My Pet Ogre

          Let me tell you a story about a truly wondrous creature. A particularly special Ogre, like no other that has walked the world of Tipoharsis: The Wyld Tree Ogre of Thorntop. He is The Soothsayer of the Thorntop Elves.  He is my true love. How did a Pixie like me get an Ogre for a pet?   

Heros on Tipoharsis come in all shapes and sizes, all walks of life, and most importantly from the most unexpected of places. My pet Ogre is no exception to the rule. He is kind, he is strong, he is just, and he is wise beyond his years. He is everything one would not ever expect from an Ogre. Ogres of Tipoharsis are typically mindless brutes, savage warriors, and insatiable eating machines. Not my Ummie, though. Well, except the insatiable part. The only thing greater than his thirst for knowledge, is his hunger.  Some things just can't be changed.

            Ummie was an orphan of the first great war between the Dwarves of Hearthhaven (a small town known for its production of lumber, precious gems, and adventurers that is perched  on the rocky cliffs of the North Eastern seaboards of Norane) and the wicked hordes from Strahs (an underground fortress belonging to evil elves who have shunned the light).

              During the great war, Strahs sent many cruel and wicked denizens to siege Hearthhaven: Trolls, Ogres, Giants, Worgs, and the list goes on.  During one tedious battle a great enemy of the Dwarves, with a notorious reputation, was finally felled: an Ogre Shaman named Telumma Astromine.  She was a monster Dwarves and Elves alike told their children about, in stories meant to scare.  She was a sadistic beast that would torment her victims with magic and mysticism before sending their souls to the great abyss. It took a half dozen Dwarfs and one devious Gnome to take her down that fateful night, but  with her death, the enemy lost its will to fight and they fled into the forest.

               Once the battlefield was clear and safe, the townsfolk of Hearthhaven began to tend to the wounded, and salvage what they could.  One particularly onry dwarf, known to his peers simply as Papaw, rushed to the corpse of Telumma. He felt that since it was a shot from his blunderbuss that felled the creature, he deserved a trophy. Though when he arrived at his destination, what he found was not what he expected. Amidst the mangled corpse was a tiny body, not yet born. For a brief moment he was tormented by thoughts more gruesome than he could stomach. Should he put the child out of its pain and suffering? Before he could answer that question a dayspring broke from the clouds and shined on the horrid scene, illuminating the tiny hand of the baby Ogre. Papaw realized that this Ogre child was an albino; a good omen by his religion.  Claiming his trophy, Papaw helped him into this world and gave life to his lungs. He left the battlefield with the ogre child wrapped in his mothers war standard.  Not a single person questioned the old dwarf. Not a single person dared.  Papaw was not a Dwarf to cross, and once his mind was set, only death would change it.

      Papaw would spend his last decade on Tipoharsis raising Ummie. On Papaw’s deathbed he made a request of his good friend Larandel, the Wood Shaper of The City in the trees, to finish raising Ummie.  Papaw recognized that Ummie was destined for something legendary.

               Many years later he came upon me in the woods when I was injured. He could see me, which in itself was a miracle, since Pixies have a high level of invisibility to mortals. This wouldn't be the first, nor last time, that his ability to see magic would save a life.  That day it was mine. I have been his ever since.