be up when we get up. You two talk and if you agree, we'll ask the witch tomorrow." She took the turnips off the end table and returned them to the bin in the kitchen, then before heading upstairs she drank the small glass of sherry that was left for the Hogfather. "Nite, and thank you," she said as she went upstairs.

Soon it was dark. All the fairies were asleep and all the candles blown out. The fire burned low, but the house remained warm and soon Annabelle and Preston snuggled on a couch that they would never believe was 700 years old.

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The sun was fully up when Nick came down the stairs with Marlon cradled in his left arm, his right arm in a sling. He was followed by Octavia and the Librarian both in bathrobes. As he appeared, the fairies on the tree and fireplace mantle began flashing different colors and they began singing the sweet old Hogswatch Carole "The Snow on the Holly."

"Look!" Nick said to Marlon, "The Hogfather was here! He gave your turnips to his boars and drank daddy's good sherry. And look! Your stocking is full and the fairies are singing. You sit on the nice policeman's lap while daddy gets your stocking." He placed Marlon in Anabelle's lap, then grabbed Marlon's stocking. "Honey?"

"Yes dear," called Octavia.

"Why are there two cops in our living room?"

"Because you were poisoned and almost died yesterday."

"Oh, right. Sorry." He scooped up Marlon from a giggling Annabelle and said, "Say hi to the nice policeman" and waved Marlon's tiny hand up and down as he sat in a rocking chair with a pained wince. "I don't remember much after getting home, but dad here teaches magical chemistry..."

"Ook."

"Professor of Applied Thaumati... Thaumalogi... I can't pronounce it, but dad whipped up a counter potion which brought me through. Thank you again, dad." He nodded acknowledging the salute from the banana munching Librarian. "Did you guys see the tiger?" They both nodded, and Annabelle giggled nervously. "The missus likes it. I change to the tiger to settle her nerves." He pretended to ignore the glare from Octavia, which caused Annabelle to giggle more.

Octavia moved through the living room with a tray of mugs of hot cocoa, a treat that Nick had never had before and she couldn't wait to see his reaction. She said to Annabelle, "Did you two talk?" the little wolfling nodded excitedly. "And?"

"We want to."

Octavia gave Nick a mug of cocoa and said, "Honey? Think you have a wedding in you for today?"

Nick was entranced by the cocoa and she had to ask him twice. "I think I can whip something up," he said between sips.

"You're the witch?" asked Preston.

"Yeah, that's how we got this place rent free."

"What's that little building out the back door?" asked Annabelle.

"Silly little wolfling, that's the outhouse," laughed Octavia.

"No, the other one."

"Other one?" Octavia got up to look and peeked outside. "MY SAUNA! YOU REMEMBERED!" With a squeal, she descended on Nick, covering his face with kisses. Sometime during that horrible night, the farmhands put up the sauna that Nick built in secret.

It was a wonderful Hogswatch morning full of love and laughter, and the two policemen felt at home with these two royals they were assigned to protect. Everyone got to step into the blazing hot sauna and Octavia told them, "It will feel SO much better naked."

The librarian gave Nick a Mountain Dulcimer, a four string instrument held in the lap and played like a guitar, and he gave Octavia an autoharp. He tapped both on the forehead, magically instilling the knowledge to play their instruments. Nick smiled and said to a fairy, "Give me a D." The fairy sang the single note that Nick tuned his dulcimer to. "Now an A," again she sang and soon Nick had all four strings in key. Soon Nick and Octavia began to play "The Snow on Mount Craggy" a wonderful old Ramtop ballad that fits in with the Hogswatch season. The fairies sang along, flying in joy with the happy old song.

"Oh thank you, dad," Nick hugged the orangutan that was now cuddling Marlon. "Thank you for the instruments and the knowledge."

The little lord Marlon received lots of clothing and a few baby toys, but being one month old, he was only interested in being held and nursing his fill.

The large boxes that Nick and Ninian carried from the day coach to the cottage were from the king and queen of Lancre. They gave Octavia a robe of office, a dark, dark red velvet robe/dress with stars and moons and a matching pointy wizard's hat and a matching pair of slippers. Nick received a Lancre officer's uniform, riding boots, sky blue breeches, silver waistcoat, and a bright red jacket with tails and an officer's cap. Both received a sash that was bedecked with medals and that they had earned in their year of service, along with the Lancre Medal of Honor, on a gold ribbon to be worn at the throat.

