I was sitting on the bank of a river watching the mist, when a football suddenly splashed into the water just in front of me. The spray got me, so it had clearly come from the river direction.

"Your ball's over here!" I yelled into the mist. No answer. So after a few moments I threw it back into the mist, as hard as I could.

I heard it hit the water with a splash, and then there was a much larger splash, followed by several more. A few seconds later the ball came sailing back. This time I caught it.

Studying it, it looked like it had been floating in the water a while, with a smear of algae on one side. I threw it back again. Again the splash of the ball and then other louder splashes. The ball came back again.

I kept this up for a while, but then my arm got tired, and I sat down.

Looking into the mist, I thought I saw something, but then nothing - just the curling wisps.

Then, right in front of me, a tall neck rose out of the river, a small head on top of it looked down at me, and then the neck bent down until the head was level with mine. It looked at the ball, then out to the river, and then at me. And did it again.

I shook my head. "Sorry, I'm tuckered out."

After a few moments the neck slid back into the water until just the head was showing, resting on the bank, staring at the ball.

I rolled it down the bank to it, and it headbutted it back to me. It was content to play like this for a while. Then I heard a fishing boat chugging downstream.

The creature grabbed the ball, and vanished underwater.

After a few minutes, I got up and walked back to the B&B we were staying at.

As I walked in, Charlie looked up from her book. "How was the River Ness?"

"Misty, and living up to its name."

Charlie raised an elegant eyebrow at me.

"I played fetch with the monster for a while. It has a soccer ball."

Charlie got up and sniffed me, then traced a couple of runes on my forehead.

"Huh."

"Told you."

She shook her head "Yes, you did my love. You did. But I was not going to rule out you having me on."

"Fair. How about we go into town for breakfast?"

"That sounds lovely."

#CharlieAndToby #SF #SFF #UrbanFantasy #Nessie #microfiction #tootfic #microfic #IAmWriting

Despite all the tourist literature, the original stories have the monster in the river, not the loch.

A travelling zoo and circus has arrived in town, and Charlie and I are having a look around.

Entry into the whole thing was pretty reasonable, but you can see where they really make their money - the snack vendors, the side show games, the usual carnival stuff. The zoo side of things is covered by the entry, as is the big top.

We are wandering around the zoo exhibits, when Charlie stops and frowns. Then she drags me back to the start "Toby," she hisses "take a closer look."

So we start over looking at the animals. It does not take me long to spot what is wrong. And the exhibits have noticed that we're noticed. This could get awkward.

One of the security guards comes over to us "Is there a problem?" she asks. Charlie looks her up and down, and whispers "We understand."

This does not reassure the guard, who reaches for Charlie, and then flinches, shaking her hand. My love has ways of making sure no-one ever touches her without permission. The guard, "Sal" according to her badge, looks at her hand, and then back at Charlie. "Shit. Ok, I gotta take you to the Boss."

Charlie smiles like there is nothing better she'd like to do (which is probably true) and we go to one of the smallest caravans in the convoy. Sal knocks, and says "Boss? I've got a couple of special visitors you need to see."

I can't hear the reply, but the door opens and Sal ushers us in. Inside is a very mundane office. A couple of laptops with extra screens, laser printer, and two people working at desks. One of them, a man in his fifties maybe, points to the chairs opposite him.

He barks out "OK, you've scared Sal. Who are ya? What ya want?"

Charlie takes the lead. "Nothing, I just noticed that all the enclosure locks are on the inside. I'm guessing those people get a cut of the entry ticket?"

"Ya know about them folk. Ya gunna cause trouble?"

I speak up "Nah, I work with a dryad, and we have a werewolf over for games every Thursday."

The boss looks at me "A dryad. That's a myth. They don't exist."

"This one does. Her mum made her."

His eyes widen, then narrow "Ya reckon she'd like ta travel?"

"No, sorry, you might say that she'd put down roots."

"Bugga. Well, had ta ask." He looks at Charlie "You a witch?" Charlie nods. "Right then," and he rummages in a draw pulling out a couple of wrist bands, "put these on."

"And what are they?" Charlie's voice is velvet over ice.

"Nothin like that. All area passes. Ya can even go backstage if ya like. Gotta stay friendly with the local authorities."

Charlie takes the bands, inspects them, and then hands one to me.

Her tone softens "Thank-you. We will return them when we leave."

"Hang onto 'em, we'll be back in a cupla years."

And with that we're shown out. Now we get to have the fun of a chat with the performers in the cages after closing. I guess it is a way of making money out of your talents. I wonder which one is Sal's partner.

