Prelude:

       George Crags normally woke up to the alarm instead of his wife 
screaming, but today was an exception.  He rubbed his eyes and 
tried to figure out what she was yelling about.  It sounded like she 
was down the hallway, so he staggered out of bed, tripped on the 
electric blanket's power cord, pulled it out of the wall and fell 
down.  Cathy yelled again, so he got up, moaned a tiny bit, and ran 
off to where she was standing just outside the door of Harry's room.  
"He's gone!  Our son is missing!"  Cathy hurled herself at George.  
She was still in her green nightgown and looked a mess.

       George blinked.  "He's off at college, Cathy."

       Cathy stopped howling and blinked.  "Didn't he come home for 
the weekend?"

       "It's Wednesday morning, dear."  George frowned.  Cathy must 
have had some kind of nightmare, he thought.  "You must have had 
a bad dream.  Unless Harry comes home for Thanksgiving, it'll be a 
while before we see him again."  He hugged her as comfortingly as 
he could manage when what he most wanted to do was fall asleep 
on the spot.  

        "But...it seemed so real.  Maybe I did something wrong with 
that new recipe last night."  

        He swung her around and guided her back towards the 
bedroom.  "Let's get some sleep, dear."  For a moment, he thought 
he heard movement in the bedroom, but then the cat streaked out.  
He laughed faintly.  Crazy cat.  I wonder where it's always going in 
such a hurry?  

         They slept VERY soundly after that.

**************

The Summer People:

Chapter #11:  "Vacation"

by 

John Biles

************

Angel said:

       Some nights I don't sleep well, for no discernible reason.  This 
was one of those nights.  First I had a nightmare where everyone at 
Thornton was being replaced by pod people, and then I finally 
tracked down the mad scientist who was responsible.  It was Sonny 
Bono.  Then he and Cher performed their entire repertoire of music.  
That was enough nightmares for one night, but it wasn't the end.

         I was taking a shower, and ominous music started to play.  I 
blinked, and opened the curtain, half expecting to see Norman 
Bates.  It was just Alex, however, in the process of stripping.  "Mind 
if I join you?"

        "Sure, go right ahead,"  I said.  In real life, I wouldn't have 
said that, since the shower is only barely adequate for one person, 
and Alex is pretty big.  However, in the dream, when she got in, it 
got big enough for two people, if not comfortably.  We had to scrub 
each other down, since we couldn't move around too easily.  

         Alex gave a little happy sigh as we were both busily 
shampooing our hair.  "Just like when were little, eh, Angel?"

         I laughed.  "You and Harry are the only ones who call me 
that."  I rinsed the shampoo out and started with the conditioner.  

         "That's cause we're the ones who love you,"  she said casually.  
"Pass the conditioner, please?"

          For a moment, I boggled, then I realized she was teasing me.  
I was sorta dimly aware it was a dream, anyway.  "And I love you 
too."  I handed her the conditioner.  "Here you go."

        Her eyes shone as she turned around and looked at me.  "You 
mean it?"

        "As much as you do, Alex."  I grinned.  

         For a moment, she stared in shock, then said, "What about 
Harry?"

         "I'm sure he won't mind sharing me with you," I teased.  
"Besides, he likes you too now.  I'm sure the three of us can be 
happy together."  I cocked my head.  "Mr. Bear may get jealous 
though."

         Alex stared at me for a moment, then grinned.  "Angel...I...I've 
loved you for so long, but it took me so long to realize."  To my 
shock, she suddenly loomed forward, bent down, and kissed me 
firmly on the lips, wrapping her arms around me.  She was a 
seriously good kisser.  For a moment, all I was aware of was that I 
was undergoing one serious kiss.  Then my brain kicked back in 
and I realized who was kissing me.  She wasn't joking, I thought.

         I woke up sweating heavily.  I must have cried out in my 
sleep, because Tanya was sitting up in her bed.  We were both 
sleeping alone this night.  "You okay, Angie?"

         "I...I...I dreamed Alex kissed me."  Why'd I dream something 
crazy like that?  I was confused and scared.

         "It's gonna get worse,"  Tanya said, yawning.

        "What?"

        "Your first few months as a faerie, you're going to have really 
whacked out dreams, and odd impulses, and weird cravings, and 
strange fantasies.  It takes a while for your mind to adjust.  It's 
even worse if you awaken during puberty."  She sighed.  "It played 
a big role in how I had sex for the first time.  It was like that for 
Thomas too.  He even almost tried to seduce someone during gym 
class."  She blushed a little.  "Your period may become somewhat 
irregular, especially if you spend a lot of time in faerie form."

        "Why would that effect it?"

        "Time spent in faerie form doesn't count into your cycle.... 
sometimes.  What determines that...I have no clue."  

        I stared down at my sheets.  "I just can't believe I dreamed 
Alex kissed me.  She wouldn't do that."

        "Well, if Thomas comes into your dreams and starts kissing 
you, let me know so I can beat him up."

        I laughed.  "He's already earned that beating," I said.  "I guess 
my brain was just fantasizing about the guy she likes, since she 
wouldn't say who it was.  Probably no one I know."

        "Ah, she's got a new guy in her sights?"  Tanya asked.  "No 
wonder she's changed her look and her attitude.  Was she like that 
in high school?"

         I nodded.  "Yeah."

         "That's probably it, then.  Anyway, I'm going to sleep.  If you 
have a dream about Thomas, send me a telepathic message so I can 
come join you."  She flopped down.

        I laughed.  "Will do."  I did have such a dream, but I don't 
think she got my telepathic message.

************

Harry said:  

      Laura Beedles is very pretty.  Not gorgeous, mind you.  She 
won't be starring on the cover of a magazine any time soon, but 
she's quite attractive, with long red hair and deep green eyes, and a 
very nice figure, although she's a bit skinnier than I like.  Now that 
I think about it, she looks kinda like my sister Lucy, but younger.  I 
rather doubt we're related unless Mom hid the rich part of her 
family from us.  She's in my Eighteenth Century History class.  
Normally she wouldn't look at me for more than a few seconds, 
being a sorority girl and thus having less than no time for non-frat 
guys.  

        So I was rather surprised when she came over to me before 
class and asked, "Got a minute?"

        "Uh, sure."  I said.  

        "I'm taking Physics 101, and I think I need a tutor.  The old 
man can't teach worth a damn, and my math isn't too great.  I got a 
70 on the first test."  She winced.

         "Well, the class average was a 55 on the first test when I took 
it, so you're ahead of the game."  A realization struck me.  "Wait, 
you're taking 101?  Not 100?"  100 is roughly equivalent to a 
typical high school physics class.  It's basically physics for non-
science majors.  101 requires calculus and is the first of the two 
first-year physics courses.  Mostly it's actually taken by biology 
majors.  Thornton only has about a dozen physics majors, so the 
lower level classes are full of chemistry and biology majors, 
especially the latter.  Sometimes you can't go five feet in the 
science building without tripping over a bio major.

         "After taking Biology 100 and having to put up with the 
professor despising us for not being science majors, I decided to 
take Physics 101 and take my chances, since I've had up to Calculus 
III."  She sighed.  "Anyway, you interested?  I hear you're pretty 
good, and your dad teaches it too."

         "Sure.  I could use some extra money."  We got down to 
haggling and soon set some terms.  Class went by, boring as usual.  
How Tanya likes this stuff, I don't know.  Then again, she can't 
understand how I like physics, either.  

        I met our gang for lunch.  Two guys from Tau Ceti were 
staring at us the whole time, but I tried to ignore them. I'm sick of
those frat boys.  "So, do you think we'll play this weekend, or are you
guys gonna vanish again?"  Katherine asked.

        "I think we'll be here,"  Tanya said.

        "Well, I've got the adventure ready for Saturday,"  Angel said.  
"So I'm planning to run it."

        "As long as no one gets kidnapped, anyway."  Thomas said.  
"Or you don't get another boyfriend who hates us all."  He laughed a 
little.  "So the next time you have a date, run him by us first."

        Katherine flung some jello at him, and things rapidly got out of 
hand.  Luckily, our cafeteria is all you can eat.  Or throw.

************

Katherine said:

        Um, hi, I'm Katherine Jenkins, but you can call me Kathy.  Or 
Kathie or Katie.  Most of my boyfriends tend to call me that.  And 
Angie calls me that when she gets mad.  No connection.  I hope.  
Anyway, I get to tell this part, 'cause Harry and Angie weren't 
around for some of my parts of it.  

        Mindi Walker and I are Tanya and Angie's suitemates.  This is 
our third year for us all to room together.  Mindi spends a lot of 
time gone with her boyfriend Matt, so I have the room to myself.  
It wasn't so bad until I got dumped by this monkey boy named 
Rick.  Why I was dating Rick...I have no clue.  Then again, most of 
my boyfriends, when I look back at it...I can't figure out why I 
dated these guys.  Well, they weren't all bad.  Some of them were 
fairly nice, even.  But I still don't know why I dated most of them.  
Okay, they were all cute, but still....

        Anyway, enough complaining.  I'm an English major.  I want to 
teach college English and write eventually.  Especially the write 
part.  I tend to shove my stories in everyone's face and make them 
read them.  That and force everyone to listen to John Denver.  I 
cried all day when I heard he died.  Anyway, enough of that too.

        I have a nineteenth century British Literature class on MWF, 
so after lunch, I went to it and we discussed Sybil, written by
Benjamin Disraeli, who later became Prime Minister of England.  A mostly
forgettable book, except that William Gibson wrote a pseudo-sequel to
it called 'The Difference Engine'.  The teacher got aggravated when I
brought that up in class.  Didn't bother me, since I enjoy twitting Dr.
Tink.  He's an arrogant old man who hasn't had a new idea since the New 
Deal, I think.  I really like nineteenth century literature, but the 
man is a complete bozo.  Anyway, to get to the point...

       There was this really cute guy in the class who came up to me 
right as I was about to head home.  I hadn't noticed him before, 
which surprised me, since I have an infallible cute guy sense.  He 
was tall and well-built, just like I like in a guy.  His hair was short 
and black, and his eyes were a pleasant hazel.  For a moment, all I 
could do was stare at his face.  It was perfect.  He looked like he'd 
shaved seconds before.  No facial hair at all, which was great, cause 
I absolutely HATE facial hair.  I did date a guy with a beard once, 
but kissing him felt like kissing a brillo pad.  "Hi, I'm Andy Talk.  
You're Kathy Jenkins, right?"

        I tried to keep my voice level.  "Yeah."  Say something clever, 
I told myself, but my brain was too busy keeping from being stupid 
to do anything clever.

        "I read that short story you got published in New Horizons," he 
said.  "I really liked it."  When he smiled, I could see he had 
perfectly white teeth.  "I try to write, but my stories tend to either 
be really bad, ego trips, or both."  He shrugged.  "Have you written 
anything else that's been published?"

        New Horizons is our school literary journal.  It used to be the 
Thornton Tatler, but that sounded too much like a gossip magazine.  
"I've gotten three stories published.  You can find them in the two 
issues before that."  A gambit popped into my mind.  "If you want 
help improving your writing skills, I'd be happy to take a look at 
your stories."

        "I'm not doing anything tonight.  I could drop by, if you've got 
time.  Say, at seven?"

         My heart would have jumped around if real hearts did that.  
"Sure!  That'd be great.  I'll just be busy reading Great Expectations 
and trying not to gag."  I like some Dickens, but I've read this one 
before, and it has too many characters with no soul.  The thief is 
the only character I like.  

        He laughed.  "Is it really that bad?"

        "Compared to 'When the Legends Die' or a performance by 
Elvis, no.  Compared to anything DECENT, like Jane Austen, yes."

        He laughed.  "Okay, I'll put some clothespins on my nose when 
I read it.  See you at seven, okay?"  He turned to go.

        "See you at seven!"  I ran off home.  Time for a MASSIVE 
housecleaning.  Like I always do every time I get dumped, I had 
stopped cleaning up, and my half of the suite was a disaster zone.  I 
HAD to fix things up, or the poor guy would die just from seeing it.  
Even if he didn't die, I would.

        When I sprinted in the door, Angie was doing homework and 
complaining about her anthropology teacher.  "Oh great, now she's 
putting her kids in the homework problems," she muttered.

        "You're kidding, right?"

        "I wish I was kidding."  She sighed.  "How's your day?"

        "It's great!  I met this nice guy and he's coming over at seven, 
so if you could clean up your side, I'd appreciate it."  I ran into the 
not-very-used suite kitchen and grabbed the broom.  Zooming 
about, I quickly cleared all the debris off the floor on my side and 
swept it into a trashbag, then began cleaning off and straightening 
my desk.  

         Angie laughed and got up.  "I need an excuse to not do this 
stupid homework anyway."  She started straightening out her desk 
area.  "I'll make sure everyone is here so we can decide if you get 
to keep him."

        "HEY!"  I tossed a wad of paper at Angie, who reciprocated.  
Within about five minutes, things were five times worse than when 
I'd started cleaning.  Angie was nice enough to help me clean up.  
"Now for the bedroom,"  I said.  

        "I think Mindi and her boyfriend are in there,"  Angie said.

        I nodded and opened the door.  They were in there.  Quite 
naked and quite...busy.  I'd never realized how quiet Mindi was 
when she had sex...not that I'd ever wanted to know.  I shut the 
door silently and blushed.

        "Are they..."

        "Yeah.  I guess I won't be cleaning up the bedroom."  They'd 
better finish before Andy gets here, I thought.  

        They hadn't come out or made much noise by the time we 
went to dinner.  When we came back, our whole gang came trailing 
back to the room, most of them with homework to do.  I looked at 
Angie, and she grinned at me.  "I told you."

        "I'm gonna KILL you,"  I muttered.  "Look, you four, just don't 
have mad passionate sex while he's watching, okay?"

        Thomas walked over to me, and I could feel myself melting as 
he approached.  Thomas is quite a looker.  He's so taken I don't 
dare let myself think about him romantically, but I do anyway.  Not 
too much.  Still, Thomas does this to just about everyone, even 
Mindi, who's been dating Matt since the early Stone Age, so I just 
try to avoid doing anything too stupid in response.  It's like magic 
or something.  What worries me is that Harry is starting to do that 
to me too.  Sometimes, I just wish desperately I could be like them.  
I'm not even sure what exactly it is that I want.  

        It's just...something's changed about Harry and Angel.  The 
two of them and Thomas and Tanya were friends before this 
semester, but now...I feel like there's something they know and I 
don't.  Maybe I just didn't notice before because I was too busy 
with my last boyfriend. And the one before that and...Sigh.  

        Anyway, I'm digressing.  Thomas whispered into my ear, "We 
wouldn't do that.  You couldn't join us if someone else was 
watching."  He grinned and winked, then headed over to the couch 
and sat down with his satchel and dug out his homework. 

        For just a moment, I wanted to just leap onto him and see 
what would happen next, but I restrained myself.  While I have 
crazy impulses, I'm pretty good at controlling them, unlike my 
sister, who gets in trouble a LOT as a result.  

       "But Thomas, I don't think Tanya likes me THAT much,"  I said, 
winking back.

        Tanya blushed slightly.  "What did you say to her, Thomas?"

        "I plead the fifth."

        Tanya was giving Thomas a noogie when Andy showed up.  I 
sprang to the door after carefully moving the chair from my desk 
to block the door into my bedroom.  "Hi, Andy!"

        "Hi!"  He walked in, and looked around.  "Wow, this place is a 
lot nicer than my dorm."

        "Yeah, it's great!"  I said.  "Andy, this is Thomas Allen, Tanya 
Cromwell, Harry Crags, and Angela Bedos-Rezak."  I pointed to each 
in turn.

         "Nice to meet you.  I'm Andrew Talk, Computer Science major, 
English minor.  I live in Locke Hall, better known as the place that 
got kicked out of Hell for being too unpleasant to live in.  I'm here 
to apprentice myself to Kathie."  He grinned, and I smiled back.  
Everyone laughed.  He looked a little more intently at Angie.  "Hey, 
you're in the fencing club, right?"

         She nodded.  "Yeah."

         "You're pretty good.  I saw you guys on Parent's weekend.  I 
guess you must have to practice like a maniac."

          "Every day."

