Wynd, Skye and One White Mouse
 | Xanadu story universe |
 | This story is a work in progress. |
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Prologue
"Sometimes I hate my life," Wynd muttered to herself before taking another slurp of soda. This was supposed to have been a cool weekend, but she kept getting thwarted at every turn, mostly by her mom. Dad wasn't so bad, if you caught him watching TV or fiddling with the computer, he'd say uh-huh to most anything. Mom was another matter entirely, and she seemed extra intent on fun-killing in the last few days. First, she was saddled with her two younger siblings and their goofy Halloween costumes. Skye was ten, which made her almost tolerable, Jamie, however, was seven and just breathing he was a pain in the butt. Second, she had to beg and plead to keep her costume from being vetoed. It showed hardly any skin, but it was very form-fitting. At least she managed to win that one. This was Orlando and not Tehran afterall.
Her original plan had been to arrive Friday morning, spend the night in the hotel with some of her girlfriends, then come home Saturday night. That meant skipping school Friday, so that was out. That was just as well, she wouldn't be caught dead dragging the uncool young ones in to meet her friends anyway.
Also, she had been quite proud of her costume, and had even thought about entering it in a contest. She wore white tights and leotard, shiny gray shoes and gloves to represent hooves, a white horse-tail that hung almost to the floor, angel-wings, and the best part, a horse-head, covered in white faux fur, she had bought from a catalog. She thought she made a fantastic pegasus. It wasn't until she wandered around the Convention Center for a while that morning, however, that she realized how out-classed she was. This was not the year for elegant minimalism. The money that Eric Winters had pored into the Con and the contests meant that people had come from all over the nation and had pulled out all stops. When she saw an equine with complicated digitigrade stilts, she knew she was done.
And finally, to place a sucky crown on an already very sucky day, she found out Duncan had been grounded. She had practiced swishing her horsetail coquettishly all week just for his benefit. Now he wasn't even going to be there. That's why she was forlornly sipping cola at the food court of the Xanadu Convention Center instead of having fun.
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Jamie nibbled a french fry then smiled at his eldest sister, revealing the chicken nuggets he had stored in his cheeks for later. If this was intended to bring Wynd out of her blue funk, it didn't work.
"Eww gross!" she gagged, and almost spilled her drink down her front. She tried to kick him under the table.
"Stop it you two!" Almost nothing seemed to perturb Skye, who was probably most like her mom. She had just given up on her red 'Ariel' wig and was stuffing it into her sister's bag. "I'm going to be my own mermaid today," she announced. Yesterday, She didn't put up a fight when her mom had vetoed her first costume choice by declaring "No sea shells unless you're wearing something under them." Skye decided that that would be just plain silly, so instead, she opted to forget the shells entirely and wear her pink 'Hello Kitty' tank top to go with her narrow, cylindical, mermaid-tail skirt.
Jamie had decided to come as 'Stewart Little'. He wore white flannel footie pajamas, white gloves with pink pads, a whiskered mouse-nose and ears. All was finished with a red Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses. He decided to show his other sister his 'stores'. It was a wasted effort, nothing could penetrate Skye's serenity today. She had been looking forward to this for weeks.
Wynd grew weary of sulking and consoling herself with the thought that nothing else could possibly go wrong today, spoke up, "Let's go down to Darkknight books and shop for a bit."
"Yay, let's go!" said Skye. "I heard they have a new Pirate RPG out." She had started to wonder if her older sister was going to waste the rest of the convention.
Jamie was inclined at first to be contrary, but relented when they promised him a Killer Bunnies booster pack. In a few moments they were on their way. Wynd tucked the horsehead under her right arm and took hold of her sister's hand. Skye kept the required tight grip on her brother as they slowly worked through the crowd.
They had only gone a short way when Wynd spotted some girls from her class coming up from the opposite direction. She just wasn't in the mood to talk to any school friends right now, so she decided to seek anonymity in her costume and donned the head.
Skye wondered why her sister stopped to put on the head. She had complained all day about how stuffy it was and how hard it was to see out of. She was about to ask when Wynd suddenly grew tall. Her sister's legs bent while her feet and middle toes lengthened. The wings on her back grew enormous and began to flap wildly. In a second, or perhaps less, Skye found herself holding the hoof of a great winged horse. That's when she pitched forward unto her face and was momentarily stunned. She heard a 'clomp!' and opened her eyes to see a gray horse-hoof just inches from her nose. Then the hoof was gone. She turned her head to see the pegasus backing away, its hindquarters and desperately flapping wings knocking people down. "Wynd?" Was that that panicking animal her sister? Skye tried to get up but found she could't, her legs seemed to be tangled in her skirt.
