Shady Baby

Shady Baby

Chapter 1

The First Sign

Summary: We find our heroine (Or maybe anti-heroine), Lucks, trying to fight off Rincewind, who has gotten lost in The Shades and wound up in her father's garden among a faerie ring.

Author's Note: Still, description's not that cool, but I'm a writer and my creativity is my vice. Okies? Oh, and it's Lu-wocks-zanna, that's how you say it. Ever watch Star Trek, people?

Disclaimer: We at Nightingale Productions would like to say: Creative genius has still got a hold on me…got it? I'm really excited; this is the first time I've done this kind of thing, especially with this old computer I have and everything. If you liked the

Prologue, give me a review. If you didn't…sorry, there's no hope for you. Thank you and enjoy the show.

The rumpled mass of covers were pulled over a head that held loads of long black hair, startling gray eyes, and a mean mouth that would get anyone who tried to mess with it. It belonged to our heroine, Luoxanna Harbinger, or "Lucks," for short. Her father had given her that nickname when she was younger, because everything seemed to go her way, even when it wasn't supposed to. So, she was considered an extremely lucky child.

Lucks had since grown up into a beautiful fifteen-year-old, able to do pretty much anything she wanted. When you live in the Shades, have a father who's a farmer, a mother who's a fortune teller, and no decent public school to attend, you have to learn other things besides reading, writing, and arithmetic. Not that she didn't learn any of that from her parents, it's just that she was better at things like beating up strangers that wandered into the house, or the back garden, and being able to whip up a potion out of every herb available on the spot if needed.

Fortunately, for her anyway, she would get a chance to put her skills to use that morning. Unfortunately, though, for our poor, inept stranger who wandered into her father's garden.

"Lucks!" came a voice from the kitchen.

Lucks grumbled and pulled her body out of the small bed, looking out her window. The sun was out, which was unusual for the Shades. Rarely did sun come through the treetops and smog. She glanced down, realized she was naked, sighed, and found her dress in the corner. She pulled it on and found her way to the kitchen where her mother was having entirely too much fun with a kitchen knife and a cucumber. Her father was seated at the table, reading a newspaper (or what was left of one after their dog, affectionately named "Killer" got through with it).

"Morning Lucks" he said, absentmindedly. "Long sleep, I take it?"

"No longer than usual" she said. Her father turned a page with a hole right in the middle and kept reading. Her mother set some food down in front of her and she began to pick at it.

"Did you hear the news, Lucks? They're letting women in Unseen University!" her father laughed. "What a pile of cannon fodder."

"Why is that cannon fodder, daddy?" Lucks asked. "What's wrong with a female wizard?"

"It's against the lore," her father said. Lucks rolled her eyes.

"That's what they told Eskarina Smith, and she didn't listen" Lucks shot back.

"That's because she saved the life of one of the top young wizards at the University! Gave her a pointed hat and everything. Rubbish."

Anger boiled up inside Lucks, and she turned toward her plate of food. She wasn't hungry, but she ate it anyway.

Suddenly, from over in the corner of the room a whole rack of pots and pans fell over with a clatter and scattered across the floor. Her father jumped and dropped the paper. Killer ran to the window and started to bark.

"What was that?"

"Beats me" Lucks mumbled.