Just a prologue/first chapter for a new story im writing, just wanted some feedback on it.
When I woke up this morning I felt like something bad was going to happen today. I rose from my bed and walked out to my living room, I put a few logs into my fireplace, and walked over to the corner of my living room that served as a kitchen. I opened my pantry and pulled out a box of cereal out of it, put it on the table and grabbed a bowl and a spoon, after that I opened my icebox, with actual ice, and withdrew a carton of milk. I poured some cereal into the bowl and poured some milk over it. I put the milk into the icebox again and let cereal soak to get nice and saggy.
My name is Harry Dresden and I'm a wizard, and if you think the fact that I like saggy cereal is weird, you're in for one hell of a ride.
Sometimes I hate to be right.
The last time Mab had shown up in my office I'd had been stabbed in the hand with a letter opener.
And then I'd been forced into a war between the Sidhe courts, forced to oppose my presumed dead ex-lover Elaine and led a group of young newbies into a battlefield where a young changeling girl had been killed and the werewolf pack Alphas had to get a 150 stitches between them.
And now the Winter Queen was standing in my office once more with an eerily radiant smile on her beautiful face. I immediately tensed and gathered my wits; the Queen was undoubtedly there to cash in on a debt I owed her.
"Greetings Wizard." She said in a voice that made my knees buckle and stomach flutter, it was so beautiful yet frightening my brain almost died from sensory overload, I steeled myself and managed to blank my mind.
"What are you doing here Faerie?" I couldn't keep the contempt out of my voice as I spat out the last part, okay so it wasn't entirely blank but the last time she stood in my office she started a chain of events that almost got me killed, so sue me.
"Why I just wanted to visit my favorite mortal." She said eyeing me a smirk gracing her features.
"Yeah, and I'm Rudolph the Reindeer in a wig." I don't think she got the reference but she got my point.
"Oh always so blunt Wizard, well to business then, I'm here for our bargain." She said her voice serious.
Mab had bought my debt from my faerie godmother Lea whom had tricked me into it when I was just a child, she had then met me in my office and worked out a new bargain with me, that I would do her three favors, but I had the right to reject any proposition she made.
"Remember I get to say no should I want to, I haven't forgotten about the details, you're not suckering me into another war!" She looked at me as you would look a slightly slow child, that patronizing look that just said "Okay, whatever you say." And I got nervous, Mab could probably trick me into any situation she wanted, hell's bell's she had only lived a few centuries, the kind of experience she had in deception would probably make the most crooked politician nervous.
"Indeed, but you might want to hear what I have to say first." She said, the corners of her mouth creeping upwards into a small smirk.
"Well, speak." I said watching her, my mind moving in a bazillion miles an hour trying to keep one step ahead of her. She watched me with her cold, calculating and beautiful eyes.
"What I require from you Harry Dresden, is to care for a child." She said. My eyes must have bulged out from my head so far I could touch the opposite wall with my lashes.
"Care for a child?" I said slowly "A child? A mortal child?" I was stunned of all the things I'd ran through my mind, caring for a child wasn't even on the list.
"The child is mortal, yes." She said watching me intently.
"Why?" I said "Why would you ask me to care for a child, what's the catch?"
"He bears great power within him, and both the Mother and Maeve have agreed he's too dangerous to raise in our court, but I owed the child's mother a debt and promised he would be well cared for in the case of her demise."
"But why would you ask me?"
"Because you owe me, and because you will not let the child be raised in a court where his life will be threatened, after all, in my court both Maeve and the Mother would be able to hurt him, and I know you will not let that happen to an innocent child." She said, grinning.
But damn it if she wasn't right, I couldn't let the child stay in the Winter Court and die, because in my mind chivalry still existed. I was the kind of man that would hold open doors and pull out chairs for women, and help lost children find their mothers in the department store. I am as Michael would call me "A good man" though tainted by some bad choices and wrapped in a layer of cynicism.
"You said something about a "great power" what were you talking about?" I said looking at her face without looking into her eyes, kind of hard to do but you adapt after the first couple of times you get drawn into a soul gaze, the eyes were the windows of the soul after all, and I did not wish to gaze upon the Winter Queens soul. I was afraid of what I might see.
"That I cannot answer Wizard." She said in a slightly irritated tone of voice.
"Can't or won't?" I said staring at her intently.
"Can't." She replied "Even with all my years of experience I've never encountered anything like it. "
That startled me, Mab was one of the top players in the Nevernever; the spirit world, the Sidhe courts were responsible for the changing of the seasons, and it was only a delicate balance of power that kept the world from freezing into another ice age, or starting a period of a growth so rampant humanity would probably die from the increase in bacterial and viral activity. If Mab, the Queen of the Winter Court hadn't encountered it, it was; with my luck, bound to be bad.
