"That sounds like...a cow!" Mira choked as she pointed to the looming thing that was shuffling towards them.
Zander grinned and turned towards the moo-ing sound. "Gobie!" He gave a quick whistle and the beast began shuffling toward them.
It emerged from the mists, a large blue-green hulk of a beast with a tough, elephant-like hide. It was 15 feet tall and about 25 feet long, and it had six limbs. There were four trunk-like legs for walking, and two koala-looking arm-like appendages in front, with three cute little fingers and two opposable thumbs on each hand. It had a long swishy tail and curly thick horns like a water buffalo. On top of its head was a swath of brownish-green hair, parted at the center and falling behind its horns, like a tumble of unruly seaweed.
Mira's jaw dropped. "What is that?"
"THAT--is Gobie." Zander reached out and rubbed the animal's forehead. "He's not a cow, he's a bull. A bogbull, to be exact."
"Bogbull?"
"Yes. Bogbulls are bulls that live in the bogs, or more precisely, the marshlands." Zander waved a hand at the boggy area surrounding them. "This is the northern marshlands of Tourmaline. It is shallow in this area, so it is a marsh, but in that direction," he pointed to the east, "it turns into a bog that is quite deep. This entire area is called the Tourmaline Bog"
For the first time, Mira got a good look at her surroundings. As if in reverse image, dusk on Earth had turned into dawn on Ashryan. The twilight was gradually brightening, and with the sun's warmth, the mists began to clear.
The greenish-brown grasses bobbed on the water's surface, growing in mottled clumps that were interspersed with spikes of reeds and ragweed, dotting the landscape with their darker green stalks and pink flowers. There were also clumps of black trees that stuck out like lonely sentinels, their limbs covered with hanging moss that waved in the early morning breeze.
"Come, my princess. Our ride is here." Zander held out his hand.
Mira blinked in confusion. "We're riding on that thing?"
Zander laughed. "He's not the most sprightly of steeds, but he's the only one who can manage this marshy wet bog. He can also protect us from all the lurking bogwargs."
"Bo--bogwargs??"
"Yes. Those things are nasty. I just killed one a few minutes ago."
Mira did not need further coaxing. She reached out for Zander, and in one quick swoop, he grabbed her by the waist and launched both of them onto the bogbull's back.
"Hang on tight. Here we go."
Mira sat in front, carrying Sofie on one shoulder. Immediately behind her was Zander, his arms locked tight around her waist, his chin resting on her head.
He had used a little of his life energy during their ride to dry their clothes a bit, so the wet fabrics would not stick to their skin and give them chills. Then, for the entirety of the ride, he shielded her from the early morning wind with his body. To entertain her, he began talking about his world, starting with the bogbull, Gobie.
Mira became quite intimately knowledgeable about Gobie, and bogbulls in general, after spending two hours riding on one. Minor physical differences aside, a bogbull seemed quite similar to a water buffalo on Earth.
Gobie demonstrated that minor difference quite remarkably, with his tendency of randomly reaching with his arm-like appendages, for bog grasses and duck weeds along the way and stuffing them into his mouth.
In fact, Gobie was so dexterous, Mira was sure he could pick up stuff and manipulate even precision instruments--if he were so inclined, that is. Unfortunately, as Zander confirmed, bogbulls were a rather dim lot, and so the few things that it did with its thumbs and fingers had mostly to do with food or sex.
Mira could not imagine what bogbulls did with their hands for the 'sex' part of their activities, but Zander did not elaborate, and she was not going to ask him for any details.
After an hour, they had left the bogs. Another hour of riding on Gobie took them through a forested glade, and then they reached a small village. On the outskirts of town, there was a large boulder with some unusual curlicue markings carved onto its surface.
"Welcome to Tourmaline City," Zander announced with some relief.
"Is that what the fancy design says on that rock?"
"That's Ashryan writing."
"It's a strange but beautiful writing. Why does your language sound like English?"
"It doesn't," Zander chuckled. "You're hearing the translations directly within your mind's ear because I placed an enchantment on you while you were unconscious."
"You did? Where?"
He touched the rim of her ear, "Right here."
