Chapter 2

Harmony glanced at her laptop’s clock as she finished a chapter in her latest novel. She had started writing novels at age sixteen to relieve her boredom at school. One of her teachers had caught her working on her novel when she was supposed to be taking notes for a lecture. Instead of reprimanding her for not paying attention, he had asked for a copy of the novel to read. The next day, her teacher had told her she needed to find an agent and get published. It had taken three years to find one, and an additional two years to get published. She had added seven more novels to her name by that time, with one of them becoming a New York Times Bestseller.

Her novels had been like a portal to another world, where she could escape the soap opera of high school. She didn’t have to worry about cliques, backstabbing frenemies, or boys constantly trying to get her to go out with them. She had immersed herself in her fantasy worlds to the exclusion of everything else. She had discovered that wearing over-the-ear headphones while she typed away on her laptop was as good as a sign saying, ‘STAY AWAY’.

Harmony looked at the clock again as she rubbed her temples. Time to pick up the squirts.

Closing the lid on her laptop, Harmony let out a ferocious scream as she stretched. The first time her nieces had heard her stretching scream, they had nearly shot through the roof in fright. Sure, she could have stretched without the bestial shriek, but it just wasn’t as satisfying.

Grabbing her jacket from the coat rack by the front door, she began humming as she walked down to the county road in front of their house. She had just finished setting her music room up perfectly for studio recording and was anxious to start laying down some new tracks. With a name like Harmony, she was destined to have a knack for composing music. Collecting and learning to play new instruments was something of a hobby for her. She had just acquired a lyre before moving into the new house a month ago, and she was itching to try it out.

As soon as she reached the county road, she broke into an all-out sprint toward the bus stop where her nieces would soon be arriving. It was only a mile away, so there was no point jogging such a short distance.

The school bus arrived at the customary stop at the same time she did. Aurora and Serenity were the first to get off the bus. Harmony waved at the old man who drove the bus as two other students exited behind Aurora and Serenity. He smiled at her with a small shake of his head. He thought people who enjoyed running had something wrong upstairs.

“How was school?” Harmony asked perfunctorily as they began walking toward their house.

“Mr. Summers said we should talk to the local Native American tribe about the fairy ring,” Aurora replied with a challenge in her dark eyes.

Harmony groaned inwardly. It had been just over a week since Aurora’s adventure in the redwood tree and she was still obsessed with fairies. Now her superstitious teachers are helping to fuel the furor. Just great.

“Your Grandma is coming over for dinner tonight,” Harmony informed them. She wasn’t about to get into a pitched battle about mythical creatures when time would handle that particular battle on its own.

“Does that mean we get to eat real food tonight?” Serenity asked contentiously.

“Define real food,” Harmony replied calmly. “Are you referring to food that has been injected with enough hormones and antibiotics to shame a hypochondriac and turn you into a nymphomaniac?”

“What’s a nymphomaniac?” Serenity asked, automatically latching on to the one word that would be the most uncomfortable to discuss.

“Ask Grandma,” Harmony replied brusquely.

“Why won’t you tell me?” Serenity asked truculently.

“I consider it a matter of responsible parenting to always leave the fun questions for the grandparents,” Harmony answered with a smirk.

“Why are you smirking?” Serenity asked suspiciously.

“It’s called grinning maliciously, not smirking,” Harmony smirked.

“What’s the difference?” Serenity asked doubtfully.

“One uses more facial muscles than the other one,” Harmony replied with a shrug. “I’m too lazy to use more than the bare minimum.”

“Sometimes I think your sense of humor borders on deranged,” Serenity informed her as she readjusted her backpack.

“I’m way past the border,” Harmony assured her with a deranged grin.

“Who’s that?” Aurora asked, nodding at a person walking down the street toward them.

