[Comfort, Curiously]

  “Rose what the hell are you doing, I have hurt patients to get back to. Take me back to the clinic this instant.”

  “You said you needed an x-ray machine.” I authored a phone and handed it to her. “Please just show me a picture of a battery operated one, then I’ll jump us home.”

  A second later she handed me the phone so I could see the picture. I authored the machine and jumped us back to the guards.

  “Could someone please help Lottie back to the clinic, with the machine. Lottie I’ll talk to the guard and have one of them portal to the clinic.”

  “Thank you, Rose.”

  I’ve been through the whole gauntlet of emotions. Scared for my friends, sorrow for what I’d assumed were dead men. Sadness over the injured that lay in Lottie's clinic. I watched as Groucho effortlessly picked up the heavy little machine, took Lottie by the arm and portal to the clinic.

  I walked into the guard house. I saw all seven men now revived, looking surly, chained onto the bench. I didn’t know the guard who sat at the desk.

  “Excuse me Guardsman, could you please send someone to interview a bunch of injured people at the clinic. I believe the men on the bench may have been the cause of their injuries.”

  “Lady, we’re a little busy here at the moment.”

  “Guardsman, those people are suffering unnecessarily, they could be receiving treatment but the doctor is waiting for someone to document their injuries.”

  “We’ll get to it when we can..”

  “Guardsman!”

  “Yes sir.

  “Get your butt down to that clinic right this minute, and if you don’t have the most seriously injured documented within ten minutes. Don’t bother coming back, understood, and the next time Rose asks you to do something, you damn well do it.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Why aren’t you already portaling to the clinic?”

  “Thank you Dogberry.”

  “You're welcome, come into my office for just a moment won’t you.”

  We went in and sat down.

  “The Burgomaster told me to expect trouble from that lot in the hills, so we have been waiting for this, I’m surprised it took this long really, that lot really hate it when they don’t get their way, right away. But we don’t have enough guards to protect people outside the gates. But if those thugs on the bench are the ones who caused the casualties at the clinic they will be charged.”

  “Thanks Dogberry, just so you know, there may be more trouble tomorrow in the market. My vendors will be underselling the cartel by a substantial amount.”

  “Substantial huh, I’ll send my wife and an extra ten guardsman to make sure if anyone starts any trouble, they’ll regret it. Now I figure you probably have things you need getting on with, thanks for the heads up.”

  Opal and I portaled to the clinic, to see if Opal could help with the healing.

  “Remember sweetie not below thirty five percent.”

  “Yes Rose.”

  I got in line to speak to Bhizzie at the reception desk, two people with minor injuries were in front of me. But Bhizzie dealt with them efficiently.

  “Hi Rose, you weren’t hurt as well were you?”

  “No, Bhizzie, when you have time, will you let Dr Li know that I’m here if she needs any supplies or anything at all.”

  “Sure, I’ll let her know right now.”

  She left but came back, just as I was sitting down in the waiting room.

  “Rose, ma’am she would like you to go ask Lily to bake more Stormgrain Bread.”

  Yep, right now. I portaled to the bakery kitchen, but it was empty. I walked out to the store proper. Lily and Paula were talking.

  “Hi Rose, here for a late lunch?”

  “No Lily there was trouble, out on the road, around the theater wagon. Some farmers, women and children were seriously hurt. I just came from the clinic, Lottie needs more Stormgrain bread.”

  “Alright, that’s no problem. I gathered a good quantity of stormgrain this morning. I’ll bring it to the clinic after it’s baked.”

  “Thanks Lily, I need to tell Ruby that Opal is alright before she hears about the fight from some customer. Paula, I’m thinking there may be more trouble tomorrow at the market. But Dogberry is sending extra guards.”

  “I’ll be there Rose and don’t worry. They won’t try anything in broad daylight in the town square with extra guardspeople on duty.”

  “No, I suppose you’re right Paula.”

  I went out the front door into the tearoom. It was crowded but it appeared that everyone had been waited on, so I grabbed Ruby for a quick chat inside the bakery.

  “Ruby, Opal is fine and is right now helping to heal some injured people.”

  “That’s great I’m so proud of her, healing people.”

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  “Me too, but that’s not what I came to tell you. These thugs from the cartel beat up farmers, women and children, then they headed for the theater wagon. They never got close, Draco dropped the lot of them right where they stood. I didn’t want you hearing this from a customer and start worrying about Opal. The theater troupe is going to the marketplace tomorrow, she wants to go with them but I told her it’s up to you. We can talk about it tonight if you want.”

  “No, I’m going to, I haven’t done anything, towards the farms and every night I hear from Opal what she did that day to help. So yes Opal can come for sure and Rose ask Mossbeard to find a couple nice gnome girls who want to work here at the teahouse, then let me know what I can do to help.”

  I hugged her and returned to the kitchen, Lily was just putting some bread in the outdoor non magical oven. It seems so strange to me that the magical field, which has so many positive effects, blocks baking magical healing bakes. Another thing to talk to Draco about.

