Sunflowers turned in unison as I watched them. Behind me were the old mountains and the bogs that had faded from existence. A place that never existed, and yet I had visited it. My memory of the place of foxfire haunted me, filling me with terror. I always tried to keep those memories from my mind, for they were the most frightening of all.

I had finished buttoning up the shirt I was going to wear to the funeral. With my hair cut the white streak in my dark locks had become more pronounced as the dark ends were gone. My beard was also completely gone. Mrs. Winters looked twice at me and gently put a silver earring where I had not worn one for a long time.

"For whatever you hear, that makes you say those things." She said very softly to me and smiled as though she somehow knew about Detective Winters in me.

For days I had lived as I should, with my family. Josh offered me a job at his restaurant, as a dishwasher, and I would start on Monday. I could believe that my old life might be over and that it was time to start living. Cory asked me:

"What are we doing here? It makes me nervous that we might leave, anxious even." My crow reflected my own feelings perfectly. I was afraid to leave again and expected it at the same time.

We all got into Josh's old station wagon and went to Glade Memorial for the outdoor service. A non denominational minister said some powerless prayers to no particular entity and pretended to consecrate the ground. Then the unseen remains of Detective Winters were lowered into the hungry dirt from which his body had grown.

I noticed that Josh and Mrs. Winters were not crying. Both of them had already mourned him. Cory had something to say and there were murmurs of amazement and gasps of surprise from the gathering of people that had not heard my bird speak. Many of the policemen that were there had either heard my crow or were aware of the talking bird. Cory's eulogy went:

"My Winters was a great warrior. He faced both men and monsters with courage and justice. He never stopped sacrificing for the work he was called to do. He listened first to his heart, when the law could not explain right from wrong. He chose honor, a strict adherence to what he believed to be good. He never backed down from any kind of peril and never hesitated to rescue those in danger. He could be distant and cold at times and he was a mean son-of-a-bitch to his enemies. In his heart he carried a love for his fellow man as his most sacred treasure. Our Winters stood at our side and that is why we are gathered here today, because we share a common loss. Senior Detective Jack Lamentation Winters was a very good man."

I thanked Cory for his speech as he returned to my lap. I noticed that aside from the amazement of a talking crow, others, including Josh, had begun crying as they accepted the eulogy. Someone had ordered bagpipes and as the casket was lowered they signaled to the players who began from some distance away and slowly marched towards the funeral as they played. The policemen who had stood at attention relaxed and passed around a bottle of Jack until it was gone. I'd had enough of the funeral and wandered off to be alone for a minute.

I wasn't alone for long. Dr. Leidenfrost found me. I hadn't seen her because she had sat behind us. She came up behind me and put her hands on my shoulders. In my ear she whispered:

"I've missed you."

I realized I was tensing up, not wanting to face her. She came around and sat on the grass in front of me. Then she added: "I've always wanted to do it on a grave."

"Can I introduce you to Isidore and Persephone?" I asked defensively.

"Your wife and daughter?" Dr. Leidenfrost brightened playfully at the thought. "If you want to. I would love to meet them."

"Maybe not." I backpedaled.

"Why? Are you ashamed of me? Of what we did?" She looked directly at me and did a double take. Her expression changed instantly and so did her voice, to grave concern: "What happened to you?"

"Stress." I told her. She was talking about the fact that I had aged decades since she had seen me. Cleaning up and wearing a suit and shiny earring did little to disguise my elderly visage.

"No." She shook her head. "I know stress wrinkles. You're old."

"Does that mean I no longer appeal to you?" I wondered.

"Well, not in the same way. I still have feelings for you that will never go away. You still seem young anyway." Dr. Leidenfrost almost sounded like Isidore for a moment. I wondered if it was possible that she loved me as much as Isidore. Then she said, as though reading my thoughts: "I am in love with you. That hasn't changed because of some terrible thing happening to you."

"Detective Winters and I stepped into some kind of magic life drain that sucked years of our lives away. Officer Sharon wasn't so lucky."

"Why didn't you tell me that is what happened? I would believe you." She emphasized herself as she said this, pointing to herself. She wanted her place by my side. "You can tell me the truth, I have seen the things you have seen."

"Just one thing." I muttered. She shook her head.

"That thing killed Frank. It was everything." She tried to explain.

"I think I understand." I agreed. Losing a loved one must be worse than seeing monsters in the darkness. She had loved Frank, that much I knew about her.

"Lord?" Isidore interrupted as she walked over to us. She looked at Dr. Leidenfrost and back at me. For a moment her face was blank and then I could see how she felt. It was not a simple feeling, not one word could describe it. Mostly it was fear.

"I'm Heidi." Dr. Leidenfrost stood and went and introduced herself to Isidore and asked: "You are Isidore?"

