Rune Guard

She ran at me. I tried grabbing her and spinning, to keep from being bowled over, but her momentum caused me to lose my balance. We fell to the ground with her on top of me.

She stared into my eyes. I kissed the tip of her little button nose. She looked into my face, leaned down, and pressed her lips to mine for a moment. She raised back up and looked into my eyes. I reached up and started to tuck the stray hairs behind her ear. She cringed.

"Sorry, I ..."

"You don't need to apologize," she said, shaking slightly. "I'm just not used to being ... cared for."

"Can I have another one of those kisses?" I asked.

"Come and take it."

"I don't take ..."

"I said it was okay," she replied.

"What if I take your kisses and want something more?"

"Ask," she said.

"I can do that," I told her.

I stroked her chin with a thumb, wrapped her cheeks in my palms, and pulled her face to mine. Her lips were heavenly. I released her, laid my head back, and sighed.

"That's it?" she asked.

"Wasn't it nice?"

She climbed up, grabbed my face, and started attacking my lips with her own - kissing me hard - teasing the tip of her tongue across them - like the flittering tongue of a serpent. She left me breathless.

"That was nicer," she said, smiling.

I nodded.

Dusk was beginning to fall. My guts started churning. Something was coming. I rolled her off of me, pulled her to her feet, and darted over to grab my staff. Two water-lizards were sneaking in through the ankle-tall grass. I moved to my right to try to separate them.

"Can you take one of them?" I asked.

"Yeah."

She threw a lightning bolt at the one that was headed for her and it skidded across its skin.

"Shit! Maybe!"

I darted in, grabbed my lizard by the neck, and sent a stun-pulse into its body. It relaxed. I dropped it to the ground and headed towards the other one. Lolla was busy, throwing more lightning at it, trying to keep it occupied. I dodged her last bolt, grabbed the lizard from behind, and stunned it.

"Let me go see if he needs these," I told her. "I'll be right back."

Emmit didn't have a jar big enough to hold the monitors - but he did have a big crate. It was runed for sleep & calm as well. The lizards went into it.

I headed back out to rejoin Lolla.

We climbed into our bedrolls and chatted until we fell asleep. The staff didn't wake me up and I slept well enough on the hard ground in the company of a pretty, young mage.

In the morning, I went to get breakfast. Emmit asked me how long we were going to keep feeding her. I told him what she said about doing chores or ... other stuff.

We talked about it for a while and he finally told me to use my spit-marker and draw the rune for 'guest' on the back of her hand. She would be permitted to come inside of the fence until dark. In exchange for her meals, she could take care of the mule, collect eggs from the henhouse, and weed the garden.

I walked back out, explained the basics to Lolla, and, after she had consented, drew the spit-rune on her hand.

We returned to the house and sat down to the meal Emmit had prepared. As we ate, he went back over what I had told her, offering more details, and then answered her questions.

Once the dishes were done, Lolla headed outside, Emmit went to his workroom, and I went back to my runes.

At dusk, Lolla and I returned to the grassy space beyond the fence. There were no lizards this time. The lightning mage and I chatted about our day and fell asleep.

In the morning, Emmit met us at the gate. I don't know how long he had been standing there.

The runemaker told me that I could mark her as 'guest' each morning and evening. She would need to work on her chores without bothering the two of us. In exchange, she would get a place to sleep and food to eat. She would be permitted to stay until we headed off for our next trading mission. She agreed to his terms.

He listed options for the chores she would need to do in order to earn room & board. In addition to taking care of the animals and tending the garden, she picked meal prep & cleanup, and housekeeping.

