“You may call me – The Puffin!”

Puffin considered this and shook his head, kneeling down before the pottery jar of water that served him as a mirror. It showed a young, male fusion of Stereotypical Native American and Lord of the Rings Elf. His birth had given him skin tone and facial features of the first, with the ears and clothing of the second. One element did not fit with the rest: no human or Elf ever naturally had hair so close to purple.

He tried again, whipping an imaginary badge out of the folds of his cloak and showing it to the reflection. He snarled, “Puffin: Private Investigator! Fear the Puffin! Tremble before my magic, and songwriting, and acid blood! Criminals beware!”

A shadow fell over his image, and a lean hand pressed his head to another’s. The other hand touched the liquid, and a goldfish sucked on one finger, hoping for food. His companion’s reflection showed a woman of the same age, hair the color of desiccated wheat, and eyes the shade of ballpoint-pen ink. She was not beautiful, but she was his Sandi, and nothing else mattered.

“Your attempts are amusing, but you were never good at any catchphrases,” Sandi told him, in her logical, pragmatic, somewhat heartless way.

Puffin kissed her Elf-fashion, on the ears, and then the forehead. In the interest of multiculturalism, he kissed her in three human styles as well. The moment he let go, he protested, “Puppy child, I am a virtuoso at witty remarks. I do not know what you are talking about.” He sat cross-legged on the mossy floor, facing her and the green wooden door. Everything was made of wood or stone, and the one-room hut wiggled slightly, because the person who built it couldn’t imagine chopping down a tree just to clear space.

Sandi leaned back against a green cushion. Those were Elves for you – everything green, brown, and ash, slightly weathered. Better Homes and Gardens could take some tips from them. In fact, since the Fantasy Coup, when the magical nonhumans revealed themselves to the humans, the magazine had. Elf design became a growth industry.

Nudging his bare feet with hers, she said, “Elves aren’t supposed to be capable of lies.”

“I should lie half the time, then.” The transparency and strength of the paper windows made Puffin marvel. Soft sunlight drifted through, illuminating a lone shelf with ten books, four in Elvish.

“Haha. What about your pickup lines from when we were dating?” Sandi rubbed the carpet with her hand. “Incidentally, I found out how they dealt with earthworms and other creatures living in the floor. They don’t. They say earthworms are beneficial and beautiful, and have every right to live where they want.”

“What was inferior about my lines? You married me, did you not?”

“You almost lost me when you said, ‘My dearest, I assure you there is a vast difference between being infertile and being impotent.’”

A muffled laugh came from the window. Puffin chuckled with chagrin. “I thought you might be worried, since I from the time I was eight I was fairly sure we would end up together. It may have troubled you, thinking that your future husband was half-Elf, half-Eudemon, and thus incapable of fathering anyone.”

Another giggle bubbled through, and Sandi turned a rosy shade Puffin found becoming. “This has been a wonderful honeymoon, but I’m ready to go somewhere that nobody knows what we’re feeling unless we tell them.”

“I do not need the Thought-Music sense to know what you feel. I understand your desire for privacy, though. We leave tomorrow. Shall we go see if we can help our neighbors with anything?” Puffin pulled her up by both hands. One stipulation of visiting an Elf village meant that everyone had to be clothed like the inhabitants, which was the only way anyone could have gotten Sandi into a dress. It suited her – blue-gray, athletic and clingy at the same time.

When they stepped out, not locking the door because it only had bolts, they saw an Elf child peeling carrots while huddled against their wall. Sandi growled, and said, “Norelan, I know you can’t help hearing my emotions, but I really don’t like it when you listen to my conversations.”

Norelan stood and bowed, with the air and smile of a tall imp in a pink gown. She said, “I hoped you would transform. It is the most thrilling thing I have seen.” All Elves spoke stilted, formal English as a second language, because teaching Elvish to someone who had less than half Elf blood brought the death penalty.

Sandi raised her dark eyebrows. “You were obviously not born yet when the Eudemon-Marine Corps battles happened.”

Norelan shook her head. “I have heard the tales, though. Is it true you killed a Eudemon at the tender age of eight?”

