Réné Goscinny and Albert Uderzo….
For a long moment after Phyllis and Goliath had soared out of the village, no one said a word. Most villagers were still flabbergasted about how she had stopped herself from plummeting to the ground. Bonny and Manilla were not surprised, but lost in their own thoughts. And Asterix and Obelix had both experiences her strange powers before. Obelix' thoughts were fixed on his best friend, while Asterix was busy trying to think up what they needed to do next.
It was Impedimenta who broke the silence. "Oh my. That didn't look very safe"
"Not for a normal person, it doesn't," her husband answered. "But didn't you see what she just did? She was hovering on thin air for like ten full seconds." He suddenly looked almost greedy. "We can definitely use something like that right now. I sure hope she doesn't give us the slip. With the magic potion in that horse, they could be half across the country before it wears off." He turned to Asterix. "I'm not sure it was wise to let her go off like that."
"She'll be back." Bonny said.
"She'd better be!" Obelix said indignantly.
"I'm not so sure," Manilla countered. "If she would just leave, it could well be Mesmeron would not find out that Asterix worked to break the spell he set over her."
"Well, if he is as interested in Phyllis as you say, he is bound to find out sometime" Getafix said. "But, they will definitely be gone for a while, so why don't we go to your place, Vitalstatistix, so Asterix can tell us about his adventure of the past few days." Vitalstatistix nodded, and Getafix placed a hand on Asterix shoulder, guiding him in the direction of Vitalstatistix' hut.
It did not take Asterix very long to tell them what he did during the days he was gone, since basically everything had been as Manilla had anticipated.
"And what happened here?" Asterix asked. "Close to nothing," Vitalstatistix said. "Which is actually suspicious on its own, since new roman troops arrived just weeks ago? You would expect them to try and attack us at least once." Asterix told them that he had seen Mesmeron in Laudanum and this caused quite a few frowns.
"So do you think she could help us? Will she want to?"
"I don't know" Asterix said truthfully.
"She will," Bonny said, "it would be against her code of honor not to. And she'll want revenge. If you are dead-set on fighting Mesmeron, leaving her out will not even be an option."
"Good," Vitalstatistix said, rubbing his hands.
Bonny did not look remotely as pleased as Vitalstatistix, but Asterix made a mental note of how she had almost compliment Phyllis. Maybe their friendship was not beyond repair.
"So what will we do when she comes back? The forest is no place for a young woman," Impedimenta said. "But I must say the idea of an out of control witch wandering the village unguided does not appeal to me either."
"Well, she sought contact with you Obelix, it seems she has some trust in you." Getafix said.
"Only to know if Asterix was back yet." Obelix countered.
"She could stay with Bonny and Manilla in the hut we gave them," Vitalstatistix offered.
"She won't," they answered in unison. "I mean, not that I don't want her to," Bonny hastily added, "But she will not want to stay with us."
"Well if we need her supervised, Asterix and Obelix are the best to do so," Vitalstatistix said. "If it is okay for you if she stays with you for a while?"
"If no one takes offence in it," he said. He had not looked at Impedimenta, but she knew he was addressing her anyway. "I have misjudged certain situations in the past," she said carefully. "I know you're both trustworthy, but Phyllis may not."
"She won't care," Manilla said. "She's used to roman camps and travelling on her own, so she has a less than developed sense of what is proper and what isn't."
Asterix groaned inwardly. Part of him had hoped that Impedimenta would object, but all of a sudden she had to decide he was "trustworthy". He had a strong suspicion she just wanted to make sure Phyllis was not going to have to stay in her household.
"Fine," he said. "We'd better make some preparations then. "Obelix? Or would you rather stay at your place?" Obelix had been unusually silent, and Asterix assumed he did not like Phyllis very well. He wanted to ask him things about her, but he didn't feel like asking questions with everyone around.
"No, I'll stay with you."
And so they went to Asterix' hut, and placed his parents double bed on the top floor. Asterix had contemplated placing it downstairs, which might have been more comfortable for all of them. But the whole point of Phyllis's staying there was to let her unsupervised, so he decided against it. He felt a little nervous about the whole thing. They were assuming that she would be willing to help, willing to stay in the village, and in his hut. That was a lot. He kept glancing outside to see if she was back. Obelix noticed soon. "Stop it. You won't see her coming anyway." "No…." Obelix had apparently noticed her ability to sneak up on people first hand. "So what do you think about Phyllis?"
Obelix shrugged. "She's strange. Looks a bit unhealthy too. She's bitchy, but not all the time." He hesitated. "I know she is supposed to dislike Bonny and all, and she disappeared whenever she was near, but she doesn't really talk bad about her. Says she's an excellent healer and all. Actually she said nothing negative about her."
Asterix smiled. "Neither does Bonny." Then he frowned: "But I don't think we should expect them to make up anytime soon. They seem very hurt." Obelix did not respond and they were silent for a few minutes. "There was something else," he started, but Asterix had heard some commotion, and was heading for the door. Sure, enough, Goliath and Phyllis were back, Phyllis walking beside her horse, a hand on her neck. Both looked a little tense. It was obvious they were not too happy about being there. He lingered at the door, secretly hoping someone else would address her first. And he was not disappointing, because Vitalstatistix approached Phyllis on his shield.
