Deadre stood out side, staring up at the glittering stars and drinking a steaming cup of coffee that burned her mouth and throat… both with its heat and with its potency.

If someone had asked she would have said that she was starting to wake up… of course that would have gotten her very odd looks because it was a little after three in the morning.

She smiled ruefully to herself and took a sip of coffee, grimacing at its flavor and texture; as of yet she hadn’t found a store in Gaia that sold decent press pots and the coffee here was abysmal at best… Not that she was a gourmet or anything, she just liked coffee that would take the roof off of her mouth.

Around her, the area was quiet… silent in fact; not another neighbor insight for miles and miles… which was just the way Deadre like it. It wasn’t that she didn’t like the people… it was just that… she wasn’t the most sociable of people.

“Which would be a problem if there were still witch burnings,” the red haired girl spoke up suddenly, breaking the stillness of the night. Deadre grinned to herself. Was it coming to that? Had she gotten so used to being alone that she was talking to herself?

“No doubt,” said an intensely dry male voice at her ankles. Deadre looked down at Kydae, the Stymphalian that she had earned for one of her stories. Twelve months old and already acted like he knew everything; he was a beautiful creature with soft burnt orangey wings and a tawny body and his oh-so-dry wit was now common in Deadre’s household.

“You, hush,” Deadre said to the feline-like-creature as he opened his mouth to continue his witty comment.

“Well, you’re up… so why don’t you fix me something to eat before I waste away to nothing,” he purred at her. Deadre snorted and took another burning gulp of her coffee… she took it loaded with cream and sugar, and this close to the bottom each swallow was accompanied by a thick, gooey stream of sugar paste that made the girl pucker her face.

“Why don’t you just catch a mouse? That’s what those pretty little reflexes of yours are for,” she replied. Her Stymphalian made a comment by Deadre, her eyes locked on whatever was burning through the sky didn’t hear him.

“What in the world…?” she murmured to herself as the little blaze of purple and red sparkle grew… her mind puttered to a standstill and the only thought that flickered through her brain was, “pretty…”

Then there was a tremendous thunder and a great flash of light and she went sprawling, head over heels until she landed with a breath, ‘oomph!’ on her back. Kydae also went spinning, but he, having the reflexes of a cat, spread his wings and managed to flutter gracefully to the ground… though his fur stood on end and his tail was three times the size it normally was.

“Though I have no proof I’m blaming you for this,” the cat-thing hissed. Deadre ignored him, getting to her feet and brushing the twigs and leaves off her body as she concentrated on remembering how to breathe. In her hand was a coffee cup handle that she didn’t realize she was still holding.

Without really thinking, Deadre walked towards where she thought the sparkle had hit the ground and found a crater that was about 30 feet in diameter with a small smoking glitter in the center. Beside her Kydae trotted, his tail beginning to smooth back to its normal size.

“Call me crazy but I don’t think stumbling up to a crater is the best idea,” he said.

“Who’s stumbling?” Deadre asked, sliding down one side of the depression and walking towards the center.

“You are going to die and then who’s gonna feed me?” Kydae yowled, sitting at the lip of the basin and whisking his tail back and forth in nervous energy.

“Don’t be such a baby, Kydae, if it’s a hostile alien from another planet it’s dazed right now so we can kit it with a rock before it goes for it’s high tech gun,” Deadre called back.

Kydae sighed in a long-suffering kind of way and lifted himself up with strong beats of his wings, landing on Deadre’s shoulder with his claws extended. She jerked and hissed but he looked at her smugly.

“We’ll hit it with a rock?” he suddenly asked. “Where did you learn your basic self protection?”

Deadre ignored him once again and crouched at the edge of the another, smaller crater and waved the smoke and dust away until she could see what was there.

Small… well, tiny, really – about the size of a gum ball candy and glittering purple with surrounding orangey-pinky-red flames was what had to have been the smoothest most egg shaped meteor Deadre had ever seen—not that she had seen many.

“What is it?” Kydae murmured.

“A small, sparkly, thing,” Deadre responded softly. Kydae looked at her with narrowed golden eyes and muttered unkind things about humanity’s observation powers. Deadre toned him out, she was doing that a lot this evening and reached towards the stone.

Kydae hissed, “Why it the matter with you?! Do go around touching everything that burns big holes in the ground? No, you leave them alone!”
“How can you know what it is without touching it?” Deadre asked.

“The same way you know those little red berries that grow on trees are poisonous! Are you gonna stick the rock in your mouth and see if you get powers?” the feline yowled.

“It’s a thought,” Deadre said. Her fingers slipped into the surrounding purple-orange-pink-red flames and she yelped and jerked back, sending Kydae flying.

“See? SEE?!” the cat snapped. “Bad to touch unknown things! Very bad!”

“That was foolish of me,” Deadre said. “It’s surrounded in fire of course it’s going to be hot.”

Before Kydae could say anything Deadre dashed inside and grabbed the skillet that she used to make pancakes or eggs when the occasion called for it. She was back just as Kydae took a breath to hiss something sharp and annoyed.

Deadre knelt by the burning rock… thing and maneuvered the skillet until with a gentle jerk of her wrist the stone fell into the pan with a soft thunk. Deadre grinned triumphantly and brought the pan and it’s newest occupant close to her face to study it.

The fire it gave off reflected in her acid green eyes and made her pale skin seem ruddy and flushed.

“It’s very pretty,” she said softly. She couldn’t help it; she was addicted and obsessed with sparklies.

“Of course It is! That’s what It wants! It wants you to take It inside, keep it warm so It hatches and then… It’ll crawl into our ears and eat our brains!” Kydae said, his voice developing a quiver.

Deadre gave me a long slow look and then asked, “Have you been reading my Sci-fi magazines again?”

From his sudden, guilty look, she knew the answer and sighed, shaking her head, “You bring up a valid pint though; it looks like as egg so we should try and hatch it!”

“DID YOU NOT HEAR WHAT I JUST SAID?!” Kydae roared at Deadre’s departing back. After a moment he mutter a filthy word and then flew after her to find the girl, cooing over the little, fiery stone as she placed it in a small nest of rags and blankets that began to smolder… not that it looked like she cared at all.

“I’ll have to go and get some new ones before the week’s through, won’t I,” she said to no one in particular. Kydae made a disgusted noise in the back of his throat and settled onto Deadre’s bed where he burled up and put his tail over his eyes.

He sighed softly and sincerely hoped whatever the little glowing stone thing was it wouldn’t hatch and wouldn’t turn out to be anything but a pretty, purple stone that could sit on the mantle and not bother him while he was napping…

But, as he fell asleep, he had a nasty, sinking sensation that his hopes would be brutally dashed and he would have to welcome some… thing into his domain.