Home Sweet Home - Ch.52 - Capturing Nature (Patreon)

"Hi Jenna, I'm home!" I called as soon as I entered the house.

My girlfriend replied from the living-room, "Hi Vikki! How was your day?"

"Any news from Erin?" she added. "Has she had her baby yet?"

I smiled and shook my head as I headed straight into the living-room, where my beautiful genie was sitting crosslegged on one end of the sofa. She had her laptop balanced on one knee, while her big pink plush pony watched from the chair by the window.

"Not yet," I replied as I joined Jenna on the sofa. "Or at least, I haven't heard anything yet. I'm pretty sure she's due any day now, so we'll probably hear something soon."

The two of us cuddled up close and exchanged some kisses then I added, "Your nemesis came by the office today."

"I have a nemesis?" my girlfriend responded with a confused frown as she tilted her head slightly to one side.

"Cassandra Underwood?" I elaborated. "I guess she's not really your nemesis, but I know you're still scared of her."

Sure enough Jenna tensed up slightly at the young goddess's name. "That's because she's really dangerous and shouldn't even exist in the first place. What did she want with you?"

I shrugged, "She wants to buy an old church for some reason? I couldn't find anything that met her needs, but I told her I'd keep looking incase something comes up. What's more interesting though is I found out who or what she really is. She calls herself the Goddess of Chaos, and also goes by the name Kid Chaos."

"And get this," I added, "She's the one who's behind those enchanted plush toys Jay and Layla and Jessie used? When she came in she knew who Jay was, apparently she knows all the plushie users because they're all using her magic."

My girlfriend ended up with a thoughtful frown on her face, "I'm glad she's making people happy with the enchanted plushies. She's still part demon though, and that's impossible."

"I'll take your word for it love," I told her with another kiss. "She didn't mention being a demon, only that she's the goddess of chaos. Anyways how was college, did you have a good day today?"

Just like that the demon goddess was all but forgotten. Jenna flashed me a hopeful smile as she responded, "School was fine. Do you have to work again this weekend, or can we do something together? Tomorrow maybe?"

I smiled back at her, "I don't have any open houses or showings, so I'm all yours from now until Monday. What did you want to do?"

"I've got an assignment for my photography class," she explained, "It's about 'capturing nature', so I was thinking..."

I tried not to grimace when her voice trailed off. "Does that mean another field trip to a jungle in Borneo? Or the Amazonian rainforest?"

My girlfriend pouted, "Not this time. Professor Adams explained very clearly that this was about local nature only."

"He was looking right at me when he said that too," she added. "I think he's still grumpy about that itty bitty little spider incident."

I tried not to face-palm as I reminded her, "I told you some people don't like spiders, no matter what size they are. And that wasn't an itty bitty spider, Jenna. It was the size of a toddler's head!"

My genie protested, "I only took Mr. Leggy to class because Professor Adams accused me of doctoring my pictures! He said it was impossible for spiders to grow that big. I just wanted to show him that they could, and prove my pictures were real!"

"And it's not like Mr. Leggy was dangerous or anything," she added with another pout. "He was a sweetheart, he wouldn't even hurt a fly."

By that point I was fighting a smile, "I'm pretty sure that's not true love. In fact spiders are kind of known for specifically hurting flies."

Jenna insisted, "Not Mr. Leggy! He mostly ate birds of paradise. And maybe the occasional tree frog?"

"That information probably didn't ease your prof's mind any," I pointed out.

My girlfriend pouted once more, "No. It didn't."

I gave her another hug and kiss before asking, "So if we're not going to some tropical rainforest where are we going tomorrow?"

"Professor Adams made a list of suggestions," she replied as her mood perked up again. "I think a lot of people are taking the easy option and just going to a zoo? And I know a few people are heading to the conservation area over at Island Lake. But there's a nature reserve that's only a little further outside of town, that has some hiking trails and stuff like that. I thought maybe we could go there tomorrow? It probably won't be as busy."

I nodded, "Sounds good to me."

"Why don't we go out for brunch tomorrow morning," I added, "Then from there we can go do the nature hike."

"Yeah! That sounds perfect!" Jenna exclaimed happily. "Thanks Vikki!"

