The Ranger

  Myla was bored. She was lounging in a hammock she had claimed away from the open air theater, which was strung up a bit away from where a few people were dancing. Things would pick up when Kor came back from the beer run. The party had started fun, the music was good, the drinks were strong, and she always enjoyed dancing. But then her mind wandered to work tomorrow, the small party unable to hold her attention. It was the same thing.

  Every. Month. Everyone chipped in money, threw the party at the old barn in the woods, drank and danced with the same people, told the same stupid stories, then went back to work hungover the next day. Every single time. The same people came, the same couples hooked up, the same people danced together. The music changed because they played the latest hits and they rotated the food, but there was only so much you could change on a budget.

  Tonight had included a movie at least, projected on a canvas stretched across the side of the old bar, otherwise she might not have even come. Probably would've stayed in town anyway, but Alice had talked her into coming for her. And then had left early. With Lucas. Again. She took a swig of her beer and studied the sky overhead, that had been the same every night too.

  She had set herself not to go to this stupid boring party again and then folded the moment that girl batted her eyes. And then off she went with her boytoy before the night was even over. She drained the bottle, “What am I even doing? This is stupid.” She swung herself up into a sitting position, if she was going to drink alone then she would rather do it at home. Or she could go to the Fox Tale. Kristi should be off soon, that might make a decent distraction. She blinked as she spotted Alice, back by the bonfire and talking to Bonnie. She was back? Why? Had something happened?

  Alice was a delicate woman and gleamed with life even under the moonlight. Her hair always seemed to dance in firelight, as if her burning locks were just another part of the flame. When Bonnie pointed her towards where Myla was, she found herself sitting upright. Alice smiled in her direction and Myla felt her heart speed up. It was such a warm smile, it had an easy joy that Myla wished she could bottle for a rainy day. Her ice blue eyes sparkled as she gracefully flew over the ground and Myla was caught in place by them, pinned by a gaze so genuinely happy to see her. The girl was ephemeral, a divine creature from a past age. And trailing in her wake was the worthless stick of meat she was wasted on.

  She ignored Lucas, he was a pale thin nerd with chestnut hair and the wispy ghost of a beard on his chin that hadn't gotten any better since he first grew it at sixteen. Even his pointy little ears felt too skinny for his own good. Whatever, what were they doing back? She stood as they got over to her and smiled, “I thought you two had left already, something happen?” Alice started to speak and Lucas interrupted her, “We found a witch!” Myla blinked, “Uh… what?” Alice elbowed him, “Lucas! Don't just put her on blast like that, we don't know if that's what she is yet. But um… well we might have? We were walking back-” Lucas frowned, “She is a witch! We found her na-” Alice elbowed him again, harder this time.

  She continued while he rubbed his ribs, “As I was saying! We were walking back on our normal trail and Lucas felt someone casting a spell of some kind. I wanted to just go tell the sheriff but Lucas insisted on checking it out, and I couldn't let him go alone. We found this girl in a clearing, chanting weird words at the sky and swaying.” Lucas rubbed his stomach and picked up the story, “It got really cold, like there was ice on the ground cold, and then she started to glow. I dunno what that spell did but there was a ton of magic in it.” Alice nodded, “It didn't look like it did anything else, so I figured we should just go report it in case she was casting like a curse or something. But this idiot can't sneak to save his life-” Lucas blushed, “Its dark out there!” She ignored him, “And she caught us.”

  Myla blinked, “Huh. Well that is a bit wild, but your first instinct was to come tell me? Why didn't you just call it in? Montok mighta been able to figure out what she was up to.” Alice shook her head, “No it's just… well…” She hesitated and Lucas shrugged, “She doesn't speak English or Gaelic. She tried a few languages on us we think but we only recognized like three of them. And we didn't want to like call the cops if she turns out to be a runaway teen or someone on the run from something. You know how Montok can get with them.” Alice nodded, “One of languages we did recognize as German, so I figured maybe you could help us figure out what's going on with her?”

  Myla blinked at them, “She… didn't have a translator on her phone or something?” Lucas shrugged, “She didn't pull it out so I guess not?” Alice glanced over her shoulder, “She followed us when we waved that she should, so I figure she might need some kind of help. It's possible she's just lost and was doing a guidance spell, and I thought that if she's lost then, well that is your job. And you do speak German so…” Myla frowned, that was a bit more trusting than she liked. For both this woman and for Alice. She looked past them, “Oookay, maybe she's a lost tourist then. Where…” She spotted the stranger quick enough, and she wasn't alone in that.

  It was like watching the moths flit around the bonfire, they seemed to gravitate to her without realizing they were doing it. The girl's smile was open and bright, if a little confused as well. She flitted from person to person as she tried and clearly failed to communicate with them. Myla lived in a small town full of otherworldly people, yet somehow this girl had stepped out of one the town stories of the high fae. Delicate features, a dancer's build, a living incarnate of youth. Her hair bounced along in a loose braid that had been bundled up into a bun, and her hair was spun sliver with reflections of sunflowers in them. More of it came loose from the braid when she moved on from yet another failure.

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  Her doe eyes were gleaming emeralds, and when her cat-like lips smiled when she locked gazes with Myla. She noticed one of the girls eye teeth slipped out from under her lip in the smile. Her face lit up with each smile, a new star in the night. Myla blinked, “Ok wow, now I'm wondering what anime this girl crawled out of. Are you sure that's not a glamour cause no way that's natural.” Lucas grinned, “An ecchi one if any- oof! Would you stop that!” Alice was blushing and Myla raised an eyebrow at her. She sighed in defeat, “Weeee may have found her… uh naked. When she was doing the ritual.”

  There was a pause and Myla raised both eyebrows and summarized, “So you found a cute German witch girl doing a skyclad ritual at,” She checked her watch, “One in the morning and your first thought. Was to bring her to me.” There was a pause as Alice went bright red, “Put like that…” Lucas had less shame as he grinned, “Marry Christmas?” Myla gave him a flat look, “It's September.” He shrugged, “Look, she's probably some tourist from Europe doing stupid shit out in the forest at night. Waking up the sheriff over it feels like overkill, so maybe you could just talk to her? Find out what's going on with her?”

  Myla hesitated. If it had just been Lucas asking, she would've just sent him to town to get the sheriff. Montok would whip something up, it would get handled, and none of it would be her problem. But then she glanced at Alice, who mouthed the word please at her. And the girl looked like Aiko Yanagi. Was that figurine in the mail yet? She couldn't remember when the pre-orders shipped. She caved. They trailed after her as she walked over to the girl, and Myla studied her more closely as they approached. She looked young but had a confident air to her. She seemed to always know where people were too, always shifting her attention to whomever was closest.

  So obviously she saw them coming. She had stopped by the bonfire, maybe to take a break or maybe because she was hungry. She was looking at the food and drinks left not far from it. Johnathan offered her a beer and she accepted it, looking apologetic as he tried to talk to her and shaking her head. She was clearly indicating she didn't understand and Myla heard her speak fruitlessly in a foreign language. Not one Myla knew immediately, but it certainly sounded Eastern European. Maybe grandfather would know it?

  The girl clearly was bracing herself for more pantomiming when Myla spoke in German, “Hey there, I hear you might need someone to translate.” Relief washed over her face and she turned a high beam smile up at Myla, “Oh thank God, I was starting to think I was going to be talking to myself all night!” Myla laughed, “Well now you won't have to, but it's also just gonna be me right now. Not a lot of people speak German in this gang. So I'm Myla, the two voyeurs here are Alice and Lucas.”

  The girl offered a hand, “Katarzyna Mazur. Just call me Kasia, most people do.” There was a slight hitch to her voice when she said ‘do’ and Myla resisted the urge to ask as she shook her hand, “Nice to meet you Kasia.” They were slowly gathering a nosy circle as more people filtered in to get a look at the new face, “Sorry about them, we don't usually get tourists out at the bonfire.” The pale woman shrugged, “You spend enough time with a group of lonely men and you get used to people staring at your ass.” Myla snorted, “Well with such a cute ass can you blame them?” She felt a slight flush on her neck as her brain caught up with her mouth.

  The Vampire

  Kasia felt her smile shift to something more coy as the young woman flushed in embarrassment. When she had followed the two young changelings, and they could only be the half-blood children of Fairfolk or she wasn't a vampire, she had been hoping to be brought to a village. A party full of young men and women drinking the night away wasn't an unpleasant surprise on that front, just not as useful as she had hoped. The third person to address her in English had her wondering if she wasn't better off just leaving to find her own way after all. But with Myla here, not only was this actually useful, but she might even be able to have a little fun along the way.

  The young woman was tall, maybe a bit over six foot and wide shouldered, she wore a simple tank top and jeans with shoes of a style Kasia didn't recognize. Her hair was cut oddly, partially shaved on one side like she had started to cut it all off and had lost her razor when it was half done with the other half at shoulder length. If it wasn't intentional then she at least wore it well. She was tanned and clearly did a lot of physical labor, she looked strong and every movement was accompanied by a pleasing shift of muscles under her tank top. She had tattoos on her arms that went up and under her top, like she had replaced her shirt sleeves with ones of art. Maybe she liked modern styles.

  Kasia gave her a more obvious look over now, she had already seen everything she was going to but she felt like this one would be easy to fluster. She was rewarded when the flush spread up to her face from her neck under Kasia's gaze and she couldn't help but tease the younger woman, “It seems it's not just the men who’re getting an eyeful of me. It's alright though, the hot ones get a pass.”

  She winked at the now beat red woman and decided there was no good time to start this part off, “So this is probably going to be a loaded question for me but… where exactly are we?” It seemed that Myla recovered well though because she frowned at the question, “You don't know where you are?” She sighed mentally and gave a sheepish smile, “Well I kind of do? I know I'm in Eastern North America in New Charlotte. But um… not a lot else?”

  Suspicion flickered across the tall woman's face, which was fair. It wasn't exactly the most forthcoming answer. She elaborated, “It's kind of a long story, but I'm lost. When your friends found me I was just kind of… wandering? I figured if I walked long enough I would either find a city, a road, or if all else failed a coast. I figured if I could find people then everything else would fall into place.”

  Myla crossed her arms, “And you decided that a ritual was the top of your to-do list for being lost.” Kasia shrugged, “I was connecting with the stars. I figured it couldn't hurt to be ready for anything when lost in the middle of nowhere and sometimes they decide to help me.” Myla glanced up at the sky with a skeptical look, “And the stars would help you with that?”

  Kasia smiled, “Well your friends found me, didn't they?” The changeling frowned, “Sure but it could have been a bear or troll that found you just as easily, and it was the ritual that brought them to you.” The vampire nodded, “Right. But it was them that found me. And the ritual doesn't normally have all the light to it too, it's usually quieter. But this time it wasn't. I didn't do that myself so...” She shrugged. The other two were demanding Myla's attention, probably to find out what they had been talking about, so Kasia took a drink from the beer while she let them talk. She almost choked on the taste but swallowed instead, making a face at the bottle, “This is what Americans call beer?”