Hounded

are not all that great with time. They understand day and night, but beyond that they are nearly indifferent to its passage. So » recently « could mean anything from a minute ago to hours. Have you taken a nap , I asked, since she got here?
    › No. We just finished speaking before you arrived. ‹
    Thank you, Oberon .
    › Will we go hunting soon? ‹
    That depends entirely on the visitor. Whoever she is, she was not invited .
    › Oh. ‹ A hint of uncertainty crept into Oberon’s thoughts. › Have I failed to protect you? ‹
    Do not worry, Oberon , I said. I am not displeased with you. But I am going to come back and get you, and we will enter the house together. I want you to guard me in case she proves not to be as friendly as you thought .
    › What if she attacks? ‹
    Kill her . One does not give the Tuatha Dé Danann second chances.
    › I thought you said never to attack humans. ‹
    She hasn’t been human for a very long time .
    › All right. I do not think she will attack, though. She is a nice inhuman. ‹
    You mean nonhuman . Inhuman is an adjective , I said, as I rose from the lawn and padded softly around the left side of the house to the backyard.
    › Hey, I’m not a native speaker. Give me a break. ‹
    I left my bicycle resting in the street, hoping that it would not be stolen in a few minutes of neglect. Oberon was waiting for me as I opened the gate, his tongue lolling out and his tail wagging. I scratched him briefly behind the ears, and we walked together to my back door.
    The patio furniture seemed undisturbed. My herb garden, planted in rows of boxes along the back fence and in much of the area normally reserved for a lawn, grew unmolested.
    I found the visitor in my kitchen, trying to make a strawberry fruit smoothie.
    » Manannan Mac Lir take this cursed thing to the land of shades! « she shouted as she smashed her fist onto the buttons of my blender. » The mortals always push these buttons and the bloody things work. Why won’t yours work? « she demanded, flipping an irritated glance my way.
    » You have to plug it in, « I explained.
    » What is this plug? «
    » Insert the two-pronged device at the end of that cord into the slots on the wall there. That will give the blender its, um, animating force. « I thought I could explain electricity later if necessary; there was no use burdening her with new vocabulary.
    » Ah. Well met, then, Druid. «
    » Well met, Flidais, goddess of the hunt. «
    › Told you she was nice, ‹ Oberon said.
    I had to admit that of all the Tuatha Dé Danann it could have been, Flidais was one of the most agreeable to find in my kitchen. But you know that old saying about storm clouds being thrice cursed: Flidais brought the second one rolling behind her, and I never saw it coming.

Chapter 4
    » You know you cannot get one of these drinks in Tír na nÓg? « Flidais said above the whine of my blender.
    » I thought as much, « I replied. » Blenders tend to be in short supply there. So how did you hear of them? «
    » Only recently, as it turns out, « Flidais said, puffing an errant wisp of curling red hair away from her eyes as she watched the strawberries puree. It was a somewhat windblown mane she had, a bit frizzy and so natural that I thought I spied a twig or two reclining lazily in her locks. » I was guesting in the forest of Herne the Hunter, and I caught a poacher driving through it in one of those monstrous truck things. He had taken a doe and covered it up in the back with a sheet of that black plastic material. Since Herne was not with me at the time, I took it upon myself to avenge the doe, and I followed him in my chariot to the city. « She began to pour some of the smoothie into the glass, and it looked pretty good. I found myself hoping she was in a sharing mood. And then I remembered that Flidais has a chariot pulled by stags, and I thought that even the reserved British of today would behave badly when confronted with something like that on the highway.
    » You were invisible to mortals during this chase, I presume? «
    » Of course! « Her hands froze and her green eyes flashed at me with a temper that matched the flame of her hair. » What kind of huntress do you take me for? «
    Whoops! I lowered my eyes and spoke down to her boots, the soft brown leather sort with tough yet pliant soles like moccasins. They rose to her knees, where she had some tan leggings tucked into them—also leather and well worn. But the leather