“It’s hard to say how tender an age is when you rip a demon’s throat out with your teeth – why are you looking at me like that, Puffin? It’s what happened.” The other huts also wove in and out of the trees, with perhaps a hundred in this village. They gleamed unpainted and scrubbed. Only five were available to temporary residents, who had to pay by manual labor and participation. The leaders also screened applicants for maximum harmony, and had actually turned down a few celebrities whom they thought were too disruptive.

Puffin put an arm around his wife and steered her away from the impressionable youth. “We both commit social transgressions, but yours are slightly more far-reaching.”

“Was I not supposed to say that? I’m sorry.” Sandi’s ears drooped.

“You changed again,” Puffin pointed out. They walked towards the clearing, where they saw slim, brown figures cleaning their weapons. This group dressed in coarser, darker clothes, boiled every week to prevent lice.

Sandi touched her shaggy ears, which sank back into human shape. “Sorry again. I got used to changing as much as I want here, and I’ve let down my guard. I have to keep the emotions in check when we get to Baltimore.”

“Both of us know your limitations, but not everyone does, and you may hurt their feelings.” Puffin loved autumn’s azure depths, and this morning in September had all the red-gold intensity of the best of days. Soon it would be cold enough for the Elves to wear shoes. Most donned traditional, pointed foot-coverings, but some liked human-made hiking boots.

“Do you think I’m not aware of that? I try really hard, and I don’t think you appreciate it when I succeed.”

“I appreciate everything you do, but I unfortunately sometimes forget to tell you. No contention here.” Puffin’s calm, reasonable voice had drowned out any flicker of an argument so far in their relationship. He simply would not fight. Sandi squeezed his hand and smiled, and they reached the gathering.

”Hail!” called out a female, who wore leggings under a loose, short blue skirt. “We could use your skill, Sandi. Would your husband care to come as well?”

Puffin released Sandi and clasped his hands behind his back, acting shy. “No, I think it would be best for you five to hunt today. The only safe place a being can stand while I shoot an arrow is directly behind me.”

A village elder appeared behind him, plucked his sleeve, and said, “Child, our council has made our decision. Would you remain here so we may discuss it with you?”

Sandi kissed Puffin goodbye. “See you this evening.” She crouched on the ground, and focused her thoughts to those of hunger and aggression. In a swirl of flesh, she became a blue-gray wolf, and trotted after the party.

“Excellence indeed,” said a male. “Are you sure you do not desire to stay with us infinitely? You are an asset to the community.”

Wolf-Sandi shook her head, and they headed into the woods. The entire village sat within a Space Enclosure, which allowed a one-mile circle on the outside to be a ten-mile circle on the inside. It had allowed the Elves to have land of their own and be hidden from the humans in the years before the Fantasy Coup. Those who liked their lifestyle remained here. A few joined humanity, and their children grew up there, like Puffin had, with the option of coming back if they wished.

After the young ones had left, the other two elders came to Puffin. Elves were fairly egalitarian, because they heard everyone’s capabilities and distressing others caused them acute pain. The three Elves who were considered the best at leadership always became the leaders, with one of them possessing the highest authority. In this case, the main leader was a female named Awential, and her councilors were an old male, Boaz, and a young female, Quaranth.

Awential sat at the edge of the unlit fire pit and beckoned to the others. Her councilors sat on either side of her. She had led the Arrows Clan in being the first Elves to contact the humans en masse, and was renown for her wisdom, courage, and diplomacy. “Pafin, called Puffin by the humans, we have thought upon your plea. Please sit.” She spoke in Elvish.

Puffin obediently perched on the other side of the fire pit. “By the way, I have enjoyed seeing you again. I recall how distressed you were when we met, and look where we are now. There is peace, and your daughter Celda has artificial fingers to replace the ones the Eudemons chopped off.”

Smiling, Awential smoothed back her long, snowy hair. In doing so she reminded him that she still missed an ear, thanks to the Eudemons again. “Things have improved, but we must be vigilant. We have read your opera.” Elves didn’t try to prevent wrinkles, but wore them gracefully, as she did now.

“A fine peace of work,” commented Quaranth.

Boaz nodded, stroking his beard. “I remember being at your Adulthood Ceremony upon your completing it. You spent five years in a Time Bubble, correct?” Time Bubbles allowed time inside to pass more quickly than time outside, which had become extremely popular among all the species.

