Someone Is Stealing Christmas Wishes, Charlie Boone! - 5. Chapter 5

"I only give them enough to be a treat," Mrs. Zumbold explained, after they had moved to the back porch of the house. It was a screened porch, but it had a fireplace in the back wall of the house, and the warmth it offered them as they sat before it was welcome. "Wild animals have their own methods of obtaining food. It's not good for them to come to rely on humans for their meals."

"I was amazed at how calm they were," Kippy said. "They...they just seemed so unafraid, so content to be around us."

"They have never had anything to fear here. There have been town conservationists since the founding days. I am just the latest one to hold the position." Mrs. Zumbold smiled. "Animals learn just like people do. If you threaten them, they learn to fear you. If you treat them with kindness and understanding, they respond to that, too."

"I thought wild animals were just wary of us by nature," Rick said.

Mrs. Zumbold chuckled. "If you catch them when they're young, they never develop that fear. It's something they learn from their parents, and from experience."

"And the ones that visit you?" Kip asked.

"Most I have known since they were young. Their parents, when they were young, too. Many generations, for some of these animals."

"The squirrels impressed me," Charlie said, remembering his brief time with Pixel and Hex. "I had the sense that they were smarter than I'd ever given them credit for."

"They're rodents," Mrs. Zumbold reminded. "And rats are among the most intelligent and adaptable of that family. But squirrels are no slouches, either."

Kippy turned to stare at Charlie. "Are you back to the squirrels again?"

Charlie mulled that over before answering. "I don't know. I had ruled them out, but now I am not so certain." He smiled. "Didn't you suspect something like this, the night our room was visited? You had Rick shine a light up in the trees."

"I was thinking more like monkeys than squirrels!" Kippy replied, grinning.

"We don't have monkeys here," Mrs. Zumbold said, laughing. "Thankfully! What a handful they would be!"

"They were too small to be monkeys," Charlie said. "But not too small to be squirrels."

"But they didn't look like squirrels," Rick reminded.

"No, they didn't."

Kippy frowned at that, and eyed their host. "Could any of these animals be smarter than we think? And, could any be skwish-users, and we wouldn't know about it?"

Mrs. Zumbold looked surprised by the notion, but didn't automatically dismiss it. "You must have a reason for asking."

Kippy smiled his best smile. "We'd rather not say just now. We're theorizing about some things, is all."

Kiley and Kiri nodded, and Mrs. Zumbold smiled at that. "Young people amaze me, with the things they consider."

"Is it possible?" Kiley repeated.

The older woman nodded her head. "It is a documented fact, and proven by many of you here, that humans, when in constant contact with elves, tend to develop their latent skwish abilities."

Horace chuckled at that. "I would say."

Mrs. Zumbold's eyes twinkled merrily. "Yes. Skwish is a bit of a brain expander, to oversimplify the notion. Twombly has been here over 200 years. That's many generations of the animals that share this forest with us, and those around the town have been in especially close contact with us. I would not find the notion outlandish to learn that some of these animals might have developed more intelligence than their more distant cousins." Mrs. Zumbold held up a hand then. "But skwish usage requires a native ability to be developed, and I have not seen that in animals. So, while I simply cannot say with any sort of authority that it is not possible, I must stress most emphatically that there has never been any indication whatsoever that this has happened before."

"What if it were a kind of skwish that we normally couldn't sense?" Kiri asked. "Some animals may have a latent talent that we simply never recognized, because the skwish they could use is invisible to us."

Mrs. Zumbold smiled. "Then how would we know at all, if we could not sense it?"

"But we did sense it," Adrian reminded carefully.

Kiri nodded. "After the fact. After your visitors were in the room. They almost assuredly used some talent while they were there that brought that skwish into the open. But normally, without its use, it is quite invisible to us, I would say."

"It wasn't like anything I've ever felt before," Kippy said. "And I didn't sense it now, with the animals that were just here."

"I didn't, either." Adrian admitted.

Mrs. Zumbold looked back and forth between them as they spoke, her eyes widening with each exchange. "It sounds to me as if this is more than a speculation."

Kiri laid a hand on the woman's arm. "Trust me, Mrs. Zumbold. If and when we come to a concrete conclusion about this, everyone will be told."

