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“No.”

Before she could continue, Sam shifted so he was almost vertical in the water and pointed upwards with one front paw. “Yes!”

A long line of undulating darkness passed between them and the surface, turned, and passed again a little closer.

“Okay, problems. Plural. I need the tooth to close the hole.”

“Great.” Sam kept his eyes on the serpent, now one pass closer. “So call it.”

Diana reached out and grabbed him as the lashing of his tail propelled him upwards. “Two problems with that. One, it might be locked away and not able to move freely, and, two, we don’t know how far away it is. Staying down here indefinitely is really not an option. We need to go to it.”

“And?”

“And that’s not a problem: given that we’ve got the rest of the jaw, we’ll just follow it. The problem is, I can’t pull from the Possibilities this close to the hole.”

“So we leave and come back another day. And when I say we come back,” Sam amended, as he wriggled free and started swimming toward shore, “I mean you.”

Diana grabbed him again. “Did I mention that the serpent has to go back through the hole before I close it? If we leave and come back, the serpent could be anywhere, not to mention that another serpent– or worse – could come through.”

“You’re just full of good news.”

“But, I have a plan.”

“Oh, joy.”

“You won’t like it.”

He sighed. “Why am I not surprised?”

“I’m going to use the Possibilities that are keeping us dry and breathing.”

“There’s a problem with that.” He squirmed around until he looked her in the face. “They’re keeping us dry and breathing.”

“We take a deep breath, and the next instant we’ll be standing by the missing tooth.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad.”

“We’ll just be a little wet.”

“When you say a little, you mean…”

“Completely.”

He locked his claws in her jacket. “No.”

“Would you rather be eaten by the lake monster?”

Sam glanced toward the surface. The serpent was close enough that Diana could see the broad band of lighter-brown scales around its neck. It seemed to be picking up speed with each pass, confidence growing as nothing opposed it.

“Sam?”

“I’m thinking.”

There were teeth visible just inside the broad mouth. Rather too many teeth, in Diana’s opinion. Rather too many teeth suddenly facing them. And closing fast. Really, really fast. “Take a deep breath, Sam.”

“I don’t…”

“Now!”

And they were standing, dripping, in a basement workshop, the room barely lit by two low windows.

“I’m wet!” Claws breaking through denim to skin, Sam leapt out of Diana’s arms and raced around the room, spraying water from his sodden fur. “Wet! Wet! Ahhhhh! Wet!” Tail clamped tight to his body, he disappeared under the lower shelf of the workbench.

“Oh for…” Far enough from the hole that all Possibilities were open to her, Diana reached. “There. Now, you’re dry.”

“I’m still sitting in a puddle,” came a disgruntled voice from under the bench.

“So move.” Taking her own advice, Diana stepped out of a puddle of her own and held out the jaw. “Can you hear that?”

“I have water in my ears.”

“Sam!”

“Fine.” He crawled out from under the bench, shook, and sat, head cocked. “I hear tapping.”

“Can you find it?”

The look he shot her promised dire consequences.

“I’m sorry.Would you find it? Please.” Not a compulsion, just a polite request. Compelling cats had much the same success rate as Senate reform, which was to say, none at all.

The tooth was in a small plastic box, tucked inside a red, metal tool box, shoved to the back of an upper shelf.

“What’s the point of having a souvenir no one can see?” Sam wondered as the tooth settled back into the jaw with an audible click.

“I guess the point’s having it. Let’s go.”

“In a minute.” He walked over to where a full wet suit hung on the wall, neoprene booties lined up neatly under it. Tail held high, he turned around.

“What are you doing?”

He looked up at her like she was an idiot. In fairness, it was a stupid question.

“Good aim,” she acknowledged when he finished. “I just hope they don’t have a cat that can be blamed when he puts that boot on next.”

“They don’t.”

“You really got upset about him taking that tooth,” she murmured, bending and scooping him up.

“Please,” he snorted, settling into the crook of her arm. “I gotwet!”

“Who are you?”

She stared at Sam, who shrugged in an unhelpful manner, then turned toward the piping voice.

A little girl, no more than five, stood in the open doorway, half hanging off the door knob. Behind her, a rec room; empty but for a scattering of brightly-coloured toys.

Diana glanced down at the jaw and smiled. “I’m the tooth fairy,” she said, reached into the Possibilities, and allowed the bone to pull them back to the wreck.

The serpent was nowhere in sight, but since they hadn’t been gone long, she figured it hadn’t gone far. The trick would be getting it to come back.

“Sam! What are you doing?”

He paused, up on his hind legs, front claws embedded in a squared piece of timber. “Is that a trick question?”

“Just stop it.”

“Fine.” Sighing, he swam back over beside her. “Now what?”