Sorry! I don't have Squire or Lady Knight, and neither does the library or
book stores in my area. I've read Squire once, but I've never read Lady
Knight, so some things may be off, please forgive me.
____________________________Chapter Two: More Questions__________________________________
Kenret went home and told her parents everything that had happened. And before they could say anything emotional and/or uncomfortable and awkward about her having new parents, she told them of her decision. The decision that, because she definitely didn't want to leave her world, and of course she couldn't pass up one a one of a kind possibility like living in Tortall with her favorite fairytale characters, she was going to trade off. Spend a week on Earth, and a week on, um, well Tammy had never actually said what the name of her world was. Kenret decided to christen it Vhiliinyar, which was 'The World of the People' in a language from some other author's books, ~The Unicorn Girl~ series. Anyway, she was going to spend a week in Tortall, and a week at home, in America. Sometimes it would be longer, sometimes shorter, sometimes longer in one place than the other, ect. She told them that when she was in the real world she would be Kenret, who had a Moma and a Daddy named Salina and Darek; and in Tortall she would be Tomora (weird, huh? That's what she found out Alanna and George had named her. It was so close to Tamora. She guessed that she was named after Thom, Alanna's deceased brother. Maybe that would make her Thomora. She didn't think to ask them how it was spelled. Accept, they already had a son named Thom, named after, uh, Thom. So who knew?) , who had a Mother and Father named Alanna and George. Mayhaps she'd promote them to Mom and Dad in the future, but they could never be her Moma and Daddy. Those were the people who had raised her.
Her parents agreed that the idea was probably best. Or at least the best they could think of. They mostly were just happy that they'd never know she was gone. Well, no more than usual. They also had to decide whether or not to tell her siblings. No on in her family liked repeating themselves, except Billy, who you couldn't get to stop. But they prayed that it was just a faze. Instead, they decided, that if they asked a question liked "Why is Kenret always going in the attic?", then they would give them the smallest possible true answer. Kenret didn't tell any of her friends. She knew what would happen. They'd pretend to believe her but slowly drift away. Whenever Kenret would call them and ask them to come over, they'd make up some excuse like, "I'm sorry Kenret, but I already made plans to hang out with Canvas. Sorry. Maybe some other time." They'd go from seeing her almost everyday, to once a week, to occasional phone calls. She and her friends would always be polite, saying 'hi' whenever they saw each other at the supermarket, or the pizza place, and 'excuse me' when they bump into each other trying to open their lockers between classes. But when they talk to other people in the halls, they'd say, 'Kenret? She's crazy.' No, she wouldn't tell them anything.
Back in Tortall, things went well as well. Alanna asked more questions about what happened in he three years that Kenret-oops, Tomora visited Tortall, but didn't know Alanna was her Mom. Tom told her of the many jobs she had done. She'd been a merchant, a seamstress's apprentice (she wasn't good enough to be her own seamstress, mostly because of her short attention span.), a scholar, she was glad to learn that the alphabet and all that was the same as it was a home, and mathematician, a stable hand, a healer, of course, and many others. She liked having multiple talents. Tomora told Alanna of how part of her Gift was like Daine Sarrassi's wild magic. She could change into animals when she liked, and could talk to them that way, or she could concentrate them to speak to them with out changing. She pouted about it so awhile, well, at least a few moments, because Daine didn't have to concentrate on animals, she could always hear them. A regular Dr. Daine Dolittle.
Tomora even told Alanna of how she trained to be a priestess, but at the last minute backed out. She admitted to that she had never planned to go through with it. The life of a priestess wasn't for her. People telling her what to wear and when, not talking until spoken to, and worst was not being allowed to have her own opinion. She had an opinion about everything, and no one could stop her from sharing it. No matter how hard they tried or how long they pleaded. It took her Mom and Dad a while to learn that lesson, but they learned it well. The reason she went through the training in the first place was to learn of the Tortallian gods and goddesses.
Also, Alanna asked how Tomora knew so much about her. Tom explained about the books as well as she could. Tom didn't think Alanna completely understood, but the Baroness seemed to understand quite a lot of it, surprising Tom. She promised Alanna that she would bring the books with her from Earth, as soon as she learned the proper spell. She knew a spell that would do that, but it wasn't a proper one. It was a variation of the original spell on her closet that she had made up, and it might be dangerous to use continuously.
It was about a month after seeing Alanna for the first time, when the 'Coopers' were in the Library, relaxing for once in a really long time. George Cooper, ex-thief had finally sorted through a loyalty problem they had been having just across the gulf. Tomora had referred to them as the Coopers long before she had ever entered the closet. She talked about books a lot with her friends, and 'The Coopers' was easier to say than 'Alanna, George, and their kids'. Tomora was squatting at a bookshelf, on tiptoe, so that her knee was level with the second to the bottom shelf and she was looking at the third to the bottom shelf. She had one hand holding on to the shelf her knee was against to balance herself, and the other rubbing her neck where it was stiff from tilting her head in order to read the titles of the books and tombs.
Wobbling from only having one hand to keep her up, she stopped rubbing her neck to reach for a promising looking tomb. At least, she thought it was a tomb. Was there a difference between a tomb, book, or volume? Well, there was a small difference between a volume and a book, but. Oh well, there had to be a million different names for 'book'. Probably there wasn't a difference. She started slipping as she pulled it down. Tom tried to quickly put the large book in her lap so she could steady herself, but it was too late. "Falling!" she said right before toppling over, letting go of her find to catch herself. The book, unsupported, fell with the other books that she had been balancing half on her thigh, half on the shelf it was level with. The book she had just pulled down hit her hand, digging it's corner painfully between her finger bones.
"Falling?" Alanna asked as both she and George looked up at the noise.
"Falling." Confirmed Tom simply, rubbing her right hand with her left.
"Why falling?"
"Because I fell. But when I said it, I was falling. So I said 'falling'." She explained sounding completely serious, as if it was supposed to make sense.
"Actually, you *shouted* 'falling'." George said, smiling.
Alanna paused for a moment to think, and to let Tomora finish giving George a dirty look.
"Does everyone from your realm do that?" She asked, finally.
"Nope, just me. Oh, and my friend Lily. She picked up the habit, among other annoying ones, from me."
"Okay then. Just checking." Alanna said as she looked back at her book, refusing to ask.
She had found that her new daughter had a lot of strange habits.
George, however, took the bait. "Why do you do it then?"
"Because. I'm weird. That's what I do. It doesn't have to make sense." She said, somewhat stubbornly.
"Of course not."
Tom stuck her tongue out at him as she gathered up her books and walked over to one of the overstuffed chair next to her new 'Cooper' parents.
"If I knew I was going to have another set of parents to make fun of me, I wouldn't have come to Pirate's Swoop." Then she arched her eyebrows in her stuck-up, I'm better than you pose, her nose in the air. "You simpletons just don't understand my perfection. Your minds can't gasp how perfect I am."
"Perfect, are you?" George asked, again taking the bait and barely managing to laugh out-right.
At least my new parents usually aren't smart enough to just stop talking, like my other ones. It's not nearly as fun that way. "Yes. I'm perfect in every way. Everything I do is for a reason."
"You mean like when you fell?"
Tomora stuck her tongue out at him again, and said. "Yes. Like I said, your small minds cannot even begin to grasp it, but because I did that the whole world was saved. Plus some."
"And how is that?" Alanna, this time.
