A/N: Hello, anyone who is reading this (which probably isn't a lot of people)! I have been taking a long absence partly due to laziness and partly due to business, but now I'm back with a new story that doesn't make me cringe when I look at it! This is going to be a Linh-centric story, and it may include some ships, but I haven't decided yet. I don't really have a time where this story is set, but everyone in the Keeper crew is at least age sixteen.

I am also currently looking for a beta for this story, so if anyone if interested, please PM me! Otherwise, please excuse any OOC canon characters, and I'll get on with the story.

One afternoon at Alluveterre

"Hey Tam," I said.

"Hey Linh," Tam said, his nose in a large book. He was sitting cross-legged on the fuzzy couch in the boys' common room and I suspected he wasn't listening, but I was willing to wait.

"Tam, I think I want us to go to Foxfire this year."

"That's nice." Oh, he's not listening.

"No, really. I think it's about time we came back. I need to learn more about being a Hydrokinetic, and what's better for me than a mentor at Foxfire? Plus, we could see Sophie there."

He sat there for a second, and I was worried he was going to deny me when he flipped a page and mumbled, "Mmm-hmm, you go do that."

Oh, I was going to 'go do that.' Among other things, too. I let out a sharp breath and felt the pull of water from a nearby cup. That would work.

I let the water come towards me through the air in a long stream, wavering in its little bubble. It looked almost peaceful.

As I made it float above his head, making sure to keep it away from the Black Swan's book, I held my breath. Letting it out in full force, I yelled, "Tam Song you will listen to me right now, because what I have to say is very important and won't you just please put down the book!"

It started out as an angry yell, but it diminished into a soft plea as I got to the end and Tam was looking at me all shocked and sopping wet.

Wiping the water from his eyes, he put the book down next to him and slowly stood up, now paying attention to me.

"What do you want, Linh?"

I steeled my nerves, took a breath and said with as much conviction as I could muster, "I want to go back to Foxfire."

"Foxfire?" Tam was up and pacing in front of the couch, and I was trying to make him calm down so I could draw the water out of his hair. "You want us to go back to living with our parents?!"

"Hey, I never said anything about that! I just wanted a chance to go to school, and not some boot camp..." I gave him my best puppy dog eyes. He squirmed a little under my perfected can't-say-no-to-these eyes, then broke.

"Fine! Just stop looking at me like that. It's weird..." While he was distracted I made a swiping motion with my hand and the water rushed out of his hair and back into the cup.

Tam's hands darted to his head and he immediately started fixing his hair, which I had to giggle at. "I've already asked Mr. Forkle and he's said that if we're ready to move out we can, but we have to find our own living arrangements."

"Where are we supposed to stay then?" Tam sat back down on the couch, calmer than before.

I sighed. "I don't know. Maybe one of our friends will let us stay with them?"

Tam opened his mouth to say something, then formed a different word. "Who's going to let us stay with them for an indefinite amount of time?"

"I'm still working on that. But the new school year starts in a month, and we need to get registered."

"Speaking of registry," Mr. Forkle said walking into the room in his bloated form, "I have your papers right here."

He held up a stack of papers about an inch thick and set it down on the table with a small thud. I walked over to look at the tall stack of papers while Tam mumbled, "That's a lot of paperwork."

And there really was a lot! It had all kinds of things on it such as lineage, ability(s), appearance, age, and much more. "Is this all for Foxfire?" I asked, my mouth agape.

"Some of it is for re-entrance into the Lost Cities, but we'll get to that later. Right now we need to focus on getting your Foxfire paperwork done immediately since school starts in a month." He pulled a fourth of the pile of papers off the top, glancing at the bottom one. "Tam, these are yours."

Tam held his hands out and took the papers, sitting down with a pen and starting to mark some of them off while Mr. Forkle grabbed what looked like my forms, which were significantly larger.

"Why do I have to have more papers than Tam?" I asked, staring at the stack.

"That's because with the incident from Atlantis, you have to sign a ton of waivers for your Hydrokinetics class. Your mentor thinks that you still aren't to be trusted with water, but with the forms she will be more than willing to cooperate."

"That's fine. I still wouldn't trust myself at Atlantis anyways." I crossed my arms and straightened up, thinking back to the flood. The water pulled itself towards me, begging me to let it go or else I'd suffocate, along with the rest of the floods. The more I looked at it, the more it seemed to be churning all around me, almost ready to burst into a cascade of water-

Tam put a hand on my arm, startling me out of thoughts. "Don't worry, you're much better than you were then. You can't blame yourself for what happened."

"I know, I just don't want any more people to get hurt." I was still seeing all those people trapped under the water.

Mr. Forkle answered me this time, saying, "And they won't, because I've seen your control, and it's much stronger than the day of the flood. So if you would just sign the waivers we could continue." It was then that I realized he was holding the pen and papers out to me, waiting for me to take them.

I took them, then realized, "Wait, who's going to be my ability mentor?"

"Lady Elisia, of course. I don't know much about her, but I have been told she is a Hydrokinetic master. You are very lucky to be learning from her."

I could care less about the Hydrokinetic master part of it. At least my teacher will actually be able to teach me something instead of telling me to 'go read a book about it'. Thanks a lot, Black Swan.

"Whoa, hold up. If Linh gets a Hydrokinetic master for a teacher, then who's my mentor?" Tam interrupted.

"Let's see..." Mr Forkle said, grabbing Tam's packet and flipping through it. He pointed to a paragraph and said, "You would have Sir Warden."

Tam looked where he was pointing, and asked, "Who's that?"

"He's an ancient Shade. Sir Warden spent most of his years shrouded in complete darkness in order to be one with shadows and can't stand daylight. I think the two of you will get along well, yes?"

"What?" I snickered a little bit. "How could you think that?!" Tam exclaimed.

"Uh, let's just move on, shall we?" Mr. Forkle said with a nervous laugh. "We have a lot of papers to go through, you know."

"Fine," Tam grumbled.

By the time we were done filling out the forms, it was very late in the day, and my feet were falling asleep from sitting on the couch for so long. Mr. Forkle had left an hour ago when we had figured out everywhere we needed to sign and fill out.

Tam yawned next to me, saying, "I think it's about time we go to bed, huh?"

"Yeah, I'll probably skip dinner and get some rest." I grabbed my imparter, stood up from the couch and walked over to the door, when a picture showed up on my imparter.

I swiped up and saw Biana saying, "Hi Linh! It's Biana. So... like, Sophie and Keefe are coming over tomorrow for basequest. Do you and Tam want to come over? My mom could maybe even make mallowmelt, or ripplefuffs, or- ooh! We could-"

"That would be great, but could we skip out on the talking? I'll be there, I'm just tired right now." I looked over to Tam and mouthed, Basequest at Everglen tomorrow. He mouthed back, I can't read lips. Right, I forgot.

"Oh, right. Isn't there a time difference between Alluveterre and the Lost Cities? I am so sorry!"

"No, no, you're fine. I'm just tired early. Me and Tam will be there tomorrow, don't worry. See ya!"

Biana replied, "Alright, I'll see you there!" I tapped the red light on the screen and the call ended.

Tam and I shared a look and I sprinted out of the room quickly before Tam could argue about us going, and I crossed the bridge over to the girls' tree house.

I took a deep breath and let it out, then walked into my personal tree house. It was a very large space for just one, but I wasn't lonely at Alluveterre. I had Tam, and Mr. Forkle.

And maybe, just maybe, I would soon have a new home. One where I would have my friends from the Lost Cities.