Her name was Clara. Not a name you would expect for a hero. But that is the way life goes sometimes, unexpected things occur.

Clara arrived in the bustling town at high noon. Nobody paid mind to her. Nobody except for Larry.

Larry stopped eating his sandwich mid bite. A piece of lettuce hanging from his lip, it fluttered in the heat wave. Larry wiped it off to remove the tickling sensation.

Clara caught his eye and (keeping her eyes locked on his) wove her way among the legs of the adults. She stopped only inches from the boy's face. She asked. "What?"

"Your wearing earmuffs, Clara." Larry stated. He wasn't sure why he suddenly knew her name, it was in his mind as soon as their eyes had met.

Clara touched her soft ear coverings "Well, yes, of course! I don't want an ear ache. It's so cold here!"

"Um..." Larry paused trying to search for the way to correct the girl without being rude. "It is over a hundred degrees right now. It's why I'm dressed like this." He gestured at his own yellow and green striped tank top, blue shorts and flip flops.

"Ah." She peered at all the people around her, noting the same clothing. Then surveyed her own wardrobe. Thick sweater, mittens, and scarf. "It is freezing for me, where I'm from two hundred degrees is chilly."

"Where's that?" Larry asked with a sneaking suspicion.

The girl looked up at the sun, her words distracted as she tapped her hand on a cookie jar that was wrapped in bandages and slung over her shoulder. "I'm from the Underworld, I'm here to retrieve an evil spirit that escaped."

"How'd that happen?" The boy asked curiously.

Clara rubbed her arms trying to keep them warm. "It wasn't my fault! Well not completely, it was my turn to watch the door of evil things and ensure none escaped. I stopped paying attention to give a lost bat some directions and next thing I know that dratted Dur slipped up here." her teeth started to chatter "He probably did it just to spite me, force me to catch a cold."

A car horn honked. Clara spun around, yanked open her cookie jar and shouted "Attack!"

Purple tentacles shot from the jar, knocking aside people to destroy the offending vehicle. The slimy tendrils lifted the vehicle in the air and with a spinning motion sent the car sailing out of view. The tendrils withdrew into the jar and she closed the lid tight. "That's better, hopefully everyone here appreciates that I saved their lives. "

Larry stared at this strange girl, in fact everyone was staring at this girl now. Larry coughed gently "That was a car. It was not a monster."

Clara tapped her fingers on the jar "No, I'm pretty sure it was a monster. It was screeching, getting ready to eat everyone."

Before anyone could contradict her she pivoted on her heel and marched down the sidewalk. Larry chased after her "Can you do other things?"

"Oh, sure." she said proudly. "I can whistle." she pursed her lips and blew, no sound emerged. She frowned and attempted again. She halted frowned down at her mouth and tried a final time. When no sound occurred she shrugged "Ah well, was hoping it would work this time."

The boy waved away the nonsense of whistling "No, like the tentacle thing. Can you do more stuff like that?"

"That's boring job stuff. Whistling is tough though, I met a man that could whistle once, a truly amazing sound."

Larry eyes her "You aren't going to let go of this whistling thing, are you?"

She held up a hand to quiet him "Dur's here. You best take a step back. I don't want my only friend in this freezing tundra to get splattered."

As she was saying a car horn could be heard, this one was louder and had a snarl interwoven throughout it. Clara shoved the cookie jar into Larry's hands, she lifted the lid and whispered to the tentacled thing within "Protect Larry." to Larry she ordered "Don't drop the jar. It's tough to find cookie jars that sturdy."

The snarling car horn drew closer. And it sounded less like a horn.

The girl from the Underworld planted her feet as a gigantic creature leapt towards her. It was multi-limbed with razor sharp claws and a toad's skin. Clara punched forward with both hands, symbols glowing around her in a dome, blocking the creature's ground shaking strikes. Well...it the first strike, only cracking a little. The second strike it shattered and the girl leapt to the side to avoid being turned to paste. She spat a piece of gum at the monster, it expanded and enveloped the beast in a gooey mess. Sticking it to the ground.

The girl yanked out a gel pen with the different colored options, clicked down the red color. It transformed into bow of cherry wood, a quiver of flaming arrows that she fired in quick succession into the trapped beast. The arrows sinking into the pavement and making it bubble from the heat.

The creature was nothing more than a smoldering crisp within moments.

Clara let out a deep breath of relief, her bow and arrows transforming back into her gel pen. "I thought I was gonna have to pull out the blue color."

Larry gingerly nudged the gum the burned remains within. "Was that Dur?"

The thin girl took back her cookie jar "Yep, nice and easy cleanup. Now I just need to trek back to the gate of the Underworld and pretend none of this happened."

"Ahem." the voice had the unmistakable sound of someone that disagreed with her words.

The children turned to see a beautiful woman riding atop a equally beautiful bird.

"Oh, drat!" Clara muttered. She forced a smile as she looked up at the woman "Hi, Auntie."

The woman folded her arms "Don't 'Hi, Auntie' me, you decided to come up to this frozen wilderness without even giving me a heads up!"

"Dur got out and I needed to catch him. It was an accident." Carla hurried to add at her aunt's glower.

"Dur always gets out." she paused noticing Larry. "You included a native in your little monster hunt? Did you ask his parents first?"

"Yes, no." Clara responded. "We were fine. And I was just about to head back home."

"Glad to hear it." her aunt stated, extending a hand to her niece.

Clara turned and pushed a paper cup into Larry's hands, "If ever you need me just call me on this phone."

The girl clambered up with her aunt and the steed turned and they vanished in a mirage of heat.

Larry looked down at the cup, it had a string poking through the end, the string faded into non-existence. He smiled, shook his head and wandered back into the blistering heat of the afternoon. "My favorite Monday ever."

---

Clara spoke from behind her aunt. "It wasn't a big deal, you go hunting in the overworld all the time."

"I know."

The girl waited for a response. when the silence dragged on longer than a horse pulling a plow she asked "Why did you show up then?"

The older female didn't answer at first, the hooves of her steed making clopping noises as horse shoes struck the white stone of the hidden road they travelled among the denizens of the Overworld. "One of my enemies was spotted in this city, she tends to destroy buildings, I was out following her trail when I ran into you. And obviously I can't let a building fall on my favorite niece."

Carla tapped her aunt's knee "But Larry is back there, with no protection."