         He shook his head.  "I could never be that dedicated to 
something.  Well, I guess if I really liked it, maybe."  He pulled 
several sets of stapled pages out of his book bag.  "Here you go, 
Kathie.  Take a look and rip me apart.  I'll just sit here and read 
Great Expectations."  He pulled that out and sat down at Mindi's 
desk.

          I read quietly for a while, and so did he, while everyone else 
did homework and chatted quietly. After a while, Harry got up.  "I 
have to go tutor someone.  I'll be back in an hour or so, Angie.  Now 
we'll be able to afford to go eat somewhere nice on Saturday before 
your D&D game."

          Andy's head popped up.  "D&D game?"

          "Yeah,"  Harry said.  "Angel's our DM."  He paused.  "Do you 
know what D&D is?"

          Andy cracked another wide smile.  I half expected his teeth 
to glint.  "I've been playing ever since the old blue box version 
came out.  If you've got an opening, I'd love to try your campaign.  
I haven't been able to find a game that's lasted more than three 
sessions since I got here."

           I almost died on the spot.  He was a gamer?  I'd died and 
gone to heaven.  I really like RPGs, but all my boyfriends seem to 
think they're either Satanic or stupid, and so I don't get to game 
much.  "Well, if they let me in, they'll let in anyone,"  I said without 
really thinking clearly.  

        "Sure,"  Angie said.  "They need a cleric badly.  Ever since 
Sister Rebecca got turned into a tree, they've needed one."

        "I thought she turned into a koala,"  Harry said.

        Tanya groaned.  "No, it was a tree.  I HATE wild magic zones."

        The conversation drifted off into reminiscing about old games, 
and then Andy ended up making a character.  Then we did MORE 
remiscing about old games.  I did eventually finish one of Andy's 
stories.  It was a lot better than he thought.  

**********

Harry said:  

       Laura Beedles lives in Foxe. It's the coed dorm next to ours, 
with a high quotient of frat boys, sorority girls, and athletes.  As 
you might guess, I don't come here often.  It's the most expensive 
dorm on campus, and it's very snazzy.  It's basically an on-campus 
apartment building.  Some of the suites are even two-leveled, so 
they have internal staircases and lofts, or even a real second story.  

        I had to buzz Laura's room from the reception room while the 
reception room security lady looked at me intently as if I was an 
evil space fungus.  Even when Laura came down to get me, I still 
got the 'go back and die' look.  

         Laura lived up on the top floor, and she and her suitemates 
have one of the really cool two-leveled apartments, so I had to stop 
and revel in how nice it was when I came in.  They'd brought in a 
lot of extra furniture, all of it quite nice.  

        Two of her suitemates, who I had seen around campus, but 
didn't know by name, were watching Melrose Place when I arrived.  
Rarely had I ever seen anyone so clearly hypnotized by something 
so horrible.  Laura said, "Hi, Harry."  Her voice dropped to a low 
level.  "Don't bother them.  They get violent.  Especially when 
they're waiting for someone to take off his shirt."  She giggled and 
led me up the stairs.  

       Her room was a pleasant blue with nice soft plush carpet.  I 
wanted to take off my shoes and run my feet through it, but I 
decided that would probably be unwise.  There was a very nice 
single bed with royal blue sheets and a large dresser drawers.  A 
real one, unlike the tacky little drawers under our beds over in 
Muggleton.  For that matter, she had her own personal room.  The 
walls were covered with a mixture of landscape, movie, and rock 
band posters.  No Spice Girls, luckily, or I would have had to leap 
out the window.  She had a tiny balcony, but it was more 
ceremonial than real.  She also had a large mahogany bookcase 
crammed full of books, ranging from "Melody's Pirate Passion" to 
"Thus Spoke Zarathustra" to "Macroeconomics" to some OZ novels.  A 
bunch of Oz novels.  I counted them while she dug around on her 
nice, neat desk (which had a very spiffy new computer) looking for 
something.  Forty.  The entire Del Rey run from the early eighties 
and...some of the big printings of the continuations by Ruth Plumly 
Thomson.  I stared mindlessly.  I'd been looking for some of these 
books for over a decade.

        For a moment, I was tempted to grab them all and run off 
laughing into the night, but I am both too moral and not silly 
enough to do something like that.  I jumped when I heard Laura's 
voice in my ear.  "I take it you like the Oz novels too?"

        I nodded quite firmly.  "Yeah.  How'd you get all these?"

        She laughed.  "About a decade of effort.  Haunting used 
bookstores, garage sales, rummage sales, kidnapping, theft, murder.  
The usual."  Sitting down at her desk, she said, "If you want to 
borrow some of them, go right ahead.  Just be really careful with 
the Thomson ones.  They're almost impossible to replace."

         "Thanks.  Anyway, let's get down to business."

         She grinned.  "How did you know I'm a business major?"

        "Elementary, my dear Watson.  No one would have so many 
business and economics books if they weren't."  I was lying, but 
once she actually said that, I did realize how many she had.  And a 
lot of philosophy books.  "With a minor in philosophy?"

         "Amazing, Holmes.  Now, let's see if you're as good at teaching 
as you are at detecting."

          I think I was.  Teaching science one on one is EASY if the 
person has any aptitude for science at all.  It's all logical and fits 
together.  How Tanya can major in history baffles me.  I'm doing 
okay in the class she talked me into, but only because she's helping 
me.  There's just too many arbitrary facts to memorize.  Science is 
full of patterns, and patterns come easily to me.  

         The only reason that science classes are hard is that they're 
usually TRYING to flunk half the class, and you end up having to 
teach yourself from the book, because by the end of the first week, 
they're so far behind that all they ever do is go over the homework, 
which eats all but maybe five minutes of class. 

        It gets a lot better in the upper level classes, when you start 
doing more interesting experiments and the teachers usually don't 
get so far behind, but making it to that point isn't easy sometimes, 
especially since most science books become much more 
comprehensible AFTER you already know the material.  But I guess 
that applies to almost any textbook.  

         Anyway, enough ranting.  The tutoring went quite well.  
Laura is good at math, and if you can manage the math, physics is 
the easiest subject on Earth.  Well, not counting Chemistry 
Appreciation, which could probably be passed by dead halibut.  
Any class with the word 'Appreciation' in the title tends to be like 
that here.  

         The hour flew by faster than I would have thought possible 
before we started.  "So, did that help?"

         Her eyes gleamed.  "How much does it cost for you to kill Dr. 
Taiho and take his place?"

         I laughed.  "I'm afraid my license to kill was suspended after 
that post office incident.  How about if I just noogie him a little?"

         "I wish.  This was a LOT of help."  She put her stuff away.  
"Shall we shoot for say...next Saturday night for another session?  
That'll give me a chance to see if Friday is any easier."

         A tiny cash register ka-chinged in my mind.  Unfortunately, I 
had another commitment.  "I have plans for Saturday night.  How 
about Sunday some time after one?"

         "That'd work.  Whatcha doing on Saturday?"  Having finished 
putting away her stuff, she plopped down on her bed. "I have got to 
get a more comfortable desk chair."  We'd had to borrow another 
one from a suitemate for me, and it wasn't comfortable either.

         "Got a D&D game,"  I said.  "My girlfriend is the DM; she 
probably wouldn't be too happy if I didn't show up."  

          She laughed, picking up a stuffed bunny that was lying on 
the pillow and idly hugging it.  "Yeah, if I had a girlfriend as cute as 
her, I'd wouldn't want to miss a chance to 'play games' with her."  
The words 'play games' had a slightly insinuative tone, but her 
pleasant voice and smile belied it.  I could tell she was teasing.

         "Ahh, but it's a group game.  Even better.  The more the 
merrier."  I'm not much of a tease, but I can give as good as I get.  
Well, occasionally.

         Throwing back her head, she chortled.  "Is that an invitation?"

         I was on a roll.  "If you like that kind of game."

         She grinned.  "I accept.  What time should I show up?"

         I blinked.  Did she even know what D&D was?  Now what...My 
brain shorted out.  "Six o'clock.  Tanya and Angel's room."  I paused.  
"604 Muggleton."

          "I'll be there."  She yawned.  "Well, I need my beauty sleep.  
Let me escort you out.  The RAs get a bit jumpy after ten or so.  My 
last boyfriend got chased halfway across campus by them when he 
tried to sneak out at 2 am."  She got up, then said, "Grab an Oz book 
to go, if you like."

          I picked out The Patchwork Girl of Oz.  It had been a while 
since I read it.  We headed out of her room and down the short 
hallway to the stairs, which lead down into the living room.  The 
two suitemates were now watching the Tonight Show along with 
two guys I guessed were their boyfriends.  I knew both of them, 
but not by name.  They were two out of the four guys who Alex 
had beaten up when they tried to beat me up.

         "Urk," I said, ducking back out of sight and dragging her back.

         She blinked and turned to me.  "What's wrong?"

         "Those two guys want my head on a stick.  Along with their 
entire fraternity."

          Cocking her head, she said, "What did you do to them?"

         "Some of their girlfriends got intoxicated and hit on me."

          I got one of those woman looks that all men dread.

          "Hey, I was not encouraging them!  I HAVE a girlfriend, and I 
don't like bringing on my own death."  I frowned.  I could hear my 
funeral march playing.

          She stared into my eyes as if the truth was written on my 
retinas.  Maybe it was, because she then relaxed.  "Right.  We just 
have to wait for them to go home."

          One of the women yelled up the stairs.  "That you, Laura?"

         "No, I'm John Belushi," she yelled back, sticking her head out.

         "Well, John, Dave and Rick are gonna sleep here with us 
tonight, okay?"  the woman yelled back.

           I twitched.  Maybe I should just run down the stairs 
screaming, and then pray I make it to the elevator before them, I 
thought.

           "What if the RA busts us again?"  She shouted back.  "I'm 
still finding beer cans from last time, too."

          "We'll be neat and tidy!  Besides, we didn't complain when 
you had Tommy over here two weeks ago!"

          Laura blushed and muttered, "Yeah and I got dumped the 
next day," then realized she'd actually SAID that and blushed even 
more.

          One of the guys said, "I'll make you muffins in the morning!"

          Laura smiled a tiny bit and whispered, "To be precise, you'll 
open the box and Dora will do most of the real cooking."

           I stifled laughter.  

          "All right, all right.  But I want to go to bed by midnight, so 
after that, no TV and no drinking games in the living room," she 
shouted.

           "Hey, we're not crazy.  Drinking is for weekends when you 
don't have to get up in the morning," the other guy shouted.  
"Thanks, Laura."

          "You're welcome, Biff."  She turned to me, and said, "You'll 
have to hang out with me for an hour, but then they'll be out of the 
living room, and we can sneak you out, okay?"

            "Okay."  We headed back into her room.  "Thanks for 
covering for me."

        "No problem.  It's happened before.  One of my boyfriends, I 
had to hide him every time he came over.  Biff and his friends are 
either your best friends in the world, or they want to rip your arms 
off.  Not all the Tau Ceti guys are so bad, but his squad act like 
they're starring in Animal House."  She sighed.  "So who was that 
that took them down, anyway?  Last weekend, they couldn't talk 
about anything else, even though it embarrassed them."

        "That was Alex.  She's my girlfriend's best friend."  We sat 
down and talked about a lot of stuff.  The phone rang, and one of 
her roommates yelled, "It's for you, Laura!"

         She headed downstairs, and I started the Patchwork Girl of 
Oz.  She came back a few minutes later.  "Problem."

        "What?"

         Nervously, she said, "I had to tell your woman that you'd 
already left.  So she may get kinda jumpy."

         "WHAT?"

        "Well, I couldn't say 'Oh, he's hiding from Biff in my room' 
with Biff listening, now could I?  You'll be able to sneak out in a 
half hour or so.  She won't panic too badly, will she?"

        I thought a moment.  "Naah.  Angel's pretty levelheaded."

**************

Angel said:

        After I hung up the phone, I was starting to worry.  It doesn't 
take more than three or four minutes to get from Foxe to 
Muggleton unless you crawl or drag yourself by your tongue.  
Harry was supposed to be back a half hour ago.  I called Donny 
again.  "Hi, Is..."

       "Still no Harry.  Look, I'll have him call you, okay?"  Donny 
said.  
 
        I nodded, but Donny didn't say anything, probably because he 
couldn't see me.  "Right.  Bye."  Click.

        Tanya said, "I'm sure he's fine."  

        "It doesn't take 30 minutes to get from Foxe to Muggleton!  If 
he was a snail, he'd STILL be home."

        "Maybe he ran into someone."

        "Like Splinter,"  I said darkly.  "I'm gonna go look for him."

        Tanya rolled her eyes.  "Hold on, I'll come with you."

         We threw on our jackets, and I grabbed my sword.  She shook 
her head.  "The RA's not gonna like that."

         "We can bury her in a ditch.  Come on."

          We headed outside without running into anyone, and the RA 
on duty at the lobby desk didn't even look up.  It took about ten 
minutes to search the open space between Foxe and Muggleton, and 
it would have been faster, but I was looking for footprints.  Which 
doesn't work well on thick grass and concrete.  Tanya just stood 
around and looked dubious.  "Any clues yet, Holmes?"

         "No, Watson,"  I replied.  "I deduce that this is a lousy site for 
clues."  I sighed.

        Tanya looked out in the parking lot.  "His car is out there, so 
he is probably on campus."

        "Maybe she lied to me,"  I guessed.

         Tanya rolled her eyes again.  "Why would she lie to you?  You 
think she's gonna bake Harry for a late night snack?"

         "She could be Splinter."

          Tanya froze in place.  "..."

          "I mean, Thomas knew Jennifer for years and never guessed 
she was Fae."

          "Jennifer Cochrane is a FAERIE?"  Tanya said.

         "Didn't you listen when Harry told us about his adventure?"

         "I guess I blanked out that part.  Maybe she knows where he 
is."

         "Why would she know?  She could have kidnapped him right 
then and there if she wanted him.  But this Laura girl...A sorority 
girl in physics class?  Yeah, right.  It must be a trap."  I started 
stomping towards Foxe, but Tanya grabbed me.  "Look, if it really is 
Splinter, we'd better get Thomas.  Better to take our full force 
against her."

          I nodded, though I really wanted to go rush in and kick 
Laura Beedles' butt.  We headed up to Thomas' room, but his 
roommate said, "He's off at a late night study session with, 
uh...somebody in one of his...um...classes."

         "In other words, you have no idea where he is,"  Tanya said.

         David nodded.  "I know he took a lot of schoolbooks with him.  
You want me to tell him to call you?"

         "YES!"  I bellowed.  

         "Geez, don't kill me,"  David said.  "I promise I'll tell him."

          We went back to my room and I called Donny again.  I never 
realized he could scream so loud.

*************

Harry said:

        I almost made it without any trouble.  It was 11:55.  Only a 
few more minutes and I'd be able to sneak out.  Then there was a 
knock on Laura's door.  She froze up for a second, then whispered, 
"Hide under the bed."

       I hit the floor and rolled.  Luckily, in Foxe, they have real beds, 
not the funky box things with drawers under them that we have to 
sleep on.  

       It was Biff.  "Hey, Laura.  You done your Econ homework yet?"

       "I'm not gonna let you copy it."  She folded her arms.  "You 
gotta learn to do it yourself."

       He sounded hurt.  "Hey, I'm helping you in Bowling!"

       "You don't roll the ball for me.  Look, you want help, I'll help.  
but I'm not gonna just give you the answers."

        "Okay.  Dora was trying to help, but she's a psych major and I 
probably know more about economics than she does."

        Laura laughed.  "Okay, I'll help you in the morning, okay?  I'm 
about to go to bed."

        Biff looked around aimlessly with a marginally confused look.  
I held my breath and wished I could turn down the volume on my 
pounding heart.  I was hidden, but only from casual sight.  If he 
actually bent down and looked, I was toast.  

        "Looking for something, Biff?"

        "I thought I heard movement, like a rat or a cockroach or 
something."

         I almost laughed, but managed to hold it in.  

         "It's probably just the wheels turning in your mind as you 
think about your homework.  Goodnight, Biff."  Laura started to 
close the door.

         "If it is a rat, just gimme a holler, and I'll come squash it for 
you."  Biff departed and the door closed.  I crawled out from under 
the bed and started brushing myself off.

