Fay Tale - Chapter Three

Maidd dumped another load of rubble into the cart then stepped back quickly as a satyr backed a huge draft horse against it. While the animal was busy trying to sink its teeth into any portion of Maidd it could reach, the satyr made quick work of hooking the harness straps into place. The ogre understood the need to keep the large horses under shade to avoid overheating them. He did not, however, appreciate dodging hooves and teeth each time they were rehitched to his cart. He grumbled something in ogrish as he avoided yet another snap before the satyr could goad the animal forward.

When he was sure the cart wasn’t going to need a shove to help it go, Maidd turned back and headed toward the wall he was currently deconstructing. The house had been completely gutted of anything of value, and he was responsible for leveling what remained.

And in a noble’s house I imagine there was quite a lot of value. He glanced around as he worked, wondering what had happened to the house’s previous occupants.

“Ogre! Friend ogre! Here here!”

Maidd turned to find another satyr waving frantically at him. Sighing he turned in that direction.

“What is it...Needle?” he hazarded a guess at the name.

“Needle Bark!”

“Sorry. Needle Bark. What’d you need?”

“Come!”

The satyr scampered off, tiny hooves making little sound on the packed earth. Maidd trudged after him into one of the side buildings. Whatever it’s previous function, it now housed the spare wood and tools for the deconstruction team. Needle Bark’s dark fur and tanned skin blended with the shadows inside the building, but the ogre followed his progress without too much trouble.

“Luncheon! Eat now! Plenty of food!” Needle Bark said then opened another door. Maidd was blinded by the sudden blast of light and held up a hand to cover his eyes. “Bright,” the satyr added helpfully before trotting through the door.

“Bright your furry little ass,” Maidd muttered as he followed, blinking, into the room.

A small group of satyrs sat in a semi-circle underneath the skylights. Maidd paused to let his eyes adjust while his companion skipped over to the half-circle and took his place beside his friends. Immediately a bowl was shoved in his hands and he greedily stuffed his face inside. He lifted it out again, a stalk of celery protruding from his lips.

“Friend Ogre! Sit!”

The other satyrs pointed toward the empty side of the circle and Maidd slowly lowered himself into the spot. A much larger bowl appeared carried by two satyrs who presented it to him.

“Uh, thanks.” He peered into the bowl and found an impressive assortment of vegetables. When he glanced up he found the whole ring of satyrs watching him closely. “Um, thank you for the food. I appreciate it.”

He reached in and grabbed a tomato and popped it into his mouth. The satyrs beamed at him then began chattering animatedly to each other, often with bits of greenery hanging out of their mouths.

Maidd plowed with impressive dedication through his unexpected offering as he listened to the gossip. Today it seemed they were swapping rumors about Eirendyr’s own monarch, the Trader King.

After acquiring a fortune worth several empires through commerce, Aarav Anand had turned next to acquiring a kingdom of his own. He had chosen Eirendyr, a small kingdom touching both sea and forest and guarded by mountains on two sides. Most importantly it was poor. Terribly poor. Its people no better than slaves to the nobles who all but ran the place with a king too weak and cowardly to stop their petty squabbles.

Anand carefully inserted himself by proxy within each of the noble families. Winning their favor with expensive gifts all the while slowly expanding his trading lines in the towns across Eirendyr. Within a year he had also begun to reopen old mines, using dwarves to ferret out hidden pockets of ore. Then he bought large tracts of farmland from the nobility and brought in new farming methods, which shocked nobility and peasantry alike with the rapid increase of the farms’ output.

And when Anand’s network of caravans began smuggling a small army of mercenaries inside the borders, no one noticed. When he housed them on his farms and in his mines, no one thought to question. Only when the nobility were surrounded in their manors, when the key fortifications had all been taken in a series of lightning maneuvers, did anyone think to question Anand’s immense influence and power. By then it was too late.

Maidd crunched on a stubborn carrot as the satyrs traded stories about whole armies being whisked through forests in the blink of an eye. Armadas transported across the sea at the Trader King’s bidding. It amused the ogre to hear the same rumors he’d listened to leagues and kingdoms away repeated in Eirendyr itself. Perhaps that’s the way the king wanted it. Kings could be overthrown. Emperors deposed. Nobody wanted to challenge a legend.

Even the ogres had been impressed by the tales of the Trader King sauntering into the royal chambers and handing the terrified Eirendyr’s king the scroll of abdication.

