The Magnificent Maron Maloney - Part 3/4

Following the Cat. Questions. The Remedy. Benzie.

It was an hour past midnight, and a slow-stalking tiger ascended a staircase found above the Swindle’s kitchen. Upon reaching a door left ajar at the top of the stairwell, the tiger gently shoved it open with her head, and it listed wide enough for her to enter.

Taika Maru arrived at the foot of Elina Hogsbreath’s green-painted bed. A ward of three conjoined circles was carved into the footboard, and a matching wood dresser was similarly green and decorated with painted rose blossoms, branches, and thorns. The bedroom’s heavy curtains had been drawn, and heat from the kitchen’s clay oven warmed the room; Elina’s room perpetually smelled of baked bread. Elina’s clothes and aprons were neatly folded and stacked on wall shelving. There was a glass vase of white sunflowers resting on the nightstand. And a colorful summertime cotton comforter was draped over her sleeping body.

As Taika’s whiskered snout crept toward her, Elina’s nose twitched, sensing a strange movement and a change in the air, and when she opened her groggy, sleep-crusted eyes to find a Bengal tiger looming over her bedside, she bolted against the headboard, raised her comforter to her chin, and gasped to elicit a horrified scream, just as a halfling’s head jutted out from behind the big cat.

Benzie doggedly emerged from behind Taika and whispered, “We’ve gotta talk.”

* * *

Elina and Benzie stood over Taika Maru, who comfortably lay on the kitchen floor; the warmth from the clay oven suited her.

Scowling in the candlelight, Elina wore a night robe bundled at her waist. Her hair was mussed and taken up. Her arms were tightly folded, and she carried a brass picket. Benzie was still fully dressed from the previous day.

“You have to see this,” Benzie whispered, kneeling down to scratch Taika’s ears. The tiger responded by pleasantly whipping her tail.

“What I see is a cat shedding in my kitchen, Benzie,” Elina growled.

Benzie whispered, “No, it’s more than that. I’ll show you.”

Elina rolled her eyes as Benzie aligned himself with Taika’s face. “Hey,” he said. “Tiger?”

Taika’s eyes drifted lazily to Benzie.

“You understand me, right? You know what I’m saying, don’t you?” Benzie whispered.

And Taika nodded.

Elina achingly rubbed her forehead and moaned, “She’s trained, Benzie. We’ve talked ‘bout this.”

“No, no, wait,” Benzie insisted. “Tiger, is Maron Maloney dangerous?”

This time, Taika rolled her head to look up at Elina, and she nodded.

“Benzie,” Elina grumbled, gesturing to the cat, “ask it somethin’ that don’t require her head to bobble an’ nod.”

Benzie blinked at Elina. “Huh?”

Exasperated, Elina set the candle pricket on the counter and held out her hands to the tiger. On her right hand, she raised two fingers, and on the other, she raised four.

“It’s the dead of night. How many halflin’s shouldn’t be in my kitchen?”, she asked gruffly, and Taika brushed Elina’s right hand with her paw.

Elina’s eyed widened.

“See?!” Benzie gasped and sat on the floor, his back to the counter.

Unconvinced, Elina crouched to come eye-to-eye with the cat, and whispered, “Blink your right eye.”

Taika did so.

Benzie shook his head in amazement and whispered, “Great Green! There’s a talking tiger in Pondaroak.”

“She ain’t talkin’, Benzie,” Elina said before taking Taika’s head in her hands to inspect her fur, her eyes, her teeth, and her ears. “She’s an animal. A smart one, I’ll giv’er that, but let’s see what she’s not.”

Reaching for a dish on the counter, Elina took a pinch of salt and flung it at the tiger’s midsection.

Nonplused, Taika watched her.

“Well, she ain’t fae,” Elina confirmed. Petting the tiger’s body, Elina felt the warmth of the tiger’s skin. Standing, Elina grasped a kitchen knife and brought it closer to the tiger. She angled the knife to see the tiger’s reflection. Shaking her head, she set the knife back up on the counter. “She ain’t dead, an’ she ain’t no specter.”

“You thought she was a ghost?” Benzie cringed, instinctively pulling his legs closer to his body.

“Can’t be too sure,” Elina said.

