Who Was That Boogeyman I Saw You With Last Night, Charlie Boone? - 1. Chapter 1

Charlie Boone had his eyes closed, yet he could still see. His mind raced through a twisting tunnel of light as his second sight crossed the distance from their home in the wooded hills to the office in town in an instant. Nothing, no barrier, no matter how thick nor how strong, could stop his mind in its journey. Almost as fast as he could breathe he was there, standing in the place at Third Planet Inquiries they called the bored room. The lights were down in the room and Big Irv, the AI that ran the office, could not detect him.

There was a sudden popping sound in the room then, and four people appeared before him: Kippy Lawson, Rick Travers, Adrian Whitaker, and Max, the elf.

"Well, we followed the stream of your second presence okay," Kip said then, looking around the room. "Lights, Big Irv."

The room brightened, and Kip gave a little sigh. "Okay. Now, let's see if you can come here physically, Charlie. It's time for your first teleport!"

"He can do it," Rick assured. "He's there. Even I can see it."

Kippy frowned at him. "It's Charlie that has to see it." But he smiled around the room then, sensing Charlie's second presence, but unable to pinpoint its perspective exactly. "Come on, Charlie. I know you can do it!"

"Easy," Max said softly. "Let him do it in his own time, fellas. Charlie, all you need to do is to see the moment of teleportation. And you'll be there!" He laughed then. "Or, here, rather."

Charlie, still standing in the parlor at home, sighed inwardly, and tried to focus his thoughts. Rick had been helping him to grow the germ of teleportation that the other boy had seen in him, speeding up a process that, left to its own devices, could have taken another year or more to develop. As a magic mechanic, one of Rick's skills was divining the ways of skwish he could see in others, and now even affecting their operation. Rick's own skills had been growing, just like with all of them.

Barring life-threatening emergencies, wishing to be somewhere else was apparently not enough to trigger a nascent power to teleport. Wishing, or wanting, was the key to the lock, but turning that key required an inner sense of surety that the door would then open. Given time, that assurance would have come to Charlie on its own. But now they had sped up the process, greased the lock so to speak, so that the key would turn more easily.

They had all been working hard on this experiment. Charlie had learned to easily and quickly share a thread of his second presence with the others, and they had learned to follow it. He hadn't said where he was off to when he had set out with his second presence from the house. The others had been able to grab on, and follow him to the office. And now, that experiment was continuing to its logical conclusion.

Charlie's sense of the bored room as a place he knew strengthened, and suddenly he felt he could be there, if he wanted to be there. It was a choice now, instead of a wish. He could see the moment of transfer, and knew with a crystalline sense of certainty that should he choose to follow it, he would go.

And so, he went.

The little pop! that he always heard when others teleported to the same room he was in sounded muted to his own ears when he teleported himself. The parlor vanished from his sight, and then he was just there, miles away from home, in the office in town, among his friends. Kip and the others immediately surrounded him and clapped him on the shoulders, smiling, and Charlie felt a strange sense of elation at having performed his first teleport.

Amazingly, his next thought made him smile. He couldn't wait to tell his mom and his dad!

"That was great, Charlie!" Kippy said, leaning forward to kiss him on the cheek. "I knew you could do it!"

Charlie simply nodded. "Yeah. But that was the easy part!" He smiled at Rick. "Thanks for all your hard work helping me."

The other boy grinned. "You did all the learning, Charlie. I just pointed out a few things for you." He sighed. "First Adrian, and now you. Now, I'm the only one that can't teleport!"

Adrian rubbed his boyfriend's arm reassuringly. "You've seen the spark within yourself, sweetheart. Just like you showed me. You just need to grow it a little more. You'll get there!"

Charlie nodded. "I know you will, too!" He turned to Max then. "Okay, I've teleported. But this is a place I've been before. A place we've all been before. Now, for the hard part!"

The elf nodded. "If you can do it, it will be a first, Charlie."

"But no pressure," Rick added, with a laugh. "It'll just be a new record for the elf Book of the History of Skwish!"

"Shh!" Adrian said, tugging at his boyfriend's arm. "Leave him alone!" But he couldn't help smiling then. "You'll make him as nervous as I feel!"

Charlie took a breath, closed his eyes a moment, and then reopened them and nodded. "This is what Rick and I have been prepping towards all summer. It should work."

"It will work," Kip said positively, as if there was no doubt at all.

Rick offered an encouraging nod. "I think you can do it," he said quietly. "Charlie, I feel it!"

Charlie turned to look at the clock on the wall of the room. It was just nearing noon, and their Saturday was already feeling full. In just five days it would be Halloween, and there seemed so much to do before then!

He turned back to the others then. "Okay. Let's give it a try."

"It has to be a place you've never been to before," Max reminded. "You'll need to do some exploring with your second sight, and find a place that is off the map, completely."

