The Fairy Godmother gleefully promised Santa’s bored Elves a mountain for their ski resort at the North Pole. It was just one more Good Deed. Perhaps it would restore the planetary anthropologist’s reputation. Meanwhile, Hansel, Gretel, BC and Charley took Marie’s new household android on an adventure to an alpine lake. The kids, the androids, and Cinderwan were all startled when a water beast rose from the lake and roared. More was at stake than Cinderwan realized when she began wielding her new Elder powers.

Chapter 1. A Hurried Departure

he air whistled as Elfin James banked Santa’s sleigh for a landing. The reindeer brought the sleigh down in the meadow by the Fairy Godmother’s cottage.

After my Cookie Machine left my service to join the natives, Professor Grimmicus suggested that I get another android to help around the cottage.” Sol #3 Council Debriefings of Planetary Anthropologist Marie GottMothercus recorded by Stuarticus Cardicus, Declassified Archives of the Zorcon Empire.

“It will be fun to hang out with you and Luke again,” said Goldilocks to her brother after they landed from their quick flight from Elf Village. “And it will be great to see all the toymakers and the toys for next Christmas!”

“Um,” hesitated James. “The toys that we have in production are ‘top secret.’ You know the drill. We’re still working on new designs,” he added, “and lists have to be made.”

“How is everybody doing?” she asked.

“We work all of the time,” James began. “Some of the elves are getting restless. Skiing is no good. The North Pole is too flat. But that may change soon.”

“Why is that?” asked Goldilocks.

“The Fairy Godmother says that she can put a mountain at the pole,” he said. “Everyone is excited about that. That’s why she’s coming up there again.”

James got out to check on the reindeer. It would be a few minutes before they would leave.

The Fairy Godmother came out from her cottage to the sleigh. Her real name was Marie Gottmothercus. Her friends called her Marie. Most people in Oberland Kingdom, including Goldilocks, knew her as the Fairy Godmother. For them she was a kindly lady who usually kept to herself. It was rumored that she occasionally she did Good Deeds.

The villagers did not know that she was a planetary anthropologist from Zorcon or that her “magic wand” was a matter-antimatter long-range model-3 transputer. It used computers, nanotechnology, and energy channeled from Zorcon.

Following a suggestion from Professor Grimmicus, Marie created a new android a few days earlier. It was a Multi-Talented Apparatus. Unlike her first android, this one looked like a young native woman. The android was helping her around the cottage.

The android was expected to answer the door and to greet visitors. Nobody had visited so far. She was supposed to make visitors comfortable. However, she was not to provide information about Zorcon or the Fairy Godmother’s mission. She was also to report back to the Zorcon Library and Professor Grimmicus about any anomalies she observed on Sol #3.

The android looked out the cottage window at the sleigh. Checking with the Zorcon University Library, she learned that Santa flew this sleigh on Christmas Eve to deliver toys to children around the world. The sleigh did not look like other historic flying vehicles in the library. It was pulled by reindeer. Its flight physics were unknown.

Marie and Goldilocks settled into a seat on the sleigh and talked. Before Marie took over the real estate office in Elf Village, Marie had bought her cottage from Goldilocks’ father, Elfin John.

Looking out from the cottage window, the android adjusted her hearing so that she could hear their conversation.

Goldilocks asked, “If you can put a mountain at the North Pole to create a ski-area, couldn’t you also put a ski mountain in Oberland Kingdom? It would be great if people could ski closer to Elf Village!”

The android consulted the library records on planetary anthropology. Creating a mountain was a significant energy expense and unusual for a planetary anthropologist. Planetary anthropologists were drilled in the rule to “Listen, Learn, and Leave it Alone.” Creating mountains was not “leaving things alone.” Marie’s plan was an anomaly. However, the android had only been instructed to report on anomalies of Sol #3.

Just then James pulled on the reins and shouted, “Let’s rock and roll!” to the reindeer. The reindeer leaned forward and rapidly pulled the sleigh up in the air.

Just down the road a young woman, a young man, a young bear, and a metallic man were on their way to the cottage with a basket of cookies for the Fairy Godmother.

With his sharp sight, Charley was the first to see Santa’s sleigh racing skywards. He pointed it out to Hansel, BC, and Gretel.

Hansel smiled, “It’s James, showing off again!”

The sleigh turned sharply. It passed close to a tree by the Fairy Godmother’s cottage, causing the tree to sway in its wake.

The sleigh blurred with speed. Hansel, BC, and Gretel were startled as a loud boom reached them. Charley’s blue eye flashed and his red eye flashed. “That sleigh is flying faster than 767 miles per hour,” he announced.