Harmony glanced up to see a young woman casually strolling in their direction. She was wearing an odd assortment of clothing, to be sure. It had been a while since Harmony had seen anyone wearing one of those goofy trap hats with the earflaps. A few wisps of auburn hair were peeking out from underneath the hat. The girl had a thick white jacket, white leggings, and knee-high green boots. To top it all off, she was wearing large rose-tinted sunglasses. The visible part of her face revealed lightly blushing cheeks, full red lips, and a delicately sculpted jaw line.

“Let me pull out my crystal ball and see what name pops up,” Harmony replied, exaggeratedly raising her hand in front of her face as if she was looking into something.

“One of these days you are going to say something that isn’t laced with sarcasm, and the world will end,” Serenity growled irritably.

“Some superheroes get to shoot lasers out of their eyes,” Harmony said wistfully. “Me? I get stuck with sarcasm as my superpower.”

The girl was smiling as she approached them, as if she had been listening to their conversation. Apparently, those earflaps don’t impede her hearing.

She nodded at them in a friendly manner as she passed them, seemingly unconcerned with the pair of pre-teens staring her down the entire time. Harmony nodded back with an amiable smile, trying not to grin wider as she stared at the absurd hat. The girl certainly looked developed enough in the chest deparment, but she was barely taller than Aurora, and that wasn’t saying much. There was a faint smell of exotic flowers as the girl passed them. It tickled something in her memory, but she couldn’t place it.

“You were supposed to ask her who she was,” Aurora said reproachfully once she was well past them.

“How was I supposed to know you wanted me to ask her for her name?” Harmony asked defensively. “Sarcasm is my superpower, not telepathy. Besides, what does it matter?”

“What if she’s the fairy?” Aurora asked with a sigh. “Now we’ll never know.”

“I didn’t see any wings,” Harmony noted with pursed lips. “And I definitely didn’t see any fairy dust trailing behind her.”

“Well maybe she’s hiding her wings in her jacket,” Aurora pointed out as if it should be obvious. “And she was hiding her ears with the hat.”

“All good points,” Harmony nodded approvingly. “And she had those large, tinted glasses on that could have been hiding fairy eyes. I suppose I should have asked her name.”

“Duh,” Aurora rolled her eyes. “Of course you should have asked her name.”

“I realize that now,” Harmony nodded thoughtfully. “Her name would have revealed everything, because…because…hmm…”

“What?” Aurora prompted expectantly.

“Well, I can’t remember why knowing her name would have given her secret identity as a fairy away,” Harmony admitted with a bashful grin.

Aurora looked stumped as her brain kicked into overdrive to find the reason.

“Don’t pay any attention to her, Aurora,” Serenity told her sister with a spiteful glare at Harmony. “She’s just toying with you.”

“There’s nothing wrong with toying with someone,” Harmony said in an injured tone. “People like toys, or they wouldn’t be so popular.”

Sometimes Harmony worried that her overdeveloped sense of humor would be detrimental to her relationship with her nieces, but she always consoled herself with the fact that teenagers were experts at finding things to dislike no matter how you behaved around them. After all, she had been a teenager not so long ago herself and remembered exactly how unnatural it was to just get along with your parents/guardians.

XXXXX

Harmony’s mother had barely stepped through the front door before Serenity was tattling on her for being a liar. Harmony just ignored the reproachful looks her mother kept sending her way as Serenity and Aurora informed her of every naughty thing she had said or done. It wasn’t until Serenity asked her what a nymphomaniac was that it became more than disapproving looks.

“Where did you hear that word?” her mother demanded, appalled.

“Aunt Harmony,” Aurora and Serenity said at the same time.

“Harmony!” her mother sighed in exasperation. “At least pretend to be an adult for once in your life.”

“Oh, well, as long as it’s only for pretend,” Harmony shrugged and nodded agreeably.

“And none of that passive-aggressive nonsense either!” her mother admonished sternly.

“Do you two want to know how your grandma met your grandpa when they were twelve?” Harmony asked her nieces brightly.

