Green Canyon Magic - Ch.18 - Higher Authorities (Patreon)

It didn't take the humans long to get back on their horses and leave. In fact as soon as they knew their guns were useless and the three of us all had magic they seemed to be in a big hurry to get the heck off our land.

At least most of them were in a hurry. The guide and that one soldier both seemed a little reluctant to pack up and go right away. Even Hannes, despite being shaken by his experience in the line of fire, was slower than the older men to get on his horse and go.

The three of us watched as the group headed back the way they came, and even after they'd disappeared into the woods we continued to monitor them until they finally left our land a couple hours later.

We were back in our cosy subterranean home by then, all three of us ended up laying together on our bed as we tried to relax and unwind after the stress of the encounter. Stef and I cuddled each other, while Theo curled up at our feet.

"Do you think they'll come back?" I asked softly.

My enbyfriend sighed, "I suspect so, my little star. Perhaps not right away, but I don't think they have much choice. I'm sure they need to be seen making the effort, so the public think they're doing their jobs."

"I just hope whoever they send next time is prepared to negotiate, rather than just make demands," Theo added quietly.

"Yeah," I nodded slowly. "I'm glad nobody was hurt this time. I'm really glad none of us were hurt."

Stef held me a little tighter as they smiled, "Getting shot at was scary, but being bullet-proof is pretty cool."

I just nodded again as we continued cuddling each other quietly.

Eventually the catkin spoke up again, "If I haven't completely miscounted, today is Tuesday October fifth. As of tomorrow we'll be a week overdue coming back from vacation."

"We're both probably fired," I responded with a shrug, "But we have much better, cooler jobs now."

They smiled, "No arguments here! I was thinking about our friends though. They'll be worrying about us. Especially the ones who know where we are."

"I wish there was a way to contact them," they sighed, "To let them know we're ok. And maybe invite some to visit, or even join us if they wanted."

I reminded them, "Gaia said she's working on that stuff, remember? She owes us electricity and running water, and an internet connection. Or the magical equivalents."

"Hey Theo?" I added as I glanced down at the wildcat curled up by our feet, "You were in touch with Gaia today right? When those men were here, was Gaia helping you figure out what to say to them? Can you ask her about internet and electricity? Any ETA on that?"

He sat up and stretched, then rolled over and curled up again on his other side. It was another couple seconds before he responded, "It's like she was talking in my head, telling me what to say. Not exactly with words though? She wasn't telling me word for word what to tell the humans. More like she gave me thoughts so I'd know what sorts of things to say to them."

"That stopped when they went away," he continued. "Now her voice in my head is quiet again. I can feel that she is busy, though. I think maybe she is dealing with lots of other groups of humans, who are talking to her other representatives around the world."

Stef nodded, "That makes sense. Didn't she say in her speech last week that she had forty representatives? And eighty ambassadors. So there's another thirty-nine groups like the three of us, it's no surprise she'd be pretty busy."

We were all quiet again for another few seconds, before I smiled. "I'd suggest maybe tomorrow we could go to Hardegg and find someplace with public wifi? Then we could charge up our phones and send some messages to our friends, to let them know we're ok. Except I don't want to jinx things, because every time we plan on going to Hardegg something comes up and stops us."

My enbyfriend suppressed a cute little giggle, "Then let's not make any plans, at least for the next few days. We're comfortable, we have food, and we have each other. Let's just take it easy. We can keep practising our magic, and maybe enjoy some more swimming while the weather stays nice?"

"Seconded," I stated. "Today was a work-day, so tomorrow and the next day must be the weekend."

This time Stef couldn't hold back their giggle as they responded, "Is that our new schedule? One work day followed by six days of weekend? I could live with that."

Our dream of the one day work week didn't quite turn out as planned, but we did have a couple days where we could mostly relax. Things were nice and quiet for the rest of the day on Tuesday, after the humans left. Wednesday we did exactly what my enbyfriend suggested, and spent half the day swimming in our little lagoon then the other half of the day practising our magic.