"Well, uh, I fell because my perfect senses told me that, uh, the world's gravity was messing up and sending the world out of orbit, and my 'push' put it back in it's place, and um. . . Because I said-" she looked at George and corrected herself. "shouted, 'falling', I caused what will become a great wind that will, um, push a ship out of range of a terrible storm that would sink the ship. Yah. Yeah, that's it. You know, that whole, 'if a butterfly flaps it's wings,' theory?" She ignored both of them rolling their eyes, and started picking up her books.
"Watch out where you aim that mouth of yours," George said, "you might hurt some one with it."
"Okay, how 'bout this? I'm perfect because I say so, and everything I say is right, because I'm perfect, and a perfect person is never wrong" She said, happy to get a chance to say it, for it was one of her favorite sayings that she had made. "When I want your opinion, I'll give it to you." She told them. That was her other favorite saying, even though she hadn't thought it up by herself. She got it from a T-shirt.
"Yes, of course, dear" Alanna said, patronizing. Then, gesturing toward the books Tom was flipping through, "What are you looking for?"
"Nothing, really. Mostly just a good fiction book. I hate non-fiction books. They're boring." She looked up at Alanna's face and saw that she needed to clarify. "Story books. I don't like all these books about real stuff. History, Geometry, yada, yada, yada. Blah, blah, blah. I don't want to read about plants... Or herbs... or magic... or ~the History of Wagons~ she said, reading off the last one off of a book cover. "Pah. Pah, I say, pah!"
"Aren't you a little old to read story books? And you're a scholar, aren't you? Wouldn't you like to read about real things?" The Lioness asked.
Tomora shrugged. "I'm only a scholar because I needed money, and a job, and a place to be, not because I had any interest in it. But it's easy, *any*body from where I come from could be a scholar here. All of, well, most of America's four- or five-year-olds can read and write. Not necessarily well, but."
"Really? That young? Well, I suppose it's possible. I learned when I was six- almost seven actually."
"Yeah, kids learn better and quicker when they're young. It's also better to try to teach kids new languages when they're young." Said Tom, returning to her books. "Do you know any other languages?"
"No. I said it was better, not that people always did it. Some do, but most people are to lazy to try it."
"I glad then. That you can read, I mean. I was worried that whatever world I put you in might not be quite up to date." The Lioness responded, also going back to her reading after a sip of her fruit juice.
"You didn't need to worry about that. I'm like, two millennia ahead of you." Tomora said, not lifting her eyes. "It's like, 340 Human Era here, isn't it? Well, it was during ~Squire~."
"349 H.E., actually, why?" [AN: I don't kow if this is true.]
"Well, I'm in year 2000 A.D., which is like, only a potion of the human era from where I am, I think I'm even three- or four- thousand years after you. Maybe not. I'm not good at history. Or geometry or spelling, for that matter."
Alanna, thinking Tomora was exaggerating, shrugged.
Then Tom asked, "Is my name T-h-o-m-o-r-a or T-o-m-o-r-a?"
"T-o-m-o-r-a."
"That's what I thought."
After reading a little bit Tomora asked, "Why don't I have red hair or purple eyes like you? Or even light brown hair and hazel eyes, like George?"
"Alanna looked up and examined Tom. "I don't know. My father had dark brown hair, and I have slightly curly hair, but yours is a lot curlier than mine. My mother might have had green eyes, I think some one told me one time. but I'm not sure. George, does anyone in your family have Green eyes or curly hair?"
George suddenly looked up from the finance paper he was looking at, realizing someone was talking to him.
"What?"
"Does any one from your side of the family have green eyes or curly hair?"
"If think my pa might've had curly hair. I think that's what mother said when I asked her about him." Then, to himself he said "Goddess, that was so long ago."
"Well there you go, Tomora." Alanna answered. "We can't be certain, but that's as close as we're going to get. What made you ask?"
"Well, I've been wondering for a while, but I asked because I was reading a book about the Gods 'social life', (at last! A fiction book!), and it had a description of the Great Mother Goddess in it, and it sorta matches me, and I just went on that train of thought.
"Oh. You did look sort of did like the Goddess to me when I first saw you. Or you at least reminded me of her. But your, um, not as tall." Alanna ended lamely, not wanting to say not so perfect as to look unreal, because she didn't want another speech about how Tomora *was* perfect. Tom, catching the hint anyway, just laughed. So did George.
"That's cool. I look like a Goddess. Kooly. But I'd prefer purple eyes and/or red hair. But, no offense, I'm just happy I'm not short. I'm tall for my age, and I like it. I always have. I do not wish to be short."
"You're taller than Alanna." George said. Alanna, who had been used to being called short since before she was Tomora's age, said nothing. But she did scowl a bit at both of them, though. Mostly at George. Tom giggled, which was strange, because she never giggled or laughed that much, unlike all her friends. She rarely even smiled. "I can't wait to find that spell." She muttered aloud, thinking to herself. "You know, maybe I should be looking for it now. I really need that spell."
"Why?" This time Alanna bit.
"Because, number one: I need my music. I miss music so much! I have it playing non-stop at home. Numb-"
"We have music here." Alanna defended. "We're not *that* primitive, despite what you think
We could hire some musicians, if you'd like."
"No, you have classical-ish music, which is not real music in my way of seeing, that comes from people you have to hire and then you have to stay in that room in order to hear them. Where I come from we have real music that come from machines that fit in your hand." Tomora, um, explained, somewhat ruddily. "Number two, you barely have any fictional books, much less any good ones. Third, I want soda. So-da. The drinks here stink. As a matter of fact, all the food here is pretty bad."
"Well, if ", her mom started angrily, her short temper kicking in. It surprised Tomora. She knew Alanna had a large yet short temper, that was proved enough in the books, but she never expected Alanna to use it against her.
Tom didn't let it catch her off guard, though. She continued quickly, before her magical mom could finish her thought. "I mean, the food here at Pirate's Swoop is better than some other places I visited in Tortall, but the pans they use can't possibly be sanitary, can they? And I know they can't freeze meat, but do they even keep it refrigerated by keeping it below ground?"
"What?" Alanna asked confused.
"Exactly." At Alanna's arched eyebrow, before stalking off towards the magic section of the library, the girl said. "I want a pizza."
As she looked through the bad selection of magic books, (the library with the best magic books was a floor up, right down the hall from her bedroom.), she added silently to herself the points she hadn't yet gotten to. {And I want toilet paper. And deodorant. And other feminine hygiene products. And soap would be nice. And a freakin' brush! A real one. And my clothes from home, and decent shoes, some video games, and electricity spell to use them, maybe a light bulb for my room, and a flashlight for finding a privy at night. That's another thing, I need some major sanitary spray in here, man. And a warmer jacket, these cloaks don't do much, and ice cream. I live for ice cream. And I need paper and pencils to doodle with, too. I always draw when I'm bored. And-}
"You know, we do have writing utensils." George said. The way he said it sounded as if he was talking to some one else, and had meant for her to over hear, because he hadn't removed his gaze from his papers. "If that's even what you're talking about. I can never tell with you."
She looked around the shelf at him after jumping in surprise, and said, "Yes, but they're not in my room, and I'm too lazy to find them."
