“Anna, I need you to
bring some more plates outside.”
“Un minuto mama,” called
Anna from her room.
“Anna,” her mother said
with a note of exasperation.
“Sorry. Yes mom, just give me a minute.”
Her father came down right afterwards, carrying several speakers
to set up on the patio. “Angela,” Fernando asked his wife, “Did Rina let you
know if she was coming?”
“Titi Rina might come?” Anna squealed.
“Yes,” her mother said. She looked at Fernando and said, “And
Catarina is bringing el loco.”
“El loco?” Anna asked, picturing a man in a straightjacket, with
foam in his mouth while he laughed like a maniac.
“Angela, you'll give Anna strange notions, as if she needed
any help with that,” Anna’s father said to his wife.
He then turned to his wide-eyed daughter. “He’s just an eccentric friend
of your Aunt Rina’s, probably no crazier than you are mihijita."
“Sometimes I wonder which one of us has the crazier family,”
Angela said. “Though it’s always funny when she’s in the same room as your
sister Natalia. She’ll probably be crossing herself all day once Titi Rina
arrives.”
“If you both think your families are crazy, then why are we
throwing a family reunion?”
“Because family is
family,” Angela said. “Now go on and get those platters out there.”
The guests began
arriving shortly after Anna’s father finished setting up the sound system. The
lively music only made Anna more restless as she waited for her Aunt
Rina to arrive. After dutifully kissing and hugging every aunt, uncle, and
cousin she sat and picked at her food until she saw her come through the patio
doors, carrying a gift bag and accompanied by the person she presumed her
mother called “el loco.”
“Titi Rina!” Anna
yelled, deserting her plate and propelling herself into her aunt’s arms.
“Reinita!” Rina
answered, hugging her niece. Rina’s wavy, dark hair was swept back from her
face by a large, colorful swath of fabric. Stifling a giggle, she noticed her
Aunt Natalia look their way, making a face. She didn’t approve of Aunt Rina’s
tattoo on her arm, a star in a circle surrounded by pretty flowers, which was
very visible because of the sleeveless summer dress she wore. Anna knew her
parents didn’t care for it either; the words “midlife crisis” were often
mentioned when the topic was brought up.
“Reinita!” said the man
standing by her aunt. “I didn’t know I was in the presence of royalty!” He
dropped to one knee, flourishing his arm. “Milady Anna, it’s an honor. Your
aunt has told me a lot about you.”
Rina laughed. So did Anna,
even though she thought he was more goofy than funny. As crazy people went, he
seemed pretty ordinary to Anna. His pale skin and hair certainly stood out
among her relatives, but she couldn’t see anything she would consider crazy.
She thought he looked a little like what people thought of as hippies, but
older, with his salt and pepper hair pulled back into a ponytail. She noticed
that the fabric of her aunt’s head band matched the fabric of the man’s shirt. Their
purses were different though. Crazy? No. But definitely kind of weird,
which was good because she liked weird.
“Anna, this is Orion.
Orion, Anna,” Titi Rina said.
“What did my aunt say
about me?”
“Well for one, she said
you liked dolls,” Orion answered.
“That’s true,” Anna said
making a face. “But a lot of kids do.”
“She also said you were
very imaginative and liked learning about different countries. So when I saw
this little guy,” Orion said, reaching into his bag and pulling out a small
doll, “I figured you’d give him a good home. He’s pretty special.”
“We got him especially
for you,” Titi Rina added.
Anna took hold of the
doll and looked him over. His shirt and pants also matched the print Orion and Titi Rina were wearing, and a smile was stitched onto the
doll’s warm brown face. Anna ran her finger over the yarn making up the
doll’s hair, studying it for a moment before breaking into a large grin.
“Cool!” said Anna.
“Thanks Mr. Orion! Gracias Titi Rina!”
“Just Orion, Anna. Now,
I’ve also heard that there were going to be empanadas at this party. Mind
showing me where?”
Anna led Orion and Titi
Rina to the platter holding the savory, meat-filled pockets of dough and helped
herself to one as well. After she finished hers, she excused herself to go play
hide and seek with her cousins.
Anna giggled as she ran
towards the park across the street where her cousins were playing. Hide and
seek was as good an excuse as any to take the time to examine the doll Mr.