         "Well, let me go scout and see if the coast is clear,"  Laura 
said.  She slipped out.  I sat and waited.  She returned quickly.  
"Okay, let's get you out of here."

         I think I set a land speed record for running down the 
hallway, then down the stairs and out the front door.  Laura said, 
"Okay, now I'll sneak you down to..."

         At that point, three more Tau Ceti boys came around the 
corner.  I recognized two of them, and the third looked like a well 
shaved gorilla.  He said, "Biff had better have gotten the answers 
this time, or I'm gonna be pissed I walked all the way here."

        I looked for somewhere to hide, but there wasn't one.  We 
could have retreated through the door, but then one of them 
spotted me.  Good thing I was wearing my running shoes.

*****************

Angel said:  

       I hung up the phone.  "They say Laura left just a minute ago.  
WHERE is Harry?"  My sisters would have been chewing their nails 
by now, but luckily, I didn't pick up that habit.  I twiddle my hair 
instead, wrapping it round and round my fingers instead.  

        Tanya said, "Okay, it has been an hour."  She frowned.  "We 
can't get into Foxe this late at night unless someone invites us in."

        Katherine sauntered over.  "Why do you need to get into 
Foxe?"

        "Harry's gone missing."

        She blinked.  "In Foxe?"

         "I can't see where else he'd be unless Aliens took him,"  I 
said.  Or faeries.  A chill ran through me.

        Katherine laughed.  "No, my people only kidnap cows."  She 
thought a moment.  "My cousin lives in Foxe.  I'll have her invite us 
in."

        "Thank you!"

*************

        Katherine said:

        It was easy.  We headed over to Foxe, but didn't actually get 
there.  I had to talk Angie out of taking her sword.  Geez, she was 
paranoid tonight.  For a moment, I thought maybe she did believe 
aliens had Harry.  

        As we got about halfway between the buildings, the side door 
of Foxe flew open and Harry and some woman came tearing out as 
if the Terminator was chasing them.  She was pretty, whoever she 
was.  

        Angie sprinted towards him.  "Harry, what's going on?"

        "RUN!"

        The door flew open again, and a small army spilled out.  Six 
guys and three women.  Four of the guys were wearing Tau Ceti 
shirts.  I knew Harry had had some kind trouble with them, but I 
didn't realize it was this bad.  I also didn't like these odds, 
especially since most of the guys were rather well built.  

        I could see Angie and Harry running towards each other.  
Tanya was starting forward.  I was standing and staring mindlessly, 
the girl running with Harry was speeding up, and the horde of 
people were closing the distance now that they were out in a nice 
flat area.  

         It would be nice to say we kicked their asses, but it wouldn't 
be honest.  I hadn't been in a real brawl since I was a sophmore in 
high school and these two guys tried to rape my best friend.  Five 
of us found them and beat the crap out of them.  That was after the 
effort to press charges failed.  We should have castrated the 
bastards, but...I digress.  

        Anyway, we dished out some damage, but we got our ass 
kicked.  The redhead and I both got pinned by the three women, 
although I did manage to smash one's Zeta pin to bits.  It 
ripped off her dress and I stomped it.  

        It took two guys each to pull down Tanya and Angie.  I was 
impressed.  Harry was being held down by one guy, and the sixth 
guy was lying on the ground moaning, because Angie had kicked 
him in the balls, then kicked him in the face when he bent over.  
She was screaming death threats at all of them.  Tanya, on the 
other hand, simply had a look of cold fury.  The red haired girl was
howling too, and Harry was crying.  I was silent, trying to think of
something, anything.  When I was little, my brothers and I used to beat the 
hell out of each other for fun.  Well, they had fun.  I did learn one 
thing...once people think they have the advantage, they get sloppy.

         Unfortunately, they didn't seem likely to get sloppy enough.  
Some big guy named Biff had a hold of Harry and was banging his 
head into the ground over and over.  "Not so tough now, EH?  Now 
that you don't have your big bitch girlfriend to hide behind, eh?  So 
where is she?  I wanna find the bitch and kill her!"  I hadn't seen 
anyone so angry since the time my brother Bob flushed Joe's 
hamster down the toilet.  Joe took Bob up on the roof and threw 
him off it.  They both got grounded for six months and Joe didn't 
get any more allowance for a few years.

        Harry was too busy howling incoherently to answer if he 
wanted to.  I couldn't say how long this went on.  Probably not 
more than a few minutes, but it felt like eons.  "Not gonna tell me, 
eh?"  Biff said.  "Bring the brown haired slut over here, Andy."  He 
said.  "We'll see if she knows."

       Andy and the other guy dragged Angie over.  Biff handed over 
Harry to Andy, then grinned darkly at Angie, who was struggling 
with the other guy.  I could see Harry's eyes widen.  He screamed 
something incoherent.  Then the horror movie started.

        That's the only way I can describe it.  I could almost...it was 
like the grass was whispering.  It was pissed.  Then it started 
moving.  Now, mind you, it didn't move a lot...but then given that 
it's rooted to the ground, you can't expect too much from grass.  I 
think most of us there didn't notice at first, except me, and that was 
only because my face was shoved down in it.  

         One of the frat boys noticed next.  He stared at the grass and 
lost his grip on Tanya, who started to squirm free.  Then time 
started to slow down.  Biff's fist seemed to be crawling towards 
Angie's face.  I felt a breeze begin to blow, stronger and stronger.  
My hair began to tumble about.  And the grass started to grow.  It 
was like one of those stop-motion Disney nature films.  It swarmed 
over the girl holding me down and flung her away.  The other guy 
holding Tanya got pulled down.  Grass began to strangle the girl 
holding down the girl that Harry had run out of the building with.   
More grass was growing up Biff's legs.  It tried to pull down the guy 
holding Angie, but it didn't succeed.  She did however, wrench free 
just in time for Biff to end up slugging the guy holding her.  The 
guy holding Harry vanished in a sea of green as if a Triffid had 
eaten him.  

        The wind was whipping about, constantly shifting directions, 
blowing everyone's hair about.  This was really bad for me and 
Tanya, who have serious amounts of hair.  I was screaming 
incoherently, afraid the grass was coming for my ass next.  I 
managed to stagger to my feet, but then I nearly smothered on my 
own hair and the wind nearly knocked me down.  

         Biff aimed another punch at Angie and sent her staggering, 
but then Harry grabbed his ankles and tackled him.  I could see 
The redhead was trying to save the poor girl who had been holding her
down.  She was starting to get red in the face from being strangled by the 
grass.  One of the guys mistook what she was doing and kicked her 
from behind.  She went down, smacking her head on the ground.   
Then Tanya grabbed the guy and flung him about five feet.  He 
passed out.  

        Biff easily flung off Harry, but then the grass got him.  Angie 
jumped on his head.  I winced and ran over.  "Don't kill him!"

        She was about to stomp on Biff's face.  Biff looked terrified, 
though he didn't make a noise.  Angie stopped with her foot about a 
foot from Biff's head and froze.  The wind stopped.  The grass 
suddenly shrank, reverting to normal.  

         Angie stepped back from Biff and began to cry.  The frat boys 
and their female allies starting getting up and running if they were 
still mobile.  Tanya knelt down by Biff.  "I know you have a high 
learning curve, but if you ever come near us again, or bother any of 
us in any way, we won't stop next time.  Do you understand?"

        "Y..yes."  He got up and ran off full tilt, looking humiliated.  

         Harry and Angie just stared at each other, then hugged 
silently.  Tanya walked over to me and looked me up and down.  
"You okay?"

        "What the fuck just happened?"  I don't normally swear, but 
then I rarely star in what looks like a scene from Omen V, either.

        "I'll tell you everything when we get back to the room."

       The redhead dragged herself off the ground.  "What the hell 
just happened?"

        Tanya said, "You and Harry fell down and banged your heads.  
You passed out for a while.  Me and Angel and Katherine managed 
to get rid of the goon squad while you two took a little nap."  I'd 
never realized how smooth a liar Tanya can be.

        "But I...I..."  She looked around.  The grass was normal.  There 
wasn't a hint of what had happened.  "I guess I have a really vivid 
imagination."

         Tanya's voice was soothing.  "I'll walk you back to your room, 
okay?  You can tell me all about it.  I'm Tanya Cromwell.  You're in 
my Eighteenth Century History Class, right?"

         She nodded and started to walk towards Foxe with Tanya.  
"Yeah, your boyfriend Harry is tutoring me in physics."

         I couldn't hear Tanya's reply.  I turned to Harry and Angel, 
who had come over to me.  "Please tell me I just dreamed all of 
that."

         Harry sighed.  "I wish."

         Angie tried to say something, but she was nearly incoherent.  
I stepped forward and Harry got out of my way, letting me in to 
give her a hug.  "I'll explain everything.  Let's go up to your room."

          We reached our room.  Harry and Angel both looked wasted, 
like they'd been running for hours or hauling furniture around all 
day.  They plopped down on Angel's bed.  She leaned against Harry, 
half asleep and half crying.  He kept an arm tightly around her, 
though he looked like she was holding him up too.  We hadn't said 
anything on the way up.  

        I looked at them expectantly.  Harry finally said, "Ugh, I'm so 
tired.  Never used that much...power."

         "I...did you...you did that?"

         "Magic is real.  I did the plants; Angel made the wind."  Harry 
yawned.  "Do you believe in faeries?"

         "Not really."

          "Well, you will now."  Harry yawned again.  "Gonna take a 
little nap."  He slumped over as did Angie.  I sighed, got up, and 
went to get ready for bed.  

          Naturally, I was in my pajamas when Thomas walked in.  I 
wish he would learn to knock.  "Hiya, Kathie.  You look great."

         I blushed.  "Thomas...do you...I mean..."  I wanted to ask him 
what was going on, but I wasn't sure if he knew, and he hadn't 
actually seen it, anyway.

         He stepped a little closer and wiggled his eyebrows at me, 
making silly pouty faces.  "Of course I mean it, for I am...Don JUAN!  
The World's Greatest Lover!"  He struck a pose and I laughed.  I 
needed that.

        "Do you believe in magic, Thomas?"  I asked hesitantly.  
Maybe this was like some kind of recognition phrase.  Although I 
didn't know how else but magic to explain what had happened.

        He put a hand on my shoulder.  "I believe in the magic of love, 
the power of your eyes, the grace of your smile."  He took the hand 
off my shoulder, knelt and broke into song.  "You can do magic.  You 
can have anything that you desire..."  It was awful.  Thomas can 
play a few instruments, and he's a great actor, but he can't sing to 
save his life.  But of course, he loves to sing.  I could tell he hadn't 
taken me seriously.

       "Thomas, I saw grass try to kill someone today.  Several 
someones.  Harry and Angie are clonked out on their beds, and 
Harry said it was he and Angie doing it.  What's going on, Thomas?"

       Thomas' face flickered through several different emotions 
before settling on a state of calm.  He stood up.  "Tell me 
everything."

        I did.  By the time I finished, Tanya got back.  The three of us 
sat on the couch in the living room, with me in the middle, 
pontificating.  I finished with, "And then they passed out."

        Thomas sighed.  "This is what happens when people don't get 
proper training.  No control."  He sighed again.  "I'm sorry you've 
been dragged into this, Kathie.  We're getting sloppy.  Damn sloppy.  
Father's going to go postal on us."

        Tanya laughed.  "You know, he wouldn't understand you if you 
told him that."

        "I don't understand either."

        "Going postal is a reference to how..."

        "No, I mean what happened tonight!"  

        He thought a moment.  "If you want to know the truth, you're 
going to have to swear an oath not to reveal it.  Otherwise, I can't 
tell you.  If you'd rather, we can make you forget this so it won't 
bother you.  I'll be honest with you.  We might have to anyway, if 
you don't swear the oath.  I don't like the thought of doing that to a 
friend, but we have to protect our secrecy.  We have to."  He 
sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

        "I'll swear.  I want to know."  I can always break the oath if I 
really have to, I thought.  Surely it can't be anything bad...I hope.  
It would be just my luck to sell my soul on the cheap.

        He got out his pocketknife.  "I hate doing this."

        My eyes got wide.  "What, are we going to be bloodbrothers?"

        He smiled slightly.  "Something like that."

        Tanya had gotten up and gotten a candle.  It ignited without 
her lighting it.  The lights turned off.  I thought it was spontaneous 
at first, but then noticed she was standing by the light switch.  She 
brought over the candle, and Thomas held my hand over it.  He cut 
a short slit on his palm, then a matching one on mine, and we put 
our hands palm to palm over the flame.  "Repeat after me.  I do 
swear."

        "I do swear."

        "To reveal nothing I have heard tonight."

         "To reveal nothing I have heard tonight."

         "Let my tongue be silent."

         "Let my tongue be silent."  I could feel a warmth in my hand.  
It didn't hurt at all.  

         "Let my pen be still."

         "Let my pen be still."  The warmth was spreading into my 
arm and my right shoulder.  I couldn't see Tanya, but I was sure 
she was around.  

         "May these secrets be bound eternally, revealed to none who 
are not present, save those involved in them."

         "May these secrets be bound eternally, revealed to none who 
are not present, save those involved in them."  My whole torso felt 
warm now.

         "Only the agreement of both Thomas and Katherine shall end 
this binding."

     "Only the agreement of both Thomas and Katherine shall end 
this  binding."

        "Let the Flame Imperishable seal this pact."

        "Let the Flame Imperishable seal this pact."  My whole body 
felt warm.  It was relaxing.  My tense muscles slowly unwound.

         "And may God be our witness."

         "And may God be our witness."  

         "You may kiss the Bride."

         "You may...HEY!"

          Thomas began to laugh and released my hand.  "Okay, that 
last bit isn't part of it."

          Tanya turned on the lights and began to noogie him.  "Don't 
improvise, dear."

          "Spoil my fun, eh?"  He sighed, then laughed.  "Is Mindi 
around?"

        "She's with the BF tonight," I replied.

         "You're the only person in this suite who isn't a fairy, then,"  
Thomas replied.  
         
         I considered fainting for dramatic effect, but decided not to.  
"..."

        "Harry and Angie may be kinda...erratic for a while.  They're 
still adjusting to being faeries and they don't have much control of 
their powers right now."  Thomas said.  

        "Still adjusting?"

        "They just recently learned of it."

         "I knew something had changed.  How do you find out if 
you're a fairy, anyway?"

        "Usually the first change happens spontaneously during 
puberty, but sometimes it takes exposure to magic or some other 
catalyst."

         I was pretty zonkered by the time they finished explaining 
everything.  I wasn't sure whether to believe it, but they seemed 
serious and it made sense of a lot of things.  Finally, I said, "So 
how...I mean...how is this going to affect...umm..."  I wasn't quite 
sure what I was asking.

        "Wanna join our orgies now?"  Thomas asked teasingly.  

         Tanya noogied him thoroughly.  "We haven't had a real orgy 
yet."

        "So what counts as a real orgy?"  I asked, then yawned.

        "At least three people in one bed."  Tanya said.

        Thomas grinned.  "I count three people."

         If I hadn't been so tired, I might have taken him up on it.  
"I'm too tired."

         "Aww."

         Tanya noogied him again.  "And WHO blushed when he saw 
someone other then me with her top off?"

         Thomas blushed again.  It was cute, and rather reassuring.  

         I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, which I could 
hardly believe later that I did, but then again, I once kissed my 
brother on the lips when I was really tired.  I somehow mistook 
him for my boyfriend.  "Tomorrow night, okay?"

         He turned beet red and I wandered off to bed.  I dreamed of 
Harry unleashing a horde of killer tomatoes on the Tau Ceti house.

*************

Harry said:

       I woke up with what can only be described as a hangover.  I 
had only been drunk once before this.  You never realize how alcoholic
mead is until the next morning.  My uncle didn't realize either, or he 
would never have let me drink so much of it.  He runs a 
microbrewery in Dallas.  He also makes mead on the side.  

          I felt like a legion of stone giants had been tapdancing on my 
head.  Angel was still asleep, but she looked like she'd been 
tapdanced on too.  Thomas and Tanya were curled up together in 
the other bed, but it was clear they hadn't simply passed out, 
unlike us. 

          We'd used too much magic.  I was sure that had to be the 
cause.  I'd gone berserk, and as I remembered what I had done, I 
was horrified.  I never lose control like that.  I'd wanted to kill 
them all, especially Biff.  I wasn't even sure what had happened to 
Laura.  

