Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Tender as a Human ❯ Chapter 1

THE young woman - whoever she was - had been adequately, though not decently, attired in Jeordin's pair of spare britches and tunic. She had laughed when he gave them to her, as if the idea of clothing was entertaining. He had offered her a cloak, as well, but she discarded it, seeming not to know or even notice that her current state of dress was more than scandalous.

 

“What is your name?” Jeordin asked her. He had been trying to strike up a conversation with her for most of the way to the village - he was trying to find out more about her. Wouldn't anyone want to know why someone had shown up in front of them naked?

 

As with the other times he tried to get her to talk, the stranger held her silence. Jeordin wondered if she even understood him.

 

“Can you understand me?” Jeordin asked, completely out of curiosity. The girl nodded.

 

“Then why don't you say anything?” He asked. She gave him a look that said everything. She wasn't talking to him. Jeordin sighed.

 

“Fine then. You'd better come with me to see the magician.” Jeordin said, getting up. The maiden stood, looking like a newborn colt getting up for the first time. Jeordin wondered where she had come from.

 

 

THEY were at the magician's house in no time. In a small town like Boerville, it usually didn't take long to get anywhere. Jeordin knocked on the door, trying to ignore the stares from the villagers who couldn't go to fight the dragon.

 

The magician opened the door. He was a rather normal-looking man, not partaking in Melvin's flair for the ridiculous.

 

“Jeordin, come in!” said the magician, opening the door wider. He caught sight of the girl behind Jeordin. “Well, who is this? I haven't seen her around before.” Despite, or perhaps because of the magician's curiosity, the girl and Jeordin were admitted.

 

“I don't know who she is Sam.” sighed Jeordin. “She showed up completely naked right in front of me and said she needed help and that she was cursed. She hasn't said anything since.”

 

“Hmm, do you think she'll allow a mind probe? I have to find out what's happened to her before I can help,” said Sam. The girl, who had sat down on the floor immediately inside the door, nodded.

 

“Does that answer your question?” Jeordin asked.

 

“Come here and sit in this chair please, miss,” said Sam, pulling a chair away from a table in the corner and setting it in the middle of the room. The girl cautiously rose; tottering over to the chair and slumping into it. Sam watched intently. He put a hand on the girl's forehead and closed his eyes.

 

“If you will relax, that would be wonderful,” said Sam. The girl seemed to understand and relaxed a little. Suddenly, an expression of surprise crossed Sam's face.

 

“My goodness,” he whispered.

 

“What is it?” Jeordin asked excitedly. Sam removed his hand from the girl's forehead and opened his eyes, looking at Jeordin and shaking his head.

 

“You have no idea what you've gotten yourself into…” Sam said.

 

“What is it?” Jeordin asked again. Sam sighed.

 

“Well, she has blocked off the true nature of her curse to me, but I know that she's cursed in form. That's why she can't walk well and doesn't speak. You'll have to tutor her in that so she can look normal until the curse is lifted. As for that… I can't do it. She's been cursed by Melvin, for some reason unknown to me. It will take a very powerful sorcerer to lift it, since it seems like the dragon killed Melvin. You'll have to help her find that sorcerer,” explained Sam.

 

“You're right; I have gotten myself in too deep… Do you know her name?” Jeordin asked. Sam thought a moment.

 

“It was Seluna,” he replied. Seluna rose from the chair, her knees wobbling a little.

 

“Where am I supposed to find a powerful enough sorcerer?” Jeordin asked.

 

“How should I know? There must be thousands of sorcerers scattered around Klutztonia. Maybe one or two will be powerful enough to lift her curse. But I don't know where to find them. Usually sorcerers that powerful live in seclusion, but it wouldn't hurt to look in the large cities either,” said Sam. Jeordin sighed, he hadn't asked for this. Seluna stumbled towards him, falling onto his shoulder and almost knocking him over.

 

“A good thing to do, if you want a magician or wizard to help you, is to get the more… uncommon… magical items for him. Usually, the spell used to return someone to their original form uses dragon scales. Older are best, because the magic in them is less likely to get out of control.”

 

“The first thing I should do is find her some proper clothing…” said Jeordin, gently pushing Seluna back onto her feet.

 

 

AND that was the first thing he did. The seamstress' shop wasn't far away, as before, nothing was far away in Boerville. Seluna was examining the fabrics with fascination, feeling them, smelling them, and she even licked one bolt. Jeordin tried not to look embarrassed.

 

“Who's she?” was the first thing out of the seamstress' mouth.

 

“This is Seluna, she's been cursed. I need to take her to find a powerful sorcerer to undo her curse, and she'll need acceptable clothing for that,” explained Jeordin, exasperated already. In Boerville, everyone knew each other, which meant that if someone no one knew showed up, it created a frenzy of gossip. Jeordin didn't want to think about the rumors that would be flying about him and Seluna.

 

“Can you just help me get some dresses for her?” Jeordin sighed. The seamstress nodded, pulling a measuring tape out of her pocket and walking over to Seluna.

 

“I'll just need to take a few measurements Miss Seluna,” said the seamstress at a low growl from the girl. Seluna relaxed and waited patiently as the seamstress carefully measured and wrote down her dimensions.

