Benjamin Tennyson crept through the woods on silent, padded feet. Wildmutt, the shaggy, orange, four-legged, dog-like alien wasn't Ben's favorite creature from the alien-watch, but it was the best as sneaking. Even though it was large and broad, Wildmutt's feet were soft and silent when he wanted them to be. And even though it had no eyes, Wildmutt's senses were superior, detecting heat and scent in a way far better than anything Ben could do in his boring old human form.

At the edge of the woods through which Ben, as Wildmutt, stalked, was a small lake where he and Gwen and Grandpa had fished this afternoon. Now Gwen Tennyson, his dweeb of a cousin, sat at the end of the rickety old dock, tapping away at her laptop. She wasn't even supposed to have her laptop out. Grandpa wanted them to "get the full camping experience", which is why she'd snuck off.

Ben couldn't help but snicker. In Wildmutt's form, it manifested as a deep, throaty chuckle. He could already imagine Gwen's face.

Dor focused on Jubilee as she walked down the book-lined corridors of L-Space, navigating the Blind Eternities, her chest warmed by the spark of magic that allowed her to planeswalk. She hoped her friend was in a library, or at least near a library. After several minutes of walking, she was beginning to think she'd need to rethink her path when a corridor suddenly opened on her left.

She turned and found the shelves were smooth, white metal, each book contained in a bright green cover. The corridor stretched as far as she could see. Dor knew, uncertain how, that there were over a million books in this corridor.

Curious, Dor reached out for one of the books. The cover was smooth and cool, much like the nine-pocket pages of her grimoire. The front was that same bright green with a black circle stamped in its center. The circle was contained a green hourglass symbol. Below the symbol was a single word: Vulpimancer.

She opened the book.

Vulpimancers are the sapient species of the planet Vulpin. They are a quadrapedial, canid and range from 1.8 to 4.5 meters at the shoulder. Their fur is in shades of brown to red to orange with adult males developing stripes upon their backs. They have the paws, claws, and jaws typical of most canids throughout the universe.

Vulpimancers are one of the few species of the universe without ocular organs. Instead, they have gill-like nostrils on the sides of their necks allowing them to sense a variety of stimuli including infrared and ultraviolet, which are typically outside the visible spectrum.

The book went on like that for a while and Dor knew she could have stood there for hours and read all about the fascinating species. But her shoulders tingled and her chest grew warm and she remembered she had a goal. She turned to return to her usual pathway only to find it gone, that the hallway of books with bright green covers on smooth white bookshelves stretched forever in both directions.

Dor bit her lip and cursed her lack of focus. She made sure of her bookbag on her shoulder and her wand at her hip before continuing though the corridor, hoping it took her somewhere with a library.

She stumbled from the Blind Eternities in a flash of green light, falling sideways to a dirt floor and the scent of pine. Dor scrambled to her feet and her bearings, drawing her wand. She found herself just inside the edge of a forest. A large, shaggy orange quadruped with no eyes and a massive muzzle stood at the edge of the forest facing a lake several paces on. It was a vulpimancer, the same creature she'd read about in the library in her mind.

And on a dock jutting into that lake sat a girl with her back to the vulpimancer.

The vulpimancer turned its muzzle Dor's way and growled low in its chest. Its throat gills flared and she knew it had sensed her.

"Easy," said Dor. "I don't want to hurt you."

It took a threatening step toward her, lips curling in a snarl.

Dor settled back into a waterbending stance and felt the water in the lake shift.

The vulpimancer took another step toward her, and Dor took a smooth step back, remembering how Kya had taught her to stand, taught her to move. The playing card tickled at the back of her mind.

"Easy," she said again. "Easy..."

But the vulpimancer crouched and she knew it was about to leap. She moved her arms in an abrupt sweep, left to right, even as the canid alien pounced at her. A stream of water leapt from the lake and slammed into the creature, knocking it sideways. The girl on the dock shouted in surprise and alarm. Dor spared a look for her in case there more vulpimancers, but she was alone and unharmed, staring at them in amazement. The vulpimancer got to its feet, shaking water from its matted fur.

