Page 11 of Loved By the Orc

“I fixed some things for her around the inn. And she had a really big boulder she wanted moved to make way for a new cabin but it was magically rooted so she couldn’t use a spell. So I moved it for her.”

“Really? How big was it?” I asked.

Tark shrugged and held a hand up to about his eye-line.

“Oh, about this tall, I guess. And twice as big around. It wasn’t easy to shift but once I got started, it rolled pretty well.”

“Wow—you must bereallystrong,” I remarked. “I mean, I knew you were—you were holding me at the, uh, doctor’s office for over half an hour without even breaking a sweat. But still…”

“What? You’re light as a feather, Babygirl.” He grinned down at me, showing off his pearly white tusks. “I could hold you all day.”

“Oh, um…” I was starting to blush again when a new person entered the room.

Goody Albright had curly gray hair and she was wearing a colorful dress that might have been a dressing gown or a robe—it was hard tosay. It was covered in a mint green and peacock blue paisley pattern and her cat-eyed glasses were turquoise to match.

“Well hello, Tark—what’s this I hear about you calling in your favor?” she asked, smiling at both of us. She might have been anywhere between forty-six to seventy-six—she had a kind of agelessness about her, despite the fine wrinkles at the corners of her eyes and mouth.

“Just what it sounds like. Goody Albright, this is Harmony…er—I don’t know your last name, I just realized that,” he said to me.

“Oh, Ward. I’m Harmony Ward,” I said, holding out a hand to her.

“Delighted to meet you, my dear. By the way you’re looking around, I can tell this is your first visit to Hidden Hollow,” she said, smiling graciously as she shook with me.

“Yes, it is,” I admitted. “But I’m not quite sure how I got here. Or how to get home. Or how to get back here again when I want to,” I added, casting a glance at Tark.

“Ahh, I see. Yes indeed—come with me and we’ll figure it out together.” She held out a hand to me but I hesitated.

“Er, I don’t mean to be rude, but I don’t have much time,” I told her. “Madam Healer gave me a time charm, but it’s only good for going back three hours and I’ve nearly spent that much time here already.”

“I see.” She nodded. “Let me see the charm please.”

I held up my arm and she tapped the golden charm wrapped around my wrist three times and nodded.

“There. That added another hour. Now please come with me—we’ll go sit on my back porch and have some tea while we talk.”

Tark and I followed her through the winding maze of the inn—which turned out to be the oldest still-standing inn in the whole country as Goodie Albright proudly informed us.

“It’s been here since the witch trials in Salem,” she told me. “That was when magical folks started congregating here in Hidden Hollow—to get away from the madness of the Human Realm. And lately more and more magic users are being drawn here—because once again, the outside world is getting very strange and scary.”

I thought of the things I’d been seeing on the news lately and couldn’t help agreeing with her. The “Human Realm” as she called it, was getting awfully frightening of late. It was nice to think there was a cozy magical sanctuary tucked away and safe from all the craziness.

“That’s nice, but I really don’t think I have any magic,” I told Goodie Albright. “I mean, everyone keeps telling me I do, but I’ve never done anything magical or special in my life.”

“Perhaps your magic is still sleeping in your blood. Or it was, until you needed it—and needed to get away to Hidden Hollow,” she told me. “We’ll soon find out.”

We got settled at a small table on a glassed-in porch in the back of the inn. Well, Goodie Albright and I did, at any rate. She had to call for a reinforced stool for Tark to sit on—it took two brownies (that was the name of the attendants with the bark-like skin) to lug it over to the table we were sitting at.

I couldn’t help admiring the view—just outside the porch was a gorgeous garden that was somehow in full bloom despite the Fall weather. Flowers and vegetables and fruits all mingled together in a glorious tangle that didn’t appear to have any rhyme or reason but still looked amazingly well tended.

Once we were all seated, Goodie Albright called for tea and something else.

“My magic-testing kit—it’s in the second drawer in my office,” she told the brownie, who ran quickly to go get it.

The tea tray arrived with a steaming china pot and three cups as well as a plate full of delicious looking cookies. At the same time, another brownie brought what looked like a row of three test tubes standing upright in a wooden tray. One was filled with silvery dust, the second had golden glitter, and the third was empty.

“Now then, Tark would you mind pouring while I test Harmony’s magic?” she said.

“Happy to,” the big Orc rumbled. He looked down at me. “Milk and sugar, right?”

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