Okay, so some things in this book don't make sense. So I'm fixing that. One by one, I'm completely reworking my chapters, changing the tense, the sequence of events, cutting events, etc.
Chapters that I have finished with will have "(redone)" following the title. Please let me know what you think!
Friday, October 29, 2010
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Chapter 47
Aiyamar
My Team moved off down the hall, Tzara following sullenly. I still don’t want to acknowledge her as part of the Team; she wasn’t, really.
I even feel a little resentment that Lorik is the Leader now. I mean, it’s not like I have anything personal against him. It’s just wrong, somehow, that Kyle isn’t leading. He’s a natural at it.
Even when he first started, after Chris left, Kyle was the best Leader. At least, he was in the 1-4 Quarter Corps. We’d risen from being Team 031 to Team 009 in only a single Earth year. That’s record time.
At least I know Lorik though, unlike Tzara, who is simply an intruder.
We slowly made our way back across the Mess Hall, and back to the Team 009 dorm. On the way, Kelta struggled to tame a threatening thunderstorm brewing overhead. It was only one of several such “impossible” weather phenomenons.
I ducked around Eyrad so that I could stand next to Kelta. “Hey.”
She sniffed and brushed a hand in front of her eyes. It was a poor attempt to hide her tears.
With Kelta, you never know if she’s just leaking, or actually crying. But it would make more sense for her to be crying, what with…well, everything.
“Hey,” I said again so that only she could hear. I slipped my hand into hers and squeezed. “You want to talk later?”
She shook her head, sending auburn hair flying in self-generated air currents. “I’m just worried, you know?”
I nodded. Of course I knew. She’s worried about her crush, Wynn. For the last 18 Earth months, she’s been constantly thinking about him. Now it’s gotten to the point where I’m worried about her. It’s not exactly easy having relationships in the School. Sure, some do it, but it’s technically against the rules. Too many complications if someone defects in battle.
So, it’s not like she can just tell him, in case he’s the type to say something to Kyle. Neither one of us thinks that he would, but it’s better not to take changes. They are pretty close.
She was doing a good job of keeping it to herself, because no one knew until she told me. And she only told me because I threatened to tell Kyle that she was acting strangely (not eating, sleeping, etc). The last thing she wanted was for a mind-reader to ask her what’s wrong.
As far as we know, no one else knows except for Krystal. How she managed to pry it out of Kelta, I’ll never know. She must have a gift for persuasion. That’s why Kelta wants her to ask Wynn how he feels about her. Discreetly, of course. I’m really excited to see what he says (and what he thinks).
…
We reached the dorms slightly damp. Poor Kelta had lost control, unleashing a torrent of rain onto us and a few other Classmen. No one minded. Rain seemed appropriate for such a somber mood.
I felt so bad for her. She’s usually not like this at all.
Lorik had us line up, and then he addressed us simply. “We’ll have to chance the portals for this mission. Aiyamar, Astulad, and Tzara will help strengthen them and lessen our chances of being teleported to the middle of nowhere. All of you, be on the look out for enemies. Take notice of any emblems, signs, et cetera. Collect your weapons. We leave in 2 Earth minutes.”
While I certainly wasn’t thrilled with being forced to work with Tzara, Astulad was practically glowing. I mean that in a literal sense.
Chapter 46
Aiyamar
After we were debriefed (I can’t say that without laughing, even considering our circumstances), Kelsey signaled for me, Kelta, Eyrad, Llare, Ya’asa, and Lorik to follow her.
She led us to one of the few hallways not crowded with rescuees from the battle. We saluted her, as is customary, and she returned the gesture formally. I just knew that she was going to tell us something really bad.
“First, you’re all going to be screened.” I didn’t like the way she’d say that. I’ve never been screened (as far as I can remember), but I’ve heard that it hurts a lot.
One by one, we lined up. Lorik was first. He, of course, wouldn’t be afraid of the screening; he could pretty much make sure that Kelsey didn’t hurt him. In fact, I kind of think that if he wanted to, he could take over the School. Good thing he’s loyal to Kelsey, as was proved when she was done screening him.
When my turn came, I heard Kelsey’s voice in my head. Just relax. If you fight, I’ll be distracted and it’ll hurt. I did what she said. It did hurt, worse than anything I’d ever felt, but it was over really fast.
When she was done, we all lined up in front of her to hear what she had to say.
“You all have met Krystal Watema,” she said, stating it as a fact. We all nodded our heads silently. “How many of you have heard about Krystal’s, uh, encounter before she came here?”
Ya’asa and I raised our hands. Eyrad’s arm twitched, which for him was the same as raising his hand. Poor thing, he’s so freaking shy.
I had heard something from Kyle about the Immaterial Beast that Krystal had killed. I didn’t know the whole story, but I had said something to Ya’asa, and between ourselves we had managed to make a pretty tall tale out of it.
“Well, to make a long story short, she was sought out, and attacked by an Immaterial Beast. We don’t have positive identification of the species.”
All of us gasped. Even me and Ya’asa. It was just so shocking to hear the rumor confirmed.
Kelsey continued without stopping. “I’m sending all of you to go find Krystal. She’s in major danger. We think it’s because of her immense raw power.
Say nothing of this to anyone,” she said, looking straight at me. Okay, I admit, I’ve been known to say too much at times. “The rest of the students think that you’re going to rescue Kyle. I hate to say it, but we’ll have to let him look out for himself for a while.”
If I know anything about Kyle, he’d probably prefer we go after Krystal, anyway. I could imagine him berating us for not finding the other members of our Team before him.
Llare raised his hand. “How are we going to find her? The portals are broken,” he said.
“You’ll be going with another person. She’s going to be a member of your Team. Temporarily, anyway. She’ll help you with the portals.”
The faces of my Teammates would have been hilarious if it was any other time and place. We’d already lost our Leader, our newest member, and two older members. Now Kelsey wanted to throw another handicap on us? A new Team member? Seriously? And why should this new person be coming with us to rescue our friend?
Out of the shadows stepped Tzara. She said nothing, but looked as peeved about the arrangements as we were.
“This is Tzara,” Kelsey said, breaking the uncomfortable silence. “She’s a Shadow Manipulator from Natiskes.”
Natiskes? That world is renowned for its people, who are proud and rather unfriendly. This was not looking good.
Lorik nodded at Tzara, his face completely expressionless. At least he had the decency to keep his feelings from showing, unlike the rest of us.