Dor hadn't realized before, but the creature wore a collar. It was bright green and at its center was a symbol, the same symbol stamped on the cover of the book in her mind, a green hourglass inscribed in a black circle. The symbol was bulky, made of some kind of metal, and it glowed with an inner light. With its shiny metal and glowing light, it reminded Dor of the mechanical spiders in New York City. She wondered if Jubilee's Dazzler would be as effective against this machine as it had been against the spiders.

The vulpimancer growled and charged. Dor lifted her hands, wand loose in her right, and the water that had splashed into the earth lifted with them. She took a step back while thrusting her right hand forward. The vulpimancer dodged to the side but she managed to catch it a glancing blow upon its shoulder. It tumbled to its feet gracefully. The beast was strong and dexterous and Dor was certain she couldn't hold it off for long. The red-bordered fire spells flickered in the back of her mind, warmed her shoulders, but she didn't want to use them unless absolutely necessary.

Dor readied herself for the vulpimancer's next assault, lifting the water about herself in a defensive streamer. It came at her, feinting to her left. Dor lashed with the water, but missed as the creature moved to the right and came for her, jaws wide. Dor reacted, flicking her wand, and threw pink and yellow sparks at the vulpimancer's collar. When they struck, the green hourglass sparked and turned red. It emitted a series of tones in descending order and volume, then sputtered. The vulpimancer glowed with bright green light for a moment and a half, and when it faded, the canid alien was replaced by a little boy, tumbling to the forest floor The boy pushed to his feet, soaked and groaning. He was younger than Dor by a few years at least. Short and wiry, he had a shock of uncombed brown hair and bright green eyes. He wore a white and black short-sleeved shirt, and a pair of baggy, dark green pants. The device the vulpimancer had worn around its neck was duplicated on the boy's arm.

Dor looked from the boy to the girl and back again and realized the boy was the vulpimancer, that he'd been sneaking up on the girl. Dor felt fury, a burning roil in her belly that spread through her chest to her shoulders.

"Were you stalking her?" Dor demanded, pointing at the girl.

The boy looked guilty, hunching his shoulders and ducking his head. He looked up at Dor, half defiant, half mischievous. "What's it to you? Who are you anyway?"

"You naughty, naughty, little boy," said Dor. She was inclined to spank his bottom, but she didn't know him, didn't have permission, and didn't want to act as the sisters at St. Bridget's had. So she took a breath and bit her tongue.

The boy crossed his arms defiantly. "Whatever. She's just a stupid girl anyway. I was only—"

Dor's compunction evaporated. Clearly this boy needed a lesson in what a girl could do. She snagged his arm. "Just a stupid girl? Well this girl defeated you in a duel. Let me show you what else a girl is capable of." For all the boy's strength and speed as a vulpimancer, as a little boy he wasn't better than average.

"Hey, what are you doing?" the boy demanded.

Dor knelt on the forest floor, left thigh horizontal, and drew him to her.

"Whoa, wait a minute!"

Dor found it easy to bend him over her thigh. The baggy pants, she knew, would be sufficient impediment to her chastisement, but they were loose enough around the waist that, when she grabbed hold of them, she easily pulled them to his ankles.

"You can't!" he said, voice high and pleading.

The boy put hand back, but Dor took hold of his wrist without trouble. He wore a pair of bright green panties. Dor considered pulling them down, but after a moment decided not to. It felt like a step too far.

She spanked his bottom low, where it met his thighs. The boy yelped, high and shrill, like he'd never been spanked before. Dor felt sympathy for him. She had never managed to take a spanking stoically, the way Sister Mary Margaret thought she ought to. But Dor was determined to make sure he would think twice about sneaking up on little girls minding their own business.

She spanked him again.

"Okay!" he said desperately. "I get it. I get it! Please..."

She spanked him a third time, his little bottom bouncing under her palm.

"Please. I'm sorry. I..."

She spanked him a forth time and felt the sting in her palm. She knew the spanking must have turned his bottom pink, even though, from her experience, it had been mild.

"Gwen! Help me! Get Grandpa Max! I'm being attacked!"

Girlish, high-pitched giggling caught Dor's attention, and she looked to the left where the girl who'd sat on the dock stood watching, a device in the crook of her arm and a smirk on her face. Though hair was vivid auburn, she had the same green eyes as the boy over her thigh. She wondered if they were related. Brother and sister perhaps.

