The Chronicles of Harold the Healer Ch. 10

"Ah, interesting," said Miriam, standing up to get a better look at the seemingly ordinary man. She was a bit shorter than Leila, with brown hair tied back in a ponytail. "You'll have to come by and visit me some time," she purred.

"I can be available for appointments through Healer Leila," he replied smoothly. "Unfortunately, we have an apple pie to make for the party tonight, so we can't linger." Ralphie then nearly yanked her off her feet when he saw a squirrel and tried to get it. "Have a good day!" They hastened off as Miriam barked the order to sit to Ralphie, who sat, much to her surprise.

"She sings with the Town Choir," Leila explained as they continued briskly towards what appeared to be the end of the street. "She has a very good ear for music. I think that her kids and her husband are going to be in for a surprise tonight." She looked into his eyes and grinned, and he grinned back. "We have an apple pie to make?"

"It would be churlish of me to not assist you," Harold replied, trying to look noble.

"And just how much of this pie will actually make it to the party?" His eyes became shifty and she snickered. "Here we are, home sweet home." They had almost reached the corner of the main street, where a modest one-storey stone house with a slate roof was located on their right. A driveway just long enough to hold a horse and cart was to the right of a stone-flagged path that led to a gate in the white picket fence that surrounded the property. Once past the gate, the path led to the main entrance that had a larger picture window to its left and a smaller one to its right. The path led around to the back of the house, leaving room between itself and the house for a flower garden.

"Maybe we can make one sacrificial pie and one to bring to the party?" Harold asked hopefully after they had both made quick and necessary trips to the tastefully painted privy.

"There is only time to make one," Leila replied, as if he didn't already know, as she unlocked the kitchen door and they entered. They removed their shoes and boots, along with his pack, hat, and neck cloth, and he looked around as she started removing dry ingredients from cupboards on the far wall and putting them on the counter. A peeler-slicer-corer gadget was extracted from another cupboard and plunked on the other counter next to the stove and next to a basket of a half-dozen apples, quickly followed by a cutting board and knife.

"Manly man helps womanly woman with peeling and slicing," he said in a fake deep voice, puffing out his chest and strutting around.

"Stop being silly and get to work," she replied with a smile, unable to resist his antics.

"Yes, ma'am," he replied meekly, attaching the peeler-corer to the edge of the counter with its clamp, then pausing to cast Clean and Sterilize on everything, including his hands. "Basic food prep safety," he said in response to her approving look as she did the same. "I've had a few bad experiences." From the way she shuddered, so had she. As he worked, Leila lit the fire in the stove to heat it up, mixed the ingredients for the filling in one bowl, then the ingredients for the crust in another.

"You said that you were in the Army," she said as he was finishing dicing the apples and putting the pieces into a bowl while she was cooking the filling ingredients. The window that looked out into the back yard was open, with a metal screen to keep out the bugs, and the sounds and smells of the outside were competing with those from the inside, and losing. "That's an unusual place for a Healer to wind up."

"Given how the Army is in the business of receiving, as well as giving, injuries, it's not surprising that they'd need Healers. I was drafted for the Carcosa Campaign," he replied. "The only reason that they got me was because I'd returned to the Capital with a unit of the Queen's Horse Regiment. I'd met them when I was traveling in the southeast near some of the big iron and copper mines where they had caught up with a large party of raiders all the way from Ostermund." Her eyebrows elevated at that as she handed him the bowl with the ingredients for the crust. "I just happened to be walking along the road where they first encountered each other and wound up participating in that skirmish, helping us to drive them off. When things got complicated because of the unexpected arrival of a troop of Argosian cavalry who had crossed the border, also looking for those assholes, I used my Mage School Argosian to keep them from attacking each other, then helped coordinate a joint action where we destroyed the raiders. I was kept very busy Healing people and horses there, all the way back to the port of Margrave..."

"That's the city just north of Argosy?" Leila interrupted. She had been watching his skillful kneading and adjusting the ingredients of the pastry dough, cutting it not quite in half, and rolling out the part for the pie plate, which she had extracted from yet another cupboard, Cleaned and Sterilized.

