They had left Marvin with the village he had saved through the adventure he'd done on his own. As much as it hurt Anthe to do so, and even Wraithvine felt a tugging in his heart, they knew it was the best thing for him. That village needed the young man, and he needed his home there. Him and his new wife. He'd met her when she'd joined him, Wraithvine and Anthe while they were adventuring together.
Then a message came as Marvin was sitting teaching his child how to carefully make sharp ends on posts so they were easier to put into the ground when they wanted to extend the fence around the garden. A messenger brought the letter and it was clearly written in the gentle elven hand. They were coming to visit since they were going to be in the area. They wanted to see how their young friend was fairing. -- Anon Guest
[AN: in reference to this thing with great many thanks to DaniAndShali <3 ]
"Not that way, love," Marvin gently rearranged both tool and work in the five-year-old's lap. "Never point a blade at yourself, eh? Never point a blade at anything you don't want to cut. This way." He helped guide her hands. "Shallow strokes. Work with the wood. Work with the blade. Things are always easier if you work with them."
Lili reacted as if he'd just done magic, squealing in delight. "I'm gonna build the whole fence," she bragged.
"You can certainly try," he chuckled. Checking on Vee automatically. She was just toddling, and therefore prone to get into trouble that nobody anticipated. One step. Two steps. Three steps. Plop. The baby he had made with Steelfoot checked her mental notes and struggled back upright again. That was when the courier came.
One of his reforms in Lower Petraine had been the establishment of a reliable messenger service, meeting up with other reliable messenger services in other realms. That, and schooling so that everyone could read and write. Coming to a peaceful agreement with the local Kobolds had also helped ease troubles for Lower Petraine. Running after good solutions to problems was how he'd become the Mayor they didn't really need any more.
Solving problems was one thing. Teaching people how to think... well, Marvin gained an entirely new appreciation for Wraithvine and hir methods. Methods he had seemingly learned by osmosis. Teach the why as well as the how, teach the reasoning, and hope to heaven that the reasoning makes sense to them. And if that doesn't work, wriggle around their illogic with Lade Anthe's brain keys.
The courier was out of breath as he hopped down from the horse. "Message for y' sir. It's from them."
Oh. "That was a polite request to hurry messages from them to me," he sighed. He automatically scooped Vee onto his hip for safekeeping as he strode to accept the missive. "Thank you, all the same."
"Sir, polite requests from you are worth more'n gold, forgive me sayin'. Folks around here know you're wiser than any wizard."
"Wiser than most, maybe. Especially those who fireball first and ask questions later." Wraithvine the Mysterious never fit that description, that was for sure.
"Uwah nee ah num," said Vee, trying to reach for the letter.
"No, this is neither nutritious or delicious." Marvin sighed. On one hand, kids were wonderful. On the other, they were occasionally worth wondering if they were ever worth the bother. "We have a stew and some new cider. Water your horse and take a short rest, eh? You've worked for it." That was another reform. Fair reward for fair work. Thusly, Lower Petraine had the smallest crime rate of any town in the world.
Vee safe in the playpen - which she would escape in two hours or so - he could finally crack the wax seal and see what Wraithvine's elegant cursive had to say. In a few short minutes, he alarmed almost everyone present by whooping and dancing around like an absolute fool.
His friends were visiting. According to Wraithvine's calculations, they would be arriving next week, plus or minus three days according to unforeseen circumstances.
Which meant they had a new student in tow, most likely.
A week never flew by so fast. Marvin's anticipatory joy was infectious and the entire town prepared to welcome back the majority of the Heroes of Lower Petraine with a festival.
They were only two days late past Wraithvine's anticipated time of arrival. Marvin spent most of his time in the watchtower with the Guard, looking up and down the roads for the first sign of his friends.
Thusly, when Lady Anthe, Wraithvine, and their new charge teleported to a place just outside town limits, there was a great clamour and hullabaloo amongst the townsfolk.
Marvin ran to greet them, of course. Sweeping his adopted mother up in his arms in unrestrained glee. His eyes were more than a little moist, and he didn't care.
Their charge was very new, clinging to and hiding within the edges of Wraithvine's clothing. Small, if not young with it. Broken in ways that would take years to fix. Marvin knew the feeling, and put Lady Anthe down. He made a sign to the others to tone down the noise. As always, a polite request was worth more than gold and the entire town fell into a hush.
Marvin dropped to a crouch and made a show of interlocking his hands, making himself harmless in the eyes of the newcomer. They were dressed in clothes made to hide them. He hadn't wanted for that, so he was extra careful.
