Brave New World
All The Creatures Under The Sun (or at Least the Ones that Matter)

March12, 2000

“Okay, Reyna. Today’s going to have to be a shortlesson. I’ve got a meeting with theother Council members in about an hour and while I’m gone I expect you to readup on your other subjects. All rightthen,” Dunstan began as he picked up the piece of chalk again and underlinedthe word ‘Vampire’. They were back inDunstan’s living room with everything pressed to the side except for the deskand black board.

“Vampires are veryinteresting. They’re like bees,see? They’re like one big hive. You have the queen,” he drew a crown on theboard, “who sired Vampires, who in turn sired more Vampires.” He drew circles beneath the crown with linesconnecting them, and then more circles beneath the first row.

“Thefirst Vampire, Lilith, really isn’t that old. At least, not when compared to the Fairy queens. I want to say she was born aroundtwo-hundred, maybe two-fifty, A.D. Anyway, you were right about them not being able to come into directcontact with sunlight, and a wooden stake to the heart will do them in quitenicely. But the movies like toexaggerate. They can, in fact, show upin mirrors. Uh, garlic won’t burn them butsometimes they get an allergic reaction, but a few plants do that, some more stronglythan others. Vervain is a great plant touse against them—burns like a bi—like something fierce.” Dunstan coughed.

“Holywater and crosses do nothing, which can be pretty funny to watch. The most important thing to know, though, isthat if Lilith dies then they all do. Another thing they have in common with bees.” As Dunstan spoke, he used the eraser to wipeout the chain of circles he’d drawn in one fellow swoop.

Reynabegan to swing her feet back and forth as she asked, “How do you know?”

Dunstanlooked at her blankly, “Know what?”

“Knowthat they’ll all die if she does? She’snever died, has she?”

“Well,no, she hasn’t. I guess it could be arumor that Lilith started to ensure her survival, but no one’s willing to testout the theory, either.”

“Whyhasn’t anyone killed her yet? I thoughthumans hated Vampires. That’s what allthe shows say, anyway.”

“Somehave tried, my dear. But not for atleast a century. Lilith is extremelypowerful. Vampires in general arestronger and faster than the average human, and she’s stronger and faster thanher children. She’s also a great ally tohave, since she can create an army with a moment’s notice. We meet once a month, actually. To talk politics and the like.”

Reynahummed thoughtfully at his answer. Secretly she hoped one day he’d take her with him to meet Lilith. She’d have a thousand questions for theUndead Queen. Looking down at hernotebook, the young girl added a few doodled of bees next to a large ‘L’ andtold herself to write down her questions after Dunstan left so she wouldn’tforget them.

Dunstancleared his throat to gain Reyna’s attention. “Next on our list are the Fairies. Now they’re a temperamental bunch if there ever was one. Thankfully they mostly stay away from majorcities like ours because of all the iron. They’re allergic to it and it can burn their skin in one secondflat. It makes a very unpleasantsmell.” He paused and Reyna drew smellywave lines next to a doodle that resembled Tinkerbell from Peter Pan.

“Theyhave two factions—ah, groups,” he changed when he saw Reyna about to ask whatfactions meant, “Called the Seelie and Unseelie Court. Both courts have queens and they claim to beas old as the Earth itself, though I doubt it. They can do magic just like we can, which makes them very dangerous tohumans. It’s a different sort of magic,though, ahh . . .” he looked up at the ceiling, stroked his beard for a fewseconds, before snapping his fingers and pointing at his ward. “You know how there’s different T.V.channels, but they all do basically the same thing?” He asked.

Noddingsurely, Reyna drew a T.V and a remote in her notes. “It’s like that, their sort of magic is on adifferent channel than ours. It’s justas powerful as ours, too. Just asdangerous. The only major weaknessFairies have is their name. Once youknow their real name then that’s it, game over. You’re pretty much in control of their lives.”

Reynahad about a dozen questions running through her head just on that last remarkalone, but held her tongue. Dunstanwouldn’t appreciate her questions, and he’d yell at her again if they couldn’tfinish their lesson on time because of it. She’d just have to figure the answers out herself.

“Onto our last category: Devils.” Reynaturned a page in her notes and drew a little stick figure with horns, apitchfork, and a pointed tail. Smilingproudly at her drawing, the young girl stared at it until Dunstan’s annoyedsigh caught her attention.

“Devilslive in a separate plain from our own. Usually they’re content to stay in their own realm, only coming to oursif they’re summoned. A few though liketo get their rocks off and cause chaos as often as they can. Payment for bringing them over is usually ahuman soul, unless otherwise decided, and if the person who brought them overisn’t careful, it’ll be their soul the Devil takes.

“Now Reyna, I callwhat they take a soul, but I guess a more accurate term would be to call it alife source. Religion has determinedthat these are the Demons of old, who will take you into Hell and torture youfor eternity. It all got a bit muddledduring the dark ages, really. My pointis, we don’t know if humans have things called souls, we don’t know if there’sa Hell, and we don’t know if there’s an all mighty God. Even magic can’t tell us that for sure. And don’t even get me started on thephilosophical debates on whether or not non-human creatures have souls, becausethat is an argument for another day.” Dunstan laughed to himself, but it died off when he saw Reyna staringblankly at him, “Or maybe for another several years.”