The woman sat back in her seat and smiled. "I can be patient. But this sounds fascinating to me."

"We don't know anything yet," Charlie stressed. "We've been doing a lot of supposing, and I don't want that to take the place of fact."

"I understand perfectly, and wouldn't have it any other way." Mrs. Zumbold nodded, and turned to look out into the woods. "Now that we have discussed this, it would not surprise me at all to learn that the town's neighbors are more developed than we ever expected. I find the animals that come to see me daily quite polite, now that I think of it. Quite civilized, even. I've simply been thinking them used to me. But it's been so long since I have interacted with animals away from Twombly, I may no longer be a good judge of what is truly wild in nature."

Uncle Bob nodded at that. "I have to say, your animal friends here are head and shoulders in manners above some of the critters over my way. I have never seen this sort of self-possession in wildlife before now."

"Oh, dear." Mrs. Zumbold frowned at that. "I really do need to get out more."

That brought smiles all around, and Kiri patted the woman's arm. "None of us have ever been very far from town."

Charlie winced at that. "It's probably a good thing, honey. The human world has a lot of pitfalls in it."

Kiley and Kiri both laughed. "We know that!"

Mrs. Zumbold sighed then, and smiled at Uncle Bob. "Not to change the subject...and I was raised to be a polite person, and not be nosy...but I simply must ask you about that beautiful winged fellow on your shoulder."

Browbeat perked up immediately at that. "She said I was beautiful!"

"You are, sweetheart," Kip said, reaching over to rub the flyer's back.

Zelladora Zumbold looked astonished. "A person! Certainly, not born of this world!"

"I'm from out yonder," Browbeat said happily. "I hitched a ride with these guys. I decided to expand my horizons, and see the universe!"

This time, it was Mrs. Zumbold who looked enchanted. "Oh, my! I have never met an otherworldly intelligence before. This is something for my journal, certainly!"

"You're pretty nice, yourself!" Browbeat returned, tittering happily.

They talked a while longer, but Browbeat now held Mrs. Zumbold's attention. That was okay with Charlie, because he was still mulling over his meeting with the animals a short time ago, and found himself agreeing with Bob Traver's assessment of them. They had seemed uniquely self-possessed, not at all how he would expect wild animals -- or even domesticated ones -- to act. And while Mrs. Zumbold said her animal friends were still wild, Charlie had seen some examples of wildlife that had become used to humans, and other than that bit of tameness, they had all still acted just like animals. He just couldn't get over how these particular animals had watched their group, almost as if studying them.

Especially the squirrels. And, now that he had seen those little ones again bounding away towards the forest, he was certain they had moved like the visitors to their room at the lodge. The only puzzler was, those intruders had not looked like any kind of living thing that Charlie had ever seen before!

How could that little contradiction be fitted into what they knew?

Some form of unusual skwish was used in their room. What for? To open their suitcases? And, what had the intruders hoped to find in their suitcases, anyway?

Kippy gave him a small nudge with his elbow. "I can hear the wheels turning."

Charlie nodded. "I thinking Bob has been right to point us at the animals here. There is something unusual about them." Charlie gave a little shake to his head. "I can't get the squirrels out of my mind. They move like the visitors to our room did."

"But those two didn't look like anything I've ever seen before."

Charlie had a sudden thought, and blinked at it. It seemed so obvious! "They used some form of skwish in our room, which we sensed later. I was was wondering if they had used it to open our suitcases." He turned to his boyfriend. "Now I'm thinking maybe they were using this skwish to hide their true forms. What do you think?"

Kippy's eyes widened. "That's pretty advanced stuff, Charlie. I was thinking that if the squirrels were using skwish, it was more like them using it to make acorns fall out of the trees."

"The acorns are already down, Kip."

His boyfriend sighed. "I didn't mean that literally. I just mean...making a skwish cloak is more than just basic stuff."

"If the blue aura around the town is an indicator of how long the animals here may have had skwish, they would be fairly well along by now, I would think. Beyond just learning basics, you know?"

"Can I get in on this conversation?" Rick asked then, leaning closer. "I mean, I can't help hearing you."

"Have you something to add?" Charlie asked, smiling.

"Well, I wasn't looking for anything specific when we were with the animals back there." He frowned. "I didn't have any real reason to, you know? But listening to you guys now, I realize I did notice something, after all."

