Bardsville
Year 2047
Chapter 1 Dog-gone it
Nova and Takeesha were just coming out of the locker room into the gym for volleyball when a wolf howled. It sounded like it was just outside the Bardsville Middle school.
“Wa… wa… wass… th… that a wolf?” Takeesha said.
“I think so.” It might have been. It was November, so it was already dark even though it was just five P.M. on a school night. Nova looked around. The other players warming up on the court and the spectators, who filled about a quarter of the bleachers seemed to have heard it, too. They looked around a moment, then went back to their practicing and talking, sipping sodas.
The wolf howled again.
Everyone in the gym froze. After a moment they began to whisper.
Takeesha grabbed Nova’s arm. She was shivering.
“Sounded like it was just outside, you know.”
“Yes, it did.”
Nova was less worried than Takeesha. But then, she had reason to be relaxed. Most people were only about four percent Neanderthal. She was half. Her father Ralf, was Neanderthal from a nearby dimension who had met her mother years ago. And because of her heritage, she was not only stronger than most people, she was able to do a certain amount of logical magic- little things, like popping a bike tire or turning on a radio. She didn’t have much control over it, yet, but she was learning. Who knew? Maybe she could handle wolves.
After a few moments with no more howls, Coach Hartzle waved the team together. Nova and Takeesha hustled over to the bench.
“Did you hear that?” Shelly McGregor said softly.
“I’m not taking my bike home,” Takeesha said. “That’s for sure.”
“Relax girls,”Coach Hartzle said. “It’s true that a pack of dogs has been reported in the area. According to the Wisconsin State Farmer, they’ve even killed off some livestock near Lafayette county. But don’t worry. Wolves are shy and stay away from people. Now let’s huddle up.”
Nova looked over at Takeesha who shrugged, though her eyes were still big with fear. The two girls squeezed into the circle of their teammates.
“Okay, team,” the coach said. “We haven’t won a single game yet, but every game we play we get stronger and closer to it. And I can taste victory today. So let’s get out there and give our best, okay?” He stuck his hand into the huddle. “Now, big Bardsville on three.”
The players put their hand on his and joined in the cheer of “Bardsville Bandicoots, Bardsville Bandicoots, Bardsville Bandicoots busting butts!”
Nova joined the cheering, but the coach had given the exact same speech the last time, and the time before that. So far, it hadn’t worked.
The coach checked his clipboard.“Mary, Shelly, Takeesha, Helen, Roxanne, and Paula, you’re in first. Christina, Lynn, Cheyenne, Nicki, Katie, and Nova are the substitutes tonight.”
Then the starters walked to their positions on the floor, and Nova and the rest of the substitutes waited in the wings on folding chairs in front of the bleachers. She’d been benched. And they didn’t even have a bench.
“This is the last game. Always a bench warmer. Will I ever get to compete?” Nova mumbled.
She was bored.
Nova was sitting in front of the bleachers on one of the folding chairs, watching the Bardsville Bandicoots volleyball team lose slowly to the Kenosha Trojans. She probably wouldn’t be going in anytime soon. She tended to approach the game with a little too much power– she had knocked down the net with her serve more than once. Not surprising, since she was half Neanderthal on her father’s side.
So maybe she should try some logical magic instead.
Ever since the Neanderthal shamans who lived in a nearby parallel dimension had begun leaking mystical beings into her own, people had stopped paying attention to science so much. Especially since it didn’t seem to help deal with the mystical monsters very often. On the other hand, magic was now possible. And with her Neanderthal blood she was able to tap into it.
Except that she still needed to work on her control. So what could she do?
Could she make someone drop their popcorn? No, that might just be a coincidence. Nova needed something else. Maybe make someone’s hair blow around? Hmm.
It would be much better if she could do something to someone in front of her. But she couldn’t get up and move to the bleachers because there was at least an outside chance she would be put into the game.
How about untying someone’s shoe laces, preferably someone on the Trojans?
She knew from her training with Leandra that she would have to go into a trace, but those never came easily. Then when in a trance she would have to think of something else as her subconscious was concentrating on the thing in front of her to make something happen. That was really the hardest part– splitting her brain up like that so that her normal thought wouldn’t interfere with the deeper parts.
