The Weaving of Wells (Osric's Wand, Book Four)

by Jack D. Albrecht Jr.

  Osric was in awe of the paun body, and he took time to study their structure and movements every chance he got. They were lean, and their heavily muscled bodies would put even Kenneth’s dense musculature to shame. Yet, it wasn’t only their muscles that gave them the strength and speed he knew all too well. The paun had many more muscles than a human body has, with muscle attachments at more points along the adjoining bones. That wasn’t the only thing remarkable in their makeup; each limb had an additional joint that allowed for even greater speed and flexibility of movement.

  Kane and Vesh both could, at times, choose to stride at a normal human pace to walk alongside Osric. Yet, they could run at astonishing rates by recruiting more muscles and extending the joints of their limbs to the full extent. The length and sharpness of the claws, however, seemed to be dependent upon how much use they received while hunting and taking in prey. Vesh had clearly been superior to Kane in the hunt, and her razor-sharp claws had grown significantly longer than her brother’s. There was nothing else like them on all of Archana.

  In the time he had spent with them, he continued to marvel at the speed with which they grew. When Osric had been forced to fight it the day Orson died, the third of their group had been about the size of the two pups combined. Now, both were not only taller than the paun he killed, but even Vesh was wider and bulkier than that paun had been. Kane was also significantly larger than the first paun Osric had encountered in the forest. He wondered if they were yet fully grown, but he had no idea how large a paun could get, as so few had ever been seen. Both of them easily dwarfed him in size, but they showed no sign of making him their next hunt. And the only thing he ever sensed from them was import from the Portentist gift and a sense of calm curiosity from the Empath gift.

  For lack of any other explanation, he attributed their growth to the change in diet he had introduced. How long the paun had lived only eating a small portion of their prey was unknown, so feeding them all of the animals’ meat after cooking, no doubt, had contributed to their size.

  “Do you two think you’re ready to take a trip? I have some friends I’d like to introduce you to.” Osric spoke calmly as he watched them strip the last remaining scraps of flesh from the bones. He had tried to speak with the paun using the Telepathy gift he had gained from his proximity to Thamas and Legati’s magic, but the two pups showed no signs of recognizing the mental prodding. However, they did respond to audible commands, calming down noticeably at the sound of his voice. They knew they were going to be leaving soon.

  Osric looked at them for a long moment, and they twitched with eagerness. He was nervous, but every previous day had been leading to this. Both pups sensed his anxiety, whining slightly, but they continued to show their readiness to leave with quick nods in the direction of the cave’s exit. He had come early in the day this time, choosing to reveal the proof of their existence to the Aranthians in the light of day, rather than at night. Too many nightmarish stories were told to children about the paun to bring them to the barracks without light to dispel the myths. The story of his first and second encounters with paun did not help to inspire trust of the creatures either.

  Osric, however, knew the truth of the matter, after the time he had spent with the pups. They were not evil, inasmuch as it was said; they were simply carrying out their version of a hunt. It would take some effort to convince his brethren of the truth of the matter. He stood up, motioning for the paun to gather at his sides.

  “Well, let’s do it then. Delaying won’t help the matter.” He was speaking more to himself than to the paun, but they moved close to him, knowing that contact was how he brought them to new places.

  After they took a place on either side, he spoke the spell and soon arrived outside the barrier to the Aranthian home. They moved as if to run and play, but Osric halted them with a word. It wasn’t easy for them to restrain themselves, but they did.

  A merchant screamed in terror at the sight of the three of them in the road, but to their credit—and to Osric’s great relief—the paun looked at the man in alarm but held their place at his side. Osric attempted to calm the merchant down with a smile and a friendly greeting, but there was nothing he could do. The man, in tan breeches and a dirtied yellow tunic, fell off of his cart in an attempt to run away and sprawled flat in the dirt. It took only a moment for him to regain his footing and dash off in the opposite direction, looking back and screaming with every breath.

