NEXUS CENTER -- Tania Krestev is a newcomer to
city-league Fling, but you'd never know it seeing
her out on the court. She was picked up by the
Downtown Harmonics and is busy preparing for the
fall season, straight out of her high-school
graduation. What makes her unusual isn't her skill
level, her style of play, or her body shape, but
where she comes from: the magical valley of
Wondervale.

Wondervale, sectioned off east of the city,
normally isn't even visitable by outsiders. It's
still part of Elseways, but its citizens are all
high-powered and supernatural, and often survive
only through means that would be difficult or
dangerous to provide in the main part of the
city. Tania grew up surrounded by vampires,
demons, faeries, genies, and full-scale dragons,
and she herself is a high-powered basilisk girl
with strong enough innate magic to hypnotize
crowds of thousands of ordinary people if she let
it go.

"I don't mind having to dampen it to play," she
says, pointing to the woven silver collar she
wears. "My magic isn't why people should be
watching me. My five-pointers from across the
court are."

Wondervale has no Fling team of its own; Tania
attended school there, but practiced with the
Glenrock Stars on weekends at their facility near
the mini-golf course. She made more than a few
friends there who she'll now be competing against,
but her choice to join the Harmonics came down to
a rapport with the coach.

For his part, Coach Mark Byle has this to say
about Tania. "She's a good girl and a hard worker,
out to prove she belongs out here on the court
instead of stuck in that valley. We've worked out
a way we all get what we want, and I can't wait to
get her out there this fall to show you all what
she's capable of."