But hell's bell's if she wasn't right; sometimes I really do hate my moral fiber, my life would have been much easier if I like Bob the Skull was totally ignorant of the concept. But aforementioned fiber wouldn't let me send a child to almost certain doom.
"Well, I agree, bring him here and I'll do it." I said in an even voice, but on the inside i was burning, I wasn't ready to raise a child, I hadn't ever even thought about it. But I just couldn't leave it to die, or I shuddered, worse.
"I see." Was her quiet reply and with a wave of her hand she called in a young girl who had evidently waited outside the office door. I quietly wondered if Mab knew I would accept or if she just had the girl there if I would accept, knowing that Mab knew me, it probablywasn't the latter, and knowing that, I preferred to stop thinking about it all together.
I looked at the child in the Sidhe girls arms and took in his features in a shocked silence, the child was only about a day old, a surprisingly large tuft of sun blonde hair on his head, but what got the biggest deal of attention was the large rune-ish drawing in what seemed to be . . . dried blood.
Another outstanding feature was the three horizontal slits on his cheeks, I ran my hand over his cheeks and it felt like . . . scar tissue? Not the swollen ugly kind either but deep scars that looked like they'd healed well.
All in all the child was a strange one, I looked up at Mab and asked her;
"Does he have a name?" She looked at me, sorrow evident in her eyes for a fraction of a second, before they glazed over with their normal cold.
"Yes." She replied "His name is Naruto Uzumaki." I looked at the kid, and damn it if my paternal instincts didn't kick in.
"Not anymore." I said steel in my voice "His name is Naruto Dresden."
At the same time, in another country, in another dimension, a village as mourning the loss of their perhaps greatest hero, The Fourth Hokage Namikaze Minato.
The Fourth had laid down his life in protection of the village of Konoha; The Village Hidden in the Leaves. He had ridden to battle on his partner Gamabunta to face the mighty nine tailed fox; Kyuubi.
The villages remaining forces had watched in awe as the mighty boss toad had distracted the beast while the Fourth sealed the creature into the belly of a newborn blonde baby.
The fox disappeared in a blinding flash of light, and so did the boss toad, but in a puff of smoke.
The first ninja that reached the Fourth was his pupil Hatake Kakashi, and as he kneeled by the body of his mentor, he noticed it was eerily quiet and he suddenly realized why, the child that had been chosen as a living sacrifice to hold the Kyuubi was gone.
When the faeries left I was sat staring at the child for almost an hour, not moving an inch. I just looked at the kid, my kid, i reminded myself, with wide eyes, still in a good deal of shock.
Suddenly Naruto's eyes opened and he looked at me with his big, impossibly blue baby eyes in curiosity before opening his mouth and letting out a loud wail . . . and continued to cry, realizing then that I would probably need some assistance I scurried off to my phone and called Michael.
When Michael was done feeding Naruto and putting a diaper on him Naruto was once again snoozing. We sat down on my couch, me with a bottle of Mac's Ale and Michael with a cup of coffee and he asked me the obvious question;
"So, how did you end up with Naruto? Is there something I should know about?" He said in a disapproving voice. I was slightly offended at the latter question.
"Hey! You know damn well I wouldn't do anything like that!" I sighed and continued; "Mab came gave him to me, she said she owed his mother a debt and she had demanded Mab keep him safe if she died, obviously she did, and Mab turned up in my office and strong armed me into taking care of him." I said with a small sigh, I was still quite shocked and couldn't really comprehend the situation.
"Strong armed you?" He asked and looked at me, I relayed what Mab had told me and as he listened a large smile broke out on his handsome face.
"You are a good man Harry Dresden." He said his smile almost splitting his face.
"Yes I've been accused of that before." I said grumpily, but as I did I felt warmth creeping up my chest. As I looked at Michael I thought of something.
"Michael." I said seriously, "Naruto's going to need a godfather." I let the unasked question hang in the air. Michael looked at me in surprise and then his face split in a large smile that would make a Colgate model envious.
"I'm honored." Michael said "Of course I accept Harry." I felt true joy sweep through my body, you see a godfather isn't really just someone that you can call as a babysitter when you need to, a godfather is someone that's supposed to teach your child about religion and morality.
"But I don't want you pushing Christianity down his throat Michael, I want him to make his own choices." I said "I hope you understand that." Michael looked at me and nodded,
"Of course Harry, I wouldn't dream of it, but I do hope he will come to see Christ's light."
"I know Michael" I said, "I might not share your belief but the good book's lesson isn't to be ignored, it's still good advice, that's why I asked you." I said solemnly. I saw a tear run down Michael's cheek and I knew why, Michael was a family man, I knew how much this meant to him, that's another reason I asked him, I knew Michael would take care of Naruto need be. I felt my right eye mirror Michael's action and I wiped at away.