Benzie saw Elina’s face squinch in befuddlement as she was now very invested to prove Taika was just a tiger.

Going into her pantry, Elina brought a white sage smudge bundle over her candle’s flame. Smoldering, Elina blew on it and waved the smoke around Taika’s face.

Taika sniffed at the smoke, shook her head, and sneezed.

“Huh,” Elina mumbled and tightened her robe. “An’ she ain’t no evil spirit, either. No ill intentions.”

Undaunted, Elina went to an adjacent counter to retrieve a stick of chalk and, bending over, drew a circle around Taika. Within it, she sketched a single rune meaning “truth” in an ancient language, and she touched the circle to infuse her will.

“Tiger,” Elina breathed. “Answer truthfully, for I’ll know otherwise. Are you a familiar?”

Taika glared at Elina inquisitively.

Elina clarified, saying, “Yes, sorry. Are you an otherworldly servant to a witch or warlock?”

Thinking, Taika the tiger shook her head no.

“Well, that’s a relief,” Elina said, tossing the chalk on the floor.

Elina stood and pulled three leaves from a spring of rosemary to place them in an ordered line within the circle, and waited.

“What’re you doing now?” Benzie asked, whispering. “And how do you know all of this stuff?”

Elina shushed him and waved him off, waiting for the ends of the rosemary leaves to spin in an opposite direction or level out. Elina waited for a good two minutes, and they stayed exactly how she laid them on the floor.

Taika curiously sniffed at the leaves.

Elina shook her head and crossed her arms. “Ain’t a hex; not a curse; not a spell.”

Placing her hand over her mouth, Elina hesitated, wondering what could possibly come from her next question, because there was only one more thing to ask.

Concentrating once again on her circle, she slowly asked the tiger, “Are you … a person?”

And Taika nodded yes.

Upon receiving that response, Elina gasped, scampered backward, and scooched away from the tiger.

Benzie chortled and sneered, thrusting his thumb at his chest. “And you thought I was a crackpot. You think she’s a person? C’mon, Elina. She’s a tiger!”

Taika glanced imploringly at Benzie.

Near the wall, Elina’s eyes were locked on Taika when she said, “Benzie, that ain’t no tiger, an’ if I’m ever so stupid to ignore your intuition again, you just come right out an’ slap me upside my noggin with your mop, y’ understand?”

The smug smirk that graced Benzie’s face gave way to an expression of concern, then fear, and the gravity of Elina’s thinking fell on him like a boulder. “The animals. Elina. All of his animals?”

Crawling up to the tiger, Elina approached Taika to stare into her eyes, and when theirs met, Elina could see a melancholy sorrow; a deep-seated longing; an enduring ache; a suffering nailed to her soul.

“Alchemy,” Elina breathed, forcing herself to her feet. Grabbing her candle, she went around Taika to approach an oak pedestal containing a massive leatherbound book. It was thick, thicker than any other book in the inn. The corners of its pages were stained from centuries of use, and within it were long-held secrets. Holding her candle up to the book, she began flipping through the pages. “Benzie!”

Still dumbfounded by their findings, Benzie’s eyes shot up at Elina.

“The lye soda power in the basement,” she whispered, turning the pages, one after the other. “I’ll need a teaspoon.”

“Uh, okay,” Benzie said, getting to his feet.

“I’m not done yet,” Elina said, placing the candle on the windowsill and rubbing her hands together. “Charphen oil. It’s labeled. Just bring me the jar. Sulfur, in the larder. Bring me a crystal. Nararoot, it’s in the pantry. I’ll need five stalks, an’ watch it: they’re thorned.”

“Right!” Benzie said, his mind reeling, trying to remember the extensive list. Where the lower half of his body went to the pantry while the upper part made for the stairs, causing Benzie to stumble backward into the counter. He disturbed a stack of clean pots and pans, making an awful clanging ruckus.

“Benzie!” Elina hissed. “Now!”

“On it!” Aligning his direction with the rest of his body, Benzie rocketed down the stairs to the basement.

Taika yawned and rolled her body.

Racing through the book, Elina found the page she was after. Bordered by inked illustrations of green vines and red tomatoes, the archaic script looked like spiders writhing across the page. There were diagrams, heating instructions, preparation notes, and hand-written scrawls along the side of the page written by her mother and her mother’s mother, clarifying the components. 