“That’s a lot faster than I thought reindeer could fly,” grinned Hansel.

BC snorted. Reindeer couldn’t normally fly. The young bear knew that magic was involved.

Charley knew that the sleigh did not operate by normal flying principles, but he was used to it. He had seen other unusual things on Sol #3.

“Did you see who was on the sleigh?” asked Gretel.

Charley blinked. “Besides James,” he said, “the Fairy Godmother and Goldilocks.”

“If the Fairy Godmother is away, what should we do with the cookies?” asked BC. “Sage told us to give the cookies to her.”

“I can think of one or two things we might do with them,” answered Hansel slyly.

Just then there was a loud crack as a high branch broke off the swaying tree. It bounced, twisted, and tumbled down towards the Fairy Godmother’s cottage. The branch crashed right through the round window. The branch struck the android. It knocked her to the kitchen floor. She skidded backwards, breaking her sandals.

“Oof!” she said, as she bumped against the kitchen counter.

Charley exclaimed, “There is trouble at the cottage!”

“It sounded like someone was hurt,” added Gretel.

“Let’s hurry,” shouted Hansel, running to the cottage ahead of the others.

Chapter 2. Emma Chooses Adventure

he four young people ran to the cottage. Hansel was about to open the door and dash in when Gretel touched his shoulder and gave him a look.

“Remember last time,” she cautioned.

BC stepped up to the door and knocked.

They heard the shuffle of footsteps approaching. The door opened. A disheveled young woman looked out.

Gretel stepped forward and handed her the basket of cookies. She said, “Sage sent us with these cookies for the Fairy Godmother.”

“Hello,” she said. “I’m sorry, but the Fairy Godmother is not at home now.”

“Oh, thank you,” said the young woman. She answered politely, “The Fairy Godmother enjoys Sage’s cookies.” The travelers saw that she had a blue eye and a red eye. Her blue eye flashed.

The android looked at the visitors. There was a young woman and a young man. There was a young member of the Ursidae family (Bears), wearing clothing and talking with the others. Her blue eye flashed and her red eye flashed again. The library had no record of bears wearing clothes or talking, except in ancient folktales. Perhaps this was a person in a costume. The Multi-Talented Apparatus examined the young bear more closely. It was not a person in a costume. It was a real bear. A talking bear was an anomaly. She queued this anomaly in her communications system for transmission and analysis by the Zorcon University Library.

The young people introduced themselves.

“I’m Gretel,” said the young woman.

“I’m BC,” said the young bear.

“I’m Hansel,” said the young man.

Then she looked at the fourth “person.” He was mostly titanium. He looked like a model 67 mobile general-purpose apparatus, except that he wore clothing and had hair. He did not act like an android. He interacted with the others like a person.

Charley bowed. “I’m Charley,” he said.

Again, her blue eye blinked and her red eye blinked. She used her wireless communications system to send him a message. The message said, “I am a Multi-Talented Model 117 Home Appliance, identification AB97130-M38572245. What is your identification? What is your purpose?”

Charley smiled when he received the wireless message.  His wireless communication system was operational, but it was now completely under his conscious control. Charley spoke out loud and did not respond wirelessly.

“Hi,” said Charley. “My purpose is to live, learn, and do right things, I think.”

The red and blue eyes of the Multi-Talented Apparatus blinked again. She checked the library. There was no record of any android still on Sol #3. A Cookie Machine android had been there, but it had been broken. There was no record of an android that did not automatically identify itself with an appliance identifier. There was no record of an android having the purpose to “live, learn, and do right things”. This was another anomaly.

She spoke to everyone. She said, “I am a Multi-Talented Apparatus. My purpose is to do housekeeping and other errands for the Fairy Godmother.”

“Hmm,” said BC. Calling the girl a Multi-Talented Apparatus would be pretty awkward. His parents had named him Christopher Bear, but everyone had called him Baby Bear for a long time. When he had outgrown that name, Hansel called him by his initials, but reversing their order. Now his friends called him “BC” He liked the “BC” nickname. They should give the ‘Multi-Talented Apparatus a nickname. “We could call her ‘M.A.’,” suggested BC.

Gretel smiled. “Her name is Emma,” she said with great authority. She had taken on the role of naming appliances.

“Emma!” said Hansel, approvingly.

“Emma!” said BC, smiling.

“Emma!” said Charley. He had been learning about politeness at Oberland School, so he added, “That’s a lovely name.”

The Multi-Talented Apparatus blinked again. The young people had proposed to give her a short name. Naming of androids was common since humans do not like to remember long names. However, the owner or master usually assigned the name. Marie Gottmothercus had not yet given her a name. The android checked the library. Occasionally other people assigned temporary names to androids. Such a naming practice was permissible.

