Magic

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

12/04/97:

"Mate." Fox said with a slight smile, moving one of his
chess pieces to the far side of the board. Naomi, who was
sitting on the far side of the board from him, looking over
the board, and scruntched her muzzle up as she thought.

"I know," she said with a slight smile and slowly started to
move the pieces on the board back into there starting
position. Fox smiled at her, leaning on the table, watching
her.

"Well," Rachel said beside me, "you have to admit, she is
cute."

I nodded, looking over the top of the railing from were we
both stood, half way up the left stair case. "Fox seems to
be a lot happier with her around." I replied, twisting my
tail behind myself slightly.

"How about you though? What do you think about her Oriana?"

I chewed my lip slightly, thinking it over. Below us Fox and
Naomi had started a playing there game again. "I think she's
smart..." I trailed off, not sure how to continue.

"And?" Rachel prompted.

I gave her no response.

She sighed lightly, "you're jealous of her." She wasn't
accusing me of, or even asking. She was stating it as a
fact.

It was also true. I didn't respond though, holding stock
still and watching the game being played below me.

She touched my arm. "She's taking Fox away from you, is that
what you think?"

"I don't think that... I don't even believe that. But I feel
that."

"Oriana, he is treating her as a daughter. Nothing more. She
is his child now, and he is going to make sure he does his
best to raise her right. She's isn't going to take your
place in his mind, or his heart."

I starred down at Fox, frowning. "He holds no place for me
in his heart."

Rachel sighed, we had been over this ground may times
before. "He may not love you, but he cares for you. He's
told me before that you are his closest friend."

"If that's all I can be..." I said, quoting a song from my
world.

From there the conversation stalled, neither one of us
really sure what to say to the other. Not that it was easy
for me to talk to her lately anyway. I was jealous of Rachel
as well, and had been sense I found and she and Fox were
having a 'tryst' as Fox described it. The funny part was, I
could do something about it. I knew Fox would be more then
willing to take me to bed... I still just... had problems
with having sex outside me species.

I've tried to get over it. Even once letting myself go into
heat around him, back on our vacation. He never noticed it
and I couldn't get past giving him subtle hints. Well, that
and turning the temperature in the room down low, hoping we
would get in bed with me to at least stay warm.

I loved him, I just wish that I knew what to DO what that
love.

Below us Fox's game with Naomi continued. From what I could
tell of the game he was losing. His first row of pieces
where almost gone. Only two of them left on the board
trapped half way accost. Most of the pieces that came in
pairs were no longer on the board either.

Naomi looked at the board as Fox made a move. Taking a piece
in her slightly chubby paw, she moved it accost the board.
Fox's piece vanishes from the board as she set her piece in
the new vacant square.

Fox looked down at the board, then at her. "Um... Newt,"
Newt was his nickname for her, "what happened to my bishop?"

That caused exactly what happened to register with me. "Yes,
where did it go?" I called down to the pair of them.

Smiling, she reached into her tail and pulled out the piece.
"Here," she said, setting it on the table.

Fox chuckled. "So I see. I don't suppose you care to tell me
how you did that without touching it?"

She looked puzzled for a few seconds. "I don't know... I
just did."

Looking up at me Fox shrugged.

I nodded back and went the rest of the way up the stairs and
into the kitchen. I made a quick call as was back at Rachel
side in under a minute. "Ken's on his way." I called down.

He nodded. "You both can come down here you know." He said,
making a move in the game.

Rachel started down the steps and I followed her. I wasn't
sure what to do, so I sat down on the couch. Rachel sat next
to Naomi, watching the game, and the child.

From what Fox had told me, the fact that she could use magic
wasn't to much of a surprise. Ken said that she positively
glowed with it from how many spells that had been set on
her. It would have been amazing if she didn't have some
magic to her after that.

She apparently was ten years old Fox originally though she
was seven, but had agreed that he had been wrong. Ken though
she wouldn't be able to use magic for a few more years. This
was proof that he was wrong and she would need immediate
training to control it.

The Book of Thryn is _very_ clear on what can happen when
someone to young tries to use magic with out any experience.
It can turn out much worse that most people would think.

The game continued at a quick speed, Fox eventually losing
every piece he had. Naomi was quite happy about finally
beating him, nearly bouncing off the walls.

She stayed that way though two more games, both times
trouncing Fox. At the same time making a few more pieces
vanish from the board and appear in different parts of the
room.

It was kind of a hide and seek game between her and Rachel.
When a piece would vanish from the board Rachel would go and
search it out. By the time she found it another piece had
popped away and she would go off searching again.

Ken arrived soon after that. "Sorry about the delay," he
said, frowning a bit, "I was a bit busy in the my lab."

Fox nodded, "I understand, it's not exactly an emergency."

The dragon looked puzzled. "What's going on then? Oriana
sounded a bit worried."

Both Fox and I started to say something, but Naomi answered
first by making one of the game pieces appear on end of
Ken's snout. He crossed his eyes to look at it, then
chuckled softly. "I think I see."

Walking over to him, Fox took the piece off his snout.
"She's getting better at aiming where they pop up at."

Ken nodded slightly. "Naomi," he said with a smile, "was
this hard to do?"

She beamed. "At first, but it's gotten easier."

Fox shrugged a bit. "I told you she was smart."

Ken nodded, "She's going to need to be taught how to control
it."

She looked at him from accost the room. "Taught?"

He smiled. "Well, so you can use it for more then play with
chess pieces."

Thinking about it for a few seconds, she smiled. "Okay!"

Fox chuckled a bit, patting Ken on the back. "Thanks, I
think."

With a have-smile, Ken said, "I always love to help you
Fox."

Somehow, something felt wrong about that statement.

-----

This story is (c) 1997 by Fox Cutter, hardcopy reprints
limited to one a person, all other rights reserved. This
story may not be distributed for a fee except by permission
of the author, and this copyright notice may not be removed.