"Then why don't you just open a portal and go home, if you're so bored?" Alanna asked. Glancing at Alanna, Tomora remember what an amusing character Alanna had been in the books because of her childish attitude from not being able to grow up like the other girls, and short temper. Now it was just annoying. She always wrote stories about her entering the worlds of her favorite books, and she did write about the unsanitary and lack of technology annoyances, but she never thought that the characters themselves would be annoying. Nothing was ever as one expected to be. Sigh. "Because. I like it here. It's fun." She said, as if stating the obvious in a perfectly reasonable way. She said it in such a way that made one fell an idiot for not understanding something that Tom must have understood so well, or think Tom was the fool, for thinking she understood something she couldn't possibly understand.
She was just considering which she should do first, apologize to Alanna, or ask George exactly when she had moved from thinking to herself to talking out loud. Before she could do either, though, George started laughing at how she could say it was fun there in Tortall, after complaining so much. She felt herself blush for no real reason, she just almost always blushed when people laughed at her. She sighed, but it seemed like a much louder sigh than usual. It took her a moment to realize that it had seemed louder because her mother had sighed at the exact same time. She wondered why Alanna had sighed, but didn't bother wasting time thinking about it. She said, "Don't laugh at me," like she always did when people laughed at her attitude towards things, and went back behind the shelf, looking at her books. She read the titles out loud quietly as she went. "The Sorcery of the Old Ones", hmm, maybe Myles would like this one. Nah, he's probably already read it. ~Magic Connections~? ~Your Gift and You~? Did they really have these type of titles back then/now? That's sad. That's really sad. Hmm, what's this?
She pulled down a spell book she hadn't noticed before, and started reading about traveling through realms at ease. After reading for awhile, she realize that, unfortunately, it was talking about the different realms, or kingdoms, of Tortall, not to other worlds. But it was magic she hadn't heard of before, traveling in an instant to some place else, how to bring things with you to another place, and how to take things home with you. Tomora held it in front of her as she walked back to her chair, next to Alanna's, listening to her and George's conversation. Alanna's had moved behind George's chair, to look over his shoulder at the letter he held. Though they weren't trying to keep Tom from hearing, they weren't talking loud enough for her to hear either. All she could hear was Alanna saying things like, "Oh, good that means that muh pisssire won't be a mig trete anymore." And George responding, "No, but mow the kaslopes mih nak."
Tom deciphered Alanna's to "Oh, good. That means that such-and-such won't be a big threat anymore. She didn't know who 'muh pissire' was, though. The only thing she could think of was 'the bazhir' and she knew that wasn't right, because they were no longer a threat to Tortall. They hadn't been since Alanna's third book. She had no idea what George was talking about. Maybe 'mih nak' was 'attack', or 'might attack'.
Alanna finished her conversation about 'muh pissire' and went back to her chair. "Find anything good?"
"Not really, I'm just reading a chapter about taking things with you when you warp from Kingdom to Kingdom." Realizing what she had just said, Kenret starting talking to herself. "Wait, why wouldn't the theory be the same when traveling world to world? I bet it would be about the same thing. They just don't mention it in here because most people don't know about other worlds. These people writing the book probably don't." Tomora said, somewhat quietly, because she was actually only talking to herself, not her mother.
Alanna, who had long before started drowning out Tom and gone back to her book, no wait, Alanna was looking at some papers much like the ones George had had, looked back up at her daughter as Tomora stood. She watched as Tom closed her eyes and started concentrating, warming up her gift, like she always did before a big spell. "What are you doing?" Alanna asked, alarmed.
"Trying a new spell." Tom answered.
"What kind of spell?"
"A new spell." Tomora answered as George looked up. "The one I've been looking for."
"You found it?"
"Sort of. Not really, I just found a better and safer way of making one up then just randomly making one up. I've got a *theory* now." Tomora replied, emphasizing theory.
"That's not safe, you've got to study the spell more in-depth. Reading a paragraph of a different spell is not enough to qualify you."
"You've made up spells with less knowledge of them than I have of this."
"When?"
"When you combined your broken Lightning with that evil magic sword."
"Who told you that?"
Then George tried to speak up for the first time, but he didn't even get a whole syllable before Tom continued.
"You were in a tent when you were traveling with Coram. He was making a flute out of wood, when you did it. Then, right before you passed out, you said 'No more fireworks today, Coram, promise.' because earlier that day you two had saved some lady from being stoned to death because they townspeople thought she was a witch and was responsible for the bad harvest or some crap like that. Though you really didn't save her, 'cause she died anyway. So you and Coram buried her, and you used your gift to make a headstone come out of the ground that said 'Here Lies A Woman Who Was Killed By The Ones She Loved', because she told you that her grandchildren joined in the stoning, or something, but she never did tell you her name. Actually, that's another spell you knew nothing about. And I'm pretty sure you didn't know anything about transporting babies to other worlds for ten years, now didjya? See? So there."
"Ha-how'd you-"
"Remember Tom's little books, dear?" George asked Alanna, finally getting to talk now that Tom was done and Alanna was confused.
"Oh. Well it doesn't matter. I'm not going to let you do that spell yet. I was a lot older and more experienced than you at that sort of thing. Those weren't the first big spells I had ever done."
"Yeah the first one you ever did was when you saved Price Jonathan from the sweating sickness when you when twelve or some age younger then that. Thirteen at the max. I'm thirteen."
"Yeah, and I knew how to do that spell long before that. Maude the Village Healer taught me that, along with everything about magic I had known up to that point. I was well prepared for it! Not to mention it was a life or death situation that the whole kingdom depended on!"
Seeing her strategy on surprising her mom with her knowledge on Alanna's life starting to fail, Tomora changed tactics. "No, you weren't well prepared. It almost killed you! It almost ripped you apart! You thought it felt like a tiger ripping you apart. But you had to over come it, so that you knew that you really belonged with the boys, training in the palace to become a knight. You had to 'Ride the tiger!' Sure Maude taught the words to you, but she had a very small gift and could never use such a spell herself. She was in no position to teach you of it! She was like that Bazhir girl in the desert, who was still learning to weave herself, but was teaching you." Tomora realized that she was slipping back into her knowledge strategy, and flew back into the embarrass one. " Sure Maude taught you all you had known about magic and about being a woman, but you hadn't known that much, had you? I'm a year older than you were when you used that spell to save Jonathan. I'm only six years younger than you were when you fixed lightning, and that can't be much, because George here is over eight years older than I you. If you can marry some one eight years older than you, than six years don't make a difference. I have just as much experience as you had if not by years, but by actual experiencing the spells. Or have you forgotten that I barely have to blink before casting a spell to dump me in another world, which would have made you black out for three days! I'm a sorceress, remember? I passed the final exams. I'm a better sorceress than your brother was a sorcerer! And he was the best sorcerer there ever was, better than Numair Salaman or Duke Roger!" Her voice made her sound really mad, though she wasn't. She hated that she never had enough sense to stop talking, even if she knew she should.
Though Tom didn't even know why they were arguing, she knew her surprising Alanna by knowing about Lightning, then embarrassing her by how lame that tiger thing was and how Alanna had to find out about being a woman the hard way. And maybe the age difference between Alanna and George, too. Though it never seemed to bother Alanna in the books. It was never even mentioned, so it was probably normal, after all, this was quite a jump into the past, and it didn't matter so much then. Though in did matter with Numair and Daine, so there was -some- lines. They were what, fourteen years apart? Daine was sixteen when she fell off the cliff, right? Anyway, she was sure her emotion-generating comeback would work. She looked at Alanna, and saw the memories flying across her eyes and a faint blushes slash across her checks.