That was the plan for Thursday as well, but around mid-day we were all startled by the sound of gunshots in the distance. Stef quickly determined that the noise was coming from the Czech side of the border, and after that it wasn't long before we spotted the source.

There were a couple dozen soldiers over there, but we couldn't tell what they'd been shooting at. It may have been wildlife, or perhaps they were taking pot shots at the magic mountain. Our territory didn't extend to that side of the lake though, so there wasn't much we could do about them.

We watched them poke around at the north end of the natural dam for a bit, which made us worry they were thinking about trying to drain our new lake. Fortunately they didn't actually seem to do anything apart from look, and eventually the group disappeared from view to the east.

Our plans for another relaxing day on Friday only lasted until mid-morning before they fell apart as well. Once again the three of us sensed another group of humans on horses entering our territory from the south, and it wasn't hard to guess that the government wanted to talk to us some more.

Like before there were a dozen of them, and at first we worried it was the same group coming to try again. However Stef quickly determined there were some new people in today's group. The three of us went out to the same spot where we'd met them before, but this time we didn't bother trying to hide.

Sure enough when the procession emerged from the woods we spotted a few familiar faces, but also several new ones. We all recognized the guide again, this was his third visit but we still didn't know his name. The photographer Mr. Seidl was also here for a third time, and he had a 'new' antique camera with him today, along with more film.

Back for their second visit was our friend Hannes Huber, and we also recognized the young private who looked after the horses last time they were here. We were less happy to see Minister Pierer was back, along with his secret agent undercover cop bodyguard, Mr. Kofler.

The rest were all new faces, and among them were a couple surprises. The first was that one of the humans was a woman. The other two groups had all been men, so it was a nice change to see them finally send a woman as part of their team.

I was positive she was a politician, and not just because she was dressed in professional 'business' attire rather than combat fatigues. I actually recognized her from somewhere, and I figured I'd probably seen her on the news at some point. I had a feeling she was someone important.

The best I could guess for her age was somewhere in her mid- to late-forties. She appeared to be in pretty good shape, and was still fairly attractive despite her 'professional politician' style. Her sandy blonde hair was done up in a bun, she wore a pair of stylish glasses, and her make-up was subtle but effective.

Finally there were five more soldiers, none of whom had visited us before. The one I took to be in command had a pistol on his belt and an assault rifle across his back, while private horse-whisperer and a second soldier were also armed with rifles. The other surprise was the last two soldiers, who were not carrying any firearms at all. Instead they both had modern compound bows with them, and quivers of arrows.

"I'll bet they think the bows and arrows might work on us," Stef whispered. "Since they know guns don't work. They're probably hoping that old-fashioned weapons will work where modern ones fail."

I grimaced then whispered back, "I just hope they don't try and use them. Whether they work or not, it's not fun being shot at."

"Agreed," they stated.

Theo asked softly, "Do you suppose they're here to listen this time?"

"I really hope so," I replied. "If they're just going to waste our time again we may as well tell them not to bother coming back at all."

By that point the group of humans had come to a stop and started to dismount. We watched as the guide and that one private rounded up the horses and moved them all a little further away, while the other soldiers took up positions to either side. Unfortunately it seemed like they were determined to act threatening, as they made sure they all had clear lines of sight on the three of us.

Finally the civilians began to approach us, with the woman leading the way while Hannes and Minister Pierer followed. The undercover cop stayed close to his boss's side, and the photographer accompanied them as well. He was taking pictures again, but this time he was careful to focus only on the humans rather than my friends and I.

The group came to a halt a couple meters back, and it looked like the woman was about to speak when our little wildcat interrupted.

"Hello Hannes," Theo said. "It's nice to see you again. Who is your new friend?"

The government staffer looked nervous again as he replied, "Hello ah, Theo. Allow me to introduce Susanne Schulz, President of Austria."