The girl held up a hand. "Don't stop on my account. This brat's deserved a spanking for, like, the last ten years."

"Hey!" shouted the boy. "Why don't you use your lucky powers and get this crazy girl off me?"

"I lost my powers when the charm was destroyed, you doofus," the girl, Gwen, said.

Dor looked from the red-headed girl to the boy's green panties, and back again. "You know him?"

Gwen nodded. "This is my annoying cousin, Benjamin Tennyson."

"He had assumed the shape of a vulpimancer and was stalking up behind you." Dor wondered if she'd stumbled upon a magical sort of sibling rivalry.

Gwen frowned. "Grandpa Max told you to stop using your powers to pick on me, Ben."

"I wasn't picking on you," Ben objected.

Dor spanked him and the crack of her palm on his butt bounced through the trees. "It's an extraordinarily bad idea to lie while being spanked," Dor said.

"Owie! Okay! I'm sorry for... for using my powers to pick on you."

Gwen giggled. Dor looked at her, and Gwen blushed and put her hands behind her back.

"He's your cousin," Dor said. "And you're the one he misbehaved against. I took it upon myself to spank him because I thought he was attacking a defenseless child. But you don't seem defenseless to me."

Gwen shrugged. "I can hold my own, but if you want to keep spanking that brat, I'm all for it."

"Gwen! No! Please," Ben cried out. "I'm sorry. Make her let me go."

Gwen sighed. "All right, fine." She looked at Dor. "I appreciate you coming to my defense, but you should probably let him go now."

Dor did so and stood, backing up a couple steps in case the boy turned into a vulpimancer again. Ben hopped to his feet and rubbed his bottom vigorously before blushing hard and pulling up his pants, muttering. Dor decided not to listen to hard lest she felt compelled to spank him again. It really wasn't her place and she felt a little bad.

"Don't' worry about it," Gwen said quietly while Ben groused. "Ever since he found that alien watch, he's been more full of himself than usual. He deserved a smacked bottom. I'm Gwendolyn, by the way. You can call me Gwen."

"I'm Dorothy. You can call me Dor."

"Pleasure to meet you. So... you're a mage?"

Dor nodded. "Of a sort. I've just started learning about my powers."

"Well, what are you doing out here anyway?" Ben demanded. "I thought you were a badguy, like Hex. Magic is bad news."

"Not everyone with magic is a badguy, Ben," Gwen chided.

"It's not cool to go popping out of other people's watches," Ben said, tapping the device at his wrist, giving the circular part a twist.

Dor shrugged. "I really don't know how I ended up here. I was traveling L-Space, trying to planeswalk to a friend in New York. I didn't expect to end up in the middle of the woods."

"New York?" said Gwen. "You're way off the mark. This is Colorado."

Dor nodded. She felt way off the mark. She recognized Colorado as one of the states near the middle, but the sisters hadn't put much emphasis on teaching United States geography. Plus, this world felt different than the New York City where she'd met Jubilee. The flavor was off. "I don't even think I'm on the right Earth," Dor said.

"Right Earth?" said Gwen. "You mean there are other Earths?"

Dor nodded. "I don't suppose there's a library around here somewhere?"

"Yeah," said Ben sarcastically. "Just walk that way until you find a big tree. Then turn left until you find another big tree—"

"Oh, shut up, you dweeb," said Gwen. She took Dor's hand. "Come on. I'll introduce you to Grandpa Max. He'll know what to do."

Dor let Gwen lead her through the woods. Ben hurried to catch up.

Dor looked at the brown-haired boy. His cheeks were flushed, but he didn't look angry. Instead, he looked repentant. Dor bit her lip nervously. She was about to apologize when Ben cleared his throat.

"Um, Dor? Would it be okay if we didn't tell grandpa about me sneaking up on Gwen? He already think I'm being irresponsible with the watch."

Dor looked at the device strapped to the boy's wrist. It didn't look a time-keeping device to her, but she already knew sometimes familiar words had different meanings on different planes.

"Would he spank you again?" Dor asked.

"What? No way," said Ben. "Grandpa Max would never spank us."

Dor bit her lip again, certain she'd overstepped herself now. "I'm sorry for that," she said. "It wasn't my place."