"Got something in my eye." I said gruffly my feeling my throat going stuffy, Michael just pulled me into a bear hug, and I thought my ribs and spine were going to crack. Michael released me, smiled, took a sip of his coffee and walked over to table Naruto was resting on, and stroked his cheek.
"How did he get these scars?" He asked me.
"Don't know." I said, with a frown, I thought about it, the scars seemed way too old, I estimated Naruto's age at a couple of days max. Maybe it was related to that great power Mab mentioned.
"Harry I really need to get home before Charity starts worrying." Michael said and put on his coat and boots.
"Michael, thank you." I said, he nodded, smiled and opened the door and left.
I pondered on the scars for a few minutes and then decided to talk to Bob the Skull. Bob the Skull wasn't actually a skull, he was a spirit of intellect that had gotten itself in some trouble in the Nevernever and had gotten himself imprisoned in the skull. But Bob the Skull was easier to say than "Bob the spirit of intellect imprisoned in a skull".
I grabbed my heavy robe from a hanger and pulled on a heavy rug to reveal a trapdoor leading down to the sub-basement. I took Naruto and held him with one arm and climbed down the stairs.
My Lab was the room where I made my potions and housed my experiments, there were to big tables standing by the walls and another table standing in the middle leaving me two narrow walkways to move in, it was in a state I liked to call organized chaos and that others would call so cluttered you'd think a hurricane went through.
"Bob, wake up." I said and in a skull on a shelf covered in trashy paperback romance novels, and two flames ignited in the empty eye sockets.
"Christ Harry, it's only a couple of hours before sundown, I'm tired." The skull said speaking through a yawn.
"Deal with it, I need you to check something out." I said; Bob was always tired. Bob spotted the child on my arms and even though he was a skull, it somehow looked like his eyes widened.
"What in the devil is that Harry? Is it yours?"
"Yeah" I replied "Not biologically though." I once again relayed how I had gotten up with Naruto.
"Stars and stone, that could be dangerous Harry; you know how Faeries are, especially the Winter Court."
"Yeah I know" I replied. "But I don't think Mab did this to hurt me though, she seemed genuinely annoyed at Maeve and Mother Winter."
"Still Harry, if I've told you once I've told you a thousand times. You don't get mixed up with Faeries!"
"Whatever is done is done. There's no changing it now. I want you take a look at the kid, Mab said something about a great power and these scars don't add up." I held the child up to bob and I got the feeling bob narrowed his eyes. Bob "hmmeed" and looked at the scars.
"When Mab gave him to he had some sort of rune on his stomach, it was in made in a circle and the symbols look Japanese, I think kanji."
"Kanji hmm? It's a good language for using in runic work, it's extremely flexible."
"Getting any ideas?" I asked and bob gave a negative sound.
"No? Well do me a favor and go pound the proverbial concrete will you?"
"Sure Harry, I'll go out as soon as the sun is down."
"For the purposes of gathering information about Naruto only. No floating about in adult video stores or women's locker rooms."
"Harry, you hurt my feelings. Do you have that little trust in me?"
"Yes, deal with it." I went over to one of the shelves and picked out an old instant camera, I suppressed my emotions and blanked my mind. Electronics tend to not function around me; it's one of the downsides of being a wizard. But if I try hard to suppress my emotions it can usually work, for a while anyway. I snapped a picture of Naruto's face, I realized then I should have probably taken a picture of the runes on his stomach, but Michael had washed him off and I'd been in too much turmoil to think clearly at the moment.
"Bob I'm going to try to get these scars off with a potion, any advice?"
"Yes I do think I have one but I think you'll have to go out shopping."
"Shopping why?" I asked puzzled.
"Do you usually keep high quality foundation at home Harry?" I got his point and went shopping.
Shopping for foundation with Naruto on my arm was probably one of the most embarrassing things I've ever done, the cashier just looked at me with a small grin and a look in her eyes I did not like, but I got it and got in the car safely without getting attacked by anything supernatural; which was an oddity and quite refreshing.
I got home safely and started mixing up the potion; every potion has nine ingredients, five for the five senses, one for the soul, one for the mind and one base. I used a cup of hundred year old glacial water base to represent the lasting power of the potion, I used makeup for the sight, a plastic caramel wrapper for taste, air for scent, a piece of cheap, bland cloth for touch, some low key lounge music for hearing, then I used one single grain of gravel for the mind; it represented, once again lasting power and blending in, and a bland memory of me walking down a bland gray corridor for the soul.
The result was a skin colored, scentless, tasteless (according to bob) and very, very neutral potion.
