Night's Omen

"Please."

"Oriana...."

"Please."

Gawain closed his eyes for a moment. "I hate saying no, why do you make me do it?"

"Then don't say no."

"Would you have me steal?"

"I don't know, I don't care, just... oh, have you seen her garden? A few fruits, a few vegetables - they'd never be missed. You want a healthy child, don't you?"

"Oriana," he sighed again.

"There's too much for her alone and you offered to buy. She won't sell, you know that. It will go to waste - the vegetables will rot in the ground and the fruit will fall from the trees and it wouldn't be missed, Gawain-"

"They're still hers and it is wrong to simply take, Oriana-"

"But she won't sell."

"Anything else, please."

"I want nothing else, I can think of nothing else - I can't sleep, Gawain, I can't concentrate. It wouldn't be so bad if she weren't right next door but the wind will blow and I can smell it, I swear I can smell everything and because there's always that scent, a maddening scent, I can't even seem to taste anything else. Other food turns to ash; I know, I've gone and tried it - I even tried the same things that she's growing but they're so pale and dull and lifeless compared to the smell. I need something so that I can eat, Gawain, and it wouldn't be missed...."

"Oriana, no, it's hers to do with as she pleases-"

"Once, please. I just need a taste, I just need to taste them to see if it tastes how it smells. Please, I need that flavor to remember, to hold close so that I can tint other foods with it."

"Ask me for anything else, please."

"But there is nothing else I need."

And so, one day soon when the woman who lived next to them was gone, Gawain stole quietly over the fence and took from the garden. He only took a little and buried some coins where he did, that she might find when she was digging, so that he wouldn't feel such a thief. And he took them back to his wife, and for a time she was content. But the garden, and the garden's produce, seemed to be as addictive as a drug. What he'd taken, and the memory, lasted for a while. But not forever.

"I just had a dream."

"Oh?" He laughed a little. "Was it a nice dream, then?"

"It was the garden, and I was eating a salad and a pear and a plum and an apple-"

Gawain felt his heart begin to sink. "Well, I'm glad that you still remember," he said, hoping it was as innocent as that.

"But Gawain, I don't, not really. It's faded. I was so sure that I'd be able to hold the memory close, to keep it with me, but it's faded and I can't recall, not really. Please, I need more."

"Ori, please."

She became sharp. "It's going to rot, what is so wrong with one person enjoying it? I'll save it, it will last a long time...."

He couldn't help but notice how this time she didn't promise never. And the produce didn't last as long as she thought it would (of course it didn't) but the garden next door was always blooming and full of its fruit, even in winter, and there was no respite. Every time Gawain would bury money, still feeling like a thief but at least not as much of a thief, and then there came a day when his wife was heavy with the child she was carrying, when the baby was almost born, and they were almost out of money.

"I need more."

"No, not more, we have taken enough."

"More, please, I can't concentrate, only until the child is born, please, I just need a little bit more."

"But Oriana-" But this argument went as the others had, and finally Gawain stole over the wall at midnight. He didn't have enough, really, to compensate for what he took. But he'd come back later, he'd leave more. And this was the last time. It would be the last time. He pulled out what he had and buried it and then, almost not able to stand himself (but it was all right, he would come again later and this time not to take but to give), wanting to slit open his skin and slither away, he reached up towards a pear.

Elke had noticed - not at first - but later on, that she had randomly begun missing vegetables from her garden. At first she'd thought it was a mole or a rabbit, but that search had turned up with no good results, and she was left with the alternative of spying on her garden to see precisely who had been digging up her lovely prize delectables. One such as herself made many potions with those things that she took time to grow from her enchanted earth, and it was hard enough to get a decent spell with even the finest ingredients, so for someone to be snatching her, well, livelyhood... it didn't sit well with her.

She used a simple invisibility spell to shield herself from prying eyes, and hid out in the middle of her lettuce patch. She was almost about to give up, when she heard something. She narrowed her eyes. How DARE he? It was that man from next door who had asked her to sell her goods to him previously. She should have KNOWN! Elke was furious. She dispersed, materializing behind him and grabbing his arm as he grabbed her pear. She was not tall, but her features were fiercely beautiful and very, very angry. Power crackled around her as she spoke.

"Nobody likes a thief, my dear," she hissed. She snatched the pear from his hand. "I never would have suspected my own next door neighbors would have been the ones stealing my precious hard work, but now... It's no bother. Nobody will miss you."

And with that, she raised her hands. "Hope you like terrariums, because you're about to spend the rest of your life as my pet toad," she snarled. She began her incantation, swirls of blues and greens tracing from her fingertips.

Gawain felt his heart drop down somewhere in the region of his boots. He'd always known there was something odd about her, but never considered what. Still, the fact that she was going to turn him into an amphibian didn't seem as strange as it might. As mentioned, he'd known something was strange. Besides, there were the lights to consider. And yes, it was insane - but... somehow, at the moment, it seemed very possible. He let himself fall to his knees, head bowed. Possibly worst of the lot was that he felt he deserved this. "Please, Madam," he said softly, and his throat was tight or it might shake, "please. Take what I have - I've left more - and give me two weeks more as a human." They money was clenched in his hand, and he wasn't quite sure what his wife was to live on. But perhaps he could find something. In two weeks he might be able to find something.

Two weeks should do it, at least then Oriana should be able to take care of herself. He didn't want to leave her by herself, but perhaps he must. But, even if he had to, he wanted to try his hardest to see that they wouldn't starve. And she was in no position to take care of herself right now - at least then the child would be born. At least that would be something.

Elke paused mid-word, and held her hands in the air for a moment. "I don't want your money, fool. Don't you think if money had been the issue I'd have accepted your offers to buy my things when you tried the last time?" she snapped. "Honestly, what do they put in that water you're drinking?" She tossed her hair aside angrily.