  It wasn’t the start he had hoped for, but more or less it was the one he had expected. The merchant’s horse reared in fright, nostrils flaring and eyes rolling in panic. Osric hurried to calm the horse down with a few pleasant words and no small amount of magic, and then he held the reins tightly while watching the calm yet curious gaze the paun aimed at the man fleeing from them. They paid little attention to the horse, as Osric had not given them the command to hunt. Once he was sure the horse would not bolt and injure itself, Osric tied its reins to a nearby post and returned to the paun.

  “He’ll come around. You’ll see.” Osric sighed with relief that the paun were behaving so calmly, patting them each on the head to reassure and praise them. “I bet he adopts the first paun litter we raise.”

  “Whoa!” a playful voice interjected.

  Osric looked up to see Pebble peeking out of the window of his wand shop. It was a bit early, but Pebble had taken his role as a world-renowned Wand-Maker very serious. The only surprising part about his being at work this early was that Gus wasn’t there with him.

  “Pebble,” Osric shouted as he led the paun toward the old forge, “come say hello to my friends.”

  There was no doubt Pebble was nervous, but his curiosity won out and he jumped down from the open window and slowly approached the massive creatures.

  “You sure they won’t eat me?” Pebble looked up at Osric with more question in his expression than insecurity.

  “Honestly?” Osric returned the expression.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “I’m not sure they won’t try, but I would never let that happen to any of my friends.” Honesty was best in these types of situations, and Osric felt that Pebble deserved it.

  “Oh.” Pebble took a nervous step back to look at the two hulking beasts. A serious, piercing gaze crossed his face and then he looked back to Osric with a shrug. “I’m too small to feed ’em. They won’t bother with me. And portent says nothing bad is coming, so I trust ’em.”

  “Portent?” Osric looked down at Pebble with surprise. “Congratulations. I forgot that you had gifts developing still. How long has it been?”

  “Since I opened the shop.” Pebble pointed at his store. “’Bout twelve days, I guess.”

  “And how long was it before you could tell if there was danger?” Osric knelt.

  “Couple days, maybe. I saw you do it so much, it was easy.”

  “I suppose you did.” He smiled at Pebble’s matter-of-fact explanation. “So, where is your father? I was hoping he would be here to meet Kane and Vesh.” He looked around, searching the landscape.

  “He’s out gettin’ me some sticks. He don’t like me making wands outta everyone’s stuff they bring me,” Pebble replied.

  Osric laughed, remembering earlier conversations with Gus about what was suitable material for wandcraft. Gus had always been rather particular on that subject.

  “Well, do you want to introduce yourself properly, or should I take them to the Aranthians for their introductions?” Osric teased. He felt great about the way this meeting had gone, so he was more than ready to move onto the next one.

  Pebble stepped forward. He was still a bit timid, but there was a determined effort in his stance. Then, looking up at Osric’s smile, he grinned and approached quickly with a defiant swagger. The two paun had taken a sullen stance side by side, clearly uninspired by the long chat, and they only took notice of the fat prairie dog when he drew close enough to touch them. Osric crouched down so Kane and Vesh would see that Pebble was welcome, and he gave the hand si
gnal to wait patiently. For good measure, he held his fist out in the signal that meant an object was not food, and he kept it there as Pebble stood before them.

  “Hi,” he began. “I’m Pebble. If you wanna play, me, Trevar, and Happy are the only ones ’round here who play. We’d love to show ya.”

  The two paun looked at him with curiosity, nostrils flaring as they sniffed the air. They leaned down and nudged him with curious prodding snouts. Osric reached out and ran his free hand over Pebble’s soft, well-groomed coat, attempting to show them how to demonstrate affection.

  First, Kane slowly reached out a clawed front foot and rested it lightly on Pebble’s head. He pulled the foot back quickly, casting a look of disbelief at Osric. Osric smiled and repeated the gesture.

  “See, he is a friend.” It was a motion they were used to experiencing, though usually on the receiving end. Osric hoped he could instill in them the same sense of gentleness that he had shown for them.

