A Big Girl comes into his life

by Claidheamh Mohr

An Investigator for the Museum of Cryptozoology gets lost in the Canadian woods and meets a girl. A frost giant's daughter, here are their adventures.

111. Chapter 111

Roger meets a traveler

Having left Freya and the others with Queen Henrietta-Maria for her tour of the library complex.

Roger, Dena, Sheila and Flora returned to the house.

He briefly explained to Silky that Her Majesty had bestowed 'rose kisses' on Warren, Anita and Freya so that if she sensed something was 'different' about them, it was the effects of the rose kisses they had received.

As silent as ever, Silky merely nodded at his remarks and by signs indicated that he had visitors waiting for him in the front parlour.

Entering the parlour, Roger saw a couple sitting together and quietly gazing at the cheery fire crackling faintly in the fireplace.

He was a white male somewhere in his mid to late twenties, he had a lanky build, stood about six feet tall with curly brown hair and eyes and had a wispy beard, he had the air of a scholarly type about him.

His clothing resembled the Portland grunge outfit so common these days, except it was real, not store bought.

He was staring in fascination at the sleeping forms of the gigantic wolvies sprawled on the parlour's floor.

The woman, she was a whole different kettle of fish as the saying went.

Superficially, she resembled an athletic young woman standing about six feet tall, with auburn hair, green eyes and a warm smile, a real looker by anybody's standards.

Roger looked more closely at her and noted a faint shimmering around her, she was clearly wearing a glamour of some sort.

He glanced at the wolvies, their lack of concern assured him she was not a threat.

Clearing his throat to get their attention, he said, "Hello, I'm Roger Tate, what can I do for you?"

The man smiled at him as he stood up and extended his hand in greeting.

"I'm Matthew, Matthew Fisher, pleasure to meet you, Mr. Tate."

Roger smiled at Matthew and replied, "I'm not real big on formalities around here, Roger will do."

The woman smiled as she stood and extended her hand, saying, "Hello Roger, it's a pleasure to meet you at last, I'm Astoreth. but Astor will do"

At the moment of contact, he felt a peculiar sensation in his head, it was as if something was scanning his memories and images from his life seemed to flash before his eyes.

Her eyes dimmed briefly and she blinked a few times, then she smiled at him and said in a warm voice, "It seems you really are the man we have been looking for."
Roger looked at her and squinted before saying, "What do you really look like underneath that glamour you're wearing and did you scan my memories just now?"

Astor smiled slightly and touched an amulet hidden inside her plaid shirt.

Her form grew indistinct for a few moments and when she came back into focus again she looked up at him and he saw a face he would never forget again.

Her eyes were a lambent green with cat like pupils and above them growing out of her luxurious auburn hair were two small, goatlike horns, curving up and sweeping back to rounded points.

With her pointed ears and overall aspect, she definitely had a demonic air about her.

Astor glanced down at herself and of course, his eyes followed suit and settled briefly on her firm, full breasts and deep cleavage.

She stood smiling at him, making him acutely aware of her skin tight outfit, womanly shape and heroic proportions.

When she turned around, he saw prominent bat wings emerging from her back and a slender, pointed, prehensile tail protruding from a hole in her snug fitting pants came into view, as well as her shapely posterior.

She grinned at him and he saw her fangs distinctly.

Yep, a demonic aspect.

That was when he asked her in a serious tone, "You're not from around here... Are you, Astor?"

She looked at him and said evenly, "You're right, I am not from this world. I am a dimensional traveler. In the past, your kind called us 'demons' through a simple misunderstanding."

He grinned at her and said cheerfully, "So, do you have any powers? Or do you just look like you do?"

It was Astor's turn to feel sheepish now and she said shyly, "It depends on what you call powers? I can fly for short distances, I am likely stronger than you and I can acquire knowledge through skin contact, like I did just now to verify your name and a few things about you."

She touched the amulet hanging between her breasts and her form became indistinct for a few moments, when she became distinct again; her form was that of a normal human female.

If an athletic, six foot tall, green eyed, fair skinned, auburn haired beauty wearing a plaid shirt and faded jeans outfit was considered normal.

Roger smiled at her and said cheerfully, "You're a shape shifter? How cool!"

She laughed and said gaily, "No silly! It's just my imager, it can alter my appearance to help me blend in better, underneath this I'm still me!"

He seemed almost disappointed, then he grinned and said cheerfully, "Still, that's some pretty cool technology you have there, Astor."

Astor smiled again and said, "We all carry an imager when we travel across dimensional boundaries, particularly if we are crossing into a more unsophisticated dimension like this one."

With that she touched a silvery bracelet on her right arm, her inter dimensional travel device apparently.

Roger smiled at her and remarked candidly, "Now I can say I've seen an example of technology sufficiently advanced to where it seems magical to me. Funnily enough, I've plenty of examples of actual magic and magic users being impressed by our own technology."

Matthew looked at him and said, "Magic users? How have you seen 'magic users'"?

Roger grinned at him and said, "Just you wait."

He called out, "Dena! Flora! Would you come here please?"

Moments later the two came in and Dena squeaked, "Whit is it? Och aye, ye hae company!"

Roger grinned, "Behold!"

Matthew gaped as Roger said pleasantly, "What you're seeing is a wood wife named Dena and a Northern wood nymph named Flora, she is not to be confused with the fauns of Greek mythology.

"Yes, they are real and they are what we call 'neighbors'."

"Oh yes, the wolvies are Jotun great guardian wolves and there is a salamander living in the fireplace and yes, it is not an amphibian. Not to mention all the sprites looking down at us as we speak."

Matthew looked at Roger and said, "Are you telling me some of the stranger creatures of myth and legend really do exist? The Jotuns and the lamias I've heard about, the debate around the arachnes is amazing and now you're saying there's more?"

Roger smiled at Matthew and picked up the adderstone sitting on the mantelpiece, handing it to Matthew, he said, "This is an adderstone, hold it up to your eye and look around. Start at the fireplace then look up at the corners of the room."

Matthew took the water worn stone and after looking it over briefly he held it up to his eye as directed.

"Holy shit!" He exclaimed, "There's like a fat salamander sleeping among the flames!"

Looking upward, he grinned and said quietly, "My god, there's all these tiny people with insect wings, there must be a hundred of them!"

He handed the stone to Astor and said, "See for yourself!"

Astor did as she was told and a smile lit up her lovely face, "I had no idea creatures like this existed here in this dimension."

She looked the stone over and asked, "How does this work, who made it?"

Roger smiled and replied, "The stone has a hole that was worn in it by natural erosion, it has the property of allowing someone without the 'sight' to see the unseen."

"The sight?"

"The sight is something that gives its bearers the ability to 'see' beyond the veil that separates the two worlds. Some people are born with this ability while others acquire it through a gift from a magic user. I acquired it as a gift myself."

He grinned, "Think of it as magic in action."

He gestured at Dena and Flora, "These two, in a way are magic users as they are rarely seen by non fae and the only reason you're seeing them is because I asked them to reveal themselves. Don't bother trying to take their pictures, they almost never come out."

Roger smiled at Astor and said, "Do you mind showing these ladies your true form?"

Astor smiled and touched her amulet, moments later she stood in her true form.

Her giant bat like wings extended until her wing tips almost touched the parlour's walls and her lambent green eyes twinkled in her merriment, she grinned and her fangs were revealed for all to see.

Both Dena and Flora smiled as they beheld her true form and Dena asked, "Whaur ur ye frae? Ah've ne'er seen th' loch ay ye afore."

Astor paused briefly as if she was trying to grasp Dena's question, then said, "I've come from another dimension by means of this device."

She held up her right wrist and pointed at the dully gleaming bracelet she was wearing.

Having seen Astor in her true form before, Matthew focused his attention on Dena and Flora.

To him Dena looked like a 60 centimeter fashion doll come to life, albeit a curvy one.

She smiled at him as he looked her over and said, "An' who ur ye agin?"

Matthew smiled at the tiny elf woman and replied, "I'm Matthew Fisher, I'm a graduate vertebrate paleontology student and I have friends in the anthropology department who are not going to believe I've seen you."

Dena smiled and Flora giggled, causing Matthew to look over at her and what he saw made him question everything he had ever learned about evolution as seen in the fossil record.

Flora stood smiling at him as his wondering gaze wandered up and down her body, pausing occasionally to linger over a detail of her physique.

Her legs in particular really had his attention and he muttered, "You have hooves, cloven hooves..."

Looking up at her he asked, "Could you hike up your skirts a bit, I'm not trying to be funny or anything, I just want to examine your legs."

