The snowy owl picks up a bear in the Crossroads bar, and both follow their instincts.
Ezmerelda has just suffered through two indignities. The first was her thirtieth birthday and the second was the lineup of suitors that her father brought along as guests to the party.
Her friend Krisia offers her a chance to stop her family from fixing Ezzy up at every opportunity. With depressing honesty her friend tells her that she needs to go to the Shifter's Crossroads and find herself a mate.
The transporter sends her through the magical portal to the place where shifters go as a last resort when they can't find a mate of their own. The Crossroads.
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Owl’s Fair
Copyright © 2012 Zenina Masters
ISBN: 978-1-77111-361-8
Cover art by Martine Jardin
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
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Owl’s Fair
Shifting Crossroads Book 1
By
Zenina Masters
To my sister, Teresa, who has a surprising clarity of thought when inspired by Sleemans. Though she couldn’t stop laughing when I told her the bear’s name, she will eventually get over it…I think…I hope…maybe.
Chapter One
It was a great day, an amazing day, a birthday that would live forever in the traumatized minds of the men at the county fair by the time the dream team of Krisia and the birthday girl herself, Ezzy, left.
Ezmerelda Atkinson had had a great day, and as she clutched the stuffed something or other that she had won at the ring toss booth, she eyed her family home with trepidation.
“Are you sure you have to bring me here? I would be happy to go back to the carnival and whip around the ferris wheel a few more times.”
Krisia swallowed. “I am not generally airborne at any time day or night, so I will file that one under how much do you want to see those corn dogs?”
Ezzy chuckled and got out of the subtly stylish sedan. “You had better come in.”
“I promised your family I wouldn’t stay long, but sure. I will watch you blow out your mouse cake.” Krisia smirked as she left her car.
Ezzy shuddered. “I hope they didn’t. It wasn’t funny when I was eighteen—it is definitely not funny now.”
As they approached the house, they veered to the side and walked around back. Shifter gatherings were held outside as often as possible, and Ezzy’s birthday was no exception.
Ezzy heard a ping and saw Krisia tuck her cell phone back into her bra. The birthday girl sighed. “You just had to, didn’t you?”
Krisia shrugged. “They asked me very politely.”
As they rounded the corner, Ezzy’s family screamed, “Happy Birthday!”
She flinched and tried to smile, but the three strangers clumped on the edge of the gathering sent up her warning signs.
Her father rushed her and gave her a hug. “Ezmerelda, happy birthday. I have some men I would like you to meet.”
“Dad, I don’t want to be fixed up with anyone.”
“Ezmerelda, you are thirty now. You need to find a mate and have little ones. It is your duty as the eldest. You know Doria has her mate picked out. They are only waiting for you to be matched first.”
She whispered in her father’s ear. “It is an antiquated tradition.”
He leaned back and stared into her eyes. “But it is still our tradition.”
Ezzy blinked and sighed in resignation. “Fine. But I want to hug everyone else before I meet those guys. They don’t look like that much fun.”
Her mother came up and gave her a birthday hug. “Give them a chance. You might be surprised.”
Ezzy grumbled. “Fine, a chance is all they get.”
Screwing a pleasant expression on her face, Ezzy set out to greet the guests and meet the men that her father had found for her. How bad could they be?
Ezzy sat and held out her wine glass while Krisia filled it for the third time. Her shudders were gradually fading.
“I am sorry those guys were so creepy. I am sure your father meant well.” Krisia sipped at her soda and tried to look encouraging.
“I am sure he did, too—that is why this is so depressing. If these are the only guys he can find to be remotely interested in me, I am doomed, and I am taking my little sister with me to disaster.”
Krisia looked from side to side and leaned in, trying not to be heard by the supernatural hearing surrounding her. “Have you thought of the alternative?”
Ezzy blinked in her wine-fuddled state. “Switching teams? Sorry, you are not my type.”
Kris waved her hand. “Don’t be stupid. No, I mean the…” she leaned in and whispered, “Crossroads.”
Nineteen shades of blush ran through Ezzy’s body. “Isn’t that a little…extreme?”
“More extreme than going lesbian?” Kris’s deep brown eyes were amused.
“Fair point. The problem is that I don’t know anyone who has gone to it. I don’t want to be the first in the family.”
Kris stood. “Stay here for a moment.”
Ezzy watched her friend cruise through the crowd and grab a couple. With the same speed, Kris returned with Aunt Aglia and Uncle Stephano in tow.
Kris faced the shifters with a lack of fear that Ezzy’s family found perplexing. Ezzy knew that her friend was a magic user, but few, if any, of her family shared that little secret.
“Tell her where you met.”
