The Guided Journey (Book 6) (35 page)

It was Moorin.  Or rather it was Putty as an adolescent version of Moorin, a teenage girl, part elven, part human, blossoming into an extraordinary beauty… and a reminder of the woman who had rejected his love.

Chapter 32 – Putienne’s Transformation

“Oh Putienne, you are beautiful,” Kestrel sighed. 

  “Hmmm,” the girl replied.

“Kestrel, she is astounding,” Raines told him, as she walked up and held out a blouse.

“Put your arms up,” Kestrel demonstrated to Putty what he wanted her to do, then took the blouse that Raines held ready and pulled it down over the transformed yeti’s head.

Putty began to struggle as Kestrel jerked the blouse down over her head, and let the hem of the material drop to the girl’s thighs.  He took one of Putty’s arms and gently pulled her hand through the cuff.

“Thank you,” he absently said to Raines, as Putty grew calm, her eyes trustingly locked on his.  He pulled her other hand through the second sleeve cuff, then stepped back.

She looked adorable, vulnerable with her bare, thin legs that stuck out beneath the bottom of the shirt.

A loud noise suddenly distracted him, as a rain of thuds struck the exterior of his protective dome, and all the facts of their situation came rushing back into his consciousness, as though he had awoken suddenly from a vivid dream.  He looked around at the faces of his companions.  They all were looking at him with expressions of awe.

“We’ll see if the good people of North Harbor are ready to be hospitable,” Kestrel said.  With that, he focused on the shield, and turned the dome to its original transparent blue, allowing them to once again view the outside world.

The crowd around the dome had been replaced by a crowd of uniformed guardsmen, and they all became silent at the sudden change in the appearance of the dome, and the sudden revelation of the people within.  The silence lasted only a second and a half, before the guardsmen all began to cry out.

“Where’s the monster?” Kestrel heard a half dozen voices ask at once.

“There is no monster among us,” Kestrel spoke aloud.  He identified the apparent ranking officer, and walked to the edge of the dome.

“There is no monster here.  We simply want to go to the harbor to book passage away from here,” he said.

“Are you the magician who has created this apparatus?” the tall officer asked.

“I did, to protect us from attack,” Kestrel replied.

“Where is the monster traveling with you?” the human asked in his strong accent.

“We have no monster.  We’re simply travelers from Kirevee, returning from the celebration of the royal wedding,” Kestrel insisted.

“You have no monster?” the officer repeated, as he craned his neck and searched the others behind Kestrel once again, vainly seeking some sight of something threatening under the dome.

“Why were we told there was a monster?” the officer refused to accept the evidence of his own eyes.

“Go find the witnesses who said we have a monster,” Kestrel’s patience began to run short.  “We wish to go on, not start a battle.”  He was tempted to call the imps, and to simply travel by their exotic means, instead of sailing aboard ships in the more conventional style.

“No,” the officer said in exasperation, “I can see there’s no monster.  And I can see that you’re a mighty magician who would not allow any danger to harm others.

“And my shift is almost up, so if you cause no trouble in the next hour I won’t have anything to worry about,” he added.  “Will it be a fair deal for the patrol to withdraw, and you to go on your way to the harbor?”

“That sounds very reasonable to me,” Kestrel agreed.  “Pull your men back, we’ll be on our way, and there’s no harm to anyone,” he affirmed.

The leader of the patrols nodded curtly, then walked away, and spoke to several other patrol men, who began circling the dome, speaking to others, and the large crowd of uniformed men quickly dispersed, leaving Kestrel and his companions virtually alone in the street.  Kestrel looked around, up and down the road, up at the rooftops overhead, and nowhere did he see evidence of an ambush waiting to happen.

“That wasted a lot of time, but I think we’re ready to go to the harbor,” he told the others.  He waved his arm as he recalled his energy, and the dome disappeared.  The five of them stood still for seconds, waiting to see if there was any attack, then slowly started moving forward, under the scrutiny of the eyes that watched from windows nearby.

