The Fertile Grove: Ch. 5 - The Little Things (Olivia)
A "Detachable" story
By Devin McTaggart
There's an expression about pixies - little bodies, big trouble.
To call this an understatement would be to say the Lord Mayor of Anchortown has "a weight problem." Not only are you deliberately and grossly understating the obvious, you're also being offensive to people who can be
fairly
said to have a weight problem.
I knew the day that Olivia Distantmoon arrived to my little family was going to be a chaotic one, but that, too, would've been massively underselling the impact she was about to have. But I could talk all about her for ages, and instead, I think it's better just to tell the story of what our first time meeting as betrothed was like.
There were only four weeks left in the school year, and I was already basically done with all the projects and papers I could be. Honestly, I had realized that the administration was gunning for me, and wanted me, no, desperately
needed
me to fail, because if I failed, all my achievements could be undone. Of course, they were also under
immense
scrutiny, because if they were found to be breaking a rule,
any
rule in failing me, Lady Bellington would've torn EWC down to the fucking studs.
The Great Lady and the college had been somewhat at ends with each other for a while now, and I knew I could use that tension to my advantage, which was why I'd done my best to establish if not a friendship at least a rapport with her via correspondence since she'd initially contacted me a month or so ago. She'd implored me in one of her letters to keep a sharp eye open for any transgressions the members of the Eternal Wayfarer College might engage in during their efforts to besmirch the accomplishments I'd attained. She would, she insisted,
love
to come in and behead faculty for their inconsideration. As amusing as that sounded, I didn't know that any of the things the staff had done were worthy of decapitation. Oh, when the Great Lady said she was going to make 'heads roll,' she meant it in the
classical
tradition, not in the new-fangled 'metaphorical' style.
All of that meant I was caught in a very dangerous web between two sets of spiders, and each one with its own agenda involving me. I needed to be very sure that I was a preying mantis and not some little housefly.
It was a Friday afternoon when Professor Antevestian came by with Olivia Distantmoon, a day and time I'd expected, because I knew he would want to spend as little time with her as possible, otherwise she might drive him crazy.
Olivia had a reputation around campus of causing trouble in the
least
malicious way possible. Robér knew her far better than I did, and he painted her as a whirlwind force of energy that could not be contained, controlled or even slowed down. She was pretty much universally liked, and had friends in nearly every subsection of the university, but there seemed to be a standing order not to let her near anywhere with an open bar, for the health of all parties involved.
It was pouring down outside, and I remember wondering if the rain was going to keep the Professor from making his delivery, despite the fact that he'd sent word earlier in the week that he would be by with Olivia on Friday.
My Friday schedules were light, and as such, I often had the place mostly to myself, with Nina playing the part of my shadow whenever she wasn't in classes herself. I heard a rustling sound at the door, but then it opened on its own and my lovely Ciara came rushing in, desperate to get in from the torrential storm that was flooding outside of my place. "I swear, I think someone over in meteorological magics must've blown a fuse this morning, because I don't think I've ever seen it coming down quite so heavy before," my redheaded girlfriend told me, shaking out her umbrella before closing it. She'd told me she'd assumed that role after a week of living with me, and I couldn't find any cause to disagree with her. "You didn't have anything to do with this, did you dear?"
I chuckled, shaking my head. "Storm magics were always something I didn't have much skill at, so I tended to not take classes in that vein," I told her as she walked over towards me. I was intending to give her a kiss on the cheek, but Ciara was having none of that, grabbing my beard and pulling my face to mash against hers in a very strong kiss, her tongue digging to see if she could determine what I'd had for lunch, if I had to guess. "Now now, love," I said to her. "Let's not get too frisky. Olivia's meant to be showing up any moment."
"Oh, that's right," she giggled. "And now I know what this storm is. It's not a magical accident. It's a bloody
omen
."
"You and Olivia were close?"
"Roommates for three years!" she said with a giant grin. "You'll adore her. She's a hoot, assuming she doesn't completely bowl you over, which she has been known to do! Her boyfriend sophomore year couldn't handle how much energy she had all the time, and he finally tapped out one morning when she got up for classes and he wasn't entirely sure his legs still worked."
"Hey, I know Johnny Three Daggers, and he said that was just the reason he gave
her
for why they broke up," I said.
"Oh yeah?" she said, placing one hand on her hip, glancing back over her shoulder at me. "And what reason did he give?"
