I wrapped us both in big bath towels, then we walked around the corner to my room to try to find something that wouldn't be overly large. Just this once I was willing to admit that it was sometimes a good thing that I'm not overly tall. My things would be big on her, but they would do until we could get out and buy her some proper clothes.

Even my t-shirts were too large, but who cares with a t-shirt? My panties were big enough that they just fell off, so we did without and settled for my smallest pair of jeans with a belt and rolled up cuffs.

"Hey you guys, you done yet? Dinner's almost ready."

"Let's go Kimi, I don't know about you, but I'm pretty hungry."

"Kimi. KIMI! Who said ya could call me that? But...I don't dislike it."

I took her hand and led her down to the breakfast nook. Yes, we eat almost all our meals there.

The formal dining table mostly saw Janie and her friends hanging out on the weekends playing D&D or some other tabletop game, and in between the table was usually cluttered with something or other that they were working on. Worked out pretty well when she was in high school. I knew where she was at night on the weekends, and her friend's parents knew where their kids were too. Good for all of us.

Don't let the "computer revolution" fool you. Sure kids love their computers and smartphones, but nothing is better than having your friends in the same room to talk to while you're having fun. (Though a few need to be taught the hard way, by dragging them away from their electronics and into the real world. Fortunately most of them enjoy it once they're in it.)

Anyway Kimiko and I both hurried our steps, but she stopped cold when she saw the kitchen.

"What's up little one?"

"I tell you now that I will not eat meat, in any form. That includes fowl and seafood. I will eat milk and cheese, and eggs, if the eggs have not been, what's the word....oh yes, fertilized."

"That's not really a problem hon. We're gone so much at times that we don't ever keep meat in the house. If we get a craving, we'll have it when we're out at some restaurant or other."

"That is acceptable. One should not impose one's dietary beliefs upon others. I shall gladly partake of the meal which you have so graciously prepared for us."

Then she bowed toward Jane and headed toward the table.

Jane and I shared a smile, then we got down to the serious business of eating. After getting banged up so much today, we needed a lot of calories to feed the healing. Calories mostly consumed, I asked Jane to turn the TV on to channel 49 (the local Fox alternate) to check the 8 o'clock news to see if there was anything on the raid.

As it turned out, she didn't need to change the channel. We found out pretty fast that EVERY local channel was running a variation on the same story and all regular network programs had been preempted. They all showed the warehouse we'd raided from the time the door was being broken down until just after we'd left the scene. It appeared that all the channels had had a few minutes warning of the raid and had scrambled crews to the site.

Didn't matter which channel. The only thing that varied was the camera angle and the sex of the news anchor. I had Jane mute it so we could watch the footage. All of them had a continuous loop playing.

I found myself easily enough. I was the smallest person there in an FBI jacket, but you never saw anything but the clothes either going in or coming out. That was good. There was nothing I'd need to explain to anyone since I was just an anonymous figure.

The next thing I knew, someone had knocked the coffee table over onto the floor and we were both gaping at the screen. "Jane, quick, turn the sound back on!"

What we heard was "THIS....MUST.....NOT.....BE!" It was quite clear even though, just as I remembered, it seemed to have been whispered. The thing that was riveting our attention was who said it.

You and I both know who it was, it was Jane. But it wasn't Jane that I saw on the screen. It was a figure about 9 feet tall with shoulder length, bright red hair, male, and holding a sword that was radiating a brilliant, bluish-white light. He had an expression that was at the same time very stern and completely serene. As he said those words, he pointed the sword at the door, and a bolt of light leapt from it and flew through the doorway of the building.

Immediately there was the sound of a muffled explosion and a flash of light. It seems that I wasn't the only one knocked down by the concussion after all. About half the people I saw were off their feet. Then the rain started.

Suddenly the camera jerked sideways, and the image was canted about 50 degrees. Just for a moment, you could see the prisoners standing there in that torrential rain, looking like wet rats. Then the replay went to slow motion.

I soon saw why. In the next two seconds, there were 7 separate bolts of lightning that came down and fried each and every one of them. Then the image went black. Probably burned out the CCD in the camera.