Tzara didn’t seem to mind. I bet if I could have read her mind she would have been like “Well, at least the feeling is mutual.”
Istalcia ran into our hallway, out of nowhere. “Kelsey, you’re needed.”
“Thanks, Istalcia. One more thing. Aiyamar? Where are—oh, there. Astulad will accompany your Team, but you and Lorik will need to heal him first. Take Tzara with you; her Shadows might strengthen your Light.”
With that, Kelsey tore down the hall after Istalcia.
Chapter 45
Kyle
Lum beat me when I got back. He’s a weird little guy; always ready to thrash someone. This time, it was supposedly because I was late. He probably just had too much of the local beer. It wasn’t a huge deal. He’s a foot shorter than me, after all. Right after he finished, I healed myself. In front of him. I can’t tell you how satisfying that was. I’m a god, remember? (I’m getting way too much of a thrill out of that).
But the triumph was a little…I don’t know. Bittersweet, I guess. Or maybe I felt guilty.
There have been so many nights that I’ve lain awake, wanting to heal Krystal. She always has bruises. I just can’t imagine how it was for her. I mean, she didn’t know about her Power, so she just had to live with the pain.
I almost broke my promise to the Leaders and healed her. Twice. But worse things would have happened if I did. For example, our friend the Immaterial Beast.
I’ve been thinking about that. The School has a lot of enemies, so it’s kind of hard to single out one. But who would send a freaking Immaterial Beast after an untrained Energy Manipulator? It’s true, we’re pretty much jacks-of-all-trades. We can twist our Power to do almost everything the other Manipulators can, so we are the most powerful. But still, at the time, Krystal didn’t even know about the School.
I guess the only reason someone would come after her is to use her power. If she didn’t know what side to fight for, she would be easily swayed.
It still doesn’t make sense though. They obviously knew where she was, so it would have been better for them to kidnap her earlier. That is, if that’s what they wanted.
I haven’t eaten enough to be thinking this much. I’m probably missing something really important. This just feels like it should be so easy…Lorik and Mom would be so disappointed.
I’ve got to find a way to get back to the School. I know that that’s what Kelsey would have me do. Especially with the portals all wonky like this. But my Team is out there. I have to find them. If I could get to Krystal and Wynn first, then our combined powers would make finding the rest of the Team easier. And Wynn is really good at remaking portals. If we gave him enough Energy, he might even be able to make a new one.
Not to mention that it’s probably not a good idea to leave Krystal for much longer. I don’t think Wynn could deal with her for very long.
…
Krystal
The flames crackled and slowly died away.
Let’s get away from here, Wynn suggested.
I followed, dumbstruck at what had happened. Since when do I control fire?!
Wynn led us deeper into the vegetation so that we could hide in case more soldiers came. His hands were gentle, but firm, as if he was worried about the state of my sanity. Truth is, I was too.
“We have to leave. Can you sense any portals?” Wynn whispered.
“What? No. I can’t sense portals!” I hissed back. He sighed in exaggerated patience. “Yes you can. They’re woven together with Energy.”
“Oh. I don’t know…I could try.” My body was drained. And I had successfully and officially freaked myself out.
“Yes. Do that,” he said, his patience beginning to run out. He sensed something, and it was making him jumpy.
I had no idea how to sense a portal. My lessons with Lorik hadn’t gone that far. I guessed that the most reasonable thing to do would be to reach out like I was searching for another person’s mind.
I was immediately overwhelmed. The natural energy emissions from the plants, myself, and the remaining waves from the dead soldiers put way too much stress on me. I nearly collapsed, but Wynn was standing close enough to steady me.
“Ouch,” I said weakly.
“Never mind. Can you feed your Energy into me? Maybe I can sense it,” he offered.
“No, let me try again,” I argued. I don’t know how to “feed Energy” into someone, I realized.
This time when I reached out, I ignored the waves from the living things around me. It definitely helped with the stress factor. Once I focused on what I was looking for (Wynn described it as fizzling dark light, whatever that means), I realized that we were standing less than 5 feet from a portal.
“There it is,” I pointed excitedly.
Wynn turned calmly, as if he already knew where it was. “Good. I could feel it, but it’s really worn down. We might end up somewhere more dangerous.” He inclined an eyebrow. I noticed that this is his most common expression. “Do you want to chance it?” I asked.
“Um…do you think we could fix it or something? ‘Cause I don’t feel like getting captured again. Once in a day is enough, don’t you think?” I was not ready to land in some random world, which, with my luck, would be a heck of a lot worse than the one we were in.
Wynn cast his eyes to the ground. “I somehow doubt that you would know what to do,” he said quietly. He wasn’t insulting me, just stating a fact.
We were silent for a minute. Okay, a little more than a minute. More like 10 minutes. It was starting to bother me. Finally, I said something. “Maybe Kyle could help?”
Wynn nodded, and then looked a little concerned. “Will you be able to?” he asked, referring to the trouble I had last time I tried to contact Kyle.
“If I did it once, I’m sure I can do it again,” I said defiantly. Just then my stomach growled.
I hadn’t eaten in at least 2 days.
Chapter 44
Ikah
Customer service is terrible in prison.
I’ve been banging on the walls, the door, the ceiling, and the floor for ever! I stopped awhile ago. It was pointless.
They haven’t been back up to feed me yet, and it’s definitely been too long. I know because I made a water clock out of the stale water they brought up last time. Guess they didn’t like the noise. Ah well. More time to plan my escape.
My cell is completely windowless, and I didn’t see any light when the jailer walked in, so I must be underground. I can hear a sort of ringing sound when I tap the stones in the walls, so there’s probably another cell next to mine. Or it could be a hallway. But something feels really weird about this place. I can sense the presence of water. A lot of water. But it feels different; there are a lot of particles and things in it. That’s normal, but this is way more particle-y than any water I’ve ever worked with. I can’t tell what the particles are. Probably dirt. If it is, then wherever the water is, it’s probably just a bunch of mud.
It’s so irritating. All I need is a pern of water. (I think that’s a little less than an Earth quart.) Then I could bust out of here. The tricky part would be finding another portal. The regulars still haven't’ figured it out, but there are at least three portals in every square Earth mile.
Life is so complicated.
If I could just see the water, I wouldn’t be in this mess. And Krystal, the real reason I’m here, is probably fine. I bet she’s getting all cozy with Kyle.
