It does not take the Sylph long to make a quick survey.

She does it from a safe altitude.  She has no desire to actually deal with those little... pests... but she knows the signs.  The Mushroom ring, their signature portal...


She comes back in time for lunch.

"I know where I think we can find them," Breeze says.  "The Alice in Wonderland Statue.  There was a Fairy Ring nearby, and there were little Human children looking for something that wasn't there.  They can see Pixies, you know.  Veil or no veil.  They can see me too."

Amara hands a goblet to Breeze "Here you go Breeze. We can enjoy our picnic and then we can go over there and see what we can find out. I suppose I should go looking like I am small. Thanks again"

Mouse woofs quietly to Breeze.  He lies down, his great, shaggy head resting near her plate.  After a moment of savoring the wonderful smells of the food, he looks up at with sad, hungry eyes.

Unlike a mortal canine, Mouse's vision let's him see in color.  After a moment of looking sadly at Breeze, he turns and looks directly at a bright yellow cookie.  He looks even sadder when he looks back at breeze.

Darren glances over toward the Wonderland statue, catching a distant view of children at play. He can't see anything he would have thought amiss, though he does not there is less screaming and laughter than he would have expected.

He tries not to let his nerves deter him from the picnic.

"Thank you for the help," he tells Breeze. He takes a bite from his food and compliments Amara on the potato salad as he waits to see what the group will decide next.

Breeze looks at the dog, and at the cookie, and after a few moments of hesitation hands Mouse a cookie, pulling her hand away quickly, as if she expected she'd be bitten, or possibly, slobbered upon.

She sets into the picnic herself, eating very sparingly, a nibble here, a nibble there.  Sylphs have very delicate appetites, being mostly made of Elemental Air.

"You could try Milk or Yogurt," she says.  "Sometimes when I've been to Codgery Tom's... with friends, of course, it's the only place where you can be who you... you know what I mean, don't you?  Well, the little ones... I mean, Brownies, Pixies, not children... they like milk, and cream, and things like that.  Sometimes you see a Pixie with a little cup of milk.  And Yogurt, that's fermented milk.  That does things to Pixies.  I've seen it."

Breeze does not eat the pickle that came with the sandwich.  She inhales over it.  Apparently, with Sylphs, just getting the scent of food is enough.

Amara looks at Breeze. "So what does Yogurt to them?" she had never heard anything but there were not Pixies and such in the middle east. So any thing she could learn would be good.

"Yogurt is Fermented Milk" Breeze says.  "You know... milk, changed by... little thingies.. umm... I'm really better at meteorology than chemistry.  You know what fermented grape juice does to Humans?  It's like that, but... Pixier."

"Oh, so yogurt makes pixies drunk? That is interesting." She says with a grin as she looks at the others.

(ooc- does she know where Codgery Tom's is)

Everyone knows where Codgery Tom's is.  It is the Pub run by one of the city's oldest Fey, who often acts to help other Fey get themselves established.  Codgery Tom is a Leprechaun, and a rich one at that, thanks to very astute investment, generations ago, of a pot of gold.  It's a frequent hangout place for Fey, since there, they can be Fey.


** ** ** ** **

"Well, I've seen it happen," Breeze says.  "Of course, you and I being Air Fey, we have to be even more careful.  Alcohol vapors in the air, you know.  Don't put your nose into a full brandy snifter, or it'll go right to you!".

Amara grins at Breeze "Actually I can handle it fine as I am a Djinn. So we have no trouble with it. But I really appreciate your help. Now I just have to go meet these little ones" she says with a grin as she sips her drink.

Mouse barks and wags his tail.  Looking at Amara, he nods his shaggy head and winks one faintly glowing, emerald-colored eye.

Breeze progresses from entree to dessert with surprising speed- a nibble here, a nibble there, and done, on to macarons.

There is a child's yelp in the distance- astonishment, more than fear, by the sound of it.

"It's a funny thing with Pixies, and all the little folk," Breeze says.  "Do you know... someone once told me, at Codgery Tom's... there's something in the imagination of children that sustains them.  Not just belief, it's an old myth that not believing in fairies will hurt them.  But, something else.  Like there's some sort of feedback to how they are imagined to be, but children's imaginations are unfettered, and the Pixies like it that way. Does that make sense?   But they are like children in some ways, and very annoying.  What do you want with them?"

Amara grins at Breeze "No, I completely agree with you. I will have to go see what the kids are doing" She looks around to see if anyone is watching them.

As Breeze nibbles on a Macaroon, (Pistachio), Amara gets closer to the children.

The younger children- the ones likely to see fairies- are mostly "uptown" children, from well-to-do families living near by, watched over by less well-to-do nannies.

There is a Pixie.  Amara can tell.  It's amusing itself by making nannies think their little charges are careless, losing things like hats.

"Where's your hat, Oliver?"

"It's... someone took it!"

"No one took it, you dropped it over there, look!"

"But I didn't!"

Things like that are entertaining for Pixies.  For creatures that are drawn to the innocence and imagination of children, Pixies can be shockingly mean to them.  In little ways, yes, but still mean.

Amara can see through the Veil, of course.  She sees the Pixie- it's invisible to almost everyone.

But the Pixie can see Amara.  It watches, suspiciously, curiously, not quite sure if there is a problem or not.

Mouse spots the pixie and moves quietly to Amara's side.  His eyes glow like lanterns as he yips playfully at the fairy.  As his tail wags, he lowers his head and chest into a classic come-and-play dog posture.

Amara just smiles at the fairy. She whispers to Mouse "Maybe you could get it to play and get it over here."

Mouse's tail increases it's wagging as he leaps playfully forward before scampering bacwards, trying to draw the pixie into frolicking with him.  His tongue lolls out of one side of his mouth as he shakes his head, ears flopping crazily.

Mouse is aware that the pixie cian see that he too is of the fae, perhaps it will choose to be a new friend...

A Pixie's first instinct, seeing a charging dog, is to flee in panic, and for a few moments, that is exactly what the Pixie does.  Pixies know that dogs are very playful, but like cats, they think "Catch the flying thing!" is a fun game.

But then, the Pixie notices something... what Mouse really is.

The Pixie looks much like a slim young man, about a foot tall, with large translucent wings beating furiously.  He wears a camouflage vest, obviously stolen at some point from an "action figure".  Vast quantities of unguarded toys are, from the Pixie point of view, the best thing about the city, and there are many, many children who cannot understand why their toys vanish, and they get the blame.

"Black Hound, aren't you?" the Pixie says.  "Is it true someone will die if you howl*?  What do you want with me, then, I never heard of a Black Hound wanting to play."



*This is absolutely true.  But mostly because over a hundred people die every day in New York City, Black Hound or not.

Mouse nods at the fairies first question and shakes his head emphatically at the second.  His tail still wagging cheerily, he lowers his head again and gives a small woof.

Amara just watches to see if Mouse can get the Pixie to come over to the rest of the group.

It takes some patience to get a Pixie to understand that a dog is not trying to kill him.  This is because, most of the time, the games a dog wants to play with a Pixie are not considered fun from the Pixie point of view.

Small dogs can be even worse.

Fortunately, despite the name, Mouse is not a small dog.  After a few false starts, the Pixie hovers nearby.

"Umm... hi there.  You're probably looking for a nature fairy, but... I'm Panicle.  Umm... are am I supposed to throw a stick or something?  The Pixie swoops down and picks up a twig.  It's six inches long.

"Okay, I'll go easy on you for the first one.  No Pixie magic."  Panicle pats his tiny bicep proudly.

Panicle hurls the twig.  It lands about ten feet away.

With a happy yip, Mouse lept for the tiny stick.  Carefully holding it between his teeth he turned back to the pixie, dropping the stick a few inches ahead of Panicle.

His tail wagging merrily, he glances at Amara, giving her a sly wink as he does so.

Amara smiles at Mouse. Next time she will have to remember to come here as a kid to play with Mouse.

Darren stiffens. He has watched the clever tempting of the pixie by Mouse with interest, but he doesn't want to interfere directly lest he scare her away; so Darren tries his best to stay still and observe the interaction between the fey in their party and the newcomer, hoping he'll learn something about how to approach them in the future. He quickly finds himself feeling overly conscious of his every movement.

Amara looks over at Darren "Just act normal and be calm. You have to look like you don't care if they are there or not"