Checking his wristwatch, Dunstan nodded to himself before asking, “Any questions?” Reyna’s eyes sparked up with excitement andshe began to flip back through her notes, intending on bombarding him with anavalanche worth of questions. She drewin a large lung full of breath, but before she could even ask the firstquestions her teacher cut her off. “Okay, I don’t think I have time for the amount of questions you’ve gotweighing on your tongue. Why don’t youlook through the books I’ve given you—pay extra attention to the chapter on theFairy Realm—and if you still have questions we can move from there.”

“All right . . .”The young girl muttered underneath her breath, feeling a bit put out. “Wait! Just one question!” She begged.

Dunstan sighed ashe wiped down the board, “What?”

“When will youteach me about other creatures?”

“Other creatures?”

“Yeah! Like Werewolves, and Goblins, and Dwarves,and Elves!” She was bouncing in her seatnow. Reyna couldn’t wait until shelearned about all the different types of creatures that roamed the Earth. Especially Elves.

“Oh, we won’t gointo those creatures too much. None ofthem are all that important in the grand scheme of things. There’s a chapter in your book on each ofthem. You’ll learn about them inthere.” He brushed off, already staringat his watch again.

“Oh,” Reynamumbled. Her books were fun. They had a lot of information on magic andthat sort of thing, but Dunstan’s lessons on the three queens and the Devilshad been much more fun than anything she’d read thus far.

“Now don’t forgetto read the chapters in both the books about creatures and summoning spells. And make sure you start on those Chemistryand Biology for Kid’s books I got for you. We’ll eventually be practicing with the humanheart, lungs and throat, and you need to know as much as you can about thoseareas.”

Dunstan walked inand out of the living room as he spoke to her, grabbing things like his jacketand wallet. He patted himself down frombreast to hip, making sure he had everything he’d need. “I don’t know how long this meeting willtake. It depends on the subject matter. You remember how to use the microwave,right? I’ve left a lunch and dinner mealin the fridge, covered in tin foil. Thelunch has a one written on it and the dinner has a two. Don’t forget to take the tin foil off beforeyou put it in the microwave. If youpractice some magic later and break something let me know, okay? I’ve left the number of where I’ll be by thephone if you need me. Which youshouldn’t, but it’s there if you need it.”

Reyna waited forhim to stop rambling before answering him with a loud “Yup!” making sure to putextra emphasis on the ‘P’.

Dunstan pattedhimself down one more time before heading out. The door had almost shut behind him when he stuck his head back in andyelled, “And do not open the door for anyone! Even me because I’ve got a key! And no trying to use the bath without me around, all right?”

“’Kay!” She yelled back, still sitting at herdesk. Reyna blew out some air throughher barely open mouth, laughing at herself when it made a funny noise. Looking at the green digital numbers on theV.C.R, Reyna saw that it was barely 11:30 in the morning. Humming, she played around with the chalkboard for a few minutes; moving it back and forth on its wheels without movingfrom her desk.

When that lost itsappeal, Reyna decided to climb the stairs and go into her bedroom. It’d been less than a week since Dunstan tookher in as his ward and so the room was still pretty bare. Her bed had no fancy frame and was pushed tothe far corner of the room. It currentlyhad plain yellow sheets, but Dunstan had given her an Ikea magazine yesterdayand told her to put post it notes on the room designs she liked. So far she’d post-it’d all of them. Though if she had to choose, she’d have to gowith the pretty bright pink one with white accents and canopy bed.

Picking up Thumperfrom where he sat on her bed, the young girl brought him close to herchest. Sighing, she thought aboutstarting on the reading Dunstan had left her, but she figured she had the restof the day to do that. Why do somethingnow when she could so easily do it later? Instead, she walked over to the makeshift desk that stood along one ofthe walls and grabbed one of her coloring books that she’d left there. Choosing a new Disney princess to color, shechose a crayon and went to town.

Five princessesand thirty minutes later, Reyna felt her stomach growl. Dropping the crayon, she grabbed Thumper andmade her way down to the kitchen. Doingas instructed, Reyna’s meal of reheated mac ‘n cheese with chopped hot dogs wasready to be eaten in just few short minutes. Setting herself up on the couch in Dunstan’s study, Reyna sipped on herjuice box as she channel surfed. Eventually deciding on Arthur, she enjoyed her meal and show.

Once that wasfinished, the Reyna placed her dirty dishes in the sink and empty juice box inthe trash. After heading to the bathroomto wash her hands, Reyna stared at her reflection for a long moment. Her hair had grown since the last time she’dpaid attention to it. The dark brownlocks almost reached her shoulders now. Dunstan said he’d take her to get it cut, but as far as Reyna knew hestill hadn’t made an appointment anywhere. But maybe he didn’t have to? Reyna considered for a moment that perhaps since he was such animportant person—or at least he claimed to be—that he didn’t have to makeappointments for things.

Humming under herbreath, Reyna leaned in to rest her forehead against the glass, staringstraight into her own green eyes. Hereyes reminded her of her parents. Bothof them had her color eyes and she’d never met anyone else with eyes as greenas theirs. Reyna figured if she didn’tsee her parents again in a long time, she’d still be able to recognize themjust from their eyes. Pulling back fromthe mirror, the she saw that she’d left a smudge on the glass. Shrugging, Reyna hopped off her step latterand made her way back to the living room to read one of her chapters, fullyintending on taking pages and pages worth of notes and making up lots ofquestions for Dunstan to answer when he arrived home.