That was, to say the least, noteworthy. What had really freaked me out was that our superhero with the giant sword had wings on his back. Based on how much of the building they blocked out, they were probably about 12 feet across.

When that gal, whoever she is, "Wallys" people, she does it big time!

Then the TV went back to the newsroom and the slightly hysterical anchor. "We have reports from all over the city about this. Hundreds of frightened people have called the police reporting hearing those same words. The calls have come in from all over the metropolitan area.

"Doppler radar showed that the gigantic thunderhead that dropped the rain appeared suddenly in a clear sky. Measurements from multiple sites put the center of the cloud as directly over the warehouse where the raid to rescue the victims of the human trafficking happened.

"We have contacted the National Weather Service, and their spokesman says that they currently do not have an explanation for the unusual phenomenon, and that as soon as they have something concrete to report, they will get in touch with us."

<>

The anchor was still talking. Don't they always?

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

"We have additionally contacted clergymen from multiple denominations -- Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, LDS, and the local Hindu temple. We have requested their comments as to whom or what the being was that appeared in front of the building is."

"Responses have ranged from 'an instrument of divine retribution' to 'I'll need to consult with the archbishop regarding an appropriate response.'

"It is perhaps most interesting of all that over half of those we spoke to, after seeing the video from the site, independently made reference to the Seven Deadly Sins when they saw the deaths of those arrested inside that building of horror."

I had no idea how sloth or gluttony could possible apply to the situation. Hmmm. Now that I think of it, maybe I can. Forget that objection.

One enterprising reporter had somehow even managed to track down the local Hmong shaman and had scored an interview. The shaman's response was something to the effect that people only look at what's in front of them and don't ever look to the sky where that which is important lives.

The reporter apologized for the unclear wording, since the shaman spoke through an interpreter.

Jane and I exchanged a wordless glance and I shrugged my shoulders. It seemed I wasn't the only one who had seen the dragon, though probably the only one besides the shaman since the anchor never mentioned it. That was a good thing given the circumstances.

Just then I noticed Kimiko huddled on the floor with her back to the TV.

I dropped to my knees and cuddled her. "Jane, turn off the TV please."

"Sure Mama, will do."

"Kimi, why don't we go down to your room and take a look?

"My room? MY ROOM! I have a room. A room just for me? How did ya do that?"

"Do you remember the truck that was leaving the driveway when we got home? That was my friend Jerry. When we were at the rest stop, I called him and asked him to get some furniture into one of the spare rooms as fast as he could."

"I know that you may not like how it looks, but at least you'll have a bed of your own to sleep in tonight."

"You are one VERY tricky lady!"

Jane let out a guffaw. I rounded on her only to see her bent over with her hand clapped over her mouth.

"I'll deal with you later missy!"

"Let's go look at your room Kimi."

"Yes, why don't we?"

She looked from me to Jane and then back again. Then she faced forward, took my hand, and marched us down the hall.

Wow, she was fast on the uptake. This could get very interesting in a few years.

----------------------

Jerry had set her up in the room opposite mine, a very well thought out choice. He couldn't know the exact circumstances, but he'd obviously figured that our new family member might need some adult support nearby.

"Is it OK if I open the door?"

"Of course it is sweetie. It IS your room."

She took a deep breath, and then quickly twisted the door knob and pushed the door open. At that particular moment, I didn't know which of us was the more astonished. Kimiko rushed into the room, and literally got up on her toes and twirled around in circles. All things considered, I sorta felt like doing it too. I'm still telling myself that what stopped me was the fact that I was an adult and beyond such things. (The real reason was, of course, that there wasn't enough room for two twirlers at once.)

Jerry had not just met my expectations for a fairly rudimentary bedroom setup, he'd exceeded them by at least 2 orders of magnitude. The walls were still painted an off white, and, as instructed he'd not put anything on the walls. But other than that he'd gone...well... yeah....