The demand made Ezzy’s favourite aunt blush and her uncle wrapped his arm around his wife. Stephano smiled down at Ezzy. “We met at the Crossroads. I was staying at the avian hostel for males, your aunt was at the one for females, and we met over coffee and pie at the café. We found a quiet place to talk, and after a few days, we showed each other our shifted forms. We came home, announced our engagement, and I moved here so your aunt could remain near her family.”
There was a wealth of innuendo in that description, but it left an impression on Ezzy. This was the one couple she would model her own relationship on if she could.
“Where do I go?” The words were out before she could stop them.
Kris smiled. “I can give you the directions to the travel agent. She will brief you on the wherefores and details, as well as setting up your room in the hostel or a bed and breakfast.”
Ezzy embraced her aunt and uncle before settling back and staring at her friend. “How do you know so much about this?”
Kris snickered and dug in her vest pocket for a business card. “Take this to the address in the morning, and you can start making arrangements for the rest of your life.”
Ezzy took the small card and stared at it. “Do you know the travel agent?”
Kris smirked, “All of us human magic users know each other. We even have a newsletter.”
Ezzy sighed and
twisted her shoulders.
“You want to fly, don’t you? So, go. I will be here when you get back.” Kris put her feet up and snickered.
Ezzy couldn’t hold back any longer. She tucked the business card for Enchanted Travel in her pocket and gave her friend’s hand a squeeze. Her more sober family members followed her into the woods, and in a quick shuffling of clothing, they took flight.
The parliament of Atkinson was in the air, and the night was sweet to Ezmerelda’s feathers as her snowy white wings slowly gained her altitude while she worked her way to the treetops for a flight with her family on this momentous birthday.
Her shift-sharpened gaze caught the movement of a mouse, but the freedom of flying over her family’s forest was far more of a draw than her instinct to feel the small body beneath her talons.
Their flight was silent, but nothing had to be said—they were shifters doing what they were born to do with the best of company.
Ezzy screeched, and her family took up the cry as they banked and circled the forest. Her sister’s small brown body darted past her, and Ezzy couldn’t resist. The race was on.
Two hours passed while they played tag in the branches of the oak forest. When her blood was humming happily and her sister’s feathers were fluffed in every place that Ezzy had caught her, the birthday girl returned to her clothing and her patient friend.
In the morning, she would go to the travel agent and learn what she needed to about going to the Crossroads. Family was great, but she wanted someone all her own.
Chapter Two
Nerves were jangling, but Ezzy was confident that she could do this. It would have been easier if Kris could have helped her, but it wasn’t good to have a witness for this sort of thing—at least that was what Kris said when she dropped Ezzy off at her home.
The building that the travel agent was in was a standard office building. Shrugging, Ezzy got into the elevator and made it up to the fifth floor.
She wiped her hands on her jeans, dragged in a deep breath and surged through the door with the number five on it.
Krisia was sitting at a desk with a number of pamphlets in front of her. “Good morning, how may I help you?”
Ezzy’s mouth opened in shock. “You? The travel agent to the Crossroads is you?”
“Of course it is. My family has been sending shifters to the Shifter’s Crossroads for generations.” Krisia chuckled. “Please, take a seat.”
Surprise was rippling through her with a hefty dose of confusion. “Why haven’t you ever mentioned it?”
“You keep your shifter stuff to yourself. I keep my magic to myself. We agreed on that when we were nine.” Kris grinned again.
Ezzy sat in the client chair and ran through the moment in her mind.
With her first change just behind her, Ezzy was smug with her newfound talent. “I am not allowed to talk about it though. My mom said so and Grandma agreed. They never agree.”
Krisia sat and frowned. “But we tell each other everything.”
“I can’t. I can’t talk about the shifting stuff. Can we still be friends?” It was more of a test of their friendship than when Ezzy had challenged Krisia to eat a bug.
“If you can’t talk about shifting stuff, then I won’t talk about magic.”
Krisia stuck her hand out and they shook on it. “No shifting, no magic.”
The veil of silence had lasted twenty-one years. Krisia smiled. “No shifting, no magic.”
Ezzy looked at her oldest friend in the universe. “I am guessing that I got the short end of that deal.”
Kris laughed and waved her hand. A chocolate mocha latte appeared in front of Ezzy.
“Now, Ms. Atkinson, what would you like to know?” Smiling but formal, Kris waited.
Ezzy touched the hot sides of the cup and took a sip. “What can you tell me about the Shifter’s Crossroads?”
Kris touched the blotter on her desk, and a map appeared under her palm. “The first Shifter’s Crossroads was designed over a thousand years ago. When shifters wanted to run away and find a mate that spoke to their hearts rather than their family connections, they needed a safe place to meet that person. They paid one of my people to come up with a solution, and we did. Some call it a place out of time, others an inter-dimensional space. I just call it nifty.”
