In a stately home in the well kept noble district of an Elven city a
young elf was at work in the family library. Though he was only young
for an elf, Micah had long completed his primary studies and was
currently engaged in his favorite research project. He was slight of
build and pale skinned like most of his kind. While most elves were fair
of hair and eye, his family were Autumn Elves and he possessed dark red
hair and emerald green eyes as a result.
His older sister and
mother had taken a trip to a nearby city to visit family friends, but
they were due back in a few days. His father had been questing for
ancient and rare artifacts for several years and though he managed to
send the occasional letter by courier no one in the family was sure when
they would see him again.
The only other occupant of the house was Gilda, a brownie. They were
often called house elves by humans and other races. Proper elves such as
Micah took some offense to them being named as such. Brownies were a
small race of faerie in actuality, and acted as both servant and
protector to a home and family. Despite only being eight inches tall
Gilda had powerful magic of her own to assist her in her daily tasks.
Micah was currently taking advantage of the empty house and doing something his mother had forbidden, reading The Grimoire.
The heavy book was one of his father’s prized archaeological finds. His
father gave it the simple generic name as the book had no known title
or author, but it was filled with complex spells, potions, and
incantations. It was written in an odd dialect of an ancient language
and for several years Micah had been attempting to translate it. Though
finding sources on the original language had proved difficult he had
accumulated a small collection of works to study from.
Micah’s
references were spread out on the desk in the library as he stood
pouring over his notes. His mother had forbidden him from attempting to
translate the book because he had almost burned down the library some
years earlier as a result of a half uttered incantation. In truth the
incantation had merely ignited the rubbish bin in the corner and Micah
had quickly extinguished it. He viewed the prohibition on his research
as an extremely unfair overreaction by his mother and would sneak in
research sessions such as this when she went on trips. Micah still
thought it was best to stick to potion translations now, as there was no
chance of accidental magic as with an incantation.
Micah was
just beginning to set up the small cauldron in the center of the room
when Gilda entered. The brownie, true to her name, had light brown skin
with freckles dotting her youthful face and chest. Her eyes were golden
and she had straw colored hair. Her pointed ears were much more
pronounced than elf ears, rising higher than her voluminous hair. Her
most noticeable feature was her tail, like all brownies she had a
prehensile tail as long as she was tall. Gilda’s tail ended in a large
tuft of golden hair which she would sometimes adorn with ribbons, pink
for today. She wore a simple green dress that outlined her voluptuous
figure.
Normally she was quite chipper and seemed to skip through
the house as she did her daily work. However after a few days of seeing
Micah engaging in his forbidden hobbies she had not been in a good
mood. Watching Micah set up the cauldron, it became too much for her to
hold her tongue any longer. “Is Young Master trying to burn down the
house again!” she yelled up to him. Micah turned to address the
diminutive brownie “You know that was an accident! I’m just making a
simple potion, it should be easy to expunge and dispose of even if
anything goes wrong.”
“Goes wrong?! Young Master risks his
home and life over silly books. Gilda works hard enough cleaning this
house. It’s not for you to blow up!” As she said this, her tail
stretched out straight as a rod, which it did whenever she was angry.
Micah bent down and picked her up by it, something Gilda resented even
though it didn’t hurt. “Gilda has a want to tell the Lady of the House
what Young Master does when she is away” Gilda threatened as Micah set
her down on the desk.
“Gilda, we both know a brownie keeps their
masters secrets” Micah said. “Now I need these ingredients from the
pantry, I have everything else here” Micah said handing the pouting
brownie a short list of items. She put her hands on her hips and tapped
her foot looking from the list back to Micah. Finally she snatched it
out of his hand and lept to the floor. Micah chuckled to himself as the
defiant brownie stomped out of the room and he lit a magical fire
beneath the cauldron.
Gilda returned soon with her arms full of
minor magical reagents from the pantry. Her attitude had changed from
one of anger to pleading “Young Master, Gilda begs you to reconsider. At
least discuss your ideas with the Lady of the House before attempting
to make the potion; she has great knowledge of magic.” She jumped up to
the table, her own magic assisting the considerable assent for such a
small creature. She laid out the ingredients on the table.
“My
mother has no interest in this book” Micah said as he picked up one of
the herbs. As he added the ingredients in the proper order he observed
the changes in the water and consulted his notes. He was finally down to
his last ingredient and before adding it turned to the brownie and said
“Don’t worry, I know what I am doing.” The sprinkle of dust was added
to the water and it became supernaturally still before turning a bright
shade of pink. “That’s odd…” was all Micah could say before a cloud of
smoke exploded from the cauldron and enveloped him.