Mira's eyes grew large. She touched her ear, but didn't feel anything different.
"Liar." She murmured, feeling the heat rise to the rims of her ears.
Zander laughed gently and blew on her ear. She blushed and turned away, pretending to look at the tiny houses that came into view.
The houses in Tourmaline looked like large fat mushrooms, painted in all the colors of the rainbow. They clumped together in organic formation, nestled into the foothills of a craggy mesa.
Gobie made a beeline to one of the houses on the left side of the only road through the settlement. This one was multi-storied, and much wider than the other mushroom houses they had just passed.
The house was painted a bright cheerful amaranth yellow, capped with a red slate roof. There were circular framed glass windows all around the exterior, and flowers of all colors growing in small floral beds on each side of the doorway.
There was a sign on the front, written with more of that fancy decorative curlicue Ashryan language. It looked to be an inn of some type.
Zander jumped off the bogbull and then helped Mira down. She grimaced as she stood on terra firma once again, holding onto Sofie's tiny body to keep warm. As it was, Mira could barely walk. Her rump had fallen asleep.
Luckily, Zander didn't notice that small embarrassing detail. He took hold of her arm and led her in through the front doors of the establishment.
Immediately inside the red double doors was a brown carpet that looked as if it was made of living grass. As they walked through, Mira reached down and touched the carpet. Holy mackerel! It really was grass!
Immediately in front of them was a long counter made of polished ebony wood. A gnarled dwarf looked up as the doors opened, but when Zander came into view, he gasped and came prancing out to meet them.
"My Lord! You're back!"
"Good morning Felstaire," Zander led Mira towards the dwarf. "This is Lady Mira. Please get her a room and have a warm bath drawn up." He turned back to Mira. "Go with him and clean off the bog muck. I have a few things to take care of."
"Will you be back soon?"
"Of course," he touched her cheek. "We will meet again at breakfast."
Seeing the gentle manner with which Zander treated Mira, Felstaire's demeanor subtly changed. Although she was covered in mud and looked like something the cat dragged in, Felstaire's professionalism and decorum was unrivaled.
"Right away, my Lord." Felstaire bowed to Mira. "This way, m'Lady."
She followed Felstaire down the hallway and up two short flights of stairs. At the top of the stairs, there was a small seating area, with a few comfortable settees and small side tables holding tiny oil lamps and dainty tea sets. The hall ran left and right, with doors on either side, denoting separate bedrooms.
Felstaire took her to the right and walked all the way to the end of the hall. He pulled a large ring with a number of brass keys from his side and unlocked the door.
Inside the door was a small chamber. Aside from a double-sized bed, with a small dresser and gold-framed mirror on one side, and a small pot belly cast iron fireplace on the other, there was not much else. The bed was clean, with warm yellow woolen blankets piled neatly on top, and there was a round green rug at the center of the room.
"Please make yourself comfortable, m'Lady. I will have a bath with warm water brought into the room soon."
"Thank you, kind sir."
"No, no. It is my honor and duty to take care of the Lord and his esteemed guests when he visits. Please do not thank me." Felstaire waved his hands in protest and went to the fire place in the corner. "It is turning into winter, and I hear it will snow tonight. I will have the maids get a warm fire going while you bathe, so the room will heat up nicely by the time you're done."
"W--winter?" Mira gasped. It was barely mid-May.
Felstaire nodded. "Yes. Winter comes pouncing on us when we least expect it to do so. This will be our first snow of the season." He cleared his throat. "I will take my leave. The maids will be here in short order. Please call for me if you need anything at all."
Mira thanked him and closed the door behind the dwarf. Then she leaned against the door jamb and closed her eyes. This felt so much like a dream and she was going to snap out of it when the morning alarm sounded.
Only--dreams never felt this real, or lasted this long.
She could not imagine what was happening at her house right now, with the dwarf ogre Daran, the Crown Prince Erick, and that strange bat Quill running around loose. Just thinking about that made Mira groan and cover her eyes. She needed to get back soon, or there may not be a house for her to return to.
Meanwhile, at the Lee residence, on Earth...