Flora smiled shyly and as she complied, he reached into his travel worn messenger bag and took out a notebook and pencil.

He flipped through it for a moment and muttered, "Gonna have to get another one of these real soon."

Finding a couple of clear pages, he looked closely at Flora's slender, deer like legs and sketched rapidly when he wasn't jotting down notes and observations.

In the background he barely heard Astor saying, "He did the same thing to me when I first met him. Half that book is sketches and notes about me."

He thought he heard Roger remark, "I'd like to scan that notebook for our files, you're the first trans-dimensional traveler we've encountered and I would be highly remiss if I didn't try to learn more about you!"

Flora stifled a fit of the giggles as she posed for Matthew while he sketched out hypothetical skeletal and muscular diagrams to describe her anatomy.

His innate artistic abilities came to the fore when he drew a portrait of her to illustrate her four horns as they curved over her head.

When he was finished, he closed up his tattered notebook with a smile and said, "Thank you, you two have really given me something to think about."

Having had their little 'show and tell' moment, Flora and Dena left the room, leaving Roger to his visitors.

There was a brief interruption when Silky came in pushing a tea set on an antique tea cart.

Roger smiled at the diminutive silk clad house spirit and said, "Thank you dear, I'll take it from here."

Silky smiled slightly, nodded and silently wafted from the parlour leaving the laden tea cart behind.

Matthew said quietly, "She's wearing quite the outfit, very 19th century that one. Not one for talking, eh?"

Roger smiled as he was setting out the tea cups and reaching for the tea kettle.

"Silky never speaks" he said, "She's a former banshee who had lost her family when the last of them died off. Now she is a silky, a house spirit who takes care of things around here.

"She doesn't speak because her voice could deafen you, it nearly deafened me once upon a time and I heard it stopped a would be knife wielding attacker in his tracks."

Matthew paused in mid reaching for his tea cup and said, "Seriously? You're not pulling my leg?"

Roger smiled at the somewhat shaggy young man and replied, "I have no reason to make things up. You've seen for yourself the sprites and the salamander via the adderstone. You only saw Silky because she let you see her when she brought in the tea cart."

He smiled and gestured around the room, "This house was built for a retired circus giant couple, everything is to scale for someone over eight feet tall. We live here because Freya is a Jotun who will grow to around nine feet tall and because she is what she is, this house and lands have become a sort of meeting place of the two worlds. A nexus if you will, a magical place. Here, magic works and magical beings exist and we live with our 'neighbors' in peaceful harmony."

Matthew looked thoughtful at Roger's comments and after a moment, said,"I didn't use to believe in the supernatural, I collected my fossils, identified the specimens and added the new ones to my collection."

He glanced over at Astor who had reverted to her human form and said, "Then while I was driving on a deserted stretch of highway late at night, my van full of specimens. I met Astor here and after recovering from the shock of meeting her, we started traveling together."

He sighed, "Thing is, I have to get back to school in the fall and I have no idea what to do about Astor."

He shrugged helplessly, "My folks don't know I've been traveling with her and I have no idea of how to explain her. I'm not clever enough to come up with a plausible lie, never have been and saying, 'Mom, dad, this is Astor, she's a dimensional traveler I bumped into one night, can I keep her?' Just won't cut it."

Roger looked over at Astor and said, "Just how did you get here again?"

In response she held up her right arm and said, "This is a standard issue IDTD, or Inter Dimensional Transportation Device. This one is calibrated for worlds in dimensions that are compatible with my life form, as in I require oxygen and water in the same amounts as you do."

She smiled and quipped, "It wouldn't do to pop into a dimension where the world I landed on has a poisonous atmosphere or the surface temperature would melt lead."

Roger smiled and remarked drily, "Yes, that would tend to ruin one's travel plans."

"So what brings you two here of all places? And by the way, I'd like to scan that notebook of yours if I may, we're always interested in meeting new people and learning about them."

Astor said quietly, "When Matthew hit me with his van, he may have broken my IDTD, as it doesn't seem to be working any more."

"Hit you with his van? Where were you, in the middle of the street?"

Matthew looked a bit sheepish and said quietly, "It was late at night and I was driving through cattle country, I wasn't going real fast because hitting a steer would really mess up my van. I saw what looked like a steer carcass with something hunched over it and as I got closer Astor suddenly jumped up right in front of me. I hit the brakes but even when new they were a joke and I skidded into her, hit her and she went cartwheeling off the road.

"I stopped the van and got out my flashlight to look for her body, what I found was Astor in her true form and at first I thought she was in costume, then I wondered what the hell was she doing out in the middle of nowhere.

"I touched her arm to see if she was all right and underwent that mind scan trick of hers and before long we got into the van and drove off like meeting an Astor was no big deal, and here we are."

Roger pondered their story and remarked, "I'm not sure what we could do for you Astor, you possess technology that may as well be magic in comparison to our most advanced technology, which probably seems pretty archaic to you."

Astor smiled and replied, "And that 'adderstone' as you called it, is like nothing I've ever encountered. 'Magic' as you call it, is something new to me."

"Is there any way you could make contact with some sort of traveler's aid service for dimensional travelers?" Roger asked.

He pointed at her wrist device, "Doesn't that have some sort of tracking device or an emergency call beacon in it?"

"What about your 'imager'?"

Astor thought a moment then said, "The IDTD does have a signal that activates if it is damaged beyond repair. The fact that it hasn't activated that signal makes me wonder why it won't allow me to get back home again. As far as the imager is concerned, it is integrated into my body, it cannot be removed while I am still alive. It can send out a recovery signal if I am deceased, but that isn't very helpful at this point."

Roger muttered, "I wonder if she can help..."

At their puzzled expressions he said, "Come with me, my study's just down the hall."

They rose as one and they followed him as he trundled the tea cart into his cluttered study.

The antique roll top desk was nearly buried under a stack of manila envelopes, each one stuffed with many sheets of closely typed papers.

Gesturing towards a dark green leather settee he said, "Take a seat and I'll be right with you."

Matthew and Astor did as they were told and sat quietly while Roger wrote out a brief note of inquiry, then sealed it in a envelope.

Taking up a stick, Roger tapped it twelve times on a stone sitting on his window sill and placed the envelope in plain sight.

Turning back to them he smiled and said, "Now we wait."

"Would you two like a bite to eat, a sandwich perhaps?" he asked.

Matthew smiled and said, "Now that you mention it, a sandwich would be great!"

Astor smiled and nodded in agreement, Roger grinned and called out, "Silky? If you're not too busy, would you please make a couple of those wonderfully big sandwiches of yours for my guests?"

The clear tinkle of a tiny silver bell was her response and he smiled.

"She makes this amazing sandwich, you'll love it, I swear!"

Minutes later, they all heard the soft clip clop of hooves outside Roger's window, Matthew glanced over and exclaimed, "The envelope's gone, who took it?"

Roger smiled and commented, "He's quite prompt, he must've been nearby."

Silky's arrival with a sandwich laden tray interrupted Matthew's next question and the couple tucked into their sandwiches with gusto.

While the two were demolishing their sandwiches with little regard for niceties, there was heard a soft clip clop of hooves again and Roger retrieved a scroll from the window sill.

Matthew glanced at the scroll and saw that it was made of birch bark and sealed with a blob of wax.

Roger glanced at him and said, "She doesn't really use paper, not when she has birch bark to write on."

Breaking the seal, Roger unrolled the birch bark and read the queen's reply.

Rolling it back up again, the wax resealed itself and Roger tucked the birch bark scroll into a small drawer on his massive desk.

He smiled at them and said, "She may be able to help tomorrow night, you don't mind staying the night do you?"

Matthew and Astor looked at each other and he said, "We can stay, if it's not too much trouble."

Roger grinned at the two and said, "You two are going to see things you will have trouble believing, yet everything and everyone you will meet are the real thing and they are real, not the product of some fantasy writer's dreams."

Having said that, he smiled and asked, "Would you guys care for an ale?"

Matthew grinned and said, "What kinds do you have?"

Roger grinned and replied, "Old Harald's winter welcome ale, I have a firkin of it on tap."

Matthew chuckled and said, "It comes in firkins? Where did you get it again?"

"It came from Canada, directly from the brewer himself."

Matthew smiled though his wispy beard and said, "I'm game, I'll try a pint, lay one on me!"

Astor smiled and said, "I'll have one too, wouldn't want to be left out!"

Roger excused himself and trundled the now empty tea cart out to the front parlour and returned a few minutes later with three foaming tankards of ale.

Handing two of them to his guests, he was about to propose a toast when the faint whirring of insect wings interrupted and he saw tiny April hovering in front of him.

