Telling the story

(I own nothing of TCC.)

Luka appeared right behind Jahara and Phoebe who were sitting having another discussion. "I think that returning home is in my schedule for today," he said as he placed his hands on their shoulders. Both Jahara and Phoebe jumped then ecstatically yelled his name. In just a few seconds the trio was warmly embracing.

In a flurry of 'I thought you were dead,' 'but how,' or even 'don't you scare us that bad again' Jahara scolded Luka. "But I'm glad you're back" she said when finally calm.

"Hey, what's going on?" Duran came floating sleepily out of Phoebe's room. As soon as he saw Luka, he screeched and hurried to thwack Luka on the nose or somewhere on the face for disappearing.

As Duran was about to swat Luka, he grabbed the little dragon spirit, jerking the whiskers, holding them tightly. "Not so tight!" Duran gasped.

"You were asking for it," Jahara said. After holding Duran for about fifteen seconds, Luka let go and the dragon flew off quickly back to Phoebe's room.

"Alright Luka, where have you been?" Phoebe inquired. The little family sat down as Luka started the tale.

"Unintentionally when I got Jahara safely away from the dangers of the pit, I didn't go with her. I was about to activate a card when I hit a plateau. When that happened my activator was smashed. After that, it was pointless to try using it. I rolled off of the plateau and back into empty air. After a long drop I hit a rock then rolled off of it." Jahara and Phoebe got nervous, both thinking that Luka had gone for another long fall in empty air.

"The rock was on the ground, so I didn't do more major falling. But, as I fell onto the ground, I saw someone standing above me with a Tai Chi symbol glowing in the air above her, and then I passed out. I'm not sure what symbol it was, but it glowed orange."

Luka paused recalling that blurry moment. It was a Tai Chi that was easy to draw, he remembered that much. He continued. "It was about a week before I woke up. When I did, I had been bandaged on my chest, arm, and head. Moving around was near impossible, because it hurt too much. After I tried to move around, I heard someone talking. She was saying something about three broken ribs, a broken nose, a fractured arm, a currently unknown injury to the head, and lots of cuts and bruises. Then I realized she was talking about me. It was no mystery to me by then, why I hurt so much. Then the girl came in and when she realized I was conscious she said 'It seems like someone has been pretending to still be unconscious.'"

Jahara silently noted something. "She had to been nice, for her to take care of you." Luka clenched his jaw thinking of Mem's rudeness.

"No, she actually doesn't care about being polite. Her name is Mem. Quite often, she was saying something rude or starting an argument about one thing or another. A few times today, I would wonder if she took care of me willingly or if an elder asked her to do it."

Suddenly a storm came in. Phoebe was the first to notice it. "We have a huge storm coming in, quickly" she said in a panicked voice. Luka and Jahara turned fast to look out the window. Sure enough, the clouds turned grey, lightning was flashing in the distance, thunder boomed, and a wind was starting to blow in. Phoebe tried not to freak out. "I've never seen a storm roll in that fast! Before Luka got home, the weather was perfect."

Luka looked at the storm coming in. "If it came in that fast on an unsuspecting day, it must have been Tai Chi influenced." Jahara looked concerned for a moment.

"The last time we were in one of those storms was when we were still battling the tigeroids; that one right before Vicious got kicked out." Luka gritted his teeth as he remembered that storm. It would have been a victory, if it hadn't been for Elder Komorka.

Phoebe sat back down. In a letter from Luka from when the war was still going, he had told her about that storm. She knew what they were talking about. "Luka, what is the rest of your story? You've not finished telling us," she said very quietly.

Luka thought for a moment to try and remember where he had been in telling the story. "This morning, I finally decided that I wasn't going to put up with Mem and her impoliteness. She had replaced my activator and I found it along with my cards. As soon as I was about to get out of there, she used a movement Tai Chi to confiscate it. We had an argument. It ended where she decided that I could leave. She almost made me promise to not return there again but she didn't. We've got to take this very seriously. If any of us go into the forbidden land, she will be there and she is powerful."

Jahara considered the story for a moment. "Mem is an interesting name. I wonder why that's her name. Luka, how old she is?"

"I don't know. My best guess is that she is around Phoebe's age. I don't think I mentioned that she is blind. It amazed me that despite her blindness, she lives on her own, in forbidden land, and can do different things that would be difficult to do without eyesight."

Phoebe's eyes widened. "She's blind? I'm curious now, about her."

"Well, she is short, has faded sky blue eyes, and I don't know her hair color. She had her hair covered up. She is very powerful in the ways of the Tai Chi 1000. She can use them without an activator and supposedly, she doesn't even need to use a card, if what she said was true."

Luka clenched his jaws remembering that moment, having just been hit by a Tai Chi influenced explosion, luckily just a small one then standing up to Mem, saying he wouldn't take more of her rudeness.

Jahara perked up as she remembered something. "Hey Phoebe, when are you going to get those items back?" Phoebe smiled briefly.

"As soon as I can meet with the person who hid them for me, I'll go retrieve them."