Kippy sighed. "The suspense is killing me."

Rick smiled. "When you meet an elf, or a human with skwish, have you ever felt that little...well, it's like an energy bounce, a little zing, as you sense them close by?"

Kippy looked at Charlie a moment, and then back to Rick. "I feel that all the time. I sense their skwish."

"And they sense yours," Rick said, nodding. "It's actually a layered impression, composed of several different forms of energy recognition, which we feel overall as the other person's energy aura. We recognize it as skwish, because the other person uses the same skwish we do."

Kippy shook his head. "I didn't feel that from those animals."

"I know." Rick frowned. "I didn't sense them as skwish users, either. But I realize now that I did sense something, and just didn't recognize it for what it was."

Charlie saw where this was heading. "You didn't sense the skwish part, but maybe some other part of that overall energy aura?"

Rick grinned. "It's always easy explaining things to you, Charlie. Yes. I realize now that I sensed a part of what I sense around Max, or one of us, or any other skwish user that uses our kind of skwish. What I did not sense with these animals was the actual skwish component. But I think now that the rest of it was there."

Charlie scratched at his jaw while he considered that. "I remember the odd feeling we got from Mildred Tull, because her skwish was a different form than we had ever sensed before."

Rick nodded. "Itch. But it was close enough to what we knew for us to recognize it."

"And you're suggesting that these animals may use skwish after all, just a form we don't recognize at all?"

"But Adrian and I sensed it in our room," Kip reminded.

Rick nodded patiently. "When it's used, it leaves something behind we can sense. Like if you're walking in the woods, and you come to a campsite with a fire circle and no one is there, but you can still smell a trace of smoke in the air from the ashes, so you know someone had a fire going there recently."

Charlie was about to answer when he noticed the silence around them. Mrs. Zumbold and the others had stopped speaking. He looked over at them, and saw them watching, and smiled. "Sorry. We didn't mean to derail your conversation."

"It sounds like yours is more interesting, anyway," their host said, nodding. "I do believe you're onto something of importance here."

Charlie frowned. "It's all speculation, still. We don't want our ideas to get out just yet."

"And I will not tell a soul, I promise." Mrs. Zumbold offered a small sigh. "I hope you will let us know when your inquiry reaches a conclusion, however."

Charlie smiled at her. "You have my promise."

The older woman looked a little wistful. "I may never view my animal friends the same, it seems."

Kippy pouted at that briefly, but forced it into a smile. "They're still your friends. And they will still matter to you."

"I know that. But I may have to learn to treat them more like people -- think of them as people -- if what you're investigating proves to be true."

Kiley and Kiri both smiled at that. "You already treat them like people," Kiri offered, with a giggle. "Like best friends!"

"They're here every day," Kiley added. "I don't think it's just the food, either."

Mrs. Zumbold smiled at that. "I hope so. I guess we'll see."

"Sounds like it's time to do some more snooping around, or something," Browbeat said, looking excited.

Charlie considered that, and smiled. "I think the or something part may be right, anyway."

Horace smiled at that. "I sense a plan."

Amy laughed. "So do I."

Kippy sighed, and leaned up against Charlie. "Pow wow?"

Charlie laughed. "Yep. Pow wow."

 

* * * * * * *

 

"Something I noticed coming back here," Uncle Bob said, as they sat in the restaurant of the lodge waiting for their lunch to arrive. "If you go out that window in your room upstairs, Charlie, and go straight through the woods out back, you arrive at those cabins belonging to Norma Dinkins."

Charlie nodded, but then frowned at the man, sensing more. "We did determine that already. Was there something else?"

Bob Travers smiled. "Yes. Your visitors didn't go straight back away from the lodge. At least, not initially. I looked at where they went under the trees, relative to your room. Your visitors angled off to the left first, before entering the woods."

Rick's eyes widened. "Are you saying they intended to head left all along, and just went for the forest when they realized Charlie and Kip were after them?"

The magician shrugged. "I don't know their motives. But I do understand a little about motion, and follow through. When you're performing illusion, you have to be careful not to inadvertently draw attention to the things you're doing you want to stay unseen, by allowing something else you do to point at them. So motion and direction are important. Visualizing where a motion was intended to go, even if it was changed later, has given up the secrets of more than one lax illusionist."