Both Matthew and Astor distinctly heard a tiny voice squeak, "Choclit?"

Matthew gaped and exclaimed, "She talked! They can talk?"

As if in response, they heard a tittering among the crowded sprites clustered along the narrow shelf Roger had put in for them to perch on.

Roger smiled at the wee sprite and said, "What are you doing up at this hour?"

April settled onto the coffee table's polished surface and said, "We cannae sleep, not wi' aw th' gabbin' yer daein'"

As April stood still, Matthew got out his battered sketch pad, flipped it to an empty page and began sketching rapidly while Roger said, "And giving you chocolate is going to make you sleepy? That's not what I've seen little one."

April's gossamer wings sagged briefly and Roger said softly, "We'll move into the kitchen and close the door, Okay?"

Slightly crestfallen that Roger had not given her chocolate, April said, "Hokay."

April then looked at Astor and asked, "Ye hae wings too, yet yer big loch them, can ye fly?"

Astor smiled at her tiny interrogator and replied, "On my home world, I can fly very well. Here, the gravity is heavier and the air is thinner. I can still fly, but it's difficult."

Matthew smiled at April and asked her to turn around so he could sketch her wings, April grinned at him and turned around just like he asked.

Matthew scribbled a few notes and said happily, "Coming here was a great idea, I've seen so many amazing things!"

He smiled at April and said, "Thank you so much!"

April grinned at him and said, "Yer welcome!" Then she rejoined her fellows.

Roger and company, took up their tankards and went into the kitchen, closing the parlour doors behind them.

They watched as Roger took a moment to fill a cup with fresh, heavy cream, then he placed it on the mantelpiece in the front parlour.

Returning to them he said, "Silky likes the heavy cream we get from Oak View dairy, I always leave her a cup for her to enjoy."

Matthew said softly, "That's what they did for the house spirits as payment back in the old country." his expression changed slightly and he said, "You really aren't kidding about this house being a place between worlds, are you?"

Roger smiled as his reply.

"Damn!" muttered Matthew "I'm gonna need more sketch books!"

He picked up his tankard and took a great sup, as Old Harald's winter welcome ale washed over his taste buds and cascaded down his parched gullet, Matthew's eyes opened wide and he exclaimed," This, is really good!"

He smacked his lips and said ecstatically, "This, is what all those craft beers can only aspire to!"

At his urging, Astor took a tentative sip, smacked her lips a few times and said, "Not bad, it's tastier than some of the other beers I've tasted."

After a few more generous sips, Matthew set down his tankard and said, "That was really good ale, my compliments to the brewmaster!"

He looked at Roger and asked, "You mentioned a 'she', 'maybe she can help', 'she'll see us tomorrow night' things like that. Who is this 'she' you speak of?"

Roger set down his now empty tankard and replied, " 'She' is the Lady of Albion's night, the queen of faery and she considers this house and lands to be an outpost of her realm. She is Titania, the Gealach of Tir na nOg and she isn't just a magic user, she is magical in her own right and I asked for her advice and possible help with your problems Astor."

Astor looked thoughtful and asked, "What do you think she could do?"

Roger shrugged and replied, "I'm thinking she could restore your IDTD thingy with a spell or something and that could get you home again. We'll know more after we see her tomorrow night."

The big grandfather clock in the hallway tolled the hour of midnight and Roger commented, "Welp, they should be almost through with the library tour about now."

Moments later Sheila came into the kitchen while saying, "Do you think they might be through with the tour by now..."

She stopped abruptly and said, "Oh, hello, you have guests, that would explain why you're still up."

She smiled and said cheerfully, "Hello, I'm Sheila, pleased to meet you!"

Matthew rose and said, "I'm Matthew, the pleasures all mine and this," he gestured towards Astor, "Is Astor, my traveling companion."

Astor smiled at Sheila, "Pleased to meet you, Sheila."

"Matthew and Astor are a couple of road weary travelers staying the night, in fact I've yet to show them to a room and I think they'd like to take a shower before bed." remarked Roger.

Sheila smiled as she squinted at Astor slightly before remarking, "You have an interesting aura Astor, may I ask where you are from?"

Matthew himself asked, "I've never seen eyes like yours Sheila, that silvery gray color is quite unique, did something cause them to look like that?"

Sheila smiled and replied, "I'll tell you my secret if Astor tells me hers."

Astor and Matthew looked at each other briefly, he shrugged and said, "What could it hurt? The people living here have their own secrets to keep."

"Okay, if you think it'll be all right."

Astor once again touched her amulet and after a moment's shimmering, she stood in her true form before the towering, flaxen haired ex-warrior.

Sheila's silvery gray eyes widened and she said, "Woah, you really aren't from around here!"

Astor grinned, revealing her fangs and said, "Now, it is your turn!"

Sheila smiled and replied, "My secret is that I am older than much of western civilization's history in that the island I was born on has sunk beneath the waves and nothing remains of what was living on it."

Matthew looked quite skeptical and he remarked drily, "What you're claiming is unprovable, what else have you got?"

Sheila glanced at Roger and said, "Would you assist me in this?"

Nodding a yes, Roger followed Sheila over to the large chopping block they used for cutting up elk haunches on.

Taking up the big meat cleaver nearby she handed it to Roger and said, "Make it quick!"

Laying her left arm on the chopping block Sheila smiled at the two and said, "Among the other things I can do is heal from virtually any injury, observe!"

Matthew gaped and was about to speak up when Roger swung the heavy cleaver and chopped off Sheila's left arm just below the elbow.

"Holy crap!" Matthew cried as the severed limb flopped around a bit on the chopping block, "You didn't have to do that!" He said as Sheila took up the freshly severed limb and held it against the stump of her left arm.

Sheila's silvery gray eyes glinted golden as she focused her healing powers on reattaching her limb.

The cut seemed to glow slightly as her healing energies rapidly knit bones and blood vessels, nerves and tendons, muscles and skin back together without a trace of a scar.

When she was finished, Matthew let out his breath with a 'whoosh' and said, "No human in history has ever been able to do that. In fact, no animal more advanced than a salamander is able to do anything like that...How, did you do that?"

Astor nodded in unison and she said, "You have healing powers I've not seen before, how is that accomplished?"

Sheila flexed her left arm and hand a little bit and finally said,"I and a small number of other survivors, are all that is left of an experiment that was carried out on a small island in what is now the Black sea. We were part of an experiment to develop weapons that were to be used in a war. The beings we were designed to be used against are no more, they became extinct and because of the extremely rapid decomposition of their bodies and bones, there are no fossil remains to be found, ever."

She said quietly, "Many of my sister warriors perished in that conflict and we few survivors scattered across the globe, aiming to disappear into the mists of time and legend."

"I, am a Claymore warrior and one of the few who still has her sword."

Opening her top, Sheila let them see the long fine scar that ran from her throat clear down to her pubic bone.

"This scar marks our bodies as having undergone surgery to allow the implantation of yoma flesh to transform us into a hybrid of both humans and yomas. After transformation we became stronger and faster than the yomas we were created to fight.

"Our bodies can adapt to any climate we are in and we require little food or drink. We have heightened senses and can detect the auras of those around us."

Sheila smiled at Astor and said, "That was how I noticed you weren't from around here, your aura is markedly different from humans and that caught my attention."

Sheila sighed and said quietly, "One major side effect of this has been our apparent immortality, we do not age nor do we ever get sick, we just continue living down through the ages, and the ages we have seen have been many."

Matthew furrowed his brow as he thought until he finally asked, "Any idea of when this all took place? This war, this great experiment on that small island you remarked about?"

Sheila replied matter of factly, "It was about two hundred years before the flood that formed the Black sea took place. I had left long before that and didn't learn of it until much later."

Matthew whistled and said softly, "They figure that flood took place some seventy five hundred years ago. That would make you as old as some of the Bristle cone pine trees up in the White mountains of California."

He grinned and said impishly, "Pretty good for a woman who doesn't look a day over twenty five!"

Sheila smiled and cheerfully retorted, "Flattery will get you nowhere with me!"

The huge grandfather clock chimed the one o'clock hour and Roger said cheerfully, "That's my 'get thee to sleep' cue, let me show you where you'll sleep and you guys can crash out whenever you feel like it."

That said, he led the couple to their room and said, "You can stay in here for tonight and tomorrow night we'll meet up with Titania in the woods above the barn."

Leaving them to their own devices, he toddled into his own room and found Dena already snuggled in his bed with a smile on her elfin face.

"It's abit time ye finished up aw 'at talkin' an' cam tae scratcher!" She squeaked.

