Elinmire, Associate Professor of Magic’s, was wondering one day through an area of the Broken Forrest when he came upon a group of brownies who were ganging up on a small pixie. Accepting the theories of Darwin the Dwarf socialist that to the fittest go the spoils....or was it the victor goes the nurture? Anyway, it was just something that happens naturally in the order of the forest, when he noticed the fervor the little pixie was fighting with against 5 brownies. The brownies were laughing and teasing her as she was fighting valiantly with a small dagger and all her might.
What happen next was totally unexpected, inside of Elinmire, something popped. Something that bad been held back for a long time. Elinmire had never accepted a familiar as his own. He scorned such things as weakness in other mages, and since he chose academics rather than adventuring he had no need for one. Little did he know that fate was about to throw him for a loop. He didn't know it at the time, but he was about to enter the world of adventuring, whether he liked it or not.
Invisible, Elinmire, observed this and couldn't help but be smitten by the pixie's beauty. He reached out his hand and cast 2 magic missiles, and dropped two of the brownies. Next, as they turned to see their secondary attacker, two more rushed Elinmire and he vaporized them with a lightning bolt. The last, seeing he was outmatched, flew away as fast as he could.
Elinmire quickly moved to the side of the pixie, now lying on the ground, its life fading with its light. He carefully lifted the pixie into his hands and then he felt a surge of energy between him and the small creature. “Peculiar,” he said to himself. He walked home to his study in Pranzis, holding the little pixie with one hand and covering her with the other. He mused over the experience he saw. He had never heard of Fey fighting so valiantly, as they normally flee and disappear.
What was different about this one little creature?
In his study, he found a pillow fluffed with goose down, and laid her gingerly on it. He then turned his attention to his bookshelf upon which he found a book titled: “Fey and things.”
He found a small thimble in a drawer of odds and ends, and conjured up some food with a wave of his hand and set them near the pixie. He filled the thimble with water and then took a draught from his hip flask of “Wizard’s Wheat” and set it on the desk nearby.
He sat in his chair, turned to the right and began to absorb the book for probably the 3rd time in his life. He had read all his books countless times, and had even marked corrections in read ink which he updated in his own personal errata’s he kept in the back of each volume.
After an hour or so of absorption as well as a private argument about the facts in the book about Elves and their relation to fairies, he heard a light crash and a burp. Normally such singular sound would not have roused him from study, but since the source originated form his desk, he turned slowly to see what was happening.
The first thing he noticed as he turned to his left was his hip flask lying on its side, empty. “Strange, I know it was at least a quarter full a moment ago,” he said. He continued to turn and noticed the small plate of food was empty, and then, sitting up and staring at him (with a slight drunken waver) was the small pixie. Petite, smiling sheepishly and still armed, but not threatening, the little pixie looked back at the tall bearded wizard sitting before her.
“Nice draft...*burp* but I like Will-o-whisky” she smiled then promptly fell back into the pillow and fell asleep.
The next morning, the pixie still lay sleeping on the pillow soundly. Elinmire conjectured that she must have drunken most of her weight in ale last night, not to mention the food. He had left a window open and she had not taken advantage of it yet.
He sat down to resume his studies at his desk where he had left off when he was suddenly interrupted.
“So who are you?” a little voice asked.
“Elinmire Thel’dinarae, Arch magus here in Pranzis. And you are?” Elinmire said to the pixie.
“Lae Ann, battle pixie to the GreenLitus Pixie Clan.” Lae Ann return, but then she frowned, and started to cry.
Old wizards were not made to elicit comfort, nor do they look for it, but this wizard had taught countless youth, helped them through their rough spots, and lectured many more than he could count. He frowned as well and looked closely at the pixie, “What’s the matter, little one? You’re safe!”
Lae Ann wiped away her tears and looked up with a pouty face, “I am one of the last of my tribe; those creatures were part of a raid to scatter my sisters! I don’t know what’s happened to them….and to make it all worst, I’m linked to YOU!”
Was a little taken back by the forcefulness of the last statement. “What do you speak of? You can go back to the forest, you have no tie here.”
With that, Lae Ann “harrumphed” at him and flew, blazing out of the window. For 10 seconds nothing happened, and Elinmire seems content that he’d rid himself of a pesky visitor, though he was pleased in her recovery. It was the next ten seconds that proved startling and unexpected.
At approximately second number 20 after Lae Ann took off, a strong sense of someone reaching into his spleen to remove it while he sat there occurred. Next he had a troubled moment of breathing and last, a huge headache.
At second number 40, Lae Ann came streaming back into the room. She tumbled unceremoniously onto the pillow she had slept on, and laid there, holding her head, curled up in a ball. Elinmire stared at her with a look of horror on his face. His whole life, he had resisted any inkling of taking on a familiar. He was a scholar and a loner, except where his students came into play. Now…now he didn’t know what to think or say. He just stared at the little pixie.
“That’s what I’m talking about, you old fart.” She said.
And that’s how they met.