It meant that the only way to make something happen was to not be paying attention when it did. She watched Takeesha, her best friend, and the other players trying desperately to keep a volley going. She focused on the squeaking sneakers, grunts and a referee whistle.
“Hey Nova,” Takeesha said when the play brought her close, “check out those two girls from the Trojans. The ones covering the back. They’re wicked good.” Nova found the girls Takeesha was talking about, a blonde-haired giant and an overweight girl who seemed too short to be competitive. But as Nova watched, the short girl set up the giant for a power spike that slammed down right between two Bandicoots.
But she could easily kick their butts if only she got a chance. She could power slam just as easily as the blonde with the funny oblong head…
Now that she looked closer, the shorter one wasn’t overweight. She was barrel-chested, just like Nova. And they both had brow ridges.
“Takeesha,” Nova staged whispered as soon as Takeesha was in range. “They’re Neanderthals.”
“Really? They are kind of far away, with the net between me and them.”
“I’m pretty sure.”
Nova kept watching the two girls. If they were Neanderthals like she was, how did they get here? She thought her own father was the only one who had crossed over and fallen in love with a human woman. Maybe Leandra would know something more. She often worked with the council of shamans on various things. She would have to visit Leandra. Could she go later that night? No, she had that test in the morning and had to memorize the bones in the human skeleton. She’d only gotten as far as the ulna. And why couldn’t she just call those things like the “upper arm bone?” It would make it all much easier–
A cheer went up on the Bardsville team. The blonde giant was sitting on the floor clutching her knee. It seemed that she had dived for a return and somehow her knee pads had fallen down to her ankles. Now she limped toward the bleachers, then took a seat. Did Nova do that? She realized she had slipped into a trance.
The Trojan’s coach made a sharp motion and another girl leaped from the bench and ran to the floor.
The game continued. Mary, one of the Bandicoots, sent the ball toward an unguarded corner of the Trojan’s field. The nearest Trojan let it go, thinking it was out of bounds, but it bounced just inside the line. Just then, the back door of the gym flew open. Nova could see street lights and trees in silhouette outside.
She smelled the fresh air and manure from all the horses people used to get around now that cars were harder to maintain and gas harder to come by. One of the Trojans chased down the loose ball.
A loud wolf howl made everyone gasp. Then, as the door slowly closed, a low-slung black form tore into the gym.
A wolf. A huge one.
The crowd screamed and began to scatter. But rather than going after the people, the slavering beast grabbed the metal vertical bar of the weight scale near the wall and shook it until the bar snapped in two.
Sparks flared out from the scale. People screamed. Then the werewolf went for the electrical cords on the score board. It bit through and the scoreboard flashed off and on. Then went dead.
Nova stood frozen in place, more confused than scared. Then the wolf did the last thing she expected. It rose up on its hind legs and said in a gravely voice, “Where’s Nova?!”
“We do not know.”
Nova looked around. She wasn’t alone in the gym. The two big girls from the Kenosha Trojans had transformed into wolf monsters. No wonder they looked like Neanderthals. They looked like their creators.
Takeesha was lying on the floor frozen in fear. The black werewolf sniffed her and walked away. Takeesha got up and ran to the locker room.
The two Trojan players, while still in their jerseys, now sported snouts full of sharp teeth. It seemed Nova was going to get an opportunity to kick their butts after all, But it was three against one.
The wolves stalked closer, eyeing Nova. She stared at the beasts and tried to think of what to do.
One of them, the brown one that had been the blonde giant, turned around and nipped at her flank, as if something had bitten her there. Nova looked over at the black one, and it did the same.
Then she realized she was doing it. It was like when she popped her tire on the way home last year, just by looking at it when she was mad.
Nova wondered what kind of damage she was doing. The beasts shook their heads with huge growls and advanced again.
Obviously not enough.
Nova looked all around and tried to find something to use as a weapon. There, fastened to the wall, was a wooden chin up pole. She raced over to grab it out of the holes that held it.
The werewolves skulked closer. It was now or never. Nova leaned the pole against the cinder block wall then slammed her foot down on it snapping it in two. Nova hopped around on her good foot. Man did that hurt! It felt like her leg was on fire.
