Harold the Healer: Harold Brings Home a Dog
Note to readers: This story takes place a few years before the first two (and forthcoming third) chapters of the main story. Some more background information on Harold's past and the world in general is also presented.
-=-=-=-=-=
Mid-November is a seasonal no man's land between the Autumn that ends with the last of the falling leaves and the first fall of Winter's snow. Gone are the gentle caresses of Old Man Winter that frost the October lands with a coat of rime that shimmers and glistens until the morning sun melts it away. Gone is the fun and excitement of All Hallows Eve on the last day of October, with costumes and candy, and bonfires and fireworks to scare away the spirits whom the legends say can cross over into our world for a night. The brightly painted leaves that mark Nature's fond farewell to Summer have fallen and been blown by the wind to collect in drifts, where they turn brown in the weakening sun and crunch and rustle underfoot as a traveler walks down a road. The days are chilly, the nights are cold, and the sun seems to have lost all its warmth as the Westlands awaits the first of the storms that blow off the ocean that bring with them the damp cold for which the region is infamous.
Harold Moser, already a Senior Healer of the Order of St. Thrimble, thanks mostly to the usual attrition, awoke from a dreamless sleep in a warm cozy bed, the best way to wake up. As usual, he was lying on his left side on the left side of the bed, and gloomy pre-dawn November light was passing through the curtains of the window with remarkably little enthusiasm. On the other side of the bed was the reason it was so cozy, Willa Groom. He had healed her lame horse, checked out her cow and two sheep, did de-flea and de-worm spells on her barn and house cats and two dogs, and given her, her daughter, son-in-law, and their two teen-aged children checkups and general Healing for various minor things. They had naturally invited him to dinner and to stay the night, since it was long past dark by the time he was done. They'd caught up on local gossip, drunk some wine, and he'd shared some of his happier stories of his travels in the Kingdom before it was time for bed.
"That couch in your living room looks comfortable," he had said the night before, yawning cavernously behind his hand. "I'll crash there for the night and be on my way in the morning."
"No, you have definitely earned yourself a bed for the night," Willa had replied firmly, as he'd hoped. "What I need from you right now is a massage. My back and neck are killing me. We can go upstairs to my room for it, if you don't mind." Harold had been under no illusion about what her ulterior motive was, recognizing the look in her bright brown eyes that he had seen before. She took a lantern from the mantel of the living room fireplace and started looking around. "Darn it, where did they put the matches?" she asked irritably.
"Allow me," Harold had said, and with a gesture and a word, it was lit.
"Wow, you're sure handy to have around."
"Being handy is useful when massage is in the offing," he had replied innocently, with a deadpan expression to match. She rolled her eyes and muttered something under her breath and he snickered. "Lead on, Willa."
"It's almost as if you don't want me behind you," she had growled, walking ahead of him to the staircase. The wooden stairs usually creaked a bit when people used them, but Willa had noticed to her surprise how quietly he moved up them, despite his weight.
"You're really light on your feet," she had remarked when they reached their top and turned right to head for one of the front rooms, which was hers.
"Perfected over many years of sneaking around places where I would have been better off not being," he had replied with an impish grin, getting one in return. Her room was not large, about 12 by 12, with the expected double bed against the left wall, large dresser, mirror, and small bedside table, and a window on the wall facing them that looked south towards the road to Magwitch. Its door closed with a solid click of its latch.
"I'll undress and get on the bed. It's high enough that you should be able to do your work without too much strain on your back," she had said, turning her back to him and unbuttoning and removing her sensible winter-weight blouse, teasing him with little peeks of what lay underneath and smoldering over-the-shoulder eye contact. Her loose-fitting farmer's jeans were next to hit the floor, revealing legs that were as well-muscled as the rest of her from years of farm work. Her daughter and son-in-law had taken over most of the heavy lifting on the farm after her former husband had walked away one day four years ago and gotten on a stage coach for the Capital. The letter that had accompanied the Request for Divorce papers that had arrived two months later stated that he was tired of the farm life and wanted to retire to something different. She had signed the papers and sent them back without comment, but it had taken some time for her to get over it. "Do you like what you see?" She had eventually seen herself as having been liberated, and menopause had freed her from the risk of pregnancy.
"I see that you are in great shape," he had replied blandly, but with a twinkle in his eye, "for a woman of your age, or any age. Are you ready?"
"Only two more inconveniences," she had replied, which were her bra and panties, both of which were quickly removed, with her back still to him. "I'll get on the bed and you can work your magic." She pulled back the covers and laid herself face down on the sheet. What she had expected was a body rub to get her aroused, followed by his sinking his cock into her needful pussy that hadn't had one for a while. Instead, she got a very thorough examination as he checked and made a few minor repairs to her spine with the aid of a magical Window that he'd conjured up, which had been followed by the skilled application of his strong hands and fingers as they, assisted by little sparks of green and yellow Healing Magic, worked the knots and stiffness out of her butt, back, and neck muscles, and even her scalp and arms. She had never felt this good and relaxed.
"You weren't kidding about the sore back and neck," he had said as she had moaned softly into her pillow. "You've been carrying around a lot of stress, haven't you? You're in a good position now, you can just let it all go and enjoy your life. Let me check out your knees to see if they need a little attention." She managed to roll over somehow, despite her muscles seeming to have melted, finally exposing her full, gray bush and soft, D-sized breasts capped by achingly hard pink nipples, to his gaze. He had moved his Window so that he could look at her left knee joint, gently bending and twisting it and applying a few Healing touches to top up the cartilage in places where it had been wearing thin. As he had repeated it on her right knee, then started massaging the knots out of her legs, he could tell that she had started getting aroused. "Just one last check of your internals to make sure there's nothing there that shouldn't be, and you'll be set," he had said in his best professional voice, doing what he could to squelch his own growing arousal and its most obvious physical manifestation.
"I haven't felt anything unusual," she had replied in a husky voice, "but sometimes you don't until it's too late." He had moved the Window over her body and given everything a good look, using its ability to focus at different distances to scan top to bottom, in a quest for abnormalities or tumors that thankfully came up empty. Her breasts had also been free from anything unwanted.