“Correct.” Puffin glowed about his achievement, since Elves were not considered adults until they created something of value. A ballad would have sufficed, but Puffin wrote the first three-hour opera in Elvish and English in history. Almost all Elves had great musical aptitude, but half-Elven Puffin had written a musical when he was nine, and a symphonic suite when he was thirteen.

“We thank you for being concerned whether a person singing in Elvish while a translation was provided to the audience could be construed as teaching Elvish to non-Elves,” Awential continued. “I know there is little evidence that a human who spoke Elvish could actually use our magic, let alone turn it against us, but not all the clan leaders feel so relaxed.”

“There must be a law for a reason,” Boaz put in.

Quaranth retorted, “How do we know it was not empty suspicion? Our traditions once prevented us from letting anyone outside our village know where our village lay, and little good that did us. It prevented survivors of Eudemon raids from finding succor, and the Eudemons came in any case.”

Puffin said, mildly, “Perhaps the general shunning of half-Eudemons and their mothers was not the most ethical of practices.” The Eudemons in past days had attacked, slaughtered, pillaged, and raped, with the end result of a few mules, like Puffin and his foster mother, Lira, who was once the best defense lawyer in Interspecies Court.

Awential sighed. “We regret our mistakes. You are always welcome here, even though your birth mother does not wish to see you. We do not want old mistakes to cause additional ones, and with much discussion, thought, and consultation of other clans, we give you our blessing.”

“Truly? I may put on my opera?” Puffin clapped his hands. “I may now confirm bookings on the Baltimore Lyric Opera House, and I shall conduct the proceedings! Joy!”

“You must take responsibility for any ill effects,” Boaz warned.

“Oh, certainly I will. You have helped me realize a third of my dream, and I love you for it.” Puffin watched a hawk hover across the cloud.

“What were the other two-thirds?” asked Awential.

“The first third is accomplished: I have married Sandi. The final third is me becoming a –“ Puffin had to switch to English, because Elvish had no word for this, “private detective.”

Quaranth laughed. “Such a combination.”

Puffin grew excited and spoke rapidly in English. “I believe my magic and ability to know when others tell the truth will be great assets. Sandi has a Ph.D in forensic pathology, and she will be a professor’s assistant at John Hopkins University until she can have a teaching position. We will help one another solve crimes.”

“Do you need our assistance in creating jealous phenomena?” Awential asked.

Some less skeptical humans had held concept of jealous phenomena for centuries, not knowing the Elves could actually create them. Making anything a jealous phenomenon would mean it would only be perceived by a specific type of person, and completely nonexistent to anyone else. A family friend of Puffin’s had this done to his pet shop, which only appeared to either lonely people or people close to him. As a plus, it always appeared to the people in that general area who needed it.

“I believe my own Song capabilities are enough for our purposes, thank you kindly,” Puffin said, in Elvish. “You may be amused by our ideas now, but when we are great investigators, you shall be awed. Sandi also needs an outlet for her wolf aspects, and a certain element of danger and fighting appeals to her.”

Awential patted his hand. “We wish you greatest success in both your careers.”

Puffin nodded. “Besides, we want to live in Baltimore, and if you want to live in Baltimore and not be surrounded by thugs, you have to hold two jobs, it seems.”

They talked for a while longer, and Awential pulled out her Blackberry and messaged the other Clan leaders. The Elves lived like that – juxtaposed between their traditions and whatever modern, industrialized things they felt would improve their lives. It said something about their attitudes that they adopted so little.

Sandi and the others returned in time for lunch, the Elves carrying two freshly killed deer. “Sandi caught one entirely by herself,” they praised.

When she returned human form, Sandi had blood and dirt all over her clothes, which had morphed into fur and back. With a scarlet-stained mouth she told Puffin, “You help them skin and clean it and things. I’ll be washing.”

“You live for this, do you not?” Puffin asked. Sometimes he thought he would burst with loving her.

“You have your magic. I have my shapeshifting. What did they say about the opera?”

“All is well in my world.”

Sandi grinned, a slightly disturbing sight for someone not used to it. Fortunately, by now everyone nearby was. She sauntered off, and Awential rang a bell tied to a tree. The Elves had individual possessions, but all food was in common, like a large family reunion every day.

Puffin felt inspired, and he whispered, “The Puffin calls.”