To my only reviewer, Poiniard: Thank you for reviewing, I appreciate it. My comments:

Yes, I am aware that Tandy throws tantrums. And it's Peirs Anthony, not Peirce Anthony. :) Also, thanks for the advice about the listing, I'll avoid that.


It turned out to be two teenage girls. Lori tilted her head slightly to the side, eyes taking them in carefully.

The first wore deep purple. She wore pants which were well-fitted at the waist, loose higher up, and tight around the calves. Overtop of the pants were two long, flowing, and wide panels of cloth that flowed from a top portion which was almost like a skirt, but with the panels, attached with cloth around the sides; this was to the bottom of her rear. The panels were embroidered with flowers along the edges. Her top was a loose robelike shirt, with massively belled sleeves that almost were as long as the cloth panels of her skirt. All of this, of course, was a deep shade of plum that went wonderfully well with the girl's reddish-coppery hair, which was loose and fell just past her shoulders.

The second was dressed in hot pink. She wore a robe. This was a garment with a very flared skirt, enabling her to move easily. The sleeves were even more belled than the other girl's, the edges only half an inch from sweeping the ground, just like the skirt of the robe. She had a wide, shocking-purple belt that tied like with strands falling down off to the side. The belt held her robe well and made it look prettier, while actually helping her to not trip over the hem.

Rodney was about to step forward and inquire who in blazes they were when Lori tapped him and said softly, "Don't. I'll talk now, Rodney."

Rodney, having by this time figured out that Lori was smarter than he, just nodded and waited, while the dragon/elf stepped forward, towards the two girls.

"Hello," she greeted them. "Who're you? I'm Lori. Are you adventurers?"

The first, the one in purple, smiled at Lori, taking her for a child (which she was, but not in the practical sense). "Yes, dear, we are adventurers. I'm Xena, this is Lindsay; we're magicians."

Lori frowned at Xena's obvious interpretation of her age. "Nice to meet you then, Xena and Lindsay. I'm an adventurer too; I'm a druid. This is Rodney Stoutheart," she gestured to the fighter, who had followed her and was watching. "He's my friend, we're going to go adventuring. Rodney's a fighter." Lori nudged Rodney.

The fighter jumped, and then said, "Er, nice to meet you?"

Lori smiled at him. Anyway, then, she thought. A pair of magicians will add to our party well. Aloud, she said, "Would you two like to adventure with us?"

Lindsay grinned. "Lets!" she exclaimed. She was obviously a very bubbly sort of girl. The group of now four set off again. Lori was thoroughly amused and a bit annoyed at what she termed, in her mind, 'all that humanish racket,' but she kept silent about it and made no comment about the annoying fact that she was both the youngest (practically) in the group, and the only elf. Oh well, she'd deal.

Lori walked in front, to Rodney's worry, but she reassured him that if anything attacked she would let him right at them. Besides, oughtn't a fighter to guard the rear? Rodney had accepted her idea, and was now vigilantly watching the rear.

Lori walked along, making no noise and listening for any. She heard what was even better, though: a silence until a twig snapped and a cry rang out in the elven tongue: "Damn!"

Lori actually laughed. The elven girl fell from the tree, catching herself neatly and standing. She saw Lori- who, amazingly, was her age- and erupted in laughter as well, laughing at herself. Lori had that affect on many people. This new elven girl had oddly sharp teeth and astonishingly bright green eyes. She was dressed in black, which perfectly matched her hair. Her clothing consisted of pants that were baggy to the knee, but bound around her calves past the knee; a shirt that was tucked in to the wrapped belt at the waist; and soft elven-made leather boots.

Lori and the new elven girl stopped laughing after a few moments, only to look at the highly surprised looks on the three humans' faces and erupt all over again. After a few minutes they stopped laughing again, still grinning.

"So anyway," the girl said, "My name's Joan. What's yours?"

Lori replied, "I'm Lori. In case you're wondering about these-" she stretched her wings- "I'm half-dragon, oddly enough. I'm also a druid, what're you?"

"A rogue. But don't tell the fighter that, he looks scary and highly lawful. We shall just say I'm a trapmaster?" Joan said.

Lori agreed. The elves would share the secret. Rodney, Lori knew, would not approve of a rogue's talent for thievery.

So the two elven girls walked over to the other three members of the newly formed adventuring party. "This is Joan, she's a trapmaster, lockmaster, etcetera, someone who is good with stuff like that. She's in our group now. Okay?"


Xena was a bit suspicious of the way Lori had referred to Joan, and she looked her over. From her knowledge and intelligence the magician could tell that Joan was a rogue. But she would respect her privacy. If Joan did not want her status flouted, it would not be. Besides, Joan seemed like a nice girl, as was Lori, and Xena was fairly sure the two would soon be good friends, as the same age and sharing race. Indeed, the two were already chatting away- in what Xena was fairly sure was Elven. She herself spoke and wrote only Common, Draconic (the arcane language, and incidentally also that of the dragons), Halflingish, Dwarven, and Gnomic: there had been few elves around where she grew up, and Xena had had no oppurtunity to learn Elven.


Joan, for her part, was thoroughly pleased. She'd found a friend, an elven girl who understood her like no human ever could. They were already becoming friends and discovering similarities between them. One obscure thing that even Lori, who was admittedly smarter than Joan, could not understand between them is that both had recently been having odd instances of uncontrolled magic they didn't create.

Such as Lori's literality, which had only emerged very recently. Joan herself kept snapping twigs without actually stepping on them, which she found highly annoying. They debated asking one of the magicians, but decided against it for now.


Well, what d'you think? Can you tell what Lori and Joan's magic problem means? Hint: They're just now reaching puberty/teenager-ness.