Of course, they insist that they’re “just friends.” The sad thing is, the rest of the Team believes it. It’s way too obvious that Kyle can’t even stop thinking about her. And does he even look at me? No. Just my rotten luck that I spend almost 2 years crushing on him day and night, and he doesn’t even notice.
I don’t know what he could possibly see in Krystal. She so…weak. And she’s a major kiss-up. She has to be if Lorik likes her. I’ve known him for almost 5 years and he still doesn’t like me. Until Krystal and Aoife came along, he didn’t like anyone. Poor Aoife. He’s fallen pretty hard over her.
Someone’s coming.
Chapter 43
Krystal
I withdrew my mind, too tired even to stand, much less support a mental connection. No wonder they charge extra for long-distance calls I thought tiredly.
Next thing I knew, I was facing the sky. A burning, harsh pain settled in on my right arm. I couldn’t move it.
I looked over as Wynn shouted something. An arrow stuck out of my arm, hot blood leaking from the hole.
It was like I turned into a different person. I leaped up and sent a stream of fire in the general direction the arrow was shot from.
What happened there? It was supposed to be electricity, not fire. Kind of like lightning. Not the time to think about that.
To my dismay, the enemy arrows didn’t stop. Instead, they caught fire and continued heading towards us.
I ducked and rolled, snapping the arrowhead off into my arm. I didn’t notice the pain. It could wait. The volley of burning projectiles flew harmlessly overhead.
Wynn dropped next to me, crouched on the ground, barely visible. I instinctively reestablished our mind connection.
You’re hurt, he said when he felt my presence.
No way, really? Believe me, I noticed.
Left!
I dodged a rock that had come hurtling at me. It struck in the ground, right where my head had been.
Go! Wynn ordered. I knew he meant for me to hide in the near foliage. I thought about disobeying. Leaving him to fight our enemies didn’t sit well with me. Then again, he obviously knew how to handle himself. In the few moments that I hesitated, he’d dropped seven or eight men with his bow and arrows.
I ran for cover, and turned around just in time to see Wynn just…disappear. The attackers (they looked like soldiers) stopped, bewildered, and began hunting for Wynn and I.
Some of the arrows hadn’t burned out; there were sparks still there, barely alive. I looked at them, wishing that I could manipulate Fire. That would make an easy getaway.
The minute I imagined the whole platoon of soldiers going up in smoke, it happened.
I’m dead serious. The sparks left in the smoldering arrows suddenly grew into fire. Huge, leaping, crackling flames ate up the platoon in only a few seconds.
Wynn looked at me, his eyes wide. I think that for him, that’s the same as saying “OH MY FREAKING GOSH! WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!” But he’s a little more mellow.
Did you do that? He finally asked, breaking the silence.
I think so.
Good job, he said simply.
I don’t think I’m supposed to be able to do that.
Chapter 42
Kyle
It has been approximately 4 months since the Rastians enslaved me.
Life as a slave wasn’t as bad as you would think. Don’t get me wrong, it’s no picnic, but at least the Rastians were humane people. It probably didn’t hurt that I’m apparently a former god, as I demonstrated by use of my Power. The Rastians now called me Ragnok, a word that means “destruction”. They learned it from one of the ancient otherworldly visitors.
Judging by their stories, the “visitors” were Templar knights or Masons.
I guess being a god wasn’t all that great, anyway, because I still had to do all the dirty work.
Every day I woke up at the crack of dawn. The dawn there is the same as any other time of day; the light never changed. It was kind of like mist, only made of a smoky, dim light.
Lum either had me bring him tea or get firewood first, depending on his mood. Lum was the head honcho, I guess. He’s also Fortan’s father. So that makes Fortan a princess, right? Well, if she is, she’s a lot nicer than she has to be.
After I got the fire going (using my “god” powers, of course) and made breakfast, I had to stand in the Rastian marketplace and help whoever needed it. I felt kind of like a juvenile convict sentenced to community service.
Most of the people who “needed help” were teenage-looking girls, who could just as well have carried the single packages they bought by themselves.
Later on, (I don’t know what time it was) I had to go escort Fortan home. I don’t really know what she did before I picked her up. It didn’t look like school or anything. More like some sort of church service. Well, temple service.
The Rastians’ religion is kind of complicated. As far as I can tell, the ancient visitors brought Christianity with them. Some of the Rastians had converted, but a lot of them hadn’t, and still practiced the traditional rituals and stuff.
Lum and his family were obviously part of the second group. When I had first become a slave, he whipped me for returning the Catholic cross gesture that another Rastian had greeted me with.
Then he’d whipped me again when I addressed him first, instead of letting him talk. After that, we were cool with each other. Mostly. He had some anger issues.
The Rastians didn’t really keep a tight leash on me, so there were plenty of times when I could have escaped. The problem was that I had absolutely no idea where my Team was, where the nearest portal was, or even if a portal (provided I found one) would take me back to the School. What if I got dumped in a worse place than Rast?
I had tried to find my Teammates with my Power, but none of them were on Rast. If I remember our geography classes right, Rast is a pretty small world. I think it’s only about 4,000 miles square. I searched the entire world for my teammates. Nothing.
That is, not for four months.
I was carrying crudely wrapped packages for a young woman who kept flirting with me. I was pretty much ignoring her and keeping my eyes down. That didn’t help much because I’m at least a foot taller than the general population.
It wasn’t long before I got fed up with her constant flirting and chatter. I can’t stand you!
EXCUSE ME?!
I tripped and dropped the stuff I was carrying.
“Oh, you poor thing, you must be so tired,” the girl said as she curled her hair on her finger. She didn’t offer to help. “Why don’t you…rest at my house?” she suggested, batting her eyes.
“Um, no, t-thank you,” I stammered. How’d she get into my head? I hurriedly strengthened my mental block.
I don’t know, but quit blocking me! This is hard enough!
Finally, I recognized the voice.
Krystal?! How—
I already answered that!
Her answers were getting harder to hear, so I sapped some Energy from the Rastian girl to keep the connection with Krystal.
Hold on a minute!
I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS! I CONTACT YOU OVER TIME AND SPACE, USING ONLY MY MIND, AND YOU’RE PUTTING ME ON HOLD?!
Good old Krystal.
I quickly finished my job and then got as far away as possible from the Rastian woman.
Are you still there?
Kyle, this is not a phone conversation! Don’t ever put me on hold again!
Kryssi, relax! Where in the worlds are you?
I don’t know!