The map was laid out in a simple design, a basic crossroads with buildings set along each wide path. It appeared to be about twenty miles square but the occupation was all within the central mile.
Ezzy sipped at her cup. “How does this work?”
“Ah, you decide on your form of pay, and we agree on a price. You give me the price, and I send you to the Meditation Centre.” Kris smiled pleasantly.
“But, where do I go, what do I do?”
Kris leaned in and explained the Meditation Centre, the café, bakery and bar.
“The bar is where you will meet most of your likely candidates. Some may be in the bakery or café, but there won’t be many other options for introduction.”
“Where do I stay?”
“When you arrive at the Meditation Centre, they will take you on a tour of the buildings. A mated pair, a raven and swan, run the centre. If they are getting along, you will get home with no trouble, but if they are fighting, you might have a wait.
“They will take you to either one of the bed and breakfasts, or if you prefer, the hostel.”
“What is the difference?”
Kris leaned back, “Price and visibility. Everyone knows you if you are at a B&B, but few take notice of another female at the hostel. The hostels are arranged so that males and females are separated, and then divided by the type of shifter you are. You would be in the avian hostel if you chose to go that way.”
“Why are the bed and breakfasts more visible?”
“It is a small town with only four dozen permanent residents. Everyone knows everyone else’s business, and folk staying in the B&B’s have money to spend and don’t care who knows it. Since you want to fly under the radar, you have a decision to make.”
Ezzy thought about it for a moment. She wasn’t poor, but she didn’t want to spend money she didn’t have to. “Hostel for me.”
Kris flicked her fingers and a translucent computer was generated. “Excellent. The avian hostel is almost empty, so you will have most of it to yourself. I also want to warn you that it is not peak time right now. There will be sparse selections to pick from, but those who are there will be rather determined to find females of their own. Are you ready for that kind of pressure?”
Ezzy closed her eyes, and when she opened them, she had settled her interior conflict. “If I am going to do this, I will do it now. Waiting will not help my case, and my father may bring even more appalling specimens for introduction.”
“A very valid point. Those guys were extra creepy.” Krisia shuddered, “Not that they bothered speaking to me. They just gave off a terrible aura, one especially.”
Ezzy was amazed. Not only was she learning about her chances to find a mate on her own terms, but she was finding out that her best friend for decades had skills that she had arrogantly dismissed. “I feel like an idiot.”
Kris laughed. “Don’t. As I realized that my skills were more versatile than yours, I began to watch your world with fascination. Oh. I can also do this.”
As Ezzy watched, her friend formed a number of balls and began to juggle power in front of her. She laughed so hard that she was bent double before Kris let the energy dissipate with a sharp pop.
“Okay, enough fun and games. When do you want to leave?” Kris shifted from bragging to business in a heartbeat.
“Um. I have this weekend off, so Friday afternoon?”
Kris grinned. “Calling off movie night to get your destined mate? Fine, but you owe me one.”
The magical travel agent kicked into high gear. “Do you understand the price that you will have to pay for sending you to the Crossroads?”
“Um, no. What is the price of the hostel
?”
Kris grinned, “The price of the hostel is fixed and will be charged to your credit card, as will any meals you consume or clothing that you buy. No, I was referring to the price you have to pay me to transport you.”
Ezzy blinked in surprise. “I hadn’t thought about it.”
“Most don’t. It takes energy to use magic, just like it takes energy to shift shape. We need a little something to make the transition work.”
Knowing that her friend would not demand more than she could give, Ezzy asked, “What do you need?”
“Three feathers from you and your immediate family.” Kris smiled. “It is how I will open the portal to let you through. Your feather will open the door, and your family’s feathers will keep you from getting lost.”
Uneasy, she asked, “Do they have to know about the feathers?”
Kris waved her spectral computer away. “No, they do not need to know about the feathers. They are for tracking purposes only.”
“Fine. What time on Friday?” She was biting her lip. Nerves were taking hold, and her hands were shaking.
“After four. You get off work at two, and you need to have a few stiff drinks in you before I send you off.”
Ezzy snickered. “It seems strange. I have never gone for drinks with my travel agent before.”
“Yes, you have. You just didn’t know it at the time.”
They giggled together to burn off the nerves of the moment. In a few short days, Ezzy was going off to find the man for her, and Krisia was the woman who was going to send her there. There was no one she trusted more.
Chapter Three
With a weekend bag packed with everything Ezzy thought she needed, she sat in the chair across from Krisia once again and waited for her to check the feathers.
Kris smiled as she ran the white feather across her palm. “This is yours. You are a snowy owl. Very pretty. I don’t think I have ever seen you up close before. I swear, I will never figure out the way that magic shifts in bloodlines. With only few exceptions, the changes run along the same species but not the same genus. Well, that is the power of the planet for you. You can never tell who is going to get what by parentage.”
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