Now Skye was distracted by something nibbling and scratching at her left hand. She lifted it up to see a small white mouse wearing a red shirt and sunglasses dangling from her fingers. "Jamie!" There was no denying what was happening. The mouse bit hard, forcing her to let go. It then skittered away from her. "Jamie wait!" She wiggled and drug herself after her brother, but he disappeared between two large purple feet. She looked up to see Barney the Dinosaur.
Skye had long outgrown Barney, but her memories of him were pleasant. She knew instantly, however that there was something desperately wrong with him. He tugged at his head and with a hideous howl charged forward, directly at her. All she could do was roll out of his way. She fetched up hard against a wall and lay there a few moments with her eyes closed, trying to gather what was left of her wits. She opened her eyes to see mostly the legs of people running, seemingly at random. She sat up to fix her skirt but, to her dismay saw neither a skirt nor legs but a green scaled fish-tail. Skye screamed, "Mom, Dad help me! Wake me up!"
Chapter One: Parents
As Alex pushed me to the lake, he filled me in on what he had been doing for the last twenty hours. When he told me of his duel with one of the Vaders, part of me was all fangirl, "I'm going to marry a Jedi! How cool is that!" Part of me was horrified, "My God. He could have been killed! What then?" I probably would have turned to seafoam and blown away.
I did the same for Alex. He was rather amused by the way I disposed of the puma, which was the only time I was in any real danger. He asked me why I didn't use the Vulcan nerve pinch on Old Ben the pirate. That floored me. I had totally forgotten about that. I wasn't even sure I knew how to do it. Afterall, not every human can do Kung Fu. Alex declined my offer to try it out on him.
When I got to the part about Skye, her siblings and how her parents must be hunting for them, Alex stopped dead. "Speaking of parents, what about ours?"
"Oh Lord!" I put my hand to my mouth. "What are we going to tell them?" My parents are not particularly good in a crisis. "I can see Mom rolling on the ground screaming when she gets a good look at me."
"Maybe that would be a good time to test the nerve pinch?" Alex suggested.
"This is serious! She's gonna freak!" And Dad will just stare at her dumbly while she does.
"Do they know we're here?"
I thought hard about that one. "Yes. I told them I'd be working all weekend at the Kubla Con. This stuff is all over the media, I bet." I hadn't considered what the rest of the world might be seeing about what was happening here. Next thing I knew, Alex was handing me my cell phone. I took a deep breath and started dialing. To anyone listening, the conversation went something like this:
"Hello, Momma? This is Hannah...Yes, we're OK. Sorry it took so long, things have been kinda hectic here...Changes? Us? Yes there are some changes...just a few...I'm a mermaid Momma...a mermaid...You know...Yes, like the Disney movie...Momma? Momma? Poppa? Is that you? Tell her to get up off the floor! There's no sense her carrying on like that!...No, I don't need to be in the hospital. I feel fine...No, I don't think there's a cure for it yet." The pauses mostly represent hysterics.
Eventually, I handed the phone back to Alex. "They're on their way here."
"Oh crap."
"How did your folks take it?" I asked.
"Better than yours evidently. They're content to wait til we tell them it's OK to come, or we visit them. Will they let your mom and dad in?"
"They've been letting in anyone who can prove they're a close relative of a survivor, in everywhere except the Center itself."
"It'll take them all day today and all night to drive here from Ashville. I hope they stop to sleep."
"That gives us some time. Unless they decide to fly. I need a swim in the worst way now."
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Once at the lake's edge, Alex began stripping down to something swimable, but still decent. I was still in the eternal Orlando Magic teeshirt and army blanket. I looked longingly at the water.
"Do you want me to carry you in?" Alex asked.
"That would be romantic, but there's something I want to try first." I pulled away the blanket, locked the wheels of the chair, rocked forward, then using my tail muscles as a spring, catapulted into the water. I surfaced a few feet from the shore. "It worked!" I said.
"I'm impressed," he said. Then he put the breathing device in his mouth and jumped. It must be the Jedi thing, but he jumped a lot further than I expected. He made a grab for me as he splashed in. I screamed and kicked away. He was also a lot faster than I expected, but not near fast enough. I surfaced again and waited for him to get near. He surfaced and removed the breather.
"Give up?" I said smugly.
"Never! I have not yet begun to chase tail."
I flipped said tail over my back and gave him a faceful of lake. Giggling, I swam off again and began circling for a jump. I kept a lookout this time. We didn't have the lake all to ourselves and I didn't want to plow into someone like a red-headed torpedo. I did my jump, flipping head over tailfin and landing on my back. I then swam back to where Alex was resting on the surface.
"Did you see that!"
"Yes ma'am. That was a good one."