I took a deep breath. I’m used to dealing with Krystal when she was like that.
Okay, is anyone with you?
I felt a little irritated, and knew that it was just Krystal’s emotions.
Wynn’s here. Where are you?!
Rast.
Like I’m supposed to know what that means.
Have you met anyone there?
Yeah. Some tri-clopses.
Tr?—nevermind. Wait, Tri-clopses? Ask Wynn what they were. The only world I had ever heard of with tri-clopses was Yarco. There were humans too, but some were mutated into tri-clopses. Something about radioactive fallout, I think.
He says he doesn’t know.
I swore softly to myself. If they were in Yarco, maybe they could chance using a portal to come to Rast. From there, we could figure out what to do next.
Why are you taking so long to answer? It’s like, 10 minutes between replies from you.
It’s the Time factor.
I really wanted to ask Wynn if he thought there was a portal nearby. Portals are mostly Shadow, so Shadow Classmen are really good at finding them. But I could feel Krystal straining to keep the connection open. Too much more pressure would probably hurt her. Really bad.
Krys? Are you still there? She’d been quiet for a while.
Yeah. Her voice was getting weaker.
Are you alright? Are you hurt?
No…I…keep…gtg…
Gtg? Huh? Oh, “Got to go”.
The connection evaporated. Once it did, I just felt…empty. Hollow.
It had felt so right to be connected to Krystal again. I hadn’t really noticed how much it hurt when we’d been separated. We’d been connected for almost 8 years. She hadn’t known, but we were. I kind of felt lost without Krystal.
Oh, crap. I’m starting to sound all girly. Ugh.
It has been approximately 4 months since the Rastians enslaved me.
Life as a slave wasn’t as bad as you would think. Don’t get me wrong, it’s no picnic, but at least the Rastians were humane people. It probably didn’t hurt that I’m apparently a former god, as I demonstrated by use of my Power. The Rastians now called me Ragnok, a word that means “destruction”. They learned it from one of the ancient otherworldly visitors.
Judging by their stories, the “visitors” were Templar knights or Masons.
I guess being a god wasn’t all that great, anyway, because I still had to do all the dirty work.
Every day I woke up at the crack of dawn. The dawn there is the same as any other time of day; the light never changed. It was kind of like mist, only made of a smoky, dim light.
Lum either had me bring him tea or get firewood first, depending on his mood. Lum was the head honcho, I guess. He’s also Fortan’s father. So that makes Fortan a princess, right? Well, if she is, she’s a lot nicer than she has to be.
After I got the fire going (using my “god” powers, of course) and made breakfast, I had to stand in the Rastian marketplace and help whoever needed it. I felt kind of like a juvenile convict sentenced to community service.
Most of the people who “needed help” were teenage-looking girls, who could just as well have carried the single packages they bought by themselves.
Later on, (I don’t know what time it was) I had to go escort Fortan home. I don’t really know what she did before I picked her up. It didn’t look like school or anything. More like some sort of church service. Well, temple service.
The Rastians’ religion is kind of complicated. As far as I can tell, the ancient visitors brought Christianity with them. Some of the Rastians had converted, but a lot of them hadn’t, and still practiced the traditional rituals and stuff.
Lum and his family were obviously part of the second group. When I had first become a slave, he whipped me for returning the Catholic cross gesture that another Rastian had greeted me with.
Then he’d whipped me again when I addressed him first, instead of letting him talk. After that, we were cool with each other. Mostly. He had some anger issues.
The Rastians didn’t really keep a tight leash on me, so there were plenty of times when I could have escaped. The problem was that I had absolutely no idea where my Team was, where the nearest portal was, or even if a portal (provided I found one) would take me back to the School. What if I got dumped in a worse place than Rast?
I had tried to find my Teammates with my Power, but none of them were on Rast. If I remember our geography classes right, Rast is a pretty small world. I think it’s only about 4,000 miles square. I searched the entire world for my teammates. Nothing.
That is, not for four months.
I was carrying crudely wrapped packages for a young woman who kept flirting with me. I was pretty much ignoring her and keeping my eyes down. That didn’t help much because I’m at least a foot taller than the general population.
It wasn’t long before I got fed up with her constant flirting and chatter. I can’t stand you!
EXCUSE ME?!
I tripped and dropped the stuff I was carrying.
“Oh, you poor thing, you must be so tired,” the girl said as she curled her hair on her finger. She didn’t offer to help. “Why don’t you…rest at my house?” she suggested, batting her eyes.
“Um, no, t-thank you,” I stammered. How’d she get into my head? I hurriedly strengthened my mental block.
I don’t know, but quit blocking me! This is hard enough!
Finally, I recognized the voice.
Krystal?! How—
I already answered that!
Her answers were getting harder to hear, so I sapped some Energy from the Rastian girl to keep the connection with Krystal.
Hold on a minute!
I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS! I CONTACT YOU OVER TIME AND SPACE, USING ONLY MY MIND, AND YOU’RE PUTTING ME ON HOLD?!
Good old Krystal.
I quickly finished my job and then got as far away as possible from the Rastian woman.
Are you still there?
Kyle, this is not a phone conversation! Don’t ever put me on hold again!
Kryssi, relax! Where in the worlds are you?
I don’t know!
I took a deep breath. I’m used to dealing with Krystal when she was like that.
Okay, is anyone with you?
I felt a little irritated, and knew that it was just Krystal’s emotions.
Wynn’s here. Where are you?!
Rast.
Like I’m supposed to know what that means.
Have you met anyone there?
Yeah. Some tri-clopses.
Tr?—nevermind. Wait, Tri-clopses? Ask Wynn what they were. The only world I had ever heard of with tri-clopses was Yarco. There were humans too, but some were mutated into tri-clopses. Something about radioactive fallout, I think.
He says he doesn’t know.
I swore softly to myself. If they were in Yarco, maybe they could chance using a portal to come to Rast. From there, we could figure out what to do next.
Why are you taking so long to answer? It’s like, 10 minutes between replies from you.
It’s the Time factor.
I really wanted to ask Wynn if he thought there was a portal nearby. Portals are mostly Shadow, so Shadow Classmen are really good at finding them. But I could feel Krystal straining to keep the connection open. Too much more pressure would probably hurt her. Really bad.
Krys? Are you still there? She’d been quiet for a while.
Yeah. Her voice was getting weaker.
Are you alright? Are you hurt?
No…I…keep…gtg…
Gtg? Huh? Oh, “Got to go”.
