Trying to keep author's notes to a minimum and failing here. For any nagging suspicions regarding this story, please see my profile.
Dani came from a family of accomplished pokémon trainers: her older sister, both parents, three of her grandparents, and numerous other relatives that she didn't always care to mention because that alone was enough to impress.
She was an optimistic and cheerful sort of girl, the kind who knew she was capable of anything she applied herself to.
She was also the type to trust her gut instinct rather than heavily plan things in advance, as she wasn't afraid of surprises. Presently, the one pokémon she knew she'd have on her team was the totodile she was to receive the following day.
She was quite an outgoing person with many friends, and always gave everyone a fair chance, knowing that everyone had some good to them.
She's not important.
She might have been briefly interested to know that her exact opposite, a young boy named Tavis, was currently staying in the same pokémon center as she was, but her existence would have nothing to do with the strange force that would soon show itself in the country of Ayun.
The boy in question was presently a nervous wreck, and would probably have been in tears if not for his nagging suspicion that there were cameras hidden somewhere in the flat, white walls of his room. Instead, he chose to manage his stress by way of pacing. Although in the small room he was confined to, that was really more like turning in a circle than anything else.
The source of his problem just happened to be sharing the limited space with Tavis, but taking up far less of it. A larger-than-average farfetch'd was seated at the foot of the twin bed, head turned with a large bill buried in his own dull brown plumage. He had long ago been hypnotized into a deep sleep by the repetitive motions of the human, who couldn't help but feel jealous of the bird's blissful state.
Tavis finally stopped to look at the digital clock on a nightstand, the only furnishings aside from a bed and lamp. It was approaching seven p.m. The two hours he had spent walking had gotten him nowhere, and he needed to come up with a plan before the next morning.
Finally feeling burned out, he sighed and let himself collapse onto the bed, jarring the duck pokémon enough to awaken him. Tavis watched as one of his black eyes opened, sleepily peered at him, and closed again while he adjusted the dry stick tucked beneath his wing. He wiped the uncooperative dark brown hair out of his own eyes before reaching over to the bird and gently scratching his neck under the feathers.
"What am I gonna do with you, Arree?" he sighed again.
Letting his own eyes close for just a moment, he realized then how much he just wanted to go to bed after the long day; coming halfway across the region by boat and bus had shown itself to be far more tiring than it sounded. Well, what harm could a quick rest do? Nervous as he was, he'd never fall asleep after just a few minutes.
Someone's fist pounded into the door. Tavis had jumped into a sitting position before telling himself to. He held his breath, as if whoever was outside could hear him breathing.
Okay, he thought, maybe it's just someone checking to see if the room is occupied. Then I won't have to open the door or anything. He made his presence known with a sheepish call. "Yeah?"
Whoever it was said something he couldn't hear clearly, followed by "open up!"
Crap! "Er- just a second!"
Looking toward Arree, who was now glaring in the direction of the door with his feathers flattened against his body, Tavis could practically read his thoughts: 'The stupid world isn't going to let me sleep today.' And that made him feel worse for what he was about to do.
Within five seconds, Arree had been picked up and shoved under the bed, and was squawking angrily. Too loudly. Tavis put less than a second of thought into it before sincerely apologizing to Arree and stuffing a blanket and pillow under there as well.
He stood up, shook his head, cautiously stepped toward the door and opened it as narrowly as he thought he could get away with. On the other side, standing about a foot taller than Tavis was an athletic, high-school-aged boy whose blonde hair barely stuck out from under a blue baseball cap. Tavis missed the friendly smile on the guy's face, noticing instead the confident look in his blue eyes which his own mind interpreted as something to make him wary.
"Hey, I'm Karick," he announced, presenting his hand for a greeting. Tavis reluctantly accepted this, but tensed a bit with the guy's firm handshake.
"Uh, hi?" he stuttered out, quickly returning his hand to its previous position on the door. Apparently he was supposed to know what was going on. Karick obviously hadn't been expecting this; his face momentarily reminded Tavis of a stage actor who hadn't rehearsed a scene.
"...Your traveling buddy," he said finally, still through a smile.
Tavis blinked.
A slight look of doubt formed in Karick's eyes. He quickly glanced to the room number next to the door, then back to Tavis. "You're, eh, Tracy something, right?"