But now the pieces of pole were pointed and jagged at the ends. Nova held the two sticks in either hand and waited for the wolves to go for her throat.
The brown wolf, the former Trojan giant, launched its body into the air growling and drooling. Nova slammed a stick into its neck. Gray blood streamed down her arm. The werewolf fell to the floor and didn’t move. “Dear Vulcan, what the …?”
The gray one lunged at her. She blocked it with the other stick, stopping its jaws just short of her face. Weird, its hot breath smelled like garlic. Nova shoved the wolf away with all her might, then stabbed it in the neck when it came at her again. It fell to the floor and didn’t move.
The third one, the black one that first came in, stayed back and growled. She dropped into a self defense stance she’d seen in a movie once, but the wolf just kept looking at its two dead companions. Why was that?
Then Nova remembered stories about werewolves that could only be killed by silver.
Sure enough, the werewolves she stabbed began to stir. She yanked the bloody, dripping wooden stakes out of their necks and rammed them down their throats. She got a powerful static shock, like she’d just walked across a wool carpet in her stocking feet, then touched a door knob. What was that?
While the beasts struggled to remove the sticks from their throats she ran for the back door.
When she reached the door, she glanced back. The black wolf had stopped to help the other two, and now two gray bloody stakes lay on the gym floor and all three of them growling low in their throats approached her.
The two she stabbed didn’t appear to be bleeding anymore, but they sure looked ticked off.
She left the building and slammed the door, then looked around for something to jam it with.
The wolves hit the door hard on the inside. It opened a couple inches. Nova fought the door closed again.
Then she spotted a doorstop on the ground nearby that was used to prop the door open when the weather was hot. She lunged for it, shoved it under the door and kicked it in place. Just in time for another hit from inside. This time the door didn’t budge.
She ran to get her bike. It was only a matter of time before the werewolves found another way out, and she would need a head start. The people in the school would be safe because she knew the werewolves wanted her.
But why? Who wanted to kill her this time? And where was Leandra? Would she be able to help her with these werewolves? Nova looked at her watch on her wrist. Should she call her?
No. At least, not until the rest of the school was safe. And the only way she could see to do that was to use herself as bait.
Chapter 2 Decoying Sucks
Nova swung her leg over her bike seat and rode away from the school as fast as she could, speeding past countless streetlights. Maybe she could lead the werewolves on a goose chase, she didn’t know, she was making it all up on the fly.
A beat up car chugged past, followed by an old rusty truck. Then she pedaled out into the country well past the streetlights. At times the clouds covered the full moon, making the land pitch black. A deep cold shiver ran up her spine and she strained to see the road ahead.
Was that galloping feet behind her? Nova looked back, but saw nothing. She pedaled harder, the wheels humming on the pavement. There! She heard it again. Galloping, galloping, like a pack of dogs, thudding closer and closer.
She glanced to her right and saw nothing except darkness. Until a muzzle with pointed teeth appeared just behind her back wheel. Green eyes flashed, bright in the night. A chilling, powerful growl echoed through the stillness.
She peddled like she never had before. Two more werewolves joined the first wearing the remains of sports jerseys. They barreled down the road. Holy Chaos, she should have called for Leandra’s help.
Wait, though, she wasn’t thinking clearly. Nova turned on the backup electric motor that Benny had installed only a week earlier. The bike shot ahead. She smiled. She was going to outpace them with no problems. One moved closer and tried to nip her leg. It didn’t even seem to be breathing hard.
She was pedaling as fast as she could, and with the motor, she was moving nearly as fast as a car. The werewolves still kept up alongside. Nova swallowed hard. She hoped this was all a nightmare and she was going to wake up in her warm bed next to Wilha.
The engine died.
“Dear Vulcan!” Sweat coursed down her back despite the chilly night. Had she caused it to fail because she let her mind wander?
The brown werewolf grabbed her leg in a vise-like grip and yanked hard. Nova fought back, skidding on the loose gravel on the shoulder of the road. She shook the werewolf loose, but she and the bike went down. She tried to right the bike again, but the wolf grabbed hold of her leg, pulling her over.
“Let go of me!”