Roger smiled at his two foot tall bedmate and said, "Sorry, we got to talking and clean forgot about the time."

He stripped down to his undershorts and pulled down the covers, briefly exposing Dena's curvy nakedness.

"All those fashion doll clothes you have, yet not a single set of pajamas. Funny how that is." He muttered as he slipped into bed alongside Dena who smiled and said coyly, "Wa shoods Ah wear pajamas, when yoo're sae much better at keepin' me warm at nicht?"

Roger chuckled as he turned out the reading light beside his bed, "G'night Dena"

"G'nicht Roger"

The next morning Roger and Dena came down stairs only to find a small mob of people gathered in the kitchen and dining room.

Matthew and Astor were getting better acquainted with Sheila and Flora while being introduced to Anita, Freya and Warren, who looked a little bleary eyed after being up much of the night with her Majesty Henrietta-Maria.

Roger was mildly surprised to see Astor in her true form and when he caught her eye she grinned and said, "It's just easier this way."

Serving himself his own breakfast from the heaping platters of scrambled eggs, potatoes and bacon Roger took a seat next to Freya.

The young giantess smiled at him and said, "We jist got haur, Herself is asleep noo an' sae is Alexandra." She glanced over at Matthew and Astor and Roger said quietly, "They were waiting for me when I came down last night, apparently she is a dimensional traveler and somehow, her machine was damaged when he hit her with his van that's parked outside."

Freya raised one eyebrow and he said, "It was an accident. Anyhow they came here and tonight, we are going to meet up with Titania to see if she can restore her device so she can go home again."

"An' whit if she cannae fix thes 'device' ye speart ay?"

Roger could only shrug and say, "Then I guess we'll have another room mate because Matthew has to get back to school and can't take her with him."

"Och aye."

They glanced over at Matthew who had his sketchbook out and he was sketching and scribbling furiously while stealing glances at Flora and Dena, when he wasn't glancing at Freya or Sheila.

Roger chuckled to himself and called out "You do realize I want to scan your notebooks before you leave here, your observations are important to us you know?"

Matthew grinned back and replied, "I'll do better than that, I'll give them to you 'cos if any of my professors saw my field notes from this summer, they'd think I'd lost my mind!"

Roger laughed and said, "That'll work too!"

Freya smiled at Matthew and asked, "Hoo is it ye ken tae cam haur wi' Astor?"

Matthew smiled and replied, "I'd heard about your museum and when I spoke to a Rachel Thompson, she directed us to you so we came straight here."

He looked over at Astor who was chatting with Anita and said quietly, "Meeting her has been an amazing experience and you people are the only ones who would believe me."

Roger chuckled and said, "We do get our crackpot conspiracy theorists searching for legitimacy I'm afraid. But seeing Astor in the flesh, that's a whole 'nother thing. There is no questioning her existence, no doubts about her at all and it does make me wonder if many of the so called 'demon' sightings of the past, weren't simply a chance encounter with a traveler like her. You gotta admit that her appearance matches many of the more lurid descriptions of a demonic temptress, or succubus if you will."

Matthew shrugged and said, "In my travels I've encountered the young earth creationists who'd strive to show me the error of my ways while I'm out collecting and honestly, I hate to think what could have happened to Astor if it had been one of them who'd found her instead of me. I knew at once she wasn't from earth because of her wings, as there are no six limbed vertebrate creatures in earth's fossil record. We've had a lot of fun together and I am going to miss her once she's gone home again, a girl like her doesn't come along very often you know."

Roger smiled at the wistful look on Matthew's bearded face, he knew the look of someone in love as he'd seen it on others before.

After the breakfast dishes had been cleared away, washed up and placed in the dish rack, Freya and company toddled off to their respective bedrooms to get some much needed sleep.

Warren was half carried back to his little cottage by his gigantic companion wolf, Astrid, a contentedly sleepy look on his leprechaunesque face.

Roger took some time to show Matthew and Astor the library complex without disturbing their vampiric guests.

Next they visited Samson, the enormous draft horse Freya was so fond of and while Roger was gathering some tools and leaf rakes, Matthew commented on the little door in the tool shed's wall.

"That's so the wood elves can borrow tools if they need any, they're very good about putting them back when they're done with them too." replied Roger.

Matthew looked at him and asked, "How many of them are here? These wood elves?"

Shrugging, Roger replied,"Not sure to tell you the truth, some of them are Dena's relatives and some were already living nearby, I've never bothered to count them."

"Dena's relatives?"

"Her descendants mostly, she's a great grandmother many times over if you can believe it and no, I've not asked her how old she is, it's that some things you just don't ask a lady about, kinda thing."

"Ah, I never would have guessed from going by her looks."

Outside the tool shed they waited a few moments while, Sheila bearing her massive sword, Sasha and her mate Golden eyes joined them.

At Matthew and Astor's mystified looks, Roger commented, "Even during broad daylight, we don't venture deep into these woods without protection. Ordinarily, our wolvies are sufficient, but since Sheila is here with her sword, the more the merrier."

Roger grinned at Sheila and said, "I see you've brought your 'little friend'."

He ruffled Sasha's deep fur as she grinned like only a gigantic wolf could and so they set out into the woods behind the horse's corral and barn complex.

As they entered the woods, Matthew asked, "What sort of things do you expect to find in here, this seems like a very pleasant sort of a woodsy area for being so close to town?"

Roger smiled and replied, "It is a very pleasant woodsy area, it's just that it is also a part of the ancient outpost of old Albion and as such, there is a likelihood of someone with the 'sight' encountering something very unpleasant in here."

He smiled at them and said, "You two have nothing to fear, you lack the 'sight' and any fae will not react to your presence, while they will react to me because I can see them."

Caressing Sasha's massive head, Roger smiled and said, "Sasha here keeps things honest."

He looked over at Goldeneyes and said cheerfully, "You too, big fellah!"

Roger smiled slightly as he noted that Matthew and Astor had joined hands as they walked.

They were closer to each other than they had let on.

Encountering a dead tree not far into the woods, Roger looked it over carefully to ensure it was not a home to any fae before he turned to Sheila and said, "Feel like chopping some firewood?"

Sheila grinned at him and stepped over to the dead tree, her sword at the ready.

Roger declared, "What you're about to see is a demonstration of why the Claymores were considered the deadliest warriors of all time."

Matthew eyed the tree's girth and muttered, "No way is she gonna cut that down with just her sword."

In reply, Sheila grinned at him and said, "Yes, way!"

She swung her massive blade in a glittering arc and sheared the tree off at just above ground level.

In her backswing she cut it again, then kept cutting back and forth until little remained but a pile of freshly chopped sections waiting to be split into firewood.

Matthew just started laughing and as he wiped the tears from his eyes he said, "Never have I enjoyed being proven wrong so much! Wow!"

He looked the gleaming blade over and said quietly, "I know a couple of sword collectors who would love to see this blade!"

He looked up at the towering warrior and asked, "Do you know how it was made?"

Sheila replied quietly, "My former captain would most likely know, she studied these blades quite extensively and would be the one to ask. I can say that not one of them ever broke, chipped or got dulled in battle, no matter what got in the way. I've chopped down trees and split boulders with this blade and as you can see, it's still very sharp."

Matthew gently touched the edge of the massive blade and said, "May I heft it?"

Sheila grinned and handed it over to him while saying, "Feel free to take a swing at one of the sections I just cut up."

Hefting it experimentally, he grinned and said, "It's pretty heavy, yet you swung it so easily!"

Sheila gestured towards the pile of sections and said '"Feel free, you know you want to!"

Grinning like a kid, Matthew swung the heavy sword with all his might and only managed to get it stuck in the section he'd struck with it.

The heavy blade had only gone in about two inches rather than clear through like he'd seen Sheila doing with ease.

He gaped at her and blurted out, "My god! Just how strong are you?"

Collecting his thoughts he said, "To look at you, I'd see an attractive, athletic young woman with unusual eyes. But after seeing you in action, I can see why you Claymores became such legends, who could stand up to one of you in a fight, no human could, that's for certain!"

Sheila smiled at him as she jerked her blade free then said, "The last one of us that fell in battle was Jean. She was overwhelmed by allies to the English army in France, tried for heresy, convicted and burned at the stake. They burned her three times to make sure she was truly dead and threw her ashes into the river Seine. You'd know her as Joan of Arc."

"Woah, so there is some truth to her story?"

Sheila replied, "They altered her tale quite a bit, they weren't about to admit that a woman had single handedly killed so many soldiers with only her sword, or that she had to be filled with arrows in order to weaken her enough to get captured, then kept in stout chains once she healed up again."

