Vixen walks through the smooth, flourescent lit store, playing with the toys as she was wont to do in the days before she first left her own universe and was stranded in a larger world. This place is not like her own, but like enough to be comfortable to visit. It just has a touch more magic left to it.
Vix brushes her hands along a large stuffed tiger, then turns about and admires the Lego sets. She eyes a 3-D puzzle of a medieval castle with interest, then decides not to buy anything today.
She has no place to put the 3-D castle on the Tichoke. And Pelgras would probably try to eat the Legos.
As Vixen leaves, a kid bumps into her. A little girl in old, hand-me-down shirt and shorts.
"Sorry."
The girl looks up at Vix. "Hi there. 'M Lynn. Who're you?"
The adverturess pauses. That prickly feeling of strong magic sits in the air. "V- Er, call me Marie. Pleased to meet you, Lynn. Where's your parents?"
Lynn looks up at Vixen with wise eyes. "Mommy's at home. I don't have a Daddy."
Vix nods. "You probably need to get home, then, don't you?"
The girl shakes her head. "Not right now. Had to meet you, first. You're from far away, aren't you? Come with me back home?"
Vixen blinks. "Sure." She follows the child out the door.
********
Lynn's home is in a neighborhood that was once nice but now is a little worn around the edges. It's not a far walk from the mall for Vixen; she's used to hiking long distances. Lynn trots along as easily as if she were born walking.
The house itself has a ragged garden out front with daffodils and an early tulip or two scenting the air amidst pernicious weeds. Smaller boxes of dirt house herbs around the porch. Strong herbs, like bay and sage, and mild herbs, like parsley and thyme. A mosquito plant keeps their annoying whine away from the front door itself, which is made of solid and aged wood.
Lynn ushers Vixen right in with the easy-going charm only the young seem to have. "Hi, Mommy!"
"Marilynn? You're late for dinner. Oh, hello, I suppose you found her?"
Vix smiles. "Actually she ran into me and asked me to come back with her. You got a babysitter?"
Mom looks up. "Oh, bless you. That's exactly what I need for her. Marilynn's a very headstrong child. What's your qualifications?"
Experienced as Vixen is, she can't tell someone like this about foster raising a princess or piloting the Tichoke. She wouldn't credit it. "Oh, I was in Girl Scouts my whole time in school as a kid, and I helped out at Sunday School at lot."
Mom nods. "Just call me Mom, then. All the kids around here do. I can't afford to pay much."
Vixen grins. "I don't need a lot of money. I haven't had ordinary food in a long time, though."
A smile shows itself on her worn face. "I can do that."
*****
Vixen knocks on the door the next day. Lynn answers.
"Mommy's off to work already."
Vix nods. "So, what's the agenda?"
"We have to go and find some people. You're different, so you can help."
Vixen blinks at the girl. "What do you mean?"
Lynn looks up at Vixen seriously. "There's something really important that's going on here, and you're from outside. You see it all different, and I'm going to need that. I know most of what's going on, but I know that you know it, too, and I can't get it all done by myself. Silly rules."
Vix blinks. She sits. "What's your name, again? Your full name?"
"Marilynn Ambrosa. Ambrosa's my mom's last name."
The adventuress gets one of those sinking feelings. "And.. you said you don't have a dad?"
The little girl smiles enigmatically. "Nope."
Vix nods and knows when she's outmatched. "Lead on, little enchantress. We've got people to find."
Lynn gets up and skips over to her bike that sits haphazardly in the front yard. "That's what I said."
At about that same time, Drake Uther sits consulting his PR man. They had set up the entire speech, the press is almost here, and they are missing one crucial ingredient.
A rather tired hand smacks the oak-finished table. "How can we get this photo op to work if there's no one to photo me -with-?"
Mr. Maglus shifts a bit. "It's not my fault if the kid we interviewed ended up with the measles. We'll just have to find another child from a single-parent home."
Rep. Uther nods. "In fourteen minutes."