"Sure it was!" said Gwen. "I thought it was great."

"No," said Ben. "It's not that. It's just..." he cleared his throat uncomfortably. "He wants me to be more responsible. I don't want to disappoint him."

Dor patted the boy's shoulder. "If you forgive me for spanking you out of turn, then I agree your grandfather need not know about your misbehavior."

Ben grinned up at her. "Oh, that's all right. You were just trying to defend a helpless little dweeb after all."

"I'm not helpless!" Gwen said. "Dor, would you spank him again please?"

Dor chuckled. "Only if he earns it."

They walked in silence for a while, then Ben said, "I guess I did kind of deserve it."

After a few minutes more, they emerged from the woods into a clearing where a portly older man in a loud red shirt sat at a camp fire, tending a cooking meal. Though Dor had recently eaten with Minwu and Li, the food smelled wonderful.

The rest of the clearing was taken up by a large vehicle, much like the ones she'd seen in Jubilee's New York City, but twice as tall and three times as long.

"Grandpa Max, we found someone in the woods!" said Gwen.

"She popped right out of my watch," said Ben.

Both children hurried eagerly to the man who stood, brushing off pants. Dor approached shyly.

"She's a mage, grandpa," said Gwen. "Like that guy Hex, but much nicer."

"Is that right?" He stepped forward and held out a hand. "I'm Max Tennyson. These are my grandchildren."

Dor's hand was enveloped in his and he shook firmly.

"My name is Dorothy Alice Wendy. But you can call me Dor."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Dor. Now, if you don't mind my asking, how is it a mage came to emerge from an alien device?"

Dor cleared her throat. "I'm not certain on that myself. You see, sir, I can travel between planes of existence."

"She said there's more than one version of Earth, grandpa," said Gwen. "Isn't that fascinating?"

Grandpa Max nodded. "It is." He gestured at Dor. "Please, continue."

"I get the impression it's not the same for all planeswalkers, but I travel the multiverse though a concept known as L-Space."

Grandpa Max nodded. "The idea that enough words concentrated in one place can bend reality."

Dor's eyebrows shot up. "You're familiar with L-Space?"

"Only the theory."

Dor was impressed. "But I don't know why that means I should have emerged from this device rather than where I was going. I was pulled off track. I've planeswalked without L-Space before, but that was planeswalking blind. This time I was trying to go somewhere specific and was trapped off course by a bunch of books describing alien species." Dor pointed at Ben's wrist. "But that device doesn't look like a library to me."

"But maybe it is," said Gwen, tone excited.

"Uh, no," said Ben. "It's a transformation doohickey."

"But maybe, if it holds the information of ten different aliens, it's enough like a library to mess up Dor's magic."

Dor pursed her lips in thought. "There's a lot more than ten," she said mildly.

But Ben and Gwen had begun bickering and didn't hear her.

"All right, that's enough," said Grandpa Max. "Let's eat and go to bed. The nearest library is in Grand Junction, a couple hours drive from here. I suppose that's where you'll want to go?" He looked at Dor.

Dor nodded shyly.

Dinner was a peculiar affair of fish patties between soft bread with vegetables and sauces she'd never had before. The children made faces at it, but Dor thought it was delicious, if odd.

"She can stay in the camper with me, Grandpa." Gwen said.

"That sounds fine," said Grandpa Max.

Max and Ben retired to the tent, and Gwen opened the door to the vehicle, the camper she'd called it.

"There's a foldout bed in the back," said Gwen, gesturing to the rear of the vehicle where a bed had been set up. "I can take the couch." She patted a narrow bench next to a small table.

"That doesn't look quite long enough for you," Dor said.

"It's all right," Gwen said. "I've slept on it before."

"I don't want to put you out of your bed."

"It's fine, really. I owe you one for smacking that brat's bottom."

Gwen grinned.

Dor blushed.

"Besides, you can do me a favor."

"What's that?"

"Could you teach me? To do magic, I mean."

Dor shrugged uncomfortably. "I don't know. I've only been at it for about six months now. As far as I know, the ability to use magic is inherent. I've had a few teachers, but only briefly and I am by no means not an expert. Do you think you have magic inherently?"

