The Magic Mirror

The One Called Fritz

Niarosa rode into a town called Ardmont late in the day and wasted no time finding a place to stay. Ardmont was hardly the hustle and bustle of Evodos. It had a quiet and hard earned atmosphere that carried well on into the worn and repaired buildings. There was very little in the way of business and even the Rest Soundly Inn could only be called an Inn by the barest of essentials. But as soon as Niarosa was able to talk the innkeeper into giving her a room all to her own she had no qualms with the place. She carried the Inkling in the crook of her arm, like an infant, wrapped in white as the Innkeeper, a wide girthed man with a crooked smile- led her to the room.

"Where would you be from?" the innkeeper asked, with a bold and- in Niarosa's opinion- repulsive curiosity. Through the shadows of the hall she could see that he was sizing her up with his beady eyes in every direction. No doubt he already had his own assumptions about her.

"Evodos.." she said, simply.

He smiled, and a broad stretch of yellow teeth spanned his face.

"Ah- I've been there twice myself. Where are you headed?"

Niarosa pretended not to hear.

They arrived at a door and the Innkeeper fumbled with a ring of keys on his belt before yanking one off and offering it to her. As she took it his eyes wandered onto the bundle and he raised a kind brow.

"They're right treasures at that age. Mine are all grown now, of course, but you'll never find anything to brighten your day quite like the precious new face of a-"

He peered over her shoulder down onto the bundle and seemed to blanch as he took in the gray, wooden form of the Inkling.

"MY GOD! That's the ugliest infant I've laid eyes on in all my years!" He even managed to stumble back as he exclaimed this.

Niarosa lifted her chin and walked past him. How common and rude of him! Well, so long as she had this room she did not much care what the nosy innkeeper thought of her inkling.

"I will need milk sent to my room!" she demanded, haughtily. "Warm milk! As soon as you can get it to me! With a spoon! My.." She glanced at the inkling again, "My baby is sick!"

"oh- Of course it is! y- yes ma'am.." the innkeeper hurried. "Do you want a doctor as well? Two?"

Once she had slammed the door shut behind her Niarosa carried the inkling to the bed and set it down. A lit lantern had already been set in her room and she brought it close to the small, pale creature. Well at the very least the inkling no longer felt like a block of ice, but it still looked terrible. Its breath rattled as its tiny chest moved up and down slowly and it shook with every movement. As she ruminated on the sparse knowledge she had of this creatures she wondered if there had been any point in saving it at all.

"...Well I couldn't just leave you," she concluded when she had sorted through her thoughts.

For a brief moment, when she realized her utter medical incapabilities, Niarosa wondered if she ought to splurge what little coin she had left on a doctor after all. But reason stopped her. This little town was one of the many rural and secluded spaces out of Evodos that had farmed and chased the magic out of the land so thoroughly that creatures like Inklings were practically unheard of. No doctor would know what to do with an inkling around here.

The innkeeper returned with a mug of warm milk an hour after Niarosa had requested it. She tipped the man, despite being accustomed to readier service, and closed the door on him as his eyes tried to wander past her. When she returned to the bed the inkling's skin had taken on darker markings- and it's eye's were hot, red slits.