Challenge #04486-L102: Living Up to the Name

They had the ability to see trouble through their dreams. The brauniin village had troubles of illness, and no humans to aid caused depression. The came to the run-down house, what was left of it, to begin repairs. But each night they left out gifts of medicine, blankets, clothing, little beds, and other gifts to help treat the ill and show kindness. -- Anon Guest

[AN: Brauniin usually choose households or mortals to help and prefer to remain unobserved. This, therefore, is a region of statistical outliers. Or a bryg'haduun since those are hidden places. Addendum - well I took the first bit of this prompt and ran like hell with it.]

It was the most peculiar dream that Succor had ever experienced. A series of landmarks, and indicators of the time of year... Scenery that made less sense than Nanogh's. A sense of urgency, of being needed. A sense of fear. Of threat. Hundreds of voices crying out at once... and falling into silence when Succor startled up from her bedroll.

Most people would dismiss that sort of thing as a nightmare. Or, perhaps, the results of indigestion on their subconscious.

Succor was not most people. Ze was a Hellkin with a few rare gifts. One of them was somnolent prognostication. The other was ice magic. So Succor put more credit into hir dreams than even the most professional seers. That morning, ze packed up hir gear and went searching for the first landmark. Writing a few notes into hir journal so nothing would be missed.

Ze hardly needed to, as the dream repeated on each night ze made it to a particular landmark, or the night of a particular date. Still, it was always a good idea to have backup. Just in case.

At the last point in hir dream-quest, a portal opened. Succor stepped through, trusting that ze was answering a call for help.

Ze was right.

After a perplexing passage through an Escher Stair, ze found the village. It looked like something out of a nursery book. Houses made of mushrooms and acorns, if either of those could be up to four stories tall. And the people within...

They could almost be Gobelliin, but their features were softer, and they still had moth-like antennae sprouting from their brows. It took Succor a vertiginous moment to realise... These were not Gobelliin. They were the Gobelliin forebears - Brauniin. Out in the open! Where ze could see them!

Brauniin never let themselves be seen.

Succor almost turned around and fled. The reason why the Brauniin preferred concealment was that Hellkin like hir were created to eliminate Faekindred like them. There were some miracles that deserved to be spared the lingering effects of those ancient wars, and this place was one of them.

"You came! You answered our call," said a little voice by Succor's knee.

Succor almost yelped when the Brauniin took hir hand. Ze honestly half expected one of, or both of them, to burst into flames. No such disaster happened. Ze managed to say, "Me? But I-- my kind were made to destroy yours."

"But you're not doing that," said the Brauniin. One of his hands could just wrap around Succor's fourth and fifth fingers. "You're the one we need. We can't hold back the moment any longer."

Time magic had once been abundant. Siphoned away from Nanogh and rendering the Plane of Magic into a timeless place. Until someone brought change and time into it once again. The Brauniin had to have kept it, it was the only way they could do what they did and remain unseen.

Succor always lived up to hir name. Even in this surreal setting and a seeming antithesis of desperate need. "All right," ze said. "Take me to the moment."

It was a volcano. About to spew lava onto the village. With the Brauniin's help and hir ice magic, they could direct the threat to a different area. Somewhere unpopulated. It wasn't exactly easy, but working together made it easier than it otherwise might have been.

The day was saved. After, of course, that day had been slowed for some hundreds of years. Relatively speaking. Time magic could break the brain, if one let it.

[Photo by Justine Meyer on Unsplash]

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