–Anyone else worried about that idea?– Wes asked. –Once they know we can use magic, there's no taking that knowledge away from them.–
–Well, I'm sure I can at least get into their minds and mess with their perceptions if necessary.– Charlie replied.
–Guess you might as well then.– Hannah said, her voice full of trepidation.
–Yeah, hopefully it won't bite us in the ass.– Amelia added.
As the men with the rifles started motioning for Charlie and her friends to start walking towards the gate that they'd run over from, Charlie looked at the one who'd hit her in the stomach and spoke to him with her magic.
–So, what is this place anyway?– she asked casually, as if she wasn't supposed to be 'under arrest' or something.
"Stop talking, you cut-eared," the man snapped.
–If you look at me you can see I'm not talking.– Charlie replied, suddenly wondering as she said that with her magic if she was going to get the butt of the rifle in her stomach again. Briefly she wondered why she didn't think of these things before it was too late to do anything about it.
The man looked at her smiling face and glared at her. "Whatever you were planning to do here failed, so you can just keep quiet," he told her harshly.
–Ouch. What'd we do to make you so angry?– Charlie asked, trying to sound hurt and not confused. She could tell that there was something going on that she wasn't quite sure about.
The man's eyes widened in surprise. "H-how did you do that? Are you a ventriloquist?" he gasped, his expression turning into one mixed with anger, rage, confusion, and uncertainty.
–Magic.– Charlie answered. –Though, my friends and I were wondering if there was any of you who could use magic to talk like this. It would make it easier if my friend Ralph and I weren't the only ones who could translate for everyone.–
The man closed his eyes for a moment before swinging his rifle at Charlie's stomach, though not as hard as the first time he'd done that. Charlie couldn't be sure if it was his mixed emotions that played across his face or if it was something else, but she was glad that it didn't hurt as much. Mostly it felt like a slap with it, but she was able to shrug it off.
The man didn't say anything else to her after that and didn't respond to anything Charlie said to him with her magic. So, she merely sighed and stopped trying. After all, if she wasn't going to be able to have him respond at all, she might as well just let it go and wait patiently.
It was possible that what she'd said would sprout later on, but she couldn't be sure about that part. What she could be sure of was that any more effort on her part at the moment wasn't going to make a difference for them right now. Though, she couldn't say why, but she felt like whatever happened on this world would be good for them. Somehow.
_
Beth sighed as she was put in a small room with a table, three chairs, and walls that were bare brick. She sat in the chair on the side where there was only one. They took her traveling backpack and puppy away from her, but she didn't resist. She was sure she'd see her again when things got resolved. One way or another.
She was confident that she was going to be interrogated in here and couldn't help but wonder what it was going to be like. She'd seen plenty of these on TV and wondered what it'd be like. Especially since there was probably going to be a language barrier unless they brought in someone who could use magic to talk with her.
She'd started humming to herself a few different songs while she waited and was on the fifth refrain of 'My Little Red Wagon' when the door opened to the room and two women walked in. One looked like she was wearing some kind of robes while the other seemed to be wearing a kind of uniform. Both had blond hair and dark green eyes.
Before either spoke, Beth assumed that the one in a uniform was essentially a cop while she had no idea what the other could be. Unless she was going with the stereotypical 'wizard' look or something.
They said something to Beth and she merely looked at them. She had no idea what they were saying and so couldn't say whether or not she should do as Charlie suggested about using her magic to talk.
However, after a while, she had no idea how long, she was starting to get bored of this. So, she decided to give into Charlie's suggestion. At the very least, it would likely help keep her from dying of boredom.
–If you can use magic to talk to me like this, then we can have a conversation or whatever you want to do here.– she said, not caring if her boredom was coming across in her tone. –I mean, right now you're wasting both of our time.–
The women looked startled, but merely started talking more. Beth wanted to try again, but had a feeling it would be as useless as her first attempt.
So, she merely started singing to herself. Merely starting the verse over that she had been on, not that the verses were any different as they went on.
"Oh you can't ride in my red wagon, the front seat's broken and the axle's draggin' – Oh you can't ride in my red wagon, maybe tomorrow but. Not. To. Day! – Second verse, same as the first, only a little bit louder and a little bit worse!"
She started singing it over again, but with a little more volume. The women certainly didn't know how to react, though one the third verse, Beth started to move herself from side to side, as if she was dancing a little in her chair while signing.
While she hadn't expected their reactions to be so bewildered, she found she was having more fun than she' d expected when these events on this world first started.