         I let Angie sleep.  I wished I could let myself sleep, but I had 
class to attend.  My shower woke me up, and Angie was up, looking 
groggy by the time I finished.  

         She stared at me, looking miserable.  "I nearly killed him, 
Harry.  I was going to poke out his eyes next.  Oh god, I've never 
been so angry."  She paused.  "Well, except when I thought the Wild 
Hunt had you."

         I came over and hugged her.  "I was out of control too.  We 
made a ...oh man, what happened to Laura?"

         "I don't know," she said quietly.  "I don't want to go to class, 
Harry.  I just...I'm afraid of what I'll do around people."

        "Well, we could try cooking something in the kitchen.  There is 
food in there, right?"

        She laughed very faintly.  "Only Mindi and Katherine ever use 
it.  Tanya and I have meal plans because we're lazy and neither of 
us likes to cook.  I guess we could steal their food."  

        "We know what faerie food does," I muttered, "but what if 
faeries eat YOUR food?"

        She laughed a little louder.  "Please, Harry, you'll stay here 
with me today, right?  We can just do homework and relax and goof 
off and..."  Her voice dropped.  "Will you take a shower with me, 
Harry?  I need...I need to be clean."

         "Sure."  Under other circumstances, we'd probably have 
ended up making love in the shower, but we were both too 
subdued.  After a half hour, I finally dragged Angel out before we 
could use every drop of hot water in the building.  

        Tanya and Thomas were out of bed, and to my surprise, she 
had made us all pancakes.  Katherine was still zonked out in bed, 
though.  The pancakes were good, but breakfast conversation was 
rather subdued.  Finally, Thomas said, "We need to work on you 
guys' control so this doesn't happen again.  And there's a few other 
things we really need to teach you."

        "We're taking the day off,"  I said.  "So this would be a good 
day to do so."

        "Good.  We will too,"  Tanya said.  "I know a nice little fast 
time realm where we can spend a few weeks teaching you and 
relaxing."  She munched on some food, then said, "Oh, Laura now 
thinks she dreamed all that.  And Thomas administered an oath of 
silence to Katherine, so she now knows about us."

        "And can't tell anyone?"

        Thomas nodded.  "Maybe we should bring her too.  I bet she'd 
enjoy a nice vacation.  Which realm are you thinking of, Tanya?"

         "The Greenwood."

         "Good idea.  Nice and safe and relaxing, and we can spend a 
month there and hardly any time will pass here."  He stood up.  "I'll 
go wake Katherine and see if she's interested."

************

Angie said:

         By noon, we were ready to go.  The first thing they taught us 
was how to cross over into Faerieland.  It's really easy.  You just 
have to concentrate.  Bringing someone over who has been 
enchanted is the same thing.  It's an affinity of all faeries, really.  
Affinity magic tends to be 'wiggle your nose' magic, while doing 
other things often takes complex rituals you have to learn or 
improvise.  

       An example of that was what Thomas did next.  He and Tanya 
summoned five horses, complete with saddles.  Well, that was the 
idea, anyway.  We got an elephant, a huge brown destrier, a pitch 
black stallion, a roan mare, and a blue unicorn.  The elephant had a 
howdah, the destrier and the stallion were saddled, and the unicorn 
was just..a blue unicorn.  He walked over to Katherine and knelt 
down for her to mount him.  She stared in utter shock.  "I...me?"

       Thomas blinked.  "A blue one?"
    
       I looked at Katherine.  She's a virgin?  I always thought 
unicorns only liked virgins.  I sighed a little.  Would explain why he 
didn't approach me.  

       Tanya said, "Blue unicorns have a liking for mortals.  Don't 
worry, Katherine, you're safe with him."  
         
       She hopped up on him, then adjusted her backpack.  We 
stowed our luggage up in the howdah of the elephant, then I rode 
double on the destrier with Harry.   He's a better rider than I am.  

        Tanya began giving us a short lecture as we rode off the 
campus' fairyland manifestation and into the city park.  "The 
geography of Arcadia is a mess.  It basically works by the law of 
similarity.  Similar realms can easily be reached from each other or 
from parts of each other that are similar.  Realms are all finite in 
size, but their boundaries and intersections constantly change, 
except for roads which have been fixed into place."

     We passed into the park and began to trot down one of the 
jogging paths.  "This forest, for example, borders on a variety of 
faerie pine forests as well as the shadow of 'reality' in Arcadia in 
which it sits.  By an exertion of will, you can find the boundaries 
where it touches these forests, and open a way."

        A path I didn't remember before lead off deeper into the 
woods, and we followed it.  "It's easiest at natural boundaries, but 
you can use correspondences to open a way.  You have to do it to 
get out of the area that corresponds to the Earth, since it doesn't 
have a real natural boundary, unlike most realms."

        We trotted down the new path, surrounded by thick forest, 
with the sounds of animals and a river in the distance.  "It's best to 
go slowly, by stages, especially if you are leading people or don't 
really know where you are going."

        We crossed a small stone bridge over a stream into a oak and 
laurel forest, thinner and full of animals.  Birds were singing in a 
chorus, beautiful music which accompanied us as we rode.  Another 
path branched off and we took it.  The forest changed again, thicker 
in places, but with large clear meadows.  Sweet scents filled the air, 
and there were flowers everywhere.  Another fork, and now pixies 
could be seen flitting from tree to tree, playing with the animals 
and singing.  

        Yet another fork, and there were fewer pixies, but now other 
faeries strode through the wood as well.  Wooly legged satyrs sat 
by clear springs, playing on the pipes while fuzzy haired korreds 
danced with green-skinned naked dryads.  We crossed a bridge 
where several naiads were playing tag and entered a light forest of 
mixed oak, spruce, laurel, dogwood, and elm.  Several willow trees 
stood by the riverside.  We stopped along the bank and set up 
camp here.  I could hear piping far off in the forest, and nearby, a 
group of pixies were playing some kind of hide and seek game with 
a pair of bluebirds.  

        It was a balm for my soul.  I could feel my worries slowly 
running down into my feet and oozing out into the ground.  It was 
warm, and I shucked off my coat and sweater, as did everyone else.

        Katherine fed the blue unicorn a sugar cube, and he bowed to 
her and ran off into the forest.  She turned to me and said, "It's so 
warm!"

        "The Seelie lands are indeed the Summer Country,"  Thomas 
said.  He stretched.  "Anyone for a swim?"

         We made the boys go hide behind some of the trees while the 
three of us changed.  The water was warm, and the current was 
gentle.  It felt wonderful.  I love to swim.  

        After a few minutes of swimming, the naiads noticed us and 
swam down to join us.  They were utterly naked and utterly 
unashamed of it.  In fact, I'm not sure if they even realized it.  The 
guys both turned beet red, which was gratifying, although 
Katherine and I turned almost as red.  Tanya simply grinned and 
started to take her top off before Harry and Thomas stopped her in 
unison, which made all the Naiads laugh.  

       There were five of them:  Diana, Euphonia, Silverhair, whose 
hair was indeed silver, Ripples, and one who insisted on being 
called Trout, even though the other four laughed every time 
someone called her that.  They all had light blue skin, slightly 
webbed toes and hands, slender figures, and more grace in the 
water than an olympic swimmer.  

       I'm a decent swimmer, but I foolishly challenged Euphonia to a 
race.  She kept giving Harry the kind of look that said, 'I think I'll 
seduce this one'.  We agreed the winner would get one wish from 
the loser.  I intended to use my victory to make sure she didn't try 
anything with Harry.

        Looking back, I freely admit I was a moron.  Challenging a 
Naiad to a swimming race is only slightly less stupid than trying to 
race in the Kentucky Derby on foot.  Euphonia took off like a rocket, 
halfway to the bridge by the time I was getting up to full speed.  So 
I cheated.  I shouldn't have.  I don't like cheaters, but I was 
desperate.  I asked the water to help me, and it did.  I zoomed 
along and almost caught up with her at the bridge, but I think she 
felt what I was doing.

        You can guess what happened next.  She had her own personal 
tidal wave pushing her, and in a smaller stream, I might not have 
ended up with any water at all.  As it was, she beat me by a full 
minute, that almost ended as two when she let go of the water and 
it all washed back at me.  

       She was sitting in the water by the bank when I arrived.  
"You're pretty good," she said.  

        Tanya whispered something into her ear.  She looked at 
Tanya, then grinned.  I was worried now.  

       "I've decided on my wish."  She said.

       I sat down by her.  "What?"  If she asks for a night with Harry, 
I'll strangle her.

       "You have to go topless for the rest of the day,"  Euphonia said.  
"I would tell you to go naked, but I don't think you're ready for 
that."

        I wasn't ready to go topless.  I was, however, ready to blush 
all over my body, which matched my reddish-orange one-piece.  
"But...this is a one piece.  I can't just take the top off."

        She touched it.  Instant bikini.  "There you go."

        "..."

        Katherine laughed.  "Geez, even I knew better than to get 
myself into that kinda trap, Angie."

        Tanya whispered to me, "I'll do it if you will."  She grinned.  

        You are EVIL, I thought.  I was trapped.  Unless I could 
persuade her to ask for something else.  "Are you sure there isn't 
anything else you could ask me for?"

        She cocked her head.  "An evening with Harry?"  She grinned.  
"I have a very nice home I could show him with a very nice..."

       Harry was beet red again.  Thomas was laughing.  Katherine 
smirked.  "Maybe she's jealous you didn't invite her too."

       "HEY!"  No way out.  Well, I could have refused, but I didn't 
want to be a bad sport. I had intended to make her grant me a 
wish, so it was only fair.  And hideously embarrassing.  

        I took off my top and sank down into the water to hide 
everything below the neck.  "I never said I'd show it off."

        Euphonia grinned.  "Unless you plan to sleep here, you'll have 
to come out eventually."

        Tanya said a little more loudly, "My offer still stands."  She 
winked.

        Harry looked over at Tanya, then at me.  I blushed some more, 
or tried to, anyway.  He turned and tried not to stare, which was 
fairly funny, given he'd seen me completely naked and not blushed 
this much.  I envied the naiads a bit.  They didn't feel any shame at 
all, but then, it was natural for them to be this way.  It didn't feel 
natural for me.  

         However, if I make a promise, I keep it.  I went topless for 
the rest of the day.  After the first hour or two, I nearly forgot 
about it.  I'd never spent so much time in the water in my life.  We 
swam until the sun was about to set, and then most of the others 
got out to fix dinner.  I stayed in, partly because I couldn't hide my 
chest so easily if I got out and partly because Euphonia promised to 
teach me how to do the water breathing spell.

         With my affinity, it was easy.  You had to think of the water 
as being like air, and then call upon a little power to make it so for 
you.  I swam around under the surface, watching the fish go by, 
and talking to Euphonia.  She had been a changeling once, but it had 
been long ago.  She dimly remembered being a fisherman's wife in 
Greece in the eighteenth century, and a sailor in seventeenth 
century Cyprus, and a maker of boats along with her husband in 
some long ago time with some kind of tribe that sounded like 
maybe a Pacific Northwest tribe.  She hadn't seen the mortal world 
in over a century.  "Do the great whales still swim your oceans?  Do 
sailboats still plow the waters?  Do men remember the beauty of its 
depths?"  she asked.

        "The whales live on,"  I replied, watching two goldfish try to 
get past me.  Every time they came out from behind a small plant, 
they would see me and retreat, then try again about two seconds 
later.  "But we've killed a lot of them.  Most boats use mechanical 
power, but there are still lots of sailboats.  And I hope we never 
forget the beauty of the sea.  Indeed, now we can really go down 
and see what only the faeries and the fish saw before."

       She smiled.  "It has been so long since I talked to a mortal, 
even if you are a mage."

        I grinned and assumed my sidhe form.  "Boo."

        Starting, she smacked into a real trout, which swam off 
looking peeved.  She scared the goldfish too, and they bolted and 
found a new plant to cower behind.  "I would not have guessed.  
Most of our faerie visitors gladly strip down to play with us, just as 
we would dress ourselves in finery to visit their courts.  You have a 
fine figure, yet you hide it like mortals."

        I blushed.  "I'm kinda new to this.  And I'm pretty inhibited as 
mortals go."

        She smiled.  "I'm glad I didn't ask for an evening with your 
lover, then."

        I blushed redder than my faerie hair.  I was getting good at 
this.  She giggled a little.  "You have a water affinity, do you not?"

        I nodded.  "Yes."

        "Would you like to learn more of how to use it?  How to 
control your affinity?"

         This time, I nodded hard enough to almost make my own 
tidal wave.  "Yes.  I had...an incident of losing control recently."

         "I will gladly teach you.  However, I set only one condition."

         "Sure.  I REALLY need training."  And lessons on when to shut 
my mouth.

        She grinned.  "Good.  You shall remain topless during your 
lessons.  Naked if you think you can stand it.  Not only will I teach 
you the path of water, I'll break this silly inhibition of yours while 
I'm at it."

        "..."

        "We can start your lessons tomorrow.  You'd best go eat."  She 
bowed and swam off.

         I summoned up a breeze and dried myself off when I got out 
of the water and headed over to my bag and got out some clothing.  
I put on some pants, then joined the others, still covering my chest 
with folded arms.  Harry very visibly tried to not stare, while 
Thomas kept his eyes focused on Tanya, although every once in a 
while, he couldn't help it.  Katherine kept laughing.  I didn't 
mention my bargain.  

         Dinner was trout and fruit.  I could tell we'd be having lots of 
fish.  Luckily, I like fish.  Despite being embarrassed, I was feeling 
a lot better.  Thomas said, "Hey, Angie, I suggest you talk to the 
naiads about training your water affinity.  Harry and I are going to 
go find some dryads to teach him tomorrow."

        Tanya nodded.  "And I'm going to give Kathie the grand tour.  
Hopefully, we'll find Bacchus and see when the next feast is."  

        "Bacchus?"

        "He's the lord of this realm.  I think he started out as a Satyr, 
but he's kinda unique now.  I promise he won't MAKE you drink.  
Too much."  She grinned.

         Drinking.  Feh.  I hate alcohol.  No danger of that.  I leaned 
over and bopped Tanya on the head.  "No way I'm drinking with 
BACCHUS!"

        I forgot to cover my chest until I noticed Thomas starting to 
blush.  Urk.

         We talked for a long time and played cards, which is tricky 
with one arm, I can tell you, until finally, we went to sleep in our 
sleeping bags.  Harry and I zipped ours together and cuddled up.  I 
wanted to make love to him, but not with Katherine a few feet 
away. 

        She went over and whispered something to Tanya and 
Thomas.  Tanya cackled, and I could hear Thomas say something 
that made them all laugh.  They bantered a bit more, then 
Katherine went and crawled into her sleeping bag.  

        Sleep was a blessing and wonderful, except that when you 
sleep outside, Mr. Sun wants to wake you up earlier than you want 
to.

****************

Katherine said:

        My first day in Arcadia had been the most magical experience 
of my life in both a figurative and literal sense.  I woke up the next 
morning with various floral scents tickling my nose.  Despite 
sleeping on the reasonably hard ground, I felt like I had been 
sleeping on a soft mattress.  Despite being hungry, I was full of 
energy.  I felt like I could run the five minute mile.  Maybe the 
three minute mile.  For hours.  Normally, I wake up a groggy 
zombie.  I was so awake I could barely stand it.  My senses felt 
sharper too.  I could hear animals walking in the distance, and hear 
fish splash as they jumped up out of the water and fell back into it.  

        We had fruit and more fish for breakfast.  I like fish, but I 
suspected I would be utterly sick of them by the time we finished.  
Apples, on the other hand, I can eat until I explode, and with five 
apple trees nearby, I was sure I would get my chance to blow up.  

       Tanya stretched and said, "Ready to see the sights?"

        I nodded.  She whistled and the mare and the unicorn 
galloped out of the forest.  I hopped up on him.  I had no riding 
experience, but riding the blue unicorn was easier than I would 
have thought possible.  It was a smoother ride than my car.  

        We trotted off into the woods.  "So this place is like...ruled by 
a...god?"  I asked.