Gwen nodded excitedly. "On one of our adventures, I had this charm and it made me really lucky, but I felt something inside, you know? Something that wasn't the charm." She blushed and looked away. "Do you think that's possible?"

"I haven't the faintest idea," said Dor. "but I know where we can start."

Dor changed into her yellow Hufflepuff nightie while Gwen changed into a pair of pale blue pajamas. They sat together on the bed at the back of the vehicle, legs crossed, facing each other.

"From what I've learned, the basics of magic are about focus, imagination, and metaphor. How's your imagination?"

"Um. Good, I think?"

Dor nodded. "All right. I want you to close your eyes, take a deep breath, and imagine a room in your mind. It can be simple. It can be complex. Either way, it must be yours." Dor took a slow deep breath. It was interesting to her that twice in the past two days she was teaching someone to focus with the room in their mind, a technique she'd only recently learned and certainly hadn't mastered. "Breath in... imagine the room... breath out... Can you see it?"

"Sort of," said Gwen.

"It doesn't have to be perfect, it's just a metaphor," said Dor. "Now imagine in that room, something that symbolizes your magic. For me, it's a book, but for you it might be something else. Perhaps a candle flame. Or a bowl of water. Or..."

"What about a cat?"

Dor hadn't expected that, but she nodded. "All right. That cat, describe it to me."

"She's a black cat with bright green eyes, like mine. She's got a long tail that crooks like a question mark. Her paws are soft, but her claws are sharp."

"Excellent. Focus on the cat. Breathe in, slowly... Look into its eyes... Let the breath... out... slowly..."

For several moments, they breathed together slowly.

"Do you feel anything?" Dor asked. She waited several breaths before opening her eyes. Gwen was lying, curled on the bed, fast asleep.

In the morning, Grandpa Max fried up the left over fish burgers and brewed coffee. Dor availed herself of the burgers but was especially grateful for the coffee. The kids had some packaged snacks they shared. Dor got the impression from their surreptitious looks they weren't supposed to have it, but she didn't say anything. On the ride down from the mountain campground Dor sat in the back with Gwen and walked her though meditation while Ben sat up front with Grandpa Max.

Despite the rumble of the vehicle and the bumps in the road, they were able to focus their mind. Gwen described her black cat with green eyes and black fur.

"And a sheen of violet," Gwen added.

Dor let herself see the room in her mind, though she didn't go their fully. She could see her grimoire upon the table, though she didn't open it. She felt the tingle along her shoulders and the warmth in her chest, though she did not pull at her magic.

"Do you feel anything?" Dor asked. "For me it's a sort of tingle."

"It's like a word," said Gwen. "A word I can't quite remember, just on the tip of my tongue. Like if I'm trying to write an essay... Sometimes if I can go back to the beginning and try again, I can trick my brain into remembering. But It's just not... I can't quite..."

They kept at it for an hour or so before Gwen confessed she couldn't concentrate any more.

"I almost had it," she said, despondent.

"It's okay," said Dor. "A friend of mine, my first teacher, she told me I had to learn to control my magic, otherwise it would spill from me accidentally. Which is what happened. You are already learning, which means you're way ahead of me."

Gwen smiled.

Dor admired the view as they drove down from the pine-tree covered mountains, through canyons alongside a rushing river, and into a high scrubby desert. The canyons were tall and craggy with trees clinging here and there, the stratified rock blue and grey and red. The desert was dusty brown with dots of sage in green, yellow, and purple. From a distance, the town was a smudge of emerald hugging the shining ribbon of a river.

Grandpa Max found a sidestreet to park his large vehicle and they walked the block and a half to the Grand Junction central library.

"We're just dropping Dor off, right?" said Ben. "We're not actually going to go in the library? It's summer break!"

"You don't like libraries?" said Dor.

Ben rolled his eyes.

"I can hardly believe he's my cousin," said Gwen.

"Come on, Ben, it won't hurt to look around. Besides, I want to make sure Dorothy gets off safely," Grandpa Max said.

"I appreciate that, but I'm sure everything will be fine," said Dor. Even so, she blushed warmly to hear the concern in his tone. They'd just met, but she wished he was her grandfather.

On a grassy strip, in the shade of a large tree, a woman sat upon a spread blanket with a small child, enjoying a picnic. Behind them, the library was a sprawling, two story building with tall windows, a clock tower, and a sculpture at the entry that spun in the gentle desert breeze.