"I guess the queen is tired of us showing up at the castle in coveralls," said Nick.

"She's mentioned that in the past," said Octavia as she modeled her hat and studied herself in a mirror.

Nick gave Octavia a beautiful necklace and set of earrings that looked like they were taken from an ancient pyramid in the fabled land of Djelibeybi. The gold and enamel jewelry made Octavia look like a queen of old. One could picture her standing in front of a new pyramid, a thousand slaves bowing to her.

In return, she gave Nick a pocket watch crafted by the gnomes of Überwald. It had second hand, minute hand, hour hand, day hand, and month hand and showed the year in Standard notation and Ankh-Morpork. {The Ankh-Morpork year is 800 days long, the standard year is 400 days long. It's complex.} The hands and numbers would glow softly in the dark when the watch was held in the palm of the hand, and every twelve hours it would wind itself. "So that's why you've been sewing watch pockets on all of my clothing."

Octavia nodded happily and opened her next gift, a bottle of expensive Klatchian perfume. "Are you saying I stink?" she said as she eased into Nick's lap.

"Yep, and now you'll stink pretty."

After they finished kissing. "You clean up and I'll get breakfast started," said Octavia. She got up and headed into the kitchen, which was in the corner behind the fireplace. Marlon was already asleep in Nick's good arm as the Librarian got up and collected all the wrapping paper. He wound it up into a tight ball along with flattened boxes as he collected the scraps, then carried it to Octavia who waved her hand over the wad of paper which suddenly tightened until the paper and pasteboard became a log which he put on the fire.

"We try not to waste anything," said Nick as the Librarian set up the crystal chess board that Nick and Octavia gave him on the coffee table.

"Oh, I have something that the king ordered me to bring here," said Sgt. Prescott as he opened his duffel bag. "It's not a gift," and he drew out the small box that they found yesterday.

"What is it?" asked Octavia from the kitchen as she started to lay out ingredients for breakfast.

"An octiron chain. We found it last night. The bandits had it and dropped it when the Duke, uhhh, had words with them."

"Get that out of this house!" said Octavia, her voice shaking.

"The king said I should give it to you." He started to open the box, but Nick stopped him.

"Sergeant, this house is magical. Don't open that."

"I need to..."

"Your mission is accomplished, now get that away from me! And don't get it near the baby!" Octavia was nearly hysterical.

"Follow me," said Nick as he pulled on a pair of boots. He led Preston out into the bright sunny Hogswatch morning. The sunlight was blinding as it reflected off the newly fallen snow. "I had taken the shape of an eagle and bandits put Octiron on my leg," said Nick as they headed toward the barn.

"I was stuck in an eagle's body for months until the duchess shot my leg off and set me free." In the barn, they checked on the horses. Trixie and Billy seemed to like each other; they were snorting and nickering to each other in their stalls.

"Morning, yer grace!" came a voice from the barn.

"Good morning Alphie. Alphie, this is Sergeant Preston from the Highway Watch."

"Thank ye kindly for the new boots and the box of cigars," said Alphie as he puffed his stogie. "How's the arm?"

"I'm fine, and thank you for your loyalty. Do we have any Salts of Crinix?"

"Aye m' lord. It works great on hoof rot."

"We'll need that and an old tea tin." Soon they had the required items and Nick pulled a bucket of water from the well. "Put that chain in the tea tin," said Nick, and Preston took out the lightweight chain. It didn't look threatening looking unless you were a small dog that didn't want to be put on a leash. He placed the chain in the tea tin and set the tin down on the snow. Nick liberally sprinkled the sulfuric looking yellow powder that is the Salts of Crinix on the chain, then filled the tin with water. "Get back!" he warned.

The three retreated to the barn and peeked out through knotholes in the door. "What's supposed to happen, gov'nor?" asked Alphie.

Steam rose from the tea tin as it sank into the snow. Occasionally, a pop could be heard and a spark would fly out from the tea tin. Soon the tin was deep in the snow and sparks popped regularly from the tea tin shaped hole in the snow, then with a loud CRACK! A cyclone of smoke and vapors roared from the hole with an ear splitting whoosh. It looked like a huge skyrocket was pointing downward and was trying to push the disk down harder onto the elephants. The whoosh became a roar as the vapors shooting out of the hole burned with an eye piercing green flame. Suddenly, with a whoomph! The show was over.