Though, as she tossed her hair when she started the fourth verse, that seemed to get the attention of the women in front of her. As they stood up and walked around the table to her, Beth couldn't help but feel a little uncertain about this, making her trail off with her singing. Not only had their posture towards her changed, but the weren't trying to talk to her anymore. She had a sinking feeling in her stomach and wasn't sure what to expect.
So, when the woman in the uniform pushed Beth's hair away from her ear, she was completely confused. Not only did she have no idea what this was about, but she couldn't help but wonder what is it about her ears that they find so fascinating? She hadn't done anything special with them. Aside from getting them pierced, at least.
Yet, they seemed fascinated by her ears. She even felt one of them lightly touching her earlobe. Beth couldn't help but giggle as it tickled. Then when they pulled away, she couldn't help but notice the hostility in their gazes was gone. Almost like her ears meant something that Beth was clueless on.
Meanwhile, she was still bored, so she picked up where she left off. The women then looked at Beth like they'd forgotten she could still make noise. Then the one in the uniform nodded to the other woman who then left.
The woman in the uniform merely watched Beth. Yet, as Beth continued to get louder, she began covering her ears, and by the time the woman in the robe returned, holding something Beth couldn't quite see through her hand, she was pretty much yelling the song.
"Please stop," the woman in the robe said calmly.
Beth had no problem stopping. If they could understand each other, she had not reason to continue the song. "Sure," she replied. "I was just getting bored, that's all. Though, how can you suddenly understand me now?"
The woman nodded like she understood, though she blatantly ignored Beth's question. "Where did you learn that song?" the woman asked, conversationally.
Beth shrugged. "Maybe camp, maybe at school, I can't really remember," she answered. "I was rather young at the time."
"Okay," the woman continued her questioning. "What can you tell us about your ears? How did they get like that?"
"How does anyone get anything on their body?" Beth asked, partially rhetorical, wondering what the object in the woman's hand was. She suspected it was how she was able to understand Beth and have Beth understand her. "Genetics."
"What is 'genetics?'" the woman asked. "To you, I mean."
Beth shook her head while she chuckled.
"I'm sorry, but is something funny?" the woman asked, in a tone Beth often heard from teachers to indicate their displeasure.
"Sorry," Beth said in a 'not sorry' tone. "It's just in my world, I say 'genetics' and it's just understood what I'm referring to."
"And what is that?"
Beth sighed. This was starting to get more tedious than when they couldn't understand her. "Genetics is the cellular building blueprints that make up anyone's body. I inherited some from my mom and some from my dad. That's what gives me my eye color, hair color, what determines my biological gender, and all that fun stuff," Beth answered, as if she was answering a question in class.
When Beth finished her answer, the woman sighed as if Beth was wasting her time. "That doesn't tell us how you got your ears like that," Beth was informed. "What spell did you use? Was it a potion? Or maybe an enchantment?"
Beth merely sighed. "Like I was saying, my ears are part of my genetic make up. I was born with them like that," Beth answered.
"So, you're telling us that you didn't do anything to shorten your ears or anything?" the woman asked, looking like she was starting to lose her patience.
Beth nodded. "Exactly," she said, then paused. "Uh, what do you mean 'shorten?' Do you mean like some of the hardcore body modification stuff?"
The women looked at each other, almost like they thought they might be getting somewhere with their questions.
"What can you tell us about this 'hardcore body modification stuff' you mentioned?" the woman asked.
Is this what actual interrogations are like? Beth wondered as she resisted the urge to pull on her hair, if not pull it out. "Only what I've heard about it," Beth said. "I mean, what I first heard was of some people getting, uh, I think elf ears, but then there's some who go so far it's like they might want to audition for a freak show or something. I can't say for myself. I've only heard about this from others in my school who've heard about it from cousins and other friends."
"So, you haven't done any of that yourself?" the woman asked.
"No, the farthest I've ever thought of going was with piercing my ears," Beth answered, starting to get annoyed.
"Alright then," the woman said, 'let's move on. What were you doing by the new library?"
"We just came out there. We had no idea there was a library there. Charlie even showed the woman we encountered there the gate we went through by putting her hand through it. I think that was when she started screaming her head off," Beth answered, wondering what was so important about the library that they had so much security on it. "Was it like a royal library or something?"
The woman didn't seem inclined to answer Beth's question and Beth wished she had Charlie's ability to peek inside the woman's mind so she could get an answer to that. The woman merely whispered something to the woman in the uniform and didn't say anything else as the uniformed woman left.