"Yes. I'd already been there earlier, which is another story," he added, rolling his eyes somewhat over-dramatically, getting another smile from her. He liked those smiles. "To make a very long story somewhat shorter, I was on the ship that brought them back to the Capital for refitting and reporting, had just collected my pay and the Silver Star that they had insisted on giving me, and was just going out the door when a runner came into the office with news about the assembling and preparation of all available units for transport to Carcosa as soon as possible, including recruiting any available Healers by any means necessary. I continued going out the door as quickly as possible," he added with a grin for her benefit as Leila put the diced apples and filling into the pie shell and he rolled out the top crust. "I led them on a merry chase, but they eventually caught me when I stopped to intervene where two assholes were mistreating a prostitute, more of their friends appeared out of the woodwork, then my pursuers did, and soon it became a major riot from I could not extricate myself."

Suddenly, the pie was assembled and popped into the oven. "Care for some coffee?" she asked, suddenly feeling a bit shy. Why am I feeling this way, she asked herself a bit irritably.

"Sure, I'd love some. Otherwise, I'll fall asleep as soon as I sit down." It was not long before hot water was poured into mugs, into each a very heaping teaspoon of instant coffee was added and stirred in. They drifted outside after putting on their footwear, making their way to the garden that occupied a substantial amount of her back yard. "How do you find the time to maintain this? It's a lovely garden!" he marveled, pointing out all of the various helpful herbs that she had growing in well-organized clumps.

"You know your plants," she said, a bit surprised. None of the various other Healers from the Order had known as much as him, let alone taken as much of an interest.

"There are a lot of them that have great medicinal qualities, and you seem to have most of them here." She nodded and took another sip of her coffee. "Since I'm a wanderer, you'd think that I wouldn't know plants because I haven't botany." The impish grin and the slight emphasis on the last word made her stop to process what he'd just said.

"Here I was, thinking you were Mister Perfect, and then you said that!" Her expression didn't help him maintain his composure. "You awful man! Are you actually giggling?" she demanded. This wasn't the first time a woman had said that to him, and certainly wouldn't be the last. "Here I am, standing in the presence of the man who created the Third Discipline of Quarterstaff Martial Arts, trying to figure out how to ask you to go through the Forms with me and now all I want to do is smack that smirk off your face!" Or maybe wipe it off with my pussy as he eats it, her mind suggested. She hastily banished that thought. He studied her face carefully as he took another sip of his coffee, giving no sign that he'd felt her flash of desire, then surprised her with a warm smile.

"Ah, now I know why you've been feeling so agitated. You're worried that I will judge you and find you wanting." She nodded, unable to speak, trying to calm herself with another sip of coffee. "The Teachers of the Mage School's Discipline were always telling us that it wasn't important that we replicate exactly the Forms as they demonstrate them, but we do the closest approximation that feels right for our bodies. And these moves will change a bit as our bodies change as we age. The strange mess that my friends and I cobbled together can hardly be called a Discipline. It was just a different way of doing things that felt better for us."

"My friends and I watched you fight in that Competition so many years ago," she replied, feeling a bit calmer now. "We saw how you totally clobbered all the others from the other two Disciplines, including the best that our School had to offer. They didn't know how to react to your moves."

"Magic requires that we do the moves exactly right, or the spell won't work, or won't work as intended," he said as they moved back to the kitchen, having finished their coffee. "The Martial Arts are meant as much for mental discipline and physical conditioning as for combat and are a bit more flexible. But real combat requires adaptability, the ability to react to your opponent's attacks and to find and exploit their weaknesses before they do the same to you. The thing about staves is that nobody but the Mages and a few regular folks make much use of them. I've fought dozens of people who were going after me with everything from swords and clubs to spears, pikes, and various polearms, but never a quarterstaff. I think that I won that competition because I happen to be a natural with the staff. No idea why." They took off their footwear in the kitchen and she knelt to open the oven door to check on the pie's progress.

"Were you checking me out as I was looking at the pie?" she asked, closing the door and standing up to face him. He was standing at the sink, putting the various things they'd used to make the pie into it to prepare to hit them with the Clean spell, or so it seemed. She was still wearing the clothes that she wore for her work: gray wool slacks and a loose-fitting, modest white button-up blouse. He had been doing an excellent job of looking busy, but her Mage sense had picked up that his attention had been elsewhere. Indeed, he had been unable resist a peek at her shapely ass and had liked what he'd seen.

"Checking you out would make me a librar..." He was frozen in mid syllable by her stare.

"Don't you dare say that! Don't even THINK of saying that!"

"So c-c-c-cold," he shivered involuntarily. "That stare alone would get you in as a Drill Instructor if you were to sign up to the Army. No shouting required." She smiled sweetly, relaxing the stare.

"The pie is coming along nicely. Let me get my staff and we will go out and practice your Forms." She strode rapidly out the door to the hallway. Harold knew that he had only a few seconds to grab his stuff and try to make a run for it, then realized that it would take too long to get his boots on, that he had nowhere to go, and that he really didn't want to anyway, so he spent the time getting his boots back on. As predicted, she reappeared before he'd finished this task, holding a staff that had been made from oak. Unlike his, which was showing the effects of many years of use and abuse, hers was shiny and polished, except near the middle where it was usually held. Both staves had elaborate patterns carved in them, though his had been worn away in places and had had to be reapplied. This time, he made a point of looking out the window in the kitchen door when she bent over to put on her shoes so that he wouldn't involuntarily check out her ass again and get in more trouble.

"Where would you like to go?" he inquired, gallantly holding the door open for her, then closing it behind her.

"So now you pretend to be a gentleman," she replied. His expression remained neutral, but her Mage sense could detect a note of amusement in him. "I like to practice under the tree in the front corner. It always feels best under a tree, I've found. People sometimes stop to watch." The tree's leaves had yet to show signs of changing colour, and they rustled and whispered in the gentle late afternoon breeze. They moved to stand in its shade. "Let's see how I do."

"Be advised that I have made a few small changes to the Forms as I do them," he said with a warm smile as they assumed the position to start the First Form. "I've found that they feel a bit more natural somehow. My friends and I had to work in a great hurry to get it all together in time for the presentation for our Major Project, so I've smoothed out some of the rough edges over the years."

"We noticed that, and made a few changes of our own," Leila commented. "Let's see if great minds do think alike." He grinned back at her, and they began moving in tandem through the First Form. "Yes, I know, relax and let the moves do their work." He got a glower that did not remove the amused expression. As they progressed through the slow, stately dance of the Forms of the Third Discipline, the exercises started having their desired effect, the stilling of the mind and the reestablishment of their connection to the natural world all around them. Their senses reached out and connected, and she could feel his warmth and quiet strength as his mind calmed. He felt her strength as well; warmth and compassion were there too, but she was not a woman to be trifled with.

Despite the serenity that the Forms created, Leila felt a bit of unease as they approached the Ninth because the last two were the most complex, but the most rewarding. He showed no sign of stopping or disquiet as the moves flowed on, and there was no way that she was going to stop now. The Ninth and Tenth always drew in the Magic, more so than their equivalents in the First and Second Disciplines, and even the non-Mages could feel something, which was probably part of why the Third had gained popularity so quickly. The sounds of breezes in the trees and the background noises of the town merged as the Magic came to them and their bodies started to glow with it. His colours were turquoise and a beautiful, calming forest green, like a pool of water in the forest, she noted, and he saw that hers were turquoise and yellow that made him think of the sky just after dawn. She and Gran had sought solace in the Forms after her Grandpa, and especially after her parents, had died.

"I feel much better now," said Harold quietly, surveying the area around them. "Thank you for sharing the Full Set with me, Leila. I learned a few things and will use them in the future." He performed the Very Respectful Bow, to her surprise. "Let's get the pie before it's too late," he added.

"Thank you for sharing the Full Set with me, Harold," she replied, responding to the bow with one of her own. "I learned a lot from you. And you are right, the pie should be ready now." In fact, it was, and was soon resting on a wire rack to cool on the counter, just as the clock on a shelf over the table chimed 4:30. "We have some time to let it cool before we head to the Central Park where the party will be. I wonder if Gran will be home before then, or if we'll find her there?"

"She probably has a lot of people to talk to," Harold replied, finally hitting the dishes and their coffee mugs with a carefully calibrated Clean spell that made a loud clatter that made them both jump, in spite of being ready for it. "I'll help put those away if you tell me where they go." Like with every house he'd been in, the kitchen was the largest room and the focal point. This one wasn't huge, but was roomy enough and had lots of cupboards and drawers. The door to the basement was just next to the hallway door, and the table and four chairs were oriented along the far wall, though there was room on the left wall to orient it that way if it was so desired. There was a decent-sized window that looked out into the back yard and was about a foot away from where the stove pipe went through the wall.

"Since we have the time, why don't I give you the two-minute tour of the rest of the house?" Leila asked with an inviting smile. He returned it, and she thought that her heart skipped a beat. "This is the hallway," she said dryly as they walked into it.

"Ooh, I'm excited already! Is there more?" he snickered, getting an eye roll and a snort.

"Here's the spare bedroom." It was on the right and was a decent size, about twelve by twelve, and looked like it was being used more as a general storeroom than a bedroom. Across the hallway was the small bathroom, which technically wasn't necessary, since the Clean spell was one of the first spells they learned in school, but sometimes a soak in hot water is just what the body needs, and her Gran seemed to need them, especially in winter. A bit further down on the same side was the bedroom that her Gran was using, which was spacious and had a nice view of the backyard. On the right a bit further down was her bedroom, where he made a show of hiding his eyes so that he couldn't see in, making her snort again and do her best to hide a smile at his antics. The small living room on the left by the door sometimes served as a waiting room and had nice, comfortable chairs that looked like they didn't get much use. The exam room definitely got his attention, especially the books, some of which looked like they were quite old and predated the modernization of spelling mandated by King Ferdinand more than 150 years ago.

"Hey, I've got the latest issues of JAMS and JMM in my pack, if you're interested," he said. "Not much in there to tweak my interests, but maybe there's something for you. There's some new cardiac procedure in JMM." She perked up at that.

"I took specialist courses in cardiac care," she said. "I've managed to save several people from bad heart attacks. Often, I just happened to be nearby when they happened," she added. "The Goddess at work, of course." He nodded knowingly.

"We serve the Deities, and they know it," he replied. "Whenever I get a ride somewhere, I know there's something waiting for me, like what happened this afternoon with Timmy. The horse pulling the cart was going at least half again as fast as she should have been, and for much longer than horses usually have the stamina."

"Have you met her yet?" Leila asked curiously as he looked out the window.

"I did, just outside of Portnoy on my first day on the job. Tall, strong, long curly red hair, gorgeous green eyes?" She nodded. He didn't say that she'd shown up again in his bedroom in the inn that night claiming that she needed a massage, which had turned out to be true. Her back had been a mess, and he'd used all his skills to get it straightened out. His sense of mischief had had him give her the special treatment, which had had her demanding that he put out the fire he'd started in her pussy. He had done so, and they had done their best to ruin each other, but she had barely "won", leaving him almost unconscious in his bed, his balls totally emptied.

"There's something you're not telling me, isn't there?" she said, hands on her hips. She had felt his reaction to the memory, and she had a good idea of what had happened between them.

"A Healer is sworn to confidentiality," he evaded, not meeting her eyes. "How about you?" It was her turn to not meet his eyes. She was remembering a night in the Spring when she'd rescued a baby robin that had fallen from its nest as she was on her way to a patient, only to be told by the Goddess as she returned that she had passed a test. Then that night the Goddess had appeared in her bedroom, needing a massage. Her neck, back, and marvelous ass and legs had really needed work. So had her pussy, and Leila's pussy had also needed work, and the squeezes, strokes and little sparks had given each other given them big orgasms. Then the Goddess' clitoris had sprouted into a cock, which was soon buried in Leila's pussy and frantically pounding it as she rode it while they were shooting sparks from their nipples into each other's breasts. Leila had been utterly and delightfully ruined and unable to get out of bed, and the Goddess had kissed her forehead, given her a blessing, and had said,