Kippy smiled. "And that applies to this...how?"

Browbeat, parked on the table beside Rick's uncle, tittered merrily. "Tell them what they've won, Bob!"

The man smiled, and patted the flyer's back briefly before continuing. "If we suppose they intended to go left, and then simply headed for the closest woods once they knew they were being pursued, then we can then look at possible destinations had they continued in their original direction, which I did." He nodded. "Had they continued running to the left and gone into the woods in that direction, they would have eventually arrived in Zelladora Zumbold's backyard."

"Through several yards in between," Browbeat added then, his wings moving restlessly. "I noticed that, too!"

"But it's the direction that's important," Bob concluded. "Our visitors upstairs fled in a direction that would take them that way. And since Pixel and Hex visit Mrs. Zumbold, it stands to reason they live over that way."

Kippy made a satisfied sound. "And it was those two squirrels that Charlie has a feeling about, too."

Charlie looked surprised. "I do?"

"Well, certainly you do. It was Pixel and Hex that got you really thinking. And you said that they seemed to be studying us. You, in particular."

Charlie frowned at that, but then had to nod. "You're right. Something about those two impressed me."

"All the animals at Mrs. Zumbold's seemed unnaturally self-possessed," Adrian said. "But maybe they all are not able to use skwish."

Rick sighed. "Unfortunately, with them all bunched together like that, I couldn't tell if what I sensed was from all of them, or just a few of them."

"Or, just two of them," Horace pointed out.

Amy smiled at him. "You seem focused on the squirrels now, too."

The ghost hunter nodded. "Whatever visited our rooms were climbers. They almost certainly scaled the logs of the outer wall of the lodge, not that hard a feat for a species like a squirrel. Deer couldn't do it. Rabbits couldn't do it. I doubt even a raccoon could have managed that climb. But for squirrels, it would have been easy."

"They moved like squirrels running as they fled across the snow," Charlie agreed. "Some inner sense tells me we have the right suspects pinpointed."

Browbeat fluttered his wings restlessly. "If we only knew what made them come to our rooms in the first place. That would help a lot."

"We've been to this town a bunch of times," Adrian reminded. "No phantoms ever looked in our suitcases before."

"And if these squirrels have been as aware and as magical for as long as we now suspect, they would have had a look at us before, if they had a reason to do it," Rick finished.

"We're missing something important," Uncle Bob decided. "If we drew the attention of these critters this time, it's because we either did something to draw their attention, or --"

"Or, what?" Kip asked, after a moment of silence.

Uncle Bob shrugged. "Or, they know why we are here, to investigate the loss of wishes, and they are the responsible party."

"Trying to see what we know, you mean?" Charlie asked. But he immediately shook his head. "They wouldn't learn anything by looking in our suitcases. And they risked exposure by coming inside."

"Then they were searching for something in particular," Browbeat insisted. "Which means it would have to be something they sensed from afar."

"You mean something skwish-related?" Adrian asked. "We didn't bring anything like that with us." He turned then to look at Kippy. "You didn't bring your statue of Nicholaas and Kierka, did you?"

"Not this time," Kip replied. "It's too easy to contact Nicholaas at the house now."

Uncle Bob suddenly snapped his fingers, and smiled at Charlie. "Castor?"

Charlie automatically placed a hand over the dragon medallion beneath his shirt, and felt a brief, warm glow in response. "I--"

And then he remembered. Just after they had arrived in their room, he been thinking about Will Whitesaw and Rip Shannon, how he wanted to remember to contact them before Christmas. Castor had awakened then, and shown him vivid pictures of the Alaskan forest they had loved so much. For a brief instant, the room had been full of the skwish entity's presence, filling every corner, every space.

And perhaps, beyond?

And in the brief instant he had been in communion with Castor, he had reminded himself of why they were in Twombly, to search for the cause of the missing wishes. Could that thought stream have possibly leaked out, somehow? You just never knew what might happen with skwish in an unguarded moment. The stuff was too powerful to use carelessly.

He told the others about the moment with Castor, and thinking about why they were there.

Rick frowned at that. "It's not like a radio broadcast, Charlie. It shouldn't have gone any farther than you and Castor."