Tomora stared at a considering Alanna, and after a paused, George deemed it safe to speak again.
"Dear, there's no reason for you two to be fighting. Let her try the spell. Unless it messes with the Gods lives, it couldn't possibly harm her, other than wearing her out a bit, right?" George asked, though it barely sounded like a question, more of a this-is-the-way-it-is.
"That's not true, plenty of things could happen." The woman said timidly. "What if she got dumped into a different world, not ours or her own? Just think of what might happen. It's-"
"I think you should let her do it. She seems to know what she's doing."
"But- she's just too young.." Alanna whispered in what had to be the smallest whisper ever. Out of character invaded Tomora's mind again. Her did the same thing when telling her about the closet's origin. Being worried about kids changed people.
George wrapped his arm around Alanna's shoulders, and despite Alanna continued protests told Tom to "Go ahead, child." It sounded very sentimental voice.
Tomora, who had already nearly completed the spell while Alanna and her had quarreled, replied. "I'm not a child." as she released the spell behind her, and fell backwards into it.
To- uh, Kenret stepped out of her attic closet, and made her way to the door. She had stubbed her toe eight times by the time she had gotten to the stairs, because it was hard to see anything, being night-time, and all. There was one window up there, but it wasn't much good at night. We really need to get some lights up her.she thought, as she climbed carefully down the stairs, so as to not bang her shins on them, like she usually did. She passed the final step and placed her foot on the floor, knocking her shin on the bottom step. "Ouch. Almost made it, too." She looked around at the base of the stairs for her slippers. She knew she had left them down her, for when she got back from Tortall. Oh, wait, she left them by the closet door. Oh man! Oh well, she wasn't going back up there without a light.
She went down to the first floor, and went to the door leading to the garage. She unlocked it and went through it. She turned on the small light by it's button on the wall, finding it right by the door as she walked into the garage by the small green light by it. Then, since she now had vague light, closed the door and flipped the switch behind the door, which couldn't be reached from the doorway. After a delay, the big light always took a while, the long fluorescent lights turned on. Then she grabbed a key off the hook next to the switch. She walked over to the door leading outside and unlocked it, then flipped yet another light switch, to turned the out door light on. The she opened the door, walked to the outdoor pantry, opened it, and took two light bulbs from it.
By the time she made her way her way back inside, locking doors and turning off lights as she went, her mom was in the front room, waiting for her. "Oh, sorry." Tomora apologized. "I tried to be quiet." She turned on her light so the she could see her mom better.
Her mom, squinting at the sudden bright light, asked, "what are you doing?"
"Just getting some things to take to Tortall with me. Sorry." Satisfied with Kenret's answer, Mrs. Syphon started on her way back up the stairs, slowly. Ken followed, also going slowly, as to not be impolite by passing her. After they got to the top, her Mom went left to get to her own room, and Kenret went right, happily getting back to her normal fast pace. She grabbed her portable C.D. player, the few CDs that she had, some extra AA batteries, then unplugged her Boom Box, not from the wall, but from the back, so that it ran from batteries. The moment she unplugged it, it blared loudly, and Ken had to turn it down as fast as she could. Then she put it on [tape] because it didn't actually have an [off] button. Then she pulled down her big duffel bag that she used for camp from the top of her closet. She jammed a bunch of her favorite and most comfortable clothes in it, and dragged it and her boom box to her oldest brother's room. He always horded most of the batteries. She took some D batteries from there, not worrying about waking him, because he wasn't home. He was at a friend's. She threw them in with her clothes, a quietly made her way to the bathroom. Realizing she needed to use the bathroom, she shut the door. While she was doing that, she set up her CD player and her favorite CD, so that she could listen to them. When she was done she took toilet paper and everything else she needed, even some sanitary spray. They never bought sanitary spray before, but her mom, frugal shopper as she was, managed to get six cans at seven cents each. Only half of one was in the bathroom, but the other five were under her mom's bed. One half empty one would have to do. As a last thought, she took her make-up and some rags to wash her face with.
She zipped up her duffel, and left all of this at the bottom of the stairs leading to the attic. Bopping her head to her favorite song, which was playing, she walked/danced down stairs, to the living room. She grabbed her 'pet rag' Mr. Ragg, that she had hag since she was seven, from the coffee table as she walked by, then keep walking straight into the kitchen. She sat down and had a bowl of ice cream, then took out three slices of pizza, two with sauce and one with out. She microwaved the two with sauce, and kept the sauce-less for herself. She didn't like sauce. She ate her pizza, still cold, while waiting for the others to finish cooking. This wasn't because she was lazy, it was simply because she preferred left-over pizza cold. But she wasn't the only one in her family. The twins were the only ones who didn't like their left over pizza cold. The microwave beeped, so she yanked out the paper plate with the food on it. She gave in to hunger and got another slice of sauce-less out. She took all of it upstairs, and into the attic. She placed the pizza on the small table that was by the closet door. Also on the table was a small digital clock, so that Kenret could always know what time it was when she came home from Tortall. Felling the chill and seeing the clock reminded her to get her watch and a jacket. She went back to her room to get those, and then pulled them and the rest of her junk up the attic stairs. She arranged, with some difficulty, all her stuff in her arms, so that she could take it with her. She neatly had her bag over her shoulder, her boom box in her left hand, her CD player attached to her jeans, her saucy pizza slices in her right hand, and her slice in her mouth. She, with much difficulty, cast the spell and waddled through it.
Bam! "Ow!" Tomora had managed the turns her wrist, so that her boom box and her pizza didn't fall, but it was to late to catch herself.
"Are you okay?" The voice was both the Baron and the Baroness's. Then, just George said, "Where'd all that come from?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Next time remind me not to fall backwards into a portal. And if I do, remind me to bring a pillow." She said as she put down all her stuff and moaned. She grimaced as Alanna tried to stifle a laugh while reaching down to help her up.
"This stuff is all from my world." Tom explained to George, remembering his quarry. As soon as she stood up, she used her gift to ease her pounding head.
"Would you like help carrying all this to your quarters?" George asked, gesturing to the pile.
"Please." Then she picked up the plate she'd placed on the floor. "Here, try this first."
George dropped the bag he'd been picking up, and Alanna took the paper plate. Alanna held the plate closer to George so that he could have his slice. "What is it?" he inquired as Alanna examine the strange plate. It took Tom a moment to realize she was looking at the plate not the food. Oh yeah, she's never seen a paper plate.
"It's pizza, try it." Tomora was back to eating her piece. The Coopers glanced at each other before taking their slices and biting into them.
"Hmm." Alanna studied the taste, considering the very exotic food.
"Not too bad, kid. But I don't see what's wrong with our food."
"You would if you tried fresh pizza, not stuff that had been reheated. Or a hamburger." Tom replied, careful not to say ' left over', because they may think that leftovers would be food that would be feed to the dogs, as they were here.
After everyone finished his or her own pizza, (even Alanna admitted that it was good), they help Tom carry her belongings to her quarters. Then Tom bid Good Night, and said she was going to go to bed early.
"Okay.Good night." Was her Mom's only reply. Tom sank into her bed, and fell asleep almost instantly. The spell had taken a lot out of her. In fact, she was pretty sure the spell nearly imploded on her. It took all of Tom's energy to keep it together. Alanna had probably been right. But you could never get Tom too admit that, of course.