Charlie frowned. "That's not as easy as it sounds. In the past, my second sight has either gone where I've told it to go, or it's suddenly taken off on its own and dragged me along with it. I have tried very little random exploration with it up to now. I've always had a purpose before."

Rick laughed. "Then your purpose this time is to find some hidey-hole no one has visited since Willie F. Grant was president!"

Adrian smiled, and covered the laugh that tried to emerge from his mouth. "He means Ulysses S. Grant."

Rick's eyebrows raised, and Charlie could see the sparkle of humor in his friend's eyes. "Whatever. Someplace off the beaten path, Charlie."

Kippy frowned at that. "This is hardly an empty corner of the planet. Even upstate New York is a busy place!"

"There are plenty of places in the park I've never been," Charlie mused. The Adirondack Park was nothing if not large!

"You don't have to stay local," Max pointed out. "Or even on Earth!"

Charlie took a breath, and nodded.

He couldn't easily go someplace dangerous, he knew. The surface of the moon, for instance. Teleportation skwish yielded built-in warnings if the destination was physically unsafe. Charlie could elect to go to a dangerous place, anyway, but why would he want to do that?

He closed his eyes and relaxed. Memory. Charlie's was considerable, between the things he had already done in life and the things he had read about. The problem with selecting a place from memory was that people had always been to places he had read about. But...all he needed was a place where he had never been.

What could he...wait. He remembered now the last thing he had read, just this morning while eating breakfast. An online magazine article about Alaska, and how the tourist industry had been booming over the summer.

What was the name of that place? Yakutat.

A small town on the Gulf of Alaska, north of Juneau, surrounded by Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and the Tongass National Forest. The town had become a hot spot for summer tourists due to its fishing and kayaking experiences, and its wonderful native culture. But what fact had surprised Charlie in the article was that Yakutat had become famous in the summer for its surfing!

The Japanese current pushed summer water temperatures at Yakutat into the mid-60s, and the 25-foot waves had become an attractive challenge for surfers looking for something new. Apparently, the place was something of a rising mecca for serious surfers willing to travel.

But it's not summer now, he reminded himself. It would be cold there, though probably not much colder than upstate New York was just now. He opened his eyes and looked down at what he was wearing: jeans, a flannel shirt, a jacket. The others were similarly dressed, even Max, who often dressed local for his visits these days.

"I never know where I'll wind up with you fellas," he'd told them not long ago. "So, I dress like you do when I come by. Ain't nothing more outta place than North Pole gear in the tropics!"

True. And, if they stayed in the bored room for much longer, they'd need to at least shed the jackets. The heat was on!

But what they were wearing now should be okay for a brief trip up north.

Charlie became aware of Kippy then, smiling at him. "He's thought of a place."

Charlie laughed, that Kip knew him so well. "Yeah. But how to get my second presence there...that's the thing." He closed his eyes again.

Well, Alaska was west and north of New York state, right? He turned in the direction he knew to be west, and relaxed his mind, bringing on his second presence. That act, all by itself, had become much easier for him, especially with Rick's assistance. He now knew just what little mental button he needed to push inside his head to get things rolling.

West, he reminded his sense. Thataway!

There was a brief, fluttery moment, where things seemed to accelerate around him so quickly that his eyes couldn't focus, and then...whoa.

Instead of just taking off through the wall and heading west, his second presence took off skyward, rapidly putting distance between the ground, until Charlie found his view high above North America, with a clear sighting over the curvature of the planet, looking west. He then started moving that way with a speed that left him breathless, until in mere seconds he found himself above the west coast of the continent. The suddenness of the shift was a little unnerving; but even so, he felt he was getting used to this mental rushing about. All he needed now was a basic knowledge of geography to take over, and from there it would be an easy enough matter to follow the coastline northward.

He reduced his height as he sailed north and west, and found the Inside Passage and Juneau easily enough. It was a fairly large place, as Alaskan towns went; but Yakatut was a different matter. With a population of around 600 people, it was only slightly larger than some of the towns the Adirondack Park hosted. And those could quite easily get lost in the woods!

And at this time of the year, Yakutat was unlikely to be buzzing with activity. Especially, no surfers.

Still, he simply slowed and followed the coast until he found the town, covering a hillside and surrounding flat-lands on a bay, looking scarcely like the place to be, let alone a tourist mecca.

His inner sense of time told him that less than two minutes had passed while he searched out the town. But that had been with a good knowledge of geography. How would it have worked if he'd been looking for a place on another continent he was less familiar with? Or, another planet, even?

We'll get to that later, he decided. That he and his second sense were still getting to know each other was a fact he had already accepted.

Now...where to go? He didn't want to just drop into town. With what they planned to attempt, it might be quite startling for the locals!