My eyes widened and I exchanged a surprised look with Stef. I'd been expecting Hannes' boss, the Minister of Climate Action and Energy. Or maybe another minister or ministerial secretary. Having the actual president come out here to see us made me think they were taking us seriously after all.

Not that the president had much in the way of direct power, the way our government worked meant mostly all she could do was veto stuff she didn't like. But she's the one who appointed most of the others, and there were a few other things she could do to try and push the rest of the government in one direction or another.

Of the three of us, only Theo was unimpressed by the status of our new visitor.

"Hello Susanne," he greeted the President of Austria with the same level of respect as if he'd been introduced to someone's school-aged daughter. Then he asked Hannes, "President huh? I thought your ruler was someone called Chancellor?"

I cleared my throat then stage-whispered to our wildcat friend, "It's complicated and we can explain later Theo, but the President is also very important."

Fortunately Ms. Schulz didn't seem to take any offence at Theo's dismissive greeting. Instead she gave all three of us a 'political smile' as she greeted us, "It's a pleasure to meet the three of you. Mr. Theo, Mx. Stef, and Miss Stella. I've read quite a bit about the three of you over the last few days, as I'm sure you can imagine."

Stef replied, "It's nice to meet you too ma'am."

"Nice to meet you," I agreed.

"Are you here to negotiate with us?" Theo asked. "Because last time Mr. Pierer was here he wasn't interested in negotiations. He just wanted to make demands and threats."

The president gave us another one of those politician's smiles as she replied, "Unfortunately due to the way our government works I am not able to negotiate directly. But I assure you Mr. Theo, I am here to ensure that honest negotiations can begin without further obstruction."

She paused there to cast a withering look at Minister Pierer, before looking back at us with another friendly expression. She smiled once more, but this time it actually appeared genuine as she admitted, "Before I left Vienna to come and meet with the three of you, I promised my wife that I would make this trip count. And the only thing I hate more than failing the people of Austria is disappointing my wife."

"So what can we do to make this work?" she asked, as her tone and expression became more serious again.

Theo didn't have to think it over, he already had an answer ready. "I like Hannes, I will negotiate with him."

"I like you as well Susanne," the little wildcat added. "And I like those two humans who look after the horses, but we've never been introduced to them."

Ms. Schulz glanced briefly at the guide and the private, but then her attention turned to Minister Pierer. He spoke up before she could address him.

"Mr. Huber isn't an elected official," the minister of the interior stated. "Nor has he any diplomatic experience. Simply put, he is not qualified to enter negotiations on behalf of Austria. And with all due respect ma'am, neither are you."

The president gave Pierer another withering look, then in a tone cold enough I almost expected Lake Thaya to freeze over she stated "As I recall it was you Karl who ruled out the possibility of bringing our Minister of Climate Action and Energy. You also ruled out our Minister of International Affairs, along with any of our trained and experienced diplomatic staff."

Pierer gave the president an obsequious smile as he responded, "As you know Ms. Schulz my concern has always been the safety and security of the Austrian people. That includes its government and my fellow ministers. I was worried for their safety, and knowing how the previous two missions ended and what these... people are capable of, I believe my precautions were justified."

Neither Theo or Stef or I were impressed with the man's excuses, and it seemed like the president agreed with us.

She gave him another hard look then stated firmly, "Minister Pierer I've had about enough of your petty self-serving bullshit. If you don't get your act together and stop obstructing these negotiations, I swear to God or Gaia I will declare a national emergency and dissolve parliament the moment we get back to Vienna. Then I'll replace all you incompetent arses with some people who actually want to do their jobs and preserve our country! Do I make myself clear?!"

The old minister actually looked a little stunned by all that, and instead of responding immediately he just stared at Ms. Schulz for a second or two.

Then our little wildcat broke the awkward silence as he commented, "Ok yeah, I like Susanne a lot."

** This chapter is brought to you courtesy of Lucy who commissioned it! **