Disclaimer: All characters except Krissy belong to
TP.
A/N: Hi everyone! I'm sorry this chapter took so long
to get up but my house got hit by lightening and it fried my modem. Honestly,
it's the truth I swear it. Anyway thanx to Sulia who was a big help to me with
this chapter. You're the best! I hope you like this so I'll leave you to get on
with it.
Chapter 4: What have you done?
Krissy was ecstatic, finally something she could do and they couldn't! * Wait, that's not fair. They don't act like they know it all. I just have to learn not to be such a jealous cow. * she thought * Besides I kinda like 'em. * Kel was cool, though they really needed to work on her fashion sense. She smiled slightly as she remembered Kel's face when Krissy had shown Kel her 'wardrobe'. Then again Krissy had looked the same at the sight of the ball dresses. * My God but they were awful, all ruffles and bows and well… urgh! * A soft look passed over Krissy's face for a moment as she remembered * Jordan had always used to tease her about… NO! * Krissy cut herself off angrily. She wasn't going to think about Jordan! She wasn't going to think of him back home wondering where she was, tearing his hair out, sending out people to search for her even though he knew it wasn't safe, * No! You don't have the time to think about this stuff Kris. Remember you have to be strong, there's no time for weakness in this life, there's no time for fun either. *
She
arrived at her room quickly, and shaking her head to clear it of the tears she
could feel forming behind her eyelids, she entered, grabbed her duffle and
started back to the library. *Stop being depressing. Think about teaching
Tortallians music, it's gonna be so funny it might actually keep me sane. *
Meanwhile Kel was thinking of Krissy. It was weird
the way she hated being stared at, though Kel thought she could understand.
"What in Mithros' name is a walkman?" Merric said.
"I've got it!" Cleon yelled, jumping up and down
excitedly " It's a man who walks!"
Neal gave
a long-suffering sigh and quietly inquired " And where exactly is the 'man' in
the walkman?"
"Oh, yeah." Cleon replied.
Krissy returned just then breaking up the
conversation.
"Oh good you're still here. So who wants to go
first?"
Nobody spoke.
"Um, Kris, what is a walkman?"
Krissy blinked.
" Oh yeah, I forgot you didn't know. Well okay,
gather round and I'll show you how it works. We can all listen anyway 'cause I
brought my plug in speakers to use with Jordan and the guys."
Faleron who was watching Krissy closest was the
only one who noticed the shadow of pain that passed over her face as she
mentioned Jordan * Did she care for him?* he wondered bitterly, his thoughts
tinged with jealousy * Did she love
him?*
Krissy fiddled with some, what looked like black pieces of string before she turned and said, "This is what a walkman does." Suddenly the library was filled with music. If you could call it that by Tortallian standards.
The words
" I want you all tattooed,
Complicated,
x-rated,
I
want you bad, bad, bad, bad, bad." blasted out.
It made the walls vibrate and the Tortallians cover their ears. Krissy just grinned.
"So whatdaya think? It's offspring, off their new
album Conspiracy of One. This one is my fav. Well along with Papa Roach, I'll
put that on next. Why are you wincing?"
"Don't you think it's a little um, loud?" Faleron
asked.
" What do you mean a little? It's nearly deafening
me!" Cleon responded.
"Take a chill pill Cleon," Krissy said "I'll turn
it down."
"Good."
"How did you do that?" Neal asked.
"Easy. Look I'll show you."
Krissy then launched into a complex explanation
about all the different buttons, how to put CD's in and the headphones and
speakers. Then she stood back and watched carefully as they experimented with
her most prized possession. They discovered their favourite songs. Neal liked
'Teenage Dirtbag', Faleron loved 'Last Resort' like Kris, Kel preferred the 1st
one – 'I want you bad ' and on it went until Yancen of Irenhoa came in looking
for a book on 'Scanran battle tactics.'
This
reminded everyone of their homework and everyone went back to studying except
Cleon, who as he was a squire and only here with Inness for a couple more days,
carried on listening to the Wheatus album on the headphones.
Faleron
was just explaining the latest Tortallian law " Now you see, Jon decided, well
actually it was Thayet but anyway, that everyone should have the chance to go
to school so they made it the law that you go."
"That's the same in my world. Of course nobody
pays much attention to it. We just skip school and go round the tennis courts
and over the fence…" but Fal never got to hear what you did next because at
that point Numair burst in saying
" I did it! It's simple really; now that I think
about it I don't know why I didn't see it before! You just reverse the
polarities of the inter-dimensional quasi-semantic polars so that they match up
with the portal's time index! Demanith the Bound-walker did something similar
with his portal to the Realm of the Gods. It's quite interesting actually, you
see Demanith used an isometric…"
Daine who was leaning against the doorframe
watching Numair broke in at this point to say smiling
" Numair, although I love you, will you please
shut up. Nobody has a clue what you're on about including me & they don't
want to hear about Demanith the Bound-walker or whoever else is on the list
you're about to start."
Neal looked about to interrupt.
" You can just be quiet too Mr. I understand and
I'm about to start a list of my own." Kel said.
Numair was looking rather startled "Oh," he said,
"Well in that case, um I guess you better pack your bag, Krissy."
"Why? Where are you taking me?" Kris asked
suspiciously.
"Home of course. I just told you that."
"Yes!" Krissy yelled, punching the air in delight.
She grabbed her bag off the table and snatched her walkman out of Cleon's limp
grasp. Then she yelled
"I'm ready. Lets do this. See ya around maybe guys
– I'll miss ya."
A black glow appeared round Numair's fingers.
"Goodbye Krissy." He said.
"Oh no you don't!" boomed a voice from the behind
them. It hurt their ears the same way the golden light that streamed from the
armoured man hurt their eyes.
"And who the hell are you?" Krissy demanded, her
eyes shining as brightly as the man, with the anger of someone so close to
their heart's desire only to have it snatched away. And something else, a kind
of painful desperation, a need so fierce that it can't be denied. " I need
to go home!" * Oh please, don't do this, it's killing me!*
"I'm Mithros. And you're not going home yet. WE
brought you here and WE will decide when you leave. There are important
lessons for you to learn."
"No! I have to go home! I have to! They'll
die! I won't stand by and let that happen! I won't! Send me BACK! SEND ME
BACK!" Krissy exploded. She was screaming at the top of her voice, attracting
people who wanted to know what was happening. Krissy seemed oblivious to the
stares that normally would of drove her crazy. She was so caught up in her pain
that she didn't even notice the tears streaming down her cheeks. * I've lived
my whole life being the strong one, the one who's taken charge and made
everything right.* she thought desperately * Even when doing that hurt me. But how can I do that when I'm not
there. Even here, I was the strong one; I never let it show how much it hurt. I
know that I'm making a fool of myself but it's tearing me apart. Cause if I'm
not the one who's so strong, the one who always gets her own way, the one who
solves everyone else problems, who am I? And how can I help them, when I
can't even help myself?*
Kel stared
on in amazement at the state of Krissy, someone who was normally so cool about
things.
Mithros looked at Krissy and almost as if he'd
heard her desperate thoughts he sighed.
" Very well. It will not be so easy there, but the
lessons must still be learned. So I will send the teachers with you. Now."
The brilliant golden light surrounded Krissy and
then Kel and some of the other pages. It seemed to glow even brighter for a
second and then they were gone. Daine turned to Mithros.
"What have you done?"
A/N: What did ya think? I've been really nervous
about this so please review. As always no flames please. Byyyyye!