The connection evaporated. Once it did, I just felt…empty. Hollow.
It had felt so right to be connected to Krystal again. I hadn’t really noticed how much it hurt when we’d been separated. We’d been connected for almost 8 years. She hadn’t known, but we were. I kind of felt lost without Krystal.
Oh, crap. I’m starting to sound all girly. Ugh.
Chapter 41
Hanayni
Aiyamar stepped up and took Kelsey’s hand, shaking like a leaf in a blender. To save time, Kelsey wouldn’t let Aiyamar actually tell the story. She’d just project the memories into our minds. It saves hours of time in times like these. I’m not going to write down everything that happened, because I have better things to do.
It seems that Team 009 was completely split up. No one had heard from Kyle, Krystal, Wynn, or Ikah, but the rest of the Team and the assigned Instructors had made it back. Madara was captured in battle when Minski turned traitor and nearly killed her.. We think that Madara is to be used as a bargaining chip with whoever attacked us. For the most part, the assembly thought it was Xtam. Some thought that Garthor had teamed up with Xtam.
Kelsey had some portal experts try to track the disappearances, to no avail. Whatever traces Kyle and the others had left were totally wiped away.
Lorik looked pretty pissed off. Probably worried. He’s obviously managed to get himself attached to his newest student. At any other time, I would have teased him mercilessly about it.
All other guests at the Meeting had made it safely to the clearing, according to a girl named Tzara and some other kids.
The debriefing only took about 20 minutes. After that, it was a simple matter to organize groups for rescue and attack.
I am to go back with Red, Eyrad, Corator, and Rona to do a sweep of the battlefield and see if we can find any traces of the missing or captured, especially Madara. We might have Lorik with us. It would be helpful if he did come, since he can sense the leftover impact that their Energy made, but he would probably be sent with a Portal Squad to find Krystal, Kyle, Ikah, and Wynn, since two of his most advanced students were among the missing.
Kelsey would stay behind with the rest of her Board, and organize the army.
Aiyamar stepped up and took Kelsey’s hand, shaking like a leaf in a blender. To save time, Kelsey wouldn’t let Aiyamar actually tell the story. She’d just project the memories into our minds. It saves hours of time in times like these. I’m not going to write down everything that happened, because I have better things to do.
It seems that Team 009 was completely split up. No one had heard from Kyle, Krystal, Wynn, or Ikah, but the rest of the Team and the assigned Instructors had made it back. Madara was captured in battle when Minski turned traitor and nearly killed her.. We think that Madara is to be used as a bargaining chip with whoever attacked us. For the most part, the assembly thought it was Xtam. Some thought that Garthor had teamed up with Xtam.
Kelsey had some portal experts try to track the disappearances, to no avail. Whatever traces Kyle and the others had left were totally wiped away.
Lorik looked pretty pissed off. Probably worried. He’s obviously managed to get himself attached to his newest student. At any other time, I would have teased him mercilessly about it.
All other guests at the Meeting had made it safely to the clearing, according to a girl named Tzara and some other kids.
The debriefing only took about 20 minutes. After that, it was a simple matter to organize groups for rescue and attack.
I am to go back with Red, Eyrad, Corator, and Rona to do a sweep of the battlefield and see if we can find any traces of the missing or captured, especially Madara. We might have Lorik with us. It would be helpful if he did come, since he can sense the leftover impact that their Energy made, but he would probably be sent with a Portal Squad to find Krystal, Kyle, Ikah, and Wynn, since two of his most advanced students were among the missing.
Kelsey would stay behind with the rest of her Board, and organize the army.
Chapter 40
Krystal
What now? I asked Wynn through our mind connection. Our Teammates were nowhere to be found. We really were alone.
We had moved back away from the village, near a copse of trees. Wynn stood half-concealed in the shadows. I don’t think he was trying to blend, but it was still really hard to see him. I guess it was something to do with his cloak.
The military could really use a few of those things, I thought absently.
Wynn cocked an eyebrow. Sorry?
What? Oh, nothing. I mean—
Too bad she can’t use her Power over Time, he said. He was talking to himself, but I heard every active thought that he had.
I thought about that for a minute. Lorik hadn’t said anything about how my Power works through Time.
“I guess I could try,” I offered aloud.
Wynn blinked skeptically. “I’d be surprised if you get anything,” he answered honestly.
So would I…
Still, we had nothing to lose, so I reached out with my mind.
What now? I asked Wynn through our mind connection. Our Teammates were nowhere to be found. We really were alone.
We had moved back away from the village, near a copse of trees. Wynn stood half-concealed in the shadows. I don’t think he was trying to blend, but it was still really hard to see him. I guess it was something to do with his cloak.
The military could really use a few of those things, I thought absently.
Wynn cocked an eyebrow. Sorry?
What? Oh, nothing. I mean—
Too bad she can’t use her Power over Time, he said. He was talking to himself, but I heard every active thought that he had.
I thought about that for a minute. Lorik hadn’t said anything about how my Power works through Time.
“I guess I could try,” I offered aloud.
Wynn blinked skeptically. “I’d be surprised if you get anything,” he answered honestly.
So would I…
Still, we had nothing to lose, so I reached out with my mind.
Chapter 39
Ikah
I hate my life.
Just my luck that I would be the one that got dumped right into Pearl’s hands.
I don’t really know what’s up with the portals. Something’s wrong. Probably Krystal’s fault. I bet she couldn’t control her Power and got the portal confused. My life has gotten so much worse since she showed up. But, does everyone else see that? No. Of course not. Ya’asa and Kelta think she’s great. Aiyamar thinks she’s the best thing ever. And Kyle was practically salivating over her.
Why, oh why did we have to be put in the same group? I mean, it would have been better if Kelta had come with us, but noooo. There wasn’t even anyone to vent to. Oh well. At least Wynn knew how to keep his mouth shut, unlike someone else…
Oh, right. Back to Pearl.
Garthor got married! Too bad he didn’t invite us to the wedding.
Pearl is his evil, scheming, rather…um…[insert expletive] wife. But then again, I think most people are like that.
The portal we had stumbled on in Lorstsa had conveniently dumped me right in front of Pearl. It was a tad awkward; she was in the bathroom. I must have scared her pretty bad, because she screamed and tried to kill me with her flat iron.
I had woken up in a dark cell. So typical for evil plotters. For once, can’t a prisoner wake up in Disneyland? Or at least somewhere equally interesting. How about Mount Olympus?