She sighed and remarked sadly, "Had any of us been nearby, we would have come to her aid without hesitation. She made no attempt to contact any of us and the only thing we could figure, was that she was tired of living so long and simply allowed her execution to take place."

Nearly a quarter of a mile inside the woodsy area they came upon a huge stone standing by itself in a circle of towering oak trees, in the soft light they could see the faint traceries of circles and whorls and squiggly lines engraved into its stony surface.

"Woah, I sure never thought I'd see a stone like this, here in the new world, it has a Pictish look about it." remarked Matthew.

Roger said quietly, "It does at that, although we're not sure who carved it or put it here. Oddly enough, the stone itself is not from around here. We've analyzed tiny samples from it and it doesn't match the locally sourced stones, perhaps we should compare it to samples taken from British sources just to see what happens."

While they watched, Roger took the soft broom he'd brought and carefully swept off the engraved face of the standing stone.

Next he took the leaf rake and without removing the deep carpet of mouldering oak leaves, carefully cleaned the area in front of the stone of any pebbles or acorn fragments.

When he was finished, he stepped back and surveyed his work with a critical eye.

Seeing that all was in order, Roger said quietly, "It looks pretty good, let's head back and relax until midnight tonight, then we'll come back here and meet with Titania."

It was midday by the time they emerged from the woodsy area's soft gloom.

Roger stopped off at the tool shed to put everything back and there he was accosted by tiny April who flitted up to him and squeaked, "Choclit?"

Roger laughed at his tiny accoster and said cheerfully, "Sorry April, I don't have any with me right now, but if you'll ride with me, we'll go get you some 'kay?"

April's tiny face lit up in a smile and she nodded a yes in reply.

Matthew said quietly, "What is with your wolves' fur? It's getting all these like, holes in it, or something."

Sheila chuckled and replied, "It's the sprites making little nests on their backs, they love riding on the wolvies' backs."

"Ah"

April settled onto Roger's left shoulder and they headed back to the big house once built for a retired circus giant couple.

High overhead Matthew saw the large Raven that lived in the huge pine tree in the front yard.

"I see you have a raven, he's a big one and he's just circling overhead." remarked Matthew as he pointed it out to Astor.

Roger glanced up and said with a grin, "That would be 'Old Poe', he lives in the pine tree and protects the young sprites from crows, magpies and blue jays."

"Seriously? That's pretty cool, having a watch raven." remarked Matthew.

Roger grinned and said, "Yeah, we think so too."

Entering the house they heard a soft whirring of tiny wings as the sprites left their furry mounts and settled onto the narrow shelf running along just below the top of the wall in the front parlour.

Sasha and Golden eyes settled down in front of the small fireplace and its constant, cheery blaze and closed their eyes.

April on the other hand, stuck close to Roger until he smiled at her and took out a small wooden container filled with tiny chocolate morsels for her to choose from.

Smiling, he held up a finger and said firmly, "You get, one! I don't need your mom scolding me for spoiling your dinner."

Matthew sat and watched this brief exchange and after April flew off with her bit of chocolate in hand, he grinned and said, "I'm looking right at you two and I still can't believe what I'm seeing. Then again, I've been traveling around the country with an Astoreth for the last three months."

Roger just grinned at the young man and said, "Some of the things I've seen over the years, I still have a hard time believing in. Yet in some cases, I've got the scars to prove it!"

They heard a giggle and looked over to see Astor standing quite still with a tiny sprite child examining one of her outstretched wings.

Evidently, the child's tiny feet walking along the tightly stretched skin caused her to be ticklish.

The two were quite adorable together and Matthew said quietly, "I'm really gonna miss her once she leaves, watching her discover new things has been most enjoyable."

"Have you thought about what you're going to do once you finish school?" asked Roger.

Matthew reluctantly took his eyes off of Astor and replied,"I'm thinking of getting into a post doc program with Brigham Young in Utah, I know the state fairly well having collected over much of it. I've been in contact with one of their PhD's and hopefully, they'll overlook my lack of faith in Mormonism."

"We could always use another field investigator. With your background in paleontology and comparative anatomy, plus your extensive field experience, you'd almost be a shoo in. Hell, you're more qualified than I was when I first signed on. Learn a few ancient languages and they'll be begging you to join up!" commented Roger.

Matthew looked thoughtful, then replied, "That's an avenue I hadn't considered, I'll give it some thought, thanks!"

"You're welcome."

Late that afternoon, Freya emerged from her bedroom and sought out Roger.

Finding him in his study, she asked,"Hae ye bin tae th' standin' stane oot in th' woods?"

He looked up at her towering form and replied, "Yes, Sheila and I took them there to see it and I swept the stone off with a soft broom, then cleaned up a bit around the stone itself. No sense in letting bare feet find a bit of pebble or the like."

He smiled and said, "Oh yes, Sheila made us a bit of firewood, we just gotta collect it."

Freya smiled at that, more firewood was always welcome, especially during the long winter nights coming up.

"Dae ye 'hink Titania wull be able tae help uir guests?"

Roger pursed his lips and replied, "That, I'm not sure about, Astor possesses a piece of alien technology that is so highly advanced, that to us, it may as well be magic. She's described our world as being 'unsophisticated', to her we must seem like naked savages, waving our spears and calling out to our heathen gods, or something."

Freya smiled and retorted, "Isnae 'at whit Ah was loch when Ah first cam doon haur?"

Roger laughed and said, "In a way, yes. The difference is, you're from here, Astor is not."

Standing up, Roger asked, "Going to be with Herself tonight?"

"Och aye, Anita has awreddy drafted me intae helpin' her wi' some things."

He chuckled and said, "You're far too easy going with her, and to think you barely knew her at one time."

Freya laughed and retorted, "Camin' frae ye, 'at is rich. Dena gets awa' wi' aw kinds ay mischief an' nary a word oot ay ye!"

Roger grinned at his towering companion and said, "Let's not forget little April and her love of chocolate."

"Yes! We cannae ferget 'at!"

Smiling at Freya, he asked, "Have you eaten?"

"Ah cam tae ask ye th' same 'hing."

"I'll take that as a 'no' then, let's see what we can dig up, shall we?"

Entering the kitchen, they saw Silky hovering over the massive cast iron stove as she tended a pot of soup, while the delicious smell emanating from the big oven foretold a scrumptious meal was in the offing and Silky was in charge!

The look on her delicate features warned Roger not to go peeking in any of the pots or even worse, opening the oven.

Having taken her implied threat seriously, Roger poured out a cup of fresh heavy cream from Oak View dairy and placed it nearby for Silky's sipping pleasure.

Knowing that dinner was in the works, they retreated to the front parlour where they found Astor and Matthew getting acquainted with none other than queen Henrietta-Maria, Anastasia, and Alexandra, the queen's young werewolf bodyguard.

The diminutive vampire queen was seated in Roger's favorite red leather chair, idly playing with Sasha's velvety ears while Astor was in her true form demonstrating her wing span.

Anastasia was scribbling furiously in a note book while Matthew was talking about their travels together.

"Your Majesty!" Roger exclaimed as he bowed, "Forgive me, I had no idea you would be here so early!"

The queen smiled and replied cheerfully, "Pish tosh, there is nothing to forgive, we decided to come down here while the others were still asleep."

She glanced over at a slightly nervous looking Alexandra and said, "Against the advisement of our security detail, we are discovering that with the right clothing and the appropriate lotions generously applied, that we can once again, get out and smell the roses, as they say."

Roger smiled at her and replied, "I'm fairly certain your security chief will be 'fit to be tied', as they say here in the states."

Smiling at his remark, she said with a twinkle in her violet eyes, "I rarely get to slip out unsupervised, and once in a while I like to show dear Viktor that I can still evade his supervision and go play by myself."

"Besides, I'm not completely unsupervised, Alexandra did catch up to me as we were leaving."

Anastasia grinned and said, "You can always say I put you up to it your Majesty, it would be in keeping with my 'rebellious' reputation."

Roger chuckled and said, "I'm going to unlock the back door, that way when Viktor comes barreling after you, he doesn't have to break any doors down."

Before he left the room, he asked, "Would anyone like some tea and a nibblie, to tide you over until dinner is ready?"

Seeing several people nodding a 'yes', he left the room, unlocked the back door and went into the kitchen.

Getting out the tea cart, he quickly assembled enough tea and nibblies for everyone, then added a bit more in case Dena turned up wanting tea.

Returning to the front parlour, he served the tea and nibblies to everyone before taking some for himself and sitting down.

