So Close, And Yet, So Far Off

A Continuation Of...

It had been a few weeks since Tinka and Nestor had met Noah and Marie, respectively. The days were growing shorter and colder, but their nights were warm. Whether Tinka was with Noah at his cottage on the Count's estate or Nestor was dancing with Marie at The Hollow Hill Tavern, autumn evenings were hot more often than not.

On a rare evening Tinka wasn't with Noah, she slipped into her deer pelt and walked through the courtyards in the walls of the Alchemist's Conclave. This time of year, it was not safe for her to be in her skin in the forest, the sound of crossbow bolts firing ran a shiver up her spine like never before. The damp air and crunchy leaves under hoof gave her a comfort she missed in the forest; one that was small in the walls, but still there, still safe. She strolled over to the apple trees and picked one off the ground, it was mealy and over-ripe, but they were the ones that could get her a little tipsy, and on a night like this, it felt good. Tinka leaned against one of the trunks and looked up into the sky, the bright moon and thousands of stars, she was happy, she was at peace. Her ears twitched in the breeze, there was a murmur of voices in second floor windows further away and a familiar sound called to her. "Hoooow are you this evening?" The owl asked.

Tinka crunched her apple, juices running down her lip, "Hey Mussy," Tinka spoke through a full mouth, or at least attempted to. She finished eating before speaking again, "I didn't think I would see you tonight, not like this." She lapped the juices from her lips.

"Ha haaa," she laughed slowly. "Sometimes the night air is--," She took in a deep breath.

"Needed?" Tinka looked at the moonlight reflect off her grey, white, and reddish feathers.

"Like nothing else in this world."

Tinka laughed. "There are some things...The ones Gaia gives us."

"That our mates cannot." She said knowingly. The barn owl spread her wings and took off from the branch and over the walls.

"Go get him," Tinka said to herself as she picked up another apple from the ground, chomping it in her mouth, making her way back to the garden to rest for the night.

...

A couple days later, Tinka was in her human form, meeting with a couple Master Alchemists collecting lists of items to pick up from the market or the forest. "If you track the good puffballs, I would be so grateful for that." Willona asked Tinka. "Same with the morels." She handed Tinka a collapsible basket for them. She stuck it in a cloth sack she carried.

"I know of a natural spore of the puffballs, but everyone likes the morels, those are a little harder to come by, and it is still early in the season. I will grab what I can."

"Wonderful, my deer lady!"

Tinka laughed. Willona called her that once and the term of endearment stuck ever since. She took the basket and the list and exited her office. She walked down the hallway and a couple students averted their eyes at her presence. Tinka reveled in the feeling. As she walked, a familiar clack-stomp and jingling sound approached behind her. "Tink! Tink!" Nestor wrapped his long arm around her shoulder, and caught his breath hugging her, nearly tackling them to the ground. "Are you busy? I was hoping you could help me."

"You know, that doesn't work with me like it used to." She patted him before letting him go. "Besides, Willona and Edwin have forest lists for me. I already have work to do. Paid work."

"You're doing a forest run? That's great! Can I come with you?"

She looked at his excited expression. "You finished plant medicine last week. Why do you want to join me?" He whispered in her ear and she tried not to respond with sound or expression. She wasn't happy about his request, "You can come, but don't expect me to help you."

"No! Not at all. No expectations from you."

"Fine. But I'm going now," Tinka said firmly.

The pair left the Conclave, out of the city gates, and to the forest. They left the common path where most humans knew they should not go, but Tinka was not human and Nestor had earned his welcome. Nestor stopped them in a clear spot of tall grass, "This is a good spot for me." He looked back over his shoulder to see how far they had left the path.

"I won't be too much further, the spore spot is a little further. Whistle twice and I'll come. Otherwise, I'll be back when I fill the basket." She kept walking through the grass, into the trees, and disappeared from sight.

Nestor pulled out a book and started walking about, practically pacing, nervous about his project he was about to attempt. He took a small bottle off his belt, started saying the incantation in the book, and whipped the liquid around his head in a circle. The next think Nestor knew he was falling, the ground seemed to drop out from under him, but only for a moment and when he landed, it didn't hurt, and the grass was tall all around him, just over his head. He looked about himself, closed his eyes, and sighed, "Shit." Nestor's enchantment seemed to have only partially worked: he had successfully transfigured himself, he meant to become an elephant, but instead, he was a barn duck, grey and still somehow, with little tusks. "Shit. Shit. Shit." He waddled in his circle.

