Wow, time for another chapter of Close Wizardry again. More info on whirling disease (the real goods this time!), and more N/K fluff for all you folks like me. I wonder how long I can hold out on getting these two together. I wonder how long you all will let me!
At any rate, I'm having so much fun writing this, so I hope ya'll are enjoying it. Let me know! Review! ^_^ I want another 15 (or more!) before I post again.

standard boring, old, but required disclaimer I don't own any characters or general plot setup portrayed in this story, Diane Duane does, and I'm very, very envious/proud of her. I wouldn't dream of trying to make money off of this, and this is done solely for the sanity of her waiting fans. So please, please, be kind and rewind? Erm... wait... /disclaimer

And by the way, in case you didn't know (I was startled to realize I'd never even searched for this before), there IS an official Young Wizards site, at www.youngwizards.net, I believe, and the best part it that Diane Duane's weblog is on there. Crazy. She's hilarious. So go there!

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"Morning," Nita called, stepping through the screen door from the back of Kit's house. Carmela, Kit's younger and Japan-obsessed sister, greeted her in the kitchen, stirring something in a skillet with extremely long chopsticks. "Are those supposed to be like that? They look lethal," Nita commented.
Carmela took off her headphones briefly. "They're cooking chopsticks. They're supposed to be long like this. So you can use them faster. Kit'll be down in a sec." And with that, she put the headphones back on and continued dancing/cooking to her Japanese pop, or whatever was making such a racket.
Nita sat down at the table to wait, taking out her spiral notebook.
Thumpa thumpa thumpa thumpa thumpa WHAM!
Ponch, Kit's overenthusiastic dog, had slammed straight into the kitchen wall, due to a lack of traction. He clambered over to lay his head on Nita's lap, tongue lolling out comically as he said, Nita! Did you bring snacks? Ponch was always looking for his next meal.
Nita laughed at him. "You're going to get fat, you know." She passed him a doggie treat under the table.
Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou! Ponch yelped as he wolfed down the treat with glee.
"No problem."
"Morning, Neets!" Kit said from the doorway. After a night of mentally bolstering his courage, he was ready to try and take things with Nita to the next level--whether she liked it or not. He planned to be discreet enough that he could still keep things "friendly", while still leaning toward "more than friendly". Which meant it was time to put Plan A into action.
Nita gasped a little as Kit affectionately kiss her head before sitting down. He smiled sunnily, pulling the notebook over to him. "Feeling better after yesterday?"
She sputtered a bit before answering. "Y-yes...?"
He grinned. "You sure? That sounded more like a question..."
"I'm sure," she said firmly. What in the name of the Powers was that?! That was... just friendly. Powers, that was more and yet... not. So now what do I do? Well... but what choice did she have? She was just going to have to sit and act normal. And ignore the way her heart was racing.
"Good."
God, he has a great smile... Nita shook her head. Stop that! He's your best friend, for God's sake. Pull yourself together. This is no time...
Kit looked up. "Hey, are you alright?"
Of course not. "Yeah! Never better."
Kit frowned, but kept on scanning the notebook. Then Carmela put breakfast on the table.
Nita clamped her mouth shut before she could say "Ewwww...", but just barely. On her plate was something slightly resembling another something that had might have been eaten once by something almost alive. In other words, it wasn't entirely appetizing. Nita glanced tentatively over at Kit, who remained impassive. She sent him a thought. Um...?
I agree.
She smiled, accepted her chopsticks from Carmela, and started in--
"Wait!" Carmela exclaimed, snatching back the chopsticks. "Before you start, it's Japanese tradition to say, 'itadakimasu', which means, 'now we shall partake'."
Kit opened his mouth to say something.
"Pleeeaaase?" Carmela begged. "C'mon, it's my first time doing this. It has to be authentic."
"It's not your first time," Kit pointed out. "Mom and Dad ate some earlier."
Carmela threw him a dirty look, and muttered out the side of her mouth, "Shut up, Kit."
"Ita... daki... masu?" Nita ventured.
Carmela beamed.