Just as he thought she would, Dena did turn up and a few moments later, she was perched alongside him sipping at her own tiny tea cup and noshing on a biscuit.

Freya merely rolled her bright blue eyes at this, Dena had Roger completely buffaloed and he was perfectly fine with it.

As evening fell, the back door opened and in marched a glowering Viktor and two of his burliest assistants, grimly determined to resume their duties.

Silently entering the front parlour, they took their places on either side of the queen and stood silently.

Their faces betraying no reaction to seeing Astor's true form.

Viktor briefly nodded his approval of Alexandra's presence but said nothing, although he did cast a sidelong glance of disapproval at Anastasia.

In his mind, she was responsible for his queen's delinquent behavior, somehow.

Delicious aromas drifting in from the kitchen hinted that the dinner Silky was preparing, would soon be ready and the arrival of Anita, Flora and Warren who immediately began laying out the table, inspired Roger to extend an invitation to the queen to join them for dinner.

Henrietta-Maria smiled at his offer and said, "At our age, we rarely eat anymore. However, we will enjoy a small taste of your house keeper's cooking as it smells divine."

Silky appeared in the doorway to the dining room with her tiny silver bell in hand, moments later they all heard the clear notes of her dinner bell ringing.

Dinner was served.

Everyone followed the diminutive vampire queen into the formal dining room and saw two of her blood servants standing behind her chair, arms bared to the elbow for her dining pleasure.

Once she took her seat, the rest followed suit and after a few moments of chairs skidding into place as bodies settled into them and murmurings of appreciation of Silky's culinary efforts, the queen cleared her throat.

"We wish to convey our gratitude for the reception we have received on such short notice. The efforts of Lady Anastasia and Alexandra Wolf to prepare for our arrival, have not gone unnoticed and they both have our heartfelt thanks."

She smiled at everyone and said warmly, "Our stay, however brief, at Wolf Hills Manor, will long be remembered with fondness for the welcome we received."

With a genuine smile of pleasure she said, "It was fun slipping the surly bonds of my responsibilities and matters of state, even if it was only for a little while."

"Getting to play 'hooky' at my age has been quite refreshing, even if I wasn't completely unsupervised."

She winked at Alexandra, "Still, it was fun."

Taking up her dinner fork, she smiled and began tasting the small samples of the food Silky had prepared for everyone.

Taking that as permission to dig in, everyone else began to eat.

Her question out of the blue caught Roger by surprise, "What is it you are doing in the woods tonight?"

Swallowing his bit of food, he replied, "We are going to meet with Titania, the queen of Albion's night. I intend on asking her if she can somehow restore Astoreth's Transdimensional Traveling Device to working order."

Astor cleared her throat and murmured, "Inter Dimensional Traveling Device or IDTD for short."

Roger grinned, "What she said! Anyhow, we are going to meet with her to see if she can help and if not, we'll make arrangements for Astor to stay here with us. Your Majesty."

The tiny vampire queen looked thoughtful and murmured, "What a pity we have to leave so soon, we should like to meet their queen."

In surprise Roger blurted out, "I thought you were staying until the 22nd, did something come up, Your Majesty?"

Taking a sip from her flute of fresh blood, the queen paused a moment and replied,"It seems, we have to deal with an irresponsible female who has turned a few too many young men without their knowledge or consent."

Dabbing at her ruddy lips she said, "She is the reason why Tony isn't here with us, he is up at the library with the rest of my security detail looking over their report of her doings."

At Anastasia's raised eyebrow, the queen said, "It seems she was the woman who turned him, then left him to fend for himself. He saw her picture and recognized her and so after this delicious meal, we are taking him with us to our realm to deal with her and that, is all you need to know."

She smiled and elaborated, "If he is indeed of her bloodline, he will be due enough compensation to relieve him of the necessity of having to 'work' for a living, for the remainder of his life."

As if on cue, a bulky man in a iron gray suit came into the dining room and whispered in Viktor's ear, Viktor smiled slightly and nodded his approval before the man slipped out again.

Viktor stepped forward and murmured in the queen's ear to apprise her of what he had heard, she nodded her acknowledgement of his report and he resumed his position against the wall.

Putting down her now empty flute, the queen dabbed at her lips then announced, "My oh so, efficient security detail has informed us that our mode of transportation is waiting outside at my pleasure."

She smiled at everyone and said, "I have enjoyed meeting you all, and hope to return for a longer visit sometime in the future. I regret that circumstances that have arisen back home require my personal attention, I would have liked to stay the full time I had allotted for my little excursion."

She made ready to stand and everyone rose to their feet as she did, then bowed or curtsied in place.

Everyone wished her well as her bodyguards formed a protective cordon around her and she left the room.

The group fell in behind her entourage and filed outside, where they all waved goodbye as she entered one of the large, gleaming black Mercedes-Benz vans instead of the more obvious limousine, ordinarily used by high powered executives or heads of state.

Roger smiled to himself at the diversionary tactic, any ill conceived attempts on her life would naturally focus on the gleaming limousine with the Wolfsberg city flags flying on it.

Henrietta-Maria paused a moment and waved goodbye to the gathered denizens of Wolf Hills manor, the smile on her face evident to all.

When the last of the small fleet of vehicular taillights vanished around the corner Matthew said quietly, "So she really was the vampire's queen? Does that mean all the stories about vampires and their so called powers are really true?"

He looked at Anastasia and asked, "Is any of it really true?"

Anastasia smiled at him and replied, "Some of it is true and some of it is made up."

"And?"

Anastasia smiled and said coyly, "A secret needs to keep some parts of herself a mystery, where's the thrill of discovery if you know all of her secrets?"

She opened her mouth wide and extended her feeder fangs to their maximum for all to see.

Matthew, scientist that he is naturally said, "Those fangs, where do they go when you're not feeding? I didn't notice them while you were talking. I'd love to see an X-ray of your skull and mandible or even cooler, a 3D print of it, that way I can examine it at my leisure!"

Anastasia closed her mouth with a snap and she said to Astor in disbelief, "Is he always like this? Most men go gaga when I turn on the charm, but him? Nada."

Astor laughed while Matthew turned a shade of scarlet and said defensively, "Hey, I'm that way, y'know? When I see something interesting I want to take a closer look, I can't help it if I'm curious about things, I'm just that way!"

Astor smiled at him and said reassuringly, "I wasn't laughing at you dear, I was laughing at the situation. I know how she feels, being looked at like I was only some sort of an interesting specimen to be measured and catalogued was not something I had experienced before I met you."

Roger, hearing the exchange chuckled and said, "And that, is why I offered to recruit you, we need scientist types who can dispassionately look at the facts without putting on a tin foil hat."

Matthew grinned and replied, "I just may take you up on that offer, Mister Tate!"

Reentering the house, they could hear the huge grandfather clock tolling the nine o'clock hour.

Warren commented cheerfully, "We still have time for an ale before calling it a day, entertaining a queen is such thirsty work!"

Freya glanced at the big clock face and remarked, "We hae a few hours afore we hae tae meit th' queen ay th' nicht."

"Where are you going to meet her?" Asked Anastasia with Anita nodding in agreement.

"We ur gonnae meit 'er at th' standin' staine in th' woods." Replied Freya.

"In the middle of the night? That place is kinda scary even in broad daylight!" declared Anita, "Even with Axel beside me, it's kinda spooky."

At Roger's raised eyebrows she remarked, "Flora and I have seen it, we took the wolvies with us so we were safe."

He replied, "Even with the wolvies, you two could've gotten into trouble. Especially around winter solstice, that's when Freya and I bumped into Cernnunos and his dark lady a couple of years ago, thank goodness she liked the mistletoe we offered her. I hate to sound like a nag, but you have the 'sight' now and the 'neighbors' aren't always happy with being seen. Even with Flora beside you to vouch for you, you still need to carry something with iron in it, they'll avoid that."

Anita sighed and said sarcastically, "Yes, 'daddy', I'll be careful."

Roger sighed, then reached out and flicked his middle finger against Anita's forehead.

She flinched and cried, "Ow! What was that for?"

He replied firmly, "That, was for getting a little too big for your britches. Like it or not, I'm responsible for you until you're eighteen. Right now I am acting in loco parentis with you, just like I am doing with Freya. I've cut you a lot of slack because for the most part, you're responsible and I can trust you not to do something stupid. Don't make me tighten the reins, okay?"

Still rubbing her forehead, Anita glanced over at Anastasia and to her surprise, she said, "He's right you know, you do need to be careful in the wilderland, especially since, for good or ill, you have the 'sight' and the fae are not always nice to the sighted."

