‘Then again, could it have been some ploy to confuse the poorElendari or perhaps it was a power grab to get a bigger and betterthrone than your mother’s one. Well it doesn’t matter anymore youpoor little girl. You’re my guest now and I’ve always been veryhospitable to my guests.’
‘If I left you where you are, you would probably go mad andthat wouldn’t be good for you or me as I might need you sometime inthe future. So I thought that I would find a nice little home foryou where you can while away some time awaiting my call. Enjoyyourself and by the way don’t try to die on me you can’t escapethat way. I will bring you back.’
‘Who are you?’ asked Miranda before she lost consciousness,but she never got an answer.
Miranda slowlycame back to consciousness from a nightmarish dream. She was lyingon her back with a gentle rocking motion. She was hot and feverish.Her mind swirled, her joints ached and the pain in her abdomen andpelvic region were almost overbearing. But worst of all was thesmell. It was a mixture of decaying flesh, excreta and vomit. Shedropped back into unconsciousness only to wake up a few minuteslater when the rocking stopped.
Dizzily shelooked around. She was in the back of a cart and heard malevoices.
‘Look I was told to deliver her here. You are to try and healher.’ said one voice. ‘She was the master’s favourite.’
‘You’ve got to be mad. There’s no way we could take her intothe building. You’ll have everyone in the place ill just from thesmell of her.’ replied the other. ‘She’s got the vile rot. You getit from cavorting with unclean creatures. She’ll die in a day ortwo at the most.’
‘The master said it wasn’t her fault; she was ill used by somehideous shape shifting monster called an Aquitain from off world.They have alerted our agents to track it down so that we maycapture it and punish it. She will be needed to give witness at itstrial. The master is prepared to offer three times the normal feeif you can keep her alive until then.’
‘I suppose we could put her down the bottom of the garden,that way we could minimize the smell. Her race is used to outdoorsliving and would probably prefer to be outside anyway. However,tell your master that even with our best healing I don’t think wewill be able to keep her alive more than a few days, and she’ll bein terrible pain all the time so they better catch that monsterquickly.’
Miranda lostconsciousness again and awoke as a bucket of warm water containinga strongly aromatic, but pleasant smelling herbal preparation wasthrown over her. She was then swabbed all over with mops using moreof the herbal preparation and left lying on the grass under a treeto dry.
‘You gunna feed her.’ asked one of the attendants to hiscolleague.
‘Nah, I’m not gunna touch her. I don’t wanna catch what she’sgot.’
‘She looks like she’s gunna die.’
‘Yeah, it’s a waste a time feeding her. Just say we fed herand they’ll never know the difference. It’s not as if she’s aNewman or anything like that.’
‘Yeah that’s a good idea.’
It was hot. Shewas thirsty but too weak to do anything so slipped intounconsciousness again. A few hours later it was dark and she wokewith an itch on her nose. Through her blurry eyes she vaguely saw adim blue light.
‘Help me please. I need water.’ she pleaded in a weakwhisper.
The little bluemothra female quickly flew up an arm’s length away. She had neverseen one of these creatures before. What was it saying? She starteda slow pulsing of her body to attract more of her kin. A minutelater the four of them flew around looking at the creaturebelow.
‘What it be?’
‘I not know?’
‘It speaks silly stuff’
‘What it speak?’
‘Not know.’
‘It dead soon.’
‘Yes we get magic.’
Miranda halfopened her eyes and saw swirling blue lights and in Mudrun commonsaid.
‘Help me please. I need water.’
‘What it say?’ said one mothra.
‘It speaks silly stuff.’
‘We make it dead, get magic.’
‘What it says?’
‘We need more.’
‘Yes get help’ said another and they all started to pulse forhelp. Five minutes later another nine had joined the group, all ofthem fluttering around looking at the sick creaturebelow.
‘It is an offworlder. They have been seen before on ourworld.’ said the mothra collective mind.
‘Yes we remember them now. It is a Felynx, a cat creature thatwalks on two legs instead of four.’
Miranda openedher eyes again; there was a cloud of blue lights flying around justout of reach. Again in Mudrun common she said.
‘Help me please. I need water.’
‘That is the speech of Mudrun.’ said thecollective.
‘What should we do?’ asked a part of thecollective.
‘Glammer seeks a Newman female that uses Mudrun speech.’another replied.
‘This is not a Newman.’ said one ‘Glammer will be mad if wecall her for no reason.’
‘Glammer is always mad at us.’ replied another.
‘This one has little magic. Glammer might reward us withmore.’
‘Yes call Glammer for a reward.’ said two or three, then a fewmore, then finally a majority.
Soon they allbegan streaming in a circle around Miranda and pulsing.
Glammerappeared moments later.
‘What have you found? That’s not a Newman. You waste my timeyou idle mothra.’
‘Wait, wait it speaks Mudrun talk like you asked for.’ saidthe mothra collective together.
‘What did it say?’ said Glammer.
They toldher.
‘That sounds like Mudrun speech. I will look atit.’
Glammer hoveredover Felynx and used her ability to see spirit auras and lookedinto Miranda’s mind.
‘Oh no! What have they done to her.’ she thought.
‘This could change everything. Aquitain will beuncontrollable. What can I do?’
Glammer turnedto the cloud of mothra and said.
‘This one is not Newman but it is a Preserver, a druid. Theyare the friends of all plants and animals. It is ill. If it werenot ill then it could help many plants and animals.’
‘Would it help the fireberry bushes?’ asked one of thecollective.
‘Yes I think it would.’ replied
