Bog nearly panics as his hand touches fur instead of his mate's smooth flesh but the memory of the early morning events keeps him from yelling. Yawning, he leans up on his elbow and pulls the moss blanket away, revealing black eyes gleaming back at him.
The imp trills at him before putting his ears back onto Marianne's stomach.
"Hear the infant, do you?" Bog questions.
The imp chirps and purrs as Bog pets the top of his head.
Hard to believe that this little troublemaker is only a young one after all the trouble it managed to cause. He and Marianne may have suspected it but they didn't realize how young until Junco examined the imp after they returned to the castle. As well as being underfed, Junco also announced that the little male's male parts are undeveloped and he still has all of his milk teeth except two.
The imp was offended by the master healer's prodding and had escaped to burrow in Marianne's arms but not before hissing at the female goblin. Which only got laughter from Griselda, who decided to reminisce that Bog himself hated examinations when he was young and acted just like that.
Putting their new charge with the other young that live inside the castle had done no good as the imp had managed to find his way through the corridors and into the royal chambers. All three pixies had expressed their disapproval as the imp jumped onto the moss bed and curled up between Bog and Marianne but it didn't take the trio long before they started cooing at how cute he is.
"Sire, several Light Field guards have arrived escorting the Sugar Plum Fairy," Thang announces through the door, disrupting his musing.
"Good. Show them where the potion's victims are and I'll be there soon," Bog responds.
"We'll be there soon," Marianne corrects.
"You should sleep a little longer," Bog chides. "It's only a few hours past sunrise."
Marianne rolls her eyes before giving him a kiss and exiting the bed. Bog chuckles as the imp covers his eyes as Marianne changes out of her sleeping gown and into her normal attire.
"We need to give him a name," Bog mentions, nodding to the little creature.
"I'll ask Plum to take a look into his mind and find out what it is. She and her magic are...unique," Marianne explains at his hum. "Just try not to let her overwhelm you. She's worse than Dawn is when it comes to high emotions and ever since Mom died, she's taken it upon herself to perform 'motherly care' for me and Dawn."
He should have taken her warning and went back to sleep himself. Hearing the one-sided bubbling chattering wafting through the air as they walked down to the dungeons should have been an omen. Seeing the imp plug his ears from his position in Marianne's arms should have put fear in his heart.
But no, he just had to keep walking to his doom. A shimmering blue doom that slams into him the second he reaches the floor of the dungeon.
"Oh, so this is the male!" Plum squeals. "You picked a good one, Marianne!"
Growling at the clinging female does absolutely no good and trying to pry her arms away from his waist is like wrestling with clinging vines. She's as bad as his mother!
Bog breathes a sigh of relief as Plum abandons her doting on him and flies over to Marianne, pinching her cheeks and cooing over her. The imp abandons his no-longer-safe haven and jumps onto Bog.
For once having no desire to save his mate should he become the next victim, Bog takes a look at the crazy creature as she continues speaking. She almost made him think of a pixie with her floating legless appearance but she's far bigger, nearly as tall as his mother. His next thought is a wingless fairy since her form is very much like Marianne but she has four-fingered hands much like an elf and he only saw elves have tufted hair like that. There's also the fact that she is not only completely blue but she glows a shimmering blue as well. Maybe she's a halfling-blood?
Whatever she is, one thing he is sure of, though, and that is Sunny is correct. She's totally nuts.
"...grown so much since I last saw you and now look at you, married and expecting an infant," Plum chatters blithely. "Your silly father forgot to inform the sprite colony of last autumn's events, so I didn't even hear about your marriage until the messengers came to fetch me to fix this fiasco. He claims that he didn't want to worry the colony before winter set in but I know him better than that. He just didn..."
"Plum, the antidote," Marianne interrupts.
"Oh, right," Plum mutters, letting Marianne's cheeks go. "As I told your father, the antidote is the one thing more powerful than the potion. Real love."
"Real love? I guess that explains why Remus and Dawn didn't stay spelled," Marianne comments. "But how did the potion even work in the first place since they were already in love?"
"The potion can't work on someone who has already acknowledged their love but it can on someone who doesn't realize they're in love or realize who they're in love with. That's usually fixed when the person they're in love with expresses their own love while they're dusted. It's so romantic," Plum sighs. "That's the only way to cancel the love potion's effects."
"Wait, you mean everyone that isn't in love with someone is going to stay dusted forever?" Marianne questions.
"Nothing lasts forever," Plum murmurs sadly before throwing her hands up and grinning. "Not to worry, though! The potion's effects fade after a length of time and I've checked, as well as destroyed, the potion you retrieved. Had I made it, the spell would have lasted from one full moon to the next full moon but whoever made this potion is very weak. It'll be lucky to last to the next sunrise."
They both sigh in relief at the news. At least there will be no permanent damage from last night's events to either kingdoms' inhabitants. Each of the potion's victims had been retrieved before anything had happened to or between them and they won't be spelled for much longer.
"Now that that is settled," Plum comments cheerfully before turning serious. "We need to talk."