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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.

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