“Sign this of your courtesy,” was the new favorite idiom from Grand Colc to Eirfayen.

But aside from their appreciation of his brass, ogres had little use for a kingdom whose revolution had been swift and nearly bloodless.

Except for freaks like me who prefer things to be bloodless if at all possible, Maidd thought as he set aside his empty bowl.

“Needle Bark?” The dark-furred satyr looked up at the sound of his name. “What happened to the old king? After he abdicated to the Trader King?”

The group conferred for a moment before Needle Bark turned back with a grin.

“Safe. Far away and safe.”

“Safe how?”

“Safe on island. Old king lives in luxury. New king pays,” another satyr explained.

“Don’t know which island,” Needle Bark added. “Safe.”

Safe from him trying to launch a coup to retake his kingdom, the ogre interpreted. Wherever he is I hope the shackles of voluntary banishment are less irritable being made of velvet and gold.

At an invisible signal the group of satyrs got to their feet. Two came forward to get Maidd’s bowl then Needle Bark led him out of the building.

“Thank you, Needle Bark,” the ogre said.

“No thank. Dwarf promise to feed. Feed satyrs. Feed ogre,” the little creature insisted.

Maidd shrugged then seeing his cart was returned he headed back to the house he’d been deconstructing.

The ogre eyed the immense structure with little appreciation. He was sure it had been quite pretty before it had been stripped of valuable wood and stone.

But pretty doesn’t keep out armies and mobs.

Many noble families had vacated when the old king had abdicated to the conquering Trader King both out of fear and deep offense that royal titles could be traded like so much firewood. According to more satyr gossip, some of the families fled to the neighboring kingdoms with plans to rouse an army and return to set themselves on the throne. Their shock must have been comical when those kingdoms had politely refused. Some even sent the supplicants back in chains for disturbing the peace and fomenting rebellion, hoping to gain favor with the new, wealthy king on their border.

Needle Bark insisted the new king paid all the nearby kings to ignore his sudden theft of the throne. Another satyr insisted that Anand threatened them with all the secrets he learned while trading with them. Yet another that he had ensorcelled them using magic. Maidd figured it was probably a mixture of all those rumors and more he hadn’t even heard yet.

“And it's not your job to figure it out,” he muttered to himself. “Keep your head down and do your work stupid ogre.”

He made his way up what remained of the stairs to the second story. The roof was gone now, leaving brick and mortar and worker open to the elements. The cool shade of the luncheon room was already forgotten as the sun beat onto the ogre as he picked up his hammer and began chipping away at what remained of a wall. Occasionally he paused his demolition to fill up a nearby wooden crate with the rubble and carry it down to the waiting cart to haul off.

It was hard work, but compared to fighting for his life against armies and dangerous magical Folk it was immeasurably preferable. The bricklayer’s friend who knew somebody ended up being an enterprising dwarf who’d bought the estate—which had conveniently gone back to the crown when no one from the noble family had reappeared to claim it—at a vastly reduced price. The ogre had no idea what was going up in its place.

With a dwarf it could be anything. And just as long as it breaks no laws I couldn’t care less if it was a gigantic spider farm if gets me a city medallion!

In the middle of his musings, Maidd sensed he wasn’t alone. He continued working just as he had been, but now as he swung the large hammer he glanced at the edges of his vision for anything out of place. A shimmer of gold and bright pink caught his attention.

Well that’s certainly out of place. He set the mallet down then slowly began to gather the rubble into his crate to take down to the waiting cart.

“Hello?” he asked as he worked. “Can I help you?”

The ogre was shocked when a human child with long blonde curls stepped out from behind a wall.

“Hello! My name is Lily and I was watching you! What’s your name?”

“Uh…” he said as he stared.

“Do you have a name?”

“Uh, yes it’s Maidd.”

“Maid?”

“With two d’s.”

“Oh.” She peered up at him and smiled. “But you’re a maid with one ‘d’ too cuz you’re cleaning this house!”

“I...yeah I guess so,” the ogre admitted.

“Why are you green?”

“Why do you ask so many questions?”

“Because I’m curious. Daddy says so. Why are you green?”

“Because that’s the color of my skin. I’m an ogre.” Maidd watched carefully for her reaction to the news.

“Lily hasn’t met an ogre before. Do all ogres have green skin?”