Ah. Just a mistake. Tavis shook his head for a somewhat delayed response. He proceeded to push the door shut, but unfortunately wasn't quick enough as Karick said "Wait, wait," while digging through one of his pockets. And stupidly, he waited.
"Here!" The guy presented a torn piece of paper, looked at it, and said something that made Tavis flinch. "Is it Tahvis?"
"Tay-vis." Mentally slapping himself as the name escaped, he realized that he had been sucked further into conversation he couldn't afford right now. He realized only after it was too late that he had missed an opportunity; he could have said no, that wasn't his name, and would technically have been telling the truth. But his name was mispronounced so often that, even though he wasn't one to want others to remember it, it had become quite annoying and correcting it had become an automatic response.
The older boy grinned again. "Alright, awesome! C'mon, we need to go sign some junk down in the lobby, so let's get that over with-"
"What- what are you talking about?" Despite not yet feeling the courage to speak in complete sentences, the overwhelming sense that something was very wrong forced Tavis to come up with one.
Karick paused, the grin finally vanishing from his face as sudden understanding dawned on him.
"You do know about the traveling buddy thing, right?
The warning light in his mind flared up again. Tavis knew what it was. He was about to be on the receiving end of some sort of prank.
But he wasn't entirely sure, and didn't want to come off as paranoid...
"Are you messing with me?" Or do come off as paranoid, whatever... Oh well. It was out now.
"Nope. Didn't they tell you about it at your school?" Karick picked up on his confusion. "Or at least they would have sent you something in the mail- look, just come sign this stuff and I'll explain it all."
And what a perfect time for Tavis to hear Arree's squawking from behind, no longer muffled by the blanket.
"I can't, I'm kinda busy right now," he said, unsuccessfully trying to hide the panic in his voice and starting to push the door shut again.
It didn't matter anymore, he realized; time seemed to slow down when he heard the bird flapping his wings, taking off from the ground and coming straight at him. He turned around completely just in time to be tackled at full force by the irate farfetch'd, which knocked him into the wall and allowed the door to open just wide enough for Karick to see that he had something to hide.
"What the-" Karick's tone became sharper. "Hey, open this door."
Tavis took a second to recollect himself, his eyes going huge, before making a move to slam the door shut, as if that would accomplish anything. That was stopped anyway, by Karick's foot in the doorway. Karick then started to push it, but only enough to keep it open - odd, since (judging by appearance) he could have overpowered Tavis without much effort.
"Open this door," he repeated in a low voice, still making it clear that he wasn't going to take no for an answer, "I don't wanna have to get anyone else involved." But when even that caught the attention of a passing girl, Tavis realized that he really didn't need any more eyes on him and suddenly pulled Karick inside his room by the sleeve, slamming the door behind him.
The small room became way less comfortable with another person inside, and almost unbearable with the silence between them that only lasted about two seconds but felt immeasurably longer. Arree wasn't a secret anymore, that was for sure. Tavis could barely bring himself to look up at Karick and had no idea what he was going to say. Luckily, he didn't have to speak up.
"So, you wanna explain the farfetch'd?" Although looking at the bird now, it had calmed down, retrieved its stick, and was sitting quietly on the bed again with only an angered glare at the two humans.
Tavis still wouldn't look Karick in the eye. After what might've been ten seconds, or maybe a whole minute, he was able to speak up.
"He's... mine. I just brought him with me, that's all. I've had him for years, I-" He sat on the bed next to Arree, held out his shaking arm in front of the farfetch'd to allow him to step up and perch on it. Arree rolled his eyes a little before doing so, apparently giving up on getting any more sleep. Tavis continued. "His name is Arree. He's pretty much my best friend."
Karick, however, still had his arms crossed with a definite look of skepticism about him. "Okay, so, why'd he attack you?"
"I shoved him under the bed," Tavis quickly answered.
"...That's nice."
"No, no, you knocked on the door and I just hid him there 'cause-" he stopped for a second, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath while he tried to get his thoughts straight, but unable to take his mind away from the fact that Karick was staring at him the whole time. Why was this happening? Everything would be fine right now if that jerk and whatever stupid friends he had waiting outside hadn't targeted him for some joke, whatever it was going to be...
He wouldn't buy into it, but he still wanted to know where it was going.
"What were you talking about before? Traveling... buddy?" Ugh, that title was lame enough to nearly make him shudder.
Karick was silent for a second, before leaning back against the wall, deciding to set the matter of the Pokémon in the room aside, for now.