        She laughed.  "Most of the 'gods' were actually meddling faerie 
lords.  Bacchus is ancient beyond my ken, but he's no god.  We 
faeries argue a lot about religion, but most of us are monotheists, 
though we can't agree on much else.  Or atheists.  Learning about 
faeries breaks some people's faith beyond repair...we aren't exactly 
taught about in most catchecisms.  I'm Catholic myself, like Harry, 
though I'm...well, I'm not quite a perfect Catholic."  She blushed.

        My knowlege of Catholics is pretty vague.  I'm Baptist myself, 
sort of.  I go to church, but only when I can drag myself out of bed 
on time, which isn't often enough.  I do pray every night, though.  
Well, usually.  All right, sometimes I pray before I go to bed, and I 
really do believe in God and Jesus dying for our sins and all that, 
but I'm a pretty dang lazy Christian.  Anyway, I asked Tanya, "Why 
not?"

       "Well, I'm not exactly what you'd call...chaste.  I'm faithful, but 
if I tried to wait for marriage, I'd be a nutcase.  I also think priests 
ought to be able to get married.  I mean, I can't see how anyone 
could stay celibate their whole lives without cheating somehow.  
And there's no point in an oath you can't keep."

        "I dunno.  A lot of people aren't too sexually driven, you 
know."  I think I could keep an oath of celibacy if I had to.  At least 
until recently.  I've had sex, but it wasn't that good.  Well, a few 
times it was really good, but not so good I couldn't go without it.  I 
think.   

        She nodded.  "I just...It seems too natural to me.  If you try to 
dam it up, it'll just burst somewhere else in a bad way.  The trick is 
to channel your impulses in a good way.  You can avoid things like 
being slutty or committing adultery, but if you try to stop entirely, 
it won't work.  At least for me."

        I wasn't convinced.  I'd gone eight months without sex with no 
problems, though not recently, and hadn't had sex until I was 
eighteen, anyway, without any real damage or abnormality that I 
could tell.  Indeed, I'd even managed to put off having sex with my 
last high school boyfriend for five months, even though I wanted it 
pretty badly, so it wouldn't count as statutory rape.  It wouldn't 
have been rape in any sense, but my dad kept looking for excuses 
to get rid of him.  He didn't like Billy at all.  I wonder where Billy is 
now...I digress.

        I didn't want to argue sexuality with Tanya, though.  We rode 
into a clearing full of poppies, which made a great excuse to change 
the subject.  "Wow!  I've never seen this many at once!"

        "There was a battle here during the early 1600s.  The poppies 
commemorate the fallen,"  Tanya said quietly.  "On the Winter 
Solstice, many will come here to remember the dead."

        It seemed far too beautiful to have been a battlefield.  "Maybe 
we should ride around it."

       "It's not haunted.  And if it was, I'm sure the dead would want 
visitors."  She bowed her head for a moment, and so did I.  I said a 
little prayer in their memory.

       We rode on and came to the shore of a huge river, nearly a half 
mile across.  Tanya smiled.  "This is the shore of the South River, 
one of the four great rivers that feeds the lake of stars.  If you go 
far enough North on it, you'll reach the castle of Harry's father, 
Duke Ironwood.  Farther north, and you'll come to the Lake of Stars, 
where Glorianna, Angel's mother, reigns.  Go east from there and 
you'll come to where my mother rules, while to the far west is the 
home of Thomas' family.  Go south along this river, and eventually, 
you'll reach the Unseelie lands."

         "South?  So it gets colder as you go south?"

        She laughed.  "Go far enough North and you reach them as 
well.  In one way of looking at it, Arcadia is a globe with the Seelie 
capital at the North pole and the Unseelie capital at the South pole.  
Any direction you go from either capital will eventually take you to 
the other one."  

        We could see boats lazily drifting up and down the river.  
Nearby was a great sailbarge with huge blue sails, with dozens of 
sailors on its deck.  One of them waved at me, and I waved back.  "I 
guess with no cars, rivers are the best way to ship goods."

       "Well, there's not a lot of trade.  Most faeries can make 
whatever they need, and a lot of them live in ways where you don't 
need stuff.  But there's a big demand for luxury goods, and luxury 
food for feasts."  Tanya grinned.  "And there's a LOT of feasts."

       I got off my unicorn and sat down under a tree to watch the 
river for a while.  So did Tanya.  Our steeds wandered off a bit and 
started eating grass.  I think they may have been flirting too, but I 
don't know much about how horses flirt.  "Can I ask you a 
question?"

       She grinned.  "You just did."

        I really HATE that joke.  "Seriously."

        She leaned back against the tree and put her hands up over 
her head against the tree.  "Ask me anything.  Anything at all."

        I looked around at all the beauty of the countryside and 
thought about the fun we had yesterday and today.  "How can you 
ever bear to leave this and go through the drudgery of being a 
college student?  I mean...We've got weeks to go, but already I 
don't really want to go back.  At least not for a few months, 
maybe."

        "That's exactly why we have to go back.  It's seductive to just 
goof off all the time in Arcadia.  I could easily spend centuries just 
wandering around meeting people, exploring, having love affairs 
and adventures and generally goofing around.  Most faeries do.  We 
also usually have only barely more responsibility than the average 
five year old.  That's why there are changelings, so that we will 
learn responsibility, learn how to focus our efforts, how to not just 
be flighty all the time and goof off.  Faerie nobility are especially 
likely to be sent as changelings, because it's our job to run herd 
over everyone else, to keep entire realms from evaporating back 
into the Mists from which we carved them."  She sighed.  "It's not 
easy.  Faeries have short attention spans and are VERY impulsive.  I 
usually feel the urge to kiss someone I don't even know several 
times a day.  With people I do know, it can happen dozens of times.  
It's hard to study because my brain comes up with a list of a 
hundred things I could be doing for fun.  And I have a LOT more 
self-control than most faeries.  Just think about those naiads or the 
pixies.  That one was going to try to seduce Harry if Angel hadn't 
challenged her.  And they were comfortable being totally naked in 
front of people they had just met.  Now, I could easily go naked in 
front of any of my close friends, and it wouldn't bother me at all.  
But even I wouldn't normally go naked around total strangers.  But 
to them, it's completely natural.  And they'll have us all naked by 
the time we leave if they get their way.  Not because they have any 
particular desire to see us naked, but just because it's the way they 
do things."

       I thought for a minute.  "Do you think Harry and Angel will 
become as uninhibited as you and Thomas?"

       "Not as much as me, but moreso than they are, I think.  They 
won't be able to help it.  Faeries are simply more uninhibited.  You 
can fight it, but you can't stop it anymore than you can stop 
breathing or decide to never eat, ever again. "  Tanya put her arms 
down and turned to me.  "But still, it'll be a while before we have 
any REAL orgies.  Not that I'd mind."

        I blushed.  I'd joke about it, but I wouldn't really do it.  "You 
mean...you'd really..."

        "Well, orgy is an exaggeration.  I wouldn't like go to a party 
and join in on some mass sex.  But I'm open to things beyond just 
two people in a bed...if the other people are people I'm close to and 
really care about.  Not that I've actually DONE anything like that.  
One of my high school boyfriends wanted to do something like that, 
but the other couple was too skanky.  He was pretty skanky 
himself, but I was going through one of my total braindeath phases 
too.  Harry was the only guy I would have trusted enough to do 
something like that.  He still is, really.  And Angie's the closest 
female friend I have."

         I was a little hurt, although I knew Tanya and I weren't that 
close, mainly because I usually spent all my time with various 
boyfriends.  I have some female friends, but nobody really close.  I 
wish I did.  You need someone to talk to who really cares, ya know?  
Still, when I thought about it, the idea of being in a group like that 
was kinda exciting.  I'd never done anything very unusual myself, 
unless you count making out in the back of a pickup.  Especially 
when the emergency brake goes out and you start rolling down a 
hill.  That was an exciting night.  Luckilly, Billy was a really good 
climber.  Anyway, I digress.  "Yeah, the four of you are pretty 
tight."  

         Tanya smiled.  "It's great.  I wish I'd told Harry earlier.  He 
didn't know until just this semester."

        "So why didn't you?  I had the impression you two have been 
best buddies since you crawled out of the womb."

         She laughed.  "Just about.  I wanted to protect him.  Knowing 
faeries isn't all fun and games like this.  It's hard to kill a faerie 
permanently...but mortals die easily.  I didn't want him to get 
drawn into faerie politics.  We play for keeps and it can get ugly.  
Especially since a lot of faeries treat death pretty casually since it 
isn't permanent for us."

         I'd heard old stories about faeries.  Yeah, they could get nasty 
sometimes.  "Let's ride some more."

         That easily consumed the rest of the day.

************

Harry said:

        Finding Dryads was easy.  Getting them to take us seriously 
was another question.  For one thing, it's hard to carry on a 
conversation with naked green women without actually looking at 
them.  Once they figured out I wasn't really obsessed with the 
grass, they kept trying to trick me into looking.  Then they insisted 
on a two hour long circle dance before we got down to business.  
Then I had to swear an oath with about twenty thousand clauses, 
many of which were on the level of "I won't eat dandelions after 
midnight, except on Tuesday."

        Thomas seemed serenely unfazed by it, but I was about ready 
to tear out my hair and eat it when one of the dryads, an orange 
haired lass named Vinechaser asked, "So who is your mother?"

        I transformed into my faerie form and said, "My mother is 
Lady Rowanford, wife of Duke Ironwood."

        They flocked about me, making little comments on my 
clothing, hair, skin, manicure, and other such things.  Finally, 
Vinechaser said, "You come of a high and noble line.  I would be 
honored to teach you.  All I ask is that you owe us a favor, and..."

       "And?"

       "If you have to wear clothing, let me design something better 
looking for you, okay?"

       "Uh...sure."

        I ended up in a green toga with no underwear.  And that was 
only the beginning.  The next few weeks are a blur in my mind.  I 
spent hours identifying plants, talking to every plant in a clearing, 
sitting cross-legged and trying to identify everything by smell and 
the sound of its voice.  I must have made a thousand flowers 
bloom, and if I had a penny for every head bruise from fruit falling 
on my head, I'd be rich.  

         I left a wake of bluebonnets behind me.  They had never seen 
them before, or poinsettias, and I had to make one for all of them.  
Then they made more, and soon the clearing was a sea of blue and 
red.  

        The hardest part was learning to keep my cool under stress.  
Imagine trying to guide a vine into growing in such a way that it 
spells out your name while a bunch of naked green-skinned women 
pelt you with rocks or tug on your leg, or worst of all...take turns 
kissing you.  

         It was grueling, but fun.  I got a real feeling of 
accomplishment out of it.  Too bad I'd already taken my biology 
courses; I would have been ready to kick butt and take names in 
botany.  My diploma was a laurel wreath woven from a tree that I 
had grown myself over the course of three days.  And more kisses.  
I think they enjoyed watching me blush.  

Angel said:

        I spent about three weeks in lessons with Euphonia.  I 
probably matched the amount of swimming I'd done in my entire 
life in that time.  It's like an entire other world under the water; it's 
beautiful.  We spent most of our time near my camp, but a few 
times Euphonia took me off into other realms, including a day we 
spent in Aquatic Arcadia.  Now that's a beautiful place.

        Aquatic Arcadia is the name the non-aquatic faeries use for all 
the huge underwater realms that the naiads and selkies and 
mermen and mermaids and the tritons and all the underwater fae 
have created.  They themselves prefer to call it the Great Deep.  

        We dressed up for the occasion.  I was kinda surprised that 
they ever wore clothing, but I think it was a way of marking the 
formality of the situation.  Or maybe Duke Neptune just likes 
clothing.  That's who we went to visit.  He rules one of the largest 
undersea realms and claims that the Greeks and Romans used to 
worship him.  

         He lived in a great palace of coral and shells and jade, which 
resembled the Parthenon, but with a giant statue of himself instead 
of Athena.  He won't be dying of excessive humility anytime soon.  
He was wearing a green toga and a crown of solid pearl.  The oyster 
that produced that pearl must have been huge.  

        I bowed.  I was wearing a red dress made of seaweed, I think, 
woven together so tightly it looked like thickly knit yarn, like a 
sweater dress.  Swimming in it was almost impossible, but by that 
point, I had enough control over the water to get it to whisk me 
around.  I just walked in the palace, anyway.  "An honor to meet 
you, Duke Neptune."

         He smiled.  "It is not every day I have a mortal visitor.  And 
your name is?"

         Euphonia laughed.  "Perhaps you should show him."  She 
nudged me.

         I suddenly realized that while I had intended to assume my 
faerie form on the way over, I had forgotten to do so.  I 
transformed and bowed again.  "I am Titania, daughter of Queen 
Glorianna."

         It was rather gratifying to watch the lord of the ocean boggle.  
For a moment, all was silent, and then he got up off his throne and 
bowed deeply.  "A pleasure to have a visit from you.  Come, let me 
show you around my realm."

         Having a retired deity of sorts act as my tourguide was rather 
gratifying.  Of course, even Duke Neptune's realm was too huge for 
me to see in one day, but we did hit some of the highlights.  The 
most beautiful thing was a huge gothic cathedral made entirely of 
coral.  Probably the only pagan gothic cathedral ever built, but still, 
it was marvelous.  The light that gently suffused the entire realm 
was brighter here, somehow, and the walls delicately carved to 
form vast bas-reliefs.  

         Finally, we had a huge feast.  I'd never had crab before.  It 
was pretty yummy.  Swimming on a full stomach afterwards wasn't 
too fun, though.  I returned to our camp, leaving the dress with 
Euphonia...seaweed dresses go bad if you take them out of the 
water.  I was tired, but I mustered the strength to call up a wind to 
blow me dry and strode into camp.  

        Everyone else was playing poker.  Thomas looked up and 
blushed.  "Hi, Angel."  The rest turned and waved hello, then 
Katherine and Harry both went red, although I didn't know why.  

        I walked over to Harry and draped myself over him from 
behind, looking at his cards.  I could hear Tanya giggling.  Harry 
had a full house.  "Hmm.  What have you bet?"  I asked.

        "Uh...er...20 pennies."

         Tanya grinned.  "I see your 20, and raise you five."

         Katherine made a come hither gesture at me, so I went hither.  
She had a straight.  I urked.  Harry's gonna be toast.  "Yeah?"

         She whispered to me, "Do you realize you're topless?"

         They probably heard me howl at the Unseelie court.  I tore 
off towards my clothing, utterly embarrassed.  I came back, and 
everybody but Tanya was kind enough to pretend nothing had 
happened.  Tanya was trying to be quiet, but she kept chortling.  

         That night, once we were all tucked away in our sleeping 
bags, I said to Harry, "I can't believe I did that.  I guess I was too 
tired to think."

          He smiled at me.  "I wouldn't have minded if we'd been in 
private."  

          "We haven't really been in private for a while," I said.  "How 
about if we take tomorrow off and wander around together?"

         "Sounds great to me,"  Harry said.

          So the next day, we packed some food, hopped up on the 
destrier, and rode off to explore.  You may be wondering what 
exactly a destrier is.  They used them as war horses in medieval 
times.  They're those really HUMONGOUS horses, like Clydesdales.  
It was a bumpy ride, but I held onto Harry, and he didn't seem to 
have any problems. 

          The forest was huge, full of all sorts of trees that normally 
didn't hang out with each other.  Animals scampered everywhere, 
completely unafraid of us.  We galloped past a dryad who waved to 
Harry, who waved back.  "That's Greenleaf,"  he said.  

        I nodded idly.  "How's your training been going?"

        "Exhausting, but fruitful.  I think I won't lose control again," he 
said quietly.  "I'd better not."

         Both of us had largely avoided the topic.  "Let's find 
somewhere to sit and talk."  

         We found a huge oak tree to sit under while the destrier, who 
we had named Buddy, for lack of a better idea, munched on some 
grass and an apple Harry had found somewhere.  Heck, he might 
have made it.  

        Harry put an arm around my shoulders, and I put one around 
his waist.  "That was really scary,"  I said.

        "I just...when I saw he was going to hit you..."  Harry 
shuddered.  "I wanted to kill him.  Slowly.  If he'd actually hit you, 
I probably would have.  It was just like...like he was every bully I'd 
ever met, all wrapped into one."  He sighed.  "I hope I never see 
Coach Horick again."