Author's Note: You don't even have to write a review on weather or not you like. Just a review acknowledging the fact that you read it will work. Please?
____________________________Chapter Two: More Questions__________________________________
Kenret went home and told her parents everything that had happened. And before they could say anything emotional and/or uncomfortable and awkward about her having new parents, she told them of her decision. The decision that, because she definitely didn't want to leave her world, and of course she couldn't pass up one a one of a kind possibility like living in Tortall with her favorite fairytale characters, she was going to trade off. Spend a week on Earth, and a week on, um, well Tammy had never actually said what the name of her world was. Kenret decided to christen it Vhiliinyar, which was 'The World of the People' in a language from some other author's books, ~The Unicorn Girl~ series. Anyway, she was going to spend a week in Tortall, and a week at home, in America. Sometimes it would be longer, sometimes shorter, sometimes longer in one place than the other, ect. She told them that when she was in the real world she would be Kenret, who had a Moma and a Daddy named Salina and Darek; and in Tortall she would be Tomora (weird, huh? That's what she found out Alanna and George had named her. It was so close to Tamora. She guessed that she was named after Thom, Alanna's deceased brother. Maybe that would make her Thomora. She didn't think to ask them how it was spelled. Accept, they already had a son named Thom, named after, uh, Thom. So who knew?) , who had a Mother and Father named Alanna and George. Mayhaps she'd promote them to Mom and Dad in the future, but they could never be her Moma and Daddy. Those were the people who had raised her.
Her parents agreed that the idea was probably best. Or at least the best they could think of. They mostly were just happy that they'd never know she was gone. Well, no more than usual. They also had to decide whether or not to tell her siblings. No on in her family liked repeating themselves, except Billy, who you couldn't get to stop. But they prayed that it was just a faze. Instead, they decided, that if they asked a question liked "Why is Kenret always going in the attic?", then they would give them the smallest possible true answer. Kenret didn't tell any of her friends. She knew what would happen. They'd pretend to believe her but slowly drift away. Whenever Kenret would call them and ask them to come over, they'd make up some excuse like, "I'm sorry Kenret, but I already made plans to hang out with Canvas. Sorry. Maybe some other time." They'd go from seeing her almost everyday, to once a week, to occasional phone calls. She and her friends would always be polite, saying 'hi' whenever they saw each other at the supermarket, or the pizza place, and 'excuse me' when they bump into each other trying to open their lockers between classes. But when they talk to other people in the halls, they'd say, 'Kenret? She's crazy.' No, she wouldn't tell them anything.
Back in Tortall, things went well as well. Alanna asked more questions about what happened in he three years that Kenret-oops, Tomora visited Tortall, but didn't know Alanna was her Mom. Tom told her of the many jobs she had done. She'd been a merchant, a seamstress's apprentice (she wasn't good enough to be her own seamstress, mostly because of her short attention span.), a scholar, she was glad to learn that the alphabet and all that was the same as it was a home, and mathematician, a stable hand, a healer, of course, and many others. She liked having multiple talents. Tomora told Alanna of how part of her Gift was like Daine Sarrassi's wild magic. She could change into animals when she liked, and could talk to them that way, or she could concentrate them to speak to them with out changing. She pouted about it so awhile, well, at least a few moments, because Daine didn't have to concentrate on animals, she could always hear them. A regular Dr. Daine Dolittle.
Tomora even told Alanna of how she trained to be a priestess, but at the last minute backed out. She admitted to that she had never planned to go through with it. The life of a priestess wasn't for her. People telling her what to wear and when, not talking until spoken to, and worst was not being allowed to have her own opinion. She had an opinion about everything, and no one could stop her from sharing it. No matter how hard they tried or how long they pleaded. It took her Mom and Dad a while to learn that lesson, but they learned it well. The reason she went through the training in the first place was to learn of the Tortallian gods and goddesses.
Also, Alanna asked how Tomora knew so much about her. Tom explained about the books as well as she could. Tom didn't think Alanna completely understood, but the Baroness seemed to understand quite a lot of it, surprising Tom. She promised Alanna that she would bring the books with her from Earth, as soon as she learned the proper spell. She knew a spell that would do that, but it wasn't a proper one. It was a variation of the original spell on her closet that she had made up, and it might be dangerous to use continuously.
It was about a month after seeing Alanna for the first time, when the 'Coopers' were in the Library, relaxing for once in a really long time. George Cooper, ex-thief had finally sorted through a loyalty problem they had been having just across the gulf. Tomora had referred to them as the Coopers long before she had ever entered the closet. She talked about books a lot with her friends, and 'The Coopers' was easier to say than 'Alanna, George, and their kids'. Tomora was squatting at a bookshelf, on tiptoe, so that her knee was level with the second to the bottom shelf and she was looking at the third to the bottom shelf. She had one hand holding on to the shelf her knee was against to balance herself, and the other rubbing her neck where it was stiff from tilting her head in order to read the titles of the books and tombs.
Wobbling from only having one hand to keep her up, she stopped rubbing her neck to reach for a promising looking tomb. At least, she thought it was a tomb. Was there a difference between a tomb, book, or volume? Well, there was a small difference between a volume and a book, but. Oh well, there had to be a million different names for 'book'. Probably there wasn't a difference. She started slipping as she pulled it down. Tom tried to quickly put the large book in her lap so she could steady herself, but it was too late. "Falling!" she said right before toppling over, letting go of her find to catch herself. The book, unsupported, fell with the other books that she had been balancing half on her thigh, half on the shelf it was level with. The book she had just pulled down hit her hand, digging it's corner painfully between her finger bones.
"Falling?" Alanna asked as both she and George looked up at the noise.
"Falling." Confirmed Tom simply, rubbing her right hand with her left.
"Why falling?"
"Because I fell. But when I said it, I was falling. So I said 'falling'." She explained sounding completely serious, as if it was supposed to make sense.
"Actually, you *shouted* 'falling'." George said, smiling.
Alanna paused for a moment to think, and to let Tomora finish giving George a dirty look.
"Does everyone from your realm do that?" She asked, finally.
"Nope, just me. Oh, and my friend Lily. She picked up the habit, among other annoying ones, from me."
"Okay then. Just checking." Alanna said as she looked back at her book, refusing to ask.
She had found that her new daughter had a lot of strange habits.
George, however, took the bait. "Why do you do it then?"
"Because. I'm weird. That's what I do. It doesn't have to make sense." She said, somewhat stubbornly.
"Of course not."
Tom stuck her tongue out at him as she gathered up her books and walked over to one of the overstuffed chair next to her new 'Cooper' parents.
"If I knew I was going to have another set of parents to make fun of me, I wouldn't have come to Pirate's Swoop." Then she arched her eyebrows in her stuck-up, I'm better than you pose, her nose in the air. "You simpletons just don't understand my perfection. Your minds can't gasp how perfect I am."
"Perfect, are you?" George asked, again taking the bait and barely managing to laugh out-right.
At least my new parents usually aren't smart enough to just stop talking, like my other ones. It's not nearly as fun that way. "Yes. I'm perfect in every way. Everything I do is for a reason."
"You mean like when you fell?"
Tomora stuck her tongue out at him again, and said. "Yes. Like I said, your small minds cannot even begin to grasp it, but because I did that the whole world was saved. Plus some."
"And how is that?" Alanna, this time.