Without even looking away from the tome, Elina directed her hand to the hearth, snapped, and whispered, “Hominem Fulmine.” 

And a hot fire burst forth, shooting flames out from under her black cooking cauldron. It was old, passed down through Elina’s family for hundreds of years. Encircling its neck were runes scored into the cast iron rim that blessed the cauldron’s contents and sanctified food, and the runes glowed a bright orange when the fire was ignited underneath it.

Filling her glass pitcher with water, Elina raced around the lounging tiger to pour it into her cauldron. Upon receiving the water, the cauldron’s runes flared, and its enchantment brought the water to an instant boil, roiling and bubbling.

Setting down her pitcher, Elina seized three juicy tomatoes from her vegetable bin, cored them, and rested them whole in the cauldron.

“Here!” Benzie cried, rushing into the kitchen. He set the jar of oil, a yellow sulfur crystal, and a tin cup of coarse white lye powder on the counter.

“Wash your hands!” Elina insisted, stepping back around the tiger. “Then bring the rest to me.”

Elina licked two fingers, bent down, and ran them across the chalked circle on her floor to break its seal; there was a sudden breeze as her will was released.

Grabbing the chalk again, she recovered a hawthorn wood cutting board and drew a triangle within a circle on its surface, and then a straight line under it. She drew runes representing three elements - water, air, and fire - at each point, and a final rune, earth, under the line.

Dabbing her finger into the Charphen oil, she traced the outline of her circle on the cutting board. 

The smell of boiling tomatoes wafted through the kitchen.

Placing the board on the counter, she set an ordinary bowl in the center of the triangle. Breaking the sulfur into pieces, she placed four crystals on each element’s rune and shaved some of it into the boiling cauldron.

“Pardon,” Elina said politely, stepping over Taika, who ingratiated herself to the warm fire burning in the hearth. She wriggled slightly to be closer to it.

Benzie returned with the items Elina required from the pantry. “Ouch,” he said, putting the green-thorned stalks of Nararoot on the counter. He licked his finger. “What now?”

“Thank you, Benzie, I’m almost done,” Elina said. Taking the stalks, Elina cut away the thorns, made a solid slice down the middle, expertly minced the root, and mashed it with the flat of her blade. Sweeping its mushy residue into her hands, she dumped it into the cauldron.

Fetching a large serving spoon, Elina mashed the tomatoes within the cauldron and stirred to level out the consistency, and added a touch of the lye into the mixture.

Taking a ladle, Elina scooped a serving from the cauldron and brought it to the bowl resting within her magic circle. There was a hushed quiet; cat dander and dust particles hung in the air as if the universe awaited her will. Holding the ladle above the bowl, Elina closed her eyes, touched the circle, concentrated, and whispered, “For the benefit of one forcibly changed.”

The hot, steaming, tomatoey broth was poured into the bowl.

Wresting the bowl away from the cutting board, Elina placed it on the ground before Taika.

Benzie dropped to sit on the kitchen floor again, asking, “Er, Elina, what’ll soup do?”

“Tiger,” Elina said, crouching and wiping her hands on a kitchen rag. Responding, Taika opened her eyes.

Elina looked at her lovingly and with regret. “I can’t promise y’ this won’t be painful, but if y’ is what I think y’ is, it’ll counter an alchemist’s potion. Drink this.”

And Elina pushed the bowl to the tiger.

Simultaneously, Benzie and Taika leaned in to smell the broth. Benzie winced, making a face. “Ugh! Smells like rotten eggs!”

“It ain’t for you,” Elina whispered, gesturing at the big cat. “Go on! Drink!”

Looking mournfully up at Elina, Taika leaned over the bowl and lapped at the concoction. Preferring the taste, Taika rose to her feet and dug her muzzle into it, licking all from the bowl.

Taking a breather, Elina went to the kitchen floor beside the big cat. At first, Taika was content to lay back and relax next to the warm hearth, but quickly, Taika’s expression turned sickly, and her body began to convulse and heave.

“You poisoned her!” Benzie exclaimed, throwing both of his hands against his head. “You’re killing her with your smelly tomato soup!”

“Oh, Benzie, wait!” Elina shushed.