        "Who was he?"  I asked.

        Harry stared off at a bush as if it was Coach Horick.  "He was a 
tall fat ex-football player who was the coach at my high school.  
Well, one of them.  He would taunt and make fun of everyone who 
didn't measure up to his standard, and that meant anyone who 
didn't play football.  I utterly despised him.  I had to take a year of 
phys. ed., and for the first semester final, we had ten minutes to 
run..some distance.  I can't remember how far anymore.  Me and 
two other kids didn't make it.  He made fun of us for the rest of the 
period."

         "That's AWFUL!"  I said.  Geez, what a monkey.  "And no one 
ever did anything about it?"

         "The Principal wouldn't do anything about anything unless 
you threatened to sue him.  He was old and about to retire, and his 
response to complaints, was to tell us to bug off."  Harry sighed.  
"Even Mom screaming at him so loud I heard her in my English 
class didn't help.  I still have nightmares about that class.  And 
occasionally when I get really frustrated, I come up with elaborate 
ways he could die without me getting blamed."

         I pulled Harry over and gave him a tight hug.  "Did he bug 
Tanya too?"

         "Yeah.  She hated his guts.  We all did."  He cocked his head 
and laughed.  "Suddenly, I suspect the time the Football team's 
shower room had all the pipes burst at the same time wasn't an 
accident.  Or the time that toilet exploded."  Harry leaned into the 
hug and rested his head on my shoulder.

          "I guess you haven't seen him a while?"

         "Not in three years.  And I never will if I can help it.  
Especially now.  He's the only totally worthless human being I've 
ever met.  Well, he was a good coach supposedly.  We did have a 
good team.  But other than that, he was beyond worthless."

          I nodded.  "I guess if I had to kill someone, I'd start with 
Jimmy Kurgan."

          He pulled back and kissed my cheek, then settled back 
against the tree.  "So what did he do?"

         "He and Alex went out for six months.  He was cheating on 
her with two other girls, one of whom he got pregnant and then 
browbeat her into getting an abortion.  Except she didn't have the 
money, so he came up with stories to get money from his two other 
girlfriends."

        "..."

        "His family was kinda hard up for money a lot, and he had 
some story about how his sister needed an operation."  I sighed.  
All the anger I'd felt was flooding back into me.  I could think of a 
lot of ways to eviscerate Jimmy with my new abilities.  Drowning 
would be a good start.  "So Alex got a part-time job and earned two 
hundred dollars that she gave him."

         Harry's eyes widened and he stared at me.  "No way."

         "Yes way."  My voice was getting tense.  I could see Jimmy's 
grinning face in my mind.  He was good looking, and he knew it.  He 
could play people like violins.  I'd always known he was a scamp, 
and so did Alex, but then he'd come on to her, and her brain had 
died.  Part of what made me so angry was knowing I would have 
done the same thing.  "Alex was so proud of herself, knowing she'd 
helped him out.  She'd never had a job before, and it made her 
mother proud too.  It was a Dairy Queen, and it really, really stunk, 
except for the free food, but she stuck it out.  I was really proud of 
her too.  I couldn't work fast food...I'd go mad.  Not even Burger 
King."

        Harry laughed and said, "Tanya and I worked at Pizza Hut our 
last year of high school.  I kinda liked it, but then you don't get the 
same level of pressure as you do at a burger place."

        "Then Alex thought she was pregnant.  She was on the pill, but 
he wouldn't use condoms because he was too lazy to bother.  She 
panicked.  I was the only one that knew.  She was afraid to tell him.  
I had to drive with her to a gynecologist in Fort Worth so her 
mother wouldn't find out."  I started speaking faster, trying to get it 
all out.  "Luckily, it was a false alarm.  We never did figure out why 
she missed her period.  But Jimmy heard about it...somehow.  And 
dumped her."  I nearly ground my teeth during the next part.  "She 
begged him to take her back."

        Harry stared at me as if I had said, 'And then Jimmy turned 
out to be Elvis AND Bigfoot'.  "No way."

        "Yes way.  Alex was the Queen of Doormats in high school."  I 
sighed.  "But she did finally get him to understand what had 
happened, and so they got back together."  My brain was seething.  
I wonder what a ninety mile an hour wind would do to Jimmy?  
"Then they went to some party together and girlfriend #2, not the 
pregnant one, but the other one, was there.  Alex didn't encounter 
her, but apparently, she wised up and started snooping around.  
She found out about girlfriend #3 and the abortion.  So she found 
Alex and told her everything."

         "And Alex ripped Jimmy's limbs off."  Harry said.

         "Alex told her she was lying and chased her through a 
shopping mall with a stick."  I had to save the poor girl.  I think it 
was one of the few times I ever saw Alex really get mad at anyone 
but herself in high school.  "I looked into it and found out it was 
true.  She wouldn't believe me either.  We had a huge fight, and 
didn't talk for a week.  Then she went to eat at Jimmy's and found 
out from Jimmy's mom that he had lied about his sister needing an 
operation.  They had a huge fight, and she dumped him."

         "Good for her,"  Harry said quietly.  

         "Then three weeks later, they got back together."  I nearly 
killed Alex when that happened.  "After a week of that, he finally 
found out I had told her about everything, and he tried to get her 
to stop seeing me.  She wouldn't do it, so he found me at the public 
library and beat me up."  I picked up a twig and broke it, 
fantasizing that it was Jimmy's neck.  "He didn't hurt me too badly, 
but only because one of the librarians showed up.  Alex dumped 
him again after that, and beat him up, and my parents pressed 
charges.  He ended up in juvenile detention.  Then, when he got out, 
he tried to beat me up again, but Coach Sandford put him in a 
wrestling hold and sat on him.  I think Coach Sandford weighs 
about three hundred pounds."

        Harry winced.  "Jeez, no wonder you hate the guy."

        "If I ever see him again, I'm going to kill him VERY slowly."  
Old pain and rage was a haze in my mind.  "I could do it now.  That 
scares me, Harry.  It scares me a lot.  I could kill someone, and no 
jury would ever convict me because there's so many ways I could 
do it without someone tracing it to me.  I don't hate very many 
people, but I don't have to get mad for long to do it.  I don't like 
getting mad, Harry."  I turned to him and leaned over, placing my 
head on his chest under his head.  "I don't want to hurt anyone, but 
if I lose control..."

         He slid his arms around me, and kissed the top of my head.  
"I know.  I'm scared too.  If anyone hurt you...I'd want to hunt 
them to the ends of the earth.  I wanna maim this Jimmy guy for 
you and Alex."  His voice got harder.  "What a complete bastard.  I 
really, really hate people who use people like that.  If he ever 
comes near you..."

        I'll pin him to the wall with winds and force water down his 
throat until he explodes, I thought.  But it's nice to know you care.  
Not that I didn't know, but I like having someone who wants to 
stand up for me.  "I wish you'd gone to my high school, Harry.  I 
wish I could have grown up with you like Tanya did.  I..."  I envy 
her that.  A lot.  "You and me and Alex coulda had a lot of fun 
together.  We had some guy friends, but we were never too close to 
them.  I guess cause guys don't get close to each other easily, and 
they kinda saw us as two more guys."

        "Yeah.  You and me and Tanya and Alex...it would have been 
great."  He smiled.  "I coulda hooked her up with some nice guys, 
too.  I had a couple of dateless friends who were really great guys, 
but kinda shy."  

        "Harry...do you like Alex?"  I wasn't sure, really.  They seemed 
to be getting along better, but then, I'd never really understood 
why they fought so much.  And then suddenly...poof, they were just 
fine with each other.  It was just...I wanted them to be good friends, 
but I guess I look gift horses in the mouth a lot.

        "Yeah, Alex is pretty cool once you're on her good side,"  Harry 
said.  "I'd be a pancake if she hadn't saved me from those Tau Ceti 
guys.  Even if it made me feel kinda like a damsel in distress."  He 
sighed.  

       "So how did you get on her good side?  You two feuded every 
time you met, then suddenly...boom.  If I can ask,"  I added 
hesitantly.

       "We had mad passionate sex, and it made it all better,"  Harry 
said.

        I boggled.  "You...what?"

        He threw back his head and laughed, then ouched when he 
banged it on the tree.  "I'm teasing, Angel.  I wouldn't cheat on you, 
and even if I would, Alex wouldn't sleep with me unless maybe it 
was the only way to repopulate the Earth."

        "So what did break the ice?"

        Harry fell silent for a moment.  Something had happened.  I 
could tell.  I believed he'd told me the truth, but there 
was...something.  "She tried to trap me into admitting I was using 
you.  I think she finally clued in after all those bad boyfriends, and 
she was afraid I would hurt you the way she had been hurt.  But 
she couldn't trap me, and she finally had to face that this was 
different.  So we had a long talk, and decided to be friends.  You're 
one of the most important people in her life and in mine, and we 
both knew it was stupid to fight when you like both of us.  She...she 
loves you a lot, you know."

         "Yeah,"  I said.  "She's been my best friend forever and ever.  
She's one of the nicest, kindest, most caring people I've ever met.  
I'm glad she's finally standing up for herself.  And I'm glad my two 
best friends are getting along."  I leaned over and kissed Harry's 
nose.  "And I hope that whoever she's after now will treat her right.  
Because if he doesn't, I'll make him pay.  She deserves to finally hit 
solid gold."

         Harry started to open his mouth, then shut it.  He kicked a 
small rock with his foot, then said, "Yeah.  Good thing it's not me, 
eh?"  

         I laughed.  "I think three of us in one bed wouldn't fit very 
well.  Especially since Tanya would probably want to climb in too."

         Harry leaned over and pulled me up into his lap, turning me 
sideways so his face was close to mine.  "And Thomas.  Even a 
Muggleton bed couldn't take that much weight.  So when we do 
this, we use Tanya's bed, not ours, okay?"

         I laughed and turned to face him, my lips only inches from 
his.  "So you're moving in with me and Tanya?"

         His face moved a little closer.  I could see his eyes twinkle in 
the light and listen to him breathe.  "Every guy's dream.  It'll be 
just like three's company."

         My arms moved, almost of their own volition, wrapping 
around his torso.  I felt a very mild rush go through me.  It had 
been weeks since we'd made love...we never got enough privacy, 
and after that first night, I'd been too inhibited to do anything with 
Tanya and Thomas around.  I wanted him, badly.  "Hey, I refuse to 
be Chrissie.  And who are we going to replace Tanya with after the 
first few seasons?"

        "Well, Katherine is blond..."

        I noogied him gently.  "I'm afraid you must be punished for 
even suggesting a Three's Company analogy."

        "Oh?"  He grinned.  "Fifty lashes with a wet noodle?"

        "As future queen of the Elves, I command you to make love to 
me."  I could hardly believe I'd said that.  I think desire destroys 
your reasoning faculties.

         He grinned.  "As your sworn knight, I promise to obey your 
every command, so I will do so."

         Forests are much more romantic than dorm room beds, but 
less comfortable, which may be hard to believe for some people.  
I'll admit the forest floor was more comfortable than my freshman 
year beds, although they didn't leave you picking twigs and leaves 
off yourself after you used them.  

         It wasn't an impressive bout, not that either of us had 
anything to judge it by, but it was wonderful, anyway.  The one 
scary part was that we both turned into our faerie forms halfway 
through it.  I wondered if this happened to Tanya and Thomas a lot, 
but there was no way I was going to ask them.  

         We lay in the grass afterwards, just holding each other and 
enjoying being alive.  A dozen fantasies and happy dreams drifted 
through my mind, and joy at knowing that we would be doing this 
for decades to come.  Time was our friend.

         We couldn't stay there forever, and eventually, we dressed 
and tried to clean all the twigs out of our clothing.  I had a moment 
of worry over whether we could turn back to normal, but we didn't 
have a problem.  We rode around a while longer, then rode back to 
camp as the sun was going down.  

         "Not gonna make love all night?"  Tanya greeted us, grinning.

        "Naah, they're gonna make us watch and grind our teeth,"  
Katherine said, laughing as she watched Thomas gutting fish.

         I blushed a bit.  "Not with an audience, thank you."

***************

Katherine said:

        I had had so many fish, I was on the verge of going mad after 
eating dinner.  "I don't suppose there's a burger place anywhere 
around here?"  I asked.

        Tanya grinned.  "Maybe that's where Harry and Angie went."

        Then the music started.  It was flute and harp music, echoing 
from the forest.  Then the surface of the stream boiled and dozens 
of naiads and mermen surfaced, also playing instruments.  I could 
see hairy legged satyrs and thickly bearded korreds, dryads and 
hamadryads, pixies and sprites, all milling about with instruments 
and dancing.  In their midst stood a man clad in vines and a dirty 
purple toga, holding a huge cornucopia, full of some liquid he kept 
drinking.  He had a wreath of laurel upon his brow.  "Come!  It is 
time for a revel!"

          Harry and Angie stared at him.  Thomas smiled, and Tanya 
leaped to her feet and laughed.  "Let's PARTY!"

          What followed is a blur in my mind.  We paraded through 
the forest, singing and dancing and drinking and singing and 
dancing and drinking some more.  I clearly remember playing ring 
around the rosie with some satyrs and dryads.  I remember Harry 
and Tanya trying to show some korreds how to jitterbug.  I 
remember a line of tapdancing korreds with Thomas leading them.  
I remember taking off all my clothing for no apparent reason and 
leading a conga line.  

          Everything else is a blur.  I vaguely remember Tanya 
dancing with Bacchus with her only clothing a wreath in her hair.  
Angie and Harry might have danced together on the surface of the 
stream without sinking.  Thomas might have been trying to teach a 
bunch of dryads to breakdance.  Something left a trail of flowers in 
our wake.  I might have slept with a satyr; I'm pretty sure I kissed 
one.  The last thing I remember clearly was a group of ten dryads 
trying to carry Harry and Thomas off, and Tanya and Angie going 
berserk on them.  

          I should have had the hangover from hell.  I think I drank 
enough wine to inebriate France.  Amazingly, I felt great.  I was 
ready to run a hundred miles.  I was also quite naked in the middle 
of the forest by myself, except for eight pixies who were cuddled 
up to my left arm, a dryad who was about five feet to the left of 
me, and a bunny, who was cuddled up to my right leg.  As I got up, 
I noticed somehow a satyr had gotten up about a hundred feet into 
a tree and was sleeping with his back to the trunk, and a harp on 
his lap.  The bunny woke up as I got up, and scampered off.  The 
dryad started to stir.  She was as naked as I was, which made me 
feel a little less embarrassed.  I didn't even recognize where I was, 
although it looked like the same forest.  

         "Brr...wah..murble...Oh, hi."  The dryad said.  "You're...Susan, 
right?"

        "Katherine.  You can call me Kathie."

        "You can call me Margaret.  Or Margie."  She grinned and 
suddenly turned into an ordinary human, making me jump slightly.  
Her human form had a deep tan and light brown hair with hazel 
eyes.  She'd suddenly gotten clothing from somewhere, as she was 
now wearing a UCLA T-shirt and jeans.  "I'm from UCLA, taking a 
little vacation like you guys."  She looked over at me.  "Lost your 
clothing?"

        I nodded.  "Uh yeah...that was some party."

        She laughed.  "The best.  We fae really know how to party, 
eh?"

        "Yeah.  This is my first time in Arcadia."

        She was picking up leaves and weaving them together 
somehow.  Slowly they flowed into a green tunic, which she passed 
to me.  "Here you go."

        "Is everyone here...um...are most faeries...do you all have 
ordinary lives too?"

        She shook her head, standing up.  "No.  Most faeries just party 
all the time in Arcadia and never visit the mortal realm.  Just us 
changelings, mostly."  She looked around, then headed west.  "Your 
friends and I were probably the only people in this realm who 
have had a mortal life in this century.  And I just dropped in for 
the party.  I think your camp is this way."

         Being clueless, I followed her.  It took about twenty minutes 
to reach our camp.  Thomas was upside down in a tree with his 
underwear on his head.  A bird was building a nest on his feet.  I 
laughed, and so did Margie.  "Man, this looks like a frat party 
aftermath."

        "Bacchus could give them lessons."  She grinned.  "Well, I gotta 
book it back to California.  Nice to meet you!"