"Well, uh, I fell because my perfect senses told me that, uh, the world's gravity was messing up and sending the world out of orbit, and my 'push' put it back in it's place, and um. . . Because I said-" she looked at George and corrected herself. "shouted, 'falling', I caused what will become a great wind that will, um, push a ship out of range of a terrible storm that would sink the ship. Yah. Yeah, that's it. You know, that whole, 'if a butterfly flaps it's wings,' theory?" She ignored both of them rolling their eyes, and started picking up her books.
"Watch out where you aim that mouth of yours," George said, "you might hurt some one with it."
"Okay, how 'bout this? I'm perfect because I say so, and everything I say is right, because I'm perfect, and a perfect person is never wrong" She said, happy to get a chance to say it, for it was one of her favorite sayings that she had made. "When I want your opinion, I'll give it to you." She told them. That was her other favorite saying, even though she hadn't thought it up by herself. She got it from a T-shirt.
"Yes, of course, dear" Alanna said, patronizing. Then, gesturing toward the books Tom was flipping through, "What are you looking for?"
"Nothing, really. Mostly just a good fiction book. I hate non-fiction books. They're boring." She looked up at Alanna's face and saw that she needed to clarify. "Story books. I don't like all these books about real stuff. History, Geometry, yada, yada, yada. Blah, blah, blah. I don't want to read about plants... Or herbs... or magic... or ~the History of Wagons~ she said, reading off the last one off of a book cover. "Pah. Pah, I say, pah!"
"Aren't you a little old to read story books? And you're a scholar, aren't you? Wouldn't you like to read about real things?" The Lioness asked.
Tomora shrugged. "I'm only a scholar because I needed money, and a job, and a place to be, not because I had any interest in it. But it's easy, *any*body from where I come from could be a scholar here. All of, well, most of America's four- or five-year-olds can read and write. Not necessarily well, but."
"Really? That young? Well, I suppose it's possible. I learned when I was six- almost seven actually."
"Yeah, kids learn better and quicker when they're young. It's also better to try to teach kids new languages when they're young." Said Tom, returning to her books. "Do you know any other languages?"
"No. I said it was better, not that people always did it. Some do, but most people are to lazy to try it."
"I glad then. That you can read, I mean. I was worried that whatever world I put you in might not be quite up to date." The Lioness responded, also going back to her reading after a sip of her fruit juice.
"You didn't need to worry about that. I'm like, two millennia ahead of you." Tomora said, not lifting her eyes. "It's like, 340 Human Era here, isn't it? Well, it was during ~Squire~."
"349 H.E., actually, why?" [AN: I don't kow if this is true.]
"Well, I'm in year 2000 A.D., which is like, only a potion of the human era from where I am, I think I'm even three- or four- thousand years after you. Maybe not. I'm not good at history. Or geometry or spelling, for that matter."
Alanna, thinking Tomora was exaggerating, shrugged.
Then Tom asked, "Is my name T-h-o-m-o-r-a or T-o-m-o-r-a?"
"T-o-m-o-r-a."
"That's what I thought."
After reading a little bit Tomora asked, "Why don't I have red hair or purple eyes like you? Or even light brown hair and hazel eyes, like George?"
"Alanna looked up and examined Tom. "I don't know. My father had dark brown hair, and I have slightly curly hair, but yours is a lot curlier than mine. My mother might have had green eyes, I think some one told me one time. but I'm not sure. George, does anyone in your family have Green eyes or curly hair?"
George suddenly looked up from the finance paper he was looking at, realizing someone was talking to him.
"What?"
"Does any one from your side of the family have green eyes or curly hair?"
"If think my pa might've had curly hair. I think that's what mother said when I asked her about him." Then, to himself he said "Goddess, that was so long ago."
"Well there you go, Tomora." Alanna answered. "We can't be certain, but that's as close as we're going to get. What made you ask?"
"Well, I've been wondering for a while, but I asked because I was reading a book about the Gods 'social life', (at last! A fiction book!), and it had a description of the Great Mother Goddess in it, and it sorta matches me, and I just went on that train of thought.
"Oh. You did look sort of did like the Goddess to me when I first saw you. Or you at least reminded me of her. But your, um, not as tall." Alanna ended lamely, not wanting to say not so perfect as to look unreal, because she didn't want another speech about how Tomora *was* perfect. Tom, catching the hint anyway, just laughed. So did George.
"That's cool. I look like a Goddess. Kooly. But I'd prefer purple eyes and/or red hair. But, no offense, I'm just happy I'm not short. I'm tall for my age, and I like it. I always have. I do not wish to be short."
"You're taller than Alanna." George said. Alanna, who had been used to being called short since before she was Tomora's age, said nothing. But she did scowl a bit at both of them, though. Mostly at George. Tom giggled, which was strange, because she never giggled or laughed that much, unlike all her friends. She rarely even smiled. "I can't wait to find that spell." She muttered aloud, thinking to herself. "You know, maybe I should be looking for it now. I really need that spell."
"Why?" This time Alanna bit.
"Because, number one: I need my music. I miss music so much! I have it playing non-stop at home. Numb-"
"We have music here." Alanna defended. "We're not *that* primitive, despite what you think
We could hire some musicians, if you'd like."
"No, you have classical-ish music, which is not real music in my way of seeing, that comes from people you have to hire and then you have to stay in that room in order to hear them. Where I come from we have real music that come from machines that fit in your hand." Tomora, um, explained, somewhat ruddily. "Number two, you barely have any fictional books, much less any good ones. Third, I want soda. So-da. The drinks here stink. As a matter of fact, all the food here is pretty bad."
"Well, if ", her mom started angrily, her short temper kicking in. It surprised Tomora. She knew Alanna had a large yet short temper, that was proved enough in the books, but she never expected Alanna to use it against her.
Tom didn't let it catch her off guard, though. She continued quickly, before her magical mom could finish her thought. "I mean, the food here at Pirate's Swoop is better than some other places I visited in Tortall, but the pans they use can't possibly be sanitary, can they? And I know they can't freeze meat, but do they even keep it refrigerated by keeping it below ground?"
"What?" Alanna asked confused.
"Exactly." At Alanna's arched eyebrow, before stalking off towards the magic section of the library, the girl said. "I want a pizza."
As she looked through the bad selection of magic books, (the library with the best magic books was a floor up, right down the hall from her bedroom.), she added silently to herself the points she hadn't yet gotten to. {And I want toilet paper. And deodorant. And other feminine hygiene products. And soap would be nice. And a freakin' brush! A real one. And my clothes from home, and decent shoes, some video games, and electricity spell to use them, maybe a light bulb for my room, and a flashlight for finding a privy at night. That's another thing, I need some major sanitary spray in here, man. And a warmer jacket, these cloaks don't do much, and ice cream. I live for ice cream. And I need paper and pencils to doodle with, too. I always draw when I'm bored. And-}
"You know, we do have writing utensils." George said. The way he said it sounded as if he was talking to some one else, and had meant for her to over hear, because he hadn't removed his gaze from his papers. "If that's even what you're talking about. I can never tell with you."
She looked around the shelf at him after jumping in surprise, and said, "Yes, but they're not in my room, and I'm too lazy to find them."