"You haven't heard about it at all?" Tavis shook his head. "Alright," he continued, "it's this new trial program they started this year. Basically, trainers who are just starting out have to travel with someone with more experience for a while, unless their parents have said that they're okay without one; guess yours didn't."
He had never heard a word about this from his mother. He wondered if she simply didn't say anything to him because she knew he'd argue against having to pair up with some stranger. His mom never did seem to think he was that capable-
Wait, did he actually believe all that for a second?
"And they were supposed to have told you about it in school, too, I think. Or were you home-schooled or something?"
He certainly wouldn't have heard about it that way, either. But, how could Karick have known that he hadn't been in school this past year?
Tavis slowly shook his head, not quite in response to Karick's question.
"Huh," was all Karick could get out after a moment of thought. "Well... at least you should have read about it in the book you were supposed to get when you checked in here. That one." He pointed to the small booklet that was lying next on the opposite corner of the bed. Placing Arree back on the mattress, he grabbed the book and looked at it. He had started reading it, out of complete boredom, until he stumbled upon a certain bit of information that he realized was going to be a problem, and unable to concentrate on reading further, had spent a couple of hours trying to come up with a solution for it.
Karick couldn't possibly have known that. Unless there really were hidden cameras around.
He flipped through the rest of the booklet, passing an introduction, information on the Ayun league, a small map, pokémon center information, short facts about the three types of starter pokémon and the four species of each that would be given out tomorrow - that was where he had stopped - and came across a couple of pages in the very back with the heading "Traveling Buddies." They were cheaply tacked on, meaning that the rest of these books had likely been recycled from the previous year.
No, it was a very well-done prank. One that he would have respected if not for the fact that he was in the middle of it.
It hit him at once, the end-all reason why this couldn't be a trick: he never saw those coming until it was too late. This was going to change everything, ruin it all... "Look, can you just leave? Please?" he managed to breathe out after a while.
"No, no. Not that easy. See, I'm still not clear on, eh..." he motioned to Arree, trying to remember his name for a few seconds before giving up. "The farfetch'd-"
"I just told you, I brought him here!" Tavis nearly shouted, finally letting some of his frustration out.
"I mean, why you were trying so hard to hide him." Karick seemed annoyed with the outburst.
Well, now Tavis was stuck. He wondered just for a second if he could come up with a lie, but decided against it. Tavis didn't lie often, although this wasn't always based on morality as much as it was the feeling that anyone older than him could see through any altered truth he could dish out. Here, the truth could get him into just as much trouble. But the latter option was one step closer to getting out of all this, plus he was too tired to think of anything else believable, and it didn't matter anyway because everything was messed up forever now.
"Okay, it's like this..." He realized that he was still holding onto the book, the pages now warped and torn from having been in his hands while he was nervous. "I didn't, uh... it said in this thing you can't get a starter if you're already carrying a pokémon or have one registered, but I didn't know that before I read this, and I couldn't leave Arree at home, because he acts pretty weird when I'm not around for a long time."
'Pretty weird' was something of an understatement - just weeks ago, he had left his house alone just to spend a night outside to get himself more prepared. When he returned the next day, several patches of Arree's feathers had vanished and his exhausted mother reported that she had spent the better part of the night watching the duck to make sure he didn't chew his own wings off. That was when Tavis had first learned the term 'separation anxiety', and when the decision to take Arree along was set in stone.
One wouldn't have guessed it by the way Arree looked now, however, thanks to a pokémon's ability to regrow feathers or fur in a remarkably short time. It was a trait quite useful for birds in particular, as they were likely to lose flight feathers during battle. But that was one thing Arree himself wouldn't have to worry about.
"And he won't battle either, so even if I did catch another Pokémon by myself, I still wouldn't really have a- a chance against everyone else who's just starting out. I was trying to think of what to do when you came here." Tavis looked back up to Karick, searching for any signs of disapproval. He didn't see any, but didn't get his hopes up yet.
Karick nodded absent-mindedly while looking Arree over, seemingly evaluating him for the story's credibility. Then he unfolded his arms to stick his thumbs in his pockets. The cold, judgmental look about him vanished. "I think I can help you out there. Since I have to go with you to pick up your starter tomorrow, I can't just watch him, but I can catch him in a pokéball and release... what?"