         I waved as she walked off.  Everyone drifted back into camp 
slowly.  Harry and Angie had both managed to retain most of their 
clothing, although Harry's shirt was gone and so was Angie's.  She 
still had a bra on, though.  I found some of my clothing and 
changed.  We finally got Thomas out of the tree and woke him up.  
"Do they have these parties often?"  I asked.

         "Too often for our good,"  Tanya said.  "Go to too many of 
them, and you never want to leave.  It's about time to head back, 
anyway."

        I could believe it.  I didn't want to go back.  I suppose I would 
have gotten bored eventually, but it was just...it sung to me.  That's 
the only way I can express it.  I felt good.  Heck, I felt great.  All 
my stress and tension was utterly gone.  Better than sunbathing, 
even.  

        The trip back was uneventful.  It was about 10 pm on the 
same day as we left when we got back.  All my homework for the 
next week was basically done, and I had written a draft of my next 
paper.  I just had to type it up.  So I went to work.  The next few 
days passed without incident for me, so I'll be quiet now.

***************

Harry said:  

        Thursday went pretty well, then Friday rolled around.  More 
Early Modern Europe.  Sun King, blah blah blah.  Origins of 
Absolutism, blah blah blah.  Normally, it's an okay class, but I had 
other things on my mind, like the Champions game that night and 
D&D the next night.  I wondered if Laura was really going to come, 
and how much she remembered of that fight with the Tau Cetis.  

       I glanced over at Laura, and she gave me a big smile.  I smiled 
back.  Naturally, the teacher called on me at that moment, and I 
didn't even know what the question was.  After class, Tanya went 
up to ask him some questions, and Laura came over to me.  "We 
still on for Saturday?"

       "Yeah.  You should come early so we can get a character made 
for you."

        She nodded.  "Your GF's a history major, right?"

         I shook my head.  "Sociology."

        "Really?  She seems pretty impressive in history too."

        "You had a history class with her?"

         She shook my head gently.  "She's in this class with us, silly."

         "Oh, you mean Tanya."

         "Yeah, your woman."  She grinned.  "You do remember your 
girlfriend, right?"

         Oh great, another person fooled by the aftermath of the great 
pie escapade, I thought.  "No, no.  Angela Bedos-Rezak is my 
girlfriend.  Tanya I are just childhood friends."

         She blinked.  "I saw you guys kissing a few weeks ago."

         Trying to explain this one was going to be more fun than I 
could stand.

************

Angel said:

        I have Cultural Anthropology on Fridays.  It's somewhat less fun
than having my teeth pulled, since the professor talks about just about
everything in the universe EXCEPT Cultural Anthropology.  I tried to get
Thomas to take it with me, since he likes Anthropology, but I guess a
pixie warned him off it, or something.  However, my friends Buddy Baker
and June Hallam are also in it.  We've been in six sociology courses
together, so we always study together.  We ended up going to lunch
together, since they asked me to.  I think June likes Buddy, but she's
too shy to ask him out, and Buddy's too clueless to notice.  He couldn't
get a clue if they paid him to take one.  

        Anyway, he's tall with dark brown hair and dark eyes, and 
she's even taller, with wavy brown hair down to the bottom of her 
shoulderblades, and bright blue eyes.  And a LOT of freckles.  
They're both so skinny, even though they eat like pigs, that it's 
kinda scary.  We chatted about the class and made fun of Dr. 
Warwick, then June went to the bathroom, and Buddy asked me, 
"Are you doing anything tonight?"

       "The usual Champions game."

       He frowned.  "How about Saturday?"

       "I run a D&D game."  I should have seen where this was 
heading, but sometimes I can't get a clue when it's shoved up my 
nose, either.

        "How about Sunday?"

        "Sunday is free."  I finished off my sandwich and started on 
my potato salad, one of the five greatest foods ever invented.

       "Wanna go see a movie with me?"  He looked hopeful and 
nervous at the same time.

       I noticed the clue up my nose at this point.  "Are you asking 
me on a date, Buddy?"  I love Buddy's name.  I always feel like I'm 
in a forties movie every time I say it.

        "Uh...if you want it to be."  He was starting to bang his tray 
with his fork repeatedly, which he does when he gets nervous.

        "Buddy, I've been dating someone since April."

        "I thought you two broke up.  I saw him and some blonde 
kissing under a tree in the park a few weeks ago."

        I twitched.  I must have twitched a lot, because he jumped 
like I'd just thrown lightning from my eyes at him.  "Harry is still 
my boyfriend.  Why don't you ask June out?"

        "If she had any interest in me, she would have said something 
by now."  He sighed.  

        "Maybe she's shy.  Why'd you ask me out all of a sudden, 
anyway?"

        "You're just...you're so...I hadn't really thought about you that 
way until this semester, and then I just kinda realized 
how...beautiful you are."  He blushed.  "Jeez, I sound like an idiot."

        "You might be surprised if you ask June out.  Sometimes 
people are shy."

        "You think so?"

        "I know so.  I'm pretty shy.  That's why I never had a real 
date in high school."

        He boggled.  "A babe like you couldn't get a date?  You should 
have gone to my high school.  You could have been Prom Queen."

        "Hush.  You're embarrassing me."  I was blushing.

        June came back.  "What'cha talking about?"

        "Buddy's been trying to work up the courage to ask you out on 
a date,"  I said, smiling.  There you go, Buddy.  Free of charge.

        Her eyes widened like a truck was coming at her.  "Sure!  
When, Buddy?"

        He gave me a look, then smiled.  "How about Friday?  We can 
go see Labor Day Massacre III!"

        That's Buddy, a born romantic.

        By the time I got home after all my classes, I was wondering if 
someone had taped 'Date me' to my back.  Two guys in my political 
science class had asked me out, the clerk at the snack bar tried to 
hit on me, and then finally, my RA's brother made a pass at me.  
This was about equal to the number of dates I had in high school.

        The rest of the day went by without incident.  The Champions 
game was a lot of fun.  Doc Ion got kidnapped and replaced by 
Professor Doom, a would be time-travelling world conqueror from 
the 25th century.  Harry had a lot of fun stomping around shouting, 
posing, and ordering his ninja pet-bots to kill us.  

        I did my homework quickly on Saturday, then settled down to 
set up the D&D game.  I had to revise my plans to take into account 
two new players.  Three, really, since Katherine was just now 
starting up with us again.  

       I use my own game world that I made up, called 'Cymbrio'.  
Thomas knows every published game world better than its creators 
do, I think, and after the time I messed up and referred to the 'King 
of Greyhawk', I decided to make up my own.  (Greyhawk was 
SUPPOSED to be a democracy.)

       The merry band consisted of Thaddeus Longarm, heroic 
paladin of Tyr, which was Harry's character, Boffo Bolger, a fat 
halfling thief, which was Thomas' character, Galadriel Mithlos, an 
elven fighter/magicuser, who was Tanya's character, and Jana 
Liontamer, an Amazon warrior, who was Katherine's new character.  
Yeah, a walking army of cliches, but we had fun, so who cares?

        I wanted the new people to come early, but I forgot to tell 
Andy.  Luckily, Harry did tell Laura to come early.  She got there 
about an hour before everyone else showed up, although Kathie 
was there, since she lives here.  Thomas and Tanya had gone out on 
a date, and Harry got dragged off by Donny somewhere to hang out 
and do guy talk stuff.  

         I have to say that Laura Beedles knows how to make a 
dramatic entrance.  When I answered the door, she was clad in a 
very authentic looking multi-layered red and green fourteenth 
century medieval dress, made of red and green satin, complete 
with a long green wool cloak.  The only thing missing was a big 
pointy hat with a trailing veil.  She looked gorgeous.  She also 
looked a lot like Harry's sister, I realized.  Well, there was 
something reminiscent of Lucy.  Maybe it was just her hair and 
eyes, since her face was a lot thinner and more angular than Lucy, 
who is a bit pudgy.  

        She grinned.  "Hi.  I'm Laura Beedles."

        "Hi, I'm Angela Bedos-Rezak."  Two can play at this game, I 
thought, grinning.  I'll just go 'change' into something spectacular.  
Then I noticed she had pointed ears.  ANOTHER FAERIE? I thought.  
Geez, maybe everyone at this school is one.  

        She noticed me staring at her ears.  "Great fakes, eh?  The 
costume shop downtown costs too much, but I have to say they do 
great work.  I had five people ask me if I was from Vulcan on the 
way here."  She swept into the room and closed the door.  She 
opened one of her belt pouches and pulled out a small sack of dice.  
"I wasn't sure what kinds I needed, so I bought some of 
everything."  She had about 30 dice.  I boggled lightly. 

       "Hold on, while I suit up,"  I said, laughing a little.  Once out of 
sight in the bedroom, I turned my clothing into the formal dress I'd 
worn at Mother's court.  It only took about three tries to get it 
right.  

        Laura gave a little gasp when I emerged.  I smiled.  Just the 
effect I wanted.  "We don't normally dress up for the game, but 
since you did, I thought I would too."

         She laughed.  "Okay, teach me.  I've read a lot of fantasy 
novels, but never played any role playing games before."

        I gave her my usual spiel and we ended up rolling her up a 
paladin.  Two in one party.  They'd either cut a big hunk out of evil, 
or drive everyone else insane.  Or both.  I found myself liking 
Laura, which was a surprise, since I normally despise sorority girls.  
They're usually the incarnation of everything I'm not.  Another 
example of how I'm not all knowing.

         We still had a little while before anyone was likely to show 
up.  Laura said, "Can I ask you a question?"

         "Sure."  Unlike some people, I try not to give that question a 
sarcastic response.

         "You're dating Harry, right?"

        I nodded.  "Since last April."

        "So what exactly is up with this Tanya person?  I don't mean 
to pry, but a bunch of people saw him kissing her and..."

         I sighed.  "It was all part of a practical joke that got out of 
hand.  It was a such a mess that I don't even want to think about it.  
Don't worry, there's nothing really going on between them."  At 
least not anything more than there is between me and Thomas.  
Assuming we didn't do anything at that crazy party.  My memories 
of it were fuzzy.  I'd woken up underwater with a Merman 
standing guard over me, although he wouldn't explain who put him 
on duty.  I think Euphonia had...I'd seen the two of them making 
out at one point during the party.  

          She nodded, although she didn't look entirely convinced.  We 
chatted a while longer, and then Harry walked in.  He boggled and 
did a doubletake.  "Laura?"

         Laura laughed, stood, and twirled about.  "Call me...Miranda 
Waer.  Paladin for hire.  Nice to meet you, Thaddeus."

         "Now ask her if she's from Vulcan," I said, laughing.

          He noticed the ears and laughed too.  "So you made a 
paladin?"
     
        "Have sword, will travel," she said, then looked at her watch.  
"Shouldn't everyone be here?"

        Kathie stuck her head out of her room.  "I am here!  We gonna 
play now?"

        "We need everyone...although I guess we could start on 
working you two in."

        We all settled in.  Harry pulled out his character sheet and 
Kathie ran and got hers from her room.  I thought for a moment.  
"Okay, Kathie, Laura, describe your characters, so I know what you 
look like, then I'll tell you what's going on."

        Kathie tossed me a thick stapled sheet of papers.  "Here's the 
writeup I did on my personal history and my family and 
everything, along with two drawings."  Kathie is a mediocre artist, 
but she's a good writer.  I held up the drawings for everyone, 
anyway.

         "Okay, my name is Jana Liontamer.  I'm tall with long black 
hair that goes down to mid-back, and deep purple eyes.  I'm 
wearing slightly dingy scale armor and carrying a blue shield with 
a golden lion rampant upon it.  The lion has a collar around its neck 
and a leash trailing from it.  I'm about six foot tall and heavily 
muscled.  I look like a bodybuilder.  I could be anywhere from 
twenty to thirty in age.  I have a glowing sword hung from my belt 
and a green quiver of arrows on my back, along with a shortbow 
with runes on it.  My head is bare, except for a golden circlet with a 
topaz set in it."  Kathie thought a minute.  "I move gracefully, but 
not very quickly, and I have a golden ring on my right hand with 
an emerald set in it.  It doesn't look like a wedding ring."

         Laura said, "Miranda Waer is about five foot eight with green 
eyes and blue hair which goes down to her butt.  Wavy hair.  She's 
wearing green platemail with a red cross on the chest plate.  
Ummm...She looks 22, and has green eyes...oh yeah, I already said 
that.  She would be skinny and boyish, except that she's extremely 
muscular...18/76 is pretty strong, right?"

         Harry laughed.  "Stronger than me.  I only have 18/45."

         Kathie laughed louder.  "Oh, you're only stronger than 99% of 
humanity."

        "Anyway, go on, Laura."

        "I've got a big mace...is this like a spraycan?"

        I shook my head  "No, it's like a club with metal head."

        "Ahh, right.  Does it glow?"

        "Yeah."  I'd given her character a few magical items and put 
her at the same level as the other characters.  I knew I'd have to 
remind her what they all did, though.  

        "And my armor glows?"

        I nodded.

        "How do I sleep at night with all my stuff glowing?"

        "Uhh...you throw a blanket over it."

        She nodded.  "Anyway, my shield has a picture of Saint 
Dogbert and..."

        "Cuthbert."

        "Oh, right.  Wait...Catbert?"

        "No, no, CUTHbert."

        "Is he the dinosaur?"

        I wondered if she was being deliberately funny or just 
clueless.  She had Kathie and Harry rolling on the floor.  "No 
connection.  Think of Saint Patrick with a mace."

        "Ahh.  Good thing my armor is green, then.  Okay, my shield 
has a big green shamrock on it, with Saint Cuthbert in the middle.  I 
also wear a big green floppy hat with a blue feather and I have a 
pure white horse named Snowflake, who I can talk to."  She looked 
at her character sheet.  "Can people tell what level I am by 
looking?"

        "Nope.  Other than a sort of vague degree of how experienced 
you look."

        "I also carry a bag of candy to reward people for being nice."

        More laughter.  "Okay, the two of you have been travelling 
together for a while since you teamed up to fight a griffon together 
that attacked the village you were staying in.  Miranda, you've 
been searching for the evil elf who destroyed the temple where 
you were trained way back when you were first level.  After two 
years, you still haven't found her.  Jana, you were part of an 
oathcircle of Amazons that broke up after a feud started over a 
man between two of your oathsisters.  Now you're wandering the 
world, trying to decide what to do with yourself.  Right now, you're 
travelling through the Forest of Sighs, which is rumored to be 
haunted.  You're on your way to the Cyrillian Empire, which is a 
chaotic kingdom, sort of like the Holy Roman Empire.  They're being 
invaded by a horde of humanoids, lead by Thrakor Korr, noted evil 
wizard, and brother of the emperor, who wants the throne.  You're 
travelling down a road that is little more than a set of wagon 
tracks.  What are you doing?"

        "Is it day or night?"  Kathie asked.

        "Daytime,"  I said.  I checked my notes and adjusted the 
encounter since neither of them was a cleric, which I'd been hoping 
for.  Oh wait, Andrew would be one, if he ever showed up.  Thomas 
and Tanya were late, too.

       Harry said, "Where am I?"

       "You're back at the camp with the others."

        He nodded.

        Kathie said, "I'm not afraid of any ghosts.  I chat with the 
knight as we ride along.  'So, why are you out wandering the world 
on your own, Miranda?'"

        "I have to find this damn elf named..."  She turned to me.  
"Named what?"

        I thought a moment.  "Splinter."

        Harry laughed pretty hard.  Laura said, "Splinter.  She 
destroyed the temple where I was raised."  She thought a moment.  
"I go into a long rant with all the information my character knows, 
but I don't."

        The door flew open and Tanya and Thomas sprinted in.  "Sorry 
we're late!  We lost track of time!"  Tanya's shirt was unbuttoned 
down to just below her breasts.  I blushed slighty as I guessed 
what she did.  Thomas looked a little flushed and embarrassed.  "I'll 
go get my character."  She sprinted into the bedroom.

        Thomas sat down and said, "I kill it."  He rolled a  twenty 
sided die, then picked it up without looking at it and said, "Natural 
20, double damage."  He grinned, and Kathie and I laughed.  He was 
imitating a guy we played with our freshman year.  One time, he 
showed up horribly late and incredibly drunk, then tried to kill 
everything that moved, and kept rolling and not looking at the dice.  
I don't know what happened to him; he just kinda vanished after 
that year.  "Did I kill it?"