"I'm Vitalstatistix, chief of this village."
"It shows."
"Yeah, hum, well I'm glad it does. Miss Phyllis, it seems you have experience with a certain wizard who currently has his eyes on our village. Normally we do not like to involve others in our businesses but it seems like we are gonna need all the information we can get."
"IF Mesmeron is interested in your village, or your magic potion, you're going to need a lot more than 'information' to avoid him getting it. The wisest thing to do is to avoid getting him interested in you. Maybe remove certain guests."
Vitalstatistix straightened his back. "We have never refused shelter to those who needed it, and we have never bowed to attempts to siege power of our village. We are not going to start know."
"Yeah, I heard that." She glanced at Asterix, who had joined them now. "Well, I have my own reasons to seek trouble with Mesmeron, so if that's what you're set on doing…"
Manilla had come closer as well: "If Mesmeron realizes he no longer has control over you, he is going to seek revenge."
Phyllis smirked at her: "Can't wait."
"Not on you, but on the person who helped you."
Suddenly Phyllis got a dark look on her face. "If you had been so informative like eight years ago, that would have been news to me. It could actually have made a difference."
"I know you know Mesmeron well, I want to know if you still care about people getting hurt in your process of taking revenge."
There was a tense silence. It was clear that Phyllis was not planning to answer.
Vitalstatistix took charge again: "You are welcome to stay in our village. The woods aren't particularly safe for the moment."
"Neither is this village," Phyllis countered, causing worried glances all around her. She seemed to notice, because she added: "But for the time being you're okay. I've been observing Mesmeron, and whatever he's planning to do, he wants to have full control over the Laudanum legion before he plans a move."
"And how long does that take? Getting full control?" Asterix wondered.
"Depends. For a roman legion to attack a village is normally not that much of a difficulty. If he had chosen to reside in Petibonum, where there are new troops, he would have had less difficulty. But the centurion there is actually quite an experienced diplomat, I have heard about him before. He's not to underestimate, and I guess Mesmeron chose a more gullible centurion, with more knowledge of you village. They're dead-set on not attacking the village tough, so he'll have quite some work to make sure they won't fail him.
Vitalstatistix scratched his head. "I'm not sure I'm entirely with you on that 'control' issue.
"You'll have to be soon. Fighting Mesmeron is impossible if you can't defend against that."
"Can you teach us?" Asterix asked.
Phyllis fixed her green eyes on him, and she took a moment to answer. "I guess. I haven't tried to do so before."
"You taught Bonny."
Phyllis narrowed her eyes. "It didn't exactly work out well."
Bonny flinched.
"And you're not a healer," Manilla added.
"Neither is Mesmeron," Asterix countered. It earned him a smile from Phyllis.
"It will be our best shot," Vitalstatistix decided. "Well it is almost time for dinner, maybe we can start tomorrow?" Phyllis nodded. Vitalstatistix glanced at Asterix, who was suddenly very busy looking the other way. "We set up Manilla and Bonny in a hut nearby…" The look on Phyllis face urged him to stop mid-sentence, "But as you are already acquaintance with Asterix and Obelix, maybe you'd like to stay with them?" He feared another dead look, but Phyllis merely turned away from him.
"I wasn't aware that you lived together?"
"Only occasionally," Asterix answered. "Having weird-eyed witches over is a good occasion," Obelix added. Asterix gave him a reproachful look, and he wondered what Obelix meant by weird-eyed. Phyllis sure had a pretty intensive stare, but her eyes were not thàt unusual. She did not seem to take offense to Obelix. "Cute," was her only comment. "I'm setting Goliath up for the night first."
She walked away, and Asterix was quite surprised about how simply she had agreed with Vitalstatistix' proposition. He felt like she was not a people-person at all. But she had gone to seek out Obelix' company, so maybe he was wrong.
"Phyllis," Manilla suddenly called after her. "Transferring you're healing powers is quite an achievement, but I would not advise you to do this again. They won't work quite as well, and you might lose touch of them if you do it too often." For a moment Phyllis looked quite puzzled. The she seemed to figure out the meaning behind Manilla's words and without a single word of reply, she continued her way.
"What do you mean by her transferring her powers," Asterix asked Manilla.
"Well she hasn't been able to heal for three years, and the moment she touches the horse, her healing powers return. Seems to me she used transferred them to Goliath. Which is not that illogic; she could never use them while attacking Mesmeron, that's why she needed Bonny. And maybe she wanted to protect Goliath better. It could explain how they both survived Mesmerons' attack."
"Goliath did not seem able to heal herself."
"She's a horse, what do you expect? She could never consciously focus that power, but they would come into play in emergency situations."
Asterix felt almost confused over this explanation as Vitalstatistix had been over Phyllis's. They would indeed need time to really understand it. For the time being, he said goodbye to Bonny, and headed for what would without a doubt become an awkward dinner.
Meant to be longer again, but I find the introduction from Phyllis into the village not so easy to write, so I thought I'd post here and see if it comes off right. Not too weird. More awkwardness ensured in the next chapter. And some action after that .