Since arriving at the house, I had yet to spend a night there. Emmit led both of us to the rooms that would be ours. We put our things inside and headed to our work.

~~~

Although my mind felt numb from all of the reading, the days passed quickly, and Emmit announced that he was wrapping up the production of the wares he would be selling on our next trip.

At this point, I had all of the runes memorized. I was working on level-3 locks. Three runes had to be drawn on the lock. Each rune had to be perfect & identical in size & in form, in order for the lock to open. So far, I had beaten about half of the locks.

Emmit had started working with Lolla in the evenings, but, obviously, he was not a mage. That limited the amount that he was able to teach her.

As you might guess, she was also not the best student. Whenever she got grumpy, Emmit would either just stare at her - or he would walk away - until she tracked him down to apologize. He was able to teach her how to control her mana (her pool of magical power) better. He also worked with her control over her bolts.

One afternoon, he came out of the shop with a weird-looking wand. It had a stud on the side with a rune on it. It also contained a stone to store energy, like my pendant. The rest of the thing was made entirely of wood. Emmit had Lolla place her hand on the stone and send two or three bolts into it. We went outside, he pointed the thing at a gourd, and pressed the stud. A lightning bolt flew out of the thing as if Lolla had thrown it. The gourd exploded.

You could see his mind churning, running calculations, figuring out how much to ask for such a thing if he sold them. I could think of a number of people who might be interested in one, depending on what the price was.

As we headed back into the house, Emmit led Lolla to his workroom.

"What are your plans?" Emmit inquired.

"After I leave here?" she asked.

He nodded.

"Feed myself, avoid rape, and try not to die."

"You need a real teacher," he told her.

"No one will teach me," she complained. "I'm impatient, ill-mannered, short-tempered, and foul-mouthed."

"Yeah, well, admitting you have a problem is the first step to overcoming addiction ..." he replied, smiling.

"Fuck you," she shot back. Realizing she was yelling at her provider, she gulped, and said, "Sorry, Emmit."

"Are you thinking about traveling with us?" he asked.

"I was going to ask. I just figured you'd tell me 'no'."

"I, like Derik, have become acclimated to you, Lolla. You are a tempest."

"Yeah ..."

"... but you are also a breath of fresh air."

"Aww," she cooed.

"You could also be beneficial for Derik ..."

"But?"

"You two will need to get your relationship figured out."

"I don't need a husband," she said.

"No, you don't. Not yet anyway -- and he doesn't need a wife -- but that's not what I was suggesting. You both need to establish boundaries and expectations."

"Boundaries?"

"You don't want a husband ..."

"Right?"

"... but do you expect to be the only female that Derik spends time with?"

She got really quiet.

"You need to figure that out now," he told her, "and be ready to renegotiate if your feelings change."

"What about you?" she asked.

"What about it?"

She ran her hands up and down her body, like she was displaying merchandise.

"You lookin' for some of this?" she asked.

"I do not need, require, or expect anything from you in that regard."

"You didn't say 'want'," she countered.

"I did not."

"So, if I showed up, naked, in your bed one night ..."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

Lolla let her eyes roam up & down Emmit's body, spending a long time staring at his groin.

"Bridge, huh? You hidin' a troll under that bridge?"

"Only one way to find out ... sweet-cheeks."

She fell to the floor, laughing.

Emmit began moving some jars to the table, figuring out what he was going to be packing.

Lolla sat up, watched him for a minute, and said, "I can make those."

"Clay jars?"

"Yes."

"Come. Show me," he ordered.

He led her into a room with a throwing-wheel, kegs filled with raw clay, and a sizable kiln. She sat down on the stool, stood back up, found a couple wooden blocks to put on top of the seat, and sat down again. After more adjustments, she got the wheel spinning and went to get clay.

"How big?" she asked.

Emmit disappeared into his workroom and returned with a jar the size of the one with the serpents in it. He set it on a nearby barrel. Lolla returned to the cask to get more clay. Emmit refilled the finger-bowl with water. When she was seated once more, he handed it to her. She put it down to her left. She got the wheel spinning and started working the clay.

This clay feels a little weird."

"It has ground beetle carapace mixed into it."

"Ah. Yeah. It's a little firmer than what I'm used to."

"You still good?"

"Should be. I'll use a little more water until I get a feel for it."

The trader watched the mage work the clay. It was obvious that she had done this before. He started loading the kiln with fuel, getting the fire started, so that he could fire the piece, once she had it completed.

"I thought you were loading up," she asked him.

"Dear girl, if you can make these jars at least as well as what I was making, you will have earned your place with me, for as long as you want to stay."

"Really?!" she said.

She thought for a minute and asked, "Should I be negotiating my wages?"

He looked at her, his mind calculating several numbers. She went back to working on the pot.

Finally, he said, "Let's just see how you do first, shall we? Maybe we'll do two, just to be safe."

"That's fair," she agreed.

~~~

In the end, Emmit decided that her pots were slightly better than his. They both fired well. They both took the runes without any problems.

"Well? What do you say? Do I get the job?" she asked.

"Yes."

"But?"

"You asked to negotiate salary."

"Shit! I'm sorry, Emmit."

He held up his hand and she held her tongue.

"I have only ever made enough of these for myself. I don't have time to make extras. I often run into trouble if I drop one - or collect too many specimens - and run out of jars. I have never had enough to sell."

Lolla listened intently.

"I calculate that we would need to divide the sale price four ways. One part would cover my expenses; one part would cover me & my runes; and one part would cover our dear guard. That would leave one part in four for you. You would receive one quarter of whatever we sell these for."

"How much do they sell for?"

"I don't know. I would expect one gold each. Of course, I will ask more to begin with, in case I'm misjudging the market or the value."

"I would get two silver and five?! For each jar?!" she gasped.

Emmit smiled at her.

"I take it you find that to be acceptable?" he asked.

"Fuck, yes!" she exclaimed with glee.

"If you are to be a waged employee, I may ask you to pay for room and board ..."

"One silver and five?" she countered, shifting into negotiations.

"I was jesting ..." he replied, smiling.

"I'm serious. I've never had five silvers in my life -- and I just made two jars."

"For now," he said, "let's just wait and see how many we sell -- and for what price. Will you trust me to treat you fairly?"

"Yes, Emmit. You and Derik have treated me like royalty compared to what I've known before."

"We need to find you a real teacher," he said once more.

"It can wait. I'm warm, fed, and you act like my body is my own."

"It is, my dear."

"I know better. I am thankful. Please let me stay with you. I'll try not to attract attention on the road."

"You are a lovely girl. We may have to work hard on that."

"Emmit! That's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me."

The trader blushed.

"See how many jars you can make with the rest of this clay. We'll leave as soon as they're fired and runed. We will, of course, keep some extras back for ourselves. Derik has a few more specimens to collect for us as we set off on the next journey. I will go find some wooden crates to put the jars in, and some straw to protect them."

The height-challenged mage bounded off of the stool, wrapped the trader in a hug, and gave him a peck on the cheek. When she released him, he headed for the sheds, to see about those crates. His peter hadn't been this stiff in a long time.

"Tempest," he thought to himself.