squish
"Oops. Sorry 'bout that." The Wanderer said as he materialized in front of the kid's house...right on top of a large grasshopper that had been making its ill-timed way across the driveway.
He quickly walked to the front door, reached for the knob, and....
"Shit!"
...pulled his hand away, scalded. The hand was actually steaming in the night air, red and blistered. He waved his other hand over it...and nothing happened. The wound wouldn't heal. He'd have to wait for it to recover naturally.
It seemed that someone had erected some powerful magical wards around the kid's house. He considered trying to penetrate it, but decided that that would cause entirely too many unnecessary fireworks.
So instead, he walked over to a neighbor's house, mumbled a few words, and with a small poof of smoke, became a leather jacketed lawn gnome. He settled in, watching, and waiting. The kid had to leave sometime, and that was likely to be sooner rather than later.
