Lucky Rabbit

Pierce spun the shiny top his father had sent him for his sixth birthday. It was fun, and of course he’d sent Father a thank-you letter, but he wished Father had been able to come in person. Mother had explained that his father had a lot of responsibilities, and that he was taking care of Pierce and everyone else, but even now that the war was over, Pierce barely ever saw him.

The top wobbled and began to tilt. It would fall soon, and Pierce found that he just didn’t care enough to catch it. He sighed, starting to stand, then jerked back as a pale hand with red nails plucked the top from the ground. He stared up, mouth agape. A strange woman stood in the middle of their private garden, where no one should have been able to enter. Nox didn’t allow anyone onto the grounds without Father’s permission.

Her hair was as black as Pierce’s, which was rare in the new West Altheric, and trailed down over her too-white skin, which almost seemed to glow faintly, even in the fading sunlight. There was a lot of that skin visible, too, because the woman didn’t have any clothes on, and Pierce was just getting old enough to realize that that was very, very strange, and probably meant that he should go tell someone that she was here. But he just couldn’t tear his eyes from her. There was something familiar about her, even though he was certain he’d never seen her before. She reminded him of… His fingers crept into the pocket of his short pants, curling around the object hidden there, and the woman’s lips curved up in a smile.

“What do you have?” she asked, but he was certain she already knew.

Slowly, hand trembling, he withdrew the rock from his pocket. He should hide it. He should run. He definitely shouldn’t talk to a strange naked woman who was in a place that should have been safe. But she didn’t try to take the stone, just looked at it, her dark eyes glittering oddly, as if light went into them, but not all of it came back out.

“It’s pretty,” she said, and held out his top. For a moment, he thought she wanted to trade, and he nearly offered her the stone out of nothing more than the respect for adults that his parents had drilled into him. He couldn’t do it, though. His fingers stayed closed around the stone, gripping it so hard that it hurt his hand.

She tilted her head, as if his reaction had confused her, then crouched and pressed the plunger down on the top, setting it to spinning on the smooth, flat section of dirt he’d cleared for it. “I… I just wanted to meet you,” she said, watching the top, her arms resting across the tops of her knees. She looked younger now, not that much older than he was, and was she wearing a thin, white dress? He couldn’t tell if that was fabric, or just her skin.

“My name is Pierce,” he told her, though he thought she already knew. She nodded anyway, but didn’t give her own name, which wasn’t very polite, but he hurried to fill the silence, somehow compelled to explain.

“I’m not supposed to have the stone, but it is pretty, isn’t it?” He didn’t wait for confirmation. She’d already said it was. She understood. “Father just leaves it in its box. But it doesn’t… it doesn’t like that. So sometimes I take it out. Just for a little while. I’ll put it back before supper.”

Mother checked on it every night. She had since Pierce first took the stone, before he realized it wasn’t just another ‘Look but Don’t Touch’ expensive thing, and people actually cared if it went missing. Mother had hidden it after that, but it was always in the house somewhere, and Pierce always found it.

“No,” the girl – why had he thought she was an adult? – said softly. “It doesn’t like that.” The top slowed and fell, and Pierce shoved the stone back in his pocket so he could pick it up. When he looked up again, she was gone, not even footprints remaining in the dust.

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