~*~
"What was that all about? And you have leaves in your hair."
"I know." Nita sighed. "Mom was coming in to tell me good night. I think I'm free until we're done. Which—" Nita leaned forward to deter the trees from hearing her comments, "I think I've finally got that pig-headed trio to strike a deal. I still have to seal it, I was interrupted but..." She grinned.
"Me, too!" Kit joined in with his own mad grin, "Frax has let go of Gwen's roots, but they're still arguing a bit. But the progress! I can't believe we almost finished this."
"Don't count your acorns before they're cracked." Nita said, keeping a straight face as she adapted the cliche for the situation.
Kit stared at her then groaned. "That was bad."
"I know. Now, let's finish." Kit nodded, and Nita walked back to Yunna, Infriw, and Seatyn, slipping back into the rhythm.
***
"Sorry about that, guys. Everyone still in agreement?" Without waiting for answer, Nita continued, "Great then, drop the leaves."
As all three trees prepared to drop one green leaf, Nita began spelling the trees' agreement in Speech.
When she finished, Nita caught each fluttering symbol of promise easily. She grasped each leaf, and deftly twisted the stems together. At the point where the three stems met, Nita bound them together with a tiny wizard's knot. Etched in the parenchyma¹ were words in Speech, detailing what each tree agreed to do and what they would receive in turn. The leaf trio glowed, then split into three parts. These new leaves were different- a mixture of each kind of leaf that formed it. One new leaf drifted up and attached to each one of the tree that had made the agreement.
Nita grinned in relief once this was finished- she'd accomplished her goal. She turned to the trees, and said in a cheerful and relieved voice,
"Goodbye! No offense, but if I ever see you again, it will be too soon. Don't disappoint me," Nita said, knowing that the only reason she would be in the grove again would be if the three broke their pact— and that would have several unpleasant consequences.
***
Nita's mother never mentioned the leaf, though Dairine later told her that she had overheard their parents talking about it.
"You lucky dog." Dairine had said. "I don't know why they didn't ground you longer." Nita didn't know either, but she wasn't about to press the issue.
Nita was extremely tired when she dragged herself out of bed at eight-thirty, after seven hours of sleep added to use of wizardry. Louis was coming over at nine to pick her up for her mystery date that had something to do with heights.
She was trying to decide what to wear, a decision that would have been better to make when she had more than thirty minutes. She didn't want to wear something too nice because she wasn't sure what they were going to be doing. But she didn't want to look trashy.
She settled on a pair of sturdy, but decent jeans and a tee shirt that looked okay, but didn't really matter if it got messed up. Fifteen minutes of her "getting ready" time wasted.
She quickly brushed her teeth and hair, pulling it into the ever-versatile ponytail. She ran downstairs to grab a bowl of cereal before she had to leave in ten minutes.
No one was downstairs when Nita arrived in the kitchen. A note on the refrigerator announced that her parents had gone to the flower shop.
Nita grabbed the Honey Nut Cheerios from the cabinet, and poured milk over them.
She had almost finished when there came a knock at the door. Bowl in hand, Nita answered the door to Louis.
"Good morning!" she said, smiling.
"Good morning yourself. Sleep good?"
"I slept," Nita said, gesturing for him to follow her to kitchen so that she could put her bowl in the sink. "Do I need to bring anything today?"
"Only your lovely self." Nita blushed at his words, still not used to all the compliments. "Ready?"
"Yup," Nita answered, and they left the house.
***
After a twenty minute bus ride, Nita and Louis arrived at a large building that said "George's High Adventure Center" in large letters across the front.
"Where are we?" Nita asked..
"Come on," Louis dragged her inside, rather than answering.
Louis paid at the front, and brought two harnesses to Nita. "I came here the first time two weeks ago and fell in love with rock climbing. Well, wall climbing. there's no real rocks around here, but still, it's a lot of fun!"
Rock climbing was one of those things Nita had always wanted to try, but it wasn't a pressing subject, and she had never tried. But now was her chance.
"Wow!" Nita said, "Great surprise!"
"Come on. Here, the harness goes like this." Louis helped her into it and walked her over to one of the smaller looking climbing walls. "They have an automatic ballet² system. A ballet is someone who counterweights you, so that you don't fall down if you slip, or need to pause. The automatic doesn't catch you like a real ballet would, but lets you down steadily and slowly. There's an attendant, though, that will help you if you need it."
Through the next two hours, Nita learned the basics of climbing, such as how to use your arms for balance only, and your legs to push yourself up, and how to rappel. Louis climbed with her, though with a bit more ease. Nita caught on quickly, however, and by the time they took a break for lunch, Nita was keeping up with him, at least on the easy walls they had climbed so far.
At noon, they turned in their harnesses, got their hands stamped for reentry, and walked to a small pizzeria close to George's.
"Having fun?" Louis asked with a smile, over steamy, cheesy, slices.
"Ish fuhntashtif," she swallowed and laughed. "I mean, it's fantastic. This is incredible. I don't know if my muscles will agree tomorrow-" Nita pause to flex the slightly aching muscles in her arms and legs that she rarely used, "But for now, I'm having a blast."
"I'm glad," Louis squeezed her head, and Nita smiled. "After lunch, let's try some of the more challenging ones; they have smaller grips and handholds, and some bend in and out."
"Cool." Nita was ready for the challenge.
***
The afternoon was exhilarating, and by the time Louis and Nita left at 4:30 to assure that Nita would be home on time, if not early enough to earn brownie points, Nita was completely hooked on climbing.
"I told you it was addictive," Louis laughed. He told her about a month-pass that could be purchased for twenty dollars- a good investment since entry fee was four dollars without a pass. Nita made the decision to pay a pass. Louis already had one.
***
Happy to be ungrounded and not in the middle of a wizardry project, Nita greatly enjoyed the next couple weeks. She invested in a rock climbing pass, as well as a bus pass, and she and Louis made great use out of the passes. Her parents were skeptical at first, when Nita brought them the waver that had to be signed before she could buy her pass, but Nita convinced them that climbing was a lot safer than wizardry.
Louis and Nita found out about a weekend rock climbing/camping trip for beginner rock climbers the third week in September. Trips were taken every week for more advanced climbers, but the beginners trip wasn't as common. Louis and Nita grabbed the last two spots after getting parental consent and the money for the weekend. This time, Nita's parents were more concerned about her spending an entire weekend with Louis, but they we assured that the male and female members of the trip would be strictly separated and supervised at night.
Nita met the girl she would be sharing a tent with at George's. Her name was Chelsea, and she seemed to be bouncy and easygoing. She'd been climbing only a couple weeks, too, but had fallen in love with it like Nita had.
The trip would leave on a Friday afternoon at 4:00 and return Sunday afternoon. There was no school due to a teacher conference on the Friday the trip was scheduled, so luckily, getting to George's on time wouldn't be a problem. Nita was excited.
It never occurred to her she'd be unable to go.
~*~
What a lovely note to end this chapter on! And I know I led all of you on with the leaf thing, but I changed my mind and decided to start implementing phase two of my plot, rather than beating the dead horse and boring you all with Nita's groundings. I made this decision, however, after I posted chapter 11. Forgive?
¹parenchyma: plant tissue—in other words, the green part of a leaf that is not the stem.
2 I don't think I spelled that correctly. It is pronounced "ballet", but I do believe it is spelled differently. If anyone knows, let me know via e-mail or review so that I can change it. I feel stupid writing it like it is, but I didn't know what else to do. I've only been rock climbing several times- no rocks around where I live. This traveling wall climbing thing comes around occasionally, and I always go. Real ballets are so much better than automatic, and real rocks are so much better than walls!