365 Days of Drabbles, Day 190 + 191

[jeriendhal]

For colliemommie: “Mutually assured destruction”

* * *

A look of horror settled on the mother's face as her son shuffled from his hiding place, the human baby balanced carefully in his left hand.

“Son, what did you do?“It's not my fault,” her son pleaded. “I went to the Old Tree in the forest to take a nap, and the fairy there gave it to me for safekeeping

Comments

[seawasp]

I'm waiting for the explanation of why she can't just hand the baby to a human right away.

Oh, and I guess in this world fairies are dicks.

[jeriendhal]

Well, for starters they'd have to figure out whom the baby belongs to. Mighty thewed warriors tend to be short in the Pause and Listen Patiently Dept. if Mom tried to explain things to them.

Also, some fairies are dicks. The one by the Old Tree is to be avoided. The swamp hermit Miriam was/will be sent to is more reliable.

[seawasp]

I was thinking of handing the baby to the Princess, or ANY human woman of station, to do the "find out who it is". That way there's no baby in the Dragon's Cave and no steely-thewed warriors to come to rescue her. Even if the evil fairy sends out the alert right away, it will take at least a LITTLE time for the Heroes to hear about it, gear up, and get to the cave, and that's plenty of time to deliver the child elsewhere.

Plus, unless the Heroes fly, couldn't the dragons just bug out of their cave when the Hero came, rather than have the little one get chopped up and the momma avenge her little one? (or, I suppose, if the Thews are particularly Steely, Momma could end up dead too -- heroes HAVE been known to do that)

[jeriendhal]

Hmm... Bugging out and handing the child to the Princess would make the most sense. I have to figure out how stuck Mom is on defending her hoard, which might be an issue. Hopefully not a big one, otherwise she'd have adventurers knocking on her door all the time.