Keen

Just A Simple Concept

by Mr. David R. Dorrycott

Keen, tiny little Keen had arrived. She had just arrived. That’s all anyone really knows. One morning there was a gentle knock on their door, and in walked Keen. Not abruptly you understand, certainly not that. She asked gently if she could enter, and the person who had opened that door was so stunned he couldn’t answer. So she just... Walked in.

And sat down in the first empty chair she found.

“Hello” she’d said in that soft musical tone of her’s. It made one think of thin glass bells, on a mountain meadow. “My name is Keen.” She held up one finger, “Just Keen.” She actually blushed. “I am afraid I really don’t know why, I just don’t have any more names.” She took a moment to look around her before continuing. “I’m certain I can be of some help to you. You see... I can control the elements. To a degree. I don’t mean weather of course, but the elements.”

She leaned forward, grasping a water goblet. “I can make it heaver...” There was the tiniest of flashes. In her small hand the goblet had shrunk. It was also silver. Not silver colored, but pure silver. “Or lighter...” The same flash. Now slightly larger than its original size it was again silver colored. She sat it down, it rang softly. “Magnesium. I can convert one element into another. I just can’t do... Complex things. I mean... I can’t make glass. It’s not just silicon, it’s a complex mix of elements. So if, say I turned a car into carbon it’d be larger.” She blushed again, that darn BLUSH! “And someone’s insurance company will be awful mad at me.”

Settling back into her commandeered chair she again looked around. “Honest admission. I failed the school. Badly. Like I said, I can do the simple stuff. That’s no where good enough I’m afraid. I mean, I can fly... sort of. I can change things and I can heal myself, sometimes others. I really don’t know how well you might be able to use me, but Mistress Raventress... uh.. Suggested... that your group might be the best place for me. So I’m here.”

She smiled, and that was worse than her blush.