[Goal, Happy]

  Mossbeard and I walked to the library, where I gave Eldara the folder and instructions on how to use it. I warned her not to touch the drawing until she was ready to go into the bakery kitchen and to make sure that the drawing was someplace secure. We didn’t want people portaling by mistake, nor burglars portaling into the bakery at night. Although I’m pretty sure Lily doesn’t lock the doors anyway.

  I had Mossbeard draw the checkout desk, instructed him to leave out one detail, then draw that detail on another sheet of paper. This was a pretty exciting experiment, to see if Opal could just fill in that last missing detail of a drawing she herself hadn’t already drawn.

  “You mean I really can just jump like with a portal muffin right into the kitchen, Rose?”

  “Sure can Eldara, but you’ll have to walk back or use a portal demon to come home, or back to the library, I think you need a magical field at the end point. I have to talk to Sparky about it and maybe the Burgomaster. I want to set up a public system so everyone in town can use it. But right now we have to go talk to Mossbeard’s family. Bye Eldara.”

  “Rose, thank you for this, I can’t wait to surprise Paula.”

  “Eldara, please tell her I said hi and tell Lily I’ll have another one made for Lottie as soon as I possibly can.”

  “Aren’t you the romantic, Rose.”

  “But that’s not the only reason I came, Lottie is starting a nursing school and is in need of apprentices, can I put up a notice saying I’m looking for interested women to apply.”

  “Sure Rose, we have two boards, jobs offered and jobs wanted. Just put it on the jobs offered board, but in the final line of the offer write, the applicant must meet all of the job requirements. That way they won’t expect to automatically get the job.”

  “Good thinking, Eldara.”

  Next we stopped at the Town hall. We went right to the Burgomaster’s offices. His assistant asked us to wait a second, when he came out the Burgomaster was behind him.

  “Please Rose, come in, come in. Are you the gnome Rose saved, please come in as well.”

  We went into the office and we all made ourselves comfortable, Arthur having already ordered tea from his assistant.

  “That was quite something the other night when you saved the young gnome’s life. I’m sorry sir, but I heard the story from my wife and no one ever informed me of your name.”

  “My name is Mossbeard Ironhide, sir Burgomaster sir.”

  “If you are a friend of Roses you must be a friend of mine Mossbeard, please call me Arthur.”

  “Yes, Arthur, sir.”

  “Now Rose, what can I do for you?”

  The assistant brought in the tea and poured it for everyone before leaving again.

  “Arthur, Dr Lottie is starting a nursing school, we are looking for apprentices, I already put up a notice on the job board in the library. I knew that you could advise me of any other places I should post on.”

  “We have a general purpose notice board, here in town hall. You are welcome to post on it. But most serious job seekers are aware of the job boards at the library, so you’ve already posted on the most likely to succeed board. Now tell me please did you really jump Mossbeard to another world. Pause him, then transform him into a human and then back into a gnome when he was well?”

  “Yes, but it was Lottie who did all of the repairs, he was badly hurt in multiple places, that’s why Lottie is taking apprentices. If anything like this happens again, having multiple people available would greatly enhance their survival rate.”

  “That’s wonderful, I heard a little about it from my wife. I get all the gossip first hand now. It’s amazing the stories she hears in the pub. Please tell Lottie if she gets more applicants then she can use at the clinic to please send them to the Hot & Cold Magical Soup and Ale, Nim said they are much busier than the three partners anticipated.”

  I thanked the Burgomaster for his time.

  Then we walked the final twenty minutes to the gnome colony, when we arrived there were two gnomes standing by the entrance. They didn’t wear uniforms or carry weapons, but I assumed they were the door guards Mossbeard had told me about. One wore a green jacket like Mossbread, but the guard wore red pants and a red cone hat. Mossbeard wore blue pants and a brown cone hat that bent to the left. I’d have to ask him later why his cone hat is bent. Almost every other gnome I’d seen had cone hats that were perfect cones.

  The other guard showed us to a room that as Mossbeard had said had a mix of human sized and Gnome sized furniture. Soon a male and female gnome appeared.

  “So you be the wizard that saved my son’s life, I suppose you’ll be expecting me to pay to get him back, but as I already told my wife, that ain’t happening, you can keep the stupid arse, he’s a disgrace to his family and his race.”

  I expected to meet someone cantankerous but this was really too much. “No Mr Ironhide, I already received full compensation from Mossbeard himself. He said he couldn’t expect his family to pay for his mistakes, so he paid me himself.”

  “How could he pay you wizard, he ain’t got no money. Just how much did he pay for his worthless hide?”

  “Fifty gold pieces.”

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Fifty, bah me whole family isn’t worth fifty gold.”

  So it’s not just his son that receives this contempt. “Yet he paid it, I gave him a receipt to prove that he is indeed a free gnome.”

  He looked at his son.

