It hadn’t taken Allison long to figure out how to deal with storms, and when the last one had started, she’d spent half an hour leaning out the window enjoying the smells, feel, and sounds of the storm, before grabbing a plastic-covered backpack and heading out toward one of the older nearby parks; one with huge trees that would have mostly blocked the sun even if the clouds hadn’t been there. She got there early enough to leave the backpack hanging from the lower branch of a tree, and immediately climb up the same tree as high as she could, peering out through the leaves for a very satisfying hour as the--unusually, and delightfully, powerful--storm continued.

When the storm wore out Allison climbed back down the tree, retrieving the backpack with a resigned sigh, and switched the almost-waterproof coat she’d been wearing for a long, silver and gray dress, with flowing sleeves and skirt, that could almost resemble robes. Her clothes beneath the dress were slightly damp, but not so much that they’d be a problem. The coat was stored in the (very, very oversized) ziplock bag the dress had been in and tucked back into the backpack, and Allison began pulling out tea candles, incense, sparklers, and clear, round stones.

Several minutes later the candles and stones were arranged in a circle, three stones between every candle. She’d wanted a larger circle than the roughly six-foot-wide one she’d ended up with, but ran out of candles, and so had to settle for a smaller one, with the remaining stones scattered around the center. Ten assorted incense sticks, none of which she’d bothered to pay attention to the name of, were stuck into the ground in a much smaller circle in the center, and several sparklers and a lighter were laying ready next to her.

The sparklers, however, proved to be difficult. She’d wanted them to be high, above the circle, and after half an hour of climbing, slipping, and frustration, Allison determined that while sparklers could be hung upside down from trees, they didn’t burn nearly long enough, and weren’t inclined to properly light each other if she hung several in a line. Hanging them sideways was possible, but not guaranteed to work, and also burned faster than she wanted.

Gravity. Such a nuisance.

At about the point where Allison was starting to consider the feasibility of having ink hold the sparklers, a boy appeared. Allison grinned, slightly more maniacally than she really intended, grabbed the boy’s wrist, and dragged him over to stand facing the circle, deciding that if someone that tall wasn’t putting up enough resistance to stop her, he must not be trying, and therefore must not object. She scooped up eight of the sparklers and held them out expectantly. “Here. Hold.”

Talking with Gina the other day had helped settle Andrew's worries. For a time. His nerves frayed further each time the sensation occurred. He was still no closer to figuring it out than he had been when it had first started and it wasn't getting any easier to tolerate because of that. So he was jumpy. What did Andrew do when he was feeling jumpy normally? He went for a walk, that's what. Unfortunately a walk would bring him near people and his walk would no longer be calming. So he'd stuck to deserted areas as much as he could.

About an hour into this walk it started to rain. Then the rain turned into a downpour. Andrew frowned. There wasn't even a diner nearby for him to take shelter in like he had done last time. Of course last time hadn't turned out that well anyway. Instead of chancing another horrible owner Drew continued walking through the storm. It was an impressive storm, he'd give it that. By the time the rain had let up he was thoroughly drenched. He'd also ended up in a park. It was old and mostly deserted. That made it a perfect place for him to wander. Though it was curious that any people he met were walking away from the direction he was headed in.

That however was explained away when he turned a bend and saw the circle of candles and rocks. Not to mention it's master. Well mistress really. Though with that get up on she'd have looked the part of a priestess in some role play thing. She even had some odd silver, black, and gold lines tattooed on. He wouldn't have said anything but then she noticed him. The look on her face when she noticed him was hardly sane. Next thing he knew she was dragging him by the wrist over to the circle and thrusting a handful of sparklers at him. He just blinked at her as she commanded him to hold them. What the heck?!

"Uh..." was his brilliant reply.

Allison suppressed a grin and rolled her eyes instead. “Like this.” She arranged the sparklers so there was one between each finger, holding her thumbs so that those sparklers pointed mostly up instead of to the side. “See? Now, hold.” She gathered the sparklers back into one hand, then shoved them back at him, spinning around to pick up a tiny vase, lighter and extra sparkler. She dropped the sparkler in the vase, set the vase in the center of the circle, lit it, and tossed the lighter back outside. “And light the sparklers, and hold them up.”

Allison jumped outside of the circle, standing across it from the boy, took a moment to breath, stand straight, hold her hands together behind her back, and start singing.

“Somewhere, over the rainbow, way up high... there’s a land that I heard of, once in a lullabye.... Somewhere, over the rainbow....”