"Hi there," he cooed. "We've been looking forward to meeting you. We're so happy to see you that the entire town is throwing a big party."
Luminous eyes shone out from within the hood. Well. One luminous eye. They didn't dare peek more than one eye past Wraithvine's robes. Gods, they were small. Smaller than Lady Anthe.
Marvin offered an open hand, but did not stretch it towards this new being. "It's okay. Lady Anthe is my mother. They've taught me much."
The rest of the head peeked out, but the other eye did not shine. Broken in more ways than one, and in a direction that Anthe's wonderful salve could not heal.
"Rawr?" Lady Anthe prompted. "You can say 'hello'. This is your brother, Marvin."
Rawr edged slowly into view. The hand that met Marvin's was a paw."Oh... you're a Bugbear. Hello." No wonder they were small. Bugbear children were tiny until they hit their early teens at the latest, and then... Marvin looked up to his former teacher/caregivers. "You two are going to have an interesting time with clothing in five years or so."
Wraithvine laughed. "Oh, that's just a stop on the journey."
Marvin kept smiling for Rawr. "It's going to be okay, Rawr. I've been through this part and look how it all turns out." He gestured towards the waiting festival. "I wound up in charge of an entire town."
Rawr shrank away.
"Yeah, it seems daunting now, but the good news is that your new parents won't let you do it until you're all grown up and don't need them any more. Tell you what, I'll tell everyone who's made food to make sure you get all the right food, okay? Bugbears like a lot of meat, right?"
The fearful, staring eye bobbed assent inside the hood.
"Great. I'll get the word around about that. Is is loud noises or crowds that have you scared?"
"...n's's," mumbled Rawr.
"Loud noises. Okay. We can try to be careful, but some of the babies don't know how to be careful, yet. Is that okay?"
Nod.
"Good. Come on in. Have some fun. I have a surprise for Wraithvine and Lady Anthe."
"Oooh, a surprise," grinned Anthe.
"A good surprise, I hope," said Wraithvine, always a little more cautious. Then again, Marvin's last surprise for Wraithvine was a set of 'magical ingredients' that had been inadvisably stored and only needed the presence of a Wizard to start an inevitably exothermic reaction.
"Something a lot less explosive, I guarantee," Marvin smirked. He rose carefully, but Rawr still fled for the safety of Wraithvine's robes. Early days, oh yes. Early, painful, and slow days.
Wraithvine would be asking permission to hold Rawr safe while Marvin spread the word. New baby. Very afraid of the world. Injured in the past and still in the process of healing. And, oh yes, it's a Bugbear.
Knowing Marvin's experience with Kobolds, the majority were ready to accept a tiny, baby incidentally-bugbear cub into the festival and, thanks to Marvin's polite request, kept the noisemakers far, far away from a nervous little creature.
A polite request was better than gold. The people of Lower Petraine kept it well in mind and took it to heart. They were gentle with a very small Bugbear just getting acclimated to the fact that the world around him did not have to be mean. From the adults' example, the children who understood followed suit.
As for the surprise, Marvin thrust Vee into Anthe's arms and said, "Say hello to your granddaughter, Vee."
Vee removed the thumb from her mouth, patted Anthe's snout with the same hand and announced, "D'agun! Issa d'agun!"
Wraithvine boggled. "Yours? Of body and spirit?"
"Yes. See what you make me do when you leave me on my own?"
Vee pointed to Wraithvine and said, "Ewf."
Everyone agreed that Vee was a very smart baby. The shocking part came later when, with newfound confidence, Rawr let his hood fall and Vee saw the bandaged side of his face.
She toddled over, almost of a height with Rawr and said, "Owies?"
Rawr put a paw to the bandage. "I guess?" And before he could manage, "It doesn't hurt..."
Vee pronounced, "Kiss beddah," and laid a slightly sticky smooch over his missing eye. Magic flared in harmless and colourful sparks, then Rawr flinched and recoiled.
Draconic Heritage works in more ways than the obvious. It can be initiated even by the bonds of love, as the people of Lower Petraine and Wraithvine and Lady Anthe learned that Vee was going to be a very, very interesting Sorcerer.
She brought back an eye that had never been there in the first place.
For the first time in his life, he was able to blink. A fact he found out as he undid his bandages so Anthe could see what had happened.
Five years from that day, they would all learn that Rawr's new eye had True Seeing as a permanent feature. But that is an entirely different story.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / hubb67]
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