Orion gave her more carefully. She was fairly sure she knew what was so special
about it, but a crowded back yard was no place to find out. She didn’t even
think inside her house was a great idea, with so many people wandering in and
out. That was too bad, because she would have liked to have Yuuki meet whatever
was in the doll as well. She sometimes wondered if the kitsune had any other
fae friends.
As she stepped up on the
sidewalk leading into the park, a fox came up from behind her, snatching the
doll and heading towards the more heavily wooded running trail. Anna stopped
herself from yelling; she didn’t want any of the grownups nosing in on this.
But she didn’t want to be left out either. She ran after Yuuki, but the fox
quickly pulled ahead and out of sight. Anna kept running. It might take her a
while, but she had a good idea where Yuuki was going.
Ajani figured there might be some sort of confrontation; this was
just a little sooner than he expected. The red fox tightly gripping the doll
that Ajani had hid in didn’t have the feel of an ordinary fox. He waited until
they were well into the path; no use in scaring the little girl or any other
humans that might be nearby. Then he slid out of the doll as easily as slipping
off a coat, grew to human height and leveled his favorite sword, an ida, at the
fox
The fox snarled, took a
step back and went through its own transformation. Red fur became long red
hair, coming from a face hidden behind a snarling, bestial mask. The figure
grew, also to human height, wearing a deep purple kimono tied by a yellow sash.
The opposing fae had its weapon, a lethal looking katana, at the ready as well.
“I will give you one
chance,” the kimono-clad fae said in a musical voice. “Leave now and do not
return or I will cut you to ribbons.”
“Nope. I made a promise
to make sure that little girl isn’t being bothered by anything, well, anything
like you.”
“She is not being bothered,” the mysterious fae replied. “You can
return to where you came from now.”
“Nothing personal, but
that’s just not going to cut it. If I knew what kind of fae you are, I’d have a
better idea if you could be counted on to be helpful or even just truthful.
Nah, you’ll need to come with me. I have a buddy who can give me a better idea
of your motives. If you haven’t harmed or don’t plan to harm the girl, there’s
nothing to fear.”
The painted on eyes of
the mask the other fae wore narrowed. “Leave with you? That would be convenient
for any partner you had waiting for me to leave that home defenseless so they
can enter.”
“Suspicious much? I’ll
give you my word there’s no other fae but me interested in what’s going on in
there,” Ajani said.
“As you do not know what
I am, I do not know what you are. You say you are kami, or fae rather, but you
dress in the form of a young human male of this era. You say you have no other
fae accomplices, so if you are telling the truth, which I am far from certain
about, then there is still the matter of the friend you wish me to see,
obviously human and probably a mage. Mage or not, I have no way of discerning
the human’s intentions and again, I am not leaving this home open to attack,
especially if the human is skilled in magical arts. Whomever it is can come to
me.”
“Sorry. I’m not leaving
you alone and giving you a chance to get up to no good while I’m gone.”
The fae made a motion
with their hand. Immediately, the world around Ajani shifted and blended.
Disoriented, he looked around. The landscape around him had become bizarre.
Trees grew sideways from rocks, the small pond that had been behind him
floated above Ajani and patches of grass and ground splattered in among sky.
The spot he had been standing on had vanished into air and instinctively Ajani
scrambled onto what looked like the nearest piece of earth he could stand on.
“Have it your way.” The
fox fae’s voice floated around Ajani like dandelion fluff caught in a breeze.
“Neither of us will leave. But you will answer my questions to my satisfaction
or I shall see if I am still as adept with my sword as I was two hundred years
ago.”
Ajani closed his eyes
and the feeling of vertigo left him. He shifted his foot, feeling firm ground
beneath him. A glamour, and a very powerful one at that; glamours didn’t
normally affect other fae so strongly. Ajani still had the rest of his senses
left, which as a fae of the hunt were very keen indeed. Though Ajani hadn’t
done more than what he considered “gentleman’s hunting” with Orion in the last
few decades, he was still a hunter down to his core.
And foxes? Foxes were
prey.
Ajani swung out with his
ida and felt the jolt of steel connecting with steel. He stepped forward, eyes
closed the whole time using every instinct he had to parry the fox’s blows and
strike a few of his own.
He barely noticed the
first meeting of the katana and skin. Ajani definitely felt the second though.