"Then why don't you just open a portal and go home, if you're so bored?" Alanna asked. Glancing at Alanna, Tomora remember what an amusing character Alanna had been in the books because of her childish attitude from not being able to grow up like the other girls, and short temper. Now it was just annoying. She always wrote stories about her entering the worlds of her favorite books, and she did write about the unsanitary and lack of technology annoyances, but she never thought that the characters themselves would be annoying. Nothing was ever as one expected to be. Sigh. "Because. I like it here. It's fun." She said, as if stating the obvious in a perfectly reasonable way. She said it in such a way that made one fell an idiot for not understanding something that Tom must have understood so well, or think Tom was the fool, for thinking she understood something she couldn't possibly understand.
She was just considering which she should do first, apologize to Alanna, or ask George exactly when she had moved from thinking to herself to talking out loud. Before she could do either, though, George started laughing at how she could say it was fun there in Tortall, after complaining so much. She felt herself blush for no real reason, she just almost always blushed when people laughed at her. She sighed, but it seemed like a much louder sigh than usual. It took her a moment to realize that it had seemed louder because her mother had sighed at the exact same time. She wondered why Alanna had sighed, but didn't bother wasting time thinking about it. She said, "Don't laugh at me," like she always did when people laughed at her attitude towards things, and went back behind the shelf, looking at her books. She read the titles out loud quietly as she went. "The Sorcery of the Old Ones", hmm, maybe Myles would like this one. Nah, he's probably already read it. ~Magic Connections~? ~Your Gift and You~? Did they really have these type of titles back then/now? That's sad. That's really sad. Hmm, what's this?
She pulled down a spell book she hadn't noticed before, and started reading about traveling through realms at ease. After reading for awhile, she realize that, unfortunately, it was talking about the different realms, or kingdoms, of Tortall, not to other worlds. But it was magic she hadn't heard of before, traveling in an instant to some place else, how to bring things with you to another place, and how to take things home with you. Tomora held it in front of her as she walked back to her chair, next to Alanna's, listening to her and George's conversation. Alanna's had moved behind George's chair, to look over his shoulder at the letter he held. Though they weren't trying to keep Tom from hearing, they weren't talking loud enough for her to hear either. All she could hear was Alanna saying things like, "Oh, good that means that muh pisssire won't be a mig trete anymore." And George responding, "No, but mow the kaslopes mih nak."
Tom deciphered Alanna's to "Oh, good. That means that such-and-such won't be a big threat anymore. She didn't know who 'muh pissire' was, though. The only thing she could think of was 'the bazhir' and she knew that wasn't right, because they were no longer a threat to Tortall. They hadn't been since Alanna's third book. She had no idea what George was talking about. Maybe 'mih nak' was 'attack', or 'might attack'.
Alanna finished her conversation about 'muh pissire' and went back to her chair. "Find anything good?"
"Not really, I'm just reading a chapter about taking things with you when you warp from Kingdom to Kingdom." Realizing what she had just said, Kenret starting talking to herself. "Wait, why wouldn't the theory be the same when traveling world to world? I bet it would be about the same thing. They just don't mention it in here because most people don't know about other worlds. These people writing the book probably don't." Tomora said, somewhat quietly, because she was actually only talking to herself, not her mother.
Alanna, who had long before started drowning out Tom and gone back to her book, no wait, Alanna was looking at some papers much like the ones George had had, looked back up at her daughter as Tomora stood. She watched as Tom closed her eyes and started concentrating, warming up her gift, like she always did before a big spell. "What are you doing?" Alanna asked, alarmed.
"Trying a new spell." Tom answered.
"What kind of spell?"
"A new spell." Tomora answered as George looked up. "The one I've been looking for."
"You found it?"
"Sort of. Not really, I just found a better and safer way of making one up then just randomly making one up. I've got a *theory* now." Tomora replied, emphasizing theory.
"That's not safe, you've got to study the spell more in-depth. Reading a paragraph of a different spell is not enough to qualify you."
"You've made up spells with less knowledge of them than I have of this."
"When?"
"When you combined your broken Lightning with that evil magic sword."
"Who told you that?"
Then George tried to speak up for the first time, but he didn't even get a whole syllable before Tom continued.
"You were in a tent when you were traveling with Coram. He was making a flute out of wood, when you did it. Then, right before you passed out, you said 'No more fireworks today, Coram, promise.' because earlier that day you two had saved some lady from being stoned to death because they townspeople thought she was a witch and was responsible for the bad harvest or some crap like that. Though you really didn't save her, 'cause she died anyway. So you and Coram buried her, and you used your gift to make a headstone come out of the ground that said 'Here Lies A Woman Who Was Killed By The Ones She Loved', because she told you that her grandchildren joined in the stoning, or something, but she never did tell you her name. Actually, that's another spell you knew nothing about. And I'm pretty sure you didn't know anything about transporting babies to other worlds for ten years, now didjya? See? So there."
"Ha-how'd you-"
"Remember Tom's little books, dear?" George asked Alanna, finally getting to talk now that Tom was done and Alanna was confused.
"Oh. Well it doesn't matter. I'm not going to let you do that spell yet. I was a lot older and more experienced than you at that sort of thing. Those weren't the first big spells I had ever done."
"Yeah the first one you ever did was when you saved Price Jonathan from the sweating sickness when you when twelve or some age younger then that. Thirteen at the max. I'm thirteen."
"Yeah, and I knew how to do that spell long before that. Maude the Village Healer taught me that, along with everything about magic I had known up to that point. I was well prepared for it! Not to mention it was a life or death situation that the whole kingdom depended on!"
Seeing her strategy on surprising her mom with her knowledge on Alanna's life starting to fail, Tomora changed tactics. "No, you weren't well prepared. It almost killed you! It almost ripped you apart! You thought it felt like a tiger ripping you apart. But you had to over come it, so that you knew that you really belonged with the boys, training in the palace to become a knight. You had to 'Ride the tiger!' Sure Maude taught the words to you, but she had a very small gift and could never use such a spell herself. She was in no position to teach you of it! She was like that Bazhir girl in the desert, who was still learning to weave herself, but was teaching you." Tomora realized that she was slipping back into her knowledge strategy, and flew back into the embarrass one. " Sure Maude taught you all you had known about magic and about being a woman, but you hadn't known that much, had you? I'm a year older than you were when you used that spell to save Jonathan. I'm only six years younger than you were when you fixed lightning, and that can't be much, because George here is over eight years older than I you. If you can marry some one eight years older than you, than six years don't make a difference. I have just as much experience as you had if not by years, but by actual experiencing the spells. Or have you forgotten that I barely have to blink before casting a spell to dump me in another world, which would have made you black out for three days! I'm a sorceress, remember? I passed the final exams. I'm a better sorceress than your brother was a sorcerer! And he was the best sorcerer there ever was, better than Numair Salaman or Duke Roger!" Her voice made her sound really mad, though she wasn't. She hated that she never had enough sense to stop talking, even if she knew she should.
Though Tom didn't even know why they were arguing, she knew her surprising Alanna by knowing about Lightning, then embarrassing her by how lame that tiger thing was and how Alanna had to find out about being a woman the hard way. And maybe the age difference between Alanna and George, too. Though it never seemed to bother Alanna in the books. It was never even mentioned, so it was probably normal, after all, this was quite a jump into the past, and it didn't matter so much then. Though in did matter with Numair and Daine, so there was -some- lines. They were what, fourteen years apart? Daine was sixteen when she fell off the cliff, right? Anyway, she was sure her emotion-generating comeback would work. She looked at Alanna, and saw the memories flying across her eyes and a faint blushes slash across her checks.
Tomora stared at a considering Alanna, and after a paused, George deemed it safe to speak again.
