Chapter 49: Smiles

"Oh hey! You there!" a woman shouted at Arthur and Lilly from up the road. "Think ya could help a lady out?"

The couple slowed their horses to a stop. Arthur looked at Lilly who merely shrugged at him. "What's the trouble, ma'am?" Arthur asked the woman.

"Me horse up and died on me, twisted me ankle somethin' fierce. Think ya could give me a ride?"

Arthur once again looked at Lilly, who once again shrugged at him. "Yeah, sure," Arthur said, looking back at the desolate lady. "Hop on."

"Oh thank ya, sir. Thank yas!" she said gratefully as she wobbled over to Arthur's horse and got on the back.

"Where you headed, ma'am?"

"Do ya ken the village of Aberargie?"

Arthur looked at Lilly who was opening up the map. Almost every god damn place in the UK and Ireland had the weirdest names. "Cén fáth a bhfuil na hainmneacha sráidbhaile uile aisteach?" Arthur asked her. [Why are the village names all strange?]

Lilly giggled while looking at the map. "Toisc gur Meiriceánach tú." [Because you are an American.]

Arthur cackled. "Ha! Probably."

"I'm sorry tah interrupt, but do ya ken which village I mean?"

Lilly eyed the lady. "Yeah, I see it. It's not that far out of our way, Arthur. Shouldn't take us long to get there. It's east of here, at the base of the mountain range."

"Alright, let's head on out," Arthur said.

He clicked his tongue and both the horses moved off the main road towards the east.

"Oh, so glad I ran intah ya. I raised that horse, ya ken? Raised it since it was just a wee foal."

Lilly frowned. "Yeah, I know what that's like to lose a horse ya raised from infancy."

Arthur agreed. "Losin' a horse is hard. Sorry to hear that."

"Yeah, that horse did right by me. Better than me husband, truth be told," the lady explained. "That fool, always complaining, but does he do something about it? Man barely lifts his hand tah wave the flies away, aside from tah lift a drink, of course. Marriage, fer me, has been nothin' but trouble. But Biscuit? He was a mighty fine animal. Loyal. Smart. Brave. Didnae take no guff, not from no one. Had one of them vagabonds on the road pull a gun on me once? I was riding just down this road and had stopped by a nice warm patch. Musta dozed off, but I wake up and find some bastard piece of work pointin' a rusty shotgun at me."

"Really..." Lilly said with a slight bit of interest.

"Oh yes. Anyway, he gets wheezin' on and I musta made some sort of noise because the next thing I ken, Biscuit had nipped his ear clean off! Kicked his bloody hide, too, as he was hollerin' away. Didnae think a man could run so fast."

Arthur let out a soft laugh. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, had a good laugh on that one, heh heh. I tell the husband, what does he do? "Shoulda never gone over there, Honey," he says. Gee, thanks..."

Arthur let out a rough laugh then he cleared his throat. "So, you live in Aberargie, then?"

"For the time bein'. The husband and I were lookin' to get away from that nasty monster up near Perth."

Lilly and Arthur looked at each other. Arthur knew exactly which monster she meant. The Nuckelavee. Lilly eyed the woman curiously. "Did you see it?"

"No, but I here tell of the stories. It's said that it was originally from Orkney, and that is very far north. I wonder why it's so far south."

"Huh. That wasn't in the portfolio." Lilly pulled out the map again and her mouth dropped. "Orkney is on an island north of the mainland of Scotland. That is very strange if it's supposed to be all the way up there."

The woman looked at Lilly strangely. "Ya ken the beast?"

"Yeah. The Nuckelavee. My husband and I were charged to go kill it."

The woman's eyes went wide with shock in them. "Yer monster slayers? Huh. I had no idea."

Arthur shrugged. "That's alright."

Just then the wolves Brian and James showed up with dead rabbits in their mouths. Lilly laughed at them. "You two look ridiculous right now."

The stranger poked her head over Arthur's shoulder and gasped. "My goodness, the size of 'em. Are they yers?"

"Yup."

The woman went back to talking about her husband and his laziness, which Lilly enjoyed hearing about. Finally, they reached Aberargie and the woman directed them to a small house on the main street. People stopped and pointed at the wolves, gasping in awe and shock. The woman got off Prasutagus and thanked Arthur by giving him a ring for his trouble. Lilly smiled as they both headed out with Brian and James.