Her mother’s face turned bright red in embarrassment. “Don’t you dare try blackmailing me!”

“A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do,” Harmony replied regretfully.

“What happened?” Aurora asked interestedly.

“Nothing!” her mother responded adamantly. “Your aunt is just making things up again.”

Harmony raised an eyebrow at her mother but said nothing.

Her mother was several inches shorter than her but had the same long blonde hair as Harmony, though hers was streaked with grey. She had once had a lithe and athletic build like Harmony, but she looked more skeletal now as she struggled with Multiple Sclerosis. Harmony frequently had to quell sudden storms of rage at the universe for what it had done to her mother. If there actually was an afterlife with a divine arbiter, Harmony was going to punch them in their sanctimonious face.

“What’s all this talk about fairies anyway?” her mother asked in an obvious attempt to change the subject.

“I’m glad you mentioned that,” Harmony said with a thoughtful frown. “I’ve been researching some of the local Native American legends. However, the natives who were responsible for the legends are extinct, and the neighboring tribes could barely communicate with them because of language barriers. Since dead languages are your specialty, I thought you might be interested in trying to make more sense of them than the few experts familiar with this tribe have been able to so far.”

“Which tribe?” her mother asked, her eyes coming alight with sudden interest.

“The Kalapuya,” Harmony replied, knowing that she had probably mangled the pronunciation.

“They were one of the largest tribes in the region for quite a while,” her mother said thoughtfully. “What legends in particular were you interested in?”

“I was actually just trying to find out more about who the architects of that monstrous wall were, but the only thing I could find even mentioning it were those Kalapuya legends,” Harmony replied with a frustrated shake of her head. “You would think something so unusual would have drawn archeologists like a magnet.”

“Only a few people have tried to study it, but they claim anything electronic malfunctions when you get near the wall,” her mother said musingly. “I’ve never been there myself, but I’ve always wondered what hides behind those walls.”

“Why don’t they just fly a helicopter over it and drop someone in?” Harmony asked in puzzlement. “Or if that is too expensive, just get some rock-climbing gear and scale it.”

“I told you, electronics malfunction near the wall,” her mother replied patiently. “The first time they tried flying over it, they nearly crashed when their engine started failing. As for climbing it, even diamond tipped spikes can’t penetrate the surface. They have no idea what the material is, and they can’t even take samples. Not to mention, it isn’t just a single wall. There is a large moat between the first wall and the second wall that is almost three hundred feet across. When they used special ladders to climb the first wall, they couldn’t get to the second wall.”

“Why couldn’t they get to the second wall?” Serenity asked in a hushed voice.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Because as far as they can tell, the moat is bottomless,” her mother replied with a mysterious smile. “Every time they tried to take a depth reading, the lines just kept sinking until they ran out of line. Since they can’t put ladders down into the moat to get to the second wall, there is no way to get inside of it. Someone even tried parachuting down to it, but a wind came out of nowhere and blew them away from the ring. Someone tried shooting a harpoon across once, but they couldn’t get the spear to anchor into anything on the other side.”

“Why aren’t there government agents all over this thing if it is so difficult to get into?” Harmony asked skeptically. “There’s no way they wouldn’t be studying this around the clock.”

“Because they don’t know about it,” her mother replied simply. “It’s on private property with no access roads, so it isn’t widely known. It’s been nearly forty years since the team of explorers first encountered it and tried to get in. They didn’t have internet back then, so their story didn’t get published to every corner of the world. It looked like it might get more attention for a little while, but then the team of explorers just packed up and left and refused to talk about it with anyone.”

“Wait, it’s on private property?” Harmony asked with a frown. “So, we were trespassing?”

“It’s on your property,” her mother replied dryly. “Didn’t you look at the boundary of the property after you inherited the house?”

“Wait, what?” Harmony spluttered. “Grandma Dotty owned all of this property? I thought it was just up to the fences.”