"Ha! If you think being a duck is your biggest problem, you have another thing coming," said the voice pushing through the grass. The small reddish fae woman towered over him, but was barely three feet tall. "You colossal shithead," spat the woman. "You didn't sweep the field before performing your enchantment. I could hear your friend tell you there were mushroom spores near here. Did it even occur to your human brain to not do transformation magic anywhere near fairy cross-space?!"

"I--"

"No! You didn't! Now you don't have the means to switch yourself back, do you? Great Gaia!" She began to walk away. "Gonna have to get myself home."

Nestor began to panic. He realized he was small and about to be alone. "Caaan you whistlllle?!" He felt the words force out of his beak. He was losing his ability to talk.

The woman stopped and turned. Nestor had never seen what a scared duck looked like, but in that moment, it was him. "You want me to whistle?"

"Twisss-swaaa-waaak," Nestor's words turned to quacks. He waddled up to her and attempted to keep talking, but it all came out as low quaking.

"Fine. Fine. Hush!" She whistled loudly twice. A moment later, Tinka appeared from the treeline. "Her? Don't tell me she's yours," she asked Nestor. He shook his head at her, then nodded.

Tinka looked around the field, "Nestor?" She whistled back.

"I am to understand you're Nestor?" The small woman said to duck-Nestor. He nodded. The woman whistled again.

Tinka walked towards the whistle to find the small reddish woman and a tusked grey duck. Tinka approached and spoke cautiously, "I wish you a good day."

The fae woman rolled her eyes. "This is your Nestor," she pointed to him.

"Is he now?" Tinka replied. She folded her arms across her chest, holding her basket.

"I don't want him. He's your problem," the fae woman said while stepping back from him. "I have my own problems."

Duck-Nestor waddled over to Tinka, quacking and flapping his wings. She squatted down, looked him in the eyes and spoke, "I know those blue eyes. And that's the same grey as your tabbard. You colossal shithead." She sighed. "Tinka's here." He leaned onto her shoulder like he had that morning; like he had in the past when he was tired and sad.

"Does that mean you will claim him?" The woman asked.

"He is my brother. I will take him." She sighed again, and held open the basket towards her. "Will you find these acceptable for trade?"

The woman grinned. "Very much so. Marx finds these acceptable." She took the contents of the basket into her scooped up skirt.

"Safe travels Marx."

"Safe travels Tinka, Nestor."

Duck-Nestor quacked. Tinka hushed him while picking him up. As Tinka walked out of the field back towards the forest path, Nestor craned his neck back to see Marx spread the mushrooms in a circle, say an enchantment, and disappear into a portal back to the fae realm he mistakenly conjured her from.

He turned his head back towards Tinka and looked up at her. He tried to talk, but it came out as more grumbling quacks. "Stop Nestor. Just wait a moment." Tinka reached into the large sack and pulled out her pelt. She set duck-Nestor down, took off her robe, and slipped into her skin. When she spoke again, she was her deer-self, "What were you trying to say?"

"What?!" Nestor yelled. "You can understand me now? How is that possible?"

"I don't bucking know. You're the Conclave student. I'll ask Gaia next time I see her." She started walking slowly and Nestor waddled next to her.

"You actually see Gaia?"

"No! She's a goddess. She's busy. How 'bout you tell me why I'm talking to a duck with tusks. Did you learn nothing from last year?"

"I did! That's why I was doing the transfiguration on myself. I thought if I could become an elephant I could read and memorize all my books. For some reason, it didn't work."

"It looks like it didn't work for lots of reasons. You opened a fae portal. You are lucky Marx didn't eat or claim you for what you did."

"I know you never mess with fairies."

"Did they teach you that in class?"

"No. I--"

"Shh." Tinka's ears twitched, she crouched to the ground and looked to Nestor. She snapped her head back looking around the trees. "We're not alone."

"We aren't?"

"Shh." She pulled her robe back out of the sack from around her neck by her teeth. "We're being hunted. I have to take my pelt off."

"But we won't be able to talk."

"We will at the Conclave." She pulled her pelt off her body, slid it into her sack, and put her robe on. When she stood up, she picked up duck-Nestor. She whispered to him, "Whatever you do, don't fly. If you stay with me, neither of us should be targeted." Nestor nodded. Tinka walked through the forest and down the path. She eyed the treeline as they made their way around a curve of a hill. Her heart pounded in her chest, she tried to calm herself by petting the feathers on his back.