They turned a corner, and then another, and soon they were among the usual traffic of the city,
people who no longer surrounded a yeti frightening to those who saw them.

“Stop Kestrel,” Raines said suddenly.  “My lord,” she quickly added, as he whipped his head around to see what problem had arisen.

“It’s a shop,” Raines told him, as she pointed at an open door and a large window.  “With clothes, for girls, like Putienne,” she explained.

Kestrel looked at the girl, who held his hand as she trustingly walked alongside him through the city streets.  She still only wore the blouse that Raines had donated.

“Here,” Kestrel reached into his pack and pulled out a clutch of small gold coins.  “Go in and buy clothes for her, and for yourself.  You deserve a wardrobe to start your new life in,” he was suddenly inspired to say.

“You’re too kind,” Raines told him, giving a slight curtsey.  “And you’re right.  I’ll buy one dress for myself so that I’ll look presentable, but I’ve got the gold you gave me to start life anew; I’ll pay for my own, and we’ll give the girl some nice and some practical things,” she said.

“Come with me, Putty,” she held out her hand.  Putty looked up at Kestrel, who smiled and nodded.

“I’ll wait right here for you,” he said reassuringly, which was enough to make the newly humanized yeti enter the shop with Raines.

The three men stood together outside the shop.  “Let’s go get something to eat while we wait,” Hampus suggested, pointing to a tavern across the road, so the men crossed and sat at a table on the edge of the road, eating bowls of stew as they waited for the females to return.

Half an hour later, as the afternoon began to wind down, the woman and the girl came out of the store.  Raines carried a wrapped bundle, as she wore the same clothes she had traveled in, while Putty wore a new yellow blouse and blue pants, along with simple sandals, while she walked awkwardly, and stopped twice to adjust the material on her legs as they crossed the narrow street.

“Please tell her how lovely she looks,” Raines told Kestrel as soon as the pair rejoined the men.

“She does.  You do look wonderful, and so colorful,” Kestrel told the girl before him.

“Thank you,” he told Raines, grateful that she had helped Putty with her clothing, a field in which Kestrel knew next to nothing.  “We should go down to the docks and find which ships can take us to our destinations.”

A series of questions to a variety of people around the docks took them to the north end of the docks, and then the south end, and finally to the center portion, where they found a ship due to leave on the tide at midnight, bound for Estone, willing to take an elf onboard as a passenger.

“He doesn’t speak the human language,” Kestrel explained to an officer.  “You’ll have to let him know when meals are served, or other services are offered.”

“We’ll take good care of him,” the officer said.  “It’s an easy trip to Estone this time of year.”

Hampus handed over the fare at the signal of approval from Kestrel.  “It’s hard to believe we’re ending our journey together,” he smiled.

“It was much more of an adventure than I thought it would be,” Kestrel replied.  “You’ve been a good companion.”

“You’ve been the same,” Kestrel said.  “You’ll do well in Center Trunk.  Be sure to stop in Firheng and tell Casimo what you saw on the trip.  He’ll be interested to know what’s happening in the world.”

“I’ll tell him,” Hampus agreed.  “You’ll come back to the Eastern Forest soon, won’t you?  We’ll be better off having you close by.”

“We’ll see what the gods have planned.  I’ll be back as soon as I can; I want to get home to Oaktown and enjoy some peace and quiet there,” Kestrel promised.

The two shook hands and embraced, then Kestrel left the deck and returned to where the other travelers were waiting.  “We’ll need to find a ship for ourselves now,” he said, and they returned to the south end of the dock, to follow up on a reported ship bound for Seafare, and found one that intended to sail the next afternoon.

“Let’s go find a place to spend the night,” Kestrel suggested after they offered coins as a deposit for a pair of cabins.

They bypassed the inns closest to the docks, which were habitually used by sailors and seedier clients, and went inside the city to a hotel that had only two rooms available.

