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"Sure, you can come. Just get ready quick." I was in a bit of a rush, having just come from work.

"But..." Aresh was a bit flustered. "Don't you go see your family at new year?"

"Well, the main thing is to be with people you know. Do you know anyone else around here?"

She accepted that with reservations, and we set out along the shortcut. I hadn't done this in the dark before, so I wanted to get through the woods before the sun got too low.

It wasn't long before the track yielded to forest. It was easily passable, but there was no road. With the canopy, it was already dark.

Aresh was getting nervous. "Are you sure of the way?"

"Yes. I've done this many times. When Renna and I were engaged, I came this way to see her. Does remind me: how are you with the nature spirits? Angered them at all?"

"Not that I know of."

"Good. They get antsy sometimes. If it weren't for them, there definitely would be a road through here."

"I... see." Aresh sounded even more nervous, so I assured her, "They know me personally, and you're with me."

"I see." Aresh repeated, less anxious.

We came to the halfway point and I sat down on the smooth rock to read Renna's reminder of the route.

"I thought you knew the route."

"The first half, yes. This is where we met. The second half is simple, she said."

Aresh looked around. We were on a tiny island dividing a rapid hill-stream. It was a bit of a clearing, wide enough that the rocks were still warm from sun-heating all day, though the sky was darkening to night. I started my light, and Aresh began preparing to do the same.

"It's beautiful."

"Okay, there's going to be a bit of a tricky part ahead. Her instructions involve shifting to snake form to get through a hedge. I remember her alluding to another way that she found once when she was carrying too much to fit through or throw over. We'll have to find that ourselves."

"Great. You didn't think to check before inviting me?"

"Forgot. Sorry. Let's go."

We continued on along the now unfamiliar route, but Renna's directions were clear, and after a few minutes we came to the hedge. It really was a hedge, clearly planted to keep people and animals out, but it was also untended. A tree had fallen onto it, and we were able to walk along it to cross.

As we shone our lights around the inside - and it was inside, as we could see another hedge only fifty paces off - we found it to be an overgrown decorative garden, with dry fountains and brick paths and toppled benches.

"Well, let's look for a way across the other side."

Aresh grabbed my arm. "This is creepy."

"Yes, it is. No denying it. So let's find the way out of here as soon as possible." We set out to the right, around the hillside.

A crack of a whip sounded out, and we doused the lights. "What was that?", I asked, as Aresh said, "Let's go back."

But her tune changed when she heard the shout: "That'll teach you, ya lazybones! Hya!" And another whip crack.

We dashed in the directon of the sound as one. We almost passed the source when we heard a woman's voice coming from a small building we had not seen in the dark. "Not funny, Prot! Cut it out!"

Her tone was not particularly threatened, so we skidded to a stop, unsure of what to do. Our uncertainty was aggravated as she continued, "You got the attention of the couple crossing the garden, and now they're right outside. Great work!"

Shrugging, I called out, "Sorry. Going now.", but Aresh took my hand to stop me and asked, "How to get out?"

"How, indeed?" We jumped at the deep voice behind us, and as we turned to look, some garden lights came up and we saw a whip-bearing bare-chested human in a spiky mask. It was so contrived to be scary as to be ridiculous. "You know the way out. You came in that way."

I asked, "Can we leave by the other way? We're trying to make it to the new year celebration in Clearwater."

He ignored my question, and approached Aresh. "What have we here? Hmm. You dress like a man, but you're a dog, and a woman to boot."

"At the moment, I am a man. And being a dog is normal these days; it's being human that's unusual."

He sniggered. "Ezi, come out and look at them. See what you make of it. I've never seen a prettier knot in my life. Ezi, they don't care."

Ezi came out. She was a palomino horse, at something like 1:20 or less anthropomorph, and she was wearing a green dress and a poorly fitting tiara.

"I hate this millennium." she said. "I told you degeneracy would strike. We have a married man leading a virtuous... lass, if not maid, astray, along with himself, under the cover of her not being female at the moment, and she's going willingly, drawn by his humanity."

"Umm, that's not what's going on at all. I'm faithful to my wife."

"By pure action, so far, sure; but don't deny your speculations."

"Of course. Everyone thinks about other people at least a little bit."

"Ah, but you're cultivating it..."

"Thanks for pointing that out. I'll stop, then."

Prot laughed coarsely. "What a riot. 'I'll stop.' How cute."

Aresh, irritated, cut in. "So, may we leave?"

Prot laughed harder. "Sure, any time. Just leave the way you came."

"Is there a way around?"

"Of course. It's about a day's walk. It'd be less for Ezi, these days - ha!"

Ezi sniffled. "I'm almost tempted not return, just sleep through next eight century turnovers and be surprised at the end, this is so intolerable."

I finally asked, "You aren't used to your form? You were born more than a hundred years ago?"

Ezi nodded. "We've been sleeping for a century at a time, waiting for the road to Periten to reopen, and keeping track of the changing wishes."

"Umm, wow."

"And you're human. How is that fair?"

"We-ell, I'm a naga." I demonstrated mixed form and shifted back.

"Oh, that's not better, that's worse. Natural dual-morph?"

"On the other hand, you can run faster, pull harder, tolerate the cold better, have a huge field of view, and you can subsist on grass."

"I don't want to subsist on grass! I want to have my hands back!"

"Everyone has the ability to manipulate small objects to a reasonable degree, one way or another." I recalled Renna's brushing up against the limits of that, but let it stand.

Prot, though, was thoughtful. "So everyone can write?"

Aresh nodded. "I imagine that once the universal literacy wish wears off, some people won't bother, again, but for now, yes."

After a few more moments, Prot dissolved into a mist and reformed as a duplicate of Ezi. Aresh backed up a little, and I caught her from tripping over a dislodged brick.

He pawed at the ground ineffectually for a bit, and I clarified, "You are only guaranteed to have at least one form with that ability."

Prot swirled and appeared as a mostly human female with large cat ears and a long prehensile tail drawn up between its legs and across its belly for a shred of modesty. He pulled an oversized lollipop out of nowhere and gestured with it across his equally oversized breasts as he said, "So, what do people fantasize about now? Each other, unvarnished, finally?"

Another swirl, and he was back to the form we first saw him in. "Heh. Popped a boner?"

Ezi cut in, "No, Prot, they didn't. Now, Famir, Aresh..." It occurred to me we had not introduced ourselves. "The best way to where you're going, at this point, is to fly. It's dark and your lights are wearing down. I can take you, for a price."

Aresh looked to me with concern, and asked, "What's that?"

"Come back in a few days and talk longer. I'm curious."

Prot had been a bit of an ass, but Ezi seemed all right. I was about to agree when Aresh asked, "How long? Like years long? A day?"

"How about ten hours each? Flying is not so very easy."

I put in, "When we come back, we may have my wife with us. If she joins..."

"Sure, her hours count. Deal!"

And without waiting for the consent we were about to give, she took off with a sound of enormous wings flapping, and we were hauled along, our feet in invisble stirrups, our hands around their strings. Prot waved as we rose and oriented. Ezi asked, "Clearwater? Was that once known as Kubi..."

"Kubi Aldio. Right."

And we started. In the dark, there wasn't much to see except the crescent moon above the mountains, so the trip seemed long. Still, it was much quicker than walking would have been. She set us down at the edge of town, and we stepped free gingerly.

"I'll be waiting."

"We'll be along", I promised.

Aresh shivered. "I don't really want to go back, but I wanted to be there or in the woods in the dark even less. Let's get to your family."