Kitty quickly ladled some thick, sweet, tomato soup into her bowl, and then plopped down in the chair across the round, wooden table from Tim. Steam wafted up from her bowl, fragrant and hot, so that if she leaned forward into it she felt as though she was eating the summer itself.

Kitty lingered over her meal a bit longer than was really necessary as she daydreamed about what she could do with the money she would get if she sold the leaves. Even though she knew she would probably save it, it was fun to think of the possibilities. She could buy a really good tent, and camp out in her woods. She could buy a metal detector and a shovel so she could hunt for treasure, or maybe she would trade the leaves in for something else interesting.

She finished eating, dropped her nearly-spotless bowl into the half-full sink with a splash, and thumped down the stairs into the basement.

Kitty wove through the rows of boxes over to her workstation, grabbed her polishing cloth and the closer of the two leaves, and began to rub. After a few minutes, intricate designs began to surface. Tiny feathery shapes, swirls, and scrolls laced the gleaming metal. Kitty had no idea how one would create such a masterpiece of metalwork, but she liked it. She would keep at least one of them, she decided, just as a resounding thud sounded, accompanied by the sound of breaking glass.

Kitty dropped the leaf carefully onto her table, and flew upstairs. She skidded through the kitchen and adjacent dining room, down the hall, and into the living room, to find Tim and her mother attempting to extract a grinning Lavender from the shards of an old lamp.

"I was watching her, but she just grabbed the cord, and BANG!" Tim was explaining.

"It's ok, Tim," her mother said. "She's done that with me, too."

"What does that make, the third time this month?" Kitty asked.

"Fourth," Tim said grumpily. "Don't forget my favorite mug!"

"It's just a phase, Tim." Kitty said, accepting an exhilarated Lavender from her mother. "You were the same when you were her age."

Mom looked down at the jagged shards. "You know, I never liked that lamp anyway." She said, ever the optimist. "Kitty? Tim? Could you two please take Lavender somewhere for a few minutes so I can get this cleaned up?"

"Sure," Kitty said, and led her siblings to the kitchen. She quickly grabbed some scrap paper from the bin, along with some crayons for Lavender and colored pencils for Tim and herself. She and Tim sat themselves on either side of their young charge, and idly sketched while Lavender scribbled up a colorful storm.

Kitty stared down at her paper, a not-quite rectangle with one corner torn off. She decided she would draw a tree in a big field. She started with the leaves, adding a messy jumble of foliage at the top of the page. She added a trunk, and then branches, letting herself get sucked into her picture. Leaves tumbled off her pencil, each one complete with tiny veins, holes, and it's own shadow. The tree finished, Kitty began on a stormy sky, with dense grey clouds and a sun valiantly battling them for dominance. She added grass and a river, then hills in the background and then—

"Kitty? Tim?" It was their mother, looking somewhat harassed but hiding it fairly well. "Thank you two so much for keeping an eye on Lavender. You're such a help."

"Anytime," said Tim. Kitty didn't say anything at all, transfixed by her picture. Now that her trance was broken, she couldn't believe what she had drawn. Normally, her pictures looked like stick figures, but this... this one was pure Magic.