#SF #SFF #UrbanFantasy #CharlieAndToby #microfiction #microfic #tootfic #IAmWriting

I'm sitting on the loungeroom floor, trying to work out the geometry of how my new office chair fits together. The instructions, such as they are, appear to be a sixth generation mimeograph of the original which was written in a combination of Finnish and Spanish. And that's the 'English' version. My Cantonese is not great, but that version makes even less sense. Whoever wrote the original, as far as I can tell, had no human language as their native tongue. Which, given who I have met through Charlie, is entirely possible.

The front door bangs open, and Charlie comes in, and flops onto the couch. After a moment, she sticks out her hand.

I get up, and get out a wine glass. She shakes her head. I get out a shot glass, and she shakes her head. So I get out a tumbler, and mix the the unholy terror she calls a drink.

A Santorini is two shots of sweet vermouth, a shot of Scotch, and a quarter shot (or in Charlie's case, a full shot) of Ouzo. All over ice, with a bit of orange zest.

She takes a generous sip of it, and sits back.

"It went badly then?" I ask gently.
"I should have asked what they were arguing about."
She's talking about the parents and aunt of our late night visitor - a kid called Gavin Jones, who apparently needs to be taught how to be a witch.
"Huh?" is my intelligent response.
"They were arguing about who should teach him. His mum is Korean, and his dad is from one of the local families. And I'm neither."
"So no student?"
"No, I'll cover the basics to get him grounded, but the serious stuff will be taken care of by both sides. I convinced them that that was the best option."
"Both sides?"
"Mum is getting an old scholar to come across from Seoul, and Dad is getting one of the local elders. I got them to agree to alternating lessons."
"How's Gavin with this?"
"Surprisingly OK. I did explain to him that there is no one true way, and what works, works. He's not so keen on two sets of extra homework."
"And for now?"
"I've given him a couple of basic exercises, and I'll go over there on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school for a few weeks to get him settled."
I frown "That all sounds pretty orderly. So why the drink?"
"That was the bit that I should have asked about. Their house is haunted. Aunt Margaret has been dead for about a hundred and ten years. And she has strong opinions."

#SF #SFF #microfic #tootfic #microfiction #IAmWriting #CharlieAndToby #UrbanFantasy

Charlie and I are cuddling on the couch, taking in an old Toho Kaiju movie.This is the third one in a row. I grew up on these, and Charlie has a soft spot for Mothra (who wouldn't?), so we're doing a Mothra Marathon. We've got some friends around - Candice, her daughter Anthea, and Anthea's girlfriend, Nicola. And let's be honest, we might as well have a couple of robots with us - we are riffing away like old pros.

It is nearly midnight, and the Twins are just starting their song to call Mothra, when there's a tapping at the door. Now I want you to understand that, while Charlie has many tomes of ancient lore, she is in no way weak, weary, nor do we have a bust of Pallas anywhere in the house. Just to be clear on this. But a raven calling would not be out of the question.

We do a quick rock-paper-scissors, which I lose, so I get up to answer the door. To my amazement, there is not a raven, but a boy. A young teenager. He looks well fed, there are no obvious injuries, and he seems anxious rather than scared.

"Hi?" I open.
"Um... Does, er, Charlie live here?" he asks.
"Yes, are you in some trouble?"
"Uh, no. It is just that, well, my aunty said that I needed someone to teach me, and that Charlie was the best person in town. She and my folks had a big fight about it. Oh, I'm Gavin. Gavin Jones."
"You'd better come in then. Charlie? Hit pause, please."

Gavin was clearly expecting someone else, because he looks around at everyone, and back at me.
"Nope, I'm Toby. Charlie is my wife," I point to her, "This is Gavin Jones. His aunty wants you to teach him."

Charlie looks at him, and I can tell that she's not just using her eyes. She blinks slowly, and lets out deep breath. "I see. I am Charlotte Hampstead. I think you had best just call me Ms Hampstead," Charlie says with her stern voice.

The kid is a bit startled by this, gulps, and shakily replies "Yes Ms Hampstead."
"Now, do your parents know you're here?"
"No Ms Hampstead. They had a fight with Aunty Margaret about me learning from you."
"Where do you live?"
"Just two streets over, number 12 on Short."
"Right then. You are going straight home before someone notices you're missing. Are your parents going to be home tomorrow?"
He's staring now. "Uh, yeah, I guess?"
"Right. I will call in around 2pm. I'll tell them your aunt sent me."
"Okay?" he says as a question, more than acknowledgement. Charlie looks at him. "I mean, yes, Ms Hampstead!" he corrects.

Charlie smiles, "Take care to go straight home, now. Toby will see you out."

I come back having seen the kid off. "So you're going to teach him?"
"I have to. He's like an over-full gas cylinder right now."
"And his folks?"
"I'll explain, in detail, what will happen if he's not taught. They'll agree. Now get back over here. I want to hear The Twins."
That's when Nicola asks "Do you have a working with children permit?"
Charlie swears.