 

“You're in luck Jeordin; I have some traveling dresses that will fit her perfectly,” said the seamstress, looking at the measurements she had taken. She disappeared into a back room and came back holding three dresses that were split on the bottom like loose pants so the wearer could ride a horse. Two of them were grey, but one was a midnight blue color. Seluna's eyes lit up at the midnight blue dress and she immediately snatched it.

 

“I guess we'll take them,” said Jeordin, trying not to look amused at Seluna's behavior. He handed over some coins at the seamstress' request and took the other two dresses.

 

“Come on Seluna,” said Jeordin, heading back towards his house. Seluna followed him happily.

 

 

SELUNA was a little uncertain why she followed after the human. Now that she knew what to do, she should have set off on her own. But then she realized that she didn't know her way around the human world; her sense of direction was great, she knew the geography of the land like the back of her hand... and she could not tell where she was, because she was on the land, and not looking at it from above.

 

She had been surprised, and delighted, when she had been given what the humans called "clothing" in her natural color. The man who had taken her to get them, Jeordin, had given something to the woman who had originally owned them. Seluna guessed it was a gift for being so kind as to take the time to find something that would fit her properly, though she had no idea how that was.

 

"It is unseemly for a man and a woman to be traveling together alone. Therefore, I will have to tell people that you are my sister. We'll go to the nearest town and ask if they have had any dragon problems. Usually, towns like that peddle dragon scales for a fairly cheap price once the dragon's been gone long enough to assure them that it's not coming back. I hope you don't have too tender a palate, Seluna. All I have in way of travel rations are bread and cheese.” Jeordin looked up from his packing. Brow furrowed, he said, “Did you understand all of that?”

 

Seluna nodded. She wished he would teach her how to make sounds with her mouth like the other humans did. Then Seluna could convey her thoughts.

 

“Why?” Seluna surprised herself with the question. She hadn't even thought about forming the words.

 

“Why do I only have bread and cheese? Because I'm not some rich lord or merchant; I'm a lowly peasant. And all lowly peasants like us eat bread and cheese as travel rations.”

 

“No. Why… Pack at all?”

 

“Because people - humans need to eat. And right now, you're human. Since you seem to still be a bit unsteady on your feet, I'll carry your pack, and you can ride my horse. He's around back.”

 

“Won't like me.” Seluna stared at him. Again, she had not thought about talking as hard as before.

 

“Old Fellow is a nice horse. Very friendly. So I doubt he'll not like you right off the bat unless you smell like dragon. And I doubt it, since you haven't been near a dragon recently. I think you'd be missing a few limbs if you had been.”

 

“You shall see.”

 

 

THAT darned horse wouldn't leave her alone. She had tried to growl at it, but it had sounded ridiculous, even to the horse. It was obvious that the animal could smell dragon on her, but was curious as to why she looked human but smelled dragon.

 

“See, Seluna? Your fears were completely unfounded. Old Fellow likes you just fine. I wonder if he'll even leave you alone long enough to eat? Might be a little hard to eat with my horse trying to eat your hair…”

 

Seluna just snarled at Jeordin. Her face was contorted into a scowl, and she was so frustrated that she could actually manage to get a complete and coherent sentence out of her mouth. “You should be helping to keep this animal's nostrils off of me, as opposed to laughing at me!”

 

Jeordin laughed. It was a deep laugh, and Seluna just scowled even more fiercely than before.

 

 

JEORDIN had been surprised at Seluna's sudden coherency as much as she had been surprised at it. But what she said was so funny that he couldn't marvel at her sudden speaking.

 

“Now, get on the horse. We have a long way to go and you can't walk very well.” Jeordin said. Seluna flicked Old Fellow on the snout and the horse immediately let go of her hair. She stumbled around the horse to where the stirrup was. Jeordin offered her a hand, but Seluna just glared at him and put her foot in the stirrup. Old Fellow nickered as Seluna clumsily heaved herself into the saddle.

 

“Good. I'll lead Old Fellow so you don't have to worry about it. While we're on the road I'll teach you how to talk so you can pass as a normal person.” Seluna glared at him and Jeordin sighed. “Never-mind what I said. Let's just go.” Jeordin led Old Fellow out of the barn and around the side of the town so no one would see him leaving. Soon they were on the road leading into the wide world.

 

Jeordin looked up at Seluna, who was staring at him expectantly.

 

“What?” Jeordin asked. Then he remembered she couldn't talk. “Oh, you want me to teach you how to talk.” Seluna nodded.

 

Jeordin held up the lead rope tied to Old Fellow. “This is rope. Can you say rope?”

 

“R-rope.” Seluna said. She looked like she wanted to say something else, but couldn't.

 

“What is it?”

 

“I k-know wha rop-pe is. Ssoundss.”

 

“You just want sounds?” Jeordin asked, puzzled. Seluna nodded, smiling now.

 

“All right.” Jeordin was confused now. What could Seluna have been before where she could talk, but not with her mouth? “I guess we start with `A.' Try saying that.”

 

“A!” Seluna exclaimed cheerfully.

 

“Good. Now say `B'.”

 

Seluna repeated what he told her to. By the end of the day, they had moved on to simple words. After Seluna had dropped off to sleep, Jeordin sighed, “This is going to be a long quest.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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