Dor was distracted by the furtive movement a young man in a black, hooded shirt approaching the mother and child. Something about the way he moved, the way he held his shoulders, the way he shifted his eyes, made her think he was up to no good. And a few moments later when he dashed up to the woman and snatched a bag from beside her, Dor knew she'd been right.

The woman gasped, startled.

"Hey, he just..." Dor said.

"I got it!" shouted Ben. He tapped at his device and twisted a dial; a circular section of the device popped up like a telescope. "Come on, XLR8, it's hero time!" He slammed the device with his other hand. In an explosion of green light, the untidy boy disappeared and in his place stood a tall crystalline golem. It was broad-shouldered, sharp-edged, and wore a black bodysuit that left its arms bare, with the green hourglass symbol upon its chest. The being was composed entirely of teal-colored crystal with a fin-like protrusion from the back of its head.

Ben, now a crystalline golem, looked down at himself and shrugged. "I can work with this."

The young man in the black hood sprinted away from the woman, bag tucked under his arm, the woman shouting after him, the child sobbing. But in his haste to get away, the thief hadn't realized he was charging almost right at a large, crystalline golem.

"Why does he call this one 'Accelerate'?" Dor asked.

Gwen snickered. "This one's Diamondhead. Ben doesn't know how to use that thing properly. He's always getting the wrong alien."

"Whatever, guys. I can handle this," said Diamondhead. He pointed at the young thief, just now noticing them. "Drop it!" Diamondhead shouted.

The thief, not much older than a boy really, skidded to a stop so fast he landed hard on his backside.

The arm Diamondhead used to point at the thief shifted and grew with a sound like a marble on glass. In moments, his hand was replaced with a long crystalline blade.

The sound sent a shiver down Dor's spine and across her shoulders and a faint pulsing buzz at the base of her skull. Dor closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying not to lose that feeling, trying to encourage it. In her mind's eye she saw her grimoire sitting closed on the table. And she saw a white sphere with an azure sheen upon the brown leather. She reached for it and it fell into her hand like a ripe pear. It was smooth and cool and heavy and in the next moment the sphere resolved itself into a playing card.

Ben's Petrosapien 2W

Elemental Creature – Earth Golem

W: This gets first strike until end of turn.

U: This gets hexproof until end of turn.

2/5

"Leave the purse and get out of here," said Diamondhead.

Dor blinked and watched as the young thief did as he was told, running pell-mell away from the alien form Ben called Diamondhead.

In a muted flash of green light, Ben transformed back to his human form. He planted his fists on his hips and turned to face them. "How about that? I just stopped a purse snatcher."

Grandpa Max nodded. "No one got hurt and no buildings were set on fire. That was well done, Ben."

Dor had to agree. The boy had done well.

Ben took the purse back to the woman, who looked equal parts grateful and nonplussed.

"Hey, what's that?" said Gwen?

Dor looked at the girl and saw she was pointing at Dor's hand. When she looked, she found the playing card in her mind was held in her fingers. It was just like when she'd held Twilight's Blink after returning to St. Bridget's from Equestria. She held it up to look at it. It showed Benjamin Tennyson in his Diamondhead form, fists on hips, chest forward, expression proud. Like the others, it felt thicker and heavier than it was. It felt smooth, like glass, and tasted of crystal.

"It's a spell," said Dor.

"A spell to do what? Transform like Ben?'

"I don't think so," said Dor. "I haven't seen one quite like this before."

"May I..." Gwen held out her hand shyly.

"Certainly." Dor handed the card over.

When she took it, Gwen shivered. "I can feel... something. It's not quite right. I mean, it's not quite right for me. It's almost like a sound, just a bit to low to be heard."

She handed it back to Dor and when Dor took it, the card dissolved into sparkles of white light with hints of blue.

"Well, now the heroics are out of the way, shall we go inside?" said Grandpa Max.

They found a quiet corner in the basement of the library.

"Travel safe," said Gwen.

"Yeah, good luck," said Ben.

Grandpa Max gave her a firm nod.

Dor approached a bookshelf, put her hand on it, and felt the spark of warmth at her chest. The books parted before her as though by magic.