Taika’s eyes widened, and her face became desperate. She growled and rolled over on her back as her limbs convulsed uncontrollably. There came multiple snaps and cracks as her bones splintered and elongated; her back shortened; her fur receded to become smooth black skin; her muscles reshaped; her eyes narrowed, and her tiger’s teeth receded into her gums.

Somewhere between half-cat and half-human, Benzie shrieked, and Elina rolled over to cover his mouth.

Writhing on the floor, Taika’s body continued its transformation. Her hip bones crushed and reformed into the curves of a young woman; her tail shrunk until it was no more; her big paws elongated to become fingers; her claws became nails. Her ears peeled back to reveal black, frizzy hair, and her muzzle became a human nose and a set of full lips.

Within moments, a black-skinned Gaelwyn woman was sprawled naked on Elina’s kitchen floor. She was in intense pain and gasping for breath, reaching for Elina.

“Easy, easy,” Elina comforted, taking her hand as the transformation continued. She glanced over her shoulder. “Benzie, fetch a blanket!”

“I’m up!” Benzie exclaimed and ran upstairs.

Gasping for air, Taika’s tiger-like stripes disappeared, and her eyes reshaped. She crawled on the floor to Elina, and Elina cradled her, trembling in the final moments of the change.

“It’ll be over soon,” Elina whispered, consoling her, rocking her back and forth.

Screeching and coming to use her vocal cords for the first time in five years, Taika began to sob.

“It’s okay, it’ll be okay,” Elina breathed, assuring her, holding the young woman close.

Arriving with the blanket, Benzie threw it over the young woman’s body and ran his hands through his hair. “I-I can’t believe this is happening!”

“I can,” said the Magnificent Maron Maloney, entering the kitchen from the tavern entrance. He pointed a silvered Elven longsword steadily at Elina on the floor. Maron was shoddily dressed, having thrown on his black leather leggings over his nightshirt. “The commotion stirred me. Glad I brought my weapon.”

“You snake!” Elina spat, holding Taika close as she wailed. “You violated the code! You willfully transformed a person!”

Benzie spread his hands out and stepped closer to Elina as if to protect her.

Maron sneered. “The alchemist’s code? Moral guidelines, suggestions, I’d say, and nothing more. Hmm, a counter-reagent,” Maron Maloney said, sniffing at the air and examining the counters. “Sulfur. An elemental container. A neutralizing medium. Very clever. Admittedly more so than what I’d presumed you capable of, Miss Hogsbreath.”

“You’ve no idea what I’m capable of,” Elina whispered, cradling Taika and spitefully glaring at him.

Maron Maloney slyly twirled the end of his mustache and said, “As exciting as that sounds, presently, I’m not in the mood to find out. C’mon, on your feet!”

“She’s in pain!” Elina hissed, holding Taika tight. “However long she’s been trapped in that body, she’ll barely know how to walk!”

“I said get up!” he demanded, wrenching Taika by her  shoulder. Taika let forth a gut-wrenching scream, frightened, surely, but also startled from the pull at her tender arm. 

Benzie bravely stepped forward, balling his fists and clenching his teeth; at his full height, Benzie’s head arrived just around Maron’s groin. “Don’t you step a foot closer!”

“Are you serious?” Maron snorted, turning his body to whip the flat of his sword into Benzie’s skull. The impact sent Benzie hurtling to the kitchen floor, unconscious. Elina cried out to him, but Benzie remained motionless.

Holding Taika captive in his other arm, Maron Maloney raised his weapon to bring it below Elina’s chin. “And here I thought taking from you would be difficult. Silly me. Now it’s just a matter of mopping up.”

“You’re not taking anything!” Elina growled, gulping at the blade pressed against her throat.

“Sure I am,” Maron countered. “Anything of value that my animals or I can find in your precious, cozy little home, I’ll take. Further, no thanks to you, I’m down an attraction, and I’ll need a few more. You and your smallfoot hero here will make excellent new additions. Now, get up!”

Glancing at Benzie’s still body, Elina angrily rose to her feet. Maron Maloney escorted her outside to the porch and seethed, “My dear Miss Hogsbreath, allow me to welcome you to my wagon. I have a spare cage for you, right over here.”