#SF #SFF #microfic #tootfic #microfiction #CharlieAndToby #IAmWriting

It is that time of year again, and we are cooking up a storm. Between the folks at the office, and all the friends we've made through Charlie's work - not to mention her extended family - we would be beggared if we tried to buy everyone gifts.

So, instead, we do this. I take a week off, and we can, jam, bake, and all the rest. Of course it is not as simple as it might be for some people.

We have to account for obligate carnivores, photosynthesisers, and a dozen or more other weird and wonderful metabolisms. The silicavores are especially exciting to cook for!

Fortunately, Charlie, while not one of natures great cooks, is very, very good at preserving and transmutation spells. And, for the silicavores, we do enlist some outside help in the form of a medusa we know.

So we have jars, and cans, and baking trays everywhere this week. And there's a knock at the door.

I go over, check the peephole, and see that it isn't Xyllia this time (that's the medusa - I had a bit of an accident with her once). I open the door to a young lady. She's completely human. How do I know? I've met her before.

"Hi Nicola! What's up?"
"Hello ... um, I need a bit of help."
"What with?"
"What do I get Candice and her partner for Christmas?"

Candice is her girlfriend's, Anthea, mum. Her partner is a telepathic intelligent plant. Who is sort of Anthea's dadmumthing.

I think fast. "OK, Candice is easy - get her a bookshop voucher. She loves to read. As for her partner... Umm"

Fortunately for me Charlie's been listening in from the kitchen. "Just get it a bag of blood and bone. It'll appreciate it," she calls out.

Nicola looks doubtful.

"Hey, if Charlie says that's a good gift, it is a good gift. Although I suppose you could just go with a large dead animal of some kind. A bag of blood and bone is easier."

She still looks a little doubtful, but nods. "Ok, Toby," and she calls out "Thank-you Charlie."

Charlie calls back "No problem,oh, and you're both invited to the party on the 29th."

"I'll remind Anthea. Bye!"

Just another day in the lead up to Christmas for us.

#SF #SFF #Fantasy #microfic #tootfic #microfiction #CharlieAndToby #IAmWriting

It's 2pm on a Wednesday, and my front doorbell is ringing. I know Charlie isn't home, because she's got a job down South this week. There's a pooka that came in following a cargo ship, and is making a pest of itself because it can't find its usual food.

Anyway, I check the camera, and there's a harpy at the door. She does not look happy. I mean, it can be hard to tell with harpies - the shape of their faces makes them look permanently angry, but this one looks sad.

I toggle the mic. "Hi there. Toby here. I'm at work right now, and Charlie's down South. If you wait around the back..."

But she's gone.

I hope she comes back, she looked like she needs help.

I'm just settling down when there is a "thump" from outside my fifth-floor window. I look out, and there's the harpy. HR are going to love this.

I point to the left, sign out of my laptop, and head over to the balcony outside our level's lunch room.

The harpy is waiting for me, perched on one of the benches.

"Hi there, Perinod isn't it?"

"Yes, hello, Toby. I need your help."

"OK, what's the problem?"

"I need money."

This is not what I was expecting. "Money?" Most supernaturals don't need money - or can fake being human enough not to raise questions too much while holding down a job.

"Yes. I need," she consults the top of her foot, "two thousand three hundred and eighty dollars."

OK, something was really not right here. "What do you need it for?"

"I need it for Piper."

Piper is her partner. They are an EMT, so this is getting really strange. "Why does Piper need two and a half thousand dollars?"

"They don't need it. I need it for them." Perinod says, almost as if explaining to a small child.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"I need it to get to buy something for Piper."

"That is a very specific price."

"It is something very specific."

Now I am not the brightest bulb on the tree sometimes, but the light finally starts to dawn.

"You want to buy them a ring?"

"Yes. I've decided I'm done waiting. I'm going to propose to them."

"And for that you need a ring. Right."

At this point the door to the balcony opens and Mike, one of my team-mates comes out. "Toby, we have a situa - what?" He stares at the naked-breasted bird lady.

"I'll be in in a minute, Mike. Don't stare, it's rude." Mike's brain finally caught up with him and he turned around.

"Uh, OK. It is a Sev 2, and we kind of need you."

"OK. Perinod?"

"Toby."

"I think I can help you out. Can you come by the house at sunset, please?"

She hesitates, and looks over to where Mike is waiting "Very well. Sunset" and she leaps over the edge of the balcony.

I shake my head, and go in to see what is broken. And to figure out how a harpy can raise two and half grand. I mean I could give it to her, but that would not sit right with either of us. What can a harpy do for me that is worth that much?

#SF #SFF #CharlieAndToby #microfiction #microfic #tootfic #IAmWriting

I am not much of a hardware guy, but I can still drive a soldering iron and follow instructions.