“A room for the ladies, and one for the gentlemen,” Raines said, and Kestrel promptly paid for the two rooms, received the keys, and led the troupe upstairs to their rooms.  They placed their belongings inside the rooms, then went down to the dining room and ate a quiet dinner, exhausted from the long day’s travels, before they returned to their rooms for the evening, Kestrel and Orren said good night to Raines and Putienne, then closed their door and flopped down in the darkness on their two narrow, thin mattresses.

Kestrel began to doze almost immediately, but rose back to consciousness as he heard a sound, then realized it was his name, being called from the hallway outside his room.

“Kes-trel,” the name sounded again.

Orren snored softly, soundly sleeping, unaware of the voice.

There was a scratching sound at the door handle, and Kestrel stepped over to the door, then cautiously opened it a crack to see who was calling him.

Putienne stood outside, once again wearing the blouse that Raines had initially lent.

“Kes-trel,” she said as she smiled, Kestrel’s elven vision was able to see.  Her white teeth gleamed in the dark hallway.

“Putty,” he whispered as he slipped into the hallway and pulled the door shut behind him.  “What’s wrong, Putty?” he asked.

She slipped her arms around his torso and hugged him tightly.  “Kestrel,” she pronounced his name more smoothly, then hummed with contentment.

“It’s good to see you too, my friend,” he told her, putting his own arms around her.  “But it’s time to sleep now.  Can you go back to your room to sleep?  I’ll be right here, and I’ll see you first thing in the morning,” he told her to comfort her.

He moved to press her back towards her own room’s door, but she resisted, and then the door opened.

“Putienne?” Raines whispered loudly as she stepped out into the darkened hall.

“Oh,” she murmured as she bumped into the pair in the hallway.  “Did she waken you?” Raines asked Kestrel.  “She called your name in the room, and tried to go over to you, but I told her she should just sleep, then I realized she had got out.

“I suppose the two of you have been together almost every night for how long now?” Raines asked.  “Most of the nights I saw you, you were right next to each other.”

“I suppose,” she paused, a plan reluctantly in mind.  “Which bed are you sleeping in?” she asked.

“The one on the left,” he answered.

“Just for tonight, we can do this,” Raines said.  “Orren’s asleep, isn’t he?”

Snoring,” Kestrel grinned.  He opened the door and pulled Putty aside, giving Raines a path to her relocated bed.  “Good night, and thank you,” he whispered as she passed, and then he pressed Putty into the empty room across the hall, her arms still around him.

“You won this time, but we can’t do this always,” he told her as he sat her down on one of the beds.

“How much else can you say?  What do you understand?” he asked as he sat on the other bed, and looked at her in the darkness.

She sat in silence, then said, “Kestrel,” again.

“That’s a start,” he told her, he lay back on the bed.  “Time to go to sleep, Putty.  Get a good sleep and we’ll have a new adventure tomorrow,” he told her.

He closed his eyes, and heard her mattress creak as she laid back on her own bed. 

Kestrel was even more tired than he had been before he lay in his first bed, and he quickly began to lose consciousness as he fell asleep, only to imagine that he heard his name being called.

“Kestrel?” a voice called.

“Putty, go to sleep,” he grunted.

“Kestrel, where are you?” the voice in his mind asked.  “Kestrel-friend, please answer.”

He raised his head and shook it.  “Stillwater, Stillwater, Stillwater, I am here, in this room,” he spoke out loud, as three imps appeared instantly.

“Kestrel-friend, we are pleased to see you,” Stillwater said.

“Your friend, Hampus, called me, and the urgency of his voice carried through, so that I answered,” the imp said.  “The humans on the boat he is riding mean to rob him, and he is fighting them.”

“Can you take me to him?” Kestrel asked, coming instantly alert.

“That’s why there are three of us here,” Mulberry replied.  “Who is the pretty little girl?”

“I’ll tell you later,” Kestrel said.  “Take me to Hampus now, and we’ll plan to move him elsewhere – my thanks for your concern for him,” he said, as the imps surrounded him, then carried him into the nothingness between dimensions.