Wood Witch and the Bounty Hunter

Ronan woke up feeling like he’d been raked over hot coals and then thrown off a cliff onto more hot coals. The pain was overall significantly less than it had been though. His abdomen was tender but at least he was alive. At least, he was pretty sure he was alive. He sat up with a wince and glanced over to see Flora sleeping soundly next to him. He wasn’t going to disturb her but then he saw some blood on her dress and worried she might actually be passed out.

“Flora, are you all right?”

Ronan shook her gently and she looked at him groggily.

“Hmm?”

“There’s blood all over you. Are you hurt?”

“No. It’s your blood,” Flora explained. “I was cleaning you up.”

“Oh,” he said, relieved. “Good. Thanks. Are you okay…otherwise? I wish you didn’t have to fight Elise. I was hoping to spare you from that.”

“You did more than enough for me. And I’m okay, really. It’ll take me a while to process it all, but I’m fine. Especially since you’re okay. I was afraid you were going to die.”

Ronan brushed some hair behind her ear, pulling her a little closer. “Earlier, before I passed out again…did you say that you loved me?” he asked, almost expecting her to say it had been a figment of his imagination.

“I did,” Flora said quietly.

“Are you sure?”

Flora gave him an exasperated look. “Yes, Ronan.”

“Sorry. It’s just, you could do so much better than me. I don’t deserve someone-“

Flora placed a finger against his lips, silencing him. “No talk like that. Just tell me if you want to be with me or not.”

“It’s all I want,” Ronan admitted. “I’ve been thinking about how I could expand your garden and fix your roof and build a little barn for Briar, and how it’d be really great to wake up next to you every day.”

Flora smiled, leaning down to kiss him. He pulled her closer and held her like he was worried she’d float away. They reluctantly untangled from each other when they remembered that before there could be any happy ever afters, they needed to make sure the bounty on Flora’s head was lifted. He could feel that she was nervous as they made their way to the Guild, and he firmly kept a hand on her shoulder. He went straight to Victor Benedict’s office and burst in without even bothering to knock.

“What’s the meaning of this, Hargrove?” The Guildmaster looked annoyed, then frowned as he seemed to recognize Flora.

“This woman was framed,” Ronan said plainly. “She hasn’t murdered anyone; we found the real culprits behind the attacks and have put an end to it. If you don’t believe me, summon a magical consultant to confirm that a practitioner of black magic would have blackened hands.”

Ronan lifted Flora’s hands to show that they were in fact their normal fleshy color.

“The bounty on her head must be revoked, immediately,” Ronan added. “And she is to be cleared of all charges.”

“This is highly irregular.” Victor looked disgruntled.

“The point of this was to stop the killer, wasn’t it? Well, they’ve been stopped.”

The Guildmaster pursed his lips, then left the office for a few minutes. When he returned, he told them to sit tight. They had to endure an entire afternoon talking to magistrates and magic users before they’d finally explained the situation. Flora was deemed clean of any black magic taint, and once someone had tracked down the bodies of Elise and Victor Graeme, it was eventually pieced together that Ronan and Flora were telling the truth. They waited in the office for another hour while everyone scrambled to figure out what to do now. Ronan sat next to Flora, laying a hand over hers when she gripped the armrests of her chair.

Guildmaster Benedict sat wearily across from them. “Well, it appears your story checks out. I’ve contacted the governor and made a retraction on the bounty for the witch.“

“Flora,” Ronan corrected firmly.

“Whatever.”

“So, can we go now?” Flora asked. They’d been at the Guild all day and she looked tired.

Victor startled them both when he dropped a heavy bag on the desk.

“What’s this?” Ronan asked.

“The bounty you earned. Technically you did stop the people responsible for the deaths in Broadoak. The governor doubled the bounty amount.”

Ronan raised an eyebrow and took a moment to process that.

“Uh, thank you,” he said. He stepped into the hallway with Flora, then caught her hand and pulled her to a stop.

“You’re sure you meant it when you said, “we” would figure something out?” he asked quietly. Flora nodded.

“Yes,” she said. He smiled slightly, brushing a kiss across her forehead.

“Wait here a second.”

Ronan went back into the office, earning an annoyed look from Victor.

“What now, Ronan?”

“I’m resigning from the Guild,” Ronan said.

“You’re what?”

“I have a barn to build and a roof to fix,” Ronan explained. “That’s a much bigger priority for me than collecting bounties. So, thank you for the many miserable years, but as of this moment I’m no longer a bounty hunter.”

He turned to leave, but paused and turned back. “Oh, and there is one more thing.”

***

“I’d be happy to teach you to sew,” Linnea told Flora. “You can apprentice in my brand new shop when you’re not too busy beautifying your cottage.”

Ronan watched his mother and Flora sip tea together in Linnea’s kitchen and smiled. The unexpected windfall from defeating Elise and Victor Graeme had allowed him to officially purchase Briar, who was currently enjoying life roaming around Flora’s woodland cottage until Ronan could build her a proper place of her own. He’d also discussed it with Flora and they decided to get Linnea her own dress shop, and it hadn’t taken long for some of Mrs. Sote’s customers to realize that Mrs. Sote wasn’t the one behind all her popular designs. He had patched the roof of the cottage and planted some more fruit trees.

Flora was set to run her own apothecary out of the cottage; townspeople could trek the path through the woods to buy things from her. Otherwise she and Ronan had been living a quiet life for the past two months. Linnea had seemed oddly smug when Ronan told her he’d left behind bounty hunting to become a forest dweller with Flora.

They bid her goodbye and promised to visit again soon, then collected Briar to return to the cottage. Flora rode in front of him in the saddle, leaning her head back slightly against his chest. Once they were in view of the cottage, Chip flew into sight and landed on Flora’s shoulder.

“I missed you too,” she giggled, patting his tiny head. Ronan dismounted and pulled Flora down after him, catching her in his arms and carrying her into the house while she laughed.

“The quiet gardener life suits you,” she said.

“Life with you suits me,” Ronan replied, setting her down and then pulling her into a kiss that left her looking a little dizzy.

“I love you,” he added and she smiled up at him.

“I love you too.”

She started preparing dinner and Ronan looked out the window at the spot where he was going to build a small barn for Briar, marveling once again that he was really here.

“Hey, Flora?”

“Yeah?”

“How would you feel about getting a goat?”