“All the ones I’ve met.”

“Daddy says ogres fight lots. Do you fight?”

“Right now I maid.”

“That means you fight against dust and dirt and crime!”

“I think you mean grime.”

“That’s what I said!”

Indignant, she turned her back to him and began poking her nose into rooms and through holes in the walls, which gave the ogre the chance to study her. Lily wore a style of loose brown leggings partially hidden by drapes of fabric at the front and back from her shirt the color of a deep pink rose. Her head was shaded by another drape of rose fabric which she pushed back as he watched to get a better look. The whole assemble looked very expensive.

“Do you like my clothes?” she asked, turning when she noticed him staring. “I like dresses better, but Angel says I gotta wear practical clothes when we go walking outside the castle. Daddy lets me wear dresses sometimes, but only when Angel doesn’t come.”

“Right...so where’s this Angel right now?”

“Talking.”

She hopped over a pile of rubble then spun around in a circle.

“Talking where?”

“Outside.”

“I bet Angel enjoys your obfuscation.”

She stopped spinning to glare at him.

“Did you call me a bad word?” she demanded.

“Actually, I called you clever. And since you are clever you’ll go back to Angel before he realizes you’re gone and gets madd.”

“It’s okay. Angel’s gonna be a long, looooong time. He’s with Master Porporiinchurtisky and Daddy says dwarves like to talk lots about their projects.”

She began to spin again while Maidd considered his options. If she wasn’t nobly born, he was a pixie. And if she were somebody would come looking for her soon. Somebody who would not be happy when they found her with an ogre. He could try to take her and look for her parents or this Angel she was with, but given her lack of cooperation so far he doubted he’d get very far. In fact, everyone who saw them together would probably assume he was carrying her off for a snack.

“Okay Lily. Why don’t you stay here and play until Daddy or Angel comes to get you?”

“Okay!”

“Just don’t play by the wall I’m working on. I don’t want to hurt you by accident.”

She nodded solemnly and spun her way to the other side of the room. Maidd continued to work, albeit more slowly as he watched her and answered her nearly endless stream of questions. Once he’d made a fairly large pile rubble, he began to carry everything outside to the cart. The third time he started downstairs, however, Lily picked up a small armful of brick and started to follow him.

“Lily wait! You can’t come with me.”

“Why not?” she demanded. “I can help!”

“I know you can. But this is my job. If I don’t do it, I can’t get paid. If I don't get paid, I won’t be able to stay in the city.”

“Oh…” She carefully dropped the brick back on the pile.

“Don’t touch the pile while I’m gone okay? I’ll be right back.” She nodded and sat down to wait.

Maidd carried his armload out and deposited it in the cart before hurrying back into the house. True to her word Lily hadn’t touched his pile. She had, however, clambered to the top of the wall he was in the process of demolishing and was trying to speed the process along by hopping on top of the loosened bricks.

“Lily! Get down from there!” he exclaimed, not sure whether to be horrified at her lack of fear or touched she was trying to help. She looked down consideringly for a moment then grinned.

“Okay! Catch!” She jumped, spreading her arms expectantly. Maidd caught her expertly.

“You are a heart attack waiting to happen, little human.”

She smiled, obviously pleased with herself.

“Put me down! Wanna jump again.”

“I don’t think so.”

“I want to jump!”

“You can want all you want, but I’m not putting you down until you promise to stay off the wall.” The child glared fearlessly at the ogre.

“Put me down! I command it!”

“Not until you promise.”

“Down!”

“Promise.”

“DOWN DOWN DOWN DOWN RIGHT NOW!” she shrieked in impotent rage. She kicked at his chest until he held her away from his body. Her feet out of range, she started to gnaw on his wrist.

“That’s not going to work,” Maidd said, trying to keep the amusement out of his voice. “Ogre skin is tough. You’d need sharper teeth than that to–”

Claws flashed in front of his face. Only his superior reflexes saved him from losing an eye as he twisted out of the way. Another set of claws followed the first and latched into his left forearm. Maidd snarled and wrenched away, ignoring the blood which now dripped, green on green, from his skin.

He tucked Lily protectively against one side as the assailant charged again. The ogre’s free hand snatched a piece of rubble and threw it, but the creature darted out of the way with inhuman speed. Maidd cursed inwardly as he caught sight of gleaming fangs.

Vampire. Just the trouble I needed.