"I know. But were dealing with unfamiliar skwish here, as well as unfamiliar users. Is it possible that they somehow, um, overheard that bit of thought?"

Rick spread his hands. "I can't rule it out. But...I'd be more willing to believe that our new friends sensed Castor's power, or something in what he showed you, and came to investigate."

Charlie stared at the other boy. Could that have been what the visitors were looking for? The source of a powerful skwish presence?

"They may have gotten a good feel for where it originated," Adrian supposed. "But our rooms are lumped together here in the lodge. Their sense of Castor's location.may not have been fine enough to differentiate between rooms."

"So, they searched them all," Charlie finished the thought.

Adrian nodded.

Browbeat tittered softly. "Boy, you guys sure can write a good tale!"

Charlie grinned at that. "It is speculation. But I do think we're staying as close to the facts as we know them."

The flyer issued a sigh. "There's a way to find out. Go find the squirrels and ask them."

Rick laughed at that, and struck a pose, pointing upwards. "Hey, you in the tree!" he called in a warbly, high-pitched voice "Yes, you, with the nut in your hands! Are you really just a bushy-tailed critter, or are you a magical intelligence in disguise? No, no, take your time!"

Charlie laughed along with the others.

"It does sound a little out there," Kip admitted. "But not more than some of the other things we've happened upon in our travels."

"It's Twombly," Horace reminded, smiling. "Need we really say more?'

Kiley and Kiri both laughed. "That's our home you're talking about!" Kiley said, grinning.

"It's a magical place," Kippy said quietly. "Wonderful things can happen here. You can't deny it."

"We don't," Kiri answered, just as quietly. "That's why we asked for your help."

"We're still new with magic," Kiley explained.

"A lot of it really is still magic to us!" Kiri finished.

Amy faced the two elves and held up a hand. "Can I ask you two another question?"

"Yes!" both elves responded together.

Amy smiled, but then nodded. "At Mrs. Zumbold's house I saw deer, and squirrels, and rabbits, and raccoons. And just birds galore." She leaned closer. "I didn't see any animals I would term as predators, though."

Rick squinted at that. "Hey, that's right!" He frowned then. "I'm sure I saw a fox in the woods while we were walking back from Mrs. Dinkin's cabins."

"I saw that, too," Charlie agreed.

Kiley nodded. "Some foxes do seem to get close to town, but they must have very gentle natures. We don't allow the larger animals that are dangerous to come within two miles of the town. There's an exclusion zone. No wolves, coyotes, lynx, bobcats, or bears. I think there are a few other species on that list, too, like weasels. I'd have to look."

Charlie felt surprise at that. "The predators can't come within two miles of the town?"

"Not normally," Kiri answered. "Though some very gentle examples do seem to get near sometimes. The skwish involved targets predatory instincts." She frowned. "Hunters."

"What happens to them?" Kippy asked.

"Nothing." Kiley sighed happily. "It's a very gentle skwish. When these animals get to the exclusion zone, they just turn around and go back the way they came."

"Except for very gentle examples, sometimes," Kiri amended. "But they seem not to cause trouble, anyway."

Amy released a satisfied breath. "And how long has this exclusion zone been around?"

Kiley shrugged. "Since the town was built."

"So, for two centuries?"

"That's about right."

Amy turned to Charlie. "For two hundred years, the animals that are allowed near Twombly have had a very safe place to be." Her eyebrows went up in surprise. "Why are their numbers not greater? You'd think they'd overwhelm the town, especially the rabbits and the deer."

"Oh, that's taken care of, too," Kiri said. "That's one of Mrs. Zumbold's jobs, actually. She makes sure that their numbers don't get out of hand."

"How?" Kip demanded.

"We don't know," the two elves said together. They smiled at each other, and then Kiley turned to Kip. "We don't have that talent. Mrs. Zumbold does, which is why she's the town conservationist."

"How come we didn't know this before?" Adrian asked.

"I guess it just never came up," Kiri said gravely. "It would be irresponsible of us to shield all those animals from their natural predators, and then not guide their numbers. The forest's natural cycle is one of predator and prey. To disrupt that without taking precautions would be wrong."

"We just didn't want dangerous animals near the town," Kiley added. "There's kids about!"