I walked over to Naruto who was wrapped in a towel to keep him warm, I put the bottle to his lips and gently tilted it into his mouth, he swallowed in his sleep, as he did I watch the scars become fainter and fainter, till they were entirely gone, and he looked like a totally normal baby. I gently picked him up and put him up against my shoulder and gently patted his back, as I had seen mothers do. A small burp came out of his mouth and was followed by gentle snores. A grin split my features and I felt a tear run down my cheek.
I was a father damn it!
I put Naruto still wrapped in a towel and called Karryn Murphy, I heard the dialing tones going and on the third she picked it up.
"Murphy." She announced.
"Heya Murph it's Harry, I wondered if you could get over to my place anytime soon I have something kind of important to show you, and I might need your help."
"Harry I'm knee deep in bleach and dirt right now, is it really that important?"
"Yeah, it is Murph." I told her, and it was.
"Alright, I'll be over in a few."
"Thanks Murph."
"If this isn't important I'll shove my foot so far up your ass your tongue will have grip Dresden!"
"Whatever Murph; just get over here." She hung up and I sat down and grabbed another bottle of Mac's ale. I sat in the quiet and looked at Naruto's sleeping face I snuck over to a drawer in the kitchen and picked up a packet of John Silver and withdrew, the packet was several years old and only a couple of cigarettes were missing, I indulged in smoking very rarely, only when something lige changing happened. This easily qualified as something life changing.
My innocent lungs and throat burned as the smoke went down my throat and lung's, I felt a small buzz coming on. As I said I don't really smoke and as such haven't built up a tolerance against the nicotine, I enjoyed it and relaxed. I smoked half the John Silver and dropped the butt in the sink and turned on the water. The flowing water put out the butt with a small fizzle. A few seconds later my doorbell rang and I walked over to the door and opened it.
Karryn Murphy was short, blond and blue eyed woman with her five foot nothing she barely reached to my chest, but she was one hell of a good policewoman and was even more stubborn then me.
"Heya Murph I said, that was quick, didn't think I was gonna see you here already."
"Cut the crap Harry, you said you had something important to show me. And do I smell smoke? I ignored the question and walked over to the table Naruto was snoozing on and gently picked him up and walked over to Karryn and held him up to her.
"Karryn, meet Naruto. I think he would have introduced himself but he's a bit tired." I said with a smile as wide as the Grand Canyon. Murphy paled as she looked at the child.
"Harry, what? Did? Susan? What?" She sputtered in rapid succession before talking a slow breath and steadying herself.
"Harry. I think you have some explaining to do.
I nodded led her into the apartment and sat down on the couch with Naruto in my lap, I nodded to one of the armchairs motioning for her to sit down, she sat and slowly I started to tell her the story, when I was done she looked at me and said.
"Wow, so what are you going to do now?"
"Well I wondered if you could pull some strings and get his registration and stuff to go smoother? I don't want to get in trouble or anything but the straights don't usually trust me all that much. Straights were a term used by the magical community to describe those that didn't believe in the arcane, pretty much everyone.
"Yeah sure I could do that. It's the least I could do Harry."
"And I was wondering if you could drive me down the mall I need to do some shopping, and I've had a couple of beers"
"Now you're pushing it Dresden." She said with a smile. "I'll take you right now."
Karryn drove me down to the mall and we went to the closest store that sold diapers, childrens formula and other assorted baby neccesites, Karryn and I had got quite the shock when we had seen how big the selection diapers and formula was, and red faced we'd been forced to ask one of the mothers shopping for the same things for some advice, she'd looked at Naruto in my arms wrapped in a quilt and then looked at me and Karryn knowingly and helped us pick out diapers and formula, after that we went to a clothes store and got some clothes for little Naruto. Karryn had helped me pick some clothes out she had insisted on an orange overall claiming it was practical if I ever lost him, I scowled at her, but picked up the overall anyways.
She drove us back to my place , and we just sat in the car for awhile sharing a comfortable silence.
"Karryn I said, I've never been good at this emotional crap but I need to ask you something."
"Name it, Harry. I owe you that much.
"Will you be Naruto's godmother?`"
She looked at me for a couple of seconds before she opened her mouth to speak.
"Of course I will Harry."
And that was all she said, I looked at her, once again a tear rand down my cheek, I wiped it off and said.
"Thank you." I opened the door and started to walk to my apartment with Naruto on one arm and the bag of baby supplies.
"Someone's got to take care of the kid if you get killed by some ghost or vampire or something!" I heard the car drive away. I didn't look back.
This is just a little something i threw together out of boredom and reading the dresden files series, awesome books those!
I do realize the part when Harry actually got ickle Naruto was cheesy as hell, but Harry is cheesy and it feels incredibly IC for him. Anyways, chapter 2 should be put in about a week if you are actually interested in this. c'ya!