Suddenly, the sound Tinka hated the most whizzed over her shoulder and hit a tree in front of her. The crossbow bolt caused her hair to whip once. "If you stop there madam, I will not shoot again." The man's voice was older and gritty. Tinka froze in her spot, looking down at Nestor, he didn't have to say it, but he was scared too. The man's steps slowly approached behind her and circled in front of her. His crossbow was already reloaded and aimed at them. "I saw a deer with a sack and this unusual duck. Now I find a woman carrying a sack with the same unusual duck. It doesn't take a genius to know what you are, selkie." He took a step towards her pointing the crossbow. "Drop the sack. Release the duck."

Tinka tried to remain strong. They were alone with no one near by to help them. "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I am already paired." Nestor looked up at her, she was clearly lying since the hunter saw her in and out of her pelt and how tightly she clutched her sack.

He laughed at her. "I have never seen a tusked duck. That may be a better trophy than a selkie wife. But the kill won't be satisfying if I don't take it from the air myself." He focused the crossbow on them. "But two birds with one bolt would be quite the accomplishment."

Tinka's heart raced. She looked forward then down at Nestor in her arms. As she set Nestor down, she barely whispered, "Don't fly."

Nestor sat at Tinka's feet. The hunter waited. "Ha!" He yelled. The pair jerked, but they didn't move from their place. "What gives with the duck? He won't fly."

"Why do you think I was carrying him?"

The hunter grew angry at Tinka's reply. "Damn selk. Damn duck. Ruining my hunt." He lowered his crossbow towards Nestor; his trajectory would hit Tinka's foot too. He took aim and Tinka swiftly popped Nestor off the ground with her foot as the bolt fired. Nestor quacked loudly as his wings flapped, he took flight and he pecked the hunters face with his beak and tusks. In that moment, the barn owl dove in and joined Nestor in pecking the hunter. Tinka took off her bag and swung it into the side of his knees. The hunter fell to the forest floor.

"Go!" Yelled Tinka. She grabbed the crossbow, broke a mechanism off it, dropped the weapon and kept going with her bag in hand. She listened for the wings and calls of the owl and duck. She sprinted down the path until the clearing started to appear. She looked to find she was not alone: the owl and duck-Nestor were not far overhead from her. The pair of birds flew in front of her. Tinka looked to duck-Nestor flying, making his way to the ground, and tumbled into a landing. When he shook himself to his senses, he stood in shock at the graceful owl who had helped them. She spun in the air and began to transform and grow. Her wingspan grew to arms, her legs grew, her talons grew to boots, her white feathers became her skin, her grey feathers became her dress, and her red feathers became her hair. Even on his duck face, Tinka recognized Nestor's confusion to the transformation of Marie from barn owl to human. Tinka grinned knowingly looking back and forth between the two of them. "I told you I wasn't going to tell him," Tinka said to Marie. Nestor quacked, squawked, and flapped his wings trying to communicate. Tinka tried to suppress her laugh as she picked up Nestor. She looked at him, "It wasn't my secret to tell." Tinka held him to see Marie.

Marie straightened out her dress, and ran her hands through her hair before pulling out her wide brimmed hat and putting it on. She saw the confusion on Nestor's face. "I was going to tell you, Sweet One." She reached out and took Nestor from Tinka. He nuzzled into her and wrapped a wing around her. He spoke in grumbling quacks. "I have the ingredients to restore you in my compartment. We should get going."

Marie and Tinka walked back to the city walls. They could see by the look on his face: he liked the feeling of being carried and having his back feathers petted. When the three of them got back to Marie's compartment at the Conclave, she started to gather the ingredients needed to restore Nestor. "Did you really think I worked and lived at the Conclave of Alchemists without learning a thing or two?" She stirred together some herbs and mashed them into a poultice. "I'm not a great sorceress but I know a few things."

"That reminds me, I had to trade almost all my mushrooms, can you help with what I have left?" Tinka asked Marie. "I wouldn't ask, but they're for Willona and Edwin." Tinka held open the collapsed basket to Marie with only a couple morels and one small puffball mushroom in it.

Marie looked up from the poultice to see the basket. "The fae?" Tinka nodded to her then tipped her head to duck-Nestor. Marie looked to Nestor and smiled. She knelled, ruffled the feathers on the back of his neck and kissed his beak. "You are one lucky duck, you know that?"