He guided his sense past the town, past the harbor and the small airport, along a wooded stretch and into what looked more like wilderness. The forest thickened into a solid mat of trees below, and the sense of isolation increased tenfold. Charlie moved along above the forest, not sure what he was looking for, until, quite suddenly, he found a spot that, somehow, just felt right. And then he simply lowered himself into the trees until his perspective touched the ground.

Conifers towered all around him now, the canopy amazingly thick, and the noonday sun trickled downward in a soft white glow among the mists that seemed to fill the treetops. Much of that mist trailed in slow moving curtains towards the ground, where it seemed to take on a new life, winding slowly and almost purposefully among the tops of large boulders that protruded from the hardened soil. The ground cover here was sparse, but what he could see of it among the shadows beneath the trees appeared almost ghostly in appearance, seeming to hover in the air above the mist-obscured ground.

Charlie felt a momentary, purely mental shiver at what he was seeing, but it was a delicious shiver, and one he enjoyed. The spooky beauty here was mesmerizing, and somehow seemed quite a fitting accompaniment for what they hoped to accomplish next. A first!

"I'm ready," he told the others, without opening his eyes. Somehow, it seemed a mistake to let the reality of the bored room intrude into what he was seeing within his mind's eye.

"We're with you," Max replied, followed by sounds of agreement from the others.

Charlie took a breath, and tensed as he concentrated. He felt the moment of the teleport come, and simply went with it.

The floor vanished from beneath his feet, and Charlie opened his eyes to find himself standing on the hard ground he had visualized, surrounded by conifers, the air invigoratingly chilly, but far less than frigid. The tiny pop! that accompanied the teleport was instantly absorbed by the trees all around him, gone in an instant. The forest seemed even darker and and more misty in person, more mysterious, more ancient...and more welcoming, somehow, now that he was here.

Charlie laughed. He had done it! He had just teleported to a place he had never been before!

There was a series of popping sounds, and the others materialized around him. That completed the task! The others had followed his second presence, and also teleported to a place none of them had been before!

Kippy was immediately hugging Charlie. "You did it!"

"We all did it!" Rick followed with, pounding Charlie on the back.

"A new record," Max said softly, sounding amazed himself. He looked around them then, the happiness at what they had done clear in his eyes; but then he stiffened, and when he spoke again his voice had dropped to a whisper. "Uh, fellas--"

Charlie sensed the notes of surprise and caution in the elf's words, and disengaged himself from Kip and looked around them. He heard a noise then, the slight whuff a horse might make, sounding almost as surprised as Max.

The others turned with Charlie, and everyone froze at once.

Not ten feet away from them a man was sitting on a fallen log, watching them. A horse stood next to him, a trail-pack draped over its rear behind the saddle. The man had a tiny, one-burner gas stove on the ground before him, upon which sat a small aluminum coffeepot, steam rising from the vent.

In the off light, the man's eyes looked like dark holes as they watched with apparent unconcern at their sudden appearance. Black hair spilled from beneath the ball cap the man wore, framing weathered features certainly Native American in origin. His dress was similar to their own; jeans and a dark flannel shirt; but he wore boots instead of running shoes, and a coat instead of a jacket.

"Hey there," the man called, and indicated the steaming pot. "Coffee?"

Max released an almost silent laugh, and started forward. "Hey, yourself. That pot don't look big enough for six."

"It's not," the man agreed. He turned and pointed to the hill behind him. "Good spring there. Water flows clear. Boil it, and it makes good coffee." He laughed. "Hell, I only have one extra cup, anyway."

Max reached behind himself, his back still hidden from the man, and a small backpack appeared there. Max turned slightly and patted it as he stopped in front of the camper. "We have our own cups."

"Then you're welcome to some hot water, anyway."

Max looked over his shoulder at Charlie and the others. "Come on. No use being shy now!"

Kippy gave Charlie a bit of a wide-eyed look; but then he grinned and took Charlie by the arm. "Yeah. No use being shy now!"

Charlie laughed silently as he let himself be led forward. What were they getting into now? Certainly, both man and horse had to have seen their rather sudden arrival!

"'Nuther log there," The man pointed out. "You look like strong young fellers. Drag it over and sit a bit."

Rick poked Charlie with a finger, and nodded at the log. "Come on, strong young feller."

Together, they hauled the log around so that it was opposite the one the man sat on. There was room on that first log for another, and Max sat down near their new friend. Charlie and the others took the opposite log, and then for a quiet moment after that, the old man watched them, and they watched the old man.

"Don't see too many spirit folks around here," the man finally said. He reached out to quickly touch the coffeepot with a fingertip where it sat on the burner, and just as quickly pulled it away again. "Water's ready. 'Nuff here for three cups. Who's first?"