Maglus nods and looks around. A brand new train, deep red, sits on the almost finished track that runs through the stark white rock of the hill behind them. The construction is mostly cleared away, leaving a large bandstand affair from which Rep. Uther can give his speech and demonstrate how this transportation will effect progress and benefit this poverty-striken area. "You could do it without the kid...."
Drake shakes his head. "No... I'd get eaten alive after what Gerald did. Ol' Vortie really pulled a good one with that commercial, and I'm in deep water in the polls."
Mr. Maglus, the magician of opinions, nods and shrugs. He takes another look.
And he sees a kid. A little girl at the perfect age for voter appeal, being chaperoned by someone who could have stepped right out of the Big Brother/Big Sister program. He taps Drake on the shoulder. "Mr. Uther...."
Rep. Uther looks up. "Well... we can ask." He walks over.
Lynn, for her part, stands there as if she knew this was going to happen all along. Vixen assumes that she did. Playing the part of temporary guardian, Vix walks to the nice congressman. "Hello."
Mr. Maglus hurries over. "Hello. Could we borrow you two for a while?"
Lynn nods. "Sure! But not for this."
Uther and his loyal servant pause. "What?" they ask in unison.
Lynn points at the hill. The terrible hill it took weeks and weeks to blast a path for the train tracks. The hill is moving.
"Oh, no!" The two men watch in horror as the hill seems to shrug off the iron bands and wooden slats. The red train suddenly puffs into life and seems to rear on the buckling tracks, only to be buried in the hawk like landslide that rolls over it. In moments, only a few shards of twisted metal remain. The hill resettles and resumes the hard, unconquerable shape it held before the construction started. Drake sinks down to the ground in shock. Mr. Maglus just stares.
"It wouldn't have worked, anyway. Nobody wants another ugly, smelly old train station."
Maglus looks at the little girl. "Wha.. what are we going to do now?"
Vix grins. "Don't worry.. she'll tell you."
Marilynn nods and looks over the stubborn hill. "The press won't be here for a little while longer.... I think they've encountered a robbery and are staying to film it. Do you want me to help?"
Drake answers. "I don't know how you do that, kid, but it's disturbing. -Can- you help?"
The dark, wise eyes look up at the Congressman. "I wouldn't have asked if you wanted it if I couldn't. Just 'cause I'm small doesn't mean I can't do something for you. But sooner or later there'll be a price."
Rep. Uther nods. "Sure. If you can help, by all means, go ahead."
Lynn nods back solemnly, then turns to Vixen. "Do you know why the hill didn't like the train?"
Vix turns her head back to child logic, for that's how things like that happen. "The train didn't belong there."
"Right!" The little girl beams brightly at her servant. "What does belong here?"
A knight of the Order Psionic does not get their spurs without knowing how to answer questions like that. Vixen closes her eyes and opens her senses, reaching out to the grass, the rock, the trees. She feels the windswept rock sigh and the grass shrivel under the hot sun. The trees shade nothing, not even animals anymore.
"It is lonely, little enchantress. It needs playmates."
Drake and his PR magician, Mr. Maglus, look at each other with sheer puzzlement. Lynn just nods.
"Give me an instrument."
Vix pulls herself back into herself and fishes a zither out of her backpack. Marilynn accepts it without comment, settling down in the fresh cut grass and spending a moment to contemplate the landscape.
Rep. Uther clears his throat. "Excuse me.. but how is this going to help me?"
"Patience," admonishes the little girl, from what seems a long way away. Her hands begin to pluck music from the zither. They begin like a little child learning their notes, but quickly, easily, settle into a chorus of music, like a seal when it first dives into the water and discovers how wonderful it is. A breeze lifts the blades of grass around her and the hill shuffles again restlessly. The world takes a breath. Even the two men stop with their impatience and wait.