“Her mom purchased just over a thousand acres when they migrated out here,” her mother explained. “That’s why you have one of the only places outside of the national parks full of redwoods.”

Harmony worked her mouth soundlessly as she tried to comprehend all the land she had unknowingly inherited.

“Now you know why there is so little information about the ring,” her mother said helpfully. “Your grandmother is the one who hired the group of explorers to try and get into the ring in the first place. She refused to talk about the ring after the explorers left. I’ve always wondered what happened to make her stop investigating it.”

“I think this is getting unnecessarily mysterious,” Harmony declared as she stood up. “Let’s see what Google Earth can see inside of it.”

She fetched her laptop from her bedroom and came back down to the front room. Her nieces and mother crowded around her at the end table as she pulled up Google Earth and began zooming into the site.

“Looks like it jams cameras as well as electronics,” her mother noted thoughtfully as the area where the large ring should have been just showed a large black blob.

“That can’t be right,” Harmony frowned. “I must have the wrong area.”

“Your house isn’t even a mile away from it,” her mother disagreed. “You’re in the right area.”

Harmony spent the next few minutes zooming in and out of the map, sure that the giant ring was hiding somewhere else. With a frustrated sigh, she closed the lid of her laptop. Google had never failed her before. She felt cheated somehow. Maybe I’ll give Google a call and lodge a complaint. Yeah…right.

“What did the Kalapuya legends say about it?” her mother asked curiously.

“Oh, just a bunch of superstitious nonsense,” Harmony snorted derisively. “They claimed some ancient fairy had gathered up all of the magical creatures in the land to protect them from a bunch of evil Shamans.”

“Interesting…” her mother said slowly. “Do you ever wonder how so many mythical creatures appear in legends from cultures all over the world? After all, the Native Americans had no contact with the European and Asian continents until recently, yet they have legends of dwarves, sprites, elves, dragons, and many other mythical creatures from Eastern hemisphere mythology.”

“So, you think fairies might be real too?” Aurora asked excitedly.

“At my age, you stop believing anything is impossible,” her mother replied with another mysterious smile.

“Mom, would you cut it out?” Harmony asked irritably. “Aurora’s already convinced a fairy saved her from falling out of a redwood tree. She doesn’t need you encouraging her with such childish superstitions.”

“Why would she need to be saved from falling out of a redwood tree,” her mother demanded sharply.

Harmony groaned inwardly. Way to go mouth.

After reluctantly retelling her mother about their adventure near the wall, Harmony braced herself for the imminent lecture on responsible parenting. Her mother surprised her though.

“Did she talk to you at all?” her mother asked Aurora curiously.

“Yep,” Aurora nodded eagerly. “She said I had a pretty smile, and that I should take good care of Aunt Harmony.”

“She did?” Harmony asked in surprise. She knew the girl had spoken to Aurora while the two of them waited for her to reach the bottom of the tree, but she had never gotten around to asking what she said.

“Uh huh,” Aurora nodded with an impish smile. “I told her I would do my best, but that you were a little crazy sometimes. She thought that was pretty funny. She also said she thought we were awesome for not eating animals.”

“You told her I was vegan?” Harmony asked in surprise.

“Nope,” Aurora shook her head resolutely. “I didn’t say anything about it.”

“Great, now I have to worry about adolescent stalkers as well,” Harmony sighed resignedly.

It had been a relief when her mother finally left after dinner. She had been sure her mother would back her up on stamping down on the whole fairy obsession, but she had been gravely disappointed. If anything, her mother had just kicked the hornet’s nest.

XXXXX

After meeting Aurora and Serenity at the bus stop the next day, a familiar figure appeared as they began walking back to their house. The girl with the funky hat was crouched off to the side of the road with her hand outstretched toward something in the long grass.

“Ask her what her name is this time!” Aurora hissed insistently.

“Fine,” Harmony sighed, rolling her eyes in defeat. “But if she doesn’t turn into a fairy after we say her name, you have to promise me you’ll stop obsessing over fairies.”