Max reached up and pulled the pack around from his back and set it on the ground. "It's your water, so you definitely get the first cup. Right, fellas?"

Charlie joined in with the others in nodding in agreement. Max retrieved five coffee cups from the backpack and set them on the log beside him. "I have coffee, too. Instant, but what ain't, these days?"

The old man looked interested. "Sure. I'd love to try something different for once." A look of caution crossed his face then. "Regular, or decaf?"

Max appraised the man a mere second, then smiled. "It's the real deal."

The other nodded, and looked satisfied. "Good. At my age, I need the jolt to make it back to the house later."

Charlie flashed a grin at Kip over that. Nothing in the elf world was second-rate! The coffee would be the best they had ever tasted, Charlie was sure of that.

Max passed out the cups, and Charlie was delighted to see that each one was named. His was called Charlie-Cup in blue letters, while Kip's said Kippy-Kup in red. The other boy's cups were similarly christened.

Kip smiled at the elf as he took his in hand. "You think of everything!"

Max winked at him before turning back to Will. "Heavy or light?" he asked, extending a hand for the old man's cup.

"One spoonful will do. I want to ride home, not fly!"

They all laughed at that. Charlie decided he liked the old man. "I'm Charlie Boone. This is Kip, Rick, and Adrian, and that's Max sitting beside you."

For the first time, the old man smiled. "How do, gents? I'm Will Whitesaw."

"You live around here?" Kippy asked.

The man poured hot water into his cup, waited for Max to add a spoonful of coffee, before tossing his head back over his left shoulder. "Yakutat. Where everyone lives in these parts. Nothing else around."

"How's the surfing this time of the year?" Charlie asked, smiling.

"Cold." The old man eyed him then. "I hope that's not why you fellas are here. Little late in the season for that stuff."

Cups were passed around, and Max and Rick got the other two pours from the coffee pot, simply because they were closest. Charlie took the empty pot, followed the old man's instructions, found the little spring, and refilled it.

"All the comforts of home," he said, placing the pot back on the burner to heat.

"My people once lived off the land," Will explained, nodding. "That was in the before times, though. Nowadays, we order from Walmart, just like everyone else."

Kippy looked interested. "You're eskimo?"

The man winced. "Tlingit." Charlie barely heard the opening 't', the word sounding much more like Lingit.

Kippy immediately picked up on the slightly sour response. "I didn't mean to offend you."

"He doesn't know any better," Rick said then. But he dropped a hand on Kip's shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly.

Will smiled again. "No. I'm not offended. It's an old response, from my youth. And an unnecessary one, these days." He looked around at them then. "You're not from around here, I take it?"

"What gave us away?" Adrian asked, laughing.

Will pointed at their shoes. "No one with any sense would be wearing shoes like that out here, this time of the year. They're okay in town, but out here...we get a sudden snow, and you'd be in trouble."

The man reached out and touched the pot again, as steam was rising once more from the vent. "Almost there." He smiled at Max. "Really good coffee."

"Thanks." Max watched the man a moment, and then took a sip of his own coffee before going on. "You weren't surprised by our arrival?"

Will laughed. "Nah. Seen you spirit folks pop up like that before. You're the first ones I've seen that look like regular folks, though. That's why I said hello, you know?"

Kippy looked over at Charlie, the question plainly in his eyes. Rick and Adrian exchanged glances, but managed to keep their expressions fairly neutral.

Max's eyes flicked towards Charlie a moment, before the elf concentrated on his cup again. Your turn!

Charlie cleared his throat. "What did these others look like?"

Will considered that. "Oh...pretty much the same as all spirit folks I've ever seen."

Charlie could see that the oldster wasn't playing games with them, but...this was apparently not going to be easy. "I'm not sure what you mean."

Will frowned at that. "I would think you would know. But...tall - taller than all of you - and big, like wrestlers, or something. They all wear those blue suits, like coveralls, and...they got those thick beards. And big eyes, you know? Really big eyes."

"Big eyes?" Max repeated.

"Sure. Twice the size of our eyes. And just as black as can be."

Max and Charlie traded glances again. A creeping feeling was making its way up Charlie's spine. These visitors sounded non-human!

"You see these spirit people often?" Rick asked.

Will shrugged. "Four, maybe five times in the last month or so."

"Where?" Kippy asked. "Where do you see them?"

"Oh, right here in the woods." Will gave a little sigh. "I love these woods. Spend a lot of my time out here." He leaned forward to look at them. "First time it happened, I was scared. The old stories, you know? I was only a quarter-mile or so from this very spot, doin' much the same thing I'm doin' now. Resting Gawdáan, over there" -- he waved a hand at the horse - "and thinkin' about some lunch, when, poof, there they were!"

"They didn't see me." Will smiled. "I can be pretty invisible when I want to be."