He shuffled his webbed foot while she went over to Tinka and her basket. Marie said an incantation over the basket, then flipped the lid open several times; each time the lid was opened, there were more and more mushrooms. When the basket was full, she said another incantation and the mushrooms stopped multiplying. "That's amazing," Tinka exclaimed.

"Sorcery, gardening," Marie smiled and waved it off. "You could say I have a green thumb."

"I might say an emerald-sage talon."

Nestor quacked to get their attention. "Oh, is someone getting tired of his feathers already? You didn't seem to mind it when we were carrying you," Marie said sweetly. She took the poultice off the table and offered it to him. "Eat up." Duck-Nestor pecked at the poultice, eating it quickly. "How does that taste?" Marie asked.

Nestor quacked and grumbled, "Waaak-waaack-wack-What-What did you just give me?" Nestor stood tall and restored to human, patting himself over in disbelief, looking himself up and down.

"Fascinating," said Tinka.

"Fascinating? That's all you have to say?!" Nestor barked.

"Pretty much. I'm curious what Marie's thoughts are on how you turned yourself into a duck and not an elephant."

Marie scoffed. "You did not!" She went to Nestor and pulled his spell book out of his pocket. She flipped through the pages. "You mistranslated the runes. You were thinking elephant, which is probably why you ended up with tusks, but this enchantment with the potion you used is for transformation into a duck." She pointed to a line in the book, "See, it's not an elephant." Even though Marie seemed to be scolding him, she spoke as sweetly and kindly as she always did. She did it out of her love of the sorcery and her love for Nestor, Tinka could see it.

Tinka smiled and made her way to the door, "I'm sure you love-birds of a feather have much to talk about without me here. I'll leave you to it." She opened the door.

"Tink," Nestor called. "Thank you. I would have been lost and ducked without your help today." He put an arm around Marie. Tinka could see the sheer difference of how he touched her, the love, the affection, the intimacy.

"I did what I would do for my brother. Same as you did for me." She gave them a nod. She looked to Marie. "Teach him better, please."

"Of course." Marie slapped Nestor's butt as Tinka left.

...

After Tinka delivered the abundant basket of mushrooms to Willona and Edwin, she looked in her sack and noticed the hour of the day and decided to go see Noah and tell him about the day. The sun was starting to set when she got to his cottage on the Count's estate. He had only been home for a few minutes when Tinka got there. She told him about Nestor's transformations and the horrific run-in with the hunter, how she could have been taken or killed by him. "Noah. I don't want what happened today to possibly happen again. I don't want any other man to have the chance." She pulled her pelt from the sack. Her desires were clear by expression, she knew he would understand what she was asking of him.

Noah grinned. He opened the locked chest he kept his pelt in. They knelled in front of each other. It was a simple, short ceremony, but the physical and spiritual bond it would create between them would be immediate. They set their pelts between them. Tinka took Noah's pelt and Noah took Tinka's. They handed each other's pelt back and felt the bond that was formed between them. In that moment, they were married. They were subject to no one but each other as long as they lived; no life debts, no stolen pelts to worry about, they were soul-bound by love to each other. Tinka pounced on Noah and he absorbed her with a hug and a laugh. "You know I'm not going to object, but we have time."

She took a deep inhale of his chest hair and looked at him, "I know my deer. I'm just so happy."

"So am I." He ran a hand through her hair and kissed her.

In that kiss, there was a knock at the door. "Can we tell whoever that is to buck off?"

"It's the Count. I have some documents for him." Noah rolled Tinka off him. He handed her their pelts. "Get cozy by the fire. Would you get the kettle going?"

She looked at the door and the hearth in position from the door, around the L-shaped turn in the cottage. "I understand my love, but you know you're going to have to tell him we're married soon enough."

"Oh, I know, just not tonight." He gave her a deep kiss and a look to evoke some sympathy.

Tinka went to the fireplace, knelled, and started tending to the fire.

Noah opened the door. "Good evening sir. The documents, I finished duplicating them."

"Excellent. You truly are a great help in my employ. Intelligence and clerical work. You are two birds with one bolt, as it were."

"Thank you sir. Have a good night."

"And you, Noah."

The Count grunted and left the cottage. Noah went over to Tinka by the fireplace. Even in the warmth of the hearth, she was pale. "I can see it. I can smell it on you. For Gaia's sake, I can feel your fear."

Tinka stared at the flames for a long moment. "You didn't tell me the Count was a hunter." Tinka and Noah embraced each other.

...Some time later