  “Lily I’m going back to the clinic, I’ll tell Lottie you are baking what she requested.”

  “This is flat bread Rose, if you can wait five minutes, I’ll send you back with three loaves.”

  “Oh, sure I can wait, I thought it’d be hours.”

  “Nope just five minutes, and I can fill you in on some news.”

  “Yeah, what’s going on, each time I come in lately I see you and Paula plotting are you adding onto the bakery again?”

  “No, Paula’s going to be leaving us.”

  “Oh, no, she’s going back to Earth isn’t she? Is she taking Eldara?”

  “No she’s moving but not to Earth, she’s going to open another bakery, at the other end of town, maybe you, Opal and Draco would enclose her new store in a magical field.”

  “Happily, and a portal as well.”

  “Yes, the portal was my next request, she’s a great baker but we don’t know if magical bakes will be possible at another location, so for now at least I’ll be doing magical bakes for both stores.”

  “You are going to miss having her here.”

  “Yes, terribly, we have gotten to be great friends. But she can’t learn anything else from me. She's a great baker and this way we can reach more people, who could use a little extra help.”

  Then Lily pulled the flat bread from the oven, putting it on a cooling rack. Then she went inside to get a box, to carry the warm bread in. I portaled back to the clinic with the hot bread and handed it to Bhizzie.

  Bhizzie came back a minute later.

  “Rose, Dr Li would like to see you in her office.”

  I stood and walked down the long quiet hallway, I didn’t hear any moans or crying, it was surprisingly quiet.

  Arjun, Opal and Lottie were all seated in Lottie’s office. There weren’t any more chairs so Opal stood up, let me sit down and then sat in my lap.

  Lottie began, “I was just thanking Arjun and Opal for their careful and thorough care of the patients while they were healing them. Thank you Rose for the Stormgrain bread, now that I’ve seen just how effective it is healing broken bones, I try to always have a ready supply on hand. You can never tell when a situation like today might occur. Opal was saying that the theater troupe is playing in town square tomorrow. Do you expect more trouble Rose?”

  “I certainly hope not, there will be extra guards on duty. I’ll be there as well, not that I can do much more than scream. But Draco, Groucho, Ruby and Opal will be there as well.”

  “Really Rose?” Opal asked.

  “Yes, honey. I talked to your sister while I waited for the bread.”

  “I’ll come as well, for once I learned something useful in the Royal palace, I had self defense lessons daily once I turned seven.”

  Then Opal and I portaled to the bakery where I found her a table in the tearoom and she had a very late lunch with her sister Ruby. I portaled back to the farm site, I wanted to thank the trees for warning me about the fight.

  The lumbermill was still whining away, but this time I noticed the amazing pile of lumber that was neatly stacked alongside, then when I looked at the farms I saw some barns were built and others in the process of being built. The gnomes had built one barn for now for each of the quad farms.

  Then I noticed Lu hurrying towards me, she’d been working signing up farmers all day with Juliet. From the opposite direction the trees were headed my way.

  Lu reached me first, I gave her a kiss.

  “Rose is everyone alright, Maz came over and told me there had been a fight and people were hurt as soon as the trees told you, you portaled away.”

  “Yes, everyone is fine, not a scratch on any of our friends but some farmers, wives and children were hurt, they’ve all been healed. I just left the clinic. Opal and Arjun healed those that Lottie didn’t have a magical bake cure for.”

  “That sounds awful, but wonderful that Arjun and Opal helped. Speaking of help we need thirty four more townhouses for tomorrow morning.”

  Then the trees arrived, then encircled us like they had me before.

  “Rose, ma’am, before you go portaling off again can we ask you a favor please?”

  “Woody, everyone, I’d like you to meet my girlfriend.”

  “Rose, ma’am, do you know that your girlfriend is a werewolf?”

  “Yes, Woody, I do. She’s a very nice respectful werewolf who definitely doesn’t eat people or trees for that matter.”

  “No offense Lu, ma’am, that hasn’t been our experience, yes they don’t eat trees but they most surely do eat people. My ma and pa told me all the old stories so I could tell them to my seedlings some day.”

  “Well Woody, after you get to know Lu you’ll see that she is an extraordinary werewolf. How did you know that Lu is a werewolf?”

  “Your forest told us, she sits naked on the hill, on the nights of the full moon and sometimes she howls, but not very often.”

  Lu had gone scarlet red in the middle of that speech.

  A tree in the back spoke. “Will you just tell her, already you stupid son of a beech.”

  “Ahh right ma’am there are some very bad men coming to burn down the farms and the rest of the forest, that hasn’t already been cut down.”

  “How do you know that Woody?”

  “Well some trees in the hills told some other trees and they told some other trees, and they told some other trees then they told us. But don’t you worry because we decided not to let that happen ma’am. We’ll stop the bad men, we won’t let them hurt the land.”

  “You mustn't kill them Woody, besides I’ll alert the guard and bring some friends to help as well.”

  “No ma’am, we are trees ma’am we bring life not death.”