The cell was the barest thing you can imagine. There’s just a blanket on the floor, and that’s it. It’s really dry, and kind of hot, which bothers me a little.
Nothing of note happened for a long time. Then, a wizened little old man brought me some food. Since I know how much elderly prison guards (who probably weren’t as weak as they look) like to talk, I charmed some information out of him.
You don’t believe me? Look, I can be quite charming if I want to. Trouble is, most people irritate me too much for me to bother being charming.
Regrettably, I wasn’t charming enough for the jailer to tell me exactly where I am. All I know is that I’m in “Fort Calzone.”
Chapter 38
Aiyamar
I awoke in a black room. There was one door off to my right, and the room was only about five feet square. My light didn’t shine when I tried, so I knew that it was a Neutral Room.
Neutral Rooms are specially built so that people in them can’t use their Powers. Mostly, they’re used for intergalactic meeting offices and prisons. But the others are for hospitals. Chances were, after a battle, I was in a prison.
I jumped off of the hard metal table, my feet hitting the floor after dropping a surprising six feet. Look before you leap, I remembered Madara telling me when we were studying possible escapes from any given prison.
The door opened just as I rolled away, absorbing the force of my fall. Since it was such a tight space, I collided with the wall.
“Hey, sis. Trying to escape already? We should have put you on the ninth floor,” a voice said. I jumped back up, prepared to fight if this were a trick. There stood Astulad, looking a little worse for the wear.
His leg was broken, as were both of his wrists. Other than that, he had a huge bruise on his shoulder, and it looked like he had lost a tooth or two.
I said nothing. For all I knew, I was in some enemy castle, and Astulad was an illusion. Sensing my apprehension, he sighed and hung his head. “Security check?”
“Yeah, I’d like that,” I responded. “Code?”
He responded with the appropriate answer (which I am not telling you), and then asked for mine. I didn’t answer him; instead I squealed and almost tackle-hugged him. “Mm mmshed mm mm mmch,” I mumbled into his shirt. He hugged me back, though not very tightly. That probably wouldn’t have been the best for his wrist. “I missed you too.”
I pulled away, wiping away traces of tears. “So what happened to you?”
“I got into a fight with a marble floor.”
“Uh huh…”
“The portals are messed up. We’re not really sure why yet, but rumor has it Kelsey knows. One dropped me 17 feet. The fall was big enough to hurt pretty bad,” he said as he gestured to his broken, beaten body. “But it was short enough that I couldn’t get oriented in time to fall properly,” he added, his brows coming together in annoyance.
“You took a pretty bad beating yourself,” he said, changing the subject. “Or so I heard anyway.” He cocked an eyebrow. “You look fine.”
I laughed and retorted with “That’s more than I can say for you.” I only had a few cuts to show for my battle ordeal.
Astulad stuck out his tongue and then tried to look as if he were doing something else when Hanayni walked in.
“You shouldn’t be walking around, Astulad,” she said. All three of us understood that to be an order. My brother made a face and limped out of the room.
“Hi Hanayni,” I said. She nodded, acknowledging my greeting. “Follow me, Aiyamar.” I did so silently. She didn’t seem to be in a very good mood.
“Glad you’re doing better. When the porters brought you back, you were almost dead. Kelsey herself had to come and heal you.”
I felt behind my head, looking for a bump or dried blood or something.
“Kelsey’s efficient,” Hanayni said without looking back. “As far as your body knows, that blow never happened.”
I chided myself. Of course there would be no mark if I had been healed.
I could see that Hanayni was leading me to the Mess Hall. The buzz of all the people was near deafening.
“What time is it?” I dared to ask. I had so many other questions, but I knew they’d have to wait.
“Period 6, 2nd Quarter,” Hanayni responded, using School time. There are four Quarters, each 6 periods long. Each period is roughly 8 Earth hours. Because the School is located in the very center of the universe, time is always exactly right here, and everywhere else it’s either too fast or too slow. I don’t exactly know how that works, but all the Instructors say that Time is a force, like gravity, and it pushes harder in some places than in others.
For example, people were arriving from the Meeting in bursts about 10 Earth hours apart, even though they were entering the portal at about a rate of 3 per Earth second.
I could see another group of people being led towards the front of the Hall, like I was. I scanned the room, searching for my Teammates, wondering if any of them had made it back. Especially the ones that I never saw at the Meeting.
I saw Eyrad and Ya’asa at opposite ends of the room. Ya’asa was crying, as Llare vainly tried to comfort her. She was really upset; her Power was unstable, causing her hands to morph into paws, talons, and back into human form. The rest of her body was covered with at Neutral Cloak.
She must have gotten hurt really badly; Neutral Cloaks subdue your power so that you don’t end up hurting yourself and reopening injuries (especially for the Shapeshifters).
There was no sign of Ikah, Krystal, Kyle, or Wynn, but Kelta was in a corner sobbing. Fierce wind and rain were buffeting anyone who went too close. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Diane make her way to her student.
Hanayni was still fighting through the crowd, but she had finally reached her limit.
“MOVE, PEOPLE!” The crowd parted quickly enough after that.
We came to the front of the Hall, just before the tall podium, behind which Kelsey presently stepped.
She glanced at Hanayni questioningly, and then motioned for me to go and sit in the row of seats behind the stand. I chose a seat between Aoife and Istalcia. Lorik was nearby, looking ready to kill someone. Hopefully he’d save it for battle.
A couple of other kids were brought forward, including Tzara.
After we were all situated, Kelsey stepped to the stand again and snapped her fingers. The sound was much louder than it should have been, creating a shockwave that easily grabbed everyone’s attention.
She spoke without a microphone, using her Powers to amplify her voice.
“I’m going to make this short and to the point.” There was a roar of approval. “We’ve been attacked. Our portals are malfunctioning. The new numbers have come in: at least thirty of our people have been captured, 700 killed, and over 8,000 injured.” A collective groan and many cries of sorrow erupted from the assembly. A few people doubled over; they were probably Energy Manipulators or Sensers. Even Lorik looked pained. The Energy output in that room had to be massive.
Kelsey waited until the noise quieted, then she continued. “We are here today to plan and respond to this threat. But first, I have agreed to let several people who have witnessed the problems firsthand give their accounts to you all.” With that, she moved to the side and gestured for me to come forward and take her hand.
