As the Cookie Crumbles
“Dragons, proud to have evolved with both wings and feet, rarely abandon both to return to snake-like slithering. Only when grievously injured, or deeply immersed in self-pity, will a dragon over the age of six-weeks regress to slithering.”
The words from an ancient book of dragon lore echoed sullenly in Toby’s mind as she slithered down the tower stairs and into the office. Her internal dialogue continued for half a minute after she scraped to a stop. One of the less useful things about civilization, the body remembered how to react when something had moved things in one’s den. The body remembered how to react in many situations. Unfortunately it could take the brain a bit to catch up, during which, things were flamed, beings were eaten, and chaos was unleashed.
Fortunately for Toby, whomever or whatever had rearranged the office was not a visible target for her to flame. Once her forebrain kicked in, she felt cautiously certain that she owed the re-arrangers thanks more than anything else.
The piles of sacks of paper were gone, replaced by neatly labeled boxes, the nearest one, it’s lid open, showing brightly colour-coded dated file folders. There was even a box labelled “Read Me First” sitting beside her desk.
Sinking into a coil in the middle of the room, Toby started examining the files. Yesterday’s chaos had somehow been turned into order: alphabetical where that made sense, in date order where that was more useful. The “Readme” box contained overviews and summaries of the information in the other boxes, as well as fifteen letters, invoices, witness names and influential precedents that even the least competent lawyer could use to win the case.
Toby was flabbergasted. The only person in the firm who could do this level of work was Happy’s executive assistant, and her salary was ten times that of any associate. Happy had stolen her when After moved to the Bench. Rumour had it that Ever was still sending presents and offers of raises to Charlotte, trying to tempt her over to his office. So far it hadn’t worked, and there was absolutely no way that she would have come in and worked all night for Happy, much less for Toby.
Hoping that a hot drink might clear her mind enough to figure out the mystery, Toby wandered over to the dining area to see whether breakfast had arrived.
Breakfast had not, and dinner lay untouched in it’s place. Not completely untouched, Toby realized. Her usual desert of chocolate cookies and milk was gone. Her favourite desert plate, wagon-wheel sized and decorated with a lovely flame pattern, sported a few crumbs and a single lonely chocolate chip. The rest of had disappeared.
“There is something about cookies...” Toby muttered to herself, “something in the...” She broke off and half flapped, half ran to the bookshelves. The Codex Fabulae would have a reference if anything did, it was well known that until the Hitchhiker’s Guide people started paying attention to the magical planes, nothing would rival the Codex. Or, at least, it was well known among readers of the Future Times.
Sure enough, the index had three references to cookies. Flipping forward, Toby found the infamous Witches’ Housebuilding Association v. Children’s Aid Society case – After had won that one for the Witches, with his argument that if children are protected from everything, they grow up no smarter than royalty and are a danger to all around them.
The next mention was an out of date reference to Santa Claus. Toby knew that he was still on the run from a massive series of law suits that started when the Solstice edition of one of the law journals described Santa as the ultimate in deep pockets. Before the January edition hit the news stands, the no-longer jolly old man was facing accusations ranging from product liability suits for broken toys, through a joint environmental and child protection action based on his promoting polluting fuel sources and corporal punishment by putting coal and canes in bad children’s stockings, to a case that Ever was handling, with the help of Third Daughter and her ability to understand the speech of animals, for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Sentient Non-Dominant Species on behalf of Rudolph and the rest of the pulling gang
Flipping further forward, Toby found the last listing that mentioned cookies. Brownies, small humanoids that work for cookies and milk or cream. It fit... though the Codex seemed convinced that the Brownies were specialists in shoe repair rather than document management and legal analysis.
To be Continued...