"I thought you were on my side?" replied a teary eyed Anita, a quaver in her voice.

Anastasia sighed and said softly, "I am on your side dear heart and I'm also on his side. You're so incredibly talented and wise beyond your years that I myself, forget at times that you're still just a child in the eyes of the law."

Anastasia smiled at her and said warmly, "Enjoy your youth, have your adventures. Just be aware that all is not as it seems. I was only twenty one when I was turned and cast out into the wild. I still marvel that I survived even my first year as a vampire, as I had only my own wits to go by and I was so naive, I'd lived such a sheltered life!"

She reached out and took the teary eyed girl into her arms then murmured, "You don't know how lucky you really are, you have quite the support system here in this big old house, these people love you, I love you and that is a very good thing."

Anita smiled through her tears and hugged her mentor back while saying, "I love you too, Anastasia."

An hour later, a small group led by Roger and accompanied by two gigantic wolves, left the house and headed into the woodsy area beyond the corral and barn where Samson, the enormous draft horse lived.

Roger and Freya held hands as always while Matthew and Astor trudged along just behind, each of them alone in their thoughts.

Matthew was pondering all that he had seen since that lonely night out on the highway while driving through cattle country.

His first glimpse of Astor looking up at him in the glare of his headlights.

His seeing her in her true form as she shivered slightly in the chill of the night.

That time in the roadhouse where she got drunk and nearly revealed her true form as he was coaxing her out the door.

He glumly realized that she was the only woman he had ever traveled with and he knew in his heart that he would miss her terribly.

Even with the lantern Roger was carrying, the way was dimly lit and Matthew realized that he could never find his way out of these woods so late on a moonless night.

He glanced around and thought he saw a faint glinting of blue light flickering at the edges of his perception, he whispered, "What are those faint blue lights I see?"

"Faerie lights mostly, if we were near a swampy area we'd be seeing a Will O'the wisp, seeking to lure the unwary into a mire." muttered Roger in reply.

Matthew murmured, "So many things we don't know about in this old world of ours. How is it we lost touch with our 'neighbors', as you call them?"

Trudging along in the darkness, Roger said, "When we started working with iron may have been the start, the fae don't like iron and will avoid it if they can. Our silky wears gloves when she's at the stove or doing anything involving being near iron or steel, pretty much any ferrous metal is anathema to fae. I've heard it burns them, much like silver affects werewolves."

"Ah, I see. So the coming of the iron age is where it began?"

"Yes, it seems that way. We lost our connections with much of the unseen world, but gained so much more that the trade off was almost worth it."

"That depends on whose point of view you're talking about. Yes, we've gained so much, but was the loss really worth it? Something for the philosophers to argue over I suppose."

Roger chuckled softly and remarked, "We're merely the collectors of information, let the philosophers argue over our findings, I say."

Entering the circle of aged oak trees, even Matthew and Astor could see the bluish glint coming from the huge solitary stone nearly embraced by the largest of the oak trees.

Pausing to look around, Freya finally looked up at the patch of sky seen through a gap in the trees.

"'tis nearly mid nicht, she'll be haur verra suin."

Puzzled at Freya's remark, Astor asked, "How can you tell what time it is without a timepiece?"

"Ah am a Jotun an' we ur in tune wi' th' earth an' its seasons far mair closely than th' wee fowk, Ah aye ken whit time it is."

There was a pause and finally Roger said, "She always knows what time it is, it's a Jotun thing, get used to it."

"Ah, okay."

Moments later the faint bluish glow tracing the whorls, circles and squiggly lines on the massive stone brightened and seemed to overflow the engraved markings, to cover the entire face of the huge stone.

From out of that bluish glow came a stocky figure armed with a stone tipped spear and clad in some sort of armor, it began to chant,

"Sing, raise every voice in song. Bend thy boughs trees, that no beam of light may pass. Dance flowers, let thy fragrance mark the way. Give forth thy song birds, that the LADY OF THE NIGHT might not pluck thy wings. Bow thy head to the ground and sing. Raise thine arms to the sky and sing. Bend thy knee to the blessed garden and sing!"

A moment later, a womanly figure riding sidesaddle upon a small donkey emerged from the glowing stone behind the chanting spriggan.

Over their heads, they heard the faint creaking of tree limbs as the oaks complied and the gap in the trees closed up, deepening the gloom.

The spriggan raised his voice in an announcement,

"FOR SHE WHO PASSES BEFORE YOU, IS THE GEALACH OF Tir na nOg!"

Behind her the light of summer shone through the door into summer and cast its warmth into the gloom surrounding them.

The figure rode closer to reveal a fair skinned woman of unearthly beauty with slit pupilled eyes and long raven hair only slightly confined by a circlet of ivy.

She smiled at seeing Roger and Freya again and said in a melodious voice, "How wonderful it is to see you again so soon, solstice is weeks away by your reckoning and we are so looking forward to joining you again!"

Roger and Freya both bowed low in respect and he said, "Thank you so much for answering my query, your Majesty."

Titania smiled and said, "I thought your question was rather interesting."

She glanced over at Matthew and Astor, "Are these the travelers you mentioned?"

"Yes, your Majesty"

Slipping off of her sturdy mount, Titania approached the duo while spriggan muttered, "Watch it, mortals!"

She looked closely at Matthew first, even going so far as to sniff at him to get his scent.

She murmured, "You smell of the earth and ancient things that have gone before, how interesting!"

Matthew could only stammer his reply, "Th, thank you your Majesty."

Turning her attention to Astor she squinted slightly and said, "Show me your true form, o' traveler."

Astor touched her amulet and moments later, she stood with wings outstretched, her true form fully revealed.

Titania smiled as Astor did a slow turn so that she could see all of her.

"My my, my fool of a husband would certainly enjoy meeting you!"

Stepping close to Astor, Titania pointed at her imager and said, "There is no magic involved, yet it casts a glamour over you. How interesting a world you come from."

Looking at her bracelet she asked, "Is this the damaged item in question?"

Astor replied, "Yes it is, your Majesty."

"May I examine it?"

Astor removed it from her arm and placed it in Titania's three fingered hand, something Matthew hadn't noticed before.

Titania turned it over in her hands looking closely at it from all angles, her delicate fingers lightly caressing its dully gleaming silver surface.

"You say this is broken and you wish for me to restore it somehow?" she asked.

"Yes, your Majesty." replied Roger.

"When did it last work?" she asked again.

Matthew and Astor looked at each other and she said, "It was working fine up until the night I got hit by Matthew's van, the impact damaged it somehow."

"How long ago was this?"

Matthew and Astor looked at each other then he reached into his messenger bag and took out his journal, thumbing through its dog eared pages while muttering to himself, he soon cried, "Ah, here we are! It was in August, the 19th of August to be exact and the time was ten thirty P.M. Does that help?"

Titania smiled and said, "Yes it does, now we know how far we need to wind back the time on this object."

"Wind back the time? You can do that... Your Majesty?" Matthew exclaimed while remembering to address her properly as befitting her rank.

Titania smiled at his impetuous outburst and replied, "Time has no power over me as I am apart from time's flow. I always have been, I always will be."

She held the I.D.T.D. Between her hands, closed her violet eyes and began chanting in an unknown tongue.

The object began to glow bluely and Roger instinctively encouraged the others to step back just in case.

In the soft blue light, Titania's beauty was overwhelming and Roger found himself deeply regretting that he hadn't taken her up on her offer of a dalliance, then Freya's hand took his and his regrets faded to insignificance in the warmth of her gentle touch.

When the blue glow faded to darkness once more, Titania opened her lovely eyes and smiled.

She handed the bracelet to Astor with the words, "Try it, it's been rewound to before the accident, it will work now."

Astor smiled at Titania and replied, "I, I don't know what to say your Majesty except thank you! In all my travels I've never seen anything like this before."

Putting it back on she turned to Matthew and said, "I truly enjoyed my travels with you Matthew Fisher, I learned a great deal about this world of yours and experienced many good things."

Matthew looked almost stricken as he said, hoarsely, "A, Are you leaving so soon?"

"Will I ever see you again?" he almost cried.

Astor smiled at him and said softly, "Yes Matthew, I'm afraid I do have to go, if for no other reason than to replace this I.D.T.D. With the latest version."

He seemed to sag as he took in her reply, then she embraced him with not only her shapely arms, she wrapped her great batlike wings around him as well.

After a long sweet moment of bliss on his part, she opened her mouth wide and sank her fangs deep into his right trapezius muscle, he groaned as she bit down on him and they held each other closely.