"Said she had a habit of talking over him and never asking how he was doing."
"Meh," Ciara sniffed. "She also said he could be a little boring and that he never told any really good stories about his life."
I shrugged. "Well, fair enough, that's Johnny for you," I chuckled. "He's the only person I've ever met who can make a story about a swordfight less interesting than a debate on the finer points regarding the economics of the dung commodity market."
"It's hard to picture the two of you being friends," she said to me as she shook her bookbag dry and then hauled it over towards the area we'd turned into a small den with a handful of desks, so that it wasn't
just
my study space anymore. A few months ago, there had been plenty of notes for my plans on how to beat the Secret Six all over the place - written in code, obviously - but now that I was done with that, I'd needed to turn in those notes to the College, so that the sororities could learn from their mistakes, and make some changes for the challenges next year.
"I wouldn't have said we're 'friends,' I guess," I admitted. "More of acquaintances. Johnny was one of the only other people taking imbuing magics when I was doing it, although Professor Martyn told me yesterday that he's already seen interest in his fall classes higher than he has in decades."
"You did remind a whole lot of people that it's an entire class of magics that people have been neglecting, meaning they don't have any real protection from them," Ciara said, sitting down at her desk, grinning over at me. "They mentioned it during the freshman year Overview Of Everything class, but you know how dull and dreary it sounds spending days or weeks putting spells into things when you can just cast them quickly on the fly?"
"And look where that got people," I gently teased back. "Up the creek without a paddle or even the slightest idea how to look for me."
"Yes yes, beloved, you're very smart." The outside lit up with a lightning bolt that had to have touched down not more than a hundred feet from my doorstep, the crack of thunder loud enough to shake our building down to the very foundations before falling quiet again. "It's murder out there. Should I be worried about an act of the gods destroying our home?"
"I can't think of any gods I've angered lately, but if any come to mind, I'll let you know," I chuckled. "Besides, Nina will protect me if a god wanders in here aiming for my hide, won't you Nina?"
She laughed from her reading spot into the windowsill by the door. "A sentinel's protection is good only until she has no life in her left to give, m'lord, and has generally been accepted not to include protection from deity level threats, simply because our skills, while great, don't usually cover divine intervention," she smirked, having looked up from her book long enough to gaze at me. "I know we both think quite highly of my skills, m'lord, but gods?" She snorted, which made me chuckle. "Fuck that. You're on your own. M'lord."
"Good to know."
A loud banging at the door made all of us jump, but Nina put down her book first and made her way over to the door, peering through the porthole before opening it, allowing Professor Antevestian to come scurrying in, followed suddenly by a much smaller, much faster, much more airborne person, Olivia Distantmoon herself, who flew into the room and straight towards Ciara, tackling her former roommate with an attack hug that zipped through the air like a dart.
"What's up bitches?!" Olivia shouted as she clung to Ciara's head, having wrapped her arms and legs around it, her torso pressed to the side. "Livvy D in the hoooooooooooooouse!"
Like all pixies, Olivia could change her size basically at will, but unless there was a need, she typically remained at her natural size, which was a little under two feet tall, although proportioned very close to a human in terms of arm/leg length to torso length. Her hair was a lustrous purple, like lilacs in bloom, her skin a light brown like freshly sanded pine wood. She had breasts that were, in scale, quite sizable for her body, and the grey tunic she had on over them was soaked enough that the impression of her rather large nipples, stiff like tiny stalagmites, were prominently visible through the cloth. Her hair had been braided into one long tail that hung down in the center of her two wings, each large and almost mothlike in their ornate color and patterns, which she used to move around the air. Once she had a tight grip around Ciara's head, she gave her wings a sharp sudden flutter, shaking loose all the remaining raindrops she had clinging to them, creating a tiny little rainbow in the space behind her.
"Hey Liv," Ciara giggled, reaching up to try and hug her former roommate, as Livvy slid down to land her tiny butt on Ciara's shoulder. "We're back to this, are we?"
"Thought I'd make a good impression flying in here, especially since I know Lothario here's quite the cockswain," Olivia said, turning her gaze to fixate on me. She had a sharp hook of a nose, and eyes of a bright gold like dandelions in summer, which looked me over from toe to tip. "This is our boy of beef, huh? And you weren't the only one stretching me open while you had me on a platter, now, were you?"
I smiled a bit mysteriously. "I was not, but I was permitted to do what
ever