Still, he was begging. Elke always liked it when people begged. "Two weeks, hm? What's so important that's going to occur in two weeks that you feel will quell my wrath, little man?" she asked him, narrowing her eyes. Her hands were lowered, though, and that was good, at least.

Elke wondered what was so pressing that he risked death for. It piqued her interests, to say the least. "Well, what of it?"

"I don't know, but it is all I can think to offer," he said softly, "and I want to offer something." He was an honorable man, Gawain was, and in some ways was glad he'd been caught. Though bitter, he'd earned this. He knew as much. And it felt good, therefore, to receive it.

He stared at the ground. "There is nothing I can offer in the space of that time to quell your wrath, but it would give me time to take care of a few last things. My wife..." and here he trailed off, not sure what to say. "Please, gracious lady."

"No good," she said. "What else've you got?" Demanding, wasn't she? Well, he'd been filching her garden stuffs, so she was only right. She put her hands on her hips. "What about your wife, eh? She got anything I can use? Let's go pay her a visit," she suggested.

She turned around and began towards the wall, fully intending to go right over there. "Two weeks, eh?" she repeated to herself, tapping her finger on her jaw. "Come along, now, wouldn't want to surprise her, would we?" she called back to him.

Elke was determined to find something she wanted out of this equation before she waylaid the man.

"I told you," he said, sounding almost desperate in a controlled sort of way, "feel free to extract your vengeance. Turn me into your pet and keep me in a tank, do what you like. Just please." But no, she was already headed for the wall.

This couldn't be happening. But it was. Ah, it was.

He followed, trying to think of some way to stop her. But she would not be stopped. And then she was at the door and then she was going in and he was still trying to think of something that he could do but there was very little, save attempting to do something like attack her which probably wouldn't have done any good anyway.

Oriana looked up somewhat sleepily, very pregnant but still very pretty with eyes as gold as her thick hair, just curly enough to add texture and volume and curl the ends, not enough to make it unmanageable. She looked to Elke in something like alarm. "Gawain...?"

"Well, hello there," she said brightly. Elke already had an idea. She walked straight in and made herself at home, plunking down in a chair and crossing her legs together, arms out at either arm of the chair. She smiled wickedly.

"It seems your husband is a bit of a thief, although now I suddenly know where all of it's been going. Tell me, how exactly do you plan to repay me for what you took? You can't very well give it back, and money just doesn't interest me. As you can tell, I've got enough of it." She shrugged and smiled a little, eyes flitting to Gawain, who seemed positively gray.

"Tell you what. You can have all of the fruits and veggies your little heart desires... you just give me that baby when it's born. I can't have children, you see, so it would mean so very much to me."

When one of them protested, which inevitably, they would do, she would only shrug. "Fine. Then I'll kill you both. Fair enough?" she chirped. The witch wasn't playing a very nice game.

They both spoke up, actually, and then she offered to kill them both.

Gawain closed his eyes slowly. How?

Oriana looked over at her, and though she felt somehow horrible for it now, she couldn't help smelling the breeze that blew in through the door.... She trembled, slightly. "Please, isn't there something else I can offer? It's my fault, please-"

"Even now, you covet my garden, you silly woman! Prioritize, please!" she shouted, standing up and clapping her hands loudly in front of Oriana's face. She stilled, and smoothed down her long, brown locks of hair, before smiling sweetly. She leaned into Oriana's personal space, cutting Gawain out of the picture for the moment.

"Can't you just... taste it? All that beautiful, green, crisp lettuce?" she sang, her voice low and enticing. "Or those rich, luscious red apples, the kind that just crunch when you bite into them? It could be yours, all of it... just give me this one, very small, insignificant thing, and I'll leave you to your feast."

"Yes I do, of course I do, I don't know what you do to it but-" She wanted it but she didn't want it and the fact that she wanted it had her torn between desire and disgust. When the witch leaned in, the battle raged. Oriana closed her eyes.

"Please, is there nothing else I can offer?"

"You waste my time, woman," she said through clenched teeth. She lifted a hand as she rose, and gestured to Gawain. "Or do you offer your dear husband instead? He would make an interesting toy for some of my new torture devices. I wonder how long it is before you can break a man in two?" she purred.

She was by his side suddenly, arm around him, gaze smoldering as she looked back at Oriana. "What do you say, darling? Men aren't terribly hard to find, I'm sure even with a child you'd manage just fine... and he is quote handsome..." she trailed off, looking at him as though he were a specimen.

Her head snapped back suddenly. "I might just take him instead," she said firmly.

Oriana grew pale - she still couldn't see Gawain, and so she wasn't quite sure how he looked, but she was guessing he'd gone ridged; that's always what he seemed to do. She shook her head softly. "He's-" not mine to give, but that sounded just wrong.

"Is there nothing else I can do for you? That I can give?"

"No," she said, "but on second thought, I want the child after all. Either give it to me, or I'll reach in there and rip it out now, and I'm not positive, but from what I've been told, it won't survive for very long outside of the womb in that state.. and neither will you."

She backed off of Gawain and went straight for Oriana, though she made no move to lunge at her. She just stood there, looming. The air around her was thick, heavy with power. She was going to act soon, though, so one of them needed to give her something nice quickly.

Oriana hesitated and hesitated and then hesitated some more, trying to think of anything else. The witch, however, didn't seem in the mood. But the woman still didn't move until the other actually started coming at her, at which point Gawain stepped reflexively forward and Oriana screamed, eyes closing, curling up.

"No, please, you can have it." She didn't want to name it as a boy or a girl, lest she expect something and be disappointed, though her mother had said it was a girl. She wondered what she'd done, but wasn't life better? Please.