Sprite

“Mama, I’m hot!” Six year old Norah pulled on the back of her mother’s chair. “I don’t want to wear this dress!”

Miriam turned around to shush her daughter. “Come stand over here next to me like a good girl.”

The dress in question was pink and ruffled, and cinched tightly around the little girl’s waist. Reluctantly, she came around the front of the chair and stood shyly at her mother’s side. They were waiting for the carriage to arrive bringing Norah’s grandfather, whom she’d never met. Norah already had a Papa. She wasn’t sure she needed another one, but Mama and Daddy and Papa had all told her she must be nice to this grandfather, too.

The carriage pulled up and a tall man stepped out. He was dressed all in white. “Father,” Miriam said, coming out of her chair to greet him. She beckoned Norah to stay where she was. The man gave Miriam a kiss on the cheek, then swept past her to meet his young granddaughter.

He smiled, and Norah brightened, dropping into a curtsey as her mother had taught her.

“Aren’t you a pretty little thing,” the tall man said. “You look like your Mama. And your Grandmama. What is your name?”

“Norah, sir,” Norah replied, but she frowned. This man already knew her name. Why was he asking her to tell him again? Her fingers itched where Daddy had cut away the extra pieces that always grew in between them. Norah wanted to scratch them, but Mama would get mad.

John Hanan hobbled up the few steps to the wide front porch with Jim’s assistance. He held out his hand. “Allen! How’s the business going?” he asked heartily, settling into the seat Miriam had just vacated. “She does look like my Maureen, doesn’t she?” He beckoned Norah over, and placed her on his lap.

Jim stood by his wife, waiting to be introduced.

“Business couldn’t be better,” Allen replied. “In fact, I have a few items I’d like to discuss with you and my daughter.” His gaze drifted over Jim and back.

“Ah, yes, you haven’t seen James since the wedding, have you?” John Hanan smiled. “He’s my right hand man around here—in addition to being Miriam’s husband, of course, and father to this little one. Sit still, Norah.”

Norah had been fidgeting, her eyes tracking butterflies off the edge of the porch. She pulled on the collar of her dress as she settled herself once more in her Papa’s lap, trying to get comfortable.

“I’ll take her,” offered Jim, letting go of Miriam’s waist. “It will give you three time to talk. Come on, Norah. Let’s go for a walk.”

Norah slid off Papa’s lap and ran to her father. Walks with Daddy were always fun. She gave one last worried glance to her Mama, then took Daddy’s hand and bounced down the steps.

Miriam did not notice her daughter’s concerned look. Miriam kept all her attention focused on the stranger who was her father. “Shall we go inside where it’s cooler?” she asked, as the lady of the house. The men followed her inside, and Allen politely held the door for John Hanan. Her grandfather moved more slowly these days.

Jim stopped Norah just out of sight of the main house. “Shh!” he told her, winking. “Don’t tell Mama.” He lifted the heavy pink dress off her and left her in just her sleeveless petticoat. “Shoes too,” he said, waiting while she pulled them off, and the stockings which came up to her knees with them. “That’s better. Now we won’t get your pretty dress all dirty.”

“Whee!” Norah twirled around on bare feet, reveling in the feel of dirt between her toes. “I’m in my petticoat!” she giggled. “Outside!”

Jim folded her dress and put it and the shoes inside the bag he always carried with him. Norah held his hand and skipped as they walked through the green woods. The path he took crossed a little brook, nearly dried up in the summer heat. Water trickled through the very center of the brook. It was enough to dip their feet in. Norah cried out in surprise as he lifted her into the water. She watched it swirl around her ankles and scooched down to cup it between her fingers, getting her petticoat wet in the process. Jim didn’t stop her, figuring the sun would dry it out quickly enough on their walk back.

He took out his drawing materials and leaned against a tree, sketching Norah as she played in the water. Her dark red hair frizzled as strands escaped the two braids she wore behind her ears. The ends of her braids trailed in the water. She looked up at him, and her smile was dazzling. “Daddy!” she called. “Look!” She held up her hands, which she had been swirling around in the shallow water. Already, thin, transparent membrane was forming between her fingers. “Look what I can do!” She visibly pushed the water with her hands. The webbing caught it so it did not just slide through her fingers. The scientist in him made Jim take note of the fact. Norah would be a powerful swimmer if she was allowed to go into the water.

Unfortunately, the webbing was a side effect of any prolonged immersion in water, as Jim and Miriam had learned early on while giving baby Norah a bath. Jim hadn’t thought it would happen after just a few minute’s play in the little brook. “Mama is going to scold us both,” he said, putting away his drawing. “Come out of there now. We’ll have to take care of your fingers before we go back.”

Norah’s face fell, but she came out of the water and held out her hands so Jim could cut away the bits of webbing that had formed there. He did her feet, too, and cut away the beginnings of fins on her ankles as well. Norah stoically bore it all, as she had done since she was born. Jim’s heart went out to her. No little girl should have to endure what she did. He squeezed the excess water from the bottom of her petticoat, then lifted her to his shoulders. “I’ll give you a ride home,” he said, more to let the air heal the raw skin on her hands and feet than for any other reason.

But Norah squealed happily, enjoying the feeling of being so high up. She reached above her and tried to grab leaves from the trees, scattering them on Jim’s head when she was successful. “Daddy, can we go there again?” she asked, so full of hope that Jim didn’t have the heart to say no. He helped her back into her dress and shoes before they got back to the house.