The werewolf pulled her toward the woods. She tried to dig her fingertips into the gravel to slow it down, but she couldn’t get purchase. The werewolf dragged her closer and closer to the trees. No one else was on the road that she could tell. The black wolf went for her other leg. Nova looked in its eyes. She had had enough. She kicked it hard in the muzzle. It yelped. The gray wolf danced around licking its jaws, trying to get a nip in too. “That’s it! I’ve had it with you three.”
In one quick move, Nova picked the brown one up and tossed it squirming and whining down in the ravine. The gray one let go of her leg and leapt at her from behind. She felt its claws open her leg.
“That goes for you, too!” Nova grabbed that one by the scruff of its neck and tossed it as well. The black one backed off and looked between Nova and its friends. It licked its lips and whined. Nova rushed it, and it turned and ran.
“Nova! What is to you happening?”
Leandra’s voice, coming from her watch. Nova looked at her wrist. Leandra’s eye peered out of the screen. She was never sure if the watch was high tech or simply magic, but since Leandra had given it to her last year, Nova had never been without it. Besides being a communication device, it also told the weather, played the radio and even had a couple of games in it.
“Well, a pack of werewolves just tried pulling me into the bushes.”
“What? This is happening how?
“I don’t know, but they were asking for me by name.”
“Well, hurry to Leandra’s house and be safe.”
Odd. But if Leandra was talking strange, Nova had no time to think about it. She got back on her bike and began to pedal fast. She could hear one of the werewolf’s long nails clicking on the road behind her, but she wasn’t sure if it was the black one or one that had probably climbed out of the ravine, or just her imagination.
Nova turned down Barnacle road, travelled a half mile and streaked down Leandra’s driveway as fast as her muscular legs would carry her. In the woods on both sides of the driveway, she heard sticks cracking, branches creaking, and leaves rustling. She tried to pedal faster at every sound, her heart beating frantically. Finally, she came to the clearing where Leandra’s house was supposed to be– it often wasn’t really there, at least not visibly. Like today. She tossed her bike to the side and sprinted to where the phantom building resided, looking for the invisible door.
Leandra had Neanderthal blood herself–she’d received a transfusion of it to save her life years ago. But she, too, always had trouble controlling her magic. So how could Nova manage it?
Nova grabbed her watch. “Leandra, I’m in your front yard, but I can’t find the house.”
A menacing growl behind her made her spin around. All three werewolves had followed her and now stepped out of the woods heads down and snarling.
“And I’ve got company!”
A door that hadn’t been there opened a few feet to Nova’s left, and a Neanderthal woman stuck her head out.
All Neanderthals used logical magic. Was she going to cast a spell on her? Nova began to back up, remembered the werewolves, and stopped trying to figure out what to do.
If this was one of the bad Neanderthals who had sent folklore monsters to Earth, to spread fear and superstition, then she was between a rock and a hard place.
Chapter 3 Captivate
The Neanderthal woman grabbed Nova by the arm and jerked her inside and onto the house’s grassy floor. A lawnmower, bush nippers and hose lay among the flower patterned furniture.
Decorative lamps on tall stands lit the rooms and bushes lined the walls. The door swung closed behind them and Nova let out a muffled scream.
The Neanderthal woman rolled her eyes when she looked Nova over. “Oh, forgot, dumb. Wearing latex on face.” She carefully pulled the latex off taking with it a big brow ridge and wide flat nose. The Neanderthal woman waved her arms around, her hands moving in some type of pattern, then she reached up like she was stretching first thing in the morning. Her body lengthened.
“Leandra?” Nova said.
“Hey Sprog.” She gave her a big hug. “Like my latest under cover kit?”
“It’s amazing,” Nova said. Only one thing gave you away,”
“What’s that?”
“You have shaved arm pits.”
“Oh good heavens, dear. Thanks, I’ll remember that.”
They both laughed.
“You are full of surprises,” Nova said. “Um… are you sure the werewolves can’t find a way into the house.”
“May I reminded you, Nova, that animals can’t hear, feel, smell, see, or taste the house and its occupants.”
“Well, yeah, but these aren’t exactly normal animals.” Nova remembered the way the two Trojans players had looked. “I think they’ve been created by Neanderthals.”