Charlie squeezed his eyes shut, and rubbed at his forehead. For two hundred years, some species of native wildlife around the town had been shielded from their natural predators, and their numbers guided carefully. Those animals had thrived, and in an environment where skwish was everywhere. Even with the limited magics the elves of Twombly had had before the portal back to their world was reopened, skwish had simply overrun the town and its surroundings.

And the animals that lived there.

It now seemed possible that the elves, themselves, may have created the very problem they were here to investigate!

Charlie opened his eyes, and found everyone looking at him. "For two hundred years, those animals within two miles of the town have lived full lives, without danger. Lives where they were immersed in skwish. Lives where they participated in your lives, your ideas, your thoughts, through the town conservationist. How many generations of them that might be, I don't know. A lot, though. Apparently, enough for some changes to take place."

"You think they've become smart?" Browbeat asked, in a voice so full of wonder that it made Charlie smile.

He nodded. "There are different levels of smart. Many animal species are already brighter than we give them credit for. I doubt very much that any of the critters around Twombly have mastered particle physics as yet, but I do now believe that their level of awareness has been raised over time to a level that the animals outside the exclusion zone do not share. And that at least some of these species may have become users of skwish in their own right."

"Skwish squirrels!" Browbeat said in delight. "Betcha can't say that real fast ten times!"

Charlie laughed along with the others. "I won't try." He sighed then. "Okay, we have a premise now, and the next step would seem to be to prove it one way or the other."

"And just how do we do that?" Rick asked, crossing his arms and smiling.

Kippy grinned happily. "Wait for it!"

Charlie smiled. "I guess we have to invite our new friends to come back for another visit."

Browbeat tittered happily. "You guys are so much fun!"

 

* * * * * * *

 

Their group exited the front of the lodge quite happily and noisily, causing several passersby to smile and wish them a happy holiday. The group, bundled up in coats and scarves and hats to the point they were almost unrecognizable, laughed and waved and called to each other and others, and headed off down the street. They were correct in number, if not exactly in composition.

"I hope I look like Charlie from a distance," Mayor Snorkum whispered into his wife's ear. "His coat is a little big for me."

Cawra Snorkum laughed. "I have on my boots with the tallest heels, and Kippy is still several inches taller than me! I hope it won't be noticed!"

The two elves laughed, and continued off down the street with the others.

Back in their room, Charlie and Kip made themselves comfortable in the closet, sitting on the built-in cedar chest that held several more clean blankets and a quilt. The door was cracked open, and Charlie could see the window through the gap.

"There are the obvious jokes about being in the closet, which I won't attempt," Kip said, snuggling up against Charlie. "I just hope I have Robin's skwish procedure right."

"He did say you were pretty good at it when he taught it to you," Charlie reminded, sighing. "Stop worrying. That skwish will either mask our presence here, or it won't."

"I guess we're ready then," Kip returned. "Time for Castor to come out to play?"

They had briefed the skwish entity on what they hoped to do to the best of their ability. Castor had become awfully good at determining what they were trying to tell him, and Charlie felt that that he could be counted on to do his part. Once again, Charlie thought of their visit to Alaska, and allowed Castor to sweep them up in a vision of that forested place, one that filled the entire room, and, hopefully, regions beyond!

Kippy sighed. "It's so beautiful there, and in such a mysterious way, too. I love the mists that curl among the trees."

"It was a nice place to visit," Charlie agreed. "But I like our own woods to live in."

"Oh, so do I. I love our house. I hope Lugh is remembering to turn the lights on each evening."

Charlie chuckled at the very idea that the ancient Celtic spirit would forget anything. "I'm sure everything is fine."

"How long do you think we should let Castor do his thing?"

Charlie considered the question. "It wasn't very long last time. Less than a minute." He touched the medallion through his shirt. "That's probably enough for now."

The vision of the Alaskan wilderness faded, and Charlie felt the warmth at his chest subside. "Now, we wait and see what happens."

Their friends were supposed to go out and be visible, walking around town in the correct numbers to allay any watcher's fears that someone had remained in their rooms. It was really a basic ploy, almost too simple an idea to expect anyone to fall for it. Anyone human, that was. Charlie had to think that squirrels, no matter how intelligent, had scarcely been able to read the number of mystery novels that he had!

The closet was dark, but that only made it easier to see the room and the window through the slightly cracked door. If their visitors were to return, it would have to be in the same fashion that they had done before. The window was still the best way to enter the room.

