"You're a wolf," was the first thing to come out of Giselle's mouth after she had disentangled herself from the man she crashed into.
"Huff. Puff." The man said scratching at his forehead with two curved fingers.
Robert had taken Giselle and Morgan to the park on a fine Sunday afternoon. They'd just finished their picnic and Morgan had insisted on teaching her mother- to -be the finer points of rollerblading. Giselle was laughing herself hoarse and she clung to Robert. All her natural grace seemed to disappear once the wheeled contraptions were tied to her feet; she was floundering about like a yearling on fresh ice.
That was all before she went rolling all too swiftly down a hill with Robert and Morgan running frantically after her. Giselle's downward momentum was stopped when she rolled into a man sauntering across the path.
He was a tall man whose dark good looks reminded her a bit of Robert. As he laughingly helped her up his nose twitched and his brown eyes flashed predator yellow.
"I don't know what you're talking about," the man protested. "All one hundred percent human here. In no way a clever, dashing, sheep worrier." He smiled nervously.
"Wolf?" someone asked. A tiny, profoundly beautiful women with short cropped brunette hair leading a little boy by the hand, and an even littler girl propped on her hip appeared out of the entrance of a nearby hedge maze.
"Except that Wolf happens to be my name," Wolf gave her a wide, charming (even if it showed far too many teeth) smile. "Over here, Virginia, my dreamy, creamy girl." Wolf's nose twitched and he turned to look at Giselle. He frowned and gave the air a good sniff.
Giselle would have danced in excitement if she didn't think she'd just fall on her face. A wolf in New York! This was exciting. She was beginning to think that Robert was all kinds of wrong about this world not having magic. After all, that big dragon with the weird name (Godzilla!) was forever in the news, rumors of gargoyles abounded and just recently she had met four turtles and a rat that had been turned into people by some kind of glowing potion.
Wolf gave her a considering look. "You smell like the forest on a spring morning. And magic and unless my fabulous sniffer is off…and that's unlikely, you're not entirely human yourself."
Giselle grinned prettily at the wolf in blue jeans, "Wood nymph. On my mother's side. You're a wolf?"
Wolf nodded, "Half wolf. Which of the Nine Kingdoms are you from?"
"Nine Kingdoms?" Giselle frowned, "I've never heard of such lands. I'm from Andalasia."
"Andalasia?" Wolf blinked.
----
Introductions were a little awkward. Robert handed Morgan her chocolate raspberry swirl ice cream cone. Okay. So Giselle wasn't the only magic type person running around New York. This Wolf guy was well…a wolf. At first Robert wasn't too sure. All he saw was a really hyper guy who shouldn't be allowed to have caffeine or sugar. Ever. But then Wolf's head tilted a certain way and Robert was pretty sure this happened, Wolf smelled him.
It was the brief eye glowing that really sold it.
Wolf's wife was tiny woman with short cropped dark hair and dark blue eyes, her name was Virginia. She seemed to view the whole chance meeting between their spouses with the same caution that Robert himself felt.
Morgan was happily talking to Wolf and Virginia's two children, Warren and Luna, she was expounding in detail how animals regularly cleaned up their apartment.
"But how can so many of the same people exist in two different worlds?" Giselle wondered.
Wolf shrugged, "I read once in a very helpful book about alternate realities that it's possible for many different versions of the same thing to exist. Like looking into an infinity of exponentially more distorted mirrors."
Giselle blinked.
Virginia gave Robert a wry smile, "Wolf's the first hardcore sci-fi fan the Nine Kingdoms has ever produced. The last time we were there he tried to get King Wendell to institute a SETI program"
At that Wolf rolled his eyes. "Speculative Fiction. Sci-fi demeans the genre."
Virginia rolled her eyes back at him.
Robert, the closet Star Wars nut, kinda agreed with him.
"How did your story start? How did you meet Wolf? Did you know right away that he was the One?" Burbled Giselle.
Virginia laughed, "I lived on the edge of the forest. Well, Central Park…"
It was an epic story with filled with fighting, trolls, revenge, gypsies, monsters, chases, escapes from maximum security prisons with unlikely names, true love, magic mirrors, magic shoes, magic mushrooms.
Every once in a while Giselle and Robert and the mostly spellbound Morgan would interrupt and ask for clarification.
----
"She turned him into a dog?" Exclaimed Morgan.
----
"You tried to eat her grandmother!" interjected a horrified Robert.
Wolf shook his head rapidly and wagged a finger admonishingly in the air, "No, no. Wolfies only pretend to do naughty things."
Virginia propped her chin onto a fist thoughtfully, "Grandmother still hasn't forgiven you, you know?
"The last time we had dinner with Granny—she hit Daddy in the face with a frying pan," Warren chortled.
"And after I abjectly apologized and everything," Wolf said indignantly. "I even groveled for the old bird."
