THE APPRENTICE

-Adelia was standing at the mouth of a well with two buckets of water at her feet.

She looked down in surprise, then turned in a circle to gather her bearings.

It was morning. The leaves on the trees were springtime green instead of autumn red. Her purple sweater and comfy jeans had disappeared. Now, she wore a cream coloured linen dress with a brown apron. When Adelia lifted her hand to her head, she felt a piece of cloth covering her head.

Still in shock, Adelia peered into the water.

Instead of seeing her own freckled face with its red curls and green eyes, she saw thick blonde plaits and stunning blue eyes.

“Oh!” Adelia exclaimed in surprise. She touched her face, turning it this way and that to examine her new features.

This face had fuller lips and a pointier nose that gave off a strange sort of refreshing youthfulness.

“Mirabel, Mirabel! Goodness me, wert admiring thyself?” the exasperated tone of another girl rang out behind Adelia.

Adelia turned around quickly, pressing her hand to her chest in shock.

“H-h-hi!” she stuttered, for lack of better words to say. Her brain noticed with a pang that her new tits were much smaller than they were.

“High?” The other girl looked confused. She even looked up towards the sky, “Thou spake of the sky? Tis surely higher than thy reach.” The girl gave Adelia a hearty thump on the shoulder, “Thinkst not of being higher, be content with thy lot in life,” she advised Adelia, then started to lower her own bucket into the well.

“Well now, hurry along, Master Leoric won’t be pleased ta wait for his wash!”

Adelia picked up the buckets and quickly started down the path from the direction the girl had come from. Surprisingly, they didn’t feel as heavy as she thought they would! This Mirabel seemed very used to heavy work like this.

The clanging of metal and the whoosh of air from bellows greeted Adelia first. A shirtless blacksmith with rippling muscles brought his hammer down over and over again onto the anvil, fashioning what looked to be a sword. He waved at Adelia as she passed.

Beyond the blacksmith was a little village of sorts. There were chickens and ducks everywhere, little thatched roof wooden houses dotting the land. The path was nothing but dirt, though it had wheel tracks through it. Adelia made sure to watch where she was going so that she would not spill her water.

The other girl mentioned Master Leoric. Logically speaking, a master would be staying in a nicer building, right?

Adelia trotted past all the smaller huts towards the biggest one.

“Mirabel!” a young man shouted as he came running up to her, “Mirabel, wait for me!” he called.

Adelia slowed her pace and turned to look.

It was the rider!

Only in the light, she could see his youthful features. He was a handsome young man with blonde hair and a button nose. His striking green eyes seemed to light up with glee when he saw his ‘Mirabel’. As he got closer, Adelia was forced to look up. This body was of a similar height to her original one and so both were quite petite! The young man was very tall, though not as tall as the Erlking himself. His broad shoulders were well defined even under the coarse tunic he wore. Even with a smudge of soot across his cheek and dirt on his breeches, he looked pretty dashing, nothing like the frowning rider that had pulled Adelia up onto his horse earlier!

“Um,” Adelia said, “Hullo, uh ... Bertram,” she said, managing to remember his name in the nick of time!

Bertram ducked his head in a shy gesture.

“Art heading to Master Leoric’s place?” he asked with a hopeful look in his eyes, “Would it please thee if I walked with thee?” he asked.

Adelia felt heat rise to her cheeks in the face of his earnestness.

She pushed one of the buckets into his arms and nodded.

Bertram lit up from inside and fell into step beside Adelia. He seemed to know where they were going so Adelia let him lead the way up to a large stone house.

There, Bertram let them both into the kitchen through a side door, headed to a private little room, and emptied the water into a large tub.

“Thank uh ... I thank thee,” Adelia corrected herself hastily. She wasn’t quite sure if her Middle Ages English was correct because all she had to go on was a bunch of fantasy films. Still, with the way Bertram grinned at her, it seemed to be the right thing to say.

“Colette told me the wash tis thy last chore today,” Bertram began, looking shy all of a sudden, “An thou art willing, we could sup together?” he asked hopefully.

Adelia couldn’t look at his earnest face. It was so bright and full of eager hope. Her classmates had all been jaded Gen Z people and she wasn’t sure how to deal with such fresh young naivete! Instead, she swallowed and nodded twice.

Bertram seemed over the moon. He took Adelia’s hand and was about to lead her back outside when another figure blocked the door.

“Bad seed Bertram, back again!” a sleazy voice drawled.

The owner of the voice was a lanky young man who looked to be the same age as Bertram. But where Bertram was earnest and seemed to be kind, the other fellow had a mean look about him, one that felt sinister.

“Orvyn,” Bertram said in a stiff manner.

