~ Baby Roach: Wild Hunt ~

"NO! BAD HORSEY!"

Geralt did not like the sound of that and hurried into the Rosemary and Thyme to see what was going on here.

"What's going on here?" Geralt asked.

Zoltan pointed at Baby Roach, who promptly shifted shape from large black horse to small child upon seeing Geralt, and said, "She tried to eat my bird!"

Geralt sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose to stave off the headache he could feel coming on, before turning to address his daughter.

"First of all, don't take your horse form in here where anyone could just walk in and see you. What were you thinking?"

"I'm hungry," replied Baby Roach.

"There's plenty of hay out in the stable."

Baby Roach scowled and said, "I'm tired of hay. I want meat!"

"Okay, We'll get you some meat," Geralt said. "But you can't eat the bird."

"Why not?" Baby Roach asked, nonplussed. "Because it's a person?"

"It's not a... hey, wait a minute," Geralt interrupted himself in the middle of his denial, as he suddenly realized that the owl looked familiar.

"I've been waiting this whole time for one of you idiots to realize I was me and take the dimeritum band off so I could change back into human form, and you were all stupid enough to think I was a just a bird! I can't blame the dwarf that much since he's never met me before, but you, Geralt! And Dandelion! You've both witnessed me transform before."

The bard looked very much as if he'd like to protest, but the witcher frantically shushed him with a 'stay quiet' hand signal. The witcher listened shamefacedly to Philppa's rant, feeling that he was indeed an idiot for not realizing sooner that the owl had been her.

"I hate to think of what might have happened to me if this kelpie hadn't been here to tell you that I was actually a person... even if she did try to eat me."

Baby Roach, who was sitting in Philippa's lap and stuffing her little face with roasted chicken wings, swallowed and said, "Sorry for trying to eat you."

Philppa patted the child on the head and told her, "I forgive you."

The men, however, were not spared her wrath so easily, and continued to endure the sorceress's lecture.

~oOo~