Chapter Six #4
He grabbed her and then looked sleepy. She took his core temperature down fast, and he collapsed. “Hey, chuckle heads. Night is over for you, too. Head for the entrance. Now.” The other orcs nodded and filed out. She bent to pick the drunk up and carried him to the entry point over her shoulder.
She walked out, and when the ambulance pulled up, she set her burden on the ground. The medics looked at him. “He’s hypothermic. I can wake him up, but he’s gonna come out fighting.”
The taller of the two medics grinned. “Frost giant.”
“Yup.” She saw the dark bulk of the XIA vehicle pull up. “Waiting for them?”
“Yeah. If he’s gonna wake up angry, we want someone else to take the hit.”
The other one said, “I am way too pretty to let that hit me.”
She snorted and heard, “Amy. You look different.”
“Oh, hello, Kairek. Yeah, well, even admin gets a night off.”
Neekil walked to the head of the orc. “He’s going to be violent when you wake him up?”
“Yup.”
Emmers knelt at one side, Kairek on the other. Emmers said, “Ready when you are.”
She pursed her lips, and her heat magic curled out visibly, entering the orc’s mouth and nose. “Now we wait. I give him about thirty seconds.”
She shrank down to her fox appearance and then...
“Bitch!” The orc heaved up and fought the three men holding him down. “You... where is she?”
Amy said, “The Hunting Will clan aren’t known for intelligence.
The charges are simple assault. He grabbed one of the admin ladies and hauled her around like a dolly.
She’s a pixie, so his comments on their differences were unsettling.
She was screaming for me, so I had to step in before something more actionable occurred. ”
Kairek nodded. “Understandable. Emmers, what is his temp like?”
“He’s fast approaching normal. Is he alone?”
“No, but his buddies, here, aren’t nearly as drunk as he is.” She pointed off to the other three orcs who were hovering close. “They are the only Hunting Will clan members on site.” She kicked the foot of the man on the ground. “Hush, or I will freeze your balls off.”
The man went quiet.
“He needs to be shackled to the gurney and treated for hypothermia and charged with common assault. Intimidation isn’t a thing, but there are tons of folks who were filming, and it’s probably already on the way to viral.”
One of the medics chuckled. “Yeah, it is. Yes, she called on you for help, and yes, you showed up.”
Neekil said, “Send it to me.” They hauled the orc to his feet and pulled him toward the transport truck that had pulled into the entrance.
Emmers let the other two handle it and asked, “Are you alright?”
She grinned. “Yes, Emmers. I am fine. I had a past before I met you and will have one after today.”
He frowned.
She decided to put him out of his misery. She reached into her bodice and pulled out a business card. “Show it to anyone from vice, and they can tell you about me.”
“Why can’t you?”
“Because you are on duty, and the other two are waiting. I will send you a statement and have Anna forward one as well.”
“Thank you. Do you have my contact information?”
“Yup.” She smiled. “Now, I had a night off with friends planned, and I want to get back to it. Have a good shift.”
She nodded and turned to her friends and the staff that had followed her out. She looked down. “Oh, shoot. My entry band broke off.”
The booth person smiled and said, “We will replace it. Just this once. Thanks for stepping in.”
“No problem.”
Anna ran to her and hugged her, her wings fluttering wildly.
She got her new band, and they went shopping.
They went to a jeweller’s shop, and the booth wench helped them out. Anna got a bracelet that would attract pure attraction and not weird wing fetishes. Mina got something enchanted to be better with money.
The wench grinned. “What is it for you? Love? Fortune?”
“Anything I get needs to be enchanted to change sizes from fox to eight-foot frost giant.”
The woman’s eyes went wide, and she went back to the jeweller, whose head snapped up. He set his project aside and walked over to her. “You are a giant?”
She stretched up to her full height and then shrank down to her snow fox. The booth wench went, “Oh, you are so cute. Can we be friends?”
Suddenly, she was a tiny purse dog with flaming red eyes. A hellhound. Amy laughed wildly in her foxy form and then stood with her white ears perky. “Yes, we can be friends, but I don’t get out much.”
“That’s okay. I am out enough for both of us. Well, until the faire closes. Then I like to garden poisonous plants.”
Amy grinned. “Excellent hobby.”
The mage with the burly arms asked, “Do you have a measurement from your fox form?”
She held out her pinky and third finger. “These two together. My wrist as a giant is the width of my knee if we are talking about bracelets. For earrings, the smallest ones would be a kernel of corn versus a plum.”
He smiled. “I can work with that. Then there is a temperature issue. What are your maximum and minimum temperatures?”
“Celsius? It is plus two hundred to minus two hundred.”
“Shit. That is some variables. Also a fire giant?” He got a notebook out and started scribbling details. “Frost giants don’t usually buy jewellery outside of their clans.”
“The wave was very generous. I got a bunch of goodies. The giants get and give jewels from lovers. I don’t want to apply for that position, so I am going to buy my own. I just don’t know what I want to pick. I just got to the point where I was willing to commit to buying stuff for myself.”
He looked at her and nodded. “I understand. So, what kind of an enchantment would you want on it?”
“Disinterest? I am tired of fending off passes when I am not looking for a partner.”
“That is usually the reverse of what folks ask for. Do you want them repelled, or do you want to be invisible?”
“I just want to be not interesting. Attention makes me uncomfortable.”
“Okay. Got it. Can I contact you with details? I won’t get anything done until next week.”
“Sure.” She pulled a card out and handed it to him.
“The XIA?”
“Just in admin. Nothing major. A job is a job.” She smiled.
He looked at her email address. “Nice. Okay, I will get back to you as soon as I find a spell that can create the desired effect. For now, can I interest you in a necklace that will work with emotional strength?”
“Sure. Or, do you have one for courage? A friend is reconnecting with a one-night stand that left her with a ten-year-old.”
The assistant got a pretty necklace with stones that matched Iris’s eyes, and, as her friend’s birthday was coming up, she got the matching earrings.
She got herself a set of earrings in a sudden splurge. “Do they do anything weird?”
“The silver matches your hair, and the icy blue matches your eyes.” The attendant grinned. “They have a confidence spell on them.”
“Ah. Well, that won’t hurt anything.”
“Just don’t pick any fights or go for tacos. I know whereof I speak.”
The mage-smith chuckled.
She paid for her purchases and left with her friends, stopping to get some non-alcoholic cider, and then they returned to watch the next dance exhibition. This time, she stayed with the ladies, and they watched as the booth assistant from the jeweller was there, dancing and skipping and twirling.
They remained together when the dancers went to grab folks from the audience, and when the male approached Anna again, the assistant pulled him to a different part of the crowd. Anna exhaled.
Amy knew she had a serious frowny face on, and she wished for a moment that she was the type of girl who could be swept off for a dance, but first, she had been one of the unchanging, and then she had changed too much. There wasn’t any middle ground.
When the dancing was over and the dancers tipped, they headed toward the exit. Others could party all night, but Amy had a job to do at noon that day. She needed to be well rested.