When Isidore just stared at her with a mixture of revulsion and anger, Dr. Leidenfrost spoke freely of her own feelings. I wasn't sure why she did, it was just her way. Dr. Leidenfrost said:

"I am a friend. I care about your husband and I am here for the funeral. I also care about you, because he does." And she pointed at me.

"We aren't married. We were together a long time ago. I am just a friend too." Isidore said in a strange voice I had never heard from her before. She was angry. She looked at me sitting there watching them and her anger faded almost as quickly as it had risen. I saw her take a deep breath and ask:

"Are you two together?" Isidore forced an accepting smile that was betrayed by her eyes. She looked hurt and scared, the anger quickly dissipating.

"Not the way you are." Dr. Leidenfrost neither defended herself, nor attacked Isidore. She sounded patient, like she expected many such questions and would answer all of them to Isidore's satisfaction. I suddenly wished I could fly away with my crow. I felt very old.

"In what way, then?" Isidore only had one question and somehow it seemed like all questions. Dr. Leidenfrost stood there trying to think of a suitable answer and for all her genius she could only shrug. She seemed defeated, somehow.

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"I actually do want to say something, though." Dr. Leidenfrost stated after a pause. There was something about the way she said it that made it obvious. She took a deep breath and said it: "I'm pregnant."

"Okay." Isidore looked at me and then turned and walked stiffly back to the car.

"Now what?" Dr. Leidenfrost asked after we had watched her go.

"I don't know." I had gone emotionally numb for a moment. The conflict in me was at a stalemate. I wanted to be worried about Isidore and also I was secretly overjoyed, ironically. I hadn't anticipated feeling happy sitting there at Detective Winters's funeral with Dr. Leidenfrost.

"It's like you just got shot."Detective Winters told me. He sounded like he was chewing on something in my brain.

"I might be crazy." I smiled at Dr. Leidenfrost and she relaxed and smiled back.

It started raining as the funeral crowd wandered away at varying speeds. Some meandered near the grave while others had already started their cars. It was like humans acting the roles of chaotic particles. It looked like chaos, with each black umbrella among the stones or black police cars speeding away in the blue rain and gray order of stones.

I saw Cory and he was watching a cat. He said nothing, gave no alarm. The cat took a mouse. When she was finished with killing, my crow finally announced her.

She was a braggart tawny with thin white stripes near her awning. She had one white streak under her left eye and she was declawed. Her method of killing, as I had seen, was to pin and then bite her prey to death. She left mouseblood in a smear from her chin and across her other cheek. Someone had put earrings in the tips of her ears and there was dried blood around the golden pins.

She meowed very quietly and swished her tail like she was having far too much fun. Cory had to get closer to her to hear her quiet, almost cruelly whispered Felidaen.

I never took my eyes off this cat, nightfall would come soon and I knew it lusted for killing, it was obvious. When she was done with her simple seeming instructions she departed under the parked vehicles and was gone.

Cory flew over to me and said first, in Corvin: "My Lord saw how close I was to her?"

I said: "You risked your life: what was her command?"

"Why did you go near that cat?" Dr. Leidenfrost had noticed me watching my crow and the graveyard's cat.

"Tell Heidi to shut up. She is being smart-stupid." Detective Winters urged me.

"Don't be smart-stupid. Let him tell me the message." I told Dr. Leidenfrost.

"My Lord must, at sundown, go to the place of sunflowers. The gate to the gardens of the Fen and the Fell will be open and you must go through it. And you must place your children on the stone altars, to prevent the gate from closing when you steal through it, otherwise there could be a war of some kind. Also it is important you act exactly at sundown, or soon after as the moon is rising. That is the window of opportunity to go into the gardens of the Fen and the Fell. Once inside you must find a majestic rock that is colorful and steal it. Just drop it in the field somewhere when you are done, they won't find it. That's it."

"That's it, see?" I gestured at the instructions that the cat had given with just a few words of Felidaen. I wondered at this and asked: "Didn't seem like that much."

"My Lord, the cat spoke very quickly and quietly. Perhaps my Lord was correct to worry that the cats would be reckless in communicating. I will worry now too." Cory advised me.

"So you went near the cat to hear the message." Dr. Leidenfrost answered her own question. "Is it just the one child? I don't want to get on an altar."

"I need you to do it too." I promised her.

We went to her car and I wondered if Isidore was going to let me borrow Persephone for this adventure. I told Dr. Leidenfrost: "Meet us at Canturbury Sunflower Fields tonight, before eight. I have to get Isidore and Persephone."

"How are you going to persuade them to do this? It's kinda crazy." Dr. Leidenfrost asked.

"Maybe I should just ask her to come with me now; we could all go together." I rethought my plan to meet Dr. Leidenfrost at Canturbury in the evening.

"That would work best." Dr. Leidenfrost came with me and we walked over to where Isidore was with the baby.

"Isidore, I am sorry how this is going." I told her. "Can you stay with me? I want to go with Dr. Leidenfrost and bring you and Persephone with me."

"Okay." Isidore nodded. She got the diaper bag and car seat and we waved to Mrs. Winters and Josh. They were staying for awhile, sitting with umbrellas. I put one over us for Persephone and we went back to Dr. Leidenfrost's car.

When we had finally escaped the rain I was in the backseat with the baby and with Cory. It was warm and dry and Persephone soon fell asleep as Dr. Leidenfrost drove. We stopped for some food at a diner.

Inside I looked around nervously. We were seated and I alertly watched the staff for any sign of possession. I realized I was being paranoid and by breathing deeply for awhile and focusing on the menu I was able to assemble a nervous kind of breakfast of eggs and sausage and toast.

"That's all you want? Those are sides. Might as well get the breakfast platter." Dr. Leidenfrost complained about my order.

She called the waitress over and for a moment I thought we would have to fight for our very lives. We survived ordering the breakfast platter, after I had memorized the exits and positions of steak knives on nearby tables.

Even Cory looked nervous and he was safely outside. Then I realized he was hunting a snail. He flew down to it and began eating it. Some other crows called to him and he was surprised and looked up. Then the other crows all flew away. He kept pecking at his snail, eating it off the ground, boldly.

We arrived at the sunflowers in time to explore and find the two stone altars. When I saw them I was very surprised. They were concrete picnic tables. I had Dr. Leidenfrost sit on one table and Isidore and Persephone on the other.

Their backs were to the field of sunflowers. When the shimmering air of the invisible gate opened I saw the creatures go out. Dr. Leidenfrost and Isidore didn't see them.

They were the Fen and the Fell and they were raiding the sunflower field. They were horrible little creatures with long pointed noses and donkey tails and stubby little legs and grotesquely long arms. Most of them had tusks or horns and other sharp bony protrusions from their skulls. Their skin was flabby, like a fleshy clay and had thick wiry tufts of hair at random intervals across their misshapen bodies. They plodded silently into the sunflowers gibbering quietly among themselves with their bug eyes gleaming.

I went through their open gate, into their world. The gardens of the Fen and the Fell were hideous. Foul reeking plants like blood-filled cabbages lay in various states of living decay and of all sizes. As I walked through the nauseating muck my feet slipped and squished on the peeling green flesh of the plant, only to reveal maggots and dead stinking plant fibers of crimson beneath. The dried and broken dead bodies of intruders hung in a gallery in the central gazebo of the gardens. There, upon a sundial that had never seen sunlight, lay the ornament I was to steal.

Fear washed over me like a physical sensation as I reached for it. Memories of this place and the wicked light they kept here came back to me. I had come here before, long ago. Somehow I had come to this place as a child. The hideous noises they made as they pursued us through their bogs of eternal rot still echoed. One by one they had slaughtered the others. Only I had escaped and only because of the seeds.

Two crows traded seeds for my life, sunflower seeds. They had spoken to me in Corvin and I had not known their words. Now I could remember the sounds they had made and now I could know what they had said:

"There is honor among thieves. There is a code of the taker. There is a way for the stealer." And then they had taken me across the great stone slab they stood on. It stood between one world and the other when the sun set and the moon rose and the number of the day was magical. Only on such days did the crows come to trade. "Do you know what it is?"

"Luck. Bad luck." I said out loud as I stood there. My hand hesitated above the majestic ornament where it sparkled forth all the light of this unholy landscape. My memory was like a mist around me. I was not sure if it was just a memory. The rules of such a place were different. Time seemed to hold only a poetic meaning. I could see my memory like it was happening, in perfect detail. I trembled and tried to grip the present moment with my mind. It slipped away, part of me had already taken the gem and was escaping and another part of me was still searching for it. With effort I emerged from the paradox to take action. My hand reached for the rock, its light showing the bones within my flesh in a myriad of colors.

It was a sparkling gem of beauty and it was the only source of light in the whole place. I took it and the shadows of that world quaked as I held the sun. I went back along my squished and rotten footprints and found the invisible gate where it shimmered. I went back through and cast the stone into the field where its light was barely more than starlight.

The Fen and the Fell began to return with handfuls and mouthfuls of sunflower seeds. I had seen no sunflowers in their gardens. Cory squawked at them that they had no time to take their revenge, their time was up.

I could see the fury in their eyes as they realized my crow was right. The Fen and the Fell retreated from the field into their gate at the last possible instant before the sun was finished setting and as the moon rose against it. Then their magic gate closed and they were gone. I sighed in great relief.

"Let's get going." I smiled, relieved we were all still alive. I went over and kissed Persephone who was giggling. I looked to see what she was seeing.

It appeared that thousands of fireflies danced above the sunflowers. It was a very beautiful sight.

"Maybe we could just stay for a little while longer." Isidore leaned on me and I held her and we just sat there and watched the fireflies.