Like rain drops falling fatly from a humid summer sky, patches of grass fill in the bare patches of ground around the rocks. Soon, the storm increases, until the patches cover the ground in puddles of lush, healthy green. Young trees stretch up, the sort with low branches to climb on and thick leaves to lie under in cool summer shade. A patch of ground buries itself and sprouts flowers, daffodils and tulips that shine like crayons. Before the astonished eyes of the rational politicians, a tree sprouts a tree house and ladder, while surrrounding trees give up lumber for a neat building and a slatted fence to surround the area. A jungle jym grows out of the ground, already painted a soothing, inviting blue, while swings and playsets seem to dance into place by their own cheerfulness.
The music reaches a complicated pitch, and even the house recieves paint, roof, and lights. The ground grumbles a bit as plumbing is arranged underneath, then settles. As a finishing touch, an antenna pops up for a TV.
The music fades. The silence is immense. Rep. Uther opens and closes his mouth several times before anything comes out.
"Is it.. real?"
Lynn smiles, putting the zither back in the backpack for Vixen. "Are you real?"
"How.. how does this help me?"
Vixen takes charge. "I can answer that, sir. I grew up in a neighborhood not unlike this place, and the biggest problem is that parents have to work all day just to keep their heads above water. I used to stay after school with the Brownie Troop, but lots of kids just go home to an empty house." The girl nods encouragingly. "I suggest you change your platform some. Here we have a safe place, if you staff it with reliable persons, where kids can go after school and be kids. Make this sort of idea the center of your campaign, and I bet you'll find a very positive response."
Mr. Maglus studies the idea while Rep. Uther digests the concept. They come to the same conclusion at the same time. "It sounds like a good idea. Er.. that's the price, isn't it?"
Lynn nods. "For this time."
Ten minutes later the press arrives to see the 'surprise' they had been promised. Rep. Uther gives a moving speech about kids lost in the cracks (half written by Vixen), and promises that if he's elected, he'll promote these sort of safe zones for the safety and education of many more kids just like this remarkable little girl here. The photos couldn't have been better, with the healthy and lush, almost magical glow of the surroundings, as one paper comments. Rep. Uther makes a great gain in the polls.
*****
Hector switches the television set off after seeing the report on the new playground. Reaching down to the bookbag at his feet he withdraws a wirebound notebook and and a trio of textbooks. Setting the books down next to him as he leans back into the couch, he flips the notebook open to the list of his current assignments. Noting the speech assingment as he runs down the list he opts to tackle that one first. Turning to a clean sheet of paper he steels himself for the arduous task of transferring his thoughts to paper. One paragraph and half an hour later he glances up at the time and realizes he needs to get moving for football practice if he wants to make it on time by walking, as is his habit.
Nearby, although Hector is unaware of it, there is a place where reality bends. In a world that has drawn so far away from magic, in that place the magic has pooled and pulled away from the world, into a single spot concentrated in a very, very old rock upon which toadstools grow. It is from this rock that Lynn and Vixen jump into the garden on Hector's route. The little child races out to the street. "Wait here!"
Lynn places herself so that what Hector sees, coming round the corner, is a sweet, innocent child about to pet a snarling dog.
Spotting the child in danger (at least in his mind) he wastes no time in acting. He drops into a brief crouch and then launches forward, pounding the pavement, making no pretense of being quiet. When he nears the child and the dog he sets his shoulder for a tackle and slams into its side full force, sending them both sprawling.
The dog's attention now being focused upon its assailant snarls and bites at Hector. Finding his shoulder it bites down and holds on for dear life. Hector for his part winces and cries out as the dogs teeth dig into his all too vulnerable flesh.
Lynn sits up from being knocked aside and snatches up a willow wand. She whips it at the dog, yelling, "Bad dog! Go home!"
Surprisingly, the dog lets go and cowers, then whimpers and retreats surprisingly quickly, feet scrabbling on the sidewalk as it runs for home.
Lynn toddles over to Hector. "Are you alright, mister?" She tucks away the willow wand like a musketeer sheathing a rapier.
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