  “If you are free why ain’t you at work, just cause you weren’t here for two nights you still owe the rent. We’ll have words later about where you came up with fifty gold.”

  “Actually da, I don’t owe the rent, cause I don’t live under your roof anymore. I will live in a wizard’s tower from now on. I quit the job too, I have a new one.”

  I tried not to smile, when I saw the grimace on his fathers face.

  “Quit I bet Orin fired you, you always were a lousy carpenter. Who’d hire you anyway.”

  “I work for the wizards now, da.”

  “Ye ain’t got no magic.”

  “I’m doing art, da, just like I always dreamed. Plus I get all the food I can eat. I ate six bowls of gulasch yesterday and I already had three bowls of it this morning. And we just left the Burgomaster’s office and the Burgomaster himself told me to call him Arthur, da.”

  He looked at me. I smiled and gritted my teeth. I reminded myself that it wasn’t my place to criticize him for being a lousy father, that was just my opinion.

  “You are paying my son for art, you are as stupid as he is. He’ll disappoint you in the end, mark my words and you’ll ruin him, what are you paying per week a few coppers?”

  “No sir, we’re paying him five gold per week and at the end of twenty five weeks he gets a fifty gold piece bonus. After that if he enjoys the work, he can sign a new contract. He’s a very talented artist and will always have a place with us.”

  “Well you ain’t coming back to my house, if you ever get the bonus, you can buy one of your own.” With that he got up and walked out of the room.

  At the same time Mrs Ironhide came over and hugged her son.

  “I was so worried about you, I heard how bad you were hurt. Orin said if it wasn’t for the pretty wizard you’d be dead on the spot. Thank you Miss wizard for saving my boy and saving him again by hiring him. I disagree with just about everything that man said to both of you but in one thing he did speak true. Mossbeard never was much of a carpenter, I just don’t think his heart was ever in it. But don’t either of you worry that man will get what’s coming to him. We’ll see how he likes a month of burnt suppers. But Mossbeard, you must come to visit me if you ever have time.”

  “I’ll have loads of time ma, I’m only working eight hours a day and only five days a week. The rest of the time, I can do whatever I like and I don’t pay no rent, ma. In twenty five weeks I’ll have over one hundred gold. Almost getting killed is the best thing that ever happened to me.”

  “Na, I’d say meeting a wizard is the best thing that ever happened to you.”

  “Mrs Ironhide, please call me Rose, my friend is the doctor who really saved Mossbeard’s life, I just assisted her. But the doctor is starting an apprentice healer program, once the girls finish the program they’ll be called nurses which to my understanding is just one step below being a doctor. If you know of any girls who might be interested please send them down to the medical clinic that Mossbeard helped build. It’s not certain that they’ll pass the requirements. All applicants will need to pass physical strength amongst other tests, but I’d love to see some gnomes in the program.”

  “Rose, my name is Zanna and I have eight daughters, I’ll send them all down there tomorrow. They are used to hard work and doing what they are told. I’m sure the lot of them would do just about anything to get out of the house.”

  “Zanna, if any don’t get picked, or don’t want to work as healers, send them to Enigmatic Parchments, if they want to wait tables, I have some friends at Hot & Cold Magical Soup and Ale needs help, now.”

  “Thank you Rose.”

  “You are welcome Zanna and you are always welcome at the tower or the store anytime you want to see Mossbeard, or his new home.”

  Then we walked back to the bookstore. We were almost done for the day, but Sparky put Mossbeard to work making copies of my library and the bakery. I portaled to the bakery, to talk to Lily and Ruby and Salome.

  “Hi Rose, what are you doing here so late?”

  “Hi Lily, I heard from the Burgomaster that the pub is looking for help, and I was just at the gnome colony and Mossbeard has eight sisters who might apply to be apprentices at Lottie's clinic. But Lottie will probably only need two at most so that leaves six and Ruby and Salome are always so busy and none of you take days off anymore. Maybe you could use some help as well.”

  “You're right, Rose. We do need help but it’s been so busy we haven’t had time to actually post the job listing at the library. So send them over and I’ll tell Lottie the same thing when I see her tonight.”

  “Great, we hired Mossbeard as an artist at the bookstore. Is Paula out front? I’ll tell her about the gnomes too.”

  “Yeah she’s working the counter, go on out and see her.”

  I went out front and Paula was waiting on a customer, so I looked around the store and saw shelf after shelf of new cookies that I’d never seen in the store.

  “Go ahead, try them, you know you want to.”

  “They do look great, but it’s so close to dinner, maybe just one.”

  I bit into a peanut butter cookie that was just mouthwatering.

  “Holy cow, that is delicious.”

  “I’m glad you like it, Rose, that was my great grandmother's recipe.”

  “Can I take some home, I want Lu to try them and I want more for myself as well.”

  Paula was putting some in a bag, when I saw Lu walking past. I grabbed the bag, thanked Paula and ran to catch up.