I awoke in a black room. There was one door off to my right, and the room was only about five feet square. My light didn’t shine when I tried, so I knew that it was a Neutral Room.
Neutral Rooms are specially built so that people in them can’t use their Powers. Mostly, they’re used for intergalactic meeting offices and prisons. But the others are for hospitals. Chances were, after a battle, I was in a prison.
I jumped off of the hard metal table, my feet hitting the floor after dropping a surprising six feet. Look before you leap, I remembered Madara telling me when we were studying possible escapes from any given prison.
The door opened just as I rolled away, absorbing the force of my fall. Since it was such a tight space, I collided with the wall.
“Hey, sis. Trying to escape already? We should have put you on the ninth floor,” a voice said. I jumped back up, prepared to fight if this were a trick. There stood Astulad, looking a little worse for the wear.
His leg was broken, as were both of his wrists. Other than that, he had a huge bruise on his shoulder, and it looked like he had lost a tooth or two.
I said nothing. For all I knew, I was in some enemy castle, and Astulad was an illusion. Sensing my apprehension, he sighed and hung his head. “Security check?”
“Yeah, I’d like that,” I responded. “Code?”
He responded with the appropriate answer (which I am not telling you), and then asked for mine. I didn’t answer him; instead I squealed and almost tackle-hugged him. “Mm mmshed mm mm mmch,” I mumbled into his shirt. He hugged me back, though not very tightly. That probably wouldn’t have been the best for his wrist. “I missed you too.”
I pulled away, wiping away traces of tears. “So what happened to you?”
“I got into a fight with a marble floor.”
“Uh huh…”
“The portals are messed up. We’re not really sure why yet, but rumor has it Kelsey knows. One dropped me 17 feet. The fall was big enough to hurt pretty bad,” he said as he gestured to his broken, beaten body. “But it was short enough that I couldn’t get oriented in time to fall properly,” he added, his brows coming together in annoyance.
“You took a pretty bad beating yourself,” he said, changing the subject. “Or so I heard anyway.” He cocked an eyebrow. “You look fine.”
I laughed and retorted with “That’s more than I can say for you.” I only had a few cuts to show for my battle ordeal.
Astulad stuck out his tongue and then tried to look as if he were doing something else when Hanayni walked in.
“You shouldn’t be walking around, Astulad,” she said. All three of us understood that to be an order. My brother made a face and limped out of the room.
“Hi Hanayni,” I said. She nodded, acknowledging my greeting. “Follow me, Aiyamar.” I did so silently. She didn’t seem to be in a very good mood.
“Glad you’re doing better. When the porters brought you back, you were almost dead. Kelsey herself had to come and heal you.”
I felt behind my head, looking for a bump or dried blood or something.
“Kelsey’s efficient,” Hanayni said without looking back. “As far as your body knows, that blow never happened.”
I chided myself. Of course there would be no mark if I had been healed.
I could see that Hanayni was leading me to the Mess Hall. The buzz of all the people was near deafening.
“What time is it?” I dared to ask. I had so many other questions, but I knew they’d have to wait.
“Period 6, 2nd Quarter,” Hanayni responded, using School time. There are four Quarters, each 6 periods long. Each period is roughly 8 Earth hours. Because the School is located in the very center of the universe, time is always exactly right here, and everywhere else it’s either too fast or too slow. I don’t exactly know how that works, but all the Instructors say that Time is a force, like gravity, and it pushes harder in some places than in others.
For example, people were arriving from the Meeting in bursts about 10 Earth hours apart, even though they were entering the portal at about a rate of 3 per Earth second.
I could see another group of people being led towards the front of the Hall, like I was. I scanned the room, searching for my Teammates, wondering if any of them had made it back. Especially the ones that I never saw at the Meeting.
I saw Eyrad and Ya’asa at opposite ends of the room. Ya’asa was crying, as Llare vainly tried to comfort her. She was really upset; her Power was unstable, causing her hands to morph into paws, talons, and back into human form. The rest of her body was covered with at Neutral Cloak.
She must have gotten hurt really badly; Neutral Cloaks subdue your power so that you don’t end up hurting yourself and reopening injuries (especially for the Shapeshifters).
There was no sign of Ikah, Krystal, Kyle, or Wynn, but Kelta was in a corner sobbing. Fierce wind and rain were buffeting anyone who went too close. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Diane make her way to her student.
Hanayni was still fighting through the crowd, but she had finally reached her limit.
“MOVE, PEOPLE!” The crowd parted quickly enough after that.
We came to the front of the Hall, just before the tall podium, behind which Kelsey presently stepped.
She glanced at Hanayni questioningly, and then motioned for me to go and sit in the row of seats behind the stand. I chose a seat between Aoife and Istalcia. Lorik was nearby, looking ready to kill someone. Hopefully he’d save it for battle.
A couple of other kids were brought forward, including Tzara.
After we were all situated, Kelsey stepped to the stand again and snapped her fingers. The sound was much louder than it should have been, creating a shockwave that easily grabbed everyone’s attention.
She spoke without a microphone, using her Powers to amplify her voice.
“I’m going to make this short and to the point.” There was a roar of approval. “We’ve been attacked. Our portals are malfunctioning. The new numbers have come in: at least thirty of our people have been captured, 700 killed, and over 8,000 injured.” A collective groan and many cries of sorrow erupted from the assembly. A few people doubled over; they were probably Energy Manipulators or Sensers. Even Lorik looked pained. The Energy output in that room had to be massive.
Kelsey waited until the noise quieted, then she continued. “We are here today to plan and respond to this threat. But first, I have agreed to let several people who have witnessed the problems firsthand give their accounts to you all.” With that, she moved to the side and gestured for me to come forward and take her hand.
Chapter 37
Kyle
I woke to the rancid smell of burnt meat. All around, there was this intense heat. I felt like my skin would blister and peel away. A small, humanoid shape came towards me, its outline blurry in the dim light.
He (she, it, I didn’t know) said something in a language that sounded remarkably like Italian. It couldn’t have been, though, because I couldn’t understand a word he said. There were a few roots that I could pick out, but nothing that made sense.
The little…whatever it was took me firmly by the wrist, and helped me up. I didn’t resist as I was led outside; it’s never a good idea to show hostility and you don’t know the situation. Of course, the first thing I did was look around for my Team. I searched with my mind, but there were no recognizable presences. Just hundreds and hundreds of small, human-looking creatures. They were only about 4 feet tall. They didn’t look like aliens; just short humans.