"You're lucky she didn't sue," sputtered Robert.
The look of slow dawning horror on the half wolf's face was amusing to watch, he turned several shades paler and his eyes bugged out a bit, "You don't think she would?"
----
"So no one lives of quiet desperation?" wondered Robert.
"We either live happily ever after or we get killed by horrible curses," Wolf said.
"It's like that in Andalusia too," said Giselle. "Somehow the horrible curse sounds better than the quiet desperation."
----
"Have you any idea how much it hurts to have someone climb up your hair?" Virginia tugged at her short locks with a sort of negative nostalgia.
Giselle, Morgan, and Luna all tugged lightly at their own tresses more or less in unison and flinched a bit in sympathy.
----
"Never go into law," Robert said seriously to Virginia after her account of her horrific impromptu performance as Wolf's defense attorney.
----
Giselle kicked Wolf in the chin when he recounted his deception about the mirror.
Robert made a mental note to quiz Wolf about where he got the singing ring. It was hard to find a suitable ring for a fairytale princess even in the Diamond District.
----
Virginia abruptly found herself in Giselle's embrace when the revelation of the Evil Queen's true identity.
The brunette awkwardly patted the red head on the shoulder. "Its' okay."
"No, it's not. Giselle said flatly.
Virginia smiled watery, "No. It's not. The pain never goes away, but …it fades."
----
"Stop smelling me!" Morgan demanded.
Warren shrugged unapologetically, "No. You smell nice. Like warm chocolate chip cookies and lilies."
"Warren's got a girlfriend, Warren's got a girlfriend," Luna mocked.
Warren ignored his sister and boldly sniffed Morgan's hair and smiled charmingly at her, "I could follow your scent through time itself."
"Huff Puff. That's my line," Wolf said in mock annoyance.
Robert was very disturbed by this. Morgan was far too young for a boyfriend. He made mention of this with an uncomfortable smile.
Virginia smile was a bit strained by this as well, "Warren's not allowed to date until he's fifteen."
Robert let out a relived sigh.
"I assure you Mr. Philips that my intentions are mostly honorable," the cub said brightly.
There was a moment of silence.
"Mostly honorable?" Robert gave Warren a gimlet eye.
"Wolves mate for life…I'm gonna marry her," Warren smiled charmingly.
"We can't get married…there are laws about people our age getting married!" Protested Morgan.
Robert's lips twitched. That's Daddy little litigator.
Warren shook his head, "Not now my little lamb chop. When we're older."
"Mostly honorable?" Robert felt that point needed some clarification.
Virginia laughed at the constipated expression on the lawyer's face.
"I'm gonna kiss her first," Warren explained earnestly. "And you know… hold hands."
Robert was skeptical on how long the pup's designs on his daughter would stay that innocent.
Morgan wrinkled her nose, "Don't I get a say in this?"
"Yes…" Warren sighed. "But, see. Wolves mate for life. If you choose someone else…I'll be alone forever."
Morgan's hazel eyes widened. She stared at the wolf puppy. "Forever?" she whispered.
Warren nodded solemnly and made his best puppy eyes, "And ever."
"Come on that's just not possible…" Robert's half amused half appalled grin faded as both Wolf and Giselle exchanged looks.
Virginia's eyes were sad as she took in her son gazing adoringly at the little girl. "It's true. For Warren, Morgan's it."
Robert pondered that.
His thoughts were all tangled up like so much yarn. So, his little Morgan was a wolf's true love. Huh. Robert supposed he might make a good son-in-law after Morgan was done training him. He could keep her feet warm in the winter. Okay. So there was a hint of hysteria with that last thought.
Would a relationship based on his daughter's scent last? Yeash. Maybe he should just take it on a little faith. Stranger things had happened. Just this week they'd been to the zoo and watched in openmouthed astonishment as the wildebeests had a rousing dance number.
Wolf sighed plaintively, "Huff Puff. Couldn't he have found her they're older?"
"Life is so much weirder since I've met you," murmured Robert.
Giselle laughed. "Fun though."
"Hey, we can to Kissing Town for our first date!" Warren announced to a furiously blushing Morgan.
"No!" Robert interjected. No way was that skinny little puppy taking his daughter anywhere with kissing in the name!
Virginia rolled her eyes, "Not until you're fifteen."
The ensuing argument would last the evening.
That weekend the two families would go bowling.
Robert and Giselle had found a couple with whom they could do couple stuff. Giselle had found a fellow expatriate from fantasy land. Robert had found a fellow member of the 'Weird Stuff Happening on a Semi- Regular Basis' club to commiserate with. Morgan had found a possible future husband and Luna had found something she could torment her brother forever with (it would start with MODE's wedding addition underneath his pillow).
I got the dancing wildebeests from Disney's 'The Wild' staring Jack Bauer.
Mode is from Ugly Betty.