But ten minutes passed, and then a half-hour, and Charlie was starting to feel a little stiff, just sitting there in the dark.

Kippy gave a little sigh. "You just never realize how hard it is to sit still and do nothing, until you have to do it!"

More time passed. Charlie checked his watch, and saw they were coming up on an hour now. It seemed that their little trick was not going to work.

Kippy gave a little hiss then. "I think I saw something at the window!"

Charlie quickly leaned over so he could also see through the crack, but the window just looked to be full of darkness.

But then that darkness moved!

He heard the faintest of scratching sounds, and one side of the window opened inward about an inch. Nothing happened then for a full minute as they watched...and then Charlie saw another small movement, and the bedside lamp turned off with an audible click! It took a moment for their eyes to adjust, but then Charlie found he could see through the window even better now that it was back-lit by the soft glow from Christmas lights outside. He could just make out two dark blobs, perhaps perched on the tiny sill beyond the window glass.

Again, nothing happened for another full minute. And then the one side of the window opened inward, and there was a rustling sound as two dark, amorphous shapes entered the room and dropped to the floor.

Charlie squeezed Kip's arm, and felt his boyfriend nod. Two things happened then, almost as one: the window closed with a soft bang, and the overhead light came on, both responding to Kip's movement magic.

For a second, two small, dark shapes were visible on the floor, halfway to the bed. They looked like nothing that Charlie had ever seen before, like black clouds of whirling smoke. But even as they watched, both turned and launched themselves towards the window. The side Kip had closed tried to open again, and Kippy grunted in surprise as he pushed it closed just ahead of the two fleeing shapes. They beat momentarily against the glass, obviously not as strong as Kip was on the movement magic, and then flung themselves to the floor again and raced beneath the bed.

It happened so quickly that Charlie was left with his mouth hanging open. Their visitors had lightning reflexes!

"Better make sure they can't open the door to the hallway, either," he whispered to his boyfriend.

"I'm on it," Kip assured.

Charlie nodded, and slowly pushed open the closet door and stepped out. He heard more of the rustling sounds, and then the edge of the comforter covering the bed, down by the floor, briefly fluttered and was still again.

Charlie took a breath, and slowly walked over to the little loveseat across from the bed, and sat down in it. He waved to Kip then, and his boyfriend joined him. They sat there in silence a moment, watching the bed, and then Charlie smiled. "It's okay. We know you're there. We just want to talk with you."

They heard more rustling sounds then, and the door to the hallway snapped open a couple of inches and then closed immediately. Kippy grinned at that. "Strong little boogers! But not strong enough."

"We don't intend to trap you," Charlie said calmly. "Come, talk to us, and then you may leave."

The edge of the comforter lifted, and Charlie could just see the dark shapes beneath as they seemed to look out at him.

He licked his lips, and smiled. "Is it Pixel and Hex? We love to have visitors."

The edge of the comforter lifted a bit more at his words. Charlie could clearly see the dark shapes underneath, still utterly absent of recognizable form.

"There's no reason to hide. You should know by now that we're friends." Charlie laughed. "I gave you guys some goodies at Mrs. Zumbold's house, remember?"

"That's a pretty good cloak you guys have," Kippy said then, sounding as if he truly admired the accomplishment. "It took us a while to figure out who was behind it."

Slowly, the two amorphous shapes emerged from beneath the bed, and crossed to the halfway point between them. The dark forms seemed to swirl faster a moment, and then suddenly dispersed.

Leaving two squirrels crouched there, one with a black tail and a spot of black on his head, and the other with a red tail and a streak of red down his back.

Pixel and Hex.

"You sneaked," a tiny voice said then, seeming to come from Pixel. "Not feel you here!"

"Tricked us!" said another tiny voice, this one clearly from Hex.

Kippy sighed happily. "Oh, brother! Have they got the lock on cute, or what?"

Charlie grinned at that. He had hardly expected the animals to be able to speak!

"I feel like Doctor Doolittle," he said softly, before leaning forward to smile at their guests. "We had to do that to bring you back here. We felt it was time to talk."

"Talk now," Pixel pointed out. "What say?"