Aurora nodded absently and Harmony sighed again. As if…

As they drew closer, Harmony saw that the girl was offering some nuts to an extremely overweight squirrel.

“Are you sure that furball needs more padding?” Harmony asked critically. “He looks like he could survive at least another five winters without eating another thing.”

The girl burst out laughing as the squirrel started chattering angrily. It was staring right at Harmony, as if it had understood exactly what she had just said.

“He’s a she actually,” the girl replied in a melodic voice that was naggingly familiar. “And she is extremely pregnant and needs all of the handouts she can get.”

“Fine, I take it back,” Harmony replied with a rueful smile. “I’m Harmony, by the way.”

The girl stood up, still chuckling slightly. “I’m Rhapsody. Nice to meet you.”

“Do you live around here?” Harmony asked curiously. She had told herself she would stop being anti-social after moving, but still hadn’t found the motivation to go meet any of her new neighbors.

“All of my life,” Rhapsody replied, smiling as if there were some kind of joke in her answer.

“Do you always feed all of the wildlife in the area?” Harmony asked with a glance at the squirrel.

“Just the nice ones,” Rhapsody nodded. “Some of them are too ornery to bother with, so I stick to helping those who are worthy of compassion. Natural selection doesn’t result in empathy very often, so I try to encourage it when I see creatures capable of exhibiting such traits.”

Harmony blinked, trying to readjust her assessment of the girl’s age. She spoke in a manner more mature than a young teenager. Maybe she is older than sixteen after all.

Serenity and Aurora were watching her in fascination as she continued placing small nuts into the pregnant squirrel’s outstretched hands. A lightning bolt couldn’t have drawn their attention away from the unusual girl.

“So do you know of any fairies who live in the area?” Harmony asked with an indulgent nod at her nieces. “My nieces are convinced one lives inside of that giant ring.”

“I’m afraid I haven’t met any fairies around here,” Rhapsody replied carefully. “I’ll certainly let you know if I see any though.”

Harmony studied the girl curiously. There was something so familiar about her voice, but she just couldn’t place it.

“Do you go to the local high school?” Harmony asked curiously.

“I was home schooled,” Rhapsody replied with another smile that hinted at some kind of inner joke.

“Cool,” Harmony nodded absently as she wracked her brains to remember where she had heard that musical voice before.

“Go get some rest, Cleverantonitaflora,” Rhapsody told the large squirrel when it had consumed the last of the proffered nuts.

“She has a name?” Harmony asked with a wide grin.

“They all do,” Rhapsody replied with a shrug. “If you just say, ‘hey squirrel’, every squirrel in the forest thinks you’re talking to them.”

Harmony nodded in bemusement. She names the squirrels. Sounds like some pretty crazy home schooling.

“It was nice to meet you,” Rhapsody told them with a genuine smile. “I’ll see you around, I’m sure.”

“I’m sure,” Harmony agreed good-naturedly. It wasn’t exactly hard to run into the same people in a town with a population of two thousand people.

As she passed them, Harmony caught a whiff of some kind of floral scent. It triggered a sense of nostalgia for spring, green meadows, and flowers. Harmony nearly called out to her again to ask where she had found such a lovely fragrance, but when she turned around the girl was gone. Weird.

After walking for a few minutes, Aurora cleared her throat.

“I told you she was the fairy,” Aurora stated smugly.

“Because her name is Rhapsody?” Harmony asked in amusement.

“No, silly,” Aurora laughed. “She can talk to animals.”

“So can I,” Harmony said dryly. “I just don’t have a clue what they are saying back to me.”

“Well, she does,” Aurora said confidently.

“I’m sure she does,” Harmony replied with a resigned shake of her head.

“She rescued me from the tree,” Aurora said pointedly.

“I don’t think that was the same girl,” Rhapsody replied doubtfully.