"What's your name?" Beth asked, suddenly realizing they hadn't introduced themselves. She would at least like to stop referring to them than just what they were wearing. As that was the only real major difference she could see between the two.
"What would you want with our names?" the woman asked Beth.
"I don't know, maybe so I can say who I'm talking to?" Beth asked, a little exasperated with the response she just got.
"Why not start with your name then?"
Beth nodded. That was reasonable. "I'm Beth Howard. I'm fifteen and my sign is Scorpio."
"What do you mean 'sign?'" the woman asked, as if that might give her the answer she was looking for.
Beth merely rolled her eyes. "It's just my zodiac sign. Nothing that big."
"How did you get your sign?"
Beth couldn't help but laugh. "I'm guessing that you don't have astrology on this world, huh?" Beth asked, but didn't wait for an answer, because she doubted she'd get a straight answer. "My zodiac sign is dependent on when I was born. In my case, I was born on October twenty-ninth, which makes me a Scorpio."
"You seem rather focused on things revolving around when you were born. What is this about?"
Beth groaned as she rolled her eyes. "What is this? Am I suddenly in therapy now? I thought you were going to interrogate me not psycho-analyze me."
"What's 'therapy?'" the woman asked.
Beth merely groaned, resisting the urge face palm herself. She wasn't going to answer their questions if they were going to treat it like a treatment session. Fortunately, she didn't have to see how long the other woman would wait before moving on from her last question.
The woman in the uniform was holding Beth's puppy. She smiled at the puppy and leaned down as the woman set the puppy on the ground.
"Where did you get this dog?" the woman in the robe asked as Beth's puppy ran over to her where Beth could pick her up.
"I got her from Zepha," Beth answered as she settled the puppy in her lap.
"Where did you meet this 'Zepha' at?"
"We met her on her own world. Before that we'd never seen anything with four eyes like this on anything larger than an insect," Beth answered, petting the dog, who seemed content with this.
"Where is this 'world' that you met this 'Zepha' on?"
"Well, if you travel through the gate that my friends and I used to get here, then there'll be another gate nearby and that's the one you'd need to go through to get to her world," Beth answered.
She would have thought that would have been enough five minutes ago. However, with how the questions had been progressing, she was starting to doubt that she was going to get anywhere with playing by their rules.
The woman in the robe nodded. "So, have you been to that world much?"
Beth shook her head, deciding to give them one last chance before she started restructuring her responses. "No, that was the first time we went there. She freaked out when she first saw us, because to her people, humans were evil, but in my culture, demons were seen as evil so-"
"Humans? Demons?" the woman snapped, interrupting Beth. "How much of our time do you plan on wasting?"
Beth stared at the woman in surprise. She wasn't sure what made her so testy, but Beth was just done with it. "Well, if you'd stop wasting my time, then I guess I could stop wasting yours, Sidney."
"Who's 'Sidney?'" the woman demanded as she started to glare at Beth.
"Well, you haven't given me your name, so since you seem so interested in psycho-analyzing me, I thought I'd call you by the name of what I've heard called the 'father of modern psychotherapy' or something, Sigmund Freud," Beth answered before taking a deep breath. "But that's a guy's name, so I went with the closest name I could think of. So, you're Sidney."
The two women started whispering to each other again. Rather than waiting for them, Beth merely looked at the hellhound on her lap.
"Think that might be a good name for you?" Beth asked as if she was talking to a baby for a moment. "No? Yeah, we can come up with something better."
"So, let's talk more about the dog. What kind is he?" the woman asked, snapping Beth's attention back to her.
"Zepha said she's a hellhound," Beth replied, adding emphasis on 'she.'
"Okay, what can you tell me about them? Before you met Zepha on her, uh, world, I mean. Like you, we've never seen an animal with four eyes before now," the woman said.
"Well, Zepha told me that they're incredibly friendly and loyal, but will attack if they sense hostile intent towards them or those they're loyal to. If they do, they can also start to breathe fire," Beth replied, trying to recall the quick 'taking care of a hellhound' explanation Zepha had given her before they left. She had a feeling she was forgetting something, but couldn't remember what it was.
"So, if this gate does exist, could you show it to us?" the woman asked, her expression getting rather smug. Which also made Beth really want to slap it off, but with a glance at the woman in the uniform, she held back. She had a feeling things would go downhill for her really fast if she did something like that.
"Sure, I can show you," Beth agreed, wishing she had some way to 'thank' her for the 'respect' she'd given Beth.