“I can answer to ‘Emma’,” she said accepting the nickname.

Gretel looked at Emma. Emma’s speech was awkward.

Gretel asked, “Emma. Are you hurt? We heard a branch crash down. It seems to have hit you.”

Emma’s blue eye blinked. “I am undamaged. It would take more than a tree branch to damage me.”

Emma heard noises in the kitchen and saw that Hansel, BC, and Charley were repairing the damaged window. BC had picked up the branch and was carrying it to the yard. Hansel swept the tree debris from the floor. Charley arranged the pieces of broken glass. He moved his hand over the cracks as he reassembled and repaired the window. His finger glowed brightly. Charley was skillfully mending the broken glass.

Emma had never seen anyone repair something before. Usually, broken things were just replaced. She had never seen an android work with a group of people. Her blue eye blinked and her red eye blinked.

“Look,” Gretel smiled, “The boys are repairing the window!”

Emma did not know what to say. In her experience, people did not thank androids and people did not fix things. Nor did bears. The library suggested that the best response was, “Thank you,” but androids were usually not expected to give thanks. Emma offered, “The Fairy Godmother will probably be grateful.” She said ‘probably’ because it was not completely certain what the Fairy Godmother would say about all this.

Gretel thought that “probably” was an odd thing to say. She looked at Emma curiously.

BC snorted. “And we’ll probably be grateful that she is probably grateful,” he said.

Hansel smiled. “And I’d probably be grateful for a glass of water,” he added.

Charley’s blue eye blinked and his red eye blinked. “This glass repair is making me hungry. I’d probably be grateful for something to eat.”

Gretel frowned at the boys. “I’d definitely be grateful if boys remembered when they were guests and were politer,” she said.

Hansel grinned, “Yeah. It’s nice to be nice.”

BC elaborated, “It’s nice to be nice to the nice.”

Charley’s blue eye blinked. He added, “Probably.”

Gretel started to frown, but instead she laughed and soon everyone was laughing. Emma did not understand laughing. She noticed that Charley was laughing. Emma considered laughing, but androids don’t laugh. It was confusing.

Then Gretel suggested to Emma, “Perhaps we could prepare something for the boys to eat.”

Except for the cookies and some milk, there was no food in the cottage. Usually when the Fairy Godmother wanted food or anything else, she created it with her wand. Emma asked, “Would cookies and milk be satisfactory?”

“Things are looking up,” said BC. All the boys brightened and sat at the kitchen table. Emma and Gretel got the cookies and milk together. Gretel ate some cookies too. Charley ate too. An android eating was an anomaly. Emma reported it to the Zorcon University library. She didn’t eat anything.

Afterwards, Gretel said to Emma, “Perhaps you and I could freshen up while the boys clean the kitchen.”

Gretel and Emma then went off. When they were alone, Gretel observed, “You may not be damaged,” she said, “but your clothing is dusty, and your shoes are a wreck.”

Emma looked down at her clothing and shoes. “The Fairy Godmother can replace them when she returns in a few days,” she said, deciding not to say more about it.

“Do you have another pair of shoes?” asked Gretel.

Emma shook her head. “I have only needed one pair to do my work around the cottage,” she said.

Gretel stood proudly. “My father is the best woodcarver in the kingdom and also an excellent shoemaker. You could use a nice pair of boots to wear when you go shopping,” she added.

Emma’s blue eye blinked. She consulted the library. ‘Shopping’ was something that people on Zorcon used to do before assembly nano-bots were invented. People on Sol #3 probably still shopped. She had no instructions about shopping.

“I have no instructions about shopping,” she said simply,

The library showed that women often had several pairs of shoes. “I have not needed more shoes yet since I have been here only for a few days,” she answered.

Gretel continued. “Then you must come with us to our home. My father can make you a fine pair of boots. Emma’s blue eye blinked and her red eye blinked. The library had no information about people making clothing for androids. Appliances like her were constructed with clothing and could occasionally arrange for repairs. “Perhaps,” she said uncertainly.

Emma thought about leaving the cottage with the others. The Fairy Godmother had not instructed her not to leave. But Emma had a secondary assignment to observe anomalies and to report them back to the Zorcon University Library, attention to Professor Grimmicus.

Gretel took her hand. “Then it’s settled.” Gretel then helped Emma clean her dress and make temporary repairs to her sandals.

“This will probably be acceptable,” said Emma.

Afterwards, the group of travelers including Emma locked up the Fairy Godmother’s Cottage and started hiking to Hansel and Gretel’s home.

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