"What the hell was that?" asked Dexter as he came out from the bunkhouse to see what the noise and smoke was all about.

"Just getting rid of some octiron," said Nick as they examined the hole in the snow.

"Wow, I didn't realize how dangerous that stuff was," said Preston.

"It was pure..." said Nick sadly. "It would have killed the duchess."

"Come get breakfast!" Annabelle cried from the back door and soon Nick and Preston joined Annabelle and Octavia for eggs, hash browns, bacon, sausage, baked tomato, sauteed mushrooms, baked beans, toast with marmalade, coffee and apple juice. The Librarian was in orangutan heaven with bananas, apples, grapes, grapefruit and oranges, all freshly picked from their garden yesterday, Nick and Octavia claimed.

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Later that afternoon Nick ducked into the bunkhouse and the guys were getting their Hogswatch dinner together, a huge ham, potatoes, corn, and a beautiful Hogswatch cake that Octavia and Nick made for them. They had the big iron stove hot and were getting ready to cook. "We're going to be heading to the palace soon, are you guys ok?" The four hands turned and broke into grins.

"Who replaced our boss with broken a tin soldier?"

"Whoo hoo! Very pretty!"

"That puts the grace in 'your grace!'"

Nick was in the uniform that the king and queen gave him for Hogswatch, and he looked like a tin soldier and the sling made him look broken. Octavia cast a spell on the uniform, making it fit perfectly no matter what shape Nick was in. If he gained weight or lost a limb, the uniform would adjust itself to fit correctly. "It was a Hogswatch gift," said Nick.

"A likely story," said Dexter, which caused three of the four former bandits to laugh.

"It's very sharp, your grace," said Bertie, the largest of the group.

"We'll be heading to the palace soon; no idea when we'll be back. And the gate house will be manned for the next few weeks."

"Aye-aye!"

Nick headed back to the cottage, feeling every bit of the tin soldier. Luckily, the hat had a low crown and was not tall like the toy tin soldiers he has seen. Back at the cottage, he met Sgt. Prescott as he stood on the patio nervously pacing. "Second thoughts?"

"No, your grace. Just worried about what the lieutenant is going to say."

"What can he say?"

"He's made it perfectly clear that he's not happy about a couple under his command."

"The king wants to open another Highway Watch barracks in Tallywiffle county, which is centered on this cottage. Would you be interested in a posting here?"

"What would that entail?"

"Patrolling the main road from the bridge over Schist Creek, up through Creel Springs turnwise to Stomp, and the Lancre Town Road from the main road to the summit on Breeders Peak."

"Sounds like a lot of road."

"Yeah, it's not all flatland like the Midpoint barracks, it's bandit land, so I'm sure there would be a bit more manning. How long have you been a sergeant?" Nick asked.

"Six years."

"If I promised you a promotion to Lieutenant would you take command of the barracks?"

"In a heartbeat, your grace... if Annabelle agrees."

"Let's go see what is in her heart." Nick tapped on the door. "Are you ready in there?"

"Ook!"

"Ok, here we come," he turned the handle and entered and Nick's eyes were drawn to Octavia in the beautiful wizard's gown.

"How do I look?" she asked, turning side to side. She brought things to wizardry that no other wizard has ever brought before, like large breasts, cleavage, a narrow waist, sexy round hips, and a million-dollar smile. All Nick could see was the shine of joy in her beautiful brown eyes.

"That hat looks so cute on you," grinned Nick.

"I was hoping for hot," pouted Octavia.

"The rest of the gown does that." Nick stood behind her and helped her put on her new Djelibeybi inspired necklace. She held up her thick mane of hair while he coupled the clasp. "Where's the star of the show?"

"Annabelle? Are you ready?"

"Coming!" She slowly came down the stairs in her police uniform. Like Preston, she wore a blue and white jacket, but instead of blue slacks, she was wearing a long blue pleated skirt. She added a white veil to the uniform, and in her arms was Marlon, who was happily gnawing on his fist.

"Is that a hint?" Nick whispered in Octavia's ear.

"I don't know, but Marlon really likes her."

Annabelle stepped up next to Preston and smiled as he lifted the veil off her face. Their eyes met, his hazel eyes meeting her dark brown eyes, and they leaned in closer. They suddenly caught themselves and turned nervously to Nick. "Oh, you guys can kiss. This isn't a church; we can do whatever we want in our wedding. We can build a snowman for our ceremony or wait for summer and get nekkid and do this up to our necks in the pond."