"Gochisousama!"
"That was great! That means, 'it was a good feast'," Carmela said, clearing their plates.
Kit smiled. "Thanks, 'Mela, it was great."
Carmela just grinned. "Thanks for being my guinea pigs. I know it doesn't look all that good, but looks aren't everything."
"Tell me about it," Nita sighed, thinking of Ricky and his gang of "hotties".
Kit grabbed Nita's hand suddenly, dragging her upstairs.
"Kit! What was that abo--"
Kit silenced her with a finger against her lips. "We have work to do," he said softly, looking into her eyes. What the hell am I doing? She can't seriously be buying this.
Nita blushed hotly, eyes wide. He's not going to... She swallowed, nervous. He wouldn't... would he? No way. But... why not? Argh! Stop it, Nita! she scolded.
Kit watched her with wide eyes. She really is buying this! Oh, this is too good! But better not play with her too much. "Uh, like, for instance, our spell?"
Nita went redder. I don't believe this. I'm totally overreacting to nothing. "Sure thing." She turned to a new page in her notebook. "But what do we know about this whole thing?"
"Well," Kit started, grabbing some papers from beside his computer, "I did some research last night on the internet. Whirling disease is caused by the parasite Myxobolus cerebralis. It gets into the fingerling trout's head and spinal cartilage before it's grown into bone and multiplies, pressuring the brain and equilibrium."
"Like a brain tumor," Nita commented quietly. Like mom.
"Uh... yeah," Kit said, shifting uncomfortably. "That's what causes them to swim in circles. Some fish survive, but have spinal deformities. Anyway, it doesn't spread hereditarily, which is a relief."
"So we just have to convince it to stop. Like mom's viruses."
"Not quite," Kit said. "You forgot about the worms. These parasites are hard to get rid of. When the infected fish die, thousands, maybe millions of spores are released into the water. The spores can survive freezing and desiccation, and can lie dormant in a stream for up to thirty years. By that time, they've been ingested by their other host, the tubifex worms, and then they grow into the form that infests the fish fry. They leave the worms behind, which are unaffected as far as I can tell, go into the water and latch on to any passing fish to start the whole thing over again."
Nita whistled. "Vicious cycle."
"No kidding," Kit agreed. "At any rate, we have a number of options to solve this sucker. And I found out that our lovely little spell won't work."
"Spells always work. Just not necessarily in this scenario," Nita replied, sucking on the end of her pen.
"What's worse is that Chinook salmon are quite susceptible to Whirling disease. They're already not faring so well."
"Mmph. Thanks a lot, by the way, for doing all of this. I got half of that assignment tackled last night, I am proud to say," Nita smiled.
Kit winked, "Well, I didn't do everything last night. I did some of it before I came down for breakfast."
"I wondered why you took so long." Nita flipped through her notebook, looking at the now-useless spell. "Suppose we can use this for something else. The Powers never waste work. So what can we do about this nasty thing?"
"Well, I didn't really find out a whole lot... but for one thing, the amount of spores is severely lessened in faster running streams. So we might just convince the streams to move it along a bit faster for a week or two. Also, the tubifex worms can't move up hardened stream beds. If we harden the sediment at certain intervals, we could stop it moving upstream and infecting pure streams. They were doing that at the hatchery in Kamas, keeping all their pens lined with concrete. And I heard about this one hatchery in Colorado that was experimenting with ultraviolet light killing off the spores."
"So we'd flash all of the streams in Utah? Is there even a spell for that?"
"Um... well, we'd have to do all three things, I guess. And even then we wouldn't catch all of it. Birds and uninformed fisherman and animals spread the spores, too."
"Wait a sec..." Nita mused. "What form are the spores in when they affect the fish? They go through the water, right?"
Kit gaped at her. "Oh my God."
Nita nodded, grinning. "It will work. We just have to modify it a bit to include the sediment as well, and to catch those little suckers as spores, and as their later form."
Kit slapped his forehead. "I really am losing my touch."
"No you aren't." She said seriously. "You're just no match for me."
Kit raised an eyebrow. "Oh really?" He caught Nita in the face with a pillow. "Direct hit!"
Nita tackled him, smothering him with another pillow. "Surrender!"
"Meeph!" Kit protested, muffled. "Frumpon!" (AN: translation - "Neets! Come on!")
Nita lifted the pillow. "I'm sorry, what was that?"
"You're mine!" Kit cried in triumph, flipping Nita and pinning her with his body.
Nita squirmed for a moment before finally giving up. "Wow. You're getting stronger."
"I've been working out."
"When do you find time?" Nita asked, trying (without success) to shove Kit off her, and struggling (also without success) to ignore her pounding heart.
"You remember those alternate universes I told you about? The ones Ponch found? We made a gym." He stubbornly refused to budge.
"Why don't I ever get to see those?" Nita wondered, slightly hurt.
Kit grinned. "It's a surprise."
"So is this." She slipped her leg around Kit's, pulling it down and tossing him over her hip. Now she was in control, pinning him.
Kit shivered, trying to make his stomach stop its freefall. "True."
Should I kiss him? Should I... no... friendship. Friendship is the most important. Nita helped her partner to his feet. "Let's fix this spell and get out of here." And besides, he can't possibly like me.
"Sure thing." Looks like it might be time for plan B. He grabbed his manual. "Where were we?"

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Thanks to the Whirling Disease Foundation, and Colorado and Montana's respective wildlife foundations. For more information on whirling disease, check out http://www.whirling-disease.org and http://www.whirlingdisease.org .

Okay, no, seriously, I PROMISE there is a plot. I just gave you guys some fluff for now, but the next chapter has LOTS of plot. Loads of it. Like, pouring out your ears plot. (with still some fluff for those like me...) But I'm still trying to work out where I'm going with this. Hmmm... any suggestions?

15 MORE REVIEWS before I post again. I mean it.

3,
- MKD 8.31