Andrew mechanically went about doing as the odd woman said. Not because he was agreeing to it mind you. No, he just didn't want to upset the crazy lady while she was watching him. The moment he could see an opening he was out of here. No wonder everyone else had been heading in the opposite direction! Still, he lit the sparklers and held them as she'd demonstrated, just waiting for her to stop paying attention to him so he could get away. He was having enough trouble with sanity as it already stood. Drew certainly didn't need help!

Just as he was preparing to head for the hills the woman started to sing. This of course had the effect of stopping Andrew dead. One because he hadn't expected her to start singing and two because, song choice aside, she wasn't half bad. The song didn't quite lay right for her voice but it sounded good enough. And since 'Over the Rainbow' was such an ear worm of a song he found himself humming along with the crazy girl quite naturally. On one hand this might be the perfect time to get away. On the other hand now he was curious as to why she'd started singing and just what all of this was. On yet another hand that song was an ear worm and like it or not he was very tempted to sing along. Wait, that made three hands didn't it? Now he was confused.

Eh, it couldn't hurt to stick around and see what the crazy chick was up to right? He could always leg it at the first opportunity afterward. After all he was fairly quick. Meanwhile the humming turned into singing along (when had that happened?!)

"Somewhere over the rainbow ... skies are blue, and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true."

Why had he done that? Maybe madness was contagious?!

Allison... really hadn’t expected anything much better than possibly the boy’s being too bemused to run or scream. Singing along had definitely not been anticipated. It certainly didn’t disappoint her, though; Allison gave the boy a grin that was only slightly less manic than the one she’d greeted him with before dragging him over, and continued singing.

As soon as the song was over Allison bounced forward, grabbing the almost-dead lighter sparkler from the vase in the circle, grabbed the last few sparklers, lit them, held them up and started spinning and jumping around the edge of the circle. “Come on!” she took a moment to direct a look at the boy before beginning to sing again.

“This is the song that never ends....”

Allison fully intended to continue singing until either the sparklers ran out, or the boy either ran or screamed at her.

They finished up the song together. Well, after she'd decided to drag him to her side to finish the song anyway. He'd done his best to keep the lit sparklers away from her dress. Just when Drew was starting to think the madness was over she starts jumping around and singing the song that never ends. Not only that but expecting him to do so too.

Not this boy.

No way.

Drew just stood there staring at her for a minute.

"Really? What are you doing?"

The inflection in his voice added an unspoken query of And are you insane? to the spoken ones. He'd played along long enough. Here he was going mad, or at least if he wasn't before he probably was now, and she wanted to dance around with sparklers? He didn't even know who she was?!

"And who are you anyway?"

That was an excellent question too, Drew decided.

The song, rather than ending with running, screaming, or dead sparklers, ended when the boy--apparently every bit as bewildered as Allison had expected--asked what she was doing. There was no way Allison could keep herself from laughing at that.

“I’m having fun, of course,” she answered once she was able to speak, if still grinning. “Which you clearly don’t do enough.” She tilted her head slightly, her grin becoming a little more cunning, as she let the nearly-burnt-out sparklers fall just far enough from her side to avoid catching anything on fire. “So... I’ll tell you my name if you’ll think of something fun to do.”

She laughed and then answered him like it was the most apparent thing in the world what she was doing. Having fun, of course. And then, to top it off she accused him of not having enough fun! The heck?! The girl didn't even know him! He was pretty sure he was slightly offended, no matter whether she was right or not. He just stood there gaping. While he gaped at her she challenged him to think of something fun to do if he want to know her name.

"And I thought I was going nuts." he muttered.

Andrew just shook his head. No, he wasn't going to play that game. The sparklers he held were very nearly dead so he dropped them on the grass without a care. With the very recent rain the grass wouldn't catch fire. An idea struck him and returned his gaze to the girl. After a minute or two he smirked.

"Well then I'll give you a name. How about....Rainbird Stormdancer? So Rainbird, what's with the stone circle, sparklers, and singing? Aside from having fun?"

“Rainbird... Stormdancer?” Allison blinked at the boy for a moment before laughing again. “What, you won’t even try to think of something fun? You really do need to do more.” She grinned. “And, there is nothing aside from having fun. And maybe trying to clear out ignorant people. Well, there could be, I like the storm gods, especially the rain and wind ones... but I have to follow the apple gods. The storm gods are more like family friends, or something. So yeah, it’s just fun.” She nodded again, smiling at him, barely managing to contain laughter. “So? What do you think is fun?” The sparklers in her hand burned out, and were thrown on the ground as she crouched down to examine the stone and candle run, quickly pinching out the flame on the nearest candles--the flame burned slightly, but not enough to truly notice, or leave a mark--and picking up a rock, tossing it in her hand.