So when Charlie asked me to make a keyboard, I said "OK". Especially when she explained what for.

So here I am. I've got a pretty generic keyboard kit that I'm hacking. I'm running cables from where the keys would be soldered in to a bunch of 50mm SPSTMA switches that I've punched into a sheet of stainless steel. The whole thing is going to be over a metre across. Once I've finished wiring it all up, I'll fit a arcade-style joystick at the right-hand end, and mount it all in an old 20mm shell ammo box I got from a surplus store.

A bit of silicone on the joystick knob and on the switch tops, and it'll be done.

Then we can drive up to the hills and deliver it, along with a 100 inch TV as a monitor. They've already got a PC and 5G set up.

Keep an eye out for DragonRose once she gets an account here, OK? She's a real deep thinker.

#SF #SFF #UrbanFantasy #CharlieAndToby #Microfiction #Tootfic #Microfic #IAmWriting #Dragon

So, it is October.

Charlie here, and I really, really, want to have a few words, so I'm hijacking Tobes' account again. (No, nothing's wrong with him this time, he's fine, I just can't be bothered creating an account of my own. Everybody knows Tobes, so it is just easier if I post this here.)

So, yeah. October. And yes, I'm a witch. So this should be my time of year, right? Wrong. Instead I get pounded with all sorts of rubbish. People thinking decorations are hauntings. Decorations that really are haunted. Idiots trying out some spell they got from a mail-order place in Minnesota, Reading, or, goddess help me, Bendigo. Other idiots thinking the kids that have watched too much American TV, and want to go trick-or-treating are actual ghouls, goblins, or whatever.

So, yeah. Fecking October. Now remember I'm also trying to get my real work done at the same time as all this garbage.

So please, please, PLEASE try to actually pay attention? And try to avoid doing anything stupid until November. Or, better still, leave the spells and summonings to the professionals? Please?

#SF #SFF #Microfiction #tootfic #UrbanFantasy #CharlieAndToby #microfic #IAmWriting

I'm sitting in the lunch room at work, enjoying some leftover curry from a couple of nights ago. I've got an ebook propped up in front of me, and I'm just getting into it when I see something that surprises me.

I see Anthea coming into the lunchroom - this is odd, because she always has lunch outside. She comes right over to where I'm sitting. She's got some sort of shake - probably something her mum designed for her.

Now Anthea is in her mid twenties, but right now she looks like a deeply depressed fourteen year-old. All she was missing was the white makeup and black eyeliner.

I look at her. She looks back.

"I hope this isn't about last week" I open with. That was really embarrassing - I'd had to trim a flower spike from her so that she'd be able to wake up (it's a long story), but she'd neglected to warn me that she'd be naked.

"It kind of is?" Her reply turns into a question halfway through.
"I am really sorry, I - "
"Not, not about that - that's fine. No, after you left."
"Nicola didn't take it well?" Nicola is her roommate, and didn't know about Anthea's unusual parentage.
"Um... kind of? Or not? Or..." the stuttering petered out.
"Does she want to move out?"
"No, no she doesn't."
"Does she want you to move out?"
"I don't think so?"

This is painful. Charlie normally handles this sort of stuff, but I guess I'll have to do the best I can.

"Anthea, has Nicola done something without asking?"
"No! Nothing like that! No, she's just being ... argh!"
"Alright, different question. Are you sweet on her?"
I get a blank look back. "Am I what?"
"Sweet on her." The blank look slowly morphs. Charlie had warned me that she might not have even realised herself.
"I'm in love with Nicola?" she eventually says, like she's trying out some new flavour. She sits there for a couple of minutes, looking through me, not at me. Eventually she gives out a small "Oh."

"Now, what is the problem you're having with her?"
"Uh ... oh... um..."
"Maybe you should tell her. If she's not interested, you can get it all over with. And if she is ... well, you get to see how it goes."
"Was it like that for you and Charlie?"
"No, but we were a bit different. But we did become friends first. So you've got that at least."
"How did you know?"
"I didn't, Charlie did. She did warn me that even you might not have known."
"That I was sweet on my roommate?"
"No, that you're gay. "
"I - " she paused and thought for a moment or two "I guess I am." Then she looked alarmed "Mum! How am I -"
"Don't worry about that."
"Don't worry? But - "
"She'll be pleased to have won the bet."
"The bet?"
"The one she and Charlie have. That you'd come out to one of us first."

She starts to look annoyed, and then an evil grin surfaces. "But I didn't. You outed me to me first. So neither of them win!"
She gets up and walks out looking a lot happier.

I am not finishing my book today.

#SF #SFF #Microfiction #tootfic #UrbanFantasy #CharlieAndToby #microfic #IAmWriting