Max smiled at that. "I didn't notice you right off, myself."

The old man laughed. "Got a little íxt in me. Shaman. From my mother's line. Makes me hard to notice."

Kippy rubbed at his ear, obviously thinking. "And they just appeared in front of you, like we did?"

"Exactly the same way. Even with that little popping sound. That's how I knew you were spirit folk."

Kippy narrowed his eyes, and Charlie knew exactly what his boyfriend was thinking: teleporters.

"What do they do when they come here?" Adrian asked.

Will held up his hands. "Nothing, that I could see. They pop up, seem to talk to each other for a minute, and then they're gone again."

"Four or five times?" Max asked.

Will smiled. "Well...five times. But that's just near me, where I seen 'em, myself. Made me wonder how often it happens when no one is around."

Max nodded. "Um...this may be important. Have you noticed any regularity to these appearances?"

The old man eyed them closely now. "Aren't they friends of yours?"

"I don't know." Max gave a little sigh. "Lots of people come and go around here, it seems." He leaned closer to the old man. "But it would be a good idea to know who is showing up here, wouldn't it?"

Will's smile returned. "I told you: they're spirit folk, just like you. What they look like don't matter." He waved a hand around at the forest. "This is a protected place, from way back. Not just anyone can get in here."

Charlie looked around at the misty forest, dark even in the noontime sun. "Protected? How?"

"Héiýwaa. A charm, placed by the Old Ones." Will frowned then. "It hurts the eyes. But it keeps this place safe." He reached out and touched the pot again, and nodded. "You fellers got your cups?"

Charlie, Kip, and Adrian filled their cups with steaming water, and Max gave them each a spoonful of coffee from his backpack container. There was sweetener and cream, too, if they wanted it. Max thought of everything!

Charlie took a cautious sip from his cup, and smiled. The coffee was superb! "Good."

Will nodded, taking another sip from his own cup. "Best I've had in a long while. What's the brand?"

"It's an import," Max said, with a hint of a smile. "I'm sorry, but I've forgotten the name."

"It's good."

Charlie was amazed at how the conversation was going. Max seemed more interested in the coffee than what might be going on here in the misty Alaskan woods! But...Max didn't do things without good reason. Charlie looked over at Kip, who simply raised his eyebrows a moment, but then took a sip of his coffee and turned back to Max.

"So," the elf began again. "This charm? Uh--"

"Héiýwaa," Will repeated, smiling.

"Yeah. It protects this place?"

The old man nodded. "Mostly. Keeps those who would spoil the place out, anyway." He looked around at the mist-filled forest and smiled. "We like it the way it is."

"Uh huh. And you said these Old Ones put this thing here?"

"Yep. The Aanñáawu. They wanted this place left alone. Works, too."

Max looked over at Charlie a moment, and Charlie was surprised to understand that Max was on totally new ground here. He felt a warmth at his chest then, and remembered Castor there, hung about his neck by a leather lanyard. Charlie raised a hand and absently laid it over the dragon emblem beneath his shirt. He sensed reassurance, and patience, and a boundless curiosity. Whatever was happening here, it was new to Castor, too.

Charlie leaned forward. "Where is this charm?"

Will closed his eyes a moment, and then turned and pointed off to his right. "Over there."

"You can sense it," Kip said then. He looked at Charlie. "I feel something now, too."

"So do I," Adrian agreed. "Like a very faint voice in the back of my head."

"That's it," Will agreed, sounding delighted. "You have íxt, too!"

Max looked off in the same direction, and nodded."Something there, alright."

Charlie and Rick frowned at each other, and both turned to look in the same direction as the others. Charlie closed his eyes, and concentrated.

"I hear it," Rick said then. "Like someone talking. But I can't understand what they're saying."

Charlie heard it too, then: a whisper, a hum, the sound of the wind chanting in the dead of night. There was a cadence to it, a regularity, that suggested a language of some sort - but he couldn't understand a single word of it. Or...almost. It was tantalizing in the way he could almost understand what was being said.

And now, he realized he had been hearing this very subtle voice all along, and that this was what had drawn him to land at this very spot!

"It's creepy," Kippy said softly. "Like ghosts talking in a haunted house."

"Not ghosts," Will corrected. "Spirits."

"Is there a difference?" Rick asked.

The old man looked surprised. "Of course. Ghosts were once men. Spirits...they can be anything."

"There's a frightening thought," Kippy said softly.

Will chuckled. "These have been good spirits, at least so far. They have protected this place since before my grandfather's grandfather's grandfather was born."

Max nodded. "And you say this charm thing is odd-looking?"

"It hurts to look at it," Will agreed. "So I can't really say what it looks like." He patted his belly suggestively. "I like to keep my lunch in place, you know?"

