capeandcowllogs | THE RITUAL HAS BEGUN

WHO: Calvin, OPEN
WHERE: Battery Park
WHEN: Sunday afternoon
WARNINGS: Irresponsible use of flammable materials
SUMMARY: It is Fall, which means it is time for Calvin's unique take on theology
FORMAT: Prose

Through the creative use of his stupendous powers and the thorough wasting of an afternoon, Calvin had successfully gathered up almost every fallen leaf in Battery Park into a gargantuan pile of multicoloured foliage. It was surrounded by five smaller piles joined to the central mass, in keeping with the ancient rites Calvin had made up over breakfast that morning.

If he was to be completely honest, Calvin was still a little shaken by the attack on the school that had happened so recently. It seemed almost surreal to be doing something like this so soon after something so... intense. But Dr. McCoy was back, right? Everybody was looking for the bad guys, right? So everything was going to be fine and there was no point dwelling on things! Especially not while there was an important tradition to be observed, a tradition that could very well affect everyone's joy and happiness for the rest of the year.

Calvin dropped to his knees in front of the pile. There was a can of lighter fluid next to him, acquired from a barbecue through completely honest and legitimate means. Raising his hands, Calvin cried aloud to the sky:

"Oh great and mighty snow demons! Your humble and unworthy servant hereby offers you this pile of leaves as a burnt sacrifice! Let their flames appease your terrible natures! May you grant mercy to us in coming months in the form of a cold and snowy winter! Let the drifts rise high! Let the winds blow! Let the snow be packable! Let Christmas be white and cheery! Let school be closed! I beg of you, grant me this boon!"

Someone should probably stop him before he gets into the chanting.

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Hey look Calvin, it's the girl who killed the T-rex. She was currently standing a few feet behind him, one dark eyebrow raised as she watched him beginning his chant and holding what smelled like lighter fluid.

This seemed like it was going to end badly.

"What are you doing?" She finally asked, when there was a brief break in his chanting so she was certain he would hear her. She was pretty sure she already knew he was going to light the leaves on fire...she didn't particularly get why, and what he was proclaiming made less than no sense to her, but...lighting a giant life pile in a park seemed like it would be a very bad idea.

Laura liked this park, and she didn't want it to burn down.

Calvin actually smiled at this interloper. "Hey, it's T-Rex girl! You know the head of that thing is still hanging in the lobby? I think it's called 'Xavier Rex.' He's like the mascot!"

Then he remembered that he was involved in dark and forbidden rites. "Uh, but this isn't really a good time to catch up. I'm kinda in the middle of something." He paused because he didn't really want the cool person to go away. "But you can help, if you've got any flame accelerants on you!"

"Laura," she corrected at his rather unsettling nickname for her. She didn't think she wanted to be named for a creature she had killed, that had unpleasant implications even she could see. "Yes, I know. I arranged for it to be placed there." Although she'd have to check and make sure something had not been done since she had paid to have the entire carcass stuffed.

Her attention turned to his...leaf pile...and she walked around him to stand off to the side, considering it carefully. And then green eyes settled on him.

"If you burn leaves here you will light the trees on fire."

"Really? That's great!" Calvin was grinning now. "We have the coolest mascot in our district thanks to you!"

He looked at the leaves, away from those eyes. "Hey, there's nothing to worry about. I raked up all the leaves, so there's nothing left in the park but some dry grass and old oily newspapers littered around. Oh, and the trees. So nothing's going to burn besides the leaves! Nothing can go wrong!"

Calvin spent most of his school fire drills fantasizing about the school being on fire and closed permanently.

"And it's really important to appease the Snow Demons before Christmas," he added.

Laura considered his point carefully, looking at his leaf pile, and his apparent intent to light it on fire. As far as she could tell, it was easily going to light the canopy above them on fire.

"Snow demons?" That was probably the most important part of what he had said, at least in the short term. Understanding why the boy wanted to light the park on fire would probably give her some idea how to get him to not do that.

Calving nodded, eager to preach to the unconverted. "The great and awful Snow Demons are the masters of all things winter!" He said. "But they're really fickle, and whenever they don't get enough sacrifices in the Fall they punish the Earth with wimpy mild weather and green Christmases. That's why it's important to burn leaves!"

Laura had no idea what to say to that. She would have assumed Snow Demons weren't real, but considering what she'd heard people say about the worlds they came from, it was hard to tell. Still, even if they were real, they probably weren't here.

She was quiet for a moment, and then she pointed up at the trees hanging above them.

"When you light those leaves on fire, the trees above us will catch fire."

Calvin looked up as though noticing that trees were in a park for the first time. "Huh, you really think so?" He said. Calvin didn't quite understand convection or fire spreading beyond direct contact.

"Well, it would take forever to move the leaves at this point... Hey, I know!" He snapped his fingers. "We'll just move the trees! With my stupendous strength and your, uh, claws, it will be easy to just uproot them and put them somewhere further away until the ritual is finished!"

Laura could almost see the thoughts bouncing around in Calvin's brain, though she apparently couldn't follow them to wherever their logic leapt to. She looked over at one of the trees he was thinking about, which had to be at least forty years old, and then back to him.

"If we uproot the trees, they will die."

Well, he definitely didn't want to kill trees. And now that he looked more closely, he could more clearly visualize how burning leaves could equal burning everything. Puzzled and frustrated, Calvin flopped down on the ground, sitting on leaves.

"So what am I supposed to do?" He demanded. "If we don't appease the Snow Demons we'll have a warm winter! Santa might have to fly through rain instead of snow! It'll be a disaster!"

This is clearly the important thing.

Laura didn't believe in Snow Demons, or Santa Claus, but she doubted telling a six year old there was no Santa was really a good idea. Instead she turned her attention away from Calvin and his death trap, considering the rest of the park around them. Eventually she pounted to a spot of bricked over clearing that had probably been a swing set at one point.

"There."

THE RITUAL HAS BEGUN

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