When they finally reach Perth, it was about afternoon, and as they entered the town, people stared and pointed. Lilly sighed as they dismounted outside a small, generic looking pub and she looked at her brothers. "Guess you're famous again, huh..." she said.

Brian tilted his head while James let out a whimpering yawn. Arthur put an arm around Lilly and kissed her cheek. "Come on, let's go get some food."

Lilly gave him a curt nod and they both walked in together. The boys remained outside. The crowd inside was rowdy, to say the least, and the couple looked at each other. It reminded Lilly of the saloons in America. Then again, the Scottish were known for being rowdy in pubs, even when they were sober. Arthur and Lilly sat down at the bar and both of them ordered porter and bangers and mash, to which Arthur had to ask her about.

"It's sausage and mashed potatoes," she explained casually.

"Oh," he replied.

Lilly pulled out the portfolio on the Nuckelavee and opened it to point at the sightings on a small map. "Where do you think we should start lookin'?"

Arthur leaned over, studying the map. "Hmm, well, most of the sightings have been originating here," he pointed a few inches above Perth, "in...Scone? How far do you think that is?"

Lilly squinted an eye. "Hmm, not even an hour's ride, I should think."

Arthur turned to the next page. "It says here that fresh water is its weakness. Now why the hell is it so far inland near fresh water? Somethin' don't seem right about this one at all."

"I agree. There's definitely somethin' fishy about this."

As the couple examined the portfolio, their food came. They dug in and both made noises of approval. "Oh wow," Arthur said in awe with his mouth full. "This is good."

"Mmhmm!" Lilly said, also with her mouth full.

They drank their porter and finished their food quickly before paying their tab. They got off the bar stools and exited the pub, happy with full bellies.

"Mummy! Daddy!" a small child exclaimed.

Lilly looked in the direction of the voice and gasped. It was Aoífe and she was waddling towards them from across the road. Lilly and Arthur ran to her and they both picked her up, tears in their eyes. "Oh Aoífe, my baby girl," Lilly said.

Arthur brushed back the girl's hair and kissed her cheek over and over before wrapping his arms around his wife and child. Tears of joy and relief spilled from Lilly's eyes and she looked around to see Adair and The Morrigan walking towards them. They closed in and smiled. "Thank you, both of you," Arthur choked.

"How did you get her out?" Lilly asked happily.

Adair shrugged. "What's that phrase you use? Oh yes. With our smiles, of course."

Lilly and Arthur laughed hysterically and kissed their baby once more. "We should send word to Patrick," Lilly pointed out suddenly.

Adair smirked devilishly. "I can go take care of that."

Lilly chuckled. "I bet you would."

"And what of the bairn?" The Morrigan asked.

Arthur took the baby in his arms and held her up high. "We'll keep her with us. I don't want to risk Carman kidnapping her again."

Lilly frowned. "But what about Junior? What if she decides to snatch him next?"

Arthur made a sour face and lowered Aoífe down who proceeded to make raspberries at her father. "Oh yeah. Shit."

The Morrigan clasped a hand on Lilly's shoulder. "We'll figure something out. For right now, enjoy having your daughter back. Adair, you go ahead and fly back to Edinburgh. Let Patrick know we got Aoífe back."

Adair nodded in agreement before softly pinching Aoífe's cheek and kissing her. The girl giggled and grabbed some of Adair's hair. "Ope, she's got me," Adair chuckled.

"Wait, Adair," Lilly said. "I think now would be a good time to tell us about...you know..."

Adair got Aoífe to release her hair, but the goddess frowned sadly. "You're right. I suppose I owe you an explanation."


The Morrigan and Adair landed closer to the area where they saw movement. There was a big cave entrance and they both saw a bunch of Carman's followers in their typical robe attire. There were some tents just outside a cave entrance. They spotted Carman walking around with the man that had the sharpshooter on his back.

"How do you want to do this, Mother?" Adair inquired.

"Hmm." The goddess tapped a talon on the cliff they were on. "We sneak in as mice, find Aoífe, grab her, then we charge out of there. I'll change into a big animal and wreak havoc while you fly out with her. We can do this now or wait until dark. We'll have a better chance at being unseen."

Adair nodded. "Let's wait until darkness falls."