Dinner was quiet. Norah ate earlier and was sent to bed, after giving her new grandfather a kiss goodnight. “My father-in-law convinced me that, among other things, you are a good teacher,” Allen remarked. “I had planned to bring Norah to the city to attend boarding school next year, like her mother had done when she was younger. It’s not good for a child to grow up out here all alone. She should have children her own age around her, and I would have been nearby as her grandfather. I have a fair bit of influence in the city, and could have introduced her to a lot of important people. You and Miriam would have been welcome to stay with me, too. But John has been going on and on about how important you are to him out here in the woods, and Miriam didn’t want to leave her grandfather—or you.”

“I told him Norah is still too young,” Miriam said, sounding almost desperate.

“No younger than you were,” her father said mildly.

“But that was because Mama had died,” Miriam replied. “Norah has her Mama and her Daddy right here. Jim is a good teacher. Really.”

Allen tskd, but he smiled ruefully. “You have a loyal cheering section, Jim. Take good care of my daughter and my grandchild. Eventually, I think Norah ought to come to the city to complete her education, but there’s time yet. You should all think about it.” He glanced significantly at John Hanan.

“Are you leaving?” Jim asked.

“In the morning. I’ll say goodnight now.”

John Hanan walked him to the stairs. “Don’t count me out yet, Allen,” he warned, smiling like it was an old joke between them. “It’s still my company. I just let you run it.”

“That’s exactly my point, old man. When we both go, I want to make sure the company is in good hands—family hands.”

Miriam walked with Jim to their suite, and as soon as the door was closed behind them, she threw her arms around him and burst into tears. “He was going to take her away, Jimmy! He was going to take her to that awful city, and they would have found out about her mutations, and then they would kill her! She’s my baby, Jimmy! I don’t want them to take her away!”

Jim stroked Miriam’s hair. “Your grandfather and I would never let that happen,” he said soothingly. “Don’t worry, we’ll keep Norah here with us. She’ll be safe here.”

Miriam clung to him, still sobbing uncontrollably. She lifted her face to kiss him. “Love me, Jimmy. I need you to love me tonight.”

“I already do,” Jim murmured, but he took her to his bed, which is what she meant.

x x x x x x

Valin stood in the shadows dressed in human garb, a coat, trousers, and heavy boots. That last item shocked Neistah more than all the rest. “What are you doing here?” he asked gruffly, sticking to verbal speech. Valin did not blend in any more than Neistah did, despite his human clothing. His peculiar violet eyes stared out of a face too perfect to be human, and he had not made any attempt to tame his long wild hair.

“I came to see what you do here,” his father answered. The air behind Valin shimmered. He was not too far away from the gate he had used to come here.

“Don’t,” Neistah advised. “The woods are crawling with humans who carry guns. The iron pellets would kill you.”

“And you are immune?” Valin cocked an eyebrow.

Neistah grinned. “I’m fast,” he said. “I know how to avoid them.”

“Don’t be so sure,” Valin cautioned him, lifting a hand to briefly touch the jagged scar on his own face. “Why do you stay?”

“It’s interesting,” Neistah replied. “Why are you dressed like that? Why are you really here?”

Valin looked Neistah over. Neistah still wore only his golden trunks, making no concession to the human he pretended to be. Valin had been watching Neistah interact with the odd humans who made their home in the forest. He came and he went among them, and none seemed to take him for anything otherworldly. “Do the humans know what you are?”

“They think I’m one of them,” Neistah said. “What about you? Where did you get that clothing?”

Valin’s eyes sparkled. “I found them. The men who owned them no longer have need of them.”

“Hunters? Valin, you’d better be careful.”

“I’ve been doing this for longer than you’ve been alive,” his father said. “I’ve seen these woods in all their beauty, and I’ve seen it after humans have taken it over. I prefer it without them.” He turned so that he faced the faint shimmer in the air behind him. “The more humans you bring here, the harder it is to cross through. I told you once it was your fault we could no longer pass through to this world easily. Humans bring iron, and they destroy the very places that link this world to our own. Are you sure you want to continue bringing them here?”

“They have no other place to go,” Neistah said. His eyes clouded. “Their own kind hunt them as well as us. They don’t know the difference. How can I let them be?”

“They are not your people,” Valin said softly. “Don’t get too close to them, or they will burn you just as surely as iron.”

“Father, how did you pass so easily to this world? The gates are harder and harder to find, and the way is no longer so clear.”

For answer, Valin turned over his palm, which had a spot of blood in the center. “You know the way. You’ve seen it with your own eyes.” His eyes narrowed. “I don’t recommend using it, however. Blood rips a hole through the worlds, leaving the way open in both directions for a short period of time.” He closed his fist. “If there were less humans in these woods, or less iron, the old ways would become easier to travel again. Your mother wants you to come home, Neistah. Will you leave these foolish games and come back to your own?”

Neistah shrugged. The number of mutants flooding out from the cities had been steadily increasing, although not all of them made it as far as the hidden encampments in the forest. These encampments were necessarily spread out, and very rustic. As more and more mutants tried to escape their fate in the human cities, more and more hunters patrolled the forests searching for these fabled mutant villages. Neistah did what he could, which was not very much. He couldn’t save them all. “I’ll come back with you for a while,” he said. Until he got bored again.

Father and son walked into the shimmer and disappeared.