Tavis hadn't uttered a word in disagreement, but Karick could probably tell just by looking at him that he wasn't about to trust Karick that far.
"Aw, come on. Look, no offense, kid, but any one of my pokémon could eat him whole. I'm not going to take off with him."
"I didn't even say that!" Having his thoughts read sure wasn't pleasant. "But I can figure something out on my own. I just need some more time." Speaking of time... the clock read 7:06. This had all happened in five minutes.
Karick stood up straight again.
"Alright, well, long as we're not doing anything, we still have to go outside and sign stuff. Let's go do that now."
"Uh, I can't," Tavis replied immediately, pointing to Arree who was still awake and showing dull interest in the humans' exchanges.
"You can't leave him here for five minutes?"
"Not unless you wanna come back to the window broken, and the carpet ripped up, and like, half the bed eaten."
"Someone has some serious problems..." Karick muttered to himself. Before Tavis could ask if he meant him or his farfetch'd, Karick continued. "Take him with you."
"What? How?"
"I don't know, however you usually take him places? Look, just trust me."
Tavis snorted, not entirely on purpose. Expecting him to do something like that, was Karick dense?
"Okay, how about this: Take him with you or I'll tell you have him."
Tavis looked as if Karick had just threatened to shoot him. "You- wouldn't really do that, would you?" he quietly asked after a stunned moment.
"Wanna find out?"
As they walked through the pokémon center's hallways, Tavis held the deeply confused Arree close to his chest, in an attempt to keep him somewhat concealed. Arree was wide awake now, scanning the (thankfully empty) area and occasionally looking up toward his distressed human, seemingly asking him what was going on. Tavis smiled at him half-heartedly and reassuringly scratched him behind the crest.
Finally, they stopped in front of an elevator that was on the second floor and apparently in use, but being on the third floor themselves, they didn't have to wait long before it arrived. Much to Tavis's dismay, two young girls exited the elevator as it opened up, and as expected, stopped their conversation and turned their attention to the Pokémon upon sight.
"Aww, that farfetch'd is so cute!" squeaked a brown-haired girl in a voice much higher that the one she had just been speaking in.
Tavis felt himself go red at this, oh god, he was going to get caught, why couldn't they have left fifteen seconds later when they wouldn't have had to-
"Thanks," Karick cut in, making Tavis turn his head. Why'd he say that? For now he was in the clear, as the two turned and walked the way he had come from, apparently searching for their rooms. They entered the elevator, and as the doors closed, Tavis was going to ask Karick about what he had said. But, as he should have expected by now, Karick spoke before he had the chance.
"Okay, now I got an idea."
"Wait, you dragged me out here when you didn't have a plan?"
"I never said I had one right then..."
"Then where does all that 'just trust me' stuff come in?" Tavis demanded in disbelief.
Karick shrugged, smirking at the younger boy's atrocious mimic of his voice. "I didn't let you down, did I?"
"What if you did?"
"Be quiet and listen to me for a-" The elevator came to a halt, making Arree jump and Karick stop mid sentence. The doors opened again with a taunting ding!, revealing the crowded lobby of the center.
"...second."
They exited to make room for another boy who needed to get in, and Tavis just stood there stupidly for a second before flinching when Karick prodded him on the shoulder. He started toward the service counter, Karick still in the lead, but staying close enough to make sure Tavis wasn't trailing too far behind. Arree's feathers were flattened once more, meaning he and his human shared the feeling that there were too many people around.
The receptionist looked considerably more tired out than she had been when Tavis had gotten his room key from her, but was still trying to keep a pleasant front (the motivation for this being that she had less than an hour until her shift was over). She pushed her black hair out of her face for probably the millionth time as two boys, one close to Tavis's age and one a little older, moved out of the line.
"Can I help you?" She asked with polite yet false cheer.
"Hey, could we get the, eh..." Karick snapped his fingers next to his head a few times, as if the words he was trying to come up with would appear suddenly.
The receptionist interrupted. "Trainer Agreement forms?" She placed a sheet of paper on the desk between them without waiting for confirmation.
"Yeah, thanks."
Karick began to skim over the page while Tavis tried unsuccessfully to get a good look at it. After a moment, the receptionist addressed him.
"Is that your first pokémon?"
Curse that lightning-speed elevator...
