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The Leaves (6): With the changing seasons, there are piles of leaves all around Destiny City. It’s a difficult job to try and keep up with them all, and sometimes the allure of these leaf piles is impossible to ignore. Who doesn’t want to relive the childish joys of their youth? And no one’s around to see, right? So why not jump into a pile of leaves? Oh–because, when you do, you jump through one pile and come out of another somewhere else across the city. The leaves all seem ordinary, but there’s a few odd seconds between when you jump into the leaves and when you jump out; it feels like falling, tumbling, somersaulting through the air. It’s not scary, just odd. You see walls of leaves–brown and orange and yellow and red–and they crunch magnificently. Overall, it doesn’t seem menacing, just a bit of trickster fun. If you try to jump in a pile of leaves again, you might wind up somewhere else entirely–or right back where you started.

Dawn was heading home from art class on her bicycle, and enjoying the fresh, crisp Autumn air. She loved to see the leaves change at this time of year; she also what it was like in Ireland, where her father had grown up. She and Davie had never known him - he had died suddenly when they were two years old. I've got to think of better things.

She thought of the World of Giclas... a World with a Culture not unlike Japan, though trapped in icy Winter and its villages in Snow Globe like forcefields. She shivered - too cold - right now (though very beautiful). She thought about her brother's world - underground and paved with stones and gems - creepy but beautiful in its own way. She did want to see all the Worlds, but for now - she loved Destiny City. As she looked around her, she saw large colorful piles of leaves around - and strangely, the kids were staying far away from them. "Strange," she murmured to herself, as she paused on her bike to look around warily.

---

Davie was coming from the opposite direction. He was coming from the mountainous area outside town and had just gotten a good shot of the Miden Tark Flower - a rare flower that only blooms during the Harvest Moon and closes two weeks later. Davie was really into plant life and photographing so that everyone could see how awesome and wonderful it was, particularly rare flowers - but he was also interested in all plant life, like trees and their leaves - so he noticed right away something was wrong - the kids were staying away - far away from the enormous leaf piles that they usually jumped into every fall. Something was up. However, he was one to put two and two together and think that there might something magically dangerous going on. He put his bike and stuff to the side and yelled, "Come on, everyone! There's nothing to be afraid of!" Quite uncharacteristic of him, but he was worrying that the kids were scared for no reason, or that someone was bullying them. And then he leapt straight into the nearest leaf pile, ignoring everyone screaming for him not to, (including, was that his twin sister?), like a little kid. But unlike a little kid, he did not come back up. He simply disappeared.

Davie was quite surprised when he didn't touch the ground right away. Instead, he seemed to tumble through empty space, surrounded by walls of leaves. This only lasted a few minutes, and then he bounced out of the leaf pile, back on to the ground on two feet. He was in shock and the look on his face was pure shock. He looked around and this only added to his confusion for he was now in a park across the city from where he had just been. Right in front of him, was a hot dog cart, whose vendor was staring at him, also in complete shock, and next to it was seated a little Guardian Cat. Davie was in so much shock, forgot about pretenses and walked right up to the Kitten, knelt in respect and greeted him. "Greetings Mauvian, can you tell me what just happened?" The vendor cocked his head, then picked up his cart and left in a hurry - (too much weird stuff).

--

Dawn dropped her bike and ran screaming Davie's name up to the leaf pile, but an officer stepped in her and said, "Please miss, we don't want anyone else lost. These piles are dangerous, we don't know much about them. That other guy, we tried to stop and warn, but he got past us. We don't know what happened to him. Dawn took off her helmet so he could see her in entirety, and he raised his eyebrows about how similar she looked to "that other guy". In anger, she growled, "Well, you better find out - that was my twin brother!" She didn't exactly what she would do if the officer didn't, (she wasn't that great of a fighter, and even if she were allowed to use her Senshi Powers on a Civilian - they wouldn't do much good - they healed not hurt. Other than that, what? She was a 17-year-old foster kid that went to St. Mags. She didn't have much leverage. So, she settled for glaring at him.

"Uh ok." Davie gently picked up the cat and held him gently in his arms - still in shock from the jump, and confusion from the cat's raving about hot dogs and fun teleportation.

He walked up to the same pile of leaves that he had come out of and casually stepped in. Again, they were tumbling through the air, with leafy walls. After brief minutes, they arrived back where Davie had started, with Davie landing on his feet - with the area surrounded by police barricades, the public looking on, and Davie's twin sister Dawn screaming at a police officer to let her by or to find her brother. Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at Davie and the cat.

--
When Davie suddenly popped back out of the leaf pile, with a strange cat (albeit an Order based Mauvian) in his arms, and landed on his feet, Dawn's jaw dropped and she stopped yelling the police, in their shock, they let her through to Davie. She however was wiser and didn't speak to the Guardian Cat in public- though she gave a quick nod to let him know she acknowledged him. "Davie, what the...." She had wanted to yell, to scream at him... but her voice broke... "What happened?"

In the end, Dawn cried. "What if something happened to you Davie? You are my twin and best friend! You scared me half to death. Sometimes, you've got to take a look at the situation around and make sure it's alright, before you just ... jump in... "

---

Davie nodded. "You're right, Dawn." He whispered. "That scared me no end. I will be more careful next time. Promise."