"Thank you," I said, trying my best to sound haughty. "You have my permission to catch me now." I rolled over and dived slowly.
"The Queen of the Sea is most generous." He took me about the waist and I wrapped my tail around his legs and held him close. I kissed him on the forehead. He removed his breather and we kissed until we were both half asphixiated. Then we just drifted in each others' arms.
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After a while, I looked up to see the silhouette of a mermaid. It was Skye outlined by her namesake. Neither of us can speak while under water, but when near and especially when touching, we can read each others thoughts. It's a Jedi/Vulcan thing. "Sweetie, we have company. It's the friend I told you of." We swam to meet her.
When we surfaced we saw that Skye was followed by three other mermaids. She gave me a hug and turned to the others. "This is Hannah, my very first mermaid friend. Hannah, I'd like you to meet some new friends, Aurora, Emily and Maddie." Aurora was African-American and perhaps twenty. She had a ring-tail similar to my own. Her colors, however, were green and gold. Emily was about Skye's age, and like so many mermaids that age, resembled Disney's Melody. Maddie was about sixteen and looked goth, with pale skin, short, black hair and a bustier. Her tail had an interesting three-lobed fin and, of course, black scales. I had never seen the others before, but I remembered Maddie from last night. She was curled up in one corner of the pool not talking to anyone and quietly crying. I was happy to see her actually smiling today.
Skye turned to Alex. "Is this your fiance? He's cute."
I nodded. Alex gave a little salute. "Thank you. Edward Alexander Harris, CPA and Jedi knight at your service. You-all can call me Alex."
Skye offered her hand and bobbed her head. "A pleasure to meet you Alex, Skye Walker, mermaid, at yours."
"Wow! Is that really your name Skye?" said Aurora. "That's cool!"
"Your parents must be really neat," said Maddie.
Skye rolled her eyes. "That's not what Wynd would say." Suddenly, her mouth dropped open, then she shouted. "Mom, Dad!" She shot forward, her tail beating the water to a froth. We looked toward where she had been looking. On the shore, about a hundred yards away, a couple waved and shouted something. We followed Skye at a respectful distance.
The man and woman had waded out to about waist deep when Skye reached them. She leaped into her mother's arms, soaking her and almost bowling her over, but there was no complaint.
One found, two to go.
Chapter Two: Lost Mouse
In the blink of an eye, Jamie went from walking with his sisters throught the Kubla Con crowd to being in the clutches of an immense giant, dangling from its fist many feet above the ground. He cried out in fear and pain, but it was no more than a squeek in the chaotic swirl of sound and motion. Then, somehow, for some unknown reason, the giant pitched forward and fell with a great bellow and crash. Jamie found himself safely on the ground staring up at the great, green scaly side of the monster, but his arm was still tightly gripped in its fist. He scratched and pulled, trying to get free as it drug him forward towards its face. Then once again he was dangling in mid-air. "Jamie!" it thundered in his ear.
"It knows my name!" Jamie thought. That terrified him more than the drop to the ground. He bit the great hand and suddenly it let go. He literally hit the ground running, his clawed feet scrabbling for traction on the slick floor. Oddly, after a few steps, he found it easier to run on all fours. He looked back momentarily at his former captor. It was a mammoth mer-thing, the size of a blue whale. It was dragging its great body after him roaring, "Jamie wait!"
Jamie ran all the faster until he found himself in a moving redwood forest of legs. "Out of the frying pan into the fire," he said to himself. He had heard and read that in storybooks, but this is the first time it ever applied to himself. The sound of feet, paws, claws and hooves striking the ground were deafening and disorienting. He had to find some way out of this or he was going to be squashed flat.
Then, to his left, he saw a great pile of drab-brown, windowless buildings. He ran for all he was worth towards them. Just before he got there, something stepped on his tail. "Yow!" Once again, his shout sounded like a squeek. He was held back for only a moment, then he reached the nearest building. He ran around it looking for a door, and finally found where one corner had been torn or worn away and scrambled in. He suffered a brief moment of panic when he saw that he shared the interior with a cottage-sized head of Darth Vader. He calmed himself down, then examined his sore tail. It was bruised and starting to swell, but it was clearly not broken. "Wait a minute! I've got a tail!?" It was attached to him and it hurt so, "Yes, I have a tail." He looked himself over. He was furry, his hands and feet had claws instead of nails. He looked into one of the mirrored eyes of the Vader mask. A mouse, who looked remarkably like Stuart Little, looked back. "Well, if this ain't a bite in the ass!"
"Maybe," Jamie thought. "Everything else isn't big. Maybe, I'm small. Then this is a cardboard box, not a building. And that mer-giant...Skye! Wait for me!" He scrambled back out of the hole in the box.