       I patted his head.  "Yes, Thomas, you killed your foot.  You get 
five XP and bleed to death."

       "Woo woo!"

        "Anyway, as the two of you are riding along, you hear 
movement off to one side."

        Kathie said, "I draw an arrow and nock it.  I say to Miranda, 
'Get ready to charge.  It could be undead.'"

        Laura cocked her head.  "In daylight?  Naaah.  I draw my 
mace anyway."

        "You see a short, shadowy figure emerging from the trees.  It 
is coming straight towards you."

         "Halt, or I'll shoot!"  Kathie shouted.

         "I try detecting evil,"  Laura said.  "How does that work, 
anyway?"

         "You concentrate, and either sense it or not.  You're not 
getting any evil."  I turned to Thomas.  "You left camp to find 
somewhere to take a leak in private.  However, two muscular 
women are now confronting you.  One of them has a bow pointed at 
you, and the other one is holding a glowing mace."

         Thomas stood up and said, "I do this."  He cowered visibly and 
said, "I promise I didn't take your wallet!  I'm just a poor potato 
farmer who hasn't ever stolen the entire contents of a caravan and 
spent it all on meat pies!  And I didn't take the Temple of Loki's 
magic crown and give it to a beggar, either!  That was someone else.  
Honest!"  He sounded horribly insincere, which was just right.  He 
paused and said in his normal voice, "I'm a short halfling with curly 
brown hair, by the way.  And brown eyes. I'm wearing brown 
leather jacket and pants, I'm barefoot, and I have a dagger 
sheathed at my belt and a short sword."

         Tanya stuck her head out of the bedroom.  "And he's a 
pathological liar!  Hide your wallet!  And your socks!"

        Thomas bounced a ten sided die off her head, and she 
vanished into the bedroom.

         Things got pretty well underway, with Thomas only getting 
his shirt sleeve stuck to a tree at one point.  As the group was 
recruiting the newcomers for a raid against a Lich's lair, Andrew 
arrived, so we took a brief break while they bickered to make his 
character.  He made a cleric named Father James, a priest of Saint 
Cuthbert, which made it easy for me to work him in.  The Lich's 
troops had destroyed his church.  

        The little band of heroes and heroines headed into the depth 
of the forest.  I had gotten out my miniatures and set them up, then 
sat back as they argued for twenty minutes about who should be 
where.  Tanya kept trying to hide in the middle of the group, and 
Andrew refused to be in back, saying he always got backstabbed.  

        Finally, they sent Boffo Bolger (Thomas' thief) ahead to scout, 
and put Thaddeus Longarm (Harry's paladin) up in front with 
Miranda Waer, then  Galadriel Mitholos (Tanya's Elven 
fighter/mage) and Father James in the middle, and Jana Liontamer 
and Lana Longinus (a human bard who was a non-player character 
they had saved from being burnt at the stake a few sessions ago) in 
the back.  

        "Okay, Boffo, make a hear noise roll."  Boffo had a 80% chance 
to hear noise.  Since all dice hate and despise Thomas, he rolled an 
85.  "You slip through the forest and congratulate yourself on how 
quiet and stealthy you are.  You hear nothing but the wind and a 
bird singing.  Then you come through a thicket into a clearing and 
see..."  I reached up onto my desk and grabbed my penny cup.  
"THIS MANY SKELETONS!"  I dumped the entire cup, with about 200 
pennies onto the little halfling miniature that represented Boffo.  
Laura screamed.  

        Thomas said, "Boffo turns and runs back to the group.  
'Thaddeus!  Every skeleton on Earth is up ahead!'"

        Harry said, "Thaddeus laughs.  'Just like the time that the God 
of Beer was waiting to ambush us?'"

        "Hey, this is REAL!"

        "The foul minions of death must be destroyed!"  Andrew 
proclaimed.  "I spur my horse forward to destroy the skeletons."

        "I ride after the good priest to protect him,"  Laura said.
     
        "I try to climb into Galadriel's pocket and hide,"  Thomas said.

       "I try to climb into Thaddeus' pocket and hide,"  Tanya said.  

       "I probably fall off my horse,"  Harry said.  "If I can, I spur my 
horse forward as well and join my fellow paladin."

        The game went pretty well, with the usual mix of silliness and 
seriousness.  They managed to beat the skeletons, then found an 
old graveyard and cleansed it, then found the lich's lair.  They were 
still in it when we broke for the night.  Kathie went out for a walk 
with Andrew, who I'm pretty sure she has a crush on.  She moves 
fast.  And Laura asked Harry to walk her back, so he took off with 
her.  Thomas gave Tanya a goodnight smooch and headed upstairs 
to bed.  I changed my dress back to normal clothing, then put on 
my pajamas.  "So what do you think?"

       "I think Laura likes Harry."

        That wasn't quite what I was asking.  "Really?"

       "Not that she's any real threat to us...um, to you, but I think 
she's got a crush.  And I KNOW Kathie has a crush on Andrew.  
Although at least this one won't decide we're evil, I think."

        I laughed.  "You remember the one who tried to exorcise us, 
right?"

        Tanya laughed.  "Harry and I dug up the Catholic ritual of 
Exorcism and used it on him at lunch the next day."

         I hadn't heard that part, so I started laughing.  "You should 
have called in his uncle, the Jesuit."  Tom is really cool, but don't 
EVER try to argue anything with him unless you like losing.

        Tanya looked at me thoughtfully.  "So are you going to start 
going topless all the time now?"

        I blushed.  "I only did that three times."  Only forgot to put a 
top on three times.  

        "Hmm.  I only noticed twice."

        Me and my big mouth.

        "Well, it's not like the four of us haven't seen you topless.  
Although you haven't been that bold since that first day," she said.  
"Although with the naiads working on you, I guess there's hope for 
you yet."  She winked.

        "I'll save that for the day we swap for the first time,"  I 
teased, lying down on my bed.  I wasn't sure if Harry was coming 
back to the room or not, so I left the light on.  

        "I'm game when you are,"  Tanya said.  Unlike me, she doesn't 
wear pajamas, instead, she usually wears either an extra-extra 
large t-shirt or a really long buttoned shirt which comes down to 
somewhere on her thighs.  Every once in a while, she does wear 
some soft green pajamas her mother gave her a long time ago.  
Harry has a matching pair in red, also from Tanya's mother.  I 
wouldn't be surprised if Tanya's mother had intended that as a 
hint.  "I'd trust you with Thomas, and there aren't many people I 
could say that about."

          I was left speechless.  She was serious.  I suppose I could 
have anticipated that, given I knew how she felt about Harry, but 
she was just so...it just...I didn't think it was a good idea.  At the 
same time, it was very tempting.  "Save it for a Christmas present,"  
I joked.

        She laughed.  "Oooh, now there's an idea.  Wrapping them up 
in gift wrap might get a bet tricky, but..." She trailed off.  "I'm 
serious, though, you know."

          I was scared to make any kind of an answer.  Besides vague 
spluttering.

         "But you're right.  Save it for a special occassion.  We won't all 
be around at Christmas time, but maybe you could come down for 
New Years.  Mom has a couple of guest rooms, and as long as we 
didn't keep her awake, we'd be fine.  Sneaking Harry back to his 
house without his Mom finding out what had happened...that could 
be tricky."  She rolled over on her stomach.  "Unless we did it in the 
middle of the day.  Maybe we should wait for Valentine's Day.  
That's more romantic, anyway."

          I didn't actually agree to this, did I?  I asked myself.  Maybe 
she's just joking.  She sounded serious, though.  

          "Then again, maybe we should just be spontaneous.  Wait for 
the right moment.  Yeah, that's probably best.  Trying to schedule 
something romantic or sexy usually doesn't work, anyway."  She 
turned her head to me.  "So how good is Harry in bed, anyway?"

        I blushed beet red.  I'm getting good at that.  "He's all I ever 
wanted in a man."  Normally, I'm not so cliched, but it was hard to 
think clearly.  I was starting to have fantasies about what Tanya 
was talking about.  

        She giggled.  "Thomas is very, very good, and I've been with 
enough men to judge.  The best part, though, is that I know he 
cares, and he does his best to make sure I'm enjoying it as much as 
he is.  I bet Harry does that too."

         I nodded.  "Yeah.  I guess I'm lucky to have gotten a good 
boyfriend right off the bat.  We don't know what we're doing, but 
we love each other, and that's the important thing."

         She said, "Can you throw me Mr. Bear?"

         I did, and she hugged Mr. Bear very tightly, and whispered 
something to him, then threw him back to me.  "Yeah.  I envy you 
that.  I dated a lot of bozos in high school.  There were two nice 
guys, but one of them moved, and the other one decided I liked 
Harry more than him, and broke up with me.  He was right."  Tanya 
sighed.  "There were a fair number of decent guys who liked me, I 
think, but most of them didn't have the guts to ask me out.  And 
sometimes, I look back at that, and think I was trying to make 
myself so fed up with other men, I'd break the promise I made to 
myself to protect Harry by not getting to close to him."

        "What?"

        "It was a stupid promise.  I was trying to protect him, because 
lots of faeries get lovers taken hostage, and so on.  And I was afraid 
he wouldn't like me if he knew I wasn't really a normal human."  
She sighed.  "It was stupid."

         "Not really,"  I said.  "Alex lost someone special because he 
couldn't accept that she was an ogre."

         "Yeah, I had no way of knowing.  But it was still stupid of 
me."  She frowned.  "Shouldn't Harry be back by now?"

        "I'll call him."

****************

Katherine said:

       Not much to report here.  I had a nice long walk and talked 
about lotsa stuff with Andrew.  We set up a date for next Friday, 
then talked about the stories he showed me, and then I walked him 
back to his car, and he took off for home after kissing my hand.  

        I was in Heaven.  He was such a nice guy, I could hardly 
believe it.  He was like a dream come true.  I practically floated 
back to my room.  Tanya and Angel were pacing around in their 
night clothes.  "Why are you two so frantic?"

        "Harry isn't back yet."

        I rolled my eyes.  "Maybe he's making out with Laura in her 
room."

        "It doesn't take a half hour to walk someone to Foxe!"

        Here we go again, I thought.

***********

Harry said:

        "That was really fun,"  Laura said as we rode down in the 
elevator.  "It's every week, right?"

        I nodded.  "Thomas runs Champions on Fridays, Angel runs 
AD&D on Saturdays.  I'm sure Thomas wouldn't mind you playing 
in his game."

        "I usually have sorority stuff on Fridays.  I might drag you to 
one of our parties some time.  You like dancing, don't you?"

        I nodded.  "Yeah, I love dancing.  It's a lot of fun, even though 
I don't have much rhythm.  My dancing is a lot better than Thomas' 
singing."

        We reached the ground floor, heading out into the lobby.  
Laura said, "Good.  Can you tango?"

        "With pleasure."  I laughed, and opened the door for her.  

        "Perfect."  We crossed the small grassy area between our 
dorms.  "You can teach my roommates some time.  They've been 
wanting to learn, and I'm not good enough to teach them."

        I stared at the grass, remembering the battle we'd fought 
there.  That won't happen again, I told myself.  Not again.

         She glanced at me.  "What's wrong?"

        "Nothing.  Just a bad memory."  We reached the door of her 
dorm.  "See you on Monday!"

        "Yeah."  She leaned over and kissed me on the cheek.  
"Goodnight, Harry.  See ya."  She unlocked the door and stepped 
inside.

        I wandered back to the dorm in a haze.  Did she have a crush 
on me, or was she just affectionate?  No one had ever kissed me in 
high school, and only Angel and Tanya had kissed me since.  No one 
ever got a crush on me either.  I wasn't sure how to judge, or what 
to do.  

        Eventually, I made it back to Angel's room after wandering 
around mindlessly in a haze.  Angel and Tanya both looked rather 
tense.  "What happened to you?"  Angel asked.

        "Did she have her way with you?"  Tanya teased.

        "I just decided to take a walk and think about stuff."  I hugged 
Angel.  "Am I staying here or going back to my room?"
   
        "You have to stay here so Kathie and Angel and I can take 
turns at you,"  Tanya said, grinning.  

       Angel laughed.  "Up to you, Harry."

       I decided to stay with them.  "Where's Thomas?"

       Tanya stepped a little closer.  "He didn't want to watch."

       For a moment, I thought maybe she WAS serious about her 
and Kathie and Angel.  Naah.  Even Tanya isn't that crazy.  Maybe.  
"Who goes first?"

       "We flip you for it."

        I needed a good laugh, and that fit the bill.  In case you're 
wondering, nothing really happened, unless you count getting a 
good night's sleep.

**************

Epilogue:

       Splinter was covered with snow and miserable.  She and 
Bluefang had gotten caught in a heavy snowstorm on the way into 
the mountains, and even with her degree of power over cold and 
ice, she was still freezing, which bothered her.  Bluefang was 
unbothered, but Ice drakes weren't really happy if it wasn't below 
freezing.  Damn sage, she thought.  Why did that idiot have to move 
up into this icecube of a realm?

        They finally spotted a small house, or at least a chimney 
sticking out of a pile of snow, and landed.  Splinter easily cleared 
the snow off the front and knocked on the door.  

       "Come in!"  said an old man.  

       She opened the door and walked in, very happy that the house 
was nice and warm.  The front room had several nice padded 
chairs, a fireplace full of fire, a woven rug in a geometric pattern, 
and a long bookshelf of books.  An old boggart came hobbling out 
with the help of a cane.  He was wearing thick black clothing and a 
brown wool hat over his grey hair, with holes for his huge pointed 
ears.  About four feet tall, he had rough blue-black skin and dirty 
fangs.  "Well, a high and mighty sidhe at my door.  What you want, 
girlie?"  He cackled a bit and walked over to the biggest chair and 
hopped into it more nimbly than he walked.

       "I understand you have studied ancient artifacts.  I need to 
find some."

       He laughed.  "That's what they all say.  Which ones?"

       Splinter said, "The Scythe of the Queen of the Fall and the 
Mirror of the King of the Fall."

       Cocking his head, he looked at her curiously.  "Interesting.  Not 
too many people remember that legend."

       "What  legend?"

       He blinked.  "Umm...how did you learn about them if you 
haven't heard the legend?"

        "Tell me."  she commanded.  

        "It is said that once upon a time, in the distant past, two pairs 
of kings and queens tried to challenge the division of time between 
the Seelie and Unseelie.  The King and Queen of the Fall took the 
time around Samhain as their own, while Beltaine marked the 
midpoint of the King and Queen of Spring's domain.  It was the only 
time the Seelie and Unseelie cooperated to fight a common foe.  
They were crushed, but the artifacts they had created survived.  
The King of the Fall was a seer, and his mirror could gaze upon any 
place and find whatever was sought.  The Queen was a warrior, and 
her scythe could cut through anything.  The Queen of Spring was a 
warrior as well, wielding a sword of flames, and the King of Spring 
was the force of new birth, of the growth of the green made flesh."  
He laughed.  "Pretty silly, if you ask me.  Still, here in Arcadia, 
every story is true somewhere.  Even if they never existed, and I 
doubt they did, their artifacts probably do exist.  I suggest entering 
the land of legends and seeking the realm created by their legend.  
Of course...getting it away from them would be a bit difficult.  The 
King of the Fall will likely see you coming, and his wife supposedly 
fought five hundred ogres by herself and killed them all, suffering 
only a broken nail and one stab wound on her right arm. "  He 
pulled out a pipe and started smoking.

        She frowned.  "Do you know how to find someone named 
Ariel?"

        He blinked.  "The wanderer in the mists?"

        "I have no clue.  Another thing Mimr said to find.  Person to 
find, that is."

       "You don't find Ariel.  She finds you.  I suggest praying.  It 
can't hurt, anyway."

       Splinter frowned.  "Don't make fun of me."

       "Girlie, I was reading books when your grandparents didn't 
even exist yet.  I can make fun of whoever I want.  If your mother 
doesn't like it, I could care less.  That's why I live here, so I don't 
have to play your stupid nobility games.  You can put up with me, 
or you can get out."

         Splinter fumed.  "So there's no way to find her?"

        "Only sheer luck or the grace of God."

        Splinter didn't think she could count on either of those.