Episode 12

Emily was glad that the strange visitors were finally gone, even though she liked the metallic one a lot. Sylvie didn't mind the visitors, but she wished Weasel would pay more attention to her and Emily, who had done so much to brighten up Weasel's apartment over the years. Didn't Emily and Sylvie provide colorful new blossoms every day? Didn't they purify the air in the apartment, imparting a tinge of lilac scent? Didn't they obligingly rid the air of flies and mosquitoes, not to mention chasing away silly old levitating bowling balls? Yes, yes, and yes! And these things, praiseworthy though they might be, were but a tenth of what Emily and Sylvie were capable of doing.

So, after a night of thinking and communal dreaming, Emily and Sylvie woke up resolved to solve whatever crisis it was that Weasel's visitors were so worked up about, so Weasel would not have to invite them back to the apartment.

Emily took the lead as usual. She directed her fastest-moving vine along the wall of the solarium and down the hall to the little office where Weasel's computer was located. She wrapped a couple of tendrils around a pencil and used it tap the ENTER key on the keyboard. This woke the machine up. She listened for the familiar hum of the machine, then started tapping on the keys with her pencil. The metallic visitor had mentioned something about a tribe of Indians which had stolen something called Nebraska. He had also said something about Dimension 666 just before he had left with the others. Let's see, we want type Nebraska and Dimension 666. Emily wasn't sure how to spell these, but Weasel wasn't the greatest speller, and he/she usually found what he/she wanted, so Emily gave it a try.

In the blink of an eye, Weasel's apartment vanished. Emily found herself padlding lazily in a broad, shallow stream filled with bulrushes. The edge of the stream was filled with cottonwoods and box elders. There was a duck next to her, and he introduced himself as Swiftwing. 'You're lucky to be here in this marsh, miss,' he said.

'And why is that?' Emily asked, trying to hide her astonishment at having a speaking voice after so many years as a largely silent Florgar.

'Because all the other marshes that we usually visit have disappeared,' Swiftwing explained.

'Vanished!' she exclaimed, wondering what kind of oddball world she had gotten herself transferred to. 'Let's get this straight. They just vanished? Does this sort of thing happen often here?'

'Happily, no,' Swiftwing said. 'Never before, at least not in the lifespan of our flock's oldest member. As of yesterday morning, all was well. We were flying South to our usual Wintering grounds, and we happened to stop here for some rest and a bite to eat. Then this morning when we set off for the rest of our trip, we found ourselves flying over a huge canyon that was filling up with water and lost our bearings. We tried goiing East a ways and then West, but the land seems to have been stripped away in every direction.'

'So you came back here?' Emily said.

'Yes, exactly. We hope this is a temporary glitch, but in the meantime we've asked Sunwing, our strongest flyer, to go as high as he can. Maybe if he goes high enough, he can see where our Winter home has gone to.'

Paulh

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