After a few moments of their physical exchange, Astor lifted her head and at the same time Matthew turned his head towards hers and in spite of his blood on her full lips, they kissed deeply, so deeply that even Titania was impressed by their passion.

Separating once more, Astor held him at arm's length and said in a throaty purr, "No matter where you go, I will be able to find you, for I have marked you as being mine!"

Matthew looked at her in stunned disbelief and said, "You marked me by biting me? How?!"

Astor grinned and replied, "Any other dimensional travelers coming through this dimension will know that I have marked you with my bite, as I have injected a serum into you they can detect."

"Oh."

Astor stepped away from them then waved at all of them and said, "I really enjoyed my stay here and I truly appreciate your help, your Majesty!"

She grinned at Matthew and said, "I'll be seeing you!"

Still smiling at them she held her right arm before her and gently touched the silvery bracelet.

It lit up in a blue glow, with a smile Astor tapped out a code on her bracelet and it emitted a sphere of bluish light about two meters in diameter, with her inside.

It grew brighter and bolts of energy shot across its surface in a seemingly random pattern until it became almost unbearably bright, then it suddenly shrank to a point of light and went out with a soft 'bamf!' and Astor was gone, leaving them standing there with their eyes dazzled by the brilliance of her departure.

In the darkness following her departure, Titania was heard to say, "So that's technology, small wonder magic is slowly fading from this world. How can it compete with something requiring no innate ability to use?"

Blinking through the spots before his eyes, Roger replied, "That is why we are here your Majesty, to study our neighbors and perhaps learn how to better share our world with them, so they won't fade away, but will remain a vital part of our lives. We need you, as much as you need us!"

With his eyes still dazzled, Roger felt Titania's perfect lips kissing his for a brief moment of ecstasy, once again he felt a twinge of regret for having turned the faery queen down.

Her lips parted from his and she murmured, "May we always need each other."

With that Titania remounted her small donkey with its human eyes and stepped back into the door into summer with Spriggan standing ready with his stone tipped spear.

She smiled at them and said cheerfully, "We will be seeing you at Samhain and again at Yuletide, fare thee well!"

Stepping beyond the door into summer Titania waved goodbye to them and once again, the stately oaks opened back up and the massive stone ceased its glowing. Leaving them with only their lanterns to light the way.

"Woah, what just happened?" Exclaimed Matthew as he reached up and gingerly touched his bitten trapezius muscle.

Holding his hand near the lantern he looked for blood on his fingers from the wounds left by Astor's bite, finding none he muttered, "Did she really bite me, I felt her fangs going in all the way, she really dug in, it hurt like hell!"

Glancing around at the darkness surrounding them, Roger said quietly, "We'd best get going, we can talk about it later."

With the huge wolvies within easy reach, the trio made their way back to the house stopping only once they were back inside the big house.

Matthew stepped into the nearest bathroom to inspect his shoulder where Astor had bitten him.

Roger meanwhile, made tea and put together a tray of nibblies which he placed on the coffee table in the front parlour and its eternal cheery blaze.

He and Freya sat down to enjoy their well earned tea, thankful that she did not have school that morning.

Coming into the front parlour, Matthew served himself tea and filched a few chocolate biscuits before sitting down.

"No wounds, " he began "Her bite left no wounds, only little round scars where her fangs had entered me."

He looked at them and said, "Those little scars are the only proof I have that I ever met her, them and my own memories of her."

He said wistfully, "I can still feel her lips kissing mine and her arms, and her wings all wrapped around me."

Sighing he said quietly, "No other woman will ever be able to equal her."

He smiled, "We had a lot of fun during our travels, I spent a lot of time simply showing her new things, she was almost like a child experiencing a museum for the first time, her eyes wide open and her mind soaking up all the new knowledge laid out before her."

He chuckled and said, "Did you know that when her kind flies, they can shift muscle mass from their legs to their flight muscles? It was the most amazing thing to watch, her legs getting very skinny while her back muscles became enormous, then she took off. She flew low to the ground so no one else would see her flying with those huge batlike wings stretching almost twelve meters across."

He grinned, "It's all in my note book that I'll be leaving with you when I leave."

Roger nodded his acknowledgement of Matthew's remark and smiled.

The huge grandfather clock tolled the hour of 1 A.M. And Roger commented, "You may as well stay the night in your room, then we'll talk some more in the A.M."

Matthew smiled, "Yeah, might as well get a good night's sleep before taking off for Frisco in the morning."

"San Francisco?"

"Yep, my folks live there and Berkeley is right near there."

They all rose together and Roger took the tray and tea set into the kitchen to be washed in the morning.

Leaving a cup of fresh heavy cream for Silky, they headed off to their respective rooms.

Or rather Matthew headed off to his room while Freya spent the night with Roger in his room with a tiny, curvy, naked wood elf as their bedmate and chaperone.

The next morning, the whole gang turned out for breakfast and to say fare well to Matthew.

Silky really put her foot into the food and everyone dug in with gusto, making the fluffy omelets and the rashers of bacon and the home fries all disappear in short order.

Matthew finally put down his fork, smiled at everyone and said,"I really enjoyed meeting all of you even if it helped Astor to get back home again, to be honest, I didn't really want her to go and I truly hope she does return, a girl like that is a once in a lifetime kind of girl."

He looked at Flora, Sheila and Anastasia then said, "Meeting you ladies has been quite an experience and Roger's offer of a possible job after I graduate the post doctoral program is very tempting, as it means I'll be able to study all of you in greater detail."

Sheila rolled her silvery gray eyes and quipped, "And here I thought I was more than just an interesting specimen!"

Flora giggled and said teasingly, "You mean I wasn't the most interesting, interesting specimen? Well, I never!"

Anastasia glanced around, clutched at her pretty bosom and said breathlessly, "And me without a fainting couch nearby! The shame of it all."

Matthew glanced at Roger for support and he grinned and said, "You're on your own, bunky, these ladies will show no mercy to those of little wit."

Matthew flushed a lovely shade of scarlet and he said, "Sorry, I'm not real good at witty rejoinder, but I can make a fire with only two sticks!"

After breakfast, Matthew gathered up his things and as he exited the house with duffel bag in hand, he was followed by everyone out to his dusty old Chevy van.

Tossing his bag inside, he turned around and saw the ladies had lined themselves up in order of their heights.

Dena stood proudly grinning, "Ah'm first!" she squeaked in her piccolo of a voice.

Matthew chuckled and replied, "Of course you are!" as he knelt down to her height and he gently picked her up for a hug and a kiss on his grizzled cheek.

Next was Anita who stood all of five feet tall, she smiled as he hugged her and she said, "Safe journey!" just before she too kissed his cheek.

Flora smiled at him as she slipped into his arms for her hug and the opportunity to leave a little kiss on his cheek.

Matthew smiled at her and said, "Aside from Astor, you may be the most exotic girl I've ever seen."

He turned to Anastasia and said in mild surprise, "You can go outside during the day?"

She grinned at him and said, "Baby formula sun block lotion, SPF 70, it lets a girl get out and smell the roses."

"Ah." he said as they briefly embraced, "That's good to know!"

He smiled when it was Sheila's turn, at six foot six inches tall, she was half a head taller than him and her hug was not to be quickly forgotten as he went "Ooof!" when she hugged him.

"Damn, you're pretty strong!" he muttered as they separated.

Then it was Freya's turn.

Matthew looked up at the towering eight foot nine inch height of her and laughed.

"I suddenly feel like a small child once again!" he said as Freya knelt down and enveloped him in her long arms and held him closely for a few moments before she too, bestowed a peck on his cheek.

He looked over at Roger who merely grinned and said, "Be grateful you're not getting hugged by Freya's aunt Barbara, her hugs have a way of sticking to you!"

At his puzzled expression Freya remarked, "Me auntie lochs tae snatch heem up loch he's a bairn an' smoosh heem atween 'er bosoms afore kissin' heem oan th' lips."

"Woah, that sounds pretty intense!" remarked Matthew.

"You have no idea! Thankfully she's gotten married and saves all her affection for her big, strong husband who is much better built for her style of affection."

Matthew and Roger shook hands and he said, "Keep in mind what I told you, we really could use another field hand or two."

"I'll do that!"

He and Warren shook hands and Warren said cheerfully, "Next time you're in town, stop by for an ale and a tour of our library!"

Matthew grinned at him, then he climbed into his weathered van and cranked it up.

Putting it in gear, he waved at everybody and said, "Thanks for your help and I'll keep in touch!"

Moments later his dusty old van had disappeared around the corner as he drove off towards his home near San Francisco.

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