“What do you mean, it wasn’t the same girl?” Aurora asked disbelievingly. “She had the exact same voice!”

Harmony frowned as that nagging sense of familiarity finally found its mark. It was the same voice. That scent! It was the same floral scent as well.

“And…she’s home schooled,” Serenity declared triumphantly. “She was raised in the woods with magical creatures, so of course she was home schooled.”

“You heard her admit she wasn’t a fairy with your own ears,” Harmony said firmly. “Unless fairies make use of artistic license, of course.”

“She didn’t say she wasn’t a fairy,” Serenity disagreed with an excited gleam in her dark eyes. “She said she hadn’t met any fairies around here. That’s because she’s the only one! There aren’t any other fairies to meet.”

Harmony remained quiet for the remainder of the walk back. She said she had been homeschooled, past tense. Is she even a kid at all? If I could see under that damn hat and glasses it would be a lot easier to assess.

XXXXX

Harmony kept her eyes peeled as she sprinted to the bus stop the next day. She hadn’t passed Rhapsody on her previous runs to the bus stop, but the strange girl had still managed to be fairly close on the walk back to the house. Unless Rhapsody had been sprinting as well, Harmony should have passed her on the mile-long run to the bus stop.

As she arrived at the bus stop breathing heavily, she glanced behind her. Still no sign of Rhapsody. When she turned around, Rhapsody was casually walking the same direction that Harmony and her nieces would be going on their return to the house. Where in the world did she come from? I’ve been watching the road the whole way.

“Hey, Harmony,” Rhapsody nodded in greeting as she joined them on their walk, much to the delight of Aurora and Serenity. “How’s life in the hinterlands treating you?”

“Just swell,” Harmony replied dryly. She cursed her sarcastic tongue as Rhapsody’s lips twitched slightly in amusement. She wished she could see past Rhapsody’s rose-tinted glasses. She was positive a whole world of mischief was hiding behind those damned shades.

Harmony unobtrusively inhaled a deep breath through her nose, noticing once again the floral scent that triggered nostalgia of all things spring. She had never smelled a perfume or soap that was anything like it. This girl was just full of mystery.

“How are the locals treating you and Aurora?” Rhapsody asked the two girls expectantly. “You haven’t run into any bullies, have you?”

“No, everyone is really nice!” Serenity replied brightly. “They are a lot friendlier here than they were in Phoenix.”

“Where do you live?” Harmony asked curiously. She had to force herself to stop staring at the small woman as she tried to find any indication of her age.

“Not too far from your house,” Rhapsody replied easily. “I love listening to the music you compose, by the way.”

“You can hear me playing at your house?” Harmony asked in chagrin. “I’m sorry; I’ll try and keep the volume down from now on.”

“Just when I walk past your house,” Rhapsody assured her. “You better not turn the volume down. You have a real talent.”

“Thanks,” Harmony said awkwardly. She had always been too self-conscious to play in front of people when she was learning a new instrument, and now she had an unexpected audience. “Do you play any instruments?”

“All of them,” Rhapsody replied with a mischievous grin. “The didgeridoo is one of my favorites though. It drives my neighbors crazy when I play it on Winter Solstice. Scares the crap out of them.”

Harmony chuckled at the visual. “Yeah, the didgeridoo definitely has an interesting sound. I still haven’t tried playing one yet.”

“I’ll have to bring mine over sometime for you to try,” Rhapsody said with a grin. “It requires quite a different technique than your typical woodwind.”

Harmony glanced sideways at Rhapsody. She hadn’t taken the small woman seriously when she claimed to play every instrument, but she was obviously somewhat familiar with at least a few.

“How old are you, if you don’t mind my asking?” Harmony asked hesitantly.

“I lost track after twenty-seven trillion seconds,” Rhapsody replied with a straight face that was marred slightly by her twitching lips.

“Right…” Harmony drawled slowly. “Exactly how many years does that equate to?”

“Do I look like a calculator to you?” Rhapsody asked impishly.