By the fifth cut, he was fuming. It didn’t matter what part of the world they
came from—a fox is always going to fight dirty, he thought. A fetid smell rose
up around Ajani, not only interfering with his ability to find the fox but
making him fight down nausea as well.
Before the sixth cut had
a chance to hit home, a scream interrupted the fight. Ajani finally felt his
ida strike a solid blow as it happened. The fox fae cried out “Anna-chan!” in a
panic. All at once the rotting smell evaporated.
Ajani stumbled towards the
sound of the scream. The glamour that fox put out was strong enough to severely
effect a fae; any human caught in it could go permanently mad if exposed to it
for too long.
“Sit tight Anna!” he
yelled, not knowing if it would do any good.
“Yuuki-kun,” he heard Anna
whimper. And then a new scent filled the air.
Baking cookies…
snickerdoodles? Ajani thought. Mingled with the smell of cookies were the
flowers.
Ajani tentatively opened his eyes. At first, he thought the world had returned
to normal, but patches of purple flowers were in bloom where there hadn’t been
any before. The light in the clearing also changed, making everything seem
softer. Ajani took a look at his sore body. Most of his wounds were
superficial, though the one on his leg would require a bit of care.
He got a bit of grim
satisfaction at seeing the fox fae. Ajani had managed to slash it deeply on the
left arm. But that didn’t stop the fox fae from cradling the girl with the
right.
“Anna-chan, are you
alright?”
“Yuuki-kun, I had a
nightmare while I was awake. The world was melting and rotting away…”
“Pffft. No nightmares
here. Don’t you know I eat nightmares until there’s nothing left of them but my
farts?”
The girl giggled.
“You’re a kitsune not a baku!”
Ajani breathed a sigh of
relief. At the sound, the fox fae remembered Ajani was still there and glared.
Ajani put his ida down. The fox fae nodded after a moment and turned back to Anna.
“Is she going to
be OK?” Ajani asked.
“Who’s that?” Anna
asked, opening her eyes. In the second before she did the fox waved weakly with
its free hand and both of their wounds faded from sight. Ajani could still feel
his though and was pretty sure the same applied to the fox but was glad the kid
didn’t have to open her eyes to anything more horrible than patches of lavender
in a running path that looked like it belonged in a kid’s cartoon.
“Oh hey,” she said
smiling. “I was wondering when you were coming out of the doll.”
“You knew?” both Ajani
and the fox fae asked.
“Of course. I can see
people like you and Yuuki-kun pretty easily. Do you live in the city? It’s
usually city fae that dress normal. Did my aunt meet you in the city?”
“Your aunt?” Yuuki
asked. “Natalia?”
“No silly! Titi Rina!” Anna
laughed. “She’s the only one in the family that gets me,” she said looking at
Ajani. “I always wondered if she could see fae too, but I was too scared to
ask. People either think you're a baby or you’re crazy if you say you can see
fae. Can she see too Ajani?”
“Not quite,” Ajani
answered. “She can feel if fae are around, but not much more than that. She’s
working on it though. That’s why I’m here,” Ajani shot a look at Yuuki. “She
asked Orion and I to help figure out what sort of fae was hanging around her
niece.”
“It’s just Yuuki-kun.”
“Oh yeah, just a cross
between Morgan LeFay and O-ren from Kill Bill, yeah, nothing major.”
The fox fae started
laughing.
“Should I have said
Darth Vader?” Ajani asked.
Just then they heard the
murmur of voices a distance away but coming closer. Titi Rina’s voice was the
clearest “The scream came from over there.” Quickly Yuuki became a plush fox
toy and Ajani got back into the doll. At least it was a good place to rest,
Ajani thought. He was going to need it.
“Anna querida,” Titi
Rina said as she saw her niece. Anna’s parents’ faces went from concern to
relief as they saw their daughter sitting there safe and sound, holding her
toys. “We heard you yelling and were scared. What happened?”
“I – I thought I saw a
bear.”
“Dios mio!” Anna’s
mother exclaimed. “Those things are getting out of hand. I read about one that
was found near the supermarket last week. Thank god you weren’t attacked!”
As the chattering adults
brought the young girl back to the house, Ajani thought he’d feel very sorry
for any bear dumb enough to try to go after this particular kid. Real damn
sorry.
