Chapter 18: Mini-brew

It was bitterly cold. There was a long silence, just crunching feet in the snow. The leashes bounced between Ereza and the gnoll; she stared at her back for a long time as they walked. She felt Tomyra shiver, and she bundled her closer. Nothing in the closet had been sized for children, and the boots Ereza wore were too big for her. Her feet began to ache, and she could feel herself getting blisters. The only sounds were steps in the snow and the whistling of wind.

“This isn’t my best plan,” the gnoll said after a long while, just as the sun was starting to set. “I didn’t want to come to Buetarn.” There was an awkward pause, and the gray-spotted gnoll didn’t look back at them. “Not that you should care. You probably, rightfully, hate me and everyone who looks like me.” She was silent for another awkward moment. “But, circumstances brought us together. I can try to help you. We’ll get to Feridan, and I’ll save up some money; you can do whatever you want with it after that. I’d apologize, but there’s not one written for my people took everything you have, so I won’t even try.” 

Ereza could tell that the woman was emotionally pained, but despite that, she was surprisingly calm. It was easy to imagine this gnoll was older than her because the gnolls were all so tall. As she listened to the voice and watched the uncertainty in the body language, she started to realize that she was probably looking at someone her own age, or only a little older or younger.

She is a little right, Ereza thought. There was no love in her heart for any gnolls. But also, there was… maybe relief?... that today she didn’t have to die. The image of the last jayune to be taken from the community hall with her feet kicking wildly as she was dragged away by one of the soldiers came back to her vividly, as if she had let her emotional guard down too long, so it had slipped like poison back into her thoughts.

For now, she was silent, and there was still nothing but their feet crunching through the snow for another long space of time. Everything hurt, and it hurt more because it was all cold. She wished they had boots for Tomy because her body was starting to ache terribly from carrying her. There were definitely blisters forming. The rapid pace that the gnoll set as they walked, not looking back, ears always pointing back and around, made Ereza feel afraid that if they stopped for too long, someone would come to get them. She seemed to be important to the leader, like a lover. It made it more confusing why they were fleeing.

Still, she walked and tried not to let herself complain even internally. She was lucky, after all. “Eek!” she yelped as the oversized boot slid on some ice that had formed on the road. The gnoll stopped, and she turned around and looked at her closely. “Here, let me carry the little one. I just want to get us a bit further today, then I should be able to set up at least a little lab while you rest, and then the trip after that will be much easier, yeah?” It was the tone someone who seemed to be offering genuine reassurance.

Ereza hesitated, and Tomy began to cry as the large gnoll woman took her from her arms. There was a tense moment, while the woman more effectively swaddled the smaller bunny-like child. “Shush now, it’s too cold to cry, you’ll get frozen fluff on your cheeks, you will.” The voice was also soothing, and as she hugged the comparatively much, much smaller jayune to her, Ereza breathed out a slow sigh of relief. Everything in the woman’s face was gentle and empathetic.

Silence resumed as Tomy settled down slowly, and they walked until it was not quite dark, just the clinking of the leash on the collar that Ereza still wore and the gnoll still held. She veered them off the path, slogging her way through heavy snow, and Ereza followed in the tracks she left. They settled down near a tree that had served as a windbreak; the snow was heaped high on one side, but the other side was nearly clean of snow. “Set the pack down, let me get this off.” 

Tomy made a soft humph as she was squished close to the gnoll’s body with one arm so that she could lean down and undo the leash hooked to the collar on Ereza’s neck. The gnoll’s fingers were trembling, and Ereza could not decide whether it was with emotion or the cold. She transferred Tomyra back into her arms. In the pack that Ereza had been carrying, there was a large canvas tarp, which the gnoll set up over one of the lower branches and then used rocks and sticks she broke off to make a rough triangle shape. “Not great, it’s meant for the underside of a wagon. But, running away means that we’re going to have to endure some trouble. Dig into the pack, get food for you both, there’s some rations left. Help yourself to anything else in there that will make you more comfortable.”

She set Tomyra down, and she shivered as she sat down on the snowy ground, the coat protecting her rear.  She reached into her own bag and got out what looked like a board, but it unfolded into a lap desk. Ereza sat down also, resting on the blanket, smiling despite herself as Tomyra wiggled out of her swaddling. She watched the gnoll going through her bag, and then she cleared her throat. “What… is your name?” 

The gnoll smiled brightly. “You do talk!” she seemed genuinely pleased by it, and Ereza found herself blushing. The gnoll stilled herself, looking embarrassed. “I am Lukka.”

She folded her ears down and hesitated, but ultimately said, “I am Ereza. This is my little sister Tomyra… thank you for saving us… by taking us to Feridan?”

Lukka nodded. “I am doing what I can. I realize that it is not much in the grand scheme of this world, but it is what I can do. For now, I am going to see if I have the ingredients for a mini-brew.”

Ereza blinked. “Those are really rare. You make them?”

Lukka smiled slightly. “When I have the right ingredients. I will use it on you and your little sister, and that will make the supplies last longer and the trip easier because I will be able to carry you. I can give you the antidote later, once I have things settled. As we go, we can sort out what the two of you want to do moving forward.”