Well at least he got a laugh out of Rainbird for the name. But she was still calling him a stick in the mud. Drew just didn't understand her definition of fun. At all really. He gaped at her as she rambled on about fun being the only thing that mattered. And then it was something about storm gods and apple gods?! Was there a psych ward nearby missing a patient?! Drew glanced around but none of the nearby building looked too particularly like mental hospitals. Hmm.

He started at her question and brought his gaze back to Raindancer, something he'd continue to call her regardless of whether he ever got her real name or not.

"Uh, I read. And bake, a little."

Ok, so maybe he was a stick in the mud. However there were more important things to be done than having fun. Right now determining whether he was actually going nuts or not seemed to top the list. Although he hadn't had any problems since coming to the park. That might have just been a function of the park being nearly deserted.

“Read?” Allison looked up at the boy and grinned, dropping the rock she’d been tossing and standing up. “What do you read? History? Fantasy? Cookbooks? Have you read Good Omens? What about thistle ghosts, have you ever read about those? There has got to be some way to defeat them, but I haven’t found it yet.” Allison paused to inspect her hands. The pricks from the thistle ghosts had all faded, but she knew they had happened anyway. “Seriously, there really needs to be a way to defeat them. Also, paper and unripe apple gods. Those can be evil too.”

Saying he read was apparently the correct thing to say. From a certain point of view anyway. She wasn't calling him boring anymore. No, now she was babbling about books and such. And did she mentions thistle ghosts? What was a thistle ghost? Paper was evil? Well, that one he could maybe let slide. Papercuts were not fun in the least. Drew knew this well enough, considering how much paperwork he saw to when he was working. But unripe apples were evil? Say what? It took Drew a moment to process everything she'd said before he could reply.

"Uh, fantasy, some science fiction, some cookbooks. What's a thistle ghost? Why are paper and unripe apples evil? I mean, unripe apples eventually become ripe apples don't they?"

“What kind of fantasy? What about Good Omens? Or Dhampir? Have you read Elvenbane?” The last reminded Allison of the stones and candles and she started walking around the circle, pinching out the candles until she reached her backpack, and could pull out a small fabric bag that the stones went in and a larger plastic one for the candles. She dropped a few stones in their bag and tossed it at Drew. “Here, help collect.” She started back around the circle, pinching out the remaining candles and dropping them into their bag.

“Thistle ghosts are the ghosts of thistles.” That came in just as much of a matter of fact tone as she’d used when saying she was having fun. “They sit in gardens and prick your hands when the living thistles can’t. Paper is evil because it attacked. Even though the whirlwinds were cute, Maxine said they were evil anyway. And unripe apples only become ripe apples if they stay on the tree. If they fall off too soon they don’t get to be ripe, and so they don’t get to be fully powerful, so they mostly become evil because they envy the true, ripe apple gods for having power and tasting good.”

"Uh, just fantasy."

Rainbird tossed him a bag for the stones and Drew went ahead and started picking them up. Might as well. Maybe with luck she'd act a bit more sane after this was cleaned up. Andrew just listened as she answered his questions patiently. It was almost like sitting through a class lecture. In an odd way what she said made sense. That should have scared him that what she'd said made sense but it didn't, he just kept picking up the stones until there were no more to pick up and handed the bag back to Rainbird.

"Oh, I guess that makes sense. How did paper attack you? The most it does to me is papercuts from paperwork."

He was genuinely curious now. Sure paperwork was evil but it was one of those necessary evils that he was paid to take care of. Sam wouldn't have hired him if he didn't have other evils to vanquish.

“It... well, actually, I’m not sure.” Allison paused for a moment before taking the candles and stones back to her backpack and sliding them in. “It became an amoeba, and attacked Maxine, so she had me dump water on it, but the amoeba survived, so we climbed the shelves, and the amoeba turned into a bunch of paper tornadoes, so Maxine had me sit on her and turn on the sprinklers, but it killed the lights too.” Allison absently ran through the list as she packed the candles and stones away, then grabbed the lighter and slid it in. All that was left was the burned out sparklers, which she’d grab before she left. She pulled the dress off, fighting with it a bit to get it to let go of her shirt. The shirt still ended up several inches higher than it should be, but that was easily fixed once she’d folded the dress and put it into the backpack.