Charlie caught Max's eye. "Are we going?'

"I think we should, yeah."

Charlie let his gaze go back to Will. "Do you mind?"

"Nope. Not at all. Héiýwaa don't need no protectin'. 'Specially not from no spirit folks." He sighed, and smiled at Max. "Leave me another hit of that coffee, if you would, and I'll wait here for you folks."

Charlie refilled the pot from the spring, and brought it back to Will, who had already accepted another spoonful of coffee from Max, and seemed quite delighted about it. "Good stuff," the old man said again, watching the pot as it started to tick happily over the flames. "I'll wait right here."

Charlie and the others formed a group and moved off in the direction of the spirit voice.

"Something Will said doesn't make sense," Kippy offered, once they were away from the old man. "We already know that ghosts don't have to be human. The lower level is just bursting with alien ghosts."

"No way Will can know about that," Rick pointed out. "All he knows are ghosts of people. Those, and, um--"

"Spirit folks," Adrian supplied, nodding to himself. He smiled. "Like us."

"Teleporters," Kippy countered, looking around them. "And, by the sounds of it, not like us!"

"Something unusual, anyway," Rick agreed.

"That says something all by itself," Max said."These local folks have been here a long time." He looked over at Charlie. "A lot longer than the settlers that came later. These old cultures know a lot more about this part of the world than anyone else ever will."

Charlie frowned at that. He had already come to the conclusion that Native American societies had a much better handle on the American continents than the Europeans that had come much later. Every part of the Earth had stories to tell. What was commonplace on one continent might seem strange or even unbelievable on another. But the planet didn't care about what people thought. It had been here long before humans, and would be here still long after their demise. The secrets the Earth held were many and amazing.

And different, depending on where you were.

"You have any idea what this is we're going to look at?" Charlie asked.

Max shrugged. "No. It don't sound like anything I ever heard of before."

"You think it's safe?" Adrian asked then. "Should we be ready for trouble?'

The elf made a face at that. "I didn't get no sense from Will that it was something to be afraid of. Only that it was hard to look at. And something dangerous wouldn't last here as a secret for long in this day and age. It seems its purpose is just to sort of warn off people that might upset things here. Keep this place safe, you know? As it is, undeveloped, left alone."

"But why?" Charlie asked. "Wouldn't that suggest that there was a reason that...someone...wanted this place left as it is?"

Max grinned at him. "You always go for the main question, Charlie. Maybe we'll find out." He pointed ahead of them. "Slow down, fellas. I think we're getting close."

What had first sounded liked whispered voices in Charlie's head now sounded more like the hum of a small crowd. Yet the sounds, while hauntingly familiar, were still not something he could understand.

"If this object was designed to protect this place, shouldn't we be feeling a desire to leave?" he asked then.

Max laughed, and put a hand on Charlie's arm. "You plan to do anything nasty here? Cut the trees down, drill for oil?"

Charlie had to smile at that. "Not anytime soon."

"Right. I think the sort of thing we're feeling here knows what's in our minds." Max squeezed Charlie's arm, and and then pulled his hand away. "You know you were probably drawn to this place, right?"

"Yes. I've been thinking that for a while now. I could had settled anywhere with my second presence, but something drew me to this spot."

"Maybe not drew you here," Max mused. "But somehow made it seem more appealing to you."

"Charlie likes exotic things," Kippy kidded, bumping a shoulder against Charlie's as they walked. "Believe me, I know!"

Rick and Adrian laughed, and Max rolled his eyes.

"Calm down, Kip," the elf said. "Save that stuff for later."

Kippy smiled but didn't say anything, and Charlie shot his boyfriend a look that promised to explore the notion of what he liked in more detail later. Kippy absorbed that look, sighed, and looked content.

Max stopped then, raising a hand to halt the others. "We're close."

They all peered ahead of them. Here, the canopy of the forest had closed ranks even more tightly, and shadows stood among the trees like dark sentinels, edging out the noonday sun. Mists curled and creeped among the conifers with an eerie life that suggested something awaiting them ahead. There was a somber aspect to the view that Charlie had not been prepared for, and he closed his eyes, letting his inner senses range ahead while the indecipherable voices continued to speak inside his head.

The path before them was dark. But appearances could be deceiving.

His inner senses moved among the mists, returning to him what they found there. Charlie wasn't sure what he'd expected, but the feeling of serenity that seeped throughout his body wasn't it. The place ahead was not somber at all. It was at rest. There was a peace here, a sense of time stilled, of worries and concerns put away for the ages. Life thrived here, abounded, unfettered by decay. There would be - could be - no adverse change here, not ever, not until the sun died and the Earth was no more. Until then, across the eons, this place would be a place of peace.

Charlie felt a sense of age beyond understanding. What was here now had been here a very long time, and guarded that legacy well. The serenity was as the mist, curling about him, inviting him in.