"Farfetch'd?" Karick asked, barely glancing up from the paper. "Nah, he's mine. He's hangin' out with Tavis here for the day." He picked up a pen that was attached to the desk and scribbled his name down before sliding the paper and pen over to Tavis.
That was his plan? Oh, no. The receptionist had seen him with Arree earlier, and any hope of her not recognizing him was crushed under the thoughtful expression on her face while she... stared at him.
Then she smiled again.
"I'll just need you to read the top paragraph and sign here, please." She pointed to the area on the paper in question, which he had forgotten existed.
Tavis blinked in disbelief, then glanced toward Karick who was now trying to hide the satisfied grin on his face. Did she really not remember him, or was she just too tired to bother? It was some amazing luck either way.
The paragraph was titled New Trainer Agreement and was shorter than the one below it, which Karick had signed. By skimming through it he found that the basics were that he was to stay with Karick for twenty-one days, that they were required to "check in" regularly during that time, and... to report any of Karick's abuse of the rules as soon as possible. This made him want to look over what Karick had signed to as well, but the line behind him was growing steadily and that woman just kept smiling...
He transferred Arree to his shoulder to free his right hand, signed and printed his name and hesitantly passed it back over the counter. The receptionist took it with a "Thank you," turned to a computer and took a few seconds to type something up. "Okay... and you're all set! Good luck!"
"Thanks," Karick said, stepping away from the counter with a wave. He looked back to Tavis. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"
Tavis followed him, then quickly turned around and said his own thanks to the woman. He went back to Karick and said quietly, "that was insanely lucky."
Karick chuckled. "Not really. Come on, nobody's going to call you out for carrying him around with you. Now I don't know about you, but I'm getting hungry. Whaddaya say we go find somewhere to eat?"
Now that he thought about it, Tavis hadn't eaten since before he arrived in this city, and neither had Arree. Of course, what he had packed for Arree was still upstairs, in his backpack, but after all the mistreatment the bird had received that day, Tavis supposed he deserved something extra.
Karick knew of an outdoor fast food joint that he had gone to during a previous visit through the city. It wasn't a particularly classy place, but at least Arree was able to join them. The farfetch'd was presently scattering a tray of tortilla chips around the cleanest table they were able to find.
"You let him eat like that all the time?" Karick asked, failing in trying to keep his tone neutral.
"No, it's just that he's been halfway across the country today and doesn't really know what's going on, so I don't think he's happy about it. I shouldn't even be giving him this, he's supposed to be on a diet anyway." It hit him only then how wrong the scene must have been from an outside perspective – there he was, sitting in front of an order of chicken strips while his own bird gorged on chips not three feet away.
"So, long as we're stuck with each other for the next three weeks, we may as well get to know each other. You excited about being a trainer?"
"Yeah, I guess." Although one of the perks Tavis found in the idea was being able to spend some time on his own... "Guess you've been a trainer for a while?"
"Yup! Five years now. Finally got my eighth badge last year, right before the Ayun League tournaments started. I didn't even place, though. Would have, if I'd just used Rhydon against that nidoking..." he stopped, having derailed and lost track of the original question.
"Are you getting paid for this or something?" Tavis asked. Of course he was benefiting from it somehow, why else would he be doing it?
"No, it's volunteer work. I've only been training around home for a long time now, so it was motivation to get back out here. "
Well, that made sense... sort of. "Where do you live?" he asked. Tavis didn't particularly care for the answer, but it was either ask or be asked now, and he was less comfortable with the latter.
"Westopolis, right on the coast. I knew our gym leader's sister in school," he bragged. "What about you?"
"Huh? Oh, I don't know her..."
"Where you from, dork?"
"Oh! Um, Zephyr."
Karick then sat up straight, reaching into his pocket for something. "I've been there," he said, which wasn't surprising; he sounded like had been all over Ayun. What he did next, however, was completely unexpected. He presented a pokéball and dropped it next to himself. The red and white halves split apart on impact with the seat, the bright silvery flash taking Arree by surprise and making him catapult himself into Tavis. The shape of the pokémon inside emerged.
The light soon faded, showing the slick blue skin of the creature's slouching otter-like form. The long tail that made up half its body length ended in a light mud-colored fluke and hung limply over the bench. From behind its small, pointed ears sprouted what looked like two strands of seaweed that were at least the length of its torso. Its eyes, pearly and white, remained blank. Anyone unfamiliar with this pokémon would be hard-pressed to say there was a shred of life in its body. Tavis knew better. Plemort, the water- and ghost-type, was a pokémon that was found only around Zephyr's marshes and swamps, and depended on its corpse facade to lure its prey - scavengers - close.