"Dear, there's no reason for you two to be fighting. Let her try the spell. Unless it messes with the Gods lives, it couldn't possibly harm her, other than wearing her out a bit, right?" George asked, though it barely sounded like a question, more of a this-is-the-way-it-is.
"That's not true, plenty of things could happen." The woman said timidly. "What if she got dumped into a different world, not ours or her own? Just think of what might happen. It's-"
"I think you should let her do it. She seems to know what she's doing."
"But- she's just too young.." Alanna whispered in what had to be the smallest whisper ever. Out of character invaded Tomora's mind again. Her did the same thing when telling her about the closet's origin. Being worried about kids changed people.
George wrapped his arm around Alanna's shoulders, and despite Alanna continued protests told Tom to "Go ahead, child." It sounded very sentimental voice.
Tomora, who had already nearly completed the spell while Alanna and her had quarreled, replied. "I'm not a child." as she released the spell behind her, and fell backwards into it.
To- uh, Kenret stepped out of her attic closet, and made her way to the door. She had stubbed her toe eight times by the time she had gotten to the stairs, because it was hard to see anything, being night-time, and all. There was one window up there, but it wasn't much good at night. We really need to get some lights up her.she thought, as she climbed carefully down the stairs, so as to not bang her shins on them, like she usually did. She passed the final step and placed her foot on the floor, knocking her shin on the bottom step. "Ouch. Almost made it, too." She looked around at the base of the stairs for her slippers. She knew she had left them down her, for when she got back from Tortall. Oh, wait, she left them by the closet door. Oh man! Oh well, she wasn't going back up there without a light.
She went down to the first floor, and went to the door leading to the garage. She unlocked it and went through it. She turned on the small light by it's button on the wall, finding it right by the door as she walked into the garage by the small green light by it. Then, since she now had vague light, closed the door and flipped the switch behind the door, which couldn't be reached from the doorway. After a delay, the big light always took a while, the long fluorescent lights turned on. Then she grabbed a key off the hook next to the switch. She walked over to the door leading outside and unlocked it, then flipped yet another light switch, to turned the out door light on. The she opened the door, walked to the outdoor pantry, opened it, and took two light bulbs from it.
By the time she made her way her way back inside, locking doors and turning off lights as she went, her mom was in the front room, waiting for her. "Oh, sorry." Tomora apologized. "I tried to be quiet." She turned on her light so the she could see her mom better.
Her mom, squinting at the sudden bright light, asked, "what are you doing?"
"Just getting some things to take to Tortall with me. Sorry." Satisfied with Kenret's answer, Mrs. Syphon started on her way back up the stairs, slowly. Ken followed, also going slowly, as to not be impolite by passing her. After they got to the top, her Mom went left to get to her own room, and Kenret went right, happily getting back to her normal fast pace. She grabbed her portable C.D. player, the few CDs that she had, some extra AA batteries, then unplugged her Boom Box, not from the wall, but from the back, so that it ran from batteries. The moment she unplugged it, it blared loudly, and Ken had to turn it down as fast as she could. Then she put it on [tape] because it didn't actually have an [off] button. Then she pulled down her big duffel bag that she used for camp from the top of her closet. She jammed a bunch of her favorite and most comfortable clothes in it, and dragged it and her boom box to her oldest brother's room. He always horded most of the batteries. She took some D batteries from there, not worrying about waking him, because he wasn't home. He was at a friend's. She threw them in with her clothes, a quietly made her way to the bathroom. Realizing she needed to use the bathroom, she shut the door. While she was doing that, she set up her CD player and her favorite CD, so that she could listen to them. When she was done she took toilet paper and everything else she needed, even some sanitary spray. They never bought sanitary spray before, but her mom, frugal shopper as she was, managed to get six cans at seven cents each. Only half of one was in the bathroom, but the other five were under her mom's bed. One half empty one would have to do. As a last thought, she took her make-up and some rags to wash her face with.
She zipped up her duffel, and left all of this at the bottom of the stairs leading to the attic. Bopping her head to her favorite song, which was playing, she walked/danced down stairs, to the living room. She grabbed her 'pet rag' Mr. Ragg, that she had hag since she was seven, from the coffee table as she walked by, then keep walking straight into the kitchen. She sat down and had a bowl of ice cream, then took out three slices of pizza, two with sauce and one with out. She microwaved the two with sauce, and kept the sauce-less for herself. She didn't like sauce. She ate her pizza, still cold, while waiting for the others to finish cooking. This wasn't because she was lazy, it was simply because she preferred left-over pizza cold. But she wasn't the only one in her family. The twins were the only ones who didn't like their left over pizza cold. The microwave beeped, so she yanked out the paper plate with the food on it. She gave in to hunger and got another slice of sauce-less out. She took all of it upstairs, and into the attic. She placed the pizza on the small table that was by the closet door. Also on the table was a small digital clock, so that Kenret could always know what time it was when she came home from Tortall. Felling the chill and seeing the clock reminded her to get her watch and a jacket. She went back to her room to get those, and then pulled them and the rest of her junk up the attic stairs. She arranged, with some difficulty, all her stuff in her arms, so that she could take it with her. She neatly had her bag over her shoulder, her boom box in her left hand, her CD player attached to her jeans, her saucy pizza slices in her right hand, and her slice in her mouth. She, with much difficulty, cast the spell and waddled through it.
Bam! "Ow!" Tomora had managed the turns her wrist, so that her boom box and her pizza didn't fall, but it was to late to catch herself.
"Are you okay?" The voice was both the Baron and the Baroness's. Then, just George said, "Where'd all that come from?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Next time remind me not to fall backwards into a portal. And if I do, remind me to bring a pillow." She said as she put down all her stuff and moaned. She grimaced as Alanna tried to stifle a laugh while reaching down to help her up.
"This stuff is all from my world." Tom explained to George, remembering his quarry. As soon as she stood up, she used her gift to ease her pounding head.
"Would you like help carrying all this to your quarters?" George asked, gesturing to the pile.
"Please." Then she picked up the plate she'd placed on the floor. "Here, try this first."
George dropped the bag he'd been picking up, and Alanna took the paper plate. Alanna held the plate closer to George so that he could have his slice. "What is it?" he inquired as Alanna examine the strange plate. It took Tom a moment to realize she was looking at the plate not the food. Oh yeah, she's never seen a paper plate.
"It's pizza, try it." Tomora was back to eating her piece. The Coopers glanced at each other before taking their slices and biting into them.
"Hmm." Alanna studied the taste, considering the very exotic food.
"Not too bad, kid. But I don't see what's wrong with our food."
"You would if you tried fresh pizza, not stuff that had been reheated. Or a hamburger." Tom replied, careful not to say ' left over', because they may think that leftovers would be food that would be feed to the dogs, as they were here.
After everyone finished his or her own pizza, (even Alanna admitted that it was good), they help Tom carry her belongings to her quarters. Then Tom bid Good Night, and said she was going to go to bed early.
"Okay.Good night." Was her Mom's only reply. Tom sank into her bed, and fell asleep almost instantly. The spell had taken a lot out of her. In fact, she was pretty sure the spell nearly imploded on her. It took all of Tom's energy to keep it together. Alanna had probably been right. But you could never get Tom too admit that, of course.
Author's Note: You don't even have to write a review on weather or not you like. Just a review acknowledging the fact that you read it will work. Please?