I decided to try and communicate with my new hosts. First, of course, I tried English. That didn’t work. Neither did French, Spanish, or German. I just got a bunch of blank looks. Italian got me a collective murmur. The impressions I gathered from their minds showed that they thought of me as some sort of large, mentally retarded child, speaking in gibberish as I was. I even tried Hebrew and Tagalog. The people simply looked at me blankly, as if wondering just how bad my mind was.
Finally, I shrugged apologetically. One of the natives came forward and pointed to himself. “Iymhask,” he said. I repeated. “Iymhask?” The he shook his head. “Iymhask,” it repeated. I tried again. “Iymhask?”
The little man shook his head again, and then turned to his brethren and said something in the native language. It looked like they argued for a while. Then another person came forward. She was a really pretty girl. Really thin (but not sickly-looking), pale skin, slightly Anime-ish features.
“Ego sum Fortan. Quis est vestri nomen?”
Ahh, Latin!
“Meus nomen est Kyle,” I said immediately. All students at the School eventually learned to speak fluent Latin. There was a loud celebration among the natives. “Qua sum ego?” I asked.
“Vos es in Rast,” she said. I’d heard of Rastians. They were supposed to be bloodthirsty savages. I said as much to Fortan.
She laughed, as did her friends. According to Fortan, the Rastians used to be vile savages, but they had become civilized when people from a place called “Gay-ool” visited them thousands of years ago.
I guessed that “Gay-ool” was Gaul, or ancient France. But, “thousands” of years ago? A student had just come back from Rast, after barely escaping with her life. It must have been the Time difference; thousands of years here could very well be one year School time.
I asked my new friends what had happened to me. Their answer was pretty wild.
Yesterday, they said, I had fallen out of the sky, burning with fire and shooting out light (probably just the portal closing). I had gotten up and screamed at the sky, and then I had died.
Yeah. I had died. The way I figure it, I had a bad concussion. Because of my Power, my subconscious fixed my brain waves enough that I was able to wake up.
And now, I had come back to life. I felt so…epic. Usually in these cases, primitive people like the Rastians would let me do whatever I wanted. I wanted to go back to the School, figure out what had happened to the rest of my Team, and check in with the Board about the portals. They were obviously not working right, or else we would be at the Meeting, and not separated, likely in different worlds.
It was just my luck that the Rastians didn’t agree with my plan. Since I was obviously a god banished from the sky, they decided that I should be a slave.
Not cool.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Chapter 36
Krystal
Wynn was gripping my arm none too gently. “They didn’t come with us. You’ll get hurt. There is absolutely no way you are going back there.”
I threw an irritated look back at him. “Says who?”
This was one of the only times I had ever seen Wynn’s face uncovered by his ever-present cloak. His hair was in need of a good wash, as I’m sure mine was. I could feel the blood trickling down the sides of my face where my hair had been ripped out. I couldn’t leave our friends back there with creatures that would do something like that!
Wynn hadn’t answered me. “Look, if you don’t wanna come, you don’t have to, but I’m not leaving them,” I said hotly.
“Krystal, I really don’t think they came,” he finally said, trying to project his concern into me.
I stood silently, thinking. “Well, why do you say that?”
He absently ran a hand through his unruly hair. “I didn’t see them.”
“Well, they could have been in a building or something. Maybe they escaped and we got captured.”
“Krystal, don’t you think they would have found us by now?”
I thought for a minute. “Well, maybe they didn’t see us,” I said hopefully.
Wynn sighed. “You’re not going to give up, are you?”
I smiled. “Nope.”
“How are we even going to find them, providing they’re even there?”
I subtly noted the “we” to myself triumphantly. “I can sense them, remember?”
Wynn blushed slightly, obviously chiding himself for forgetting my Power. “I still think you should stay out of the village.”
I rolled my eyes. “But what if they are there?”
“That’s different. For all we know, they aren’t there,” he reminded me. During this conversation, I heard him speak more words than I thought I would hear him say in a year.
After we came to an agreement, I led the way, running to the village. Wynn practically flew behind me, so swiftly and silently he ran. His longish hair streamed behind him, and his deep brown eyes were squinted against the fading light. Oh, did I mention there was no sun? It didn’t really look like there was a sky at all. There was just light, with no apparent source. It kind of made everything look flat. There were almost no shadows.
About 10 yards from the first hut, Wynn grabbed my wrist again. “Get ready.” That’s all he said before that horrible dizzy feeling enveloped me.
This time, I managed to stay conscious. WHAT IS GOING ON?! I raged at him. He chuckled. It was the first time I had heard anything of the sort from him. We’re invisible, he said.
What’s with the dizziness?
You’re just not used to it. Wait a few minutes.
I didn’t have time to wait a few minutes. A tri-clops almost ran me over, but Wynn pulled me out of the way just in time.
Thanks, I said. If I had spoken aloud, I probably would have sounded a bit tipsy, though I could finally feel the dizziness going away.
As we moved by the primitive huts, I searched each one with my mind. After a few huts, Wynn addressed me. Krystal?
Yeah?
Can you like, talk or something? I’m starting to feel tired. Making both of us invisible for this long is a lot of work.
I knew that the real reason Wynn was tired wasn’t because of making both of us invisible. He was quite capable of that. It was probably our mind connection that was making him feel tired; we were kind of sharing each other’s emotions, though I was deliberately keeping us out of a connection like the one I shared with Kyle and Lorik.
Fine, I answered, trying to think of something to say. What was up with the whole wrist-cutting thing?
What?
Okay, I know you didn’t mishear me. This is a freaking mind connection!
I know what you said. I just can’t believe you didn’t know.
I’m still new, remember? A week ago I didn’t even dream of this stuff.
Sorry. In order to share my Power with you, we have to share blood.
I remembered how Kyle and Lorik had made me invisible back on Earth. I shared the memory with Wynn, and then asked him how they could have done that.
Well, it wasn’t really Invisibility if Kyle and Lorik did it. I think they can mimic it though. People probably saw you as kind of a blurry spot in the air. You must have shared blood with Kyle and or Lorik.
But I didn’t!
As I said that, I remembered how Kyle had, about five years earlier, proposed that we become “blood siblings”. All we did was wait until we got a scratch or something, and then mix the blood. (Yeah, it sounds kind of gross). But obviously it was enough.
Okay, never mind about that.
We kept up some conversation for a few hours, until we had searched the entire village. There was no sign of our Teammates.
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