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Vur stretched his arms and cracked his neck. Then he sat up. He was on a bed, covered by a thin blanket. On top of the blanket, there was a layer of black hair attached to purple horns. Peeking underneath, there was a pale face with drool leaking out of its mouth. Vur smiled and stroked Tafel’s head.
“Oh, look who’s finally up,” Grimmy said. He raised an eyebrow. Then he raised his other eyebrow. “You’ve, uh, certainly, hmm.” He scratched his head. “I don’t know if Tafel’s going to like that, but okay. Is that permanent?”
“What are you talking about?” Lindyss said. She lowered her book and stared at Vur from her corner of the room. “Oh.” Her eyes narrowed, and she nudged Grimmy with her foot. “Did you do that?”
“I gave him cows,” Grimmy said. “If anything about him was going to change, he would’ve grown horns. Not”—Grimmy gestured at Vur—“that. That’s not on me.”
Vur nodded. “Hi, Uncle Grimmy. Hi, Auntie. I would stand up, but”—he gestured at Tafel while still stroking her head—“yeah.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Lindyss said. “About your arms though….”
A groaning sound interrupted the cursed elf, and Tafel brought the back of her hand up to her face. She wiped away her drool and turned her face towards Vur. Her eyes opened, and she closed them again while taking in a deep breath through her nose. A mumble escaped from her mouth. “What a weird dream.”
“It’s not a dream,” Grimmy said and tapped Tafel’s back with his claw.
Tafel flinched and stiffened, her eyes shooting open. “Not a dream?” she asked. Her hair cascaded down her face as she sat up in her seat, taking her head off of Vur’s bedside. She swept it back and stared hard at Vur. Then she closed her eyes and rubbed them with her palms. A moment later, she brought her hands back down. The sight before her didn’t change. She chewed on her lower lip and turned her head, her gaze switching between Vur, Grimmy, and Lindyss. Finally, she turned back to Vur. “Vur. You have four arms.”
Vur nodded. “Everyone with arms has forearms.”
“Four! Four arms! The number!” Tafel pointed at Vur’s left hand. “One!” She pointed at his right hand. “Two!” She pointed at the arm slightly underneath his right arm, growing out of his armpit. “Three!” She pointed at the arm underneath his left arm. “Four! Why do you have four arms!?” She whirled around and glared at Grimmy.
“Don’t look at me,” Grimmy said and shrugged. “Actually, even if you did blame me, you can’t really do anything to me. So, for your own sake, it’s better not to pin the blame on me.”
Tafel clenched her hands. “You….” She unclenched her hands and sighed. “You’re right. But I can tattle on you to Leila.” Her horns glowed silver, and she opened a portal to the wilderness. “Lei—”
A shrieking woman appeared on the other side of the portal, her eyes shriveled and sunken within her head. Her cheeks were gaunt, and black teeth were dangling from rotten gums in her mouth.
“La!?” Tafel closed the portal as the woman charged at her, shutting it just in time. She pointed at the empty air and whirled around to face Lindyss. “Auntie! What was that!?”
“A banshee. I put her there as a defensive measure against portals,” Grimmy said, answering in the cursed elf’s place. “I was going to warn you about it, but I decided not to. For now, the wilderness is completely off limits.”
Lindyss nodded at Tafel’s unbelieving face. “He even moved all the elves to the desert.”
Grimmy cleared his throat. “Anyway, I’m not lying when I said it wasn’t my fault.”
Tafel sighed and reached for Vur’s hand but hesitated at which of the two on his right side to take. “Vur,” she said and lowered her arm, “why do you have one more than three arms?”
“I wished for them,” Vur said.
Tafel tilted her head. “Why?”
“Mervin was dying and needed me to make a wish to turn him back into a beansprout so he could live.”
“Okay, but why four arms?” Tafel asked, kneading the blanket in front of her. “You could’ve wished for anything, right? Why not wish for a sandwich, or a star, or even a potato?”
Vur blinked. “You don’t like them?”
Grimmy chuckled. “I’m sure they’d be very useful in certain situations.”
Lindyss kicked the black dragon’s toe.
“It’s not that I don’t like them…, it’s….” Tafel sighed again. “Vur. I love you. I was so scared when you fainted and wouldn’t wake up, and I’m really glad you’re alright. It’s nice to see you haven’t changed too. I was preparing myself for the worst, but if the only thing that happened is you grew an extra pair of arms, I can live with that.”
“If you don’t like them, then I can put them back inside,” Vur said and raised his upper arms. His lower arms shrank back and disappeared into his armpits. “Stella told me you’d like it more if I wished for them to be retractable too. And she was right. She’s really smart.”
Tafel stared at Vur, who looked completely normal now, before lifting the blanket off of him. When she saw that he only had two legs, she exhaled and nodded. “But, seriously, of all the things to wish for, why four arms?”
“I didn’t wish for four arms,” Vur said and rolled his eyes. “I wished for an extra pair of retractable arms underneath my original ones. Genies are tricky, remember? You have to be specific.”
Tafel’s eye twitched. “Okay, why did you wish for that?”
“Well,” Vur said, “Mervin told me to hurry and wish for the first thing on my mind. And behind Mervin, Chompy’s extra arms were showing and I thought they looked pretty cool.”
Tafel nodded. “So you did the only reasonable thing that anyone in your situation would do and wished for an extra pair of arms.”
Vur smiled and hugged Tafel. A second pair of arms hugged her lower back. “I knew you’d understand.”
Tafel sighed and hugged her husband back. “As long as you’re okay.”
Oh dear
I hope we haven’t seen the last of Mervin. I doubt we have, but I was actually starting to look forward to his and Stella’s relationship; and the potential result.