This started Annabelle giggling and caused Preston to blush, so Nick felt like he touched on something in their past. He took Marlon out of Annabelle's arms and said, "Sorry buddy, you've already done one wedding this month," and he handed the baby to the Librarian, who happily climbed up into a rocking chair with his grandson.

"He was already in a wedding?" asked Preston.

"Yes, we had a couple of dwarves get married right where you are standing a few weeks ago. They were dear friends, and Eryri wouldn't put the baby down. But this should be fun, you're my first humans."

"Mostly human," said Annabelle with a slight giggle.

"Ok, important part number one, Annabelle, are you marrying Preston of your own free will? You're not being forced, you're not doing this to win a bet, you just want to partner with Preston Prescott forever?"

Nick's question caused Annabelle to giggle even more. "Yes, I want to marry him."

"Now Preston, I heard rumor our wolfling may have nipped you. If this is true, you need to concentrate. Are you doing this of your own free will? You're not being forced, coerced, or enchanted into this, are you sure that want to partner with Annabelle Schultze forever of your own free will?"

"I wanted to marry her long before she bit me."

Nick gave them a big, relaxing smile. "Ok, first hurdle surmounted, we're a third of the way there, now the tough one, ready?" The nervous couple nodded. "Ok, hold hands, now give me your free hand, now just relax..." They joined hands in a circle and now Nick could feel familial distinctions, which with mountain people are important.

Towns in the mountains are small and isolated, families can be large, and soon everyone in town is a cousin. It's up to the witch to determine how close of a cousin they are. Finding no familial connection in a couple in the Ramtop mountains is indeed rare, so the rule is if the couple are third cousins or closer, the wedding is off.

"I don't know if you two realize it, but you have a common relative, Goodie Hays. She was the witch in Bent Plow, a little town in Wousterwickshire, a duchy turnwise from here. She was Annabelle's great-great-aunt on her father's side, and a sixth cousin to Preston's maternal great grandmother, so you two are just barely related." They opened their eyes and saw Nick smiling broadly. "The wedding is still on. Now we come to the third hurdle. Honey?"

Octavia opened the door, and Nick stepped out of the way. "This is it; this is your last chance to walk away. The door is open, you can run, I'll trip who is ever chasing you."

The lovers looked even more determined, so Octavia closed the door and Nick continued. He joined their hands, so they were standing face to face. "Now look into each other's eyes and tell them that you love them."

"I love you," the two watchmen said.

"Now kiss... and... you're married. You can stop kissing whenever you want." But hearing the Duke of Wægn, witch to Tallywiffle county, say they're married caused their passion to soar. They couldn't hold each other close enough. "I'll notify the castle that you were married on the very first day of the year, and you'll need to go to Lancre Town on a Wednesday to meet with the King and Queen and the King will enter your marriage into the rolls."

They finally ended their kiss to see the Librarian sniff back tears of joy, while Gaspode grumbled, "another good wolf bites the dust."

"That's it?" asked Annabelle, who spent much of her life in Überwald.

"Yep, mountain weddings aren't fancy or frivolous. You can add fancy by throwing a party for your friends later."

"Nick and I were married right where you're standing. We were the only living person here," said Octavia.

"There was your witch," said Preston.

"Yes and no," said Nick, "she was dead, her ghost performed the ceremony."

"Oh, go on!" laughed Annabelle.

Octavia lit a candle on the small table next to the empty rocking chair and slowly the image of Nana Partridge, the former witch in the area, appeared. "We just had a wedding, Nana; how did I do?" asked Nick.

The ghost looked up from her knitting and smiled, "You did quite well, and your couple looks so beautiful. Policemen too! My, my is Creel Springs growing!"

"Thank you Nana," cried Octavia. "Happy Hogswatch." And she blew out the candle and the ghost went back to her knitting as she faded from sight..

Not long later, the police sleigh was waiting outside the cottage for them. Billy was a powerful horse that could pull a full sleigh, but this was a trip over the mountain. It was a long trip to the summit, and he was going to need help. Alphie and Bertie rigged a double tree hitch to the sleigh and soon Trixie and Billy were hitched up and ready to go. They loaded up and headed down to the bookstore where Nick showed them around until Bruce and Sheila Dinkum arrived, emerging from the bookshelves. "How did you get here?" asked a startled Preston.