Kippy sighed and leaned up against Charlie. "It's beautiful."

Charlie had to agree. Yet he was not about to give himself to the allure of this place without knowing more about it. "Seductive, too."

"But it means what it says," Max said, sounding surprised. "This place is guarded. Only those of peace may come here."

"Were here," Adrian reminded, giving his boyfriend a poke with his elbow. "I guess they're not too picky, after all."

Rick smiled at that. "We're the good guys, remember?"

Max closed his eyes and cocked his head to one side, as if listening to the ethereal voices. But his eyes opened again quickly, and he pointed ahead and slightly to their right hand. "That way. C'mon, fellas."

They moved ahead again, Max in the lead, the others following. The mists seemed to part ahead of them to allow them to come in. But there was no real feeling of welcome; just one of acceptance.

A soft light arose ahead of them, deep within the mist, and suddenly there were fireflies in the air around them. Or...they moved and they glowed at intervals like fireflies would, but Charlie could see now that these were not the welcome companions to the summer nights he knew. These sparks were not alive as he understood life. Yet their presence was comforting, quieting, and Charlie knew that they were simply a part of the peace that existed here in this place.

Max chuckled. "I love this planet, no matter what universe it exists in. There's always something delightful here, waiting to be discovered."

"Do you suppose this thing exists in the elf world. too?" Kippy asked. "On your Earth?"

"Could well be. I couldn't sense it here until we were close. And our world doesn't have nearly the population yours does. On our Earth, this part of the world is mostly uninhabited." Max smiled. "But you can bet I'll do some quiet lookin' around when I get back!"

"What will your people do if you have it there, too?" Adrian asked.

"Not a thing. Look it over, and leave it alone, just like it wants. But if it's there, we should know about it."

The inner voices seemed to have reached a peak volume now, but they were not disturbing in any way, not too loud, not irritating, not offensive. Charlie couldn't understand what was being said, but it was restful to hear the many voices, because the overall tone of the group conversation seemed calm and companionable, like old friends discussing pleasant memories over dinner. There was nothing threatening here, nothing that in any way jangled his nerves, nothing that he wanted to avoid or walk away from. It was simply peaceful, and it made him smile.

They moved forward again, towards the glow in the mist. The light ahead grew firmer, sharper, and the mist drew back as they approached, until Max held up a hand and stopped them.

Charlie frowned, trying to focus on what he was seeing now. It was like a whirlwind in which tiny gold and silver squares revolved at different speeds; both revolving within the whirlwind, and revolving about their own axes at the same time, each catching the light and reflecting it, winking at them randomly, almost teasingly. As each square winked in the light his eye tried to focus on it, only to be drawn to another as the first lost the light and it was picked up by many others, with none holding it for more than a brief part of a second. And as each tiny square flashed with light, there was a brief sense that it spoke with one of the myriad voices he was hearing inside his head. Here was the source of the conversations they had been hearing, so familiar, yet still unknown.

The flashes of light repeated endlessly, his eyes unable to focus on any given square for more than a moment before his gaze was lured elsewhere. Charlie blinked as he tried to keep up, but found a curious sense of motion happening now, almost as if his eyes were rolling in circles within their sockets. He began to feel like he was moving, himself, spinning in a circle as the world turned the other way around him. A queasy feeling arose in his stomach as his senses conflicted over the apparent motion, and in a few more seconds he did the only thing he could to to avoid getting sick: he closed his eyes, and turned away.

"That's terrible!" he heard Kippy say, near him. And then the other boy had taken Charlie's hand and was hanging onto it. Charlie opened his eyes, saw Kip also turned away from the light. But not just him; everyone had now turned their backs upon the lights.

"Let's go," Max said, sounding a little bit uncomfortable, himself. "Walk back a bit, and let the mist hide this thing again."

They did that, retracing their steps until they felt it was safe to turn and look back behind them. When they did, it was just to see the glow within the mist again, without form, without motion. The voices still spoke inside their heads, but they had faces no more.

"What happened?" Kip asked, breathlessly. "I felt like I was going to puke!"

Max took a deep breath, and then chuckled. "Our own fault, I think. This thing is tucked away in the mist for a reason. It's not meant to be looked at."

"But...what's it doing?" Adrian asked. "I could feel it doing...well, something. Something powerful."

Max nodded. "I think what it's doing is deflecting things."

Charlie considered that, and somehow felt that Max was right. "Everything that might interfere with the peace here?" He turned to Rick. "What did you sense?"

The other boy was silent a moment, before nodding. "Not just actions that might interfere with the peace here," he said. "Everything that might cause a harmful change. Thoughts, intentions, wishes, dreams, possibilities" -- he laughed -- "termites. Even bad weather is warned off. The rains here are probably gentle, and the snows not much more than a dusting. Just enough to please nature, without causing any harm."