We exchanged another hug and kiss after that, then came up with some impromptu plans for our regular Friday date night. Just the two of us though, since Jay and Layla were busy celebrating their one-year felineversary together.

• • • • •

"I think I know why most of the class decided to go to the zoo," Jenna grumbled as the mud made a loud squelching sound around her boots.

I grimaced, "It's definitely mid-April weather. We're just lucky it isn't raining."

"Or snowing," I added a moment later. Then I frowned, "Although thanks to climate change we don't tend to see snow this late in the year anymore."

My girlfriend pointed, "There's snow right there Vikki. See?"

Sure enough there was a little patch of the stuff wrapped around the base of a few trees near the very bottom of the ravine.

I nodded "Yeah, that's older snow that hasn't melted yet. It's probably been there since December? I'll bet the sun doesn't get down into these ravines until next month. Anyways I meant we usually don't get new snowfalls this late in the season, not anymore."

"Ok," Jenna nodded as her boots squelched again while the two of us slowly walked through the muck.

Her mood picked up a few moments later when she commented, "Apart from the mess it's making of our footwear, there's a kind of exciting beauty to it all. You know? Like it's the very first blush of springtime. There's buds on all the trees, just waiting to burst open and fill the air with green! And pollen! And all the little creatures are just starting to wake up and emerge from their winter sleeps."

"That's a good way of looking at it," I smiled. "So what sort of nature are you hoping to capture?"

With a hopeful grin on her face my genie replied, "If we're super-duper lucky I might be able to get some pictures of wild salamanders! I'm pretty sure this is the time of year they'd be waking up and looking for other salamanders so they can hook up and make baby salamanders!"

"They'll be looking for meltwater ponds," she added. "They need water, but I don't think they like moving water? So instead of these little creeks we need to find some depressions where ponds are forming."

I nodded, "Alright love, I'll keep an eye out for that. Is there anything else you're hoping to find?"

She shrugged, "Anything cute I guess? Bugs, snakes, or even something furry like squirrels or chipmunks? Or skunks or racoons."

"Maybe not skunks," I grimaced.

"Why not?" Jenna asked as she tilted her head slightly. "They're really cute! Like halfway between a big squirrel and a little kitty, plus they have racing stripes!"

I wasn't sure if she knew what they smelled like, or that most humans preferred to avoid their odour. So as the two of us continued picking our way through the nature preserve I mumbled quietly, "I'll take you word for that love."

We'd been at it for about a half hour already, but Jenna hadn't stopped to take any pictures yet. Not that I could blame her, the place didn't actually look very photogenic to me. It was probably a lot nicer in the summer, but this time of year felt like the worst for hiking. We were too late for the 'winter wonderland' look, but too early for the 'lush woodland' it'd become in June or July. Instead we got loads of mud, a lot of sad-looking pines and cedars, some naked bushes, scraggly brown weeds, and an assortment of bare leafless deciduous trees.

Fortunately the two of us had dressed appropriately. We were both in knee-high rubber boots and jeans, with t-shirts and spring jackets on top. The gumboots earned us some funny looks at the restaurant where we got brunch, but nobody said anything.

Jenna led the two of us up over a hill then down the far side into an identical little ravine, but instead of a pond we found yet another little creek flowing through it.

As we started back up the opposite side I asked, "What do you want to do if we don't find anything here? Or how long do you want to spend looking? If we're not too tired after all this we could always swing by Island Lake this afternoon."

"Or I suppose you could use some magic to 'find' something?" I added quietly. "Maybe poof up a salamander so you can take its picture?"

My girlfriend shook her head as she reminded me in a solemn tone, "I don't use magic for school stuff, Vikki. It's one thing to poof myself to a tropical rainforest, that's cheating at travel. But I won't cheat at my assignments. That's why I was so upset with Professor Adams when he accused me of doctoring those pictures of Mr. Leggy."

"Sorry love," I apologized. "I didn't mean it like that. And I'm very proud of you for keeping magic separate from your schoolwork."

It was only a few more minutes after that when we found our first real evidence of anything other than trees and weeds. There were a few clear paw prints in the mud, so we stopped while Jenna took a few careful photos.

"They look like dog tracks," I commented. "I'd have suggested someone out walking their dog, but I don't think I've seen any footprints yet. Apart from our own, I mean."