  Kane reached out again timidly, then pulled back again. Then, Vesh pushed him out of the way forcefully. She stepped up to Pebble and placed her left forefoot on the pup’s head. She looked up at Osric in shock, but didn’t remove her foot. Her gaze fell slowly back to Pebble and her head tilted slowly from one side to the other as she studied the fur beneath her touch.

  “She has pretty eyes.” Pebble giggled as the tip of a claw tickled him on his side.

  Vesh continued her stroking, and soon Kane stepped around her and joined in the activity. Pebble began laughing and squirming about. Out of curiosity, Osric used the Empath gift and found that the two paun were completely enthralled by the prairie dog pup, and he could sense a bond of affection growing in them.

  He let them study Pebble for some time, and Pebble certainly didn’t mind the attention. It was an interesting sight, watching an animal built to kill petting and tickling a gentle, plump, and ticklish prairie dog. He lost himself in the rarity of the moment, smiling at the accomplishment.

  “Get!” The gruff, scared voice sounded from the distance. “Get away from my son, now!”

  Osric spun on his heels and saw Gus standing with an outstretched wand. He reached out his hands in a calming motion. It wasn’t the introduction he had hoped for, but he should have seen it coming.

  “Gus, don’t worry.” Osric looked back to check the paun, and they had ended their playful exploration and were looking with interest between the two who were speaking.

  “Don’t worry? You’ve got two paun pawing at my boy. What’s to worry about?” He stepped to the side, looking around Osric to see his son.

  “I’ve been training them for some time. They won’t harm anyone.” He made a point of not pulling out his wand. If it came to it, the paun would make themselves invisible and move several feet to either side of him—at least, that’s what he had trained them to do.

  “How comforting, but maybe you could experiment with some humans first? We have plans that don’t involve death today.” Gus’s scowl intensified.

  “Pa, they been tickling me. Portent says they don’t wanna eat me. It’s okay,” Pebble said with more authority than either of them had expected. Gus even looked at him in shock.

  “Let those older than five years old discuss the issues of the day, boy,” Gus replied, but it was a much weaker reply than his former.

  “Now that’s not fair, Gus.” Osric took a step toward him, intending to correct him for the insult, but Pebble stepped quickly in front of him.

  “Which of us is master Wand-Maker now? I am.” Pebble stood up and stuck his chest out authoritatively. He wasn’t being disrespectful, and there was no doubt that Gus respected him for it. “I am because I know when to watch and look. I know how to see what you taught me to see.”

  “We’re not talking about wands, boy.” Gus was a bit ashamed of himself, looking down and kicking the dirt by his foot.

  “I teached you about the unicorns not wanting to make him too powerful too. I knew ’bout Osric’s wand and that’s why they don’t wanna get too close to him. I imitate the unicorn wands with my own as well. These is all things I seen when you didn’t. I see they is okay to trust too.” Pebble walked back to the paun and patted one on the foreleg.

  “You remember the last paun we met?” Gus replied, but Osric just watched, in awe of Pebble’s speech and maturity. “That paun would have ate us all. The last one Osric saw killed Orson and he had to fight off three of them.”

  “Actually, these two are two of the three you mentioned,” Osric corrected him. “I’ve been training them since the day Orson died.”

  “They’re what?” Gus shouted, dumbfounded.

  “They’re trustworthy. If you come here and look at them, even you could see that the Trust gift shows they is tame.” Pebble pointed at the two paun with fearless impatience.

  “Trust gift?” Gus looked at his son in disbelief. “What makes you think the Trust gift will work on these things?”

  Pebble rolled his eyes and then looked to his father with a blank expression. “If you pay attention to what the gifts are saying, you would know.” There was no small amount of a child’s condescension in the tone.

  “Do you believe this boy?” Gus turned to Osric.

  “Don’t look at me. I’m half tickled to see someone so young getting the best of you for a change.” He laughed.