“You certainly are good at avoiding answering questions directly,” Harmony noted with a raised eyebrow. “What do I have to do to get a straight answer out of you?”

“So, you like them straight, huh?” Rhapsody asked with a suggestive eyebrow waggle.

Harmony glared at Serenity when the little imp snorted derisively.

“Not likely,” Aurora giggled, waggling her own eyebrows at Harmony suggestively. “Our mom always told us Aunt Harmony was about as straight as a corkscrew.”

Harmony rolled her eyes, cursing her sister’s ghost.

Rhapsody suddenly froze in mid-step as her head swiveled toward the forest. Harmony glanced into the trees without seeing anything to warrant such intense scrutiny.

“Azeban, what are you doing out here?” Rhapsody demanded exasperatedly. “I told you not to follow me.”

“Who are you talking to?” Harmony asked in puzzlement.

“The raccoon,” Aurora pointed at a very guilty looking raccoon that was perched on a tree branch a dozen feet in the air.

“You have a pet raccoon?” Harmony asked doubtfully.

“Not exactly,” Rhapsody replied with a resigned sigh. “Azeban, get your furry butt back home right now!”

Azeban began making a series of chirping noises that Harmony had a feeling were complaints.

“Whining won’t win you any sympathy from me,” Rhapsody declared sternly. “Chickcharneetalaponia would love nothing better than to haul your big butt home and drop you in the lake. Don’t make me call her.”

Azeban immediately scampered down the tree and took off into the forest at a dead run.

“You and your names,” Harmony said in amusement. “Do you have some kind of fetish for words over five syllables?”

“That was only seven syllables,” Rhapsody told her with a small smile. “Ikle Chikle Chicary Chan Hornaman Gornaman Dustio Willopy Wallopy Chineo has twenty-four syllables, and that’s only because I shortened it.”

“And which creature bears that impressive name?” Harmony asked curiously.

“She’s a crow,” Rhapsody replied with a fond smile. “But she’s the most beautiful crow in the world.”

“They all look the same to me,” Harmony shrugged.

“Not her,” Rhapsody said firmly. “She’s special. She sparkles with every color of the rainbow.”

“Did you rescue her from an oil spill?” Harmony asked curiously.

Rhapsody must have found that amusing, because she immediately broke into peals of laughter.

“Did I say something funny?” Harmony asked in bafflement.

Rhapsody just nodded without elaborating. Harmony shook her head ruefully. This girl is almost as crazy as I am.

“Would you like to come in for a little while?” Harmony asked as they reached her house.

“Maybe another time,” Rhapsody replied, her lips still quivering with mirth. “I better get home before anyone else starts getting into mischief.”

“Would you like a ride?” Harmony offered with a gesture at her small Honda.

“I prefer walking, but thanks anyway,” Rhapsody declined with an appreciative smile.

“See you later then?” Harmony asked tentatively.

“Count on it,” Rhapsody nodded.

Harmony smiled to herself as Rhapsody waited for them to walk up the long driveway to her house before leaving. As she opened the door, she glanced back to wave, but Rhapsody was nowhere to be seen.

“That girl has a real knack for disappearing,” Harmony muttered under her breath, but not quietly enough.

“That’s because she’s a fairy,” Aurora told her matter-of-factly.

Harmony just shook her head without saying anything. On a sudden impulse, she pulled out her iPhone and Googled seconds to years and typed in twenty-seven trillion. Just over eight-hundred and eighty-two thousand years old. She sure does age well. I wonder what her secret is.

Before going to bed for the night, Harmony flipped her laptop open and did a Google search for Azeban. According to Wikipedia, Azeban was one of the many trickster gods the Abenaki tribe believed in. Unlike most trickster gods, Azeban was considered harmless, lacking the malicious tendencies inherent in most of the other trickster gods. He was said to take the form of a raccoon.

That girl obviously knows her Native American mythology.