As a trained member of its species, and fortunately for Arree, the one across the table had been conditioned off of live meals for the most part. He was still a carnivore though, and presently a hungry one - he made this known by resting his chin on the table with his nose pointed to what remained of Karick's hamburger, while emitting a low moaning sound.
"Yeah, nice to see you too, buddy," Karick muttered to Plemort as he tore a piece off a shred of beef (knowing that anything else he offered would be ignored) and placed it in front of the pokémon. Plemort snapped it up when his trainer's hand was no more than two inches away, showing off his sharp canines as he did so. Tavis noted that Karick didn't even jump.
Arree, who was no stranger to this Pokémon himself, watched in terror from the safety of Tavis's arms. It was hard to tell if he was hissing or breathing very hard. Tavis scratched his neck again and told him, "It's okay, Arree," for the hundredth time that day.
Karick took note of the duck's reaction (it was hard to miss) and held the empty pokéball up next to Plemort, who had made quick work of his snack and was running his tongue over his teeth - for a second he appeared to be taunting Arree.
"I'll take you out again later," Karick told his Pokémon while patting it on the back with his free hand. "Return."
Plemort showed no sign of protest. Seemingly just by willing himself to do so, his body transformed into a kind of red glowing energy which was then sucked back into the ball. In a second, Plemort's seat was empty (and the two kids who had gathered to get a closer look at him quietly returned to their business).
Arree remained alarmed, however, and while he had discontinued his efforts to struggle away, he was still panting and looking up at Tavis with wide eyes. Tavis couldn't tell if he wanted to go back inside or just to be comforted. A horrible sinking feeling overtook him and he was instantly sorry for bringing Arree out with him in the first place. But really, what other choice did he have?
"Yeah, Plemort acts like a jerk sometimes, but he knows what he's not allowed to do," Karick said after a while. "Mostly. Now, um..."
Tavis looked up again to find that Karick's attention was on Arree.
"If you really have to take him with you, you have to get him a pokéball, no questions asked. Before we leave town."
That reminded Tavis of the other problem he would face before leaving tomorrow. He revisited the question of just what to do about Arree, looking upward as he thought, and found that the night sky was blocked by a big, tacky plastic umbrella that stuck up from the center of their table. The stars weren't that easy to see anyway, in this more-than-sufficiently-lit city...
He was only distracting himself. He wouldn't come up with a way to fix this in a million years, much less twelve hours. There was one option left: ask for Karick's help. If he could bring himself to.
"Karick, you remember earlier, when you said..." Tavis tried to remember exactly what it was Karick had said while they were still in the pokémon center. And the conversation around it. Or maybe that was just a way of stalling until his lungs, frozen with admitting defeat, were limbered up, but he knew that would never happen. "... that you'd hold onto Arree while I got my starter tomorrow. Were you serious?"
Karick, while not exactly shocked by the question, raised an eyebrow in mild amusement. "You trust me now?"
"No, but I know you won't steal him now because he's a fat wuss."
"Just like I said before."
"Hey!"
Having finished his meal (while Tavis was barely halfway through his own), Karick balled up the leftover trash and set it aside. "You wanna get it out of the way now? I have some spare pokéballs in my room."
Tavis didn't at all like the idea of handing Arree over to Karick for the whole night. "How about tomorrow morning instead? They don't start handing out the starters until nine, and the building's close to the pokémon center."
"Suit yourself, just don't blame me if you get there late and have to wait in line for hours."
"Don't you have to come with me for that?"
"Yeah, but I can keep myself busy with showing off my awesome team to the newbies and being the biggest inspiration to the coming wave of supertrainers. You have fun standing in line."
Tavis almost snickered at this, then scolded himself; Karick wasn't funny, he was a jerk and didn't deserve a laugh for that. Unfortunately, Karick had caught him, and although he didn't say anything, the satisfied grin he wore and the taunting glint returning to his eye was enough recognition of his victory.
"So I'll come by your room tomorrow at eight," Karick went on. "That's more than enough time."
They'd need it, Tavis thought, looking back to Arree. Getting the fat wuss to go along with it would be the hard part.
i-i-i-i-i
Chapter two is complete. Expect it within a few days.