Ereza felt reservations about the idea of this woman having them under the effect of the mini-brew potion; she’d heard that it could make you as small as an inch for every foot of height. But then again, they’d both been helpless this whole time against Lukka, so she tried to accept it. “I am grateful that you are giving us the opportunity to have a say in what we want to do.” 

Lukka hummed, and her gray, rounded ears flattened slightly. “Well, I am not sure what to say about that, except to reassure you that you will have that opportunity, and maybe one day you won’t be quite so scared of me and so formal with everything. Preferably, it will be before the time comes for you to decide what you want so that you will not be shy in expressing those wishes. For now… eat, it’ll take time to make the potion.”

Ereza felt stung, somehow, she hadn’t meant to say something to hurt Lukka. I guess I should have seen it coming though, she’s taken a lot of effort to flee from her own kind and bring us. Then, I said that, and it lumped her in with them. She struggled, not sure if she should apologize, or if that would increase the awkwardness. She almost wanted to say thank you, but she worried it will have a similar impact. Instead after a moment of thinking, “I will get you some food, with Tomy and me, all right?” 

Lukka tilted her head, then smiled softly, accepting the peace offer readily enough. Ereza felt more grateful than ever. 

Dinner was quiet, there was only the sound of Lukka chopping things, muttering actual nonsense, or at least it seemed so to Ereza. The ache in her belly settled, and Tomyra yawned. The fluid in a clear, glass potion bottle began to glow, becoming very bright, and then just a pale green. “Okay, lucky enough that I had everything I needed. I think I packed it originally, thinking I might have to make something defensive… but this is better. I can keep the two of you warm, and we can go a little faster to Feridan.”

Lukka was looking at them both. Tomyra was not quite as scared of her because she had been carried for a while, but Ereza was uncertain what Lukka was looking for. She shivered; the improvised tent didn’t hold any heat, and she nodded to Lukka.

“Good. Let me see your palm, Miss Tomyra.” There was that sense of reservation Ereza felt, but she didn’t act on it, so Lukka poured a couple of drops from the vial into the little jayune’s hand. 

It worked exactly as Ereza had heard, the small child, not quite three feet tall, became much closer to three inches. That sense of reservation was nearly panic when Lukka reached out and took Tomy from where she had ended up perched on Ereza’s thigh with clothes spread around. She set the tiny girl down on her table. “All right, your turn, Ereza.” She took Ereza’s hand and poured a few drops of the shining liquid on her.

The potion was warm. That warmth spread all through her. It was disorienting for a moment because the world seemed to get a lot bigger. She lost her boots, the collar on her neck, and the coat; it all ended up on the ground near her as she became less than six inches high.

“All right, so far, so good. Come here,” the gnoll said, producing a square of fabric that looked soft, like silk maybe, from her bag. She bundled them both in it, treating it almost like a bag, wrapping it around their feet with the ends going up around their bodies. Her paws were truly massive, but she was very gentle, and each delicate movement was very steady. Ereza held a squeaking Tomy close to her; the movements of being so easily picked up and moved around were also disorienting. “I am going to settle you somewhere warm, that way, only one of us is cold tonight at most.” 

Ereza found out that meant that Lukka was tucking them to her chest, between her breasts, beneath the banding that supported her chest. Behind her, a beating heart. All around her, a blend of soft fluff and the weight of the soft flesh on either side of them. Her whole face heated up. It felt much too close.

After she had shared food, she’d been getting colder and colder. Without walking, without proper clothes, and without heat, there was just cold. Tomy had been very cold to hold. In this space, it was nothing but soft warmth. Every limb in her body ached with cold, and the warmth was already starting to soothe it away.

“You seemed like you were relaxing, but you’re so stiff again.” She was moving again, packing everything up. “That seems fair enough, since it is a little personal feeling. However, you’ll be safe, and once we are in Feridan, I’ll make you the right size again, I promise. Now, I think, if I condense everything, I can get us moving again for a few more hours.”

Tomy nuzzled closer to Ereza and said the first words she had in days now. “We’ll be… okay?”

“You will be okay,” Lukka affirmed. “I promise.” 

Ereza felt a lump in her throat, and she nodded, not trusting herself to speak. She was so tired; this was so warm. 

There were long moments then, of Lukka eating the dinner that was set out for her, and the gnoll cleaning up from the potion she had made. The gentle movements, the heat, the soft... Ereza had started to actually drift off to sleep with Tomyra nuzzled up against her.

The feeling faded, and there was a loud thumping. She opened her eyes; she couldn’t see anything really but the fabric that swaddled her, so she wasn't in fur-on-fur contact with Lukka. Her heart is racing. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

“We’re being stalked, by a dragon, right now,” the gnoll whispered back so softly that if Ereza did not have such good hearing, she would not have heard it at all. “Just be still. I am going to try to use the entire remaining batch of mini-brew. I want it to think we’re asleep when it gets closer.” 

Eternity passed in those next moments, before a dark-scaled muzzle pressed into the tent with them—and Lukka smashed the entire potion vial into that face by the neck of the bottle with a savage scream.