Charlie reached into his shirt and pulled forth the dragon medallion. "You're seeking this." He nudged Castor in his thoughts, and the skwish entity emitted a burst of warmth, and the room briefly filled with his presence.

The two squirrels swayed back and forth in amazement, and immediately moved closer, their eyes intent on the medallion.

"What is?" Hex asked.

"This is Castor. He is an...an immaterial being, part of the same energy that you and we use for magic."

"Magic?" Hex asked.

"What magic?" Pixel added.

Kippy waved a hand at the window, which promptly opened and closed a again. He did the same with the door. And then he dispersed the magic Robin had taught him that concealed their presence in the room. "Magic," he explained then.

The two squirrels looked at each other.

"Ah," Pixel said.

"Ah," Hex repeated. "Magic not alive. Castor...alive?"

Charlie nodded. 'Yes. He is a being like you or us, but formed from the power we use to perform magic, you and we both. This power flows from something called the allmagic, which is all around us."

"Not alive," Hex decided.

Charlie frowned at that. "Well, we don't know that for certain. But even if it's alive, it is not aware, like you and we are."

"It doesn't know," Kip elaborated.

Charlie was watching the squirrels as the conversation progressed, and while their mouths seemed to move as they spoke, it was clear to Charlie that they were not actually vocalizing. He glanced at Kip. "They don't actually speak English. I'd have been surprised if they were able to do that. They don't possess the physical equipment we do for language."

Kippy leaned closer to the squirrels.. "How do you speak to us?"

The two squirrels exchanged looks, and a gentle, pulsing sound issued from both of them. Laughter!

"Magic," Pixel explained then. "Speak, speak. Hear, hear."

Kippy looked enchanted. "You're marvelous at it!"

Both squirrels seemed to relax some at that. "New," Hex explained. "New speak."

Kippy straightened. "Do you mind if we call the others back? They'll want to meet you."

The two visitors sat up at that, and leaned their heads together, and Charlie heard very faint sounds, though nothing he could understand. At the same time, the two squirrel's tails bobbed up and down, and waved in a synchronous fashion that made him smile.

"Who come?" Pixel finally asked.

Charlie nodded. "The same people you met at Mrs. Zumbold's house, when she was offering you treats."

Hex peered at Charlie. "Treats?"

"Food," Kippy explained. "Goodies."

The squirrels looked at each other, and again came the cheerful little sound of laughter. Kippy sighed happily, and Charlie just could not resist smiling. He sensed a certain roguish quality to the two squirrels, but that was something he had always felt about squirrels. The ones that lived in the trees back home were opportunists, always ready to take advantage of a handful of almonds or unshelled peanuts tossed out in the yard, something the guys had done more than a few times since relocating Lugh to the woods of upstate New York. Charlie had always viewed it as being neighborly, and had always smiled at the seeming joy the bushy-tailed visitors received from just a handful of nuts.

He leaned closer to the two. "Do all squirrels have magic?"

Hex's tail bobbed a few times. "Not all. Only around this place." The squirrel spread both front legs wide, his small hands raised in an encompassing gesture Charlie took to mean not just the lodge, but the entire town.

"Just around Twombly?"

Pixel eyed him. "Twombly?"

"Yes," Kip supplied. "The town. The place where our kind dwell here."

"Twombly," Hex repeated, looking at Pixel.

"Twombly," Pixel mimicked, looking at Hex. Both squirrels laughed at that, and Charlie had to grin at the notion that the town's name even sounded interesting to squirrel ears.

Pixel looked up at him, and waved his small hands. "Only around Twombly."

"The exclusion zone," Kippy said softly. "We were right."

Charlie nodded, and smiled at the two squirrels. "We'd like to call the others back. Them, and two more."

The squirrels sat up straighter at that. "Who two?" Pixel asked.

"It will be Mayor Snorkum and his wife," Charlie explained. "The leader of Twombly."

Pixel and Hex stared at each other. "Leader," Hex repeated.

"Leader," Pixel returned.

Both squirrel's tails bobbed up and down. "Yes," Pixel said.

"Yes," Hex agreed.

Charlie nodded at Kip, who pulled his cell from his pocket and called Rick's number.

"Hi, Kip. Everything okay?"

"Yes. You guys can come back now. Bring the mayor and his wife." Kippy grinned. "Have we got a surprise for them!"