Wynd, Skye and One White Mouse

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Icon	Xanadu story universe

Prologue

"Sometimes I hate my life," Wynd muttered to herself before taking another slurp of soda. This was supposed to have been a cool weekend, but she kept getting thwarted at every turn, mostly by her mom. Dad wasn't so bad, if you caught him watching TV or fiddling with the computer, he'd say uh-huh to most anything. Mom was another matter entirely, and she seemed extra intent on fun-killing in the last few days. First, she was saddled with her two younger siblings and their goofy Halloween costumes. Skye was ten, which made her almost tolerable, Jamie, however, was seven and just breathing made him a pain in the butt. Second, she had to beg and plead to keep her costume from being vetoed. It showed hardly any skin, but it was very form-fitting. At least she managed to win that one. This was Orlando and not Tehran afterall.

Her original plan had been to arrive Friday morning, spend the night in the hotel with some of her girlfriends, then come home Saturday night. That meant skipping school Friday, so that was out. That was just as well, she wouldn't be caught dead dragging the uncool young ones in to meet her friends anyway.

Also, she had been quite proud of her costume, and had even thought about entering it in a contest. She wore white tights and leotard, shiny gray shoes and gloves to represent hooves, a white horse-tail that hung almost to the floor, angel-wings, and the best part, a horse-head, covered in white faux fur, she had bought from a catalog. She thought she made a fantastic pegasus. It wasn't until she wandered around the Convention Center for a while that morning, however, that she realized how out-classed she was. This was not the year for elegant minimalism. The money that Eric Winters had pored into the Con and the contests meant that people had come from all over the nation and had pulled out all stops. When she saw an equine with complicated digigrade stilts, she knew she was done.

And finally, to place a sucky crown on an already very sucky day, she found out Duncan had been grounded. She had practiced swishing her horsetail coquettishly all week just for his benefit. Now he wasn't even going to be there. That's why she was forlornly sipping cola at the food court of the Xanadu Convention Center instead of having fun.

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Jamie nibbled a french fry then smiled at his eldest sister, revealing the chicken nuggets he had stored in his cheeks for later. If this was intended to bring Wynd out of her blue funk, it didn't work.

"Eww gross!" she gagged, and almost spilled her drink down her front. She tried to kick him under the table.

"Stop it you two!" Almost nothing seemed to perturb Skye, who was probably most like her mom. She had just given up on her red 'Ariel' wig and was stuffing it into her sister's bag. "I'm going to be my own mermaid today," she announced. Yesterday, She didn't put up a fight when her mom had vetoed her first costume choice by declaring "No sea shells unless you're wearing something under them." Skye decided that that would be just plain silly, so instead, she opted to forget the shells entirely and wear her pink 'Hello Kitty' tank top to go with her narrow, cylindical, mermaid-tail skirt.

Jamie had decided to come as 'Stewart Little'. He wore white flannel footie pajamas, white gloves with pink pads, a whiskered mouse-nose and ears. All was finished with a red Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses. He decided to show his other sister his 'stores'. It was a wasted effort, nothing could penetrate Skye's serenity today.

Wynd grew weary of sulking and consoling herself with the thought that nothing else could possibly go wrong today, spoke up, "Let's go down to Darkknight books and shop for a bit."

"Yay, let's go!" said Skye. "I heard they have a new Pirate RPG out." She had started to wonder if her older sister was going to waste the rest of the convention.

Jamie was inclined at first to be contrary, but relented when they promised him a Killer Bunniesbooster pack. In a few moments they were on their way. Wynd tucked the horsehead under her right arm and took hold of her sister's hand. Skye kept the required tight grip on her brother as they slowly worked through the crowd.

They had only gone a short way when Wynd spotted some girls from her class coming up from the opposit direction. She just wasn't in the mood to talk right now, so she decided to seek anonymity in her costume and donned the head.

Skye wondered why her sister stopped to put on the head. She had complained all day about how stuffy it was and how hard it was to see out of. She was about to ask when Wynd suddenly grew tall. Her legs bent while her feet and middle toes lengthened. The wings on her back grew enormous and began to flap wildly. In a second, or perhaps less, Skye found herself holding the hoof of a great winged horse. That's when she pitched forward unto her face and was momentarily stunned.