Fantasies Collide, Volume 3 by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Author:Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: WMG Publishing

The next night, the moon still seemed full. I sat on my hilltop and watched the animals caught in their fever, fighting and copulating and running mindlessly across my acreage. I did not miss it, but I felt strangely left out.

Midway through the night, the party moved elsewhere and I did not move with it. Instead I enjoyed the pale silver light—and the silence.

Until someone said, Traditionally, fairy tales give you three wishes. And technically, that’s what you’ll have. But we only claim two wishes, because the third is the one you must reserve for that last hour.

I started: I did not see or hear anyone approach. For a moment, I thought I was getting old like that black tom, but I was not. Because no one could have anticipated the silvery see-through creatures sitting on either side of me.

They looked like they were made of moonlight. They were not quite cats—a bit too big, a bit too sleek—but they felt like cats. Cats crossed with something else, something older, something wiser.

Are you talking to me? I asked.

No one else is around, they said. They both spoke at the same time, and somehow that did not surprise me, not until later, when I actually thought about the whole experience.

I asked, What are you talking about when you say wishes?

And then I knew: they were talking about the Bargain.

My heart started to race, but I did not move. I had learned in all of my fighting not to let the opponent know exactly how you feel.

You have twenty-four hours to try a new form, they said. You may choose that form—lion, dog, human, whatever you want. And you may have one other wish to ease that transition, whatever that wish may be.

That’s two wishes, I said. You mentioned three.

The third will either turn you back into yourself, they said, or it will guarantee you remain in the new form. We will not let you waste that wish. We reserve it until the last minute of the twenty-fourth hour. We will appear to you then. Will you make the Bargain?

Why is it a Bargain? I asked. What do you get from it?

For the first time—the only time that night—they looked at each other. Then the one on my left said, We get entertainment, as the one on my right said, We get enjoyment.

I did not want to know more. But I knew what I wanted. I wanted to control the hilltop. I didn’t want anyone to take even a corner of it from me.

I want to be human, I said.

That is the hardest wish, they said. Make sure your second wish helps you.

I did not know exactly what they meant, but I remembered what the old black tom said. He said he had become human, he had felt weak and stupid. Others would ask for strength. I did not.

I want human smarts, I said. I do not want them to know I’m a stranger to their culture. I want to understand it all the moment I arrive.

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