“I thought I told thee, Mirabel has been promised to me,” Orvyn drawled, leaning against the frame.

Bertram glowered at the other male but said nothing.

Adelia looked from one to the other then back again. From the short conversations and their mannerisms, she was guessing that Mirabel was Orvyn’s fiance or betrothed or something like that, but Bertram was in love with Mirabel too.

“Thou a fatherless heathen with nothing to give, did thou honestly thinkst Mirabel would choose thee?” Orvyn taunted Bertram cruelly. He crossed the room and yanked Adelia to his side.

Adelia crashed into his chest with a soft ‘Eep!’

It was a nice chest. Not as nice as Bertram’s defined pecs, but definitely in the realm of nice to touch and a good place to crash.

Unfortunately, the slick way he talked was putting her off completely.

“Ew,” Adelia said before she could stop herself.

“What?” Orvyn’s cruel sneer turned into a cold look of fury.

“I meant uh, ew Bertram,” Adelia corrected herself hastily.

There was a soft hurt gasp from behind her. Then the next thing she knew, Bertram was pushing past the both of them and running from the house!

Orvyn seemed satisfied with her answer, but he shoved Adelia up against the wall and growled at her.

“Keep thee away from him. That bastard has no right to lay his hands on what tis mine!”

Adelia nodded meekly.

The arrogance in the way Orvyn talked meant that he was probably a wealthy privileged person. Probably the son of whomever Master Leoric was.

Adelia knew just how badly women were treated in the Middle ages so if she wanted to give Bertram some ‘rest’, that meant that she had to bide her time and not incite any violence from Orvyn until she had a better plan!

Seemingly satisfied with ‘Mirabel’s meek demeanour, Orvyn let go of her and stalked from the room in a huff.

Adelia sighed.

It was time to plan an escape!

Adelia waited a week, using the time she had to glean as much information she had. Prodding the villagers with a few questions, she soon learned that Master Leoric was looking to get his son married off as soon as possible because he wanted an heir. Mirabel was one of the prettiest virgins in the town and her mother had died only last year. Which meant Mirabel was all on her own. Fortunately or unfortunately for Mirabel, Orvyn had taken a liking to her.

To many other peasant girls, this might be the best thing to happen to them. Master Leoric was on his way to becoming a baron, a duke, an actual lord of some sort. If that happened, then Orvyn would inherit the title and all its wealth! Only a fool wouldn’t choose to be married to Orvyn!

Well, Adelia would just have to be a fool then!

“Pssst!” Adelia hissed, tapping on the window boards.

“Huh?” Bertram’s voice came floating out. There were the sounds of someone moving about then the window swung open, nearly hitting Adelia in the face.

He stared at Adelia for a moment, disbelief in his eyes.

“Is that thee, Mirabel?” he asked with a tremulous voice.

“Yeah yeah tis me! You-thou stupid romantic!” Adelia hissed, “Get out here, I need thy fucking help!”

There was a flurry of activity followed by Bertram clambering out the window to meet Adelia.

“I thought thou chose Orvyn,” Bertram asked in wonder.

Adelia rolled her eyes even though she knew Bertram wouldn’t see it in the dark.

“Wouldn’t choose that fuckwit in a million years,” she muttered, “Twas only biding mine time until proper,” she added, stuffing some things into Bertram’s arms.

“What are these?” he asked, perturbed.

“This is how we,” Adelia poked him and herself in the chest to make her point, “Are going to get out of this village and start a new life,” she said with determination.

“But how?” Bertram asked, flabbergasted.

Adelia grinned, showing her teeth.

“With some magic, of course!”

Orvyn woke to the rattling of the windows, a draft seeping into his room. Sleepily, the spoilt young man got up and grumbled about stupid peasants not being able to fit a proper window.

But as he drew closer to the opening, he saw a figure standing outside.

A strange warped wolf-shaped face was mounted atop what looked like a human body covered in matted grass.

“If thou wedst Mirabel, calamity shall come. Calamity shall cooooome,” the figure intoned, its voice echoing in a creepy manner.

Orvyn froze, staring in fright.

With a loud “ARROOOOOOOOOO,” the figure tossed back its head and a plume of flame rose from behind it, catching the matted grass on fire. Strangely enough, the figure didn’t seem to be harmed! Instead, it pointed at Orvyn.

“Calamity,” it said.

Orvyn fainted dead away.

Adelia watched with giggles as Bertram hopped around, howling the word ‘calamity’ until the flames died out.

Once the fire was out, Adelia grabbed Bertram’s hand and dragged him away, trying to hold in her laughter.

“Twas amazing, Mirabel! What manner of magic made me impervious to fire?” Bertram asked when they reached a safe distance.