“Well, you’re part Neanderthal. Could you find the house?”
Nova thought a moment. “Good point.”
“Try to sit and relax while I go fetch a phone.”
Nova noticed Leandra’s speech straightened out. Was it because she took the disguise off? Leandra was a beautiful, tall woman–brown-haired at the moment. Nova really preferred it when she was her true hair color–blonde.
Leandra opened a closet door that was filled with a mist? She must have a misting machine in there. Leandra threw a switch next to the closet door and a bright light came on, creating a vivid rainbow in the mist.
A rainbow portal, the means humans and Neanderthals used to travel between their two dimensions. Except that a rainbow portal opened connections to more than just the two dimensions. Each color of the rainbow had its own folklore monsters, the evil Neanderthals had been using to get Modern man to kill themselves off like what happened in the witch hunts and trials long ago.
Nova watched Leandra perform the sign languge needed to open a portal– her open hands together, palms facing Nova and fingers and thumbs open and pointing upward. She pulled her hands apart about six inches and turned them so the palms faced each other. Then she closed her fingers.
Immediately, Nova heard screeching, scratching,
banging and howling coming from the portal. Then it became silent. Leandra stuck her head through the portal,– pulled out a phone from the closet and put it down on a tall desk. It had a pen in a holder and a notepad on it.
“Call your mom and let her know where you are.”
“So now the portal’s open? Are monsters going to come out?”
“No, I’ve got various containment measures in place. We’re safe. Please call your mom.”
Nova realized she’d just learned how to open the rainbow portal. She’d have to try that as soon as she got home.
With shaking hands, Nova called her mother. It was weird. Even though she beat the werewolves and wasn’t really hurt, she was still shaking. Nova told her mother about three big wolves that attacked her, pulling her off her bike and into the bushes. Nova also told her she had no bite marks and was fine over at Leandra’s house. After a moment of silence, Mom cleared her throat.
“It couldn’t be wolves because they’re shy, unless they have rabies. But three of them at the same time? That would be weird. I’ll be right over to pick you up. Where are you?”
“At Leandra’s. But she’ll make sure I get home. Right Leandra?”
“I sure will, Sprog.”
“She said she would,” Nova said. “Goodbye Mom.”
“Okay– Wait, what’s a Sprog?”
Nova hung up.
“Let’s get you bandaged up.” Leandra said. “Was it a bite or a scratch?”
“It’s just a scratch.”
Leandra strolled into the bathroom to get first aid supplies. Nova noticed her knee pads rubbing, so she slipped them off and put them aside. Leandra brought out a wash cloth with warm soapy water and large bandages. She cleaned out the wound. Nova bit her lip and tried not to think of the pain. Next, Leandra applied medical ointment and bandages.
“You look like you could use some chamomile tea, dear.” Leandra went into the kitchen and brought out a tray with a cup and kettle. She pinched some herbs from one of the walls put them in a tea ball, and poured hot water over them. Nova let them steep for a good five minutes.
Before Nova could even take a sip, the black werewolf trotted into the house. Nova gasped. The werewolf growled and sniffed the short grass on the floor of the living room near the lawn mower. It went back the way it came, then reentered the house sniffing around again. Nova laughed. Leandra’s house was there in the woods, but it was also partly in another dimension. The werewolf couldn’t see or sense them.
“Yep, that’s a werewolf all right,” Leandra said. “And I think you’re right about its being a construct.”
“Is it looking for me?”
“Either you or me.”
“Three of them came very close to killing me. I threw two of them in a ravine, but couldn’t get that black one.”
“Hardout! Absolutely brilliant!”
“”Well thanks,” Nova said. “Who sent them and how can we beat them?”
“I don’t know for sure. I’ve been in Ordin doing an undercover investigation– hence the outfit. But just like with the ghosts, I think we need to find out what the beasts are made of.”
Nova still missed Ordin the cloud forest where the Neanderthals–they called themselves Idealites– lived in a matriarchal society ruled by the Seven Sages. She’d visited it last year to fight Ahlon, a male who had made himself Prime Minister and who wanted to upend the society there and destroy the Modern humans once and for all. With the help of her friends, including Leandra, she’d managed to defeat Ahlon and the ghosts he had been sending into their dimension. Apparently, now someone else was presenting a threat.
