Free Fireclaws - Search for the Golden by T. Michael Ford Page B

superior they are.” By this time, she was sobbing uncontrollably. Andi walked over cautiously, centering on the sound, and put a comforting hand on Daphne’s shoulder.
    “It’s going to be alright; Ryliss and I are going to be your new best friends now.”
    She looked up in tears. “Huh? You don’t even know me; you’ll both hate me when you find out what I am,” she wailed, and I saw her feet twitch erratically like she was poised to return to rabbit form.
    “I doubt that,” I interrupted. “The Earth Mother wouldn’t have brought us here otherwise.”
    Daphne’s eyes widened in alarm. “You mean that wasn’t the carrot buzz talking? She was really here?”
    I nodded impatiently. “Yes, of course, she was here. Now, Daphne, get to the explanation!”
    She glanced down at the ground with resignation. “Fine, I’m only half nymph; my sire was a pooka. Are you happy now?”
    “A pooka?” I echoed in disbelief, and then I recited what I knew of them. “Types of earth fae, pooka are mischievous tricksters that can lean to either good or evil. Shape changers, they normally have three or more assumable forms, usually a horse, goat or rabbit. They are considered very rare, with only about half a dozen recorded encounters noted in the archives of my people. The famed explorer, Maglor Elsenfiir, reported an incident on his storied Eregjhael highland forest expedition that involved an albino pooka…” I stopped as both of my companions were staring at me with mouths hanging open in disbelief.
    “Wow, I bet you really are the life of a party,” Daphne muttered. “Anyway, there you have it. Yup, a real life, half-nymph, half-pooka. Save the nickering behind my back, horny-as-a goat and, of course, the humping-like-a-bunny comparisons; I’ve heard them all.”
    I shook my head and changed the subject. “So what can you do differently than a regular nymph?”
    She sighed. “Basically, I’m not tied down to any one specific tree. I can actually move around in any of my forms. I only need a tree to make a true home in and any laurel will do. That’s one of the reasons the other nymphs hate me so much. If they get more than a hundred yards from their personal tree, they start to wilt.”
    “So you actually intentionally picked this particular…specimen, then?” I said, appraising the pathetic looking tree.
    “Not really, but the other nymphs bribed the woodcutters to cut down all the other nearby laurels. They left me this one to shame me, and I don’t know where to go to find a better one. I was born here and I’ve never left this forest.”
    “Yet you are intelligent and well-spoken,” I complimented. “Not what anyone would expect from someone who spent their entire life in an isolated spot of the forest.”
    “Yeah, well…the pooka side isn’t without a few advantages,” she muttered resentfully under her breath.
    “Daphne…I need a favor.”
    “You’re a powerful Druid, you know the Earth Mother personally, and you need help from someone like me?” she asked haltingly. She looked at Andi to see if she was sharing in the joke, which, of course, she wasn’t.
    “Yes, I need someone to watch over Andea while I rescue her brother from an evil mage. It would have to be somewhere safe, like inside your tree.”
    “My tree? I don’t know…I wasn’t really expecting company and it’s kind of a mess…”
    “Daphne, in case you haven’t noticed, Andea is blind.”
    “Oh, well, that’s great then…” she said, grabbing Andi by the wrist and pulling her gently toward the tree. “You can call me Daffi…everyone does.”
    “I can certainly believe that,” I whispered under my breath.
    “Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of her! It will be fun to have someone who isn’t mean to talk to,” the half-nymph said brightly. Then she drew Andea through the shimmering portal and they were gone.
    Naurakka sidled up alongside me and snarled, “A pooka? Oh, this is going to get