Echo fingered the pink shirt. She liked the design, she really did, but pink was not her colour. Blue was. Or black. That was virtually all she wore these days, blue and black. She sighed and poked around the rack, seeing if it happened to be in blue. Sadly, the black haired girl couldn't find anything. Oh well, she thought, moving to another rack. Maybe she'd find something else. Then she heard the beast. Her blue eyes found the snarling, evil thing. Like always, the Muggles seemed not to notice it, standing in the middle of the department store. It leaped at her, but she had her wand out in the blink of an eye. Bolts of yellow and red shot out of it, but nothing seemed to happen. Unlike the beast, Muggles could see her display of magic clearly. However, most were too mesmerised than afraid. She continued to blast it with spells, one arm full of clothes, but it continued to dodge and attack her. It was fast, and agile. The pale, black-haired girl continued to shoot spells at high speed, some silent and some spoken, but nothing hit it. Three Muggles burst through the door. Echo silently hoped that they weren't the police... She always felt bad when she meddled with their memories. She couldn't see their faces, however, as she was too busy fighting the beast. There were whispers, gasps of awe. But nothing mattered but Echo and her attacker. It lashed out at her, scratching her arm. She gasped in pain but continued to shoot bolts of light out. She couldn't use any powerful spells, for fear of accidentally hitting one of the onlookers. Metal racks were being thrown about, clearance bins spilling their contents. Light continued to shoot from the stick that Echo had grown to know and love. In a flash, though, Echo's blue eyes widened and she stopped cold. The three people from her dream were standing there. The blind one- Kaia, she remembered- was holding a small dagger, while the other two had swords. "Get out of the way!" Echo shouted, snapping out of her daze. Weapons or no weapons, they were still Muggles and they could still be hurt by her spells. The blonde one shot her a glare before the three charged in to fight it. While it was busy being cut and scratched by the three Muggles, Echo got a chance to aim her wand. "Stupefy!" she shouted. The beast stopped, frozen. The blind girl dropped her knife where she stood. The other two turned to look at Echo in awe. "Well?" she demanded. "Either get rid of it or get out of the way." The boy drove his sword into the heart of the creature, and it dissolved into dust like they always did. "Get over here," said Echo, her voice softer now. Her heart was still pumping fast. "I think we need to talk." Muggles were standing around, wide-eyed. Echo muttered a charm to alter their memories. This was only a show, she planted. One you saw many years ago. The faint memory is only now resurfacing. And everything returned to normal. Echo even overheard one woman tell her daughter, "You know, when I was very young, I saw some kind of theatre production... And those talented actresses and actors looked just like those kids over there. But of course, the real actors would be all grown up now..." She quickly repaired the damage and looked at her torn arm. Ouch. Eventually the four teenagers wound up just staring at one another. There was no hint of the weapons the Muggles had been carrying a moment earlier. The witch had been careful not to alter their memories, and it showed clearly on their faces. "Well," said Echo, trying to be friendly despite all of her fear. "I believe proper introductions are in order. I'm Echo Sterling." She held out a hand for them to shake. At first two of them stared at the hand stupidly (the third, being blind, probably had no clue what was going on) but eventually the boy shook. "Drew," he said with a smile. The blonde shook next. "Calypso," she said, without expression. Kaia simply said her name, making no move to shake anyone's hand. They stood in silence. "You were looking for me," Echo observed, having no clue whether her dream was real or not. Maybe this whole thing was a dream. Then again, she thought after glancing at the deep scratches in her left arm, dreams never hurt this much. Looking back at the three others, she noticed that Calypso had a small square of...something. "Well?" asked the blonde girl softly. "Do you want it?" Echo looked in puzzlement. "Want what?" Drew and Calypso exchanged a look, then he spoke up. "It's a healing medicine," he explained. The witch shook her head. "No thanks." It wouldn't take much to heal back home. Just a quick clean and a few charms and she should be good as new. "As you were saying," Kaia said pointedly, gesturing to Echo with her head. "Well...I'd kind of like to know why you carry swords with you. And," she added, picking up her dropped clothes with her uninjured arm, "how you could see that thing. No other Mu- um, person, has been able to see it before." "We'd kind of like to know what the heck you were doing with that... twig," said Calypso. The four of them were silent once more, not wanting to spill their secrets. "Maybe we can start simpler," said Echo. "How about you tell me why you're here, and why you were looking for me." The dark-haired boy spoke first. "How did you know we were looking for you? Did someone tell you?" "No," she admitted. "I, um, saw you in a dream." "Oh," said Drew, as if that explained everything. These were three weird kids, Echo realised. Then she realised something else- her arm was bleeding badly. It stung quite a bit, so much that Echo found a cry of pain building in her throat just thinking about it. She glanced at the wounds. They were deep. "Um... I'll be right back," Echo said, her voice suddenly strained. It seemed that the more she thought about them, the more they hurt. She bolted toward a restroom. Luckily for her, it was empty. She locked it with a flick of her wand and got a better look at the wounds. Double ouch. Three long, deep scratches right below her arms. She began to dab at it with wet paper towels, trying to get rid of the blood. Back in the middle of the mall, the three demigods stood, waiting. "Well I think she's just crazy," Kaia commented. "You didn't see what she did to that Manticore," Drew said in awe. "It hardly touched her. She just zapped it with... Well, with something, and it went down." Caly snorted. "It hardly touched her? Did you see those scratches on her arm?" Drew shrugged. "Could we have done much better? With three of us, indoors, in a crowded mall?" Both girls remained silent. They knew they couldn't. "Exactly," the dark-haired boy said. "She's powerful. We can't deny that."