  “Next time you want some time alone, you can count on me bringing a dozen Wand-Maker’s to study your gifts.” Gus scowled at Osric.

  “Pa.” Pebble pointed at the paun again. “Look!”

  “Am I that obtrusive when I know something others don’t?” Gus looked up at Osric with little hope.

  “You’re downright insulting. At least he’s cute about it.” Osric waved to Pebble.

  Gus strode impatiently toward Pebble. The young Wand-Maker was still standing, impatiently pointing at the fierce-looking animals. Vesh and Kane only looked with pacified faces at the two prairie dogs moving at their feet. Gus looked uncomfortably at the toothy snouts that were far too close to his son for his liking.

  “See, the Trust gift shows you the intentions of them.” Pebble said enthusiastically. “If their intentions was to eat us, we could see it. And, the Portentist gift would tell us they was dangerous. And, the Empath gift would tell us they feel hatred or hunger or something.” Pebble patted Vesh on the leg. “They feel curious and loyal, and like they might want to eat the cows. Osric, you should keep an eye on the cows.”

  Gus looked up at Osric with frustration. The gaze indicated his distaste not only for his son lecturing him on new gifts, but also for having paun study the two small prairie dogs as Pebble carried out his explanation.

  “Gus, don’t you see. If they become aggressive toward any one of us we can just withdraw the invite from our habitat, and I’ve already faced several paun. I could defeat them again, if I had too. So,” he continued, “Pebble is right that all of our gifts are sufficient to determine that the paun are tame. Well, as long as I don’t let them too close to the cattle.”

  “Well, if they kill us all and build a paun-hunting hub out of the Aranthian headquarters, it would be a great leap forward in paun social development,” Gus grumbled with a shrug and a shake of his head.

  “That’s highly unlikely.” Pebble frowned at his father’s words.

  “Okay. If the two of you think the gifts are showing us they’re trustworthy, who am I to argue?” Gus shrugged, walked to the two paun, and patted them on the legs. “Maybe I could stick close to them and provide them with a small snack the next time they are hungry.”

  “That’s the spirit.” Osric tousled his hair. Sensing the excitement, Vesh and Kane stood on trembling legs as he spoke. “Kane, Vesh, you are decisively invited into our sanctuary.”

  The scene changed in the familiar, shimmering way. Though the grounds of the old Vigile barracks had been tended to, the one that stood inside the barrier was still much more impressive. Sprites danced in every which direction and bodies moved to and fro in th
e lively surroundings. Yet, to Osric’s surprise, the paun continued to look at him expectantly, waiting to depart. The change in visual stimuli was too little to signify to them that they were in a new location, and they looked a bit disappointed after a few moments had passed and they still hadn’t headed off on a new adventure.

  Even more impressive was the fact that Aranthians moved about in their daily routine, taking no notice of the pale beasts that stood in their front yard. Dumping a pot of water on his herb garden outside the window to the kitchen, James took notice of Osric, setting down the container of water and approaching with a casual smile.

  “Osric, I was hoping I could have a word with you.” He spoke in a friendly tone. His eyes darted to Gus, Pebble, the two paun, and then back to Osric. “We’ve got more meat than we need for the Aranthians at this time, and I was wondering if I could donate a hundred pounds or so to feeding the new arrivals that Toby is reaching out to. Our hunters have been outperforming expectations, and we…” He paused in his approach, taking notice of Kane and Vesh again.

  James scratched his head slowly, craning his neck. “What are…” He looked at Osric, who was ready to laugh at his expression. “What are…” His face drained of color and he took two steps back.

  “That’s about the best greeting any paun has ever received.” Gus laughed a short, humorless laugh.

  Osric joined Gus in the humor of the moment. “It’s okay, James. These paun are trained well and they pose no danger to any of us.” He stepped between the two of them and gestured to the right. “This lovely lady is Vesh, and her larger friend with the bored expression is Kane. I’ve spent a lot of time with them since Orson died, and every one of my abilities and instincts indicates that they are not a threat to us.”