“Mind if I make another phone call to see if Takeesha made it home okay? It’s local.”
“Oh goodness, yes, of course.”
Nova dialed Takeesha’s house. It was still ringing when a big white owl soared in over her shoulder. Nova jumped. The owl snatched up a mouse she hadn’t even seen and flapped off almost without making a sound.
Nova’s mouth hung open. Then she said, “What the…? How did…?
“Franklin’s residence.”
It was Takeesha’s moms voice. Nova gave her head a shake.
“Hi, Ms. Franklin. Did Takeesha get back home okay?”
“Yes, she’s fine. Oh my Nova, did you get away from the wild dogs”
“Yeah, I’m here at Leandra’s house.”
“Did you get hurt?”
“No I’m fine, thank you. How’s Takeesha?”
“Hold on, I’ll let you talk to her.”
Nova held her breath.
“Hello Nova? Did a werewolf get you?”
Nova looked at the bandage on her leg. “I got a scratch, but they got a lot worse. How about you?”
“I’m fine. As soon as you left the school the werewolves went with you.
“Yeah I noticed. So everyone is alright?”
“People were plenty scared, but no one else was hurt. Though I don’t know if were playing Kenosha again anytime soon.”
“That’s okay, we were losing anyway,” Nova said. “Well I just wanted to see if you made it home okay. I gotta go. Bye.” Nova hung up.
Leandra was trimming the wall bushes with the nippers.
“What happened to Takeesha?”
“Nothing, she’s fine.”
“How about you? You still have the willies?”
“Yes, pretty much.”
“I know just what you need — some more training to get your mind off your troubles.”
Leandra strolled back to the rainbow portal, reached in, and pulled out a small rotating fan. She set it on the coffee table in front of the couch were Nova sat.
“Now, I want you to spin the blades and cool the room.”
“Where are you getting all those things in the portal?”
“I’m just… borrowing stuff from other people. Don’t worry, darling, I always give them back.”
“You’re just as bad as the Neanderthals.”
Leandra looked shocked. “No, I’m not! They don’t return what they take. I always return anything I borrow.”
Nova was going to say that the Neanderthal tribes didn’t have a sense of personal property. But she decided she’d better start concentrating on the fan instead.
Meanwhile, Leandra reached into the green color of the rainbow and pulled out, two cups of flour, a packet of yeast, a broad cut of green pepper, a bag of chopped onion, twenty pepperoni, a large chunk of mozzarella cheese, a can of black olives, and a jar of pizza sauce.
“You feel like pizza?”
“You know that’s stealing. Aren’t you supposed to be on the side of the law?”
“It’s borrowing, honey. I’ll replace everything. Or… sometimes they don’t even notice.”
“I think that Neanderthal blood in you makes you think what you are doing is okay. But it’s not. How many houses did you ‘borrow’ from?”
“Oh, I think eight.” She counted the items. “Yes eight.” Nova rolled her eyes. Her stomach rumbled despite her protests. How was she going to eat stolen food? She had better work on her magic.
Nova concentrated on the fan then deliberately let her mind wander to what Leandra was doing in the kitchen, listening to the slap of pizza dough being kneeded. Then the fan blades twitched counter-clock-wise maybe half an inch. Nova immediately began paying attention to them, and they stopped. This happened three more times, and each time as soon as the blades started moving, they broke Nova’s trance.
“Very good,” Leandra called. “Do it again until the fan is running.”
“I’m having a hard time concentrating. Or not concentrating.”
“This is nothing. Wait until you’re under pressure to perform, like when you’re being chased by a monster.”
Nova thought about trying to use her magic to attack when she was facing down the werewolves. Nova had to be ready or she could make a miscalculation and die. She concentrated on the fan blades.
Nothing.
“Will I ever get this?”
“It will come with time, dear.” Leandra patted Nova on her hand with flour-covered fingers. She made a face, then strolled to the sink to wash her hands.
Nova thumped her head on the table in disgust.
Leandra came back in, drying her hands on a flowered towel. “Crying out loud. Come over here let’s try something else. I’m going to teach you the sign language for healing.”
