Warden's Fantasy Shorts

Saving a princess, making a ruler

TW: VIOLENCE

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The door slammed open, and Maia looked up from the charm she was making as the man stormed in.

"Witch, I need a protection charm," The man said, twitchy and looking around the shop, eyes flitting over the crystals, potions, charms, jewelry, and the plants in the shop-- both the herb garden by the window and the potted ivy in the corner as it waved innocently in the too-light breeze.

Maia smiled, biting back a cutting comment about the fact that she had a name, and rounded the counter the shelves along the wall. "What do you need to protect against?" She asked. "People, animals, magic? Or something else that's more specific?"

"Animals," the man said, still looking around the shop as if something was going to jump out and bite him. Just as Maia was about to continue questioning the man, Jet, the crow she'd saved from the freezing winter years ago, flew through the window and lit on her shoulder. The man jumped back, terrified.

Maia just smiled, now trying not to laugh. "My familiar won't hurt you, sir," she said with a glance at the ivy in it's cracked pot, still waving innocently. "Now," she said, stroking Jet's head absently, "Would you like the charm to protect just you, or would you like one to protect your property?"

The man stammered through answering all of Maia's questions for him, and eventually Maia was able to sell him a charm. When the man left, Maia leaned against the shop counter and sighed. "Talia, I know you have something to say," she said, apparently to the air. A cracking sound came from behind her, and Maia turned to see the small ivy shatter the pot and reassemble herself and the pot into a small, dragonish form.

"I wish those humans," Talia spat the last word, "would treat you with more respect. You do your best to help their ungrateful hides and they treat you like an ant under their boots. And you let them!" She said, leafy tail lashing back and forth. "Why do you let them treat you like dirt?"

Maia sighed. "You know why, 'Tal. I'd probably get arrested or killed for standing up to them, and even if I didn't, people would get suspicious of me. Then the others may have to go." She looked at the clock in the corner. "Aright, I'm gonna close up and go into the valley."

Closing the shop wasn't a complicated affair, all Maia really had to do was lock the door and clean while Talia scouted ahead through the pass behind the small building. After that was taken care of, Maia went into the back room and up the staircase to her house, which was carved into the side of the cliff, but with every sign of it being there carefully concealed to outside eyes. Once in her bedroom, Maia changed out of her shop clothes into sturdier and more practical ones for the journey through the mountain pass and valley that her house and shop guarded. Once dressed, Maia went back downstairs and out the back door, holding a sack to keep what she gathered and traded on her trip through the valley, where she would check on all of the people she sheltered-- all manner of magical beings who'd fled the humans of the kingdom-- and gather or trade for most of the supplies she would need for her shop.

Maia and Talia were walking back through the pass when Jet flew up to them, croaking "Friend, friend, friend at the door!"

Maia looked at Talia and Jet, then started to hurry, hitching her bag of supplies farther up on her shoulder. Jet flew higher, circling around Maia and Talia' heads as they walked. "Jet," called Maia, "Go tell Ales that we're on our way and that the door's open!"

"You left the door unlocked?" Talia asked. "That's a bad idea."

"The door's not unlocked," Maia said, scrambling over a large pile of debris from a recent rockslide. Talia was simply bounding over the pile, giving Maia a confused look. "I meant she's welcome inside, I'm not fool enough to leave the door unlocked."