Max nodded. "Will was right about this place being protected. It's protected from any change that would harm its peace. The peace we feel arises from a state of zero-conflict. Because this place was peaceful when this charm was set going, it can only remain that way, because anything that might interfere with that peace is redirected away."

"Is that possible?" Adrian asked. "It sounds like a big job!"

Max shrugged. "It's doing it."

"But why?" Charlie asked. "Why here?"

Max pursed his lips a moment, and then shrugged. "I don't know."

"What do we do now?" Kip asked.

The elf laughed. "I could use a sit and another cup of coffee after that experience. How about you fellas?"

They returned the way that had come, and found Will still sitting on the log, talking to his horse. He looked up as they arrived, and smiled at them. "Got some more water on, in case anyone is interested."

"Just what we were thinking!" Max said happily, shrugging off his backpack and setting it down by the log. He sat again, dug out everyone's cups, and passed them around. It took a refill of the pot, but soon everyone was happily sipping coffee.

"So, what did you fellers think?" Will asked, looking closely at them.

"Just like you said," Max responded. "It hurts to look at."

Will settled back and looked happy. "Glad it ain't just me. If you spirit folks get gassy looking at it, it means I'm okay."

Max nodded. "I have a couple of friends I'd like to send by to look at that charm. I promise you that all they'll do is look, and not harm a glittery hair on its little head. But they might like to talk to you, too."

Will frowned. "Spirit folks?"

"Yes. They're very nice ladies, and I promise you they won't take up too much of your time." Max grinned, and held up his cup. "I'll send along a pound of this coffee with them, for your trouble."

Will's face bloomed into a smile. "You sure know how to twist a feller's arm! It's a deal! When was you thinking of?"

Max shrugged. "How about tomorrow afternoon? They can meet you right here, if you like."

Will nodded. " Me'n Gawdáan will be here." He smiled at the horse before turning the smile on the boys. "Always thought spirit folks were nice people!"

"We try," Kippy said, but there was not one drop of acid in the remark.

Charlie laughed, and bumped his shoulder against his boyfriend's. Kip flashed him a smile and then went back to sipping from his cup.

They talked a while longer, until the already dark and misty forest seemed to be growing even darker still. Will finally sighed, and got to his feet. "Best afternoon I've had in a long time, gents. But I need to be headin' home 'fore dark."

Kippy stood, too. "Do you have far to go? We didn't mean to keep you so long!"

"Nope. 'Bout four miles. Gawdáan can do that in an hour, easy, in this terrain. Once we get out of the denser forest, it will be fine. Sunset ain't for about two hours yet."

The boys returned their cups to Max, who stowed them away in his pack and shrugged into it. Then he stuck out his hand. "It was a pleasure, Will."

"Oh, me, too. Not too many fellers can say they spent an afternoon with spirit folks!"

Handshakes were traded all around, and Will mounted Gawdáan and moved off with a last wave of his hand.

Kippy sighed. "I like him. We sure meet some nice people in our travels."

Charlie turned to Max. "So, what now?"

The elf shrugged. "I'll tell Maggie and Zefira about this place, and ask them to look it over, and talk to Will. I'll put this spot in the manual so they can find it, but I'm restrictin' access to science people, only. Don't want no curious and troublesome elves stoppin' by to gawk."

Kippy's eyebrows went up. "You have them?"

Max laughed. "I was thinkin' of Frit and Pip. You know how those two are!" Max looked in the direction Will had gone, and gave a little sigh. "I guess we can be getting back now."

"Wait a second," Charlie said, holding up a hand. "Is that it? We just go back to what we were doing, and leave this place to, um, Maggie and Zefira?"

"Well, son, we'll be too busy doing other things for a while. Maggie and Zefira can look over this Héiý...Heewa...this charm thing, while we're doing the investigation."

Rick and Adrian exchanged glances. "What investigation?" Adrian asked.

Max smiled. "You forget already? This charm thing is only part of this mystery."

Kippy clapped his hands together, looking delighted. "You mean we're going to look for the teleporters that have been coming here?"

"I mean exactly that." Max sighed, and his face took on a look of pure innocence. "That is, unless you fellas have more important stuff to do!"

Kippy sighed happily and turned his gaze on Charlie. "Do you want to teleport us back, or should I?"

Charlie gave a little nod of his head, and motioned for everyone to come closer. "I have to try a group teleport sometime. Gather round, guys."

Everyone placed a hand on Charlie, and he envisioned the bored room at their office back home. He searched for the right mental button, pressed it, waited for the moment of the teleport to become clear, and then let it loose.

There was a popping sound that seemed strangely subdued within the dark and misty forest, and then they were gone.