Nova got off the flower patterned couch and walked over to where Leandra was standing.
“Watch very carefully.” Leandra pulled Nova’s bandage off, held her right hand over Nova’s scratch from the werewolves, and with her left hand made the sign to pluck out her own heart. Nova’s wound healed right up.
“Wow,” Nova said, “how can I try it?”
“I happened to nick myself with a knife while chopping the onions.” Leandra peeled off the Band-Aid to show her– an inch long cut.
“That’s quite a nick. So, you got Neanderthal blood in the pizza?”
Leandra laughed, “Yeah, well, it is just you and me eating it.”
“Okay, here goes.” Nova placed her hand over the cut and made the sign with the other. She felt something…shift somehow inside her, and then she took her hand away, Leandra’s cut was gone.
“Looks like you’re a natural.”
“Will you ever show me how to open and close the
rainbow portal?”
“You’re not ready yet. Let’s work on logical magic, because you need to defend yourself first. The monsters in the rainbow are very dangerous. The Neanderthals still control them in Ordin.”
“Well if I beat one or two up they usually do what I want them to do.”
“That was the ghosts, Sprog, and that was only one time. Who knows what might happen now, They might be ready for you.”
She stared at the rainbow portal in the closet and thought of Shade, her winged horse.
“Which color holds the Pegasus?”
“That’s the same one as Ordin– green.”
“Well, I sure wouldn’t want to go in there without you.” Nova grinned.
While Nova continued to work with the fan, sometime getting it to spin around twice before she lost concentration, Leandra kept working on dinner.
The pizza dough rose and Leandra punched it down to rise again. Then to be pressed into a pan and have the sauce and other ingredients layered on. She put it in the oven. Soon the delicious aroma wafted around her house.
“How can I eat stolen food?” Nova said.
“Sprog, you already have. Every time you come here and eat, it’s food from others.”
“The same people all the time?”
“No, different Neanderthals.”
“Bwwwiiippppt,” Nova gave a raspberry and laughed. “In that case, when’s dinner?”
“Just ten more minutes and the pizza will be finished. Hope you like it golden brown. In the meantime, what would you like to drink?”
“How about root beer.”
Leandra went to the portal, reached in and grabbed a bottle for her.
“So if you don’t mind me asking why the Neander–um, Idealite makeup? Did you get a job with the Seven Sages?” “As a matter of fact, I did. Floret, one of the Seven received a death threat two weeks ago and told me about it. After we parted inside the rainbow, she went missing. When she stopped coming to council, the Seven Sages asked me– my Neanderthal name is Marvel, by the way– to look into it.” Leandra gave a half smile removing the pizza from the oven and cutting it up into squares.
“The werewolves are another mystery. And right now
I have too much on my plate looking for Floret and then another case here in our world. Maybe your friends… what are you calling yourselves now? The Shade Riders? Maybe you guys can figure it out. Hmmm?”
“You think we can manage without you?”
“You did all right the last time. Just keep me apprised of everything going on. I’ll help were I can.”
“Okay, thanks, Leandra.”
Leandra brought her a plate with two slices of hot pizza. Nova was so hungry she burned her mouth on the first bite.
“How come when you use the portal to borrow, I don’t hear any monsters?”
“You have pizza sauce on your chin, darling. It’s probably because I magically focus the portal into people’s homes and caves.”
Nova grabbed a napkin and wiped her chin.“You’ll have to teach me the details of how to work the portal. But for now, can you tell me about the other case? Or is it confidential?”
“Oh, I can discuss my work, I think. We’ll just call you my assistant. A lady named Hannah came to me hoping I would investigate Animal Andela for killing her poodle.”
“What?” Animal Andela was a woman who had been advertising on television. She claimed she was an animal psychic and could talk to animals. “She loves animals, or at least she seems to. She’d never do that.”
“Oh she might have.”
“What happened?”
“Animal Andela told Hannah her dog missed her son when he went off to college. But actually the poodle was having a stroke and needed a vet quickly. Andela gave Hannah a homeopathic drug to cure all the bumping into walls and confusion. The dog died a week later.”
“Wow, that’s too bad. So now, this Hannah wants to sue Andela?”
“Yeah. So I’m going to be gathering evidence that Andela is a fraud to help with the legal battle.”
“You do sound busy. How are you going to do it?”
“I’d have to act as a decoy to get information. So I’ve worked out a story about my misbehaving cat, and I’m going to pay Andela a visit with a tape recorder, a camera, and one of my cats. But not the black one– she might actually be able to talk to Andela. Oh and a gun.”
“A gun? You think Andela could be dangerous?”
“Not really. I’m more worried about whoever is sending you werewolves. I could also stake out Andela’s offices and wait until someone else was scammed and use them for a witness.”
“That sounds like fun.”
“Actually it’s very dangerous, when it isn’t wicked boring. Not many people can’t stick with it as long as I have. Did you get enough pizza?”
“Oh yeah, I’m full.”
Still, Nova found room for a large cup of hot cocoa for dessert.
“What do you say, we get you home so you can be with your family?” Leandra said presently. “You can also get your chores and homework done, eh?”
“Okay.” Nova grabbed her knee pads. “Oh no!”
“What?”
“I left my book bag at school.”
“Oh that reminds me, I need to grab my pack.” Leandra turned off the closet light. Then as soon as the rainbow portal had faded, she reached in and pulled out her pack. “Go grab your bike.”
Nova opened the kitchen door and grabbed the bike that lay on the ground. “Can we stop at the school?”
“I guess we have to.”Leandra paused and put a hand on Nova’s shoulder.“Are you ready?”
Nova nodded as her hand, holding the bike shook.
“Good. Follow me.”
She pushed her bike into Leandra’s bedroom which had a purple bed and a picture on each wall. But before she could make out what the pictures were, Leandra made some complicated hand gestures. A tornado made up of fractal dimensions consumed them.
And then simply went away.
“Okay, we’re here at your school,” Leandra said.
Nova looked around. They were in a round room with the bed. It had the four pictures still on the walls–the same scenes of Leandra in four different hand poses.
“What is this place?”
“It’s the Mystic Bunk or MB. Just go through the door,” Leandra said.
Nova left her bike on the floor, shuffled to the door and opened it. On the other side was the gym. It was still a mess from the fight she had with the werewolves and the lights were still on. Apparently, everyone had simply abandoned the school and would probably come back once it was daylight again.
She rushed to the locker room while Leandra examined the grayish blood on the floor. Nova opened her locker with shaky hands and grabbed her book bag.
Leandra stood and tucked something into her pack. “Ready to go?”
They went back to the flying room, opened the door and went inside. Nova had a closer look at the walls when fractals hit, and they seemed to move, fast enough to blur. It looked like they were inside some kind of fan.
“What did you call this contraption?” Nova asked.
“The Mystic Bunk.”
“Isn’t all mysticism bunk?”
“Yes it is. For the most part.”
Leandra put her hand on Nova’s shoulder again.
“Remember when Captain Palherd showed us the Space-time continuum?”
“Yeah.” Nova nodded.
“Well, when you arrive at your house, it’ll still be about the time you left school– full belly and all. The last few hours will have happened to you, but not for anyone else.” Leandra tapped Nova’s nose.
Nova giggled and adjusted her book bag on her back. Then stopped.
“What about the phone call to my Mom and Takeesha. Will they have unhappened?”
“That’s right, dear. I find it generates fewer questions this way.” Leandra turned off the lights in the bedroom.
“Just take your stuff and go out the door.”
The Mystic Bunk’s door opened in an area away from the barn light in the shadows. Leaves blew around in the yard and a loose bucket rocked slowly back and forth near the barn door. Nova grabbed her back pack, put the knee pads inside, and swung it onto her back. Then she grabbed her bike, stepped outside, and looked back. She could just barely see the Mystic Bunk in the starlight. From the outside it looked like a yurt with a propeller on top and a telescoping door.
Leandra turned around and took her mask and costume out of her backpack. She did the sign language for shrinking, became smaller, stepped into the Seven Sage dress, and put on the latex mask.
They said goodbye with a word, a hug, and Leandra/ Marvel and the Mystic Bunk vanished in a glow of green light.
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