There were two twin beds, matching dressers, and desks. Each desk had a desktop PC on it. Two side tables with lamps, one by each bed. The beds were made up with white on pink bedspreads that looked like they might have taffeta on the skirts. One of the beds was covered with clothes, all kinds of clothes, and all obviously for a fairly small person. Jerry was definitely tricky too. He'd asked me Kimiko's height and said it was to find the right size bed.

I"ll get him for that later. Right after I give him a great big hug.

There was a note taped to the mirror over one of the dressers. It was in Jerry's handwriting. 'It's just like you to think of everything but clothes. Given that you have no taste at all, I figured that I'd better get something before you could muck it up by picking them out yourself. Anything that doesn't fit, or that she doesn't like, you can just donate to the Salvation Army. You can probably use a good tax writeoff anyway. The receipts for everything are in the top drawer. Jerry.

"PS. I expect to be paid by Monday."

Along with the clothes were several packages of underwear in various sizes and various degrees of cuteness. There were also a number of nightgowns and a couple sets of flannel pajamas.

"I take it from your reaction that you find the room suitable Kimi?"

She came down off her toes and ran over to me and hugged me, hard. Then she ran over to Jane and repeated the hugging, then ran back to me and did it again.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! It's WONDERFUL!"

Then she astonished me once again by doing a back handspring onto the bed that didn't have clothes on it and started bouncing. Gods above, it was Tigger all over, but this time Tigger on steroids!

I heard more giggling and turned to see Jane with both hands over her mouth now. I glared at her and she started giggling louder. CHILDREN!

She put her hands down and then I saw her fingers start to twitch. I couldn't figure out why for a while, then I got it. (Very tired, thunder and lightning and all that, so I was a bit slow at the time.)

Jane's other hobby, besides using her computer to amass vast quantities of other people's money, was very girly. She was a doll collector. Usually antique style with fancy clothes, but all very tasteful and all very pretty.

Kimiko had stopped bouncing and was looking rather intently at the clothes. I suddenly realized that I was in trouble, and there was no way out of it. There was about to be a fashion show featuring Jane as the designer and Kimiko as the model.

Neither one would forgive me if I begged off with ANY kind of excuse, so I just pulled up a chair and vowed not to show any signs of boredom no matter how much of this I was forced to endure.

<>

First they took the underwear, tore open the packages, and threw all the packing material in a corner of the room. Then they started chatting about which looked best and the materials and how they fit. Kimi tried on every single set, except the ones that were obviously too small.

Once they'd decided on what she'd wear under her clothes for the rest of the show, they started in on the outer wear. That took another hour and a half.

By then it was close to 11 p.m., and I decided to call a halt.

"OK ladies. Bedtime and then some. Kimi, pick out a nightgown that you like and put it on. Then it's time to brush your teeth."

Jerry had even thought of toothbrushes and toothpaste. There were several of each on one of the dressers.

Kimi and Jane had a brief conversation to which I was not privy. (Useful information that. Kimiko could focus her thoughts on just one person.) Then they both laughed. (Well, Jane laughed and Kimi had a big smile on her face.) She slipped on one of the nightgowns and followed me across the hall to my bathroom.

Mutual tooth brushing and primping before bed. Then Kimiko declared, "Jane calls ya 'Mama'. That's silly. Nobody does that any more. Isn't it embarrassing?"

"I've never thought about it, but you're right. It is sort of old-fashioned, isn't it?"

She nodded at me as if she'd won a point in some obscure game.

"But, she's called me that since she was four years old, and we're both used to it. Besides, I rather like it."

Kimi took a thinking pose then nodded her head. "You're right. It is rather old-fashioned, but I think I like it too."

"Mama, may I, just for tonight, sleep with you? I don't think I'll sleep at all if I'm alone. Please?"

"Sure thing honey, let's go get some Z's."

"Mama, ya sure talk funny sometimes."

She ran back out into the bedroom, jumped on the bed, and bounced, once. She pulled back the covers and waited for me to climb in with her and turn out the light. Then she squirmed her way up against me, with her back to my chest and was asleep before I could ask her if she was warm enough. Seemed like a good idea so I went to sleep too. Tomorrow would be soon enough to deal with the fallout from the events of today.