Annie LXII: Findings...

(Chronological index: New World Order #10)

"Utah," Pet read, "is named after the Ute Indians. Hmm. She turned to Annie. "Who are the Ute Indians?"

"They're the tribe that was in Utah Territory," Annie replied.

"Wow, you're so smart," Pet said. She turned back to the laptop screen and scrolled down for more interesting Utah factoids.

Annie relaxed in a sunbeam coming through the window. Denise stood on the Local Interest page of the notebook the hotel supplied.

Ray was on the phone with Tammy. He sent love from all of them to everyone living at Mildred's and hung up.

"Tammy and Angel and Cruiser and Aunt Mildred and all the rescued sylphs say hi," he said. "And she promised to send us Baby Millie's ultrasound pictures."

"Cool!" Pet said. She jumped up to call up Ray's email account. "Nothing from Tammy, Ray."

"She JUST promised, Pet," Annie pointed out. "Give her five minutes, then call her and find out what in the name of gnomes named Millis is taking so freaking long."

Pet was silent. Annie sat up after a moment. Her sister was staring at the clock in the corner of the display. "Oh, god," she muttered. "Pet," she started to explain, "I didn't mean-"

The computer chimed. "Mail!" Pet shouted. "Well within Annie's time limit!"

Denise helped Annie to her feet and all four Fosters tried to make sense of the scan.

"That's her head," Ray said, pointing.

"Awwww," the others chorused. Pet walked around the keyboard to put a hand on where the baby's heart would be.

The infertile sylphs bit their lips as their sister stared.

"Okay," Ray said after a moment. "I'm told there's an ice cream parlor in Trolley Square that makes Creamstone look like the slushie machines in a 7-11." He held out his hands. Pet slowly turned to join the other two.

Ray closed the program and slid people into pockets.

------

The dream coordinates led them up a canyon on the eastern side of the city. They passed the This Is The Place monument about sunset. Ray pulled over.

"Mormon history?" Denise asked. He held a finger to his lips and rolled down the windows.

A few blocks away, the animals at Hogle Zoo coughed or roared or screeched as crowds left and dinner was served. Pet gasped to hear a lion's argument with its mate.

"A coworker told me about this," he said. "Always wanted to sit here about now."

"Very cool," Annie said.

"You're welcome," Ray told her.

"I mean, glorious master, that the windows are open in the Rockies in autumn. It's fucking cold." Her tone was biting, but she had a smile. Ray returned the smile, started the car and closed the windows.

They drove up into the mountains, on winding roads through narrow canyons. Everyone but the GPS was quite lost when Ray finally pulled over.

"Dress warm," he said. Annie threw a pair of mittens at him

"We're quite prepared to be cold OUTSIDE the car," she lectured. "We were just dressed for civilized environments on the way here."

--------

A small but well-tended park filled the area between the road and the canyon wall. Ray set up a picnic site with a bright light, passed out some food and prepared to wait for whatever they were waiting for.

The sylphs wandered around the blanket for a bit, then towards a picnic table.

Something popped out from behind a trash can. Pet shrieked but thrust herself in front of Denise. Annie took two steps forward to be between both sylphs and whatever it was. Her hobby blade was point up as she stared into the deepening gloom.

"Oh, god, tell me you have some food." A pale, naked sylph staggered into view. A gaunt male covered with scratches limped towards them.

"Denny, go get Ray," Pet said.

"No!" the man hissed. "She'll kill me if a human finds us!"

"Not this human," Denise said. She'd made no move to leave the other two sylphs alone with the man.

"Who are you?" Annie asked.

"Mark," he said. "Um, who are you guys?"

"I," Annie said, "am the Angel of Retribution as far as you're concerned. Don't get on my bad side." She waved the blade meaningfully. "Now, Mark, what are you doing out here begging for food? Shouldn't you have all your nuts for the winter by now?"

"Aw, no," he said. He leaned against the table leg. "We've got nothing. We've been out here since spring. But nothing... Between making a shelter and fighting off the fox and trying to get enough food to make it through the day we... "

Mark sagged to the ground and started sobbing. Pet took a step forward, probably to comfort him. Annie gestured to stop her.

"We don't know if he's alone or not."

"Or who the homicidal 'she' is," Denise added.

"But we do know," Pet pointed out, "that the ghosts at the dinner party sent us here. He's probably the one we're supposed to rescue."

Denise saw that Annie relaxed quite a bit at that thought. Lord knew, her daddy would not have sent them here to get hurt.

But that still didn't mean Mark was trustworthy. And 'she' sounded like a real winner.

"Annie?" she asked, "What if we brought Mark some food and water? Maybe he'd be calmer with a full stomach?"

"Oh, please," he muttered. "If I can take something back to her, she might not hit me."

"Or you could just come with us," Pet said. "We feed you and clothe both of you and-"

Mark was shaking his head. "She won't come out. Not if there's a human over there. She hates- She hates all of them."

Annie raised an eyebrow at her sisters. They had all noticed the pause in his statement. What else did she hate?

"Then maybe just you?" Pet said. Mark looked hopeful.

"I have some money," he said slowly.

"No, you don't," Pet said sadly.

"You're a sylph, Mark," Annie pointed out. "You don't have anything."

"I... I know where some money is hidden. I could give it to your...your owner. If he'll take me someplace safe." He rose to his knees and begged. "Oh, please? Can you talk him into it?"

Denise stepped up beside Annie, on the side away from the knife. "Mark? How do you know where the money is? Couldn't the giant that really owns it have taken it away?"

"No one else owns it!" he insisted. "Just me. It's my gambl- It's mine, okay?"

"How long have you been here, Mark?" Pet asked.

"How long have you been a sylph, Mark?" Annie asked. He looked defensive.

"This is kind of a secluded place, Mark," Denise pointed out. "Did you used to bring innocent sylphs out here?"

"And did that turn out horribly wrong...a while back?" Annie added. He stood and started backing away. Annie followed.

"That would explain why your friend is such a bitch, wouldn't it? The two of you were going to play with some sylphs and you got sylphed yourself."

"No, no, no," he said. "I've always been a sylph! I just.. WE just escaped from our owners while they were picnicking. This spring! We, uh, the woman got bit by an ant and they didn't notice when we ran for the trees."

"What was the woman's name?" Pet asked.

"Mistress," Mark replied.

"What car did they drive?" Annie asked immediately after he answered.

"Um, a blue SUV."

"Where did you live?"

Mark blinked at the rapid pace of the questions. "Uh, across the street from the old Salt City Jail."

"What did the owner do for a living?"

"A, uh, software company representative."

"What year did you graduate college?"

"Nineteen ninety three," he shot back. The silence stretched.

"No one sylphed after 1980," Denise said after a moment. "Until this year."

"And sylphs don’t graduate from college," Annie said.

Mark turned and stumbled away.

---------

Ray moved the picnic into the rental car. They discussed options over the sound of the heater.

"Leave him to freeze to death," Annie said. "What? You have to know we're all thinking about it. Let's get it out there."

"Amelia would be disappointed," Pet said. "And I don't think Daddy would have sent us here to abandon them to their fate."

"No matter how justly deserved?" Annie asked.

"You don't think that," Pet told her. "You're just being the devilish advocate."

"So, that option's off the list," Ray said. "Do we take this guy into custody or call authorities?"

"I want to see the she-bitch," Denise said. "Just to see what sort of woman does things that'll make a gnome out of her sylph."

"Maybe she's the gnome," Ray said.

"What?" the others asked.

"Mark brings a sylph out here, starts to torture her, she gets The Power and knocks him down." They looked thoughtful as he went on talking.

"No TV, no radio, they don't know anything about what happened or why. Just that one got bigger and one got smaller."

"She might think it was a favor from God," Pet mused. "I deliver your torture-doer unto you, go now and make him sin no more."

"A thought," Annie said. "So she may think it's a mandate to beat him."

"We have to stop her," Ray said. "For her sake, if not for his." They nodded.

------

They bundled up further and set up the picnic at the table. Ray set up his battery powered lantern on the far side.

Food was set up by Ray's feet, the sylphs sitting back to back at his toes to watch in all directions.

Ray tried three times to suggest coming back the next day. The first time, Pet said please about twenty dozen times and he relented.

The second time, Annie reminded him of Still Renee and Still Cassie. Sick sylphs at the edge of survival when the two had been rescued. There might not be a tomorrow.

An hour after that, he got as far as taking in a breath to speak and Denise just stabbed him with her fork.

"Well, as long as it's unanimous," he grumbled, rubbing at his ankle.

Just over an hour after his last protest, Mark came back. He stepped into the circle of light and limped towards them.

"The money," he whispered with a nod towards Ray. "Will he take it?"

"He's rich," Annie said in her normal voice. "And wouldn't take blood money from you if his life depended on it."

Mark winced and glanced back over his shoulder. "Please, I gotta take something back to her."

"Bring her here," Denise said. "She can have as much as the two of you can carry."

"We just want to meet her," Pet said. He glanced towards Ray's shoes and shook his head.

"Want some blankets?" Annie asked. "Or my other coat?" He paused and looked hopeful.

"Would she be happy with you if she had clothes?" Denise asked. "What size does she wear?"

"Same as me," he said absently. He looked longingly at the insulated sylphs. "I'll, uh... I'll go ask."

"Same size?" Annie whispered when he was gone.

"She's not a gnome," Pet said as quietly. "She's not the one that shrank him."

"Maybe there's another person roaming this canyon? A confused gnome that these two are afraid of?" Denise shrugged. "We'll have to rescue them, too."

'She' showed up twenty minutes later. A blonde woman about the average size of a sylph. She looked about Annie's real age, but that may have been an illusion.

Her body was covered with scars of various sizes. She'd been hurt often over the years and it added lines on her face, loads on her shoulders. She limped, one thigh visibly bent.

"Fine," she croaked as she approached. "Take me. Feed me, make me warm, then do whatever you want. I won't even cry."

"Oh, god," Pet cried. She took off her coat and threw it over the woman's shoulders. Denise took her a cup of broth. Annie watched warily, but left her knife hanging down by her leg, mostly out of sight.

"We won't hurt you," Denise promised.

"And by we," Annie added, "we're including the giant."

"Sure," she slurped. "That's what they all say."

"Carrier!" Pet shouted. Ray lowered it under the bench. The women led the new sylph towards the ramp.

"Tell us what to pack," Annie said. "The drumstick?"

"Not bird," she said with a shiver. "We had a pigeon. It... Beef."

Annie grabbed a skewered bit of steak and lifted it. She glanced around to find Mark at the edge of the light. "Come on," she said. "You can carry the cow."

-------

"Name?" Pet asked. The refugees had sat in the ark's quarterdeck, wrapped in blankets and eating constantly. They hadn't slowed before Ray finished cleaning up the picnic and stowing everything in the car.

They had promised that no other sylphs, or gnomes, though they didn't know the term, were in the area. Two of the Fosters were suspicious but Pet stared at the woman. "I believe her," she finally said and that was that.

Ray made a last trip to collect the carrier and the lantern. Annie leaned out the door to tell him they were ready to leave.

Once they slowed down, though, Pet wanted to get to know their guests.

"Libby," the woman said. "And you know Bastard." Her voice was even rougher as she snarled at him.

"So, what happened to you?" Pet asked.

"I sylphed on The Day and it's been a glorious descent to Hell ever since." Pet recoiled from the venom in Libby's voice. Annie scooted closer.

"It's alright, now," she said. "You're not going to believe it for a while, but we can make life better."

Libby snorted and shook her head. "God, I've been told that so many times."

"Him," Denise said with a thumb towards Mark. "How'd you end up out here with him?"

"Bastard here bought me off a traveling salesman." She leaned back against the carrier wall and stared at her former owner. He hunched over and tried to pretend he wasn't there.

"He used to get former warriors from the bloodsports. Ones too hurt to fight. He liked to make them ....hurt me." She waved a hand. Annie passed over the water bottle and they waited while she drank.

"What he really liked was getting a few miles out of town. 'Do what I tell you or I'll leave you here.' Out in the wild. Where foxes or coyotes or snakes might find me.

"Not even a clue which direction led back to town where at least the predators wore clothes." She was silent for a long moment.

"He, uh, took us out to this picnic area. Put us on the table and said... He said...."

"It's okay," Annie said. She grabbed Libby's hand. "So. You did what you had to to survive. And after that..."

"My rapist took a header off the edge of the table." She sniffed. "And he giggled." She threw the water bottle at Mark. "The Bastard laughed! I got so mad...I stood up and told him I was going to kill him. What did you do then, Bastard?"

"Please," Mark whined.

"What did you say?"

"I said...take your best shot," he said quietly. Libby glared. "Look, do we really need...?"

"I assume," Denise said, "he said 'your best shot, bitch.' Or something like that?"

"And that was it," Libby said with a nod. "I ran towards him, jumped up, and swung my fist. There was....this fiery light around it. I hit him... And then we were tumbling through the air. In an avalanche of clothing."

She took a deep breath. "I've lived in the wild before. I know you can't do it alone. So I promised I wouldn't kill the Bastard as long as he helped both of us survive."

"Wow," Pet said. "So...you are a gnome. Just a very short one."

"Why didn't she grow?" Denise asked.

"It was probably Bastard's only chance of survival that she didn't," Annie said.

They were quiet until they got back to the hotel. Ray immediately started a shower in the bathroom and a bath in the sink. Then he put food in the minifridge while sylphs got clean.

Bastard got to run around in the tub, using the spray to sluice off the summer's grime.

The girls helped Libby bathe. She floated under the pampering. Annie held her each time she suddenly burst into tears, stroking her back and promising a better life.

When she was clean and stable, they dressed her and tried to make the hair presentable. Bastard got a washcloth and a robe.

Then they were formally introduced to the giant.

Ray carried them to the desk and spoke to them a bit.

Bastard didn't want to talk much at all once he figured that his new name had stuck. And his offer of money was coldly ignored.

Libby was at the stage of desperately hoping against hope that this time, this owner wouldn't be a dick. Ray took her hand and welcomed her to civilization and civilized behavior.

"And it's a pleasure to be here, sir." His eyes popped wide.

"You have a Florida accent," he said.

"No she does not," Pet said. "She talks normal."

"Says the woman from Florida," Annie said. "We didn't notice because she talks like we all do."

"Where are you from, Libby?" Ray asked.

"Oh, a tiny town you've never heard of. Yulee. It's-"

"It's between Jacksonville and the Georgia border," Ray said. It was Libby's turn to look surprised.

"I don't suppose you ever go camping around there?" Four big smiles switched on. She flinched from the brightness. "You... You guys...."

"Do you know a sylph named Kelly?" Annie asked.

"More important," Pet asked, "do you know a little girl named Cherry?"

"Well, not so little," Denise said. "She's got a boyfriend now."

"Cherry....She survived? She's...." She choked up. Annie embraced her once more.

"She's in our back yard," Ray said. "We fixed her broken leg, same way we're going to fix yours. I guess the only question is if you want her to hold your hand while Doc fixes you, or if you want to be all hale and hearty when you meet her?"

"I don't think she wants to wait, Ray," Pet said. "Or miss a second of Cherry's life." Libby pointed at Pet and nodded. Ray accepted Pet's wisdom and Libby's silent plea.

-------

Bastard's former boss showed up after Ray's phone call to take ownership. Bastard was babbling about various money caches before they left the hotel lobby.

After they were gone, Ray took the carrier to the parking garage and the already-packed rental.

"So...anyone want to do anything before we go to the airport? Marie Calendar's restaurant? The Zoo? See the Tabernacle?"

"I will," Annie growled, "give my knife to Libby."

"Who has already made one torturing giant regret mistreating her!" Pet added.

Ray gulped theatrically and started the car.

-----------

"So," Ray was telling the Anthony's later, "we figured the magic or whatever makes gnomes is intelligent."

"It or they made Angel and Cruiser the same size," Annie pointed out.

"But it didn't make Libby too big to live in Cherry's burrow!" Pet said.

"But," Amelia protested, "if it's so all-fired smart, why didn't they give sylphs the power of gnomes in the first place?"

Everyone sipped at their drinks as they thought about that. Deliah entered the room to hand out her latest confection.

"What's with the silence?" she asked. Samantha tried to explain. Deliah sat down at the end of the table. "Well.... I think the whole sylph situation shows a learning curve."

She gestured towards Annie and Amelia. "For some reason, on or about The Day, they made sylphs. Maybe the lands of Fae are trying to communicate, and they made elves out of humans as a bridge. Or they're trying to teach humans something."

She turned to Denise and laid a fingertip on her shoulder. "Then they made Denise a sylph. That...sounded almost like an accident. Or like...whoever made the sylphs forgot about us all until that day."

"Interesting," Ray said.

"But they certainly paid more attention since then," Amelia said. "They made undines and gnomes pretty quickly."

"Someone online says we're the chosen," Annie said. "And God made the undines to convince people how special we are. And the gnomes were necessary because people still didn't get the idea."

Deliah shook her head. "In that case, gnomes would have been first. THEN find out that you guys can make our world a better place. Fear first, enlightened self interest after."

The diners sat quietly as they thought that over. "So..." Denise finally asked, "what's next?"

"I don't know," Deliah said. "We won't until the size changer learns what we need."

"What do we pay you?" Sam asked after a moment of silence.

"Nowhere near enough," Amelia said. They all laughed. Deliah stood.

"Speaking of my employment, I have to go set things near fires." She waved, blew a kiss towards the sylphs and walked out.



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