‘What are youdoing? asked Yllandril.
‘This is not anatural animal. It’s too big and tough to fight as a Newman.’ shereplid.
‘I needstrength and power.’
The trixieswere both terrified and confused they were trying to hold back amurderous beast on one side and they could see a strange greeninsect like woman at the intersection.
Miranda begansinging strange druid words unknown to this world and had it notbeen for the glamour they would have seen her whole body go brownand wrinkly like the bark of a tree.
‘Yllandril,tell them I’m on their side. Tell them to let the table slide tothe intersection then quickly pull it across so that I can get atwhatever’s behind it. Tell them not to come near me until I changeback as I won’t recognize them. I’ll be berserk.’
Sherepositioned herself a few paces down the side corridor on herknees so that she could charge the beast when it drew near andquietly whispered a prayer and her muscles bulked up and bulgedlike those of a bull. She then patiently waited until the trixiesand the table was level with her. She could see the terror on theirfaces. She whispered another prayer, which appeared to do nothing,then she transformed into a jeti, a very angry large snarlingferocious jungle cat.
Yllandrilyelled to the trixies to quickly pull the table across theintersection. They needed no hesitation. The giant two-headed wolftried to duck around the side of the table only to be tackled sideon by Miranda. There was a sickening crunch as the two big bodiescollided.
The great wolfcollapsed under the charge of Miranda but quickly recovered,swivelled around and began tearing at her underside with both jawsand raking her with vicious claws on its hind legs. Miranda had theadvantage being on the top and used it. She swung her head down andclamped her jaws around the neck of one of its heads andcrunched.
The other headlet out a scream that nearly deafened everyone nearby and clampedonto Miranda’s neck. It was rather bizarre. The head that she wasbiting into went slack but she couldn’t release her grip as thesecond head was firmly attached around her own neck. FortunatelyMiranda’s neck was much thicker, tougher with its woody coating andmore difficult to get a solid purchase on than the wolf’s neck.
She brought upher thickly muscled forearm and raked it brutally across the facewith long curved dagger-like claws ripping its facial skin away andeyes out of their sockets. Slivver sent an extreme burst of paininto its mind causing it to go rigid and its muscles lock up but itstill it held on trying to choke her, so she drove her claws intoits throat and ripped backwards. This time it let go as bloodstreamed out of its neck and it began to shudder all over. Finallyshe could let go of the throat of first head and she quickly toreinto the second. The animal went limp.
She stepped offthe carcass with blood still dripping freely from her jaws andlooked around for anything else to attack. Nothing! She let out avicious guttural feline victory roar that reverberated down thecorridors terrifying some of the trixies then turned on the carcassventing her anger ripping large chunks of flesh out of it with herclaws.
Slivver was inecstasy! The feeling of the raw power of his new mistress awed him.It was delicious, it was addictive, he wanted more of this.
The trixiesbegan peeking around the edge of the table. Yllandril quicklywarned them to hide. A berserk jungle cat would not know friendfrom enemy. Best wait a while. After about five minutes, the catstopped attacking the carcass and lay down still breathing heavily.After a further five minutes, it transformed back to Miranda whostaggered over and sat beside Yllandril who was doing her best rockimitation.
‘I can see nowwhy it takes a special type of person to be a druid.’ saidYllandril.
‘I’m glad I’mon your side.’
This time therewas no holding the trixies back. They came swarming around Mirandawanting to touch her just to be sure she really was a woman again.Bellen spoke to her in Mudrun common.
‘Thank you,dear lady; you have saved many of my people today. May we know yourname?’
‘She isDragonfly.’ said Yllandril, ‘a great druidess from Mudrun.’
‘We welcome youand honour you Dragonfly, Druidess of Mudrun. We will celebratethis great victory but first I need to attend to the damage thatcreature has done amongst my people.’
Bellen gave anorder and trixies shot off in all directions.
They sealed allentrances, the first time this had occurred in more than a hundredyears and a half hour later they had set up a dormitory as ahospital and carried the wounded and dying there. Both Miranda andYllandril offered to help the injured and the bag of potions theyhad bought with them saved several lives and healed the wounds ofmany others. Miranda couldn’t help noticing that many weremalformed but said nothing.
Later thatnight after all the injured had been attended to, Miranda sat downon the stone floor for a rest beside Yllandril. She was tired andbegan to doze a little when in walked half a dozen trixies withmusical instruments in hand who immediately began playing a livelyjig. Trixies swarmed in from everywhere, many with bandaged limbsand they all began to dance, leap and somersault around merrilylaughing and singing as if nothing had happened.
Bellen enteredand they all settled down to watch. He turned to her and said.
‘Inappreciation of your exceptional courage and our hearty thanks forsaving the lives of many of our people here tonight we declare youa Trixie Friend and he presented her with a pair of earrings. Whenyou wear these earrings any trixies in the land will know you as afriend. They will also allow you to understand any language spokento you.’
Miranda blusheda little as she accepted the gift and thanked them all. The crowdcheered the music started again and the mad dancing continued.
A few minuteslater several trixies appeared with two small kegs on wheels and asmall