My girlfriend shook her head, "They're from a coyote. This area's also home to foxes, but these prints are a little to big to be from a fox."

"Ah," I nodded slowly. I had no idea how she knew the difference between dog and coyote paw prints, but I trusted her.

Once she had all the pictures she wanted the two of us continued making our way up the next hill. We'd only just reached the top when Jenna suddenly stopped in her tracks, and she put a hand on my shoulder to stop me as well. She'd obviously seen something, based on the way she was staring intently at something part-way down the hill ahead of us.

"Look at that!" she whispered. "It's beautiful!"

It wasn't hard to guess what she was looking at, thanks to the little splash of colour at the base of a tree some half dozen meters away. Instead of a fox or coyote or some other wild animal, I found myself staring at what appeared to be a fairly ordinary cat. Or it was the size and shape of an ordinary domestic cat, but the pattern in its fur was something else. The base colour was beige, but that was broken up by dozens of brown and orange splotches. In fact the spots were almost exactly like you'd see on a jaguar, and I'd never even heard of that pattern being replicated on a house cat.

I watched quietly as my girlfriend slowly raised her camera up and focused on the pretty cat, but before she could snap even one picture the little animal suddenly dashed off to the left.

"Aww!" Jenna whined as she lowered her camera. Then she took off down the slippery muddy hill as she called back to me, "C'mon Vikki! Let's try and catch him!"

"Just be careful!" I replied as I hurried after her.

Thanks to the cat's bright colours he wasn't actually that hard to follow, at least visually. He ended up about halfway down the side of the ravine, before he seemed to disappear completely. Jenna raced towards the spot where we'd last seen him, while I did my best to keep up with her without ending up on my behind. Or in a muddy heap at the bottom of the ravine.

Fortunately my girlfriend slowed to a stop a couple seconds later, and I came to a halt when I caught up to her and realized what she'd found.

The two of us were standing a couple paces in front of a small cave, and from the little paw prints leading inside it was clear the colourful kitty had taken refuge inside. I figured that might actually be where it was living, assuming it wasn't actually someone's pet.

"Wanna go inside?" Jenna asked with a hopeful smile. "We might find the kitty. Or some cute cave spiders or something."

I grimaced, "I don't know love? It might be dangerous. We didn't bring flashlights, and for that matter helmets might be a good idea too."

My girlfriend turned and pouted at me, "I really want to get a picture of that kitty. I've never seen one like that before, he was like a jaguar but fun-size!"

I couldn't help smiling at her description, but someone else spoke up before I could respond.

"Maybe if you ask nicely he'll pose for you?" a male voice asked, and hearing that right next to us nearly made both me and Jenna jump out of our boots.

My heart was pounding as I turned towards the cave, where a young man was now sitting cross-legged just inside the entrance. And even though he looked like a normal human I knew there had to be something more to him, because there was no way for someone to get there without us hearing or seeing him.

The guy appeared to be in his mid-twenties, and at first-glance he could have been just another hiker out enjoying an early spring walk in the woods. He had sandy-blond hair, and his tanned face was clean-shaved. He was dressed in blue jeans, black hiking boots, and a tan-coloured jacket. And he had a small navy blue backpack slung over one shoulder, which made him look like a college student.

Except there was no mud on his boots, or his pants. And there weren't any footprints outside the cave, apart from mine and Jenna's. So unless he'd been hiding deeper in the cave there really wasn't any explanation for how he got there.

"That's actually not far from the truth," he told me, as if he'd been reading my thoughts. "I don't live in this cave though, not the way you're thinking. It's more a portal or gateway to my realm."

Jenna took a step forward, to put herself in between me and the cave entrance. I could tell she was anxious, despite the brave front she tried to put up. Then she clutched her camera tightly and half-demanded, "Who are you? What do you want with us?"

The young man gave my genie a friendly smile as he replied, "I have no name of my own, and there are no words to describe what I am."

"As for what I want," he continued as he looked my girlfriend up and down, "I'm very excited to finally met you Jenna."

The fact that he knew my girlfriend's name made the situation even more creepy. It only got worse though when the guy went on to recite some very specific poetry.

"You're not the first genie set free, of all your kin you're number three. I've watched with pride, biding my time. At last we meet, oh child of mine."

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