There was a cottage that lay in the woods, not too far from the town that Grindleby called home. It was a strange little cottage, in the sense that not many people knew it was there.

Everyone knew of its occupant, his work kept them all safe from the terrors which crept in from beyond. However, if you were to ask someone in the town where this protector laid his head you would receive only crude guesses or elaborate assumptions. Some would even say that such a person need not rest nor sleep and that the essence of nature was more than sufficient. This is horribly wrong.

Indeed the wizard does eat, sleep and laze about just like any other elderly person would. He spends his leisure taking long siestas in the afternoon sun, smoking a pipe of strange herbs or strolling through the forest, whistling a merry tune.

It was during one of his more enjoyable naps that he was awoken by a fuzzy figure with vaguely red hair, blurry spots for eyes and appeared to be wearing a blue mask of some sort.

“Is something wrong, my dear?”, the old man asked as he fumbled to get his beard out of his eyes. He sat up and reached for his eye-glasses. He felt around the deck chair, gently swept the floor, checked his pockets, repeating these steps severally. When the look on his face was suitably frustrated, he snapped his fingers and they floated out from the trees with a squirrel firmly attached to them. The furry little creature promptly burst into flames, its charred hide landing on the warm earth with a satisfying thump. The wizard put on his glasses and, after blinking a few times, looked back at the figure standing before him. “You seem upset about something.”

The woman's name was Jaina and she pouted much more than she already had been. “I feel like it should be obvious,” she said, gracefully sweeping her lusciously green hair from her strangely blue eyes. At closer inspection, it was not only her eyes that were strangely blue, her entire face shone with star-like luminosity. Her youthful visage now looked more like the unfortunate result of a certain potion which may have been slipped into her drink earlier in the day.

“Ah, I'll go whip up an antidote if you'll allow me”, he said as he strode into the cottage. After walking through a few doors he arrived in a dark room with a table with a mortar and pestle on it along with a pile of variously coloured leaves and a few cups of water. The shelves that lined the walls were topped with bottles and vials filled with liquids of unearthly colours. The candles lit themselves up and Brilduth the wizard went to work.

A few minutes of mixing and mashing yielded a pale green concoction which he offered to his company. She quickly drank it and immediately started to feel results. She was lifted off the ground, surrounded by glowing wisps of gold, the light momentarily filling the room with its warm colour. When the spectacle was over, she looked at her hands and immediately glared at the old wizard, a reaction he clearly didn't expect. “What is it now?”, he asked.

“I'm still blue.”

“Hmm? Ah, yes of course.”

“What did that potion even do?”

“You don't seem to like the results.”

“You must mean the lack of results. What was the point of that potion?”

“Perhaps a spoonful of sugar would...”

“Perhaps I should stuff your beard down your throat.”

“That's not very nice."

"What exactly?"

"The fact that you seem to have abandoned your patience.”

Jaina looked back at her hands. They were very much back to normal. Her hair was back to its lovely brown shade and her eyes no longer shone with that otherworldly malevolence. “Another job well done, if I do say so myself.” Brilduth said with pride in his eyes. “Now if I hadn't been the cause of this...”

“Never mind. I'm going to make myself some tea. Would you like a cup?”

“No thank you, my dear.”

Jaina smiled at him before turning and leaving, and Brilduth sat as he listened to her steps fade away. She would be moving out soon. Her generosity was very much appreciated, buy she was growing older and it was time for her to leave the nest. She had arranged to move to the Capitol, work in a library or something boring like that. She would only be at the cottage a month longer.

Brilduth could no longer hear her footfalls. He had prepared himself for her leaving. But she was unlike any other caretaker that had watched over him. Jaina had a sense of humour, and was willing to tolerate his playful antics, though she never wanted to be a part of his practical jokes. Brilduth